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

>> what books are banded for 60+??

SAGAs.

Did I tell you about the second hand bookshop run by the Red Cross in Cheltenham? The shelves were all neatly labelled with things like "Fiction" and "History". The shelf of books designed to be read with one hand was labelled "Top Shelf". It was indeed the highest one in the shop!

I've got to make lots of Lists today and then do the things on them. Bleh. First off is betray the catlet again by waking him up, bundling him a cage and taking him to cat-jail.

Evil evil Ben.

B

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Ahh yes, the good old "if teens learn about sex they'll go off and shag anything with a pulse" approach... of course what actually happens if you shelter your precious little ones from as much knowledge of sex as possible is that they develop severe issues one way or another (extreme promiscuity or being terrified of it).

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That's fantastic! Kind of puts me in mind of one of the corner shops in Swindon where "top shelf" seems to have been misinterpreted as "all but the bottom two"... Now I'm no prude by any means... Hell, I'm probably one of the most open-minded people around when it comes to that sort of thing... but I don't really want to have a load of Not-Disney shoved in my face when I'm just popping in for a pint of milk.

I've worked in -50C temps a number of times without problems, but in an area that was naturally very low on relative humidity. The next place I went to was always 'damp', and -20C felt very raw and nasty.

I don't know from experience, having lived for most of my life in Arizona, but my Grandfather, who spent a few years as an on-call physician in rural Nebraska, insists that it is impossible to tell the difference between 10 degrees below freezing and 40 degrees below freezing: you just die faster.

I think he was talking in Fahrenheit, not Celsius, though.

If one is actively working in the weather, there's a definite difference. Fingers aren't so nimble, the breathing takes a bit more work, and maybe as a result, the mind kinda wanders easier.

And of course, -40 is where F and C meet ...

OK - I've had a good look at posts 721 to 1000 and now have to knock my notes into some semblence of order to send to Lil later today.

Did we ever get get anyone to agree to tackling 1001 to 1500?

* quietly removes an inappropriate e and replaces it with an a

i know a nice secondhand bookshop in a town near Dublin called Dalkey (pronounced Darkey)i found good bargains there, like SFX guides and that kinda memorable tat.

Hi there Madeleymade. Dublin is so on my list of places to visit. And it's not as if it's hard to get to from the North West.

Depressingly the two best genre bookshops I know of for specialist English language books are both in Stockholm. There's Bookhandeln IT which is without exception the best place I've ever been for technical books. It's tucked away in a tube station roughly where you'd expect to find a SockShop or a Costa Coffee. And then in the Old Town there is a superb science fiction bookshop the name of which escapes me. Again the best I've ever seen or been to.

I'm not saying there's not better out there, just that I've not found any yet.

Who mentioned humidity? We should really have a damp-chill factor like the wind-chill factor. That is certainly the reason why +10c in London feels much colder than -10c in Stockholm. We recognise how much more enervating hot and humid is than hot and dry, why not cold and wet?

Took Tiger to the cattery. She only has cats. The cages are in a square like the atrium of a roman villa, with a bird table and chickens in the middle. Stops the little serial killers getting bored. No dogs, which is a good sign in a cattery. My neighbour will pop in and feed the blak kitteh. Is it odd of me to make holiday arrangements for a stray?

Got lots of tedious paperwork and phoning to do before my hols. Bleh.

Ben

Also check out another town near Dublin in WIcklow called Bray. They have a Town Hall Bookshop on the Florence Road. By the way, i remember a film in the 70s with a girl being attacked by a grass-covered boy. There was this beautfiul music. Coudl you tell me about that music

My piece of cold weather trivia is that at -14 centigrade your nose hair freezes. Coldest I've ever been in was minus 27 (C), but I agree that damp cold is worse. The UK always feels colder than Russia for me for that reason.

Today we have learned anew that we mess with the Star's sleeping schedule at our peril.

Morning all.

Poo. I'm up already, because I was expecting a potential cleaner to come around at 4pm.

Now shall I go back to bed? That's the big question. Am working tonight and then going on hols, it's quite scary to think the next time I'll sleep will be in 24 hours time..

Mind you I"m sure Sol's used to it..

I had a nap this afternoon & look very much forward to a night's sleep rather soon. 12's going with his class to Danish island of Samsø tomorrow. They meet at the central station at ... 6:20 am

Yes, mcm, in general the bacteria in yoghurt are believed to be 'good' (even more so if they're of the officially recognised probiotic kinds). But don't make that into that what you have inside is bad - your bacterial flora's quite likely reasonably much as it should be.

What else did I think of saying?

Oh - I feel rather bad about it but I'll skip on scribing at the moment (the partial scribing idea's , though). My life's just not coherent enough . I'm three weeks behind with my weekly paper, for Bob's sake... And a scouting weekend coming up for next weekend. Rather look forward to it, in fact - it's a brilliant de-stress thing, once we're off at least.

There was someone here called Madelymade? Their name has reverted back to a U number, so I think I'll wait on welcoming them until the evidence reappears.

Nope, nobody has stepped forward to take on the other 500 posts...

*Steps back, in case everyone else does and she's left standing forwards*

I didn't feel up to addressing our visitor with their U-Number, Lil, so I checked out their personal page.

I am still wading my way through the paperwork. There's actually very little of it, I just make Great Big Deal of it, and it turns into a Great Big Chore.

Why do we do that sort of thing to ourselves? Or is it just me?

Ben

Actually, the Star is quite good at sleeping really. For a baby. It's just that I never get more than 3 hours consequtive sleep at a time. Torture techniques are based on this. Still, when I think of the hell other people go through at night I feel quite privalaged. And he's lovely when he's awake. When I don't mess with his schedule.

I remember reading certain parts of Clan of the Cave Bear rather, uh, carefully. The rest was all filler.

Go Ask Alice! That was it! Thanks, Beatrice!

Oh dear. Beatrice was the author. Thanks, Happy Nerd!