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

Coz the ruddy gas board have just blown up my bus stop!

Blown up?

Is the next stop far away?

aie aie aie! that's on my way home too!

Don't know which way your going Riotact... But forget about going anywhere within 3 or 4 blocks of the junction of Cours Lafayette and Rue Garibaldi... They've closed both roads down (and quite a few of the surrounding side-roads as well!)

What is going on? Earthquakes in Lincolnshire, gas explosions in France...there'll be satellite debris falling on someone's head in Sweden next

GB - Don't worry, it won't be Sweden...

Someone up there has obviously taken a dislike to my family...

1) My Grandparents live in Brigg - 10 miles down the road from the epicentre of that Earthquake

2) A block down the road from my office they've closed off a huge swathe of the city because of that gas explosion, which is right beside where I get the bus home tonight (the windows rattled quite when it went boom)

Think I should phone the rest of my family to warn them to take cover?

Don't mention the word "boom" near me I am still very jittery

Hmmm I am of the mind that if you weren't injured and your grandparents are shaken but unhurt then you're on the "good" list with a watching over you...

First Kerr and her bomb, now you and your gas explosion. Someone, somewhere, is trying to stop h2g2 Researchers from getting home!

Funny, I never thought of you as someone who gets on a bus.

If you'd ever tried driving and parking where I am then you'd understand the need for buses...

Walk to work: 35 minutes.
Bus to work: 10 minutes.
Drive to work 10 minutes + 20 minutes to find a parking place + 10 minutes walk from the godforsaken backstreet you've managed to park in + the cost of a parking fine (it's actually cheaper to pay 4 parking fines a month than it is to pay for the parking around here!)

Stick with the

I've nothing against buses - I use them when I can, even though I've got a car. Buses are lovely. Just I suppose I never think of grown up people with good jobs being on them. Apart from me of course (when I worked for the Beeb).

on yer bike squire!

that is the best solution, and by far. try the velo'v!

Bike?????

But that means ***shudder*** physical exercise!!!!


Have you any idea just how much beer I'd have to consume just to counteract the adverse effects of a ten minute bike ride????

I have a ten minute bike ride. The alternative is a half hour walk. Through lovely countryside. There are no buses.

Like Whisky, I hate the thought of physical exercise, but it's OK if you listen to the radio on the way. I like to download BBC podcasts and listen to them. Lots of things from "Today" are available and nice and short and ideal for that. They're a day old if I download them in the evening and listen to them the next day on the way to and from work, but so what. I also occasionally listen to my Polish lessons or the works I am singing in a choir, for practice. It's deserted, so I can mumble on in Polish, or sing my alto lines without getting funny looks. (Not possible on a bus!)

So far, no earthquakes, bomb scares or gas explosions have spoilt the idyll of my little bike ride. I'll let you know when the first cuckoo pipes up.

Does this mean that you've been unable to make it into work today Whisky? Oh la la!

Unfortunately no - I walked.... And we're just outside the security cordon... But the street where the explosion was is a heck of a mess... From what I've seen and read - some guys digging up the street hit a gas main... They called the fire brigade who got there and evacuated the area... Unfortunately, the leak started to bleed through to a carpark under one of the buildings and about 45 minutes after the first report the whole thing when Woof!


They're still cleaning up the mess now - and my guess is that they're going to have to call in some structural surveyors to decide whether the buildings' are safe enough to be left standing there or should be demolished.

Whisky, two questions: What are the adverse affects of a (mere) ten minute bike round and er, why do you need an excuse to drink beer .....

Good job the cars didn't go up as well then!

On the other hand, maybe not - I'm a bus/tube user - nasty smelly polluting cars - get rid of the lot of them!

Lovely thought,getting rid of every car...but,what would the governments do without the huge revunue they steal from car owners ? No roads,no buses,tubes would be a complete no,no......have you any idea how much the tax on a bike would be then ? I'll just continue to spend most of my entire life searching for parking spaces .....and dream of country lanes !