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

The person who is the researcher known here as, first, Kid Kitsch, then Kid, then Our Man in Harare, then as Johannesburglar, and now as Hakunamatata, and probably soon as something else again, and whose real name I won't reveal here, since as far as I know he hasn't yet done so, paid me a visit this Tuesday! I went to pick him up (in my pickup ... how apt!) at the local airport; he arrived at twenty past eight. We recognised each other right away. We started chatting immediately, and set out for the bird sanctuary that is right next door to the airport. There he saw a number of birds he's definitely never seen or even heard of before, including blue and common waxbills, whitefaced and yellowbilled ducks, sacred ibises, southern pochards, rattling cisticolas, diederik cuckoos, common masked weavers, red bishops, pintailed whydahs, and more! He was especially impressed with the red bishops ... he remarked on how lucky we were to have such beautiful birds flying around free, instead of being locked up in cages!

After an hour and a half or so at the sanctuary, we headed home, and he met my mum. She's been operated on recently, but she's already up and around ... in fact, she's been up and around since the day after the operation! We chatted some more. Then he gave me a present ... he was in Zimbabwe prior to coming here, and he brought me a bird carved out of soapstone, and a Zim flag! I liked it a lot, and put it up on a shelf along with little clay birds and other ornaments. I showed him a part of my garden and nursery, and he smelled some of the aromatic plants I have here. He was also fortunate enough to see two of our cats ... Kadoefie, and Poplap! Spook was scarce that day, sadly.

My dad came home around one o'clock the afternoon. We then went to lunch at the local restaurant. There we all had tasty, substantial meals, after which we came home again. I insisted that my visitor take a present back with him ... I offered him a choice of my art. After showing him my portfolio, he chose a particularly fine sketch of a baobab tree. My father then also insisted that he take a rhinoceros print by me, and a rabbit print by my father. So he went back to Britain with *three* van der Merwe originals! We took him back to the airport around four the afternoon, but the plain arrived rather late (held up by weather) and so we still had a lot of time to chat. We saw him off when his plane arrived. It was a very enjoyable visit ... I am only sad that he couldn't stay for longer! There's so much more he could have seen and done! But anyways, I hope he comes again!

sounds great.


Dancer

Yes, it was! Hi Dancer!

Just know that youre always welcome in Israel


Dancer

Hi Will!

I had a wonderful, and very enlightening time with you and your family on Tuesday. I too wish I could have stayed longer, but I was very pressed for time - connecting with four diferent branches of the family tree, and *their* families, and being shown a staggering amount of natural beauty, from Victoria Falls to Port Alfred in 3 weeks, over a total of 5,000 km! I hope I can go back as soon as is practically possible, but unfortunately it's rainy old Ipswich for me for now

Meeting you and your parents on the last full day of my holiday was a great pleasure, and receiving a small part of your incredible body of work was a real honour, which I will cherish forever. Good luck with the bird project Will, save a Red Bishop for me! But take your time, eh?

Love and s to your Mum and Dad, and big s to you.
I'll be in touch

Chris (just Chris )

Oh, I forgot. s for Kadoefi, Poplap, and Spook (wherever he may be!)

Hi Chris! Spook turned up again! I will try and put him on my website soon ... but having a bit of a problem with my files list there at the mo, and trying to contact the site owners to find out what the hell is going on.

Well, take good care of yourself there in Ipswich... I'll email you soon!

More s,

Willem

Wow!

You said you'd had a visitor and now I know who. Sounds like you had an utterly groovy day.

from ear to ear.

Those birds sound wonderful! More pictures please Willem...

Hey Jen! The pictures will come, just give it time! I'm almost finished with my Scalyfeathered Finch project ... the final pictures in the series do indeed look much better than the first ones. But for the moment I have to first finish some commisioned portraits of people. So much to do, so little time ... I wish I could live for many centuries!

Theres plenty of time. i see no reason why a healthy chap like u shouldn't live for a long time.

J

Hey Jenny! I'm finished with the recording of the first tape for you! I think I'm going to record another *two* - so you're going to get three ninety-minute tapes of music! I recorded an intro as well as an ending to the first tape. I sound really really silly ... but that *is* what I sound like! Except, in real life, a bit more spontaneous! I sound a bit like a robot on the tape because I'm reading it, and I'm not very used to speaking English!

Chris, you haven't answered yet ... would you like to receive copies of these tapes I'm making for Jenny? And how are you doing nowadays? Did you get my most recent email?

Thanks Will, yes I did. I'll respond to you soon, I'm just lurking, posting as and when and doing some thinking. New information has been arriving and I need some time away from here to assimilate it. Thank you for getting in touch. I'd love to receive a tape from you - but take your time, fella. We have all the time in the world.

Chris,

for the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Broken Monkey

Well, OK, so you take your time too! Please don't hesitate to contact me about anything!

we have all the time in the world, just for love. Nothing more, nothing less, only love. I was sooooo tempted to put the iggy pop version of that on the love collective tape but in the end pumped for wonderful world.

Would u like me to send u a copy of the tape Chris? The postage is cheaper in the UK.

Look within, find beauty and power...