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

We all hate using slug pellets I know but tomatoes are like heroin to a junkie for things that creep, there really is no alternative. I've picked half a dozen of my Alicante's today and brought them indoors, they were just starting to ripen so I'm forcing them on a bit, I've got no patience I'm afraid. My second sowing of radishes were heavily assailed by slugs and snails even though I'd put mesh over. Whisper it quietly but I sowed some spring onions, a new variety to me that you grow in containers on the patio, and they are looking just great, something will go terribly wrong!

Attending constant business meetings and the occasional workshop/seminar on team buildings skills which include finding yourself.

Encounter groups? Remember them? They were all the rage in around the early eighties, I think that's possibly where all this team building and 'awayday' nonsense came from, and 'supervision', when I went into Social Work I truly didn't understand the concept, I'd been a technician before that, I was used to being told what was wanted and doing it kind of thing, or I'd tell my workers what I wanted and they'd do it as best they could but 'supervision', self-indulgent twaddle. When I supervised anybody in a CMHT we had a chat in the late afternoon then then went to the pub after work, If I or my supervisees had a problem what's the point of waiting till you've got an hour once a week? it was all about useless managers who had nowt to do liking to feel that they were in control.

It started off as such a promising planet. I hope the End is swift and merciless.

they are easy to step on, and roller pans just don’t hold enough paint to get the job done without stopping to refill, something you’d rather not do because you don’t want to give the ceiling any time to start drying before you’re done rolling—in other words, it’s important to keep a “wet edge” as you roll the ceiling.

I'm terribly tired. It was the first night in 3 weeks that it was cool enough to sleep properly. But no sleep for us, there was a party down the street. I called them at 2am but there was no peace until 3.

I had a sort of nightmare last night that I was in a prolonged job interview. I never got the job but I told everyone that I had, this lie I repeated to almost everyone I ever worked with. I woke up riven with guilt, then remembered I retired exactly a year ago! Not retired to bed you understand, just retired from paid work.

I know what you mean.

I had occasional nightmares about being late to work for years after retiring.

My mother still had nightmares about having to re-do her final exams decades after she finished school.

TdQ, I walked past the exam halls in Oxford today, I took my last exam there about a decade ago, they have these enormous clocks all the way round the walls in the exam room absolutely intimidating. I got this awful feeling of dread, really terrible, I was only going to the pen shop which is just past there to get some erasers for my mechanical pencil, which is a bit of an obscure make, and guess what? they didn't have them, all that dredging up the past in vain!

Do others out there prefer film photography? I like putting the film in at the chemist, but since the demise of film photography the local lab has shut and you have to wait a week now at our local Boots, but I'm sure the photos are better, I've got a digital camera but I prefer my old Canon, I bought it off Ebay for £20, you can get good film cameras second hand really cheap. I find people just don't bother to have digital photos developed and I think that's a shame really.

I just came on here to let people know that rain has stopped play in the cricket at the Oval. England are down to their last two wickets and we really need it to rain till Tuesday. Would a few of you join me in a rain dance? Do let me know cos there's not much point in doing it on my own, about 50 would make it viable, yours in anticipation, Hammondorgan.

I had a couple of beers with a Canadian bloke today, I only went in to get out of the rain, has anybody else ever noticed how crucifyingly boring the Canadian accent is? I blame Celine Dion...... and Bryan Adams..... and Leonard Cohen.... and Michael Bubbly, which he isn't.

Well the old B and B thread is fading away, I had another strange dream last night that the fires had gone out in these boilers and all the plant I worked in had gone cold, I did work as a heating technician about 30 years ago, anyway I had to get them relit urgently and I didn't have a light anywhere, it was terrible and I woke up in a state of real distress! I wonder if there's something Freudian going on, fading embers and unable to spark a fire, time for Viagra perhaps? or eating a bit less at suppertime.

"Do others out there prefer film photography?"

I prefer the discipline of it, of having to accept that half of that roll of film's exposures could have been a lot better. Being able to compare unedited efforts from a few years ago compared with now makes it easy to spot bad habits and do something about them.

Having said which, digital photography is more affordable, and even my digital compact allows more scope for pre and post exposure experimentation.

Tomatoes are ripening too quick to pick, we're making RED tomato chutney, this is my best crop ever and I can say that with some confidence. Stonking big tomatoes, and they're supposed to be a medium variety. (that is apart from the little Tumbling Toms which just explode in your mouth, I cook a few in the microwave in the morning and have them on toast) We never waste them but this year we're making soup every day, freezing some of course and making lots of that Italian stuff for fantastic pasta sauce, passatta is it? Genuinely many times better than what you buy. Don't really know why it's such an exceptional year, I read that worldwide it's the driest year since records began but of course it's been 'wet and warm' all summer in England. I really hope all you tomato fans have had good crops too!

My next door neighbour planted a Virginia creeper right on the front boundary of our pair of semis. We've had previous experience of the old VC in a former house when they caused a lot of damage getting into the loft and leaving the sucker marks all over the walls. it took me two days hacking it down and getting rid, so I said to my neighbour, keep it your side, he didn't so my missus keeps lopping it much to my neighbours annoyance, when it strays to our side. Yes I know it's boring but it's supposed to be! Anyways the creeper is looking far from vigorous, wilted and looks like it's dying back. we haven't touched it honest, but if looks could kill, we probably have!

I just had a bath... for nearly an hour... Right up too and including a sufficient temperature and length of bathing, to drop my blood sugars way down low... I just popped an uncooperative hydrocortisone tablet, and have decideed to make a pizza, quickly, to ensure I've a bit of energy left later, for bowling tonight so tired now...

The American Open Tennis is on. My wife watches it constantly, I find the blue courts rather strange, but quite restful, it's almost hypnotic, the rallies seem to go on for ages, and the little squeals the lady players make, they sound like whales or dolphins communicating. Are dolphins a kind of whale? I'm not sure, and I'm not interested enough to look it up.

Dolphins belong to the toothed cetacean group, as distinct from the baleen whales, the sperm whale being the largest member of the 'toothed' group.