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

Dear Frank, our compatriot rose-of-java sent a cry for help, but it may have been overlooked as she posted it as a contribution instead of going through the questions. She has not had an answer for 22 hours and I wonder whether you could have a look and see. I tried to reassure her as I had asked the self same question some while ago, but she is not taking no for an answer. Best to get it from the horse's mouth! . It is called 'HELP' with the number A2918973
Ta very much Anak

Hello Anak,
I have mailed Rose only Peter got there first. I had told her why the button was there only it seemed she wanted more confirmation. You Dutch ladies always double egg your puddings dont you.
Regards Frank

Dear Frank, that's why we are so 'stevig' (= a handful, in more meanings than one) Thanks for reacting, you are a Anak

Any time Anak.
Frank.

Anak, Ik leerde Hollands spraaken ongeweer zes en zestig jaar geleden, toen ik krÿsgevagener was onder de Jap,op Singapore. Nu wort het bÿna heelemal vergoten - zonder oefening.
Len (Snowie) Baynes.
ps. Vergeev even, het slechts spelling

Anak, Ik leerde Hollands spraaken xes en zestig jaar geleden, toen ik krÿsgevagener was onder de Jap,op Singapore. Nu wort het bÿna heelemal vergoten - zonder oefening.
Len (Snowie) Baynes.
ps. Vergeev het slechts spelling

Anak, Ik leerde Hollands spraaken zes en zestig jaar geleden, toen ik krÿsgevagener was onder de Jap,op Singapore. Nu wort het bÿna heelemal vergoten - zonder oefening.
Len (Snowie) Baynes.
ps. Vergeev het slechts spelling

16/8 Beste Len , bedankt voor je briefje. I could of course go on in Dutch but they won't allow it here. We would get our fingers smacked and turfed off. And that would not do.
Gosh, I AM impressed with such a knowledge of Dutch after 66 years! You must have been a whiz kid! Who cares about a few mistakes. I have learned modern Greek but even after a few weeks without practice I have forgotten a lot and would be literally dumb if approached now in Athens!
You must have made quite some close bonds with people from the POW camps though many unfortunately are no longer here. It is up to the likes of you, my mother Nel, Roos of rose-of-java and Josephine of Odyssee (what she saw while she was a nurse at the aftermath) to let people know what it was like in the Far East. The lack of interest of 15 August both here in the UK and in Holland is telling.
You probably don't know, but I had already added you to my friends' list as I am busy reading your 'Will to live' and I did not want to have to hunt for it every time. I am absolutely bowled over by it, although I still have to go through a lot of chapters.
Are you thinking of publishing it? You should! I see that Peter mentioned the linking of each chapter with another, which makes it much easier to follow, as I had been frantically clicking to and fro.
It is lovely to get in touch with others through this medium, also to discover that their experiences have been so close to yourself. Fortunately or unfortunately (depends how you look at it) I cannot remember anything as I was born in a POW camp and have probably repressed all memories. Sometimes I wished I could remember as it would bring me to a closer understanding of those who would rather forget it ever happened. However, how ever much you all suffered and how ever much it has affected your health, mentally as well as physically, it has made you all what you are now, good or bad and in many ways most of you have come out of it a better person. I think many came out of it the richer, although they probably did not realise.
I's better stop philosophying. I certainly will keep on reading the other chapters with great interest. Lovely to hear from you and keep i touch.
Rob (anak)

Dear Anuk
It was a pleasant surprise to hear from you so quickly. If one is not permitted to use Dutch, how is it that they let my 'briefje' get through. Or are you a member of the staff?
As you will possibly have read in 'The Will to Live', I learned my Hollands by comparing copies of The New Testament in English & Dutch, after having been taught the pronunciation by a Dutch schoolmaster present in the camp.
I'm surprised to hear you were born in a Jap POW camp, I would have thought that conditions there would not have been conducive to your survival. You must have been a tough chick.
Regards, Len Baynes

Hi Len,
Dutch ladies are all tough chicks but I love them.
Still ploughing through you stories because I went back and started again, I had some how lost the thread. You see something you missed each time.
Regards Frank.

Dear Frank,Please HELP! Why did they change the whole outlay??I can't find my way around it anymore.That greenish color is not very clear-for not be able to find the proper word-It is too light.When I open up do I go to "my space"or what??.
I am upset:these changes are sprung on us without a warning.I would ask anak for Help but she is just about to go out of town,so I don't want to bother her.But you always helped me.I hope you will do it again.Josephine.

17/8 - Frank, be a dear and explain why suddenly since this morning my usual people's war page has disappeared and I go straight into the h2g2 page, whatever I do. The url was bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2 but still sends me to this site. Had the greatest diffculty finsing my way around. It is certainly not as user-friendly as the other one
* Could you explain why?
* Could you also have some idea how I may get to that previous page?
* Or do I have to like it or lump it?
This will scare the hell out of my other webfriends, who are already struggling with computer problems. And now I seem to have joined the helpless female crowd and I DO NOT LIKE IT! Anak

Josephine, et tu, Brutus! What the blazes are they doing changing everything? Rob

17/8 Goeiemiddag Len, I am certainly no member of staff otherwise I would not have allowed this change of front page. I do not like it, Ed ! It is not so easy to oversee. Anyway, no good moaning to you.
I have just raced downstairs for a large glass of Merlot to steady my nerves, despite being a tough chick as you call me.
I have not got as far as you learning Dutch through the copies of the Dutch and English New testament. Gosjepietje (that is a good Dutch and very mild expletive for you, usually used in surprise), you ARE a clever lad being able to learn Dutch that way. I am even more impressed!
I don't know whether you have read my contributions i.e. my mum's memories just before and during the camp years, where I was born, so they are part of my history as well. You will read in Nel's Story, Part II that I was born at 7 months' gestation, in a goesunder (!) and ended up shaing the only incubator with a little black boy. We were dubbed the Whiskey twins, or Black & White.
Yes I must have been a tough chick, as I nearly died twice later of dysentery, but my mother, also being a tough Dutch chick, kept me alive with ricewater, spoon by spoon. I have a lot to be thankful for her. I suppose I was lucky to have been born while we were still interned in Bandung where all the women and children plus all theose from the plantations were herded in one quarter, Kare-es. Had I been born later, I may not have survived. So I have to be thankful to that Jap who scared the living daylights out of my mother when he approached her and thought it a great joke pointing his rifle at her and say 'bang, bang' She slipped from some steps and that brought on the premature labour. So, I suppose they have been good for something!

I have been on your website. You have written an awful lot, Len. Are all thse stories on the one CD? Did I understand right? I liked the picture or rather the drawing of you. You look a bit like my husband Jack!
I am busy copying and pasting your Will to live so I can print it out in one go at my leisure. It will also be somewhat easier to read!
Love from the tough , Rob

17 Aug.
Dear Frank,How come I got this new program when I did not ask for it.Right now I am on familiar ground,But the new program threw me for a loop.And they are using my #555516 as researcher again.I was not allowed to contact anyone on this program because I had not signed in :UH?.It is the h2 ... program.I am sure I'm speaking in foreign tongues, but I don't know how to explain it.It has to do with a popular tv program(not for me!)
Maybe you can figure it out??Thanks for any help.I want to stay in thisWW2 People's War.ThanksJosephinA lot is printed in a bluish color.Hard to read.

17 AUg Tulip 1 I am just as upset as you and wrote Frank for help.I feel this is forced down our throat.I DO NOT LIKE the h2g2 program.It is not as well organised as this one ,the colour is hard to read and I want my old program back every time I click on the usual URL .
I am glad to hear from you before you are going on a trip.I just wrote Daffy,have no idea where she is ,if she wrote etc.I wrote the Spam people not to declare something Spam :They should ask me first.Hope it works.I have no idea what is in it that qualifies for Spam.Only use de sneeuw konigin.I wrote my son too that It is a mess with the 'overstromig".Frank has his hands full with all the upset Flowers.I thought I was the only one to bump in to that H2G2 program.Gedeelde smart...I do hope Frank finds a solution.I never want to see that program again whenever I want to go toWW2 People's War.Have a wonderful trip,come back safely.love,Tulip 2Now they want me to log in again.What is going on??

Hello Ladies,
As I explained on the other thread I got clobbered too. I had no idea what was going on and they would not take my word for it I was frank, they called me unknown poster so many times the set had to be dragged back from the bottom of the garden.
My friends had the same problem but we e-mail each other so found out it was the BBC acting the goat again.
If they want to start a new system they could tell us all about it first but I suppose that would be common sense and I dont think there is a lot of that around up in London.
I have posted one letter to you all so it is working touch wood, for the moment.
Frank.

Dear Josephine
Here here, and again I say, here here!
Len Baynes

Dear Anuk - I couldn't have put it better myself. It gives one the impression that they don't was our stuff read by the hoi palloi.
Len Baynes

Gotverdikie Rob (not Anuk any more?), I've never heard of a 'goesunder', (unless, like gozunder, it means a chamber pot) nor of Nell's Story Pt.2. I would like to read it, so please tell me, in words an 85 year old beginning his second childhood can understand, how to find it, (as I have difficulty in finding anything on the BBC ww2 site).
I thought from the earlier context, that you were a young lady, but now,Rob . . . . .?
Elswhere, weet je wel, on this page I say just what I think of the even further deterioration of the site.
Tot keeks, Len Baynes