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

an aweful lot of travelling involved in this little trip away, but well worth it, even if Heathrow airport is still as ... aweful as its probably ever been, just progressively larger... = we estimated, in total we walked for two hours; twenty minutes to the train station in Cambrige, then through Kings X, to Kings X st pancrase underground, then up from Heathrow T5 underground, to heathrow T5, then, through the aiport.... for miles an dmiles and miles flight was so quick, would have been even quicker if we didn't do a 25 minute drive round in circules on the airport runway before we got clearance to take off

The first day we didn't have much time, as by the time we got there, threw our stuff into our room, it was eveing meal time, and we got to all meet each other (on the symposium/conference), a very small group.... 5 patients, plus Wiliam as a patient carerrer, then I think it was 4 or 5 people from teh pharma company, and then 4 people from the company that organised the event, but, TBH, if it'd been much bigger it might not have worked so well, and well, I often don't cope too good now in huge groups
After the dinner, W and I unpacked a few things, then went for a walk around Berlin.
gosh. if only they did that here, in the UK: Germany has flat pavements and road surfaces. they're not totally covered with 5 decades of year on year repairs, repair on repair, broken paving slab, on cracked tarmac, pot-hole on top of badly filled in repair, and weather dammaged throughout. - it was so easy to walk. - I regularly stuggle now walking in Camridge as the pavements are so terrible.
The noise! - quiet. - one big advantage of having flat roads, you don't get so much noise off of them wehn cars go over the road surface... - I did also get the impression most cars seemed to be working examiples of cars, rather than falling to big bits dangerous, unroadworthy heaps of - also no one in the cars seemed particularly bothered about pumping out apauling muscic through rubbish speakers at twice the volume such speakers could handle. so... quiet.

and, it didn't smell. - first thing I noticed on getting back to Cambridge; it absoluvely stinks, dust, car fumes, ozone, soot,smell of deasil, and just the air itself is 'thicker'

Our first encounter with a local was very friendly; he politely explained to us, we were walking on the cycle path bit of the pavement (well, we didn't know!)- and so we had a discussion which came to the conclusion Cambridge and Berlin cyclists are both abnoxious

our walk round didn't seem to find much but we got to see a bit, before returning to the hotel, showering, and then discovering the hotel bar, and Pilsner.

oh. OK. so that is what a German beer is ment to taste like. - I don't like lager. because, I don't like lager in the UK; turns out, its a totally differnt drink over there.. and I do* like it

The next day was the all day symposium, starting at 8.30, after breakfast, and went on until about 5.30. and was brillietn though I cna't mention most of what we discussed

food. oh.... oops. my diet might have ... gone very astray; there was food contanstly.... break... food...lunch, more food, more break.... snacks inbetween, and about four hundred cups of

At the end of the day, we all decided to go for a meal together... and I got to thave the curry sausage! - and of course more pilsner - and then, the person from teh pharma company, just paid for the meal for everyone, including all the beers...

W and I went for another walk; almost got totally lost and returned to the hotel, and the hotel bar for more pilsner (for me anyhow) - despite which we spent virtually nothing! - I've still got I think about 110 Euros left, and ... I think I only got 150 out before we left

today was travelling back, but not until after another massive breakfast of course the hotel and all the food there (though not the beer), was paid for for us and we get the train/tube travel expenses back too (they booked our flights for us) - I think we also get paid for it

flight back was uneventful and we got seats next to each other on the flight back, even though we'd only managed to book seperate ends of the plain seats, as the BA website was down all day the day before

we may have accidentiallly smuggled two banannas back into the country... we nabbed them at some point yesterday, to eat later, then never ate them, so they were just in W's shoulder bag

my ears popped a lot on the flights, but no where near as painful as last time I flew; maybe its differnt air pressure changed on a big proper jet plain as compaired to my previous flight, which was on a little 16 seater private jet into Gothenberg... - pity we didn't get to see more of Berlin; having an extra day to do some walking about in daylight/day time would have been good....

Came back home, to find our house covered in scaffolding and our door painted and sparkly shiney smart - they're painting the outside of the block here at the moment, but the scaffolding wasn't up before we left - yet again they've just painted over our door number, so yet again will need to go look in teh shops and get some suitable coloured new door numbers to put on the door

I must go bath now.. and... then I must w weigh myself.... - I've a bad feeling I've put on weight - but the food was so* good as was the pilsner.... and the pavements.... and the cleaner air and the pilsner... didn't I mention that alreadY?

Well, welcome home. I'm relieved, and glad, that you enjoyed Germany.

Don't ever go to Rome. The pavements there are lethal - even for the sighted. Worse still, they're so narrow, you can't walk side by side.

You will surely have found it generally less accessible in Berlin, though. The Germans are way behind in that sort of thing - the bumps on the pavement signalling turns, crossings, etc are just not there. You can't know you're on a cycle path because it's only divided from the pedestrian side of the pavement by a painted line - or not even that: the surface may simply be a different colour.

If you had stayed longer I could have sent my son along to show you some good pubs - he's been studying there for three years now and knows his way around.

I would never have thought of comparing the cyclists in Berlin to those in Cambridge. Cambridge may be chaotic, but it must have a much longer history of being overrun by cyclists. Only recently have larger cities become more cycle-friendly, whether in Germany or elsewhere.

Glad to hear you had curry sausage and pilsner. Nothing else matters

Here's an idea.


Rather than go out and buy new door numbers, just remove the old ones exposing the old paint. Then when they repaint in a few years, hang the old ones back on.

oo... that's not a bad idea re the door numbers!
- heck I could take the old door numbers off; scrape them clear of the current blue repaint colour paint, then the paint underneath that from the last time they repainted the door, and maybe then find out what colour the letters were origionally! -

they've just reappeared this morning; putting up more scaffolding; now going up to the top of the house, I.E., the second floor err. or third floor if you count the ground floor as floor one -
A man also turned up and we opened the door for him, so he's now repainted the door itself with the top coat (we're waiting for it to dry now, so we can go out into town to buy some food and things...)

Curry sausage and beer.... nope, there's not much more than that to life lets be honest

oo; and coffee. did I mention that already?

The first day we arrived in, we got our driver at teh airport to take us to the hotel, then we went for a bit of a walk about, before dinner..... and found a small cafe, so went and had a coffee each...... 1 Euro a cup of coffee! - that is about 80 pence...... in the UK, a cup of coffee in even a cheap cafe, now costs two hundred and fifty pence!

Re the pavements; the tactile pavement in the UK isn't as useful as it might be; certainly here in Cambridge the pavements are falling to bits so much its very difficult, often, to distinguish 'tacticle pavement' bumps from 'broken pavement' bumps... if htat makes sense

Can I become a German citizen quickly, before the UK leaves Europe? - I want to remain European.. - heck my Surname may origionally be from a German ancestary, err.... rather embarasingly it may be connected with a large pharma/chemical firm who made chemicals used for rather distasteful purposes

Oh, and I didn't mention the hotel I think.... really liked the hotel, a very odd mix of arcutecture, a lot I think is actually more moden than it looked, but a lot was styled very 1920s or 1930s, with massive tall floor to high ceiling windows in the bedroom, but then a very modernistic glass brick wall between the bedroom and bathroom (which was rather cool) and light switches so complicated we had to get help to figure out how to use them loverly big hotel room too which was nice and the conference rooms were loverly and big too down on the ground floor.... - and lots of nice straight lines, uncluttered, clean lines.... - quite Swedish in that regard as goes a lot of the design type stuff

oo; and just got our expense forms emailed to us... in addition to getting our travel expenses, and having had everythign else paid for, they are paying us for attending about 150 Euros each err.... about £120 ish I think - we'll have enough to go on a holiday

oh, we weighed ourselves last night! - I've gained 1 Lb; william's gained 3 lb! - good job I'm at the gym next on Tuesday, and then circuit training on Wednesday

expenses forms filled in and sent back.... rail ticket for me, rail ticket for William, and three receipts for me, for beer... a pint at Heathrow before flying, and the rest Receipts from Berlin, er, the hotel bar I think

As someone who does the weighing in at my local slimming club, believe me when I say 1lb gain is a pretty good result after a few days away

Deb

- yeh, I was expecting a lot* worse - heck the curry sausage, with chips, on its own was probably more calories than my normal daily* intake!- let alone I'd had a huge cooked breakfast that day, plus a chicken curry and potato salad for lunch, plus teriaki prawns mid-afternoon break, and sandwichs earlier for the mid morning break, plus some cake, and fruit, and green salad, and some other nibbles, plus the peanuts the girl serving at the bar put out that night, plus a couple of pilsner with the meals, and four pints of pilsner in the evening after the meal, . . and that was just the Tuesday! Wednesday before flying was another massive breakfast.... the night we got there was a buffet with ... everythign so tasty you had to eat something of the lot!- and there was so much we didn't want it to go to wasite.... plus there was bottled pilsner with the buffet.... so I had about four of them... then pilsner in the bar the first night.... and... so* much* food... and pilsner now I think of it... - - they've Ok-ed the expenses! including my beer!!!! - oo and the loverly Swiss sausage salad we had... err... on one of the days... and the beer at the airport in Heathrow on the way out... - as much as anything I think just the total change in diet and eating patturns has somewhat bloated me which does make one rather assume I've put on more than I actually have... - I give it two days for me to lose the 1 Lb I put on, then I oughta be back on tract... to try lose and extra kilogram/2 Lb before the weigh in at circuit training on wednesday - Mind, looking at my arms and legs, I must be gaining some muscle weight now too, as I'm getting a lot more definition although I guess that oculd be weight loss too just making it apear more defined but the weight training now, on the Tuesday gym session must be helping build muscle I assume

I slept for hours last night... and still I'm tired

looks like the painters outside are packing up for the day, so it might be quiet enough for a nap soon after some more

Put the money aside, and then you can make all 3 meets this summer

I am definate with William for London, I think, and I'm hoping at some point to see if we can make it to Manchester too - I might treat William to the fabulus hotel in Manchester I staid with at the meet in 2014 I think it was, with DQ but I'm hopefless working out 'future' stuff, and planning, so I'll just wait a bit nearer to the date before I properly try work it out

so tired again today.... hope its not the untreated hypothyroidism catching up on me.... its a very crushing fatigue, though I did make it out today, with W, to the DIY shop to buy new front door numbers, to put on the door, once we're certain they're not going to put a second coat of pain on it, over the existing painted over numbers - we printed out a massive size door number from the computer earlier, which we've put on the glass on the inside, facing out, on the glass just next to the door, above the letterbox, so hopefully that will work for the time being (we had one bunch of Spanish kids ring our doorbell last night, asking for the house nextdoor ) just so tired today...

- I had a sneaking idea.... that some of teh weight gain by both W and I, wasn't actual* weight gain, but changes in water retention, due to altitude alterations etc, during flying...

Is the scientist me is correct

W has lost 3 Lb in a day, and I've lost teh weight I gained whilst away, plus an extra .5 Lb so I'm 2 Lb lighter than my last official weigh in on Wednesday (we missed this wednesday just gone of course as we were not here...) <zen. so I just need to lose... err... another 1.5 lb before wednesday coming to have lost 4 Lb since the two week ago weigh in thus maintaining my 2 Lb a week weight loss still just so tired though... felt really light headed and dizzy earlier, just after dinner, so I took an extra miligram of prednisolone tonight, just to make sure its not low cortisol.... - could have been a bit of a hypo (glycemia) after having eaten I guess.... <doh. - the steorids play havvock with blood sugar - and I don't want to add diabetes melitus to my list of hormonal problems.... still waiting as it is to hear back from my PTH blood test, to make sure I've not got parathyroid problems too (they were worried as i had elivated calcium in my blood results a few weeks back...) at least the weight loss will help reduce my risk of type II diabetes caused by the steroids horrible horrible drugs