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

I'd better be getting to bed. I've tidied up the house and got a room ready for my guest. MMF has already landed and is safe with B'El at home. Gnomon has checked in for his early flight tomorrow morning from Dublin. Zendevil is no doubt already tucked up at Aye Bee's ready for the flight from Dublin tomorrow, too.

Everyone else is going ahead with their plans, too, and we should all be meeting in Mannheim tomorrow as from 11 am.

Simultaneously, Beatrice, King Bomba and Malabarista are having a Belfast meet, so we're working out how to contact each other - preferably with sound and moving pictures - some time during the day.

I shall be leaving here at about 10 am to give me plenty of time in Mannheim to check out the platforms everyone will be arriving at and to save room in the restaurant we've picked.

My second son arrived with his visitor this evening - I thought he wasn't coming till Sunday. So tomorrow night, we might be 7 people sleeping here, or we might just be three. I never know with my kids.

Good night.

Got up at the crack of dawn...
just finishig my tea now before I head off for the train and 4 hours of peace & quiet!

Greetings to the other Germans and those making it to the meet, TC!

Tube

Greetings to our German cousins from me too!

~MannderinsbBettliegt

I do wish everyone a nice time at the meetings - sorry I cannot be with you, I even had to cancel the Hull meet due to some reasons...
I'll be with you in thought though

I am at home between days of the meet. Hi everyone. Am off to make the sandwiches now. Will write everything up on the Meet page tonight. I wonder if Gnomon will have uploaded his pictures before that?

(Hardly possible, as he flies back later this evening!)

Well, I've been home a while. After everyone had caught their trains, mine was the last to go.

I hadn't realised how knackered I was, till I was on my own!

Sho left us a little earlier from the park for her 4pm train, but the rest of us didn't need to be at the main station till about half past five. We took the tram to the station and one by one, the trains for Paris, Frankfurt and so on departed, with brave hootooizens on board. Mine went last and I got home in one piece, took the washing off the line and flopped on the sofa and ordered a from Mr TC.

I fiddled around with the telly controls and found the ideal chill programme - they were showing a new film of Karajan conducting Beethoven's third. I was too tired to sing along, which is what I would normally not be able to stop myself from doing. It was a new film, newly edited and quite exciting to watch, with all the familiar tunes not taxing my attention too much.

It had been a lovely day in the park, except for zendevil and me missing a traing and getting to the park quite late.

I have had texts from Sho and Toybox who are now safely home. StunningFrenchie should be home soon, and Gnomon is already airborne and Wandrin Star will be getting on her plane soon.

Another meet under my belt!

And what a fab meet it was! Which is greatly thanks to you and Mr.TC for all the work you put into it.
I wrote my report on the train and will post it in my journal shortly.

What Sho said. Brilliantly organised. Thanks a bunch, TC.

Yes, fantastic meet and nicely organised (from what I could see, which was unfortunatley not much)

It was so nice to see you, tb, even if it was only for a short time.

I was very happy too to see everybody, those I'd met before, and new faces (but no new names ).

Every time on my way back from a meet I remember how much I like them and should visit more. Hootoo researchers are really a friendly bunch who know how to make people comfortable

Even though, as someone mentions somewhere in the Guide, we *are* the internet weirdoes our mothers used to warn us about

Yes, we're a weird folk.

It was great to see you again, and to meet Stunngfrenchie and Wandring Star who I knew from hootoo but hadn't met before.

I'm safely home from Mannheim. Talk later.

Great news.

And Wand'rin Star is safely in Manchester.

Seems that everybody is at home then.

Immense thanks to Trillian's Child for organising the meet, sussing out the hotels, restaurants and things to do, getting us onto the right trains and even making us delicious sandwiches. I don't think we've ever been quite so well looked after at a meet.

Thanks also to B'Elana, firstly for meeting us at the airport and getting four people with varying degrees of inability to speak German from Arrivals to the train, and secondly just for being her usual lovely self.

And thanks finally to Sho, for being such a friendly, super-brainy, talkative and not half bad-lookin' girl.

The pictures will up on Flickr in about 5-10 minutes, although I won't get around to writing captions for them until tomorrow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eoinmcauley/sets/72157623806953537/