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

What with the Ride of the Ride of the Valkyries being mentioned recently in a different thread, that somehow triggered memories of Night on Bald Mountain in Fantasia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMmfaaiWMEs

The bell ringing towards the end brought back memories of the time I visited a friend who had moved to Oostende in Belgium. We had stayed up talking until late. When I went to bed in her flat, I noticed there was a church nearby that chimed out the time.

One for a quarter past the hour.
Two s for half past.
Three s for a quarter to.
And finally, four s to mark the full hour, followed by the big bell counting out the number of the hour with a for each hour.

I went to bed close to 11 pm. Yup, you can imagine the dinging and donging. But the worst of it was yet to come.



I lay twisting and turning, unable to sleep.



Getting up, drinking a bit of water, going to the bathroom.

Back to bed.



Knowing what was to come, I was unable to go back to sleep. The anticipation grew within me. I was dreading the moment. Then it came.











































Bleary-eyed and exhausted, I finally fell asleep and slept soundly all night. I think they might have turned the bells off after midninght. Don't see how else I could have slept through all that dinging and donging.

Thinking of it, it was a bit like Chinese water torture.

See, the big bell s were spaced out rather majestically.

So you got a attacking your ear drums, and you winced.

And then you waited, and waited, and waited.

Another , another wince.

And so on.

Yeah, that's about typical. Most folks don't mind the little s, but some folks just can't handle the long s.

B4someonethanksme4beingtupidenough2postingwhattheywereonlythinking

Last night on The Venture Brothers, The Monarch attempted to torture his nemesis, Dr. Rusty Venture by placing him inside a large bell and ringing it.

It was super ineffective.