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

It comes on so quickly! One minute you're excited about some new accomplishment, the next minute you realize that there's no one to share it with. One minute you're singing out loud with joy, the next you're listening to Joni Mitchell's album Blue and crying.

For me it's associated with men. They seem to find something off-putting about me. That makes the nights all the more unbearable . . .

Anya, I dropped in (belatedly as usual) to see where the 'University classes' thread was at and saw this entry and wished I'd been back earlier... maybe two weeks further on you're feeling better? I hope so, anyway.

You know where to find me if you feel like a chat. No strings attached, no worries if not, okay?

Thanks. Afraid I was having a wallow in self-pity when I posted that - I'm not the most cautious one about what I say and when! Thank you though. I am feeling much better. And - hey! - classes are over for the semester - it's a pity my Russian class didn't have its usual bacchanal, I was sort of looking forward to it. Vodka doesn't give one a hangover like tequila. (Probably why I switched from Spanish to Russian!)

I'm glad you're feeling happier, Anya. A wallow from time to time can be... well, if not exactly enjoyable, at least a little cathartic, maybe. A little touch of Joni in the night always makes me feel like snivelling

I have this theory about tequila that it makes your knees drunk before any other part of your body. You ever notice how you can sit at the bar for ages drinking tequila, getting wittier and more and more attractive to members of the other sex, and then you try and stand up and you're like, "hey, where have my knees gone??" as the floor rises gently to enfold you in its embrace...

You're right about vodka, though. If you're going to get totally wasted, it's about the kindest thing for your body

So true! Tequila does tend to make you do the knee-walk. The last time I drank tequila I wound up thirty miles from where I started from - and horribly hung over. And a good wallow in self-pity seems connected to alcohol - I can't imagine why!

Ah, well - summer is starting, and pretty soon it will be scorching hot, and I'll be too busy hogging the vent from the air conditioner to wallow in self-pity!

You set me off remembering nights when I'd stagger back from a drinking session, clamp headphones on so as not to disturb the parentals, light joss sticks and sway drunkenly into the wee small hours feeling sorry for myself I don't think I've ever woken up thirty miles adrift though - that's an excellent result.

What sort of temperatures do you get where you are?

Yes, alcohol doesn't solve problems - it only puts them into perspective. Or rather, the morning after puts them into perspective.

As far as temperatures here go - by July we usually hover around eighty-five to ninety degrees. It's not so much the temperature - it's the damn humidity that makes summer in Knoxville not an ordeal for the faint of heart. But it's not quite so bad as other places.

The morning after. Hmmm. One of those portentous phrases, isn't it? All sorts of connotations, some good, some bad...

Yeah well, enough philosophy Humidity is a bugger, right enough. Last summer I was in Africa in 90 degrees, but in the Kalahari Desert, so it was really, really dry, and quite bearable. We used to spend the middle part of the day having a siesta under the shade of a thorn tree or something, and be busy mornings and later afternoons when the sun was less fierce.

Here in the UK the temperature and humidity jump all over the place all the time. I mean, like four days of the same weather is "a long settled phase" for us, which is maybe why we obsess about the weather

Wow! You were in the Kalahari? Where else have you been? That's pretty amazing. I've never been out of the United States.

I can deal with a dry heat, but humidity kills me.

Here in the southern United States, summer is always hot and humid. It can get so that you drink a glass of water and sweat it out fifteen minutes later. Consequently your clothes are always soaked. Humidity combined with heat makes me lose my appetite and sleep all the time. So, summer is time to catch up on reading and huddle round the air conditioner.

To be honest, apart from a few trips to France this expedition to Africa was my first voyage out of the UK. It was a real experience - two weeks out in the bush, in the midst of some incredible wildlife. Here's a glimpse of sunset on the Chobe River:

http://www.angelfire.com/sd/samh/images/ele_sunset1.JPG

and me standing by a huge baobab:

http://www.angelfire.com/sd/samh/images/baobabme.JPG

One morning we got up and found elephant tracks three metres from the back of the tent. And another night the lions sang us to sleep!

If you ever get the chance, do go. It gets in your blood...

Have a good weekend, Anya

What a gorgeous sunset! And you're not so bad yourself, Morgan. Now I must go. I didn't get that passport for nothing!

Life is like that. There are moments of breathtaking beauty - and this is what we live for.

Be well, Morgan.

I realise I'm coming to this weeks behind the original posting, but you should remember you can always post your accomplishments on the Guide - there will always be someone who's impressed!

Perhaps I should, at that. But right now I am very happy, and that's accomplishment enough for me.

It's a pretty big accomplishment

And yes, you should try and use that passport - though the US is so big and diverse you could have all sorts of new experiences without going through Customs control, I'd have thought.

I read a few years back that to keep our minds and souls fully alive, every year we should challenge ourselves to do something new, see somewhere we've never seen before, push ourselves out of the comfort zone a little. I do try to do that, albeit on a pretty small scale compared with some of my friends and family - I still get a bit nervous at driving to the next city down the road without at least three maps and a mobile phone

Absolutely! Spontanaeity is so much fun - and road trips are the best! I've gone on spontaneous road trips to Little Rock, Clarksville, Atlanta, Asheville, St. Louis - all sorts of lovely places. Traveling is one of the best parts of life. Don't be afraid - just do it!

Well, I'm just off on a trip, though not a very spontaneous one this time Three days at a folk festival (oh God, late nights, excessive drinking, singing and playing the guitar until my fingers ache... it's going to be hell ) then up into the north country for some walking and lazing around with a book and seeing my wife's family.

So for a week or so, Anya, stay smiling

I'm smiling. Things are pretty good, though I am bruised (see entry on Amtgard) scraped (a spill on concrete) and suffering the aftermath of a three and a half mile hike (sore legs and butt) and tetanus and hepatitis shots (sore arms). Still, I'm pretty happy - good books, plenty of rest, good food and spending time with my grandparents. My grandparents, I am happy to say, spoil me shamelessly. At 19 I probably shouldn't enjoy being spoiled by them this much but I do. Sorry!

Let me know how your three days of debauche. . . .I mean, three days at the music festival went. And you smile too. See also entry on hangover remedies.

You sound battered but unbowed, Anya I think we all need our own particular lunacies to stay sane. My wife and I go to about six or seven folk festivals a year and it's the sort of thing my brother-in-law would cut his own leg off to avoid. Each to their own... it's sometimes difficult to explain our own likes to others who don't share them. (I'm a Buffy addict, I'd better confess now. It's a difficult thing to admit for a grown up...)

The festival we were at was great fun - we've been regular attendees for some years now and we're starting to really feel part of the scenery as we know many of the other stalwarts. It's getting to the stage where we spend more time in the bars chatting to old friends than sitting listening to the music, but we'll catch all the performers at another festival down the road, so we don't worry too much about it; any guilt feelings we assuage by hitting the CD stall hard before we leave so we at least get to hear everybody's new stuff.

How long have you been involved in these apparently bruising battle games?

(Nothing wrong with being a Buffy addict, although I personally prefer Willow )

Oh, about four months, off and on. I'm still very much a newbie.

Nothing wrong with Buffy. Me, I don't own a TV, so . . . .

I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, hang out with the other geeks, so forth. (I'm proud to be a geek! One day we will rise and wear our "I Grok Spock" T-shirts without fear . . . . )

And as for the bruising, I do enjoy that, but I also enjoy dressing like a wench and singing old English and Scottish folk ballads. Ewan MacColl is an idol of mine. Perhaps I should do it more often!