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

I don't believe it. Whoever had a go at my car yesterday couldn't get enough of it and just had to come back to continue taking it apart bit by bit. My aerial's been bent, my wing mirror bent again, and my windows have all been drawn on. I wonder if I'll come back to it tomorrow to find just a pile of bits!

Tea's not strong enough for a day like today. Suggest Wine/Vodka/brandy purely for medicinal purposes!

Want to grab the alcohol you've got, I'll grab what I've got and pool our resources! Still... there's always tomorrow! Oh dear

That's depressed me. The thought of another day in the office bored out of my brains because no one will show me what to do and being made to feel old by the girl I sit next to because she goes out drinking until 3 every night and still looks great when she comes into work - I hate her !

Didn't mean to depress you! Sorry! I know what you mean though. Some of the young lads are the same. There's me struggling through the day after a night in, and there they are with loads of energy after a night out... *and* they'll be talking about going out the next night! Well, look at it this way - tomorrow is Wednesday, which means that we're already half way through the week...

But Thursday I have Italian class again so it will be another late night so I'll be knackered for the weekend and spend it sleeping instead of partying. I want to be 21 again and have limitless energy!

How late do you get back from your italian class? I read your little comment about not being able to learn a language! I can't speak anything else either, and some would say my english is a little iffy! I used to speak fluent dutch when we lived in Holland when I was a toddler! I used to stand at the garden gate, swearing at passers by in dutch! (Which my mum couldn't understand) - It was all going so well till the next door neighbour shopped me!

Well, I guess us oldies don't get invited to wild parties any more. We'd just fall asleep in the corner anyway!

It doesn't finish until 9 but it's in Bristol so its 10 when i get home (via the takeaway), 10.30 by the time I've eaten and then I'm hyper so I stay up until 1. Really I need 8 hours sleep minimum so it's killing me at the moment because I'm only getting about 5.

Sounds like a nightmare

Oh no! My life is a nightmare! When will I wake up?

Ok, lets try that again without pressing the wrong button! Sounds like a nightmare. I was doing 4 hours sleep and walking round like a zombie... We're back to talking about how mornings should be reserved purely for sleeping. How long have you been learning, and are you getting anywhere? I was always completely useless at languages at school.

You can bet you'll wake up and find it's actually a whole deal worse! Gawd.. am I cheering you up yet?

I've been learning for 5 1/2 weeks, have 1 1/2 weeks to go but in september I start a GCSE course. I can cope until it gets onto all the verb endings. I don't understand what a past participle is in English so how am I supposed to recognise one in Italian.

Learnt the useful phrases:

Non lo so - I don't know
Una bottaglia de chianti, per favore, pronto - A bottle of chianti, please, NOW!
Scusi? - What?
Non dico Italiano - I don't speak Italian

Now there's a question for you. Why do we always learn to say we don't speak the language in the very language we're not supposed to know ?

I guess they teach you how to say that so you never get zero in an oral examination, after all, it's difficult to hold up a phrase book and point to the phrase on tape...

Was learning another language something you've always wanted to do? I think being unfortunate enough to do latin at school put me off languages for life. After three years I could just about say "Sextus is standing on the wall" in latin, although like you I could never get the hang of verb endings so it was probably more like "Sextus was has been stood on the wall"

And to this day, I don't know if he ever got down...

My dad on the other hand can speak, dutch, italian and arabic. Well, enough to have a conversation.

I've always been ashamed that I couldn't speak another language. I did French and German at school and 3 years into the french lessons the teacher asked if I had 3 heads. I just looked at her blankly as she asked over and over again and then she humiliated me in front of the class when I said Je ne Comprend pas!

Amazing how much French I remember now I'm learning Italian! C'est la vie!

And the only german I remember is "Oh Mein bein! Ess ist gebrocken!) which will be handy if I ever break a leg in Germany.

Aww. Sounds like you had the same kind of french teacher I had. One that would take lots of pleasure in making you the laughing stock of the whole class! I must have picked up something though, cos I too pick up the odd word every now and again.

And the only German I remember, which is even less useful is "Ich bin baderhosen" which means... I am swimming trunks... No, I don't understand either...

We have a polish girl in our italian class and things got very confusing when we translated some italian phrase into "En-Suite" (we were practising booking into hotels). Still, she's doing better than me with the old eye-tye

We have a polish girl in our italian class and things got very confusing when we translated some italian phrase into "En-Suite" (we were practising booking into hotels). Still, she's doing better than me with the old eye-tye