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

Last year I got to the 12th, but had to stop due to a subject Ofsted visit. In fact we're due a full one any time soon, so I might not make the end of this one either, but I'll try.

Same as last year, one thread, updated every day. Some will be general ramblings, and other days I plan to fill with a "5 things.." list of short ideas along a common theme. If you read, a calling card would be nice, but lurkers are always welcome.

Next post - 1st November, in which I tie up some loose threads from NaJoPoMo 2012.

Updates from last November. I started NaJoPoMo 2012 with some information about myself, so let's see what's the same and what's changed.

"I currently live in a small village in the Garden of England..." Yes, still here, still living alone with a ginger cat

"I work as a teacher..." Yes, still in the same job, slightly different responsibilities. This time last year I was doing someone else's job temporarily, when the job came up permanently I applied, but didn't get it. To a certain extent I've been given the freedom to craft myself a role that I do want, and although the school can be tough, I'm settled and enjoying the challenge.

"My health is what the medical profession would call "excellent"..." Yes, still hale and hearty.

"...my maternal grandmother lived to 96, my mum is an extremely well 77 and if she doesn't get there first I intend to be the first to see 100." Ah.

"My beautiful, amazing daughters are 25 and 22." Now 26 and 23 and still amazing and beautiful.

"So I'm a convert to the idea of audio books..." Still am. In the past 12 months I've been amazed by Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies and I can't wait until Mark Rylance is ready and the BBC can start filming. This is an inspired piece of casting. Moonlight and I saw him at the Globe in 2012 as Richard III and he was in his element. It was torrential rain, we were soaked to the skin and ankle deep in water but were transfixed. I've listened to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which again is going to be made by Feel Films for the BBC. The casting has been announced this week, none that I had in my mind, but if the BBC can get Thomas Cromwell right, I trust them with Strange and Norrell. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-bbc-one-casting-release.html I've also listened to all 4 Rivers of London books, and guess what, the same production company that are doing Strange and Norrell are going to be doing this too! If Kobna Holdbrook-Smith doesn't get to play Grant, I'll be very disappointed.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was a little gem, and Jim Broadbent narrated this perfectly. I believe Channel 4 have optioned this one.
I wasn't so impressed with Colm Tobin's The Master, I found it slow going until the final third, but didn't give up. Much the same with Jim Crace's Harvest, which I'm ploughing through at the moment.
Michael Caine's reading of his own Elephant to Hollywood was great, he's a brilliant story teller and being a Saaaf Lundun girl myself, his accent is the one I grew up with. I love it when he tells a story and makes himself laugh, they've left the chuckles in, which you just don't get in print.
This week I've done a lot of driving and my companions have been Jack and Michael Whitehall. So very funny and again this to be heard, not read.
Lined up for November is Jennifer Saunders and then the first Bryant and May book, which has been recommended to me.

"...my paid hobby as a film extra..." That entry from last year made it to the Post. A87776383 Hands up if you spotted me in Southcliffe on Channel 4. Episode 3, but by this time most people I know had given up trying to fathom out the plot. I did have a call last week about a day in Theory of Everything, which might still happen if I can fit it in.

There were quite a few posts in NaJoPoMo 2012 ranting about education policies and Gove in particular. That seems likely to be a theme for my 2013 posts too - even today there's a big announcement of changes.

I also wrote about my family and that will be a theme this month too.

Finally, if you have a question, ask away, and when I've got a few I'll reply to them all together.

And Sol, I never did get around to telling the story of my 1970s poster that was also in the V+A so maybe I will get around to that.

Good luck to all NaJoPoMo 2013 writers!

Ticking off the NaJoPoMoers, and in passing let me just say that no one is on their own with a ginger cat. Hopefully you may be saying something nasty about Mr Gove?

Well it certainly won't be anything nice!
Welcome to my journal.

*passes by, and agrees you can't be alone if you've got a cat... ginger or otherwise *

Am looking forward to reading more coelacanth journals

I've added you to my friends list so I can find you nice and easily.

Lanza, are you someone clever enough to change the title to 2013? I am a fool.

Lanza!

You're welcome coelacanth, and it's fixed now. You're not a fool, twas merely a typo.

Best wishes with the teaching, coelacanth.

Well, I qualified in 1982, so I think I've probably got it right by now, but then with Mr Gove you never can tell. I might suddenly find I'm doing it all wrong.

When I was visiting Stratford Upon Avon recently I engaged in conversation with an actress. We discussed the current productions and she said that to have directed a production in Stratford at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre was a big plus on any director's CV, but to have directed a production which was noticed was even more significant.

Noticed can mean both praised and condemned. It matters not. The publicity, and column inches is all.

I have a feeling that Government ministers, especially in Education, work on the same principle. It doesn't matter what you do as long as it makes a lot of noise.

I think you should ask for this for Christmas. I know I have: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everything-I-know-about-teaching/dp/1492912417

The comments are especially splendid.

I am looking forward to the poster anecdote and shall hold you to it even if Ofsted do descend.

Oh! And I don't think I ever got round to thanking your for the Horniman Museum recommendation last year, tho I certainly meant to. We went. It was fab. I am planning to go again very soon.

[Amy P]

Yes Sol, that seems to be on a lot of teachers Christmas lists!
"This is one of the most honest representations of a government minister's expertise in a particular field that I have ever had the privilege to read."
Oh yes.

My particular favourite Gove joke was buried in the cryptic crossword at the back of my union magazine. I was doing the puzzle as I munched my cornflakes one morning. It made me chuckle all day. It's not so much the answer, more about the letters left behind. It can't be a coincidence.
The clue: "Badly tarnish Gove as being missing during the hours of darkness (9)". I had two of the letters, but I won't put them here unless asked - I'll let people try and work it out first.

I was here, though the Gove joke went completely over my head. Looking forward to reading your journal.

Do we get to recommend more ebooks? Do you read non-fiction as well as fiction?

Yes please, do recommend anything you think I'd enjoy! I have about 5 hours a week of listening, sometimes more, always when I'm driving.

I like to get my money's worth (it's a fixed price every month) so the big hitters like Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies and Jonathan Strange were excellent value. I seem to have a preference for books set in either historical or alternative versions of London: Wolf Hall, Bodies and Strange again, the Rivers of London series, and my new choice this month of the first Bryant and May.

My non fiction choices so far have all been autobiographies read by the authors, Stephen Fry, Michael Caine, Jack and Michael Whitehall and Jennifer Saunders. Other non fiction stuff I tend to prefer in actual book format so that I can make pencil notes, bookmark with Post-Its or refer to them quickly when writing or planning, these would all be related to work in some way, even vaguely.

I do have a personal wish list on the site that contains 3 non fiction I think might work in audio format. Alex Stone's Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind; Daniel Kahnamen's Thinking, Fast and Slow and Oliver Burkeman's The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking.