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

Well, thank you dear Hypatia!

You should pay a visit to this lovely little historical town. We have met a most marvellous friend who is a Professor of Philosophy at a well known Univesity, and who is recovering from a serious illness. . His father is a local historian, and the town is absolutely full of wonderful Gaelic history and artefacts. The same goes for Celtic, Viking and goodness knows what else. !!

It was a real gateway to the Uk in ancient times.

So I do hope that during your stay in the UK. you wpll come to visit one of the loveliest little towns in England, and which is also one of the best kept secrets in England. Because very few people know about it, thank goodness. !!

I go to sleep at night, in my reclining chair, and through one window I can see the lights of Boulogne-sur-mer glinting and winking twenty miles away across the Channel. When I turn around and look the other way, I can see the lights of Calais blinking/winking in the distance. I feel so close to the land of my forebears. !!

Lovely to hear from you.

Go well, and no more ringing bells.

Christiane
AlsoRan80

Hyp, thanks for turning what must've been a terrible night into a highly amusing story for us all. I too feel bad for laughing. No, really

Yeah, right. You are all rays of sunshine in my gloomy exsistence.

Hi Taralome. How are things in beautiful Melbourne?

*Must look at map to guess the town of AlsoRan80*

Belated happy birthday.

Hi tartaronne. Shall we have a contest to guess the name of Christiane's town?

Haven't been here in awhile, but I don't feel the least bit bad for laughing at Hyp's story............I can just hear the sarcasm dripping...........

We were without power the other night too. Someone took out the power pole just west of our house. The electric guys were down there for two hours fixing it. About 15 minutes after the power came back on, a lightning strike knocked out the whole town and it was off the rest of the night! First power failure we've had with the current, steady streams of storms though the state this spring and summer. The monitoring company didn't call us, but we had two late night callers--one from the city and one from the gas company--regarding the outage.

Did Bill bring you your cup of coffee, by the way????

* guesses at Folkestone, Kent ... purely by accident. not because it has appeared sporadically in journals *

Dear Hyp

I shall never mention the name of my new hometown again. !!

I am curious and would like to know where you live as well. !!

I hope that you had a good 4th July. I am so sorry that I forgot to wish all my hootoo friends a Happy Independence Day!

Belated greetings for the 4th July 2008 to all Hootoo researchers across the pond and also to who might be living outside the USA on this marvellous planet. I hope that you all had a great day.



AlsoRan80

Lady C How lovely to see your name pop up.

Awful power story Why is it that it rains and then pours?

Christiane, I live in Webb City. It's on the map, depending on which map you use. Webb City is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 9,812 at the 2000 census, but is currently around 12,000. Situated on the Ozark Plateau, Webb City is 982 feet above sea level in the southwest corner of Missouri. It is approximately 200 miles southwest of the center of population of the United States and near the geographical center of the country. It is ten miles east of the Kansas state line, 14 miles northeast of the Oklahoma state line, and 46 miles north of the Arkansas state line. Webb City is on old Route 66, America's highway. It is also near major Interstate highways traveling both north/south and east/west, thus providing central access to the United States, Canada and Mexico.

If you can't find us on your map, look for Joplin. We are directly north. In fact, the two cities share boundaries in several places.

And this is where I work. http://www.webbcitylibrary.com If you're lucky, you'll check it on one of the days that the links actually work. My webmaster is constantly fiddling with it. The home page changes so often that I never know what I'm going to find when I open it.

I just took the liberty of visiting the staff lounge and, if I may say so, you are looking fabulous, Hyp!

Is that a recent photo?

Why thank you, Witty. It is semi-recent. Taken a couple of months ago.

Dear Hypatia,

Thank you for the information as to where you lie. It sounds as if your really are the hub of the area. Now if I can find a map I shall be able to place where you are. I went to the link and was fascinated that a town the size of Webb City could have so many facilities. And what a lovely Director they have at the library. !!

I hope that one day you will have a book of mine in your library - if I ever finish it. er - and if it finds a [ublisher. !!

Well, I am off to tantalise my mind - and my tummy - with a food programme. I did not realise that cooking was also one of your hobbies. You have a lot of them. I wrote a long letter to Peta and then forgot to post it, so now I have to write it again.

Go well, and take care of yourself.

Christiane
AlsoRan80

Hi Hyp. Things are freezing in beautiful Melbourne. It was 4°C when I got up this morning.
Yesterday at work the heating was down. Brrr.

Otherwise things are good, thank you for asking.

Lady C, Bill did NOT bring me any coffee.

Taralome, summer has arrived in my part of the world. It is hot and muggy and generally miserable. But then I'm seldom happy with the weather. When it's summer, I wish it was winter and vice versa.

It is the 9th July and we're being told by the forecasters that our summer is over

We've just got The Boy a new climbing frame! He likes playing on it even if it is raining but I am not so keen...

Christiane, Webb City isn't the worst place to live in the world, but certainly not the best. There are advantages to small towns. There is a sense of acceptance and truly belonging here that I'm sure would be envied by some people. My family has been here for generations. But it is also provincial and boring and there isn't much of anything to do. I lived in a proper city for many years and miss that.

Kelli, it doesn't seem possible for him to be old enough for a Jungle Jim. I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun and give you some gray hairs in the process.

It is amazing what he can climb up and under and round and through - he is 16 months today and I am convinced he is part giant and part monkey. When I saw him discover that he could get up as high as the top platform on his own I nearly had a heart atack - it is my shoulder height! He is utterly fearless, but me less so - but I don't want to take away his confidence so just have to be all a-quiver on the inside. He can't be left to play on it unsupervised so if he goes out in the rain then so does mummy.

We are supposed to be getting a month's worth of rain today, and it will stay like this for at least four weeks I miss summer already!

Sorry about the rain. But you do need it more than we do. We're 20 inches about normal for rainfall so far and are under flash flood warnings again.

Kids are fearless. Much less so mothers. I can't wait to see him again. And the new addition. I love having cyber nephews and nieces.