h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Glad you had a good weekend and a good parkrun - excellent that the frozen ground was easier to run on than mud.

I hope your bin situation is OK I forgot to mention my bin funny at the weekend - my sister sent me a birthday present (a seed in a glass jar, so I can watch the roots grow) but the paper packaging inside reeked I took the packaging outside and discovered the bins were frozen shut I didn't want to bring the paper back indoors, so I just put it between the bins so it wouldn't blow away. The bins defrosted sufficiently the next day, luckily, so the paper has now been taken away by the binpeople

Yes, it surely wouldn't have done any harm to Morecambe to have a statue of Ernie with Eric in celebration of the town, as Morecambe and Wise were such an iconic partnership... I heard about the auction on North West news, and that makes sense that it was advertised in Luton, too, given that Eric was so involved with the

After watching the Freddie Auction, I have watched a couple more auctions on YouBend, as they can be rather exciting - I saw bits of art auctions when some famous paintings sold for unbelievable prices. I was getting notifications from Sotheby's about auctions in New York, Paris and all sorts, but I unsubscribed from those as they were too obscure (handbags and cars and stuff that I'm not interested in). The Eric Morecambe auction was more relatable, as items such as a Ewbank carpet cleaner were familiar from my grandparents' house, and there were interesting paintings of birds that sold for good prices (as opposed to unimaginable prices in millions of dollars) so I found that even more exciting

Good news that are OK after their operations and settling down together better again

"They just sort of flop off the shoulders in all directions." - I can't help you there, as my cartoon people don't have elbows - arms are tricky indeed

Ah yes, bins. I think the council wish it could be Christmas every day, specifically in the way that no-one around Christmas and New Year know whether or not their bin will be emptied, and with our council we live with that uncertainty all year round. Fortunately ours were emptied today, hurray! I've not had to worry about them being frozen shut . Though to be fair presumably they'd need to be empty with the lid down for that to happen?
Did you hear Radio 4's Naked Week Friday comedy? They had their Christmas episode dedicated in large part to the question, 'When is bins?'

I perused the auction and there were a fair number of Luton FC items that might well appeal to collectors of that club's memorabilia, and of course he did mention Luton FC several times during his shows.
It definitely makes it more relatable that there were items like watches and clocks that, while still expensive, were at least within the realm of theoretical possibility.

On my way to work today my chain came off my bike, which is a reminder that I really do need to get it serviced and fixed. I was able to put the chain back on the bike, but ended up with very oily hands. When I got in the office the anti-bacterial sanitiser stuff by the sink didn't do anything other than make my hands gain that vaguely alcoholic cleansed smell, so I have up on that and used washing-up liquid instead. I was a bit worried as the bottle is labelled "15% washing up liquid" so what is the remaining 85%? Also, if hands that do dishes can be as soft as your face by using washing-up liquid, and I have a beard, does that mean that my hands are going to grow beards now too?

Over Christmas I discovered something on YouBend that I find quite funny, but my wife just doesn't get. Unfortunately it is a channel that ended about 5 years ago, but I thought I'd let you know as you've shared my appreciation of the perfectly-written comedy of 'Cabin Pressure', so you might well also enjoy how this is the complete opposite, in being deliberately poor translations. A channel that seems to have changed its name a few times, the basic premise is that a song, often a Disney one, was put through various different languages in Google Translate and then back into English, and then what the result was is sung to the original tune, often with bizarrely hilarious results. Early episodes are simple 'Me, possibly with friends, are singing these silly songs' but later ones are quite elaborate productions. (I found it by looking up Christmas songs for crossword research and stumbled upon it). http://www.youtube.com/c/twistedtranslations/videos

In the meantime, my dentist continues to be staggeringly incompetent....

Hope you're having a good week.

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"'When is bins?'" I did listen to one episode of The Naked Week, but not that one, so I'll have to look it up Glad your bins were emptied - hurray indeed! Yes, our bins weren't empty, but they weren't bulging full, so that was why the lids were able to freeze shut.

Sorry about the continuing saga of staggering incompetence - good luck with it all

Glad you were able to fix your bike, but I can imagine the hand sanitiser didn't do anything for the oily hands (I sometimes get oily marks on my hands from my wheelchair). That is unusual to declare that a bottle of washing up liquid is only 15% washing up liquid You generally want to put it in a bowl of hot water, not just use it cold out of the bottle... That's a possibility about hand beards when your hands are soft as your face due to washing up liquid - my fingers are quite hairy

I certainly do share your appreciation of Malinda - the Google Translate videos are very funny, and she is brilliant with musical skill and facial expressions Strangely I don't recognise the channel - lots more videos that I haven't seen, including medleys and non-songs - so I will enjoy looking at those I certainly remember watching the Titanic and Bohemian Rhapsody videos

Unusual weather today - from being freezing, the temperature went to 11C, so thick fog arose - I'm glad I didn't have to drive in it. A bit of a busy week so far, as we have a key deadline coming up, but everything will have to be finished before the Model Railway Exhibition, so I look forward to going to that

The Bins episode was the last one in its first series.

My dentist appointment was cancelled this week because the dentist 'does not have a dentist at present'. In the meantime I've been trying to get my current tooth treatment sorted since Spring last year.

The washing up liquid we have in the office looks like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blake-White-Purely-Washing-Liquid/dp/B097HNT67H?ref_=ast_sto_dp
Other washing up liquid is available, I am neither endorsing nor criticising the brand, but you can see that it says "15% washing up liquid" on the front of the bottle, which is entirely the wrong shape for Blue Peter purposes....

Ah, you are familiar with Malinda. I must admit that I am quite late to YouBend so I dare say that there is a lot on there that is extremely popular that I remain blissfully unaware of. I have been generally assuming, rightly or wrongly, that as YouBend is massive that the chance of what I find overlapping what other people I know have seen is probably remote, but perhaps it isn't so different after all? The YouBend algorithms work in mysterious ways.

Good luck with key deadlines despite ever-changing weather, and yes it would be good to catch up.

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Aha

"the dentist 'does not have a dentist at present'" - shocking... Doesn't sound like the one who went walking about with the nurse lasted long, then...

That washing up liquid is fascinating - 'washing up liquid 15%' and also 'super concentrated' Not the right shape for a Blue Peter rocket, but it looks strangely humanoid to me

I don't watch much on YouBend, but I did go through a phase of looking at otomatone videos a while back (because there was a Bohemian Rhapsody version that I saw on social media) and that led on to Malinda's version, and so on The algorithms work in mysterious ways indeed.

The box of goodies is on its way to you in the next couple of days - you should get delivery updates to your gmail again. Quite the variety of random things that I hope you will all enjoy rummaging through

I'm sorry, as h2g2's been down for the last few days I hadn't seen this before now. I can confirm that the has arrived safe and sound, and a huge thank you for all the goodies, which you shouldn't have. Definitely appreciated, though. I'm looking forward to seeing you at the weekend, let me know what your plans are. We should be able to offer you a lift to the model railway exhibition - as enjoyable as the heritage is, they aren't always wheelchair accessible. Some of their more recent ones are, but there's no way to guarantee it.

You might have seen that my latest is out now, so that's exciting. I've got some ideas for the next work-themed one, but want to try and finish off the story and possibly even the main story first.

At the weekend I took Friday off and I went to Southampton with my friend from school in order to see the Bob Dylan biopic, 'A Complete Unknown'. It was very good, I definitely recommend it. Timothee Chalamat makes a surprisingly good Dylan. There was the usual amount of tweaks to the story, changes of names, blurring of who did what where when, but on the whole the story was strong and singing good. I think you know I do enjoy a good, well-made biopic.
Earlier on Friday we had new doors installed on mine and my daughter's bedrooms, so we are now able to close them and keep the out, which hopefully will stop the wires from being chewed. They killed my mouse now too.

Saturday was a lazy day on the whole, which was nice. I did parkrun and then stayed home spending time with my family. We had a takeaway at home too, as the children really don't like going out - except to the Toby Carvery, which burnt down, and the Harvester.
I did get a second tank-themed tank top, though.

On Sunday my son and I went to London, where we went to the Postal Museum and British Museum, which are both close to each other. I've long wanted to go to the Postal Museum as they have Mail Rail, an underground miniature railway that the Post Office had beneath the city to make transporting post across London much quicker:
http://www.postalmuseum.org/visit-us/what-to-expect/mail-rail/
They also have a museum of the history of the Post Office, which I must admit that I was delighted to see my son taking a strong interest in.
We then went to the British Museum, which seemed much busier than the last time I went there, and I found that you were expected to book in advance and queue outside. So while I was in the queue I used my phone (I have mobile data again, hurray!) to book tickets for us, with the next available half an hour later, but they let us in anyway. My son was particularly keen to see the Sutton Hoo exhibition so we went there first and then had a look round as much as we could see in the time available to us, making sure we made it back in plenty of time for the train home. So definitely a good day.

I must admit I hadn't heard of a otamatone before you mentioned it (the spellchecker hasn't, either) - it doesn't look like something I'd expect to hear 'Bohemian Rhapsody' played on. A bit like the theremin, in that regard.

I hope you've had a good weekend and stayed warm - and that this will actually post!

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Yay! I can see h2g2 and I can see your message at last

Glad arrived safely and you all enjoyed exploring the goodies. Thank you for the of sharing my sister's presents with me - much appreciated

Yes, my plans (subject to trains etc being OK due to the forecast storm ) are to be in Fareham tomorrow night, then Eastleigh on Saturday night ready for the exhibition on the Sunday. That will be very helpful to get a lift to the exhibition - last time I did enjoy taking the modern but it was a logistical exercise.

Glad the biopic was up to standard Also good news about the doors so you can localise away from important wires

Good to see you had a great time at the museums - amazing how far you can travel up and down levels and along corridors and rooms My mum went to the postal museum on the day of the h2g2 20th anniversary and enjoyed it very much That is interesting about having to book a slot to visit the British Museum now - not like that when I was there last, but that was more than 10 years ago now... Glad it wasn't too much trouble, though.

"it doesn't look like something I'd expect to hear 'Bohemian Rhapsody' played on. A bit like the theremin, in that regard." -

I did have a good weekend - did a bit of charity shopping and garden centre browsing, and then got some jobs done (preparing for the horticultural society annual show) so that was productive. This week has been very busy so far, because of deadlines bunching up, but also productive as I've regained enthusiasm (rather than feeling like the work would be unappreciated) so I feel satisfied. Still more to do before the weekend, but not bad at all