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

A couple of months ago some students moved in next door.

Ollie was the first to arrive. I was sitting outside in the late afternoon sunshine..then suddenly he was there next door in the garden.

The next door neighbour was going to rent out the place I knew, and naturally I was a bit anxious about who might move in..and how they might be. (The owner's wife had died a few months ago from a severe stroke. She was lovely. An old Jamaican woman. We swapped plants and talked about the weather. One night she actually slept on my sofa because she hadn't got her key, and didn't want to bother her family late at night. It was a gentle and easy relationship.)

So I saw the young man and said hallo. Nearly the first thing he said to me was that he was a 'mod'. That was a bit strange..but touching somehow. He quickly was telling me all about his scooter. I talked about the past when I had a Moto Guzzi bike..straight off he said, 'Oh you are a rocker then?'. The other students gradually have moved in.

One of the women told me Ollie is the 'man' of the house. I said what about the other male student? She said, oh no he always offers to do the washing up.. I was pleased to have neighbours with that type of humour.

Over the last few months and weeks we chat every so often. A few weeks ago his scooter arrived from the village near Birmingham where he comes from. (That was something he said almost immediately..and to do with wanting to be good neighbours, like in his village.

Last night I arrived at the shop as Ollie did on his scooter. It's a bit beat up and the most amazing shade of deep sea blue..he painted it himself.

But what I first noticed was his brilliant Mod helmet with that circular pattern

Then we had a good long chat.He is a musician as well as studying English at Goldsmiths.

He has a special aura to him..of smileyness, warmth and jokiness.

I'm bloodylucky to have such a special neighbour.

I'm glad to hear you spoke to him the first chance you got. Too many people these days never talk to there neighbours and never stop complaining about them.

Last night my doorbell rang. It was the doctor who lived next door up until. Few years ago. He was in the neighbourhood and just decided to stop to say hi.

I don't understand why some don't make that little effort on the first day.

Yes it's my natural way to be neighbourly...and defo around here..but there are some of those people moving in that are scared of that.

But Ollie is pretty special. I saw him in the garden earlier running around andthrowing something...a type of plane, spaceship or a boomerang.

He's a big kid..age doesn't seem to matter. He treats me entirely like an equal like I'm still his age.

He loves the sleeping in the garden project. I told him I felt worried that he'd think me truly weird for doing it. He laughed...and said he and the other students had talked about it..and thought it was really

*peers over fence to look at Effers tent and SAS dome*

That tunnel is now a tent..a bit overkill in fact as it's a Vango Hurricane, and designed for dealing with hurricane force winds.

We only had those once in south east England in my life. And my goodness that was something. The first in several hundred years back in the 80s. I must do a Journal about that sometime.

The Tunnel was very poorly designed and basically a con I think..I was incredibly claustrophobic in it and hated it in the end. I threw it away.

The tent is superb. Geodesic in design. I got it very cheap off Ebay.

(Apparently some parts of Scotland had near hurricane force winds last night..and they were talking about 30 foot waves.)

It's extremely windy here in London today..but just normal Blighty strong winds.

I'll sleep in that tent tonight I think.

I missed that hurricane in the 80s, I was living in Orkney at the time (and it's always windy up there anyway!). But I came south for job interviews not long afterwards and was shocked at the devasation. I couldn't believe how many uprooted trees I saw.

Deb