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

I was ¼ watching 'The Lion King' with the Bulbs this late afternoon while ironing, and, remembering the fatherly chat the King Mufasa has with his son Simba re the place of every creature in the grand scheme of things, would dearly love to ask His Lioness what The Mosquito is for. There’s one in our room right now, hence me sitting typing this in the middle of the night, wide awake again. OH is oblivious to the high-pitched whine of this miniscule fighter plane; unfairly, he never gets stung either. The beast got me several times before waking me up irrevocably, and my face now looks as if I’m in my teens having an imminent attack of the zits. Sigh.

Looking on the bright side, it’s a definite sign that Spring is here, it always is. Our huge oak tree at the back is slowly unfurling its leaves, while the 2 equally large red beeches, one in front, the other in the back next to the oak, are full of buds. Home to a pair of evil magpies, scores of cute little bats, and the said dreaded mosquito, swarms of the bluddy things.

What a difference the sun made though, after the dreary cold and rain recently. The day dawned with a thin mist veiling a beautiful clear blue sky; I had a line of washing flapping cheerfully in the breeze by 9 this morning, and another after lunch. There’s nothing quite like the smell of fresh laundry which has dried outdoors.

My recorder rehearsal with the harpsichord went very well, apart from the piece I need to know by heart. Concentration shot to pieces by the presence of the accompaniment, so I floundered around helplessly, trying to remember the melody line. Grrrrrr. Both my recorder and the harpsichord teacher are lovely ladies though, and I get on well with them – they were most encouraging, and I think I’ll be reasonably ok on the big day. If I can get my hands to stop shaking from nerves that is... Memo to self: this is a hobby, something you do for fun, the exam doesn’t matter a row of beans...

Talking of exams, not to mention circles, Cellofreak is getting very nervous as her University ones loom ever closer. At the moment she’s struggling with a book I had to do a quarter of a century ago too, Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, and is enjoying it in equal measure. Not. Am unable to offer any constructive advice whatsoever, as my abiding memory of the book is sheer relief that I managed to finish it at all. One of her English profs, who was a junior assistant when I was a student there, passed on his regards once more, and urged me to pop in for a hello if I could. He’s retiring this Summer, and would like to see me again before he leaves. Lovely as it is to be remembered like this, I now feel positively ancient... and on that note, will return and try and get some beauty sleep, else the bags under my eyes will reach my chin. I wonder, if I hide under the duvet, but leave my hand dangling out as a sacrifice, perhaps the winged satyr will drink his fill of my blood asap and then leave me alone for the rest of the night.

Katy

I have bid farewell to anybeauty sleep Katy. I feel for Cellofreak: why Pynchon, such a waste of time. And it's not as if there was limited choice.

How do you get to do everything you do plus being an insomniac is a marvel. I can't do that anymore and with the coldmedication, it's comatose sleep at odd times of the day and perambulatingnights.

O/H is preparing for his first exam on the xylophone (adult learner) and he too is shaking with nerves and making mince meant of a nice Purcell, tortured by self-doubt. I mean not now, because he, like your own O/H is SOUND ASLEEP, I'm sure and will wake up refreshed and bushy-tailed. Life is not fair.

My house is a tip..... I can't keep up, especially as every single horizontal surface in it is an open invitation for the dumping of sundry bits of junk.

I'm sorry to hear about your cold, I hope you're better soon. I know what you mean about the napping though - OH is very tired in the evenings, so usually nods off on the sofa after the boys are in bed - I end up doing the same while reading a book etc. If I dare to sit down in the afternoons, to watch a film with the boys say, I last about 10 minutes! We must look like a pair of ancients, snoozing away, rather than a couple in their forties. Then an hour or two later, he goes up to bed while I tidy up the kitchen - by which time I'm wide awake again! Vicious circle really.

Good luck to your OH!

Katy

Well I'm still a thirtysomething (just...) and I rarely manage to watch anything through to the end as I always doze off in front of whatever is on. Most likely, of course, when it's something I really want to watch - or the key 5 mins at the end of a complicated tale so I never understand what happened.

So then I go to bed and end up wide awake.. Though I'm currently back in my cycle of going to sleep OK but not staying asleep. 3 in the morning is beginning to be far too familiar a time. World service and / or a book sometimes work - or at least stop some things going round and round in my mind. Nothing like lying awake at 3 am to magnify some (relatively) minor issue into a major crisis!

Don't know how you do everything Katy - I can barely organise myself, and seem to fit very little in (and as for some of my horizontal surfaces...)

hebe

Morning Katy. You could be (often seem to be ) describing my life: surfaces -where?, o/h who retires to bed at 9.30 rather than be seen to sleep behind the crossword. Never bitten by buzzy things either.


At the moment teenager is absorbed by the election campaign (laudable) which means that whenever he comes in to say goodnight at 10.30, he ends up glued to Newsnight, and I end up nagging. Have recommended the 7pm news on channel 4, partly on editorial grounds, but no joy.

I admire you tenacity with the music exams. It /may/ help if you can get someone to record a keyboard version of the accompaniment for practice (listening, playing or visualising). Or even better if you are playing baroque stuff to practice with Cellofreak playing the continuo/ base line, which at least gives you chance to Be The Soloist. My son has worked on a series of Telemann sonatas that way (I'm a cello player and hopeless piano accompanist) and it is /relatively/ painless. Probably you have tried variants of this idea.

Re Circle of Life, well mine *is* the music lesson thing: I spent my childhood going to my mother's lessons., and now its three nights a week plus Sat. mornings and where did you put my rosin/valve oil/...?

petal jam

Morning, petal! Isn't it funny, how often you discover similarities in other people's lives to your own?

Seeing your recent posts in TB, I had no idea you'd lurked for so long before joining - I plunged in after only a few weeks! You must know me a lot better than I do, gabby old bag that I am....

Good idea re the accompaniment. Cellofreak has been helping, but it's not the same at all. I've two more rehearsals with the harpsichord before the exam itself, so I think I'll take a tape-recorder along with me next time.

Katy