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

The weather is fantastic this morning. September sun and skies in October. Today is the (new) German National holiday. Because the holiday does not have any traditions (and possibly because I'm not German) I have no commitments and no duties.

My husband is off with his cycling friends for their last trip of the season. They always do the same route: Take the local electric train to Bad Herrenalb at the end of the line, an idyllic village in the Black Forest where old rich people go for their "cure", rest, convalescence and short breaks. They stop at a café and devour large amounts of hot chocolate, coffee and the amazing cakes. Then they cycle back along the Rhine to Ettlingen, near Karlsruhe, where they stop at a restaurant (the same one every year, I think) for a hearty lunch. Then they cycle the last leg home and put their bikes away. It's not supposed to be a sporting event - more a social event.

I probably wrote about this in my journal at the time, but just to summarise the history of our village - in 1309 it was first mentioned in official documents, which were only found quite recently. So in 2009 the village celebrated itself and many of us put up flagpoles in our gardens to fly the village coat of arms. The flagpoles are still there and on days like today, it is customary to hoist the national flag. (Also when football chamionships are on, or any other suitable event).

Four houses in close proximity to ours have these flagpoles. In fact, if I shut my eyes and sway about, standing in the bathroom with the window open, listening to the halyards pinging against the masts, I sometimes pretend I live on a marina, which is the nearest I get to the sea for most of the time.

Today, when hubby had gone off on his bike, I looked out of the window and no one in the whole street had yet put their flags up. So I traipsed out to the shed in my dressing gown and got the flag and hoisted it, hoping not too many people were watching.

So now I have the day to myself and am off to do some jobs around the house and will no doubt be looking in on h2g2 from time to time. Maybe even in the garden!

Maybe you should all build mini Berlin walls in your gardens, spray them with graffiti and then knock them down

there are a lot of of people who would be up for going to Berlin and putting the real thing back up.

I'm enjoying my last free day before my next OU course starts by... festering on the sofa and watching DVDs. Mostly Downton Abbey and Iron Man 3

I just started my next OU course: M373 Optimization (don't ask). What's yours?

The neighbours have now hoisted their flags, too.

I love the word 'hoist'. Just as
long as none of you is hoist by his own petard.
Hope you're having a great day.

Oh dear - it's mid-afternoon and I haven't done much at all. Just watched some nonsense on youtube.

hoist is great. One of my favourite words.

Alongside Gusset.

Icy if you don'T mind I'll come to your PS so as not to clog TC's convo up with our OU stuff.

Yet you think it's ok to clog her convo up with gusset-hoisting?

oh come on, you can't have words like hoist without gusset...