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

What will I be going on about?

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Today I started the month off with the Lordshill 10-Mile Race. Only my 3rd ten-mile run, and only a week after doing the Great South Run, I was in it just to complete not compete, especially as my ankle was hurting when I starting the warm-up jog even before the run started.

The car park run rendezvous point was outside the OS HQ and the run HQ was in a school which had a giant poster of Jane Austen looking down on all the runners gathering. What would she have made of the school's unisex toilets or the large numbers of women changing into running vests and shorts in front of everyone beneath her image?

Still, the run itself was very misty, so for the first 6 miles I had to keep wiping my glasses in a desperate attempt to see where I was going, which at least was a distraction from my ankle. After last week when I was constantly overtaking everyone this week I knew I was being often overtaken, but I knew that if I will never be able to do a marathon if I can't even manage two ten-mile races in a week. The course was mainly rural (except for the industrial estate) and on roads/country lanes. Unlike the Great South there were hills, but no wind.
The vast majority of runners were from the local Isle of Wight & Hampshire clubs, and though there were 600 rather than the 15,000 of last week, we were all running at much more similar paces.

I felt like I was very slowly limping along and was very surprised when I finished that I'd got a new PB of 1:25:27, a good 90 seconds off last week's PB. (No medal, just a technical t-shirt). I was 385th out of 600 competitive runners, while last week I was about 4,000th of 15,000 competitive and fun runners.
I also ache from the waist down, but fortunately the use of strategically-positioned plasters prevented an attack of JN.

I wanted to put my up for the rest of the day and relax, but having two little s/s, that didn't happen...

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Well done avoiding the dreded JN... any blisters? gosh... can't imagine having enough 'fit' to ever do something like that!

[Amy P]

North junior was in that race yesterday!

Have you progressed from parent who takes the kids to Parkrun to parent who takes the kids to 10-mile runs?

He's not a Farnham Runner, is he?<yikes?

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He didn't say his jr was a "he".

Who would call a girl 'Junior'...?

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Not far from my house is a haircutters. Normally a 'barbers' specialises in cutting men's hair, a hairdresser's specialises in women's hair – this shop is definitely a haircutters as it has the look of someone desperately hoping that one day it will be able to cut somebody's hair, and doesn't mind who. I have never been inside. Whenever I pass it looks like no-one is there either, as the hairdressers themselves always seem to be outside, smoking away.

This may well be the reason the shop seems empty. The hairdressing ladies, of course, have the right to decide whether or not they wish to smoke. I, and other potential customers, have the right to decide whether we want cigarette-smelling hands touching our hair, or to go somewhere else. I don't think they've quite grasped the idea that they are giving out the wrong impression, even though they know that what happens outside their shop advertises their business. For they have a blackboard.

Yes, this shop has a large, double-sided blackboard that they write deals on in the hope of enticing passers-by in. (Why they don't just wear it as a sandwich board whilst smoking outside is beyond me). Today's message I found particularly puzzling. The two sides said:

Back to school offer – today only!
Shave only £7:50 - £5 deposit required.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit bizarre? Firstly, the back to school offer. Yes, today is the first day children are back to school after half term last week, but it was half term. 'Back to School Offer' normally describes the six week summer holiday, not a random week off that's just halfway between September and Christmas. And how is the idea of 'Back to School' related to shaving? If it was 'Back to School Offer – Cheap Children's Haircuts' it would make sense.

So on to the subject of shaving. Maybe, in Movember when men are perhaps at their least likely to shave, they feel they need to try and promote shaving as a service they provide. Fair enough. But why are they advertising that to have a shave, you need to pay a deposit? How does that make sense? I could shave at home, or if I wanted, to there, pay them £5, be shaved, pay them an additional £2:50 and then go home. That seems like an unnecessary step. Why not just pay them the full £7:50 in one go? Normally if you have a hair cut you pay at the end, but if they wanted you to pay in full before they start, that would make sense too. Surely by asking for a deposit before they shave, all they are doing is sending out the message 'We're rubbish at shaving people – you won't want to pay us in full once we've done it, so we're asking for a deposit first'…? Or am I missing something?

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Is it a front for some kind of money laundering enterprise? They seem to be doing everything to prevent real customers from choosing the place, whilst still at first glance appearing to be a viable business.

Sounds like it's not a hairdresser's at all but some cover for a clandestine or sleazy business.

a likely explination... the hairdressers next to me, also appears to be a solictors and a legal service with traslation for non-nationals... (at least judging by their mail that arrives at my house) Mind... if they've recieved my mail they might think very odd things of me too - they're a seriously odd hairdressors... "Gary", one of the cutters is often working cutting hair at midnght.... when we come back from the pub, he's there, cutting away... (I only know he's called Gary as I've had parcels left with 'Gary' ) - now I've had my first haircut since I was a child, I'm tempted to use the nextdoor place next time... just hoping they are a real hairdressors - I didn't think anywhere still did wet shaves for men in barbos! always wanted to try one, or buy myself a cutthroat razor, but everyone keeps discouraging me from buying a cutthroat razor

Shaving could be connected with a monastic hair do, but who wants to look like friar Tuck.
How far is it from Quarr Abbey

[Amy P]

Another fairly uneventful day. Got up at 6am, went to work – cycling 8 miles. I was amused to see a poster advertising a concert in January by 3 members of 5ive, a forgettable boy band from the 90s whose only memorable attribute was that there were five of them. I also passed the site of the new water sports centre at Lakeside Country Park which is going up quickly, and the old Ford factory which is being demolished at a real rate of knots.

Work is stressful as ever, and Tuesday lunchtime is choir. This week we sang 'Wrapped Up' by Olly Murs, 'I'm Not The Only One' by the bloke who sings the latest Bond song, 'Seasons of Love' from a musical and 'I Want To Know What Love Is' by Foreigner, a genuine actual proper song and not the modern rubbish we usually do.

We then started to learn a new song, 'Am I Wrong?' by . I can't help but thinking that as a University choir we have a duty to uphold certain standards of grammar. It isn't easy trying to sing lines such as: 'I ain't trying to do what everybody else doin' just 'cos everybody doin' what they all do' and 'Am I trippin' for having a vision my prediction I'm a bee on the top of the world'.

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[Amy P]

3 members of 5ive does sound a bit desperate... I know of them because they covered We Will Rock You, but forgettable is an apt word.

Ungoodish is also a good word, but not a good situation...

3hree just doesn't seem right, does it?

3ee? Thr3?

Thr33

nope

I was assuming that they'd fallen out over artistic differences, ie, arguments over which one would stand in the middle, but I've just had a thought. What if one or both of the others died?

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