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

Mum just phoned and has invited me to spend a week in Iceland with her in July!

Because I'm off to Oz next year, we decided we wanted to spend a holiday together this summer, but I was anticipating the Isle of Wight, or Dorset!

Iceland sounds a wonderful idea and somewhere I've always wanted to go. It's awful expensive, but Mum is subbing the costs - to avoid death duties, she tells me! Good on her

That's a place i would like to visit too, Fb!

And I suppose there might be a Guiden entry in it?

Now, I was carefully avoiding saying that, ZSF!

Iceland sounds wonderful, Frenchbean. You lucky thing - I've often thought of going...

Come to think of it, I got close once. I promised my last girlfriend that I'd take her somewhere where there were lots of geysirs. So we had a romantic evening at Walthamstow Dog Track...

Trust me, that joke works far better when spoken out loud.

Although it does happen to be true - and she preferred Walthamstow anyway, being somewhat averse to cold climates.

Sounds wonderful F/b (and that's an old joke Number Six )

The daylight hours should be nice and long at that time of the year! I'm very envious of you for being able to go there

Wellll, you're probably right, but I did make it up myself at the time having not heard it before

But my natural brand of humour *is* a bit on the obvious side... James Bolam in the Beiderbecke Affair was my original inspiration.

A487613

Very dear French Bean,

How perfectly wonderful. Now you will be able to have a dip in the hot geysers with snow all around. I have always thought that was a great idea.

Wonderful Mum!1. Obviously you are her daughter.!!

Have a good day.

Also Ran1

Thank you for the link Gnomon! 2001 was a busy year too then? I shall peruse the entry, and I'll let you know how accurate it is aftewards!

I reckon we should get very long daylight hours. Mum is in her 80s and not too strong, so we'll not be doing a lot of walking or clambering around places. But she has spotted a day trip she wants to do, looking at a volcanic crater, some geysers (to dip into I hope!) and some waterfalls. I wonder if it'll smell as bad as Rotorua? Phew, that place stinks!

Great joke Six I loved the Beiderbeckes - Tapes, Affair and Connection wasn't it? One of the few things on telly that made me laugh out loud - and always left me with a warm feeling inside too. Oh, and great music of course.


F/b

Morning AR1

She's nothing if not intrepid, my mother! She's off to Shetland in June with one of my brothers, France in September with her best friend - to check that the winemaking is as good as it was in their youth . Now Iceland as well.

Her attitude is that she's able to get about at the moment, so she better make the most of it. And she's got the money, which she doesn't want to go to the taxman, so she might as well spend it on herself and us. Good for her.

I do find it hard to accept her freebies though: we've been brought up to pay our own way and be very even-handed. So having Mum pay for stuff goes against my principles. On the other hand, she's very persistent and there's only so many times I can insist on only going if she lets me pay half. I'll have to find sneaky ways to assuage my guilt!


F/b

The really spectacular geysirs are not ones that you can bathe in, but are definitely worth going to see. The place to bathe is the Blue Lagoon, which I didn't visit.

Aha! Mum said something to me about an evening trip to the Blue Lagoon - I'll make sure we do that then

I'm excited already ... 5 months to go!


F/b

Thanks f/b! I've just bought the Beiderbecke box set on DVD (splashdvd.com do them very cheap if you have an urge to follow suit) and it still has the same effect... I've got through the Affair and the Tapes, and I've still got the Connection to look forward to.

My favourite line so far is when they're driving off to find out the election result, and he says "Hang on. Shouldn't we have left a note on the door saying we're Out for the Count?"