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

I got a laptop! On the flimsy pretext that my desktop machine will now become our development server, I've just got a shiny new VAIO. I begged them not to spend all that money, but they insisted (some excuse like not having to wait two weeks for a cheaper laptop to arrive mail-order saving more than the extra money it would cost).

So I went out to Tottenham Court Road with Richard Creasey (one of our directors) and he obligingly plonked his credit card down and now I'm typing this from my new toy (at home).

So I spent the half-hour train journey home installing Visual Studio 6 onto it. I'm sure the other commuters thought I was a geek, but who cares? I'm the one with the VAIO.

My hope is that I can start going home earlier, and work on the train if I need to. So if you see the tall chap typing away on a Vaio on the 9:34 from Apsley, it's probably me, fixing bugs in h2g2.

Or maybe I'll be playing Quake!

Ooh! Ooh! Neat! God, I need a job like that.

Just rewards for a job well done I'd say. I just wanted to congratulate you on creating a modern-day monster. I do a lot of development myself and am amazed at the tight ship (no reference to starship titanic) you've designed. Don't let people's pickiness get you down. It may feel like ungratefulness, but it's really just free market research. Be proud of this. I count myself lucky to have been a witness!

Thanks. It's not a bad site, but I see it from the side with all the bugs

And I don't mind people pointing out the problems - otherwise we'd assume everything was fine and never improve anything.

"It's not a bad site."

Jim, I think that's the understatement of the year. The bugs are a problem, yes, but you'll get the worst of them ironed out eventually and all will be good.

Oh, and I'd like to take the opportunity to apologize again for whatever it was that I did to my main user page. I'm afraid to do anything other than plain text with an occasional image at this point...

Don't worry about it, Spartus - the first rule of computing is to handle errors gracefully, and if our site doesn't do that, we're doing it wrong and have to fix it. I'm just glad it was your page and I happened to notice it. It could have been someone else's, which I would never visit, so I'd never notice the problem.

I'll probably write a journal entry about it when it's fixed.

Hi like the site. Just a small tiddly glich thing - I typed search for scone and got nothing. Then later noticed that there was site scones, but it didn' pick it up with out the 's'.
You live near Apsley? My grandparents live on Longdean park near leverstock green and my mum used to live in St Anthonys Ave. Where do you live? What school did you go to. My mum says she went to Hemel Hempstead school, and Hobbs Hill. Maybe you went to school with her.

About the search, yes, it isn't doing smart searching or plurals yet - every day this week I've said "I must fix the search" and every day I've been distracted by other problems. Next week, perhaps.

I went to Hemel Hempstead School. I started in 1976 and I left in 1983. I was in Ashridge, and our Form Tutor was Mrs Jacobs. If your mother went to school with me, that should be enough information. How old are you, by the way?

I'm eleven. My mum went to Hemel Hempstead school 1971-77 - so you went to school with her! She says Mr Grant was deputy head, Mr Law was head and she thought he was an idiot. Her favourite teacher was Mr Shaw the geography teacher. She is called Peta, she has a page here too.

Hi Jim - when I first got to Hemel Mr Law was new, he changed the old house system from Scott Drake Hudson and Cook to something new - but we didn't adopt the new system for years, all went into the old house groups as usual to annoy him. My mother (yes really she went there too!) was in Hudson, so was my brother and then me, so to change it was just pathetic of him. I heard he got the sack in the end. Was that when you were there? Also didnt the deputy head, can't remember his name, wore a cape, become headmaster and then caught with 16 year old pupil and cooking the books or something?

BTW ever been to the pub -the Swan in pimlico -near leverstock green/bedmond? Was going to do a page on it, does fantastic pub food, cheap homecooked delicious big portions nice resturant part - try it if you live nearish to there...

Mr Law 'retired due to ill health' or something. When I arrived in '76 they'd already changed the form names to local village names (I was in Ashridge). I think this might have been deliberate because at that time the school had just stopped being a grammar school. Our year might well have been the first year to start with the new names.

It was alleged that Mr Grant was cooking the books, but nothing ever came of it. He retired after I left. His one definite legacy to the school is its music department. He was very keen on music and he built up one of the best departments in the county, so he wasn't all bad. He even once wrote a musical with John Rutter about Guy Fawkes called 'Bang!' (yes, it did have an exclamation mark in the title in true West End Musical fashion).

All things considered, it was a great school, I thought.

They teached me good, anyway.

I don't tend to frequent pubs, since their primary functions (drinking and smoking) do not apply to me. Also, I've never understood why grown-up people with homes of their own choose to go somewhere smelly full of lots of boorish strangers, where they have to spend large amounts of money on drink when they could stay at home, invite their friends round and get drinks from the local supermarket.

It was a very good school -classically good looking too. I was last grammar entrance year. Yes, I remember being press ganged into the choir by him. I also have a very vivid memory of him playing zebedee in a school play and jumping onto the stage on a pogo stick wearing a gown.

No - key feature of this pub is food! Separate from drink part, more like mini resturant, very nicely done. Children can eat there too. Very good for getting out of cooking when relatives are about. We walk across the fields to it, public footpath from Bunkers Lane, Apsley across fields, past badgers setts, about a three mile walk. No washing up!

Jim, you live in Apsley? My wedding reception's going to be at Shendish Manor, July 3rd! If you like Ceilidh music and fancy a soft drink (I agree with you about alcohol right up to the point where I have to give it up myself ), pop in that evening!

You, and the whole team, have done a great job here. We all love you!

Thank you for the invite. It so happens I'm quite keen on Ceilidh music - my two sisters-in-law play in a group that plays jigs, reels and rants, and my wife plays a mean penny-whistle (as well as practically every other wind instrument). My mother's Irish as well so I guess I grew up with it and absorbed it by osmosis.

You'll be very welcome if you can make it.

I'm becoming adopted Irish - my faincee's family are all from there, though she was brought up in deepest Cricklewood. To compund the felony, we're off to live in County Galway after the event, hence the attempt to immerse myself in the culture before departing .

The only other person from our age group (I was just a year behind you, but over at Watford Boys') we might both know is a girl called Frances Harrington, my old Psych. lab partner - her family were from Apsley.

Actually, she was my second partner - the first one ran away to the Footlights (where he was God in the double act God and Jesus), and now turns up on the odd TV/radio show (e.g. The Now Show) as Alan Parker, Urban Warrior. How's that for impeccable comedy credentials?

Supplementary Namedrop: Best joke from the 1985 Footlights: "Have you seen the new film about Prince Edward's A-level results? It's called a Z and Two Noughts". Told by someone called David Baddiel. I wonder what ever became of him?

You're going to live in Galway? Wow! That's where my mother comes from. They lived in Salthill, just outside Galway City. A lot of my relatives still live there, and I try and get over there for a holiday when I can. I suspect you'll love it there.

Geography shrinks still further under the choking grasp of coincidence!

Yes, her father's family are spread in a triangle from Spiddal to Monivea and over to Athenry, and her mother's are from Co. Clare. I'm off this weekend to look at a possible house (well, it's definitely a house, just possible we might get it ) near Clarinbridge, South of Oranmore.

Even the reception is a bit incestuous, because the guy who runs Shendish is also from (I think) Clare - if you have family over, he claims to serve the best Guinness in the area. I never realised the Hertfordshire Irish were so numerous!