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

Hi Everyone

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for your kind messages. Life seems to be getting back to what passes for normal round here now, thank goodness. Mind you the GCSE exams start in earnest on Monday so I'm keeping everything crossed for those.

I see that we have the usual suspect back on the R2 messageboard so I shall stay away mostly, tant pis.

I hope you are all getting your share of sunshine. I have planted up a large selection of herbs around the pond and enjoyed fresh picked oregano on my salad at lunchtime. It was almost like being in the mediterranean!

Pond work is keeping PB pretty busy and tired at the moment. The last cleaning job he did took 10 days even with my help and using a digger. Still it was in the most beautiful location and the weather was kind, which certainly beats working in an office and staring out of the window.

Enjoy your weekend all of you.

PG xxx

Hi PG

So glad things are back on track for you.
Life is a rollercoaster, isn't it? This afternoon I was going about the house singing and with a big smile on my face, thinking how lucky I was to have such wonderful friends and caring neighbours. But then, immediately, I wonder how long this state of mind will last.
We have to do our best, though.
I had a friend and neighbour, she moved 6 months ago, she visited me every Friday afternoon and we talked about all the problems we had. She said every Friday: "I've never met anybody as unlucky as you" and it made me unhappy because I never thought I was unlucky, but then I started to expect things to go wrong. It doesn't help, does it?

I think I told you I had my garden landscaped last year and now everything has grown and matured it looks lovely. I sit in my summer-house and listen to the birds and feel so contented.
Mind you, I have to keep my eyes shut because otherwise I see all the work I should be doing in the garden.

Isn't SC a sad individual? I've never known anyone like him. It's all so tedious, isn't it?

I've got the heating on this evening, it's quite chilly, I think.

Keeping everything crossed for Jenson tomorrow. I was afraid he would be too aware of his accident last year but those guys have nerves of steel, don't they?

Have a lovely week-end. Give my love to PB.
Did you know my computer crashed and I lost all the photos etc from my e-mails, including Lucy's (Becky's girl), and Corrie's children. I also lost a lot of e-mail addresses,but some, like yours, I have written down, so they're safe.

Will have a look in the CB now,
see you soon.
Love

Catharina

Hi Catharina

Lovely to hear from you. We have been in our present house for 13 years now and the garden is pretty well-established although the poor summerhouse is just about falling down. I love sitting and listening to the birds and the water, it is so peaceful.

Others can really affect your state of mind if you let them in can't they? I studied counselling for a year and one of the things I learned was the importance of protecting myself from the negativity of others. It's like if you've got a cold and everyone says 'Oh poor you, you don't look to good' So you think 'Oh poor me. I'd better go to bed and lie down' and suddenly you've got flu!

I'm listening to the Nick Drake story on R2 at the moment, such a beautiful voice such a sad story, he was only 26 when he died, he'd hardly started.

If you are feeling happy then hold on to it and don't worry about the 'what if's?' If it doesn't matter then it doesn't matter.

I can't believe the horrors going on on the R2 board this evening it is so black and negative it makes my flesh crawl. Such vile people just wanting to cause pain and deliberately winding up people they don't even know. I'm certainly not going anywhere near. It's like going into a really seedy pub whilst a drunken brawl is going on.

It's great to see Jenson doing so well, I don't know how they do it. I saw an interview with Damon Hill recently and he misses it so much, nothing else in life really seems to measure up to the excitement. We're going to my Mum and Dads for lunch tomorrow. My brother, his wife and their two children that I looked after earlier in the year are going to be there too, so it should be very lively and I'm really looking forward to it.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. I'll speak soon.

Love

Penny

Hi PG

Hope you enjoyed your weekend - there's nothing like Nannie's home cooked meals according to my Aylesbury sister's kids.

I missed husky Brad last night, as I was watching my usual 'CSI Miami.' However, I have the excuse that I did read the excellent Nick Drake biog by Patrick Humphries, a few years ago. That book casts some doubt over the suicide verdict, maybe Nick's death was accidental?

I have my own personal experiences trying to cope with anti-depressants - 12th June 2004 will be the 10th anniversary of my own mental breakdown; fortunately I had a supportive family & suicide was never an option in my mind, in fact I felt quite insulted when the doctor asked me if I felt suicidal. I can remember thinking "Suicide??? I'm just very very sad, not STUPID...."

Phill Jupitus alert on Radio 4 'listen again' next week - he's presenting a tribute to the Goodies, 'No Fixed Abode, Cricklewood', Tuesday morning at 11.30am.

Eva Cassidy 'Songbird' in the library this morning, and the new ceiling fans are working too - very therapeutic!

Hi Rich

We had great fun with my family yesterday. We decided to polish off some of the champagne left over from the Golden WA celebrations from earlier in the year and had a mad game of badminton after lunch. My Mum makes the best chocolate and what with the sun and everything I ended up feeling a bit queasy! We greatly enjoyed the Grand Prix and really hope Jenson gets the chance to shine again at the Nurburgring.

Strange thing depression. I had quite bad post-natal depression 15 years ago and whilst I overcame it with the judicious use of anti-depressants, I can't help feeling that it isn't all that far away sometimes. However, I have never felt suicidal, I don't know why but it just never felt like the solution to anything. A very close friend of mine committed suicide a few years ago (very, long sad story) and I could never understand it. She left behind so much pain in others by her actions and yet in life she was such a kind and thoughtful person, totally unselfish. Ho hum

Anyway, the sun is shining today and I am going out into the garden this afternoon to plant up some tubs. My herbs are coming along nicely and the bamboo has some amazingly, huge, fat shoots. My next door neighbour has a staggeringly beautiful Judas tree in her garden and I can't help but smile every time I catch sight of it the deep pink flowers take your breath away.

Enjoy your day

PG

I am sure you'll be delighted to know that a few more fish survived Nazgul the Heron than we thought. They must have laid low for a fortnight or had packed their bags pro temp for safer water. In the end we bought an electric fence that is safe for animals but they don't come back for a second attempt. It cost £80 but it wasn't that much more than the cost to restock the pond. It will also keep out otters - another problem locally. You can test the system by holding a blade of grass against the wire - I tried this the other day but didn't get the faint pulse. I checked the wiring and everything seemed OK so I touched it. My eyeballs were bruised when they hit the inside of my glasses.

Glad to see that you have a bit more of a spring in your step now that the awful worry is off your shoulder.

Best of luck with PL and his exams. I was useless at them, mainly because I didn't do any work but I did walk away with an 'O' level in woodwork - my pine toast rack did what it said on the tin and was the talk of the school. You could put slices toast in it like anything and they leaned beautifully against the dividers and I still have my Certificate Grade E (Pass).

Speak to you again

Neil

Hi PP

"Nazgul the Heron" - ROTFL.

So what name should I give the neighbouring Persian who is sitting beneath the noisy blue-tit box with her jaws wide open?

Rich

Hi Neil

Great to hear from you. I should have said that your fish might be hiding. We had a similar situation last year when the heron visited and we thought it had taken all the fish. We were really upset and then a week or so later we realised that most of them were still there. In the mean time we had stocked up with more and now have a bit of an overcrowding prob!

I spent most of yesterday evening at the RBH A&E with PL as he fell off his mountain bike in the afternoon and gashed his arm badly. Mind you he carried on cycling for another hour and a half before going to see the school nurse. He ended up having six stitches which he thinks look 'cool' and is looking forward to showing them off to his friends. I'm thinking of having a seat named after us at the hospital !!

Fortunately he doesn't have another exam until Thursday pm. You never stop worrying about them do you, but it doesn't make me want to wrap him up either. I think it's good for them to experience bad stuff sometimes, although I would like it to stop now, please, before I get too .

Off for a bit of and

Ciao

Penny

Hi PG

Thanks for replying - you've reminded me that the Goodies prog is on Radio 4 in an hour and a half.

I'm having mixed success with pot plants this year, partly due to much of the seed being out of date, partly not having a greenhouse. None of the pumpkin seeds have germinated - they need air temp 20 - 25 degrees C, not 12 degrees on my windowsill. Tiny broccoli shoots drying out already. Usually reliable basil looks very strange - one huge (2") leaf at the top of each plant, and microscopic green dots along the rest of the leggy stem.

Biggest successes this year are the chili & mixed pepper plants. Largest chili (let's call him Anthony) was planted as a seed on 4th March and is now 14" tall with flower buds appearing in the centre.

Most of the pepper seeds have germinated, so I'll have to make a decision soon, which to keep in the pots & which to uproot & try to replant.

Plenty of strawberry flowers and little green blackcurrants & plums in the garden, so dessert should be taken care of in a few weeks.

Good luck with exam time!

Rich

PG - I can beat that...

When my nephew was 17 and on a family holiday in France, he crashed a quad bike a la his hero Ozzy, and walked around for the next three weeks not knowing he had a broken ankle!!!

Rich