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

... it is good to see you back. The AWW felt empty without you. (Hell, the AWW *was* empty without you!) But, joking aside, it really *is* good to see you back.



B

ta muchly, , very nice of you to say so.

not sure what my ongoing presence is likely to be in the next few months... waiting and seeing.

lots of interesting stuff in the AWW at the mo, n'est-ce pas?

I'm sure i'll see you around, though.
spiff

And now I am going to shamelessly pick your brains.

A1116280 is essentialy a brain-dump about LHR, and as such is full of omissions and inaccuracies.

Will you take a look at it for me, and let me know of anything you can see that I have got glaringly wrong? I am going to check out the BAA website, and I might even phone their press office (for info about the showers, for example).

It is shamefully slight on information about T4 - but I have only ever travelled from T4 once, so I don't know my way around it.

Thanks, Spiff.

B

Oh, and stuff I have left out too, of course.



B

Hi Ben,

just a couple of comments about your Heathrow piece, asides from the fact that it is an interesting subject (clearly based on unavoidable personal experience, ) and that i like the style and presentation (well, a bit of gml'd look prettier, but cosmetics aside)

yes, a couple of points:

"an Erzatz Pub," - is this a chain *actually* called Ersatz? Shirley not! No, you just mean one of those pubs that are just too shiney to resemble the real McCoy. In any case, the first z is an s, i think.

you also say that London is 3/4 x the size of Paris - i don't think this can be correct. Perhaps you are basing this on what they call Paris 'Intramuros' which refers exclusively to the 'round' city centre contained by the boulevard peripherique. Surrounding this is what you might call 'Greater Paris' and whilst it may not be considered 'as big' as Greater London, it can't be a quarter of the size/population.

this is pure assumption on my part, however.

meanwhile, the UG editors have been making announcements in the AWW!

have things been decided about hitting the front page etc?

I must reply to Jodan who has offered to send me a link/password to the Yahoo group...

I've been feeling a bit tentative after my prolonged absence

I see there has been the usual dose of politics, though, with the usual suspects stirring things up, apparently, though 'by any other name'.

what an interesting site this is!

cya
spiff

The figures I was taking put Paris and Berlin at about 3 mil each and London at about 8 - so I guess that it is nearer half the size of London. (Though you have the same old problem of "what is London?" - the bit inside the M25? The bit with London post codes? The bit with London phone numbers? Daytime Population or Night time population? etc, etc, etc).

Thanks for picking me up on this one.

The size of London is one of my bug-bears. Most people don't realise what an exceptional city it is. (I hate it by the way - never lived there, would hate to work there, think people should have to pay fifty quid every time they want to cross the M25 out-bound, but all that aside, one of the reasons London doesn't work in the way that German cities do, for example, is it's so f**king big!)

No - the Pub is the Tap and Spile or the Pig and Spiggot, or the Aviator and Floozie, or something similar. Though it would be worth founding a chain called Ersatz Pubs, wouldn't it?

I was hoping for some specifics. I see I am going to have to do some field-work next time I go there. Or maybe I will just take the lazy option and wang it into PR and let my fellow researchers correct my mistakes!

The UnderGuide is blissfully free of politics at the moment. Don't worry about your absences. We are a tollerant lot - we have to be - most of us go - er - underground - every once in a while. I think it is part of the job description! You were much missed - in a nice way - and contributions when you are around are better than no contributions because you sometimes aren't around.



B