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

He left me some post

*weg*

I feel almost silly for asking this, but what is a "stone"? I get that it's a unit of weight. How much is one stone in pounds? or kilos? good luck with y'all's diets. i'm currently starting one as my wife has started one. nothing drastic, just reducing portions and saturated fats. y'know, grill instead of fry, that kind of thing.

Obviously it was something good. Maybe a postal order that she had to rush out and cash. I hope it wasn't a Slim Fast diary. Mine arrived and it was obviously written by someone with a very strange sense of humour.

You are advised to get a picture of yourself and take it to a very public place and "snog it" when you are asked what you are doing you tell them that you are "saying goodbye" to your old self and "saying hello" to your new self. You then throw a farewell party and invite friends to talk about your old self and give you farewell gifts.

This then is the beginning of a "New You". On another page you are told to sing in the shower not at home but somewhere public like a gym or better still sing in the supermarket while shopping with your children, so that you can embarass them.

Another piece of dubious advise is to put on some fake tan while your friends are on holiday so that you can be as brown as they are on their return. You are advised to use the fake tan on your children as well otherwise it won't look right.

You can get nekkid and jump around on your bed. You can play air guitar and slide through the kitchen on your knees, preferably when your kids have their friends around.

Well just a few ideas from the Slim Fast 2007 diary.

Ingenious piece of literature, that!

My diet was just rudely interrupted - I've been paid, meaning I can afford food again

briskt74. A stone is 14lbs dunno about kilos about 7.7 I suppose.

Hi Mal, glad you've been paid but come on you are supposed to spend it on necessities like pretty clothes and make up.

that's just about the last thing on the list. I've never bought make up in my life!

Well, clear nail polish, once, but it was because I needed varnish for a project in a hurry and the DIY was closed

Most of it's going for Uni fees, anyway...

Jaffa cakes are low in fat but 1 whole point each on weight watchers scale!!! How come? They are lowcal (35 cals each) and low fat.

Anyway...Ive had 2 with my coffee..as I am starving and its either that or eat my colleague (but she looks as if she might be forbidden)

I gave myself the night off last night, as Demon Drawer came to visit, and we went to the local for some pub grub and a couple of drinkies

Being very good now and nibbling on a stick of celery, but I couldn't half go for a Kit Kat!

a 2 finger kit kat isnt too bad actualy (if you can stop at the 2!)

Its hard when you have a diversion of the diet and need to get back on track isnt it.

I am determind this time though..

jx

A stone is exactly 6350 grammes. An English pound only has about 450 grammes, whereas a metric pound has 500 grammes.

I've never heard of a 'metric pound' - 500g is half a kilogram, as far as I'm concerned. I suspect the term 'metric pound' was dreamed up for people who like to think in lb but can only buy stuff in kg. It's a close enough approximation for people to be able to visualize how much they're getting. The 8oz bars of Dairy Milk Mum used to buy were replaced by 250g bars (I think), whereas the real converted weight should have been about 227g. I guess 250g is a simpler weight.

Hmm, ok, I called it 'metric' to distinguish it from the English/American pound. In Germany and many other countries, a pound has 500 grammes, not 450.

Yes - a pound is quite a normal measure of weight here, but it's 500g, not 450g - and I think it's that way over most of Europe. What would you call it, if not a metric pound? (Besides a "real" pound, I mean )

I'd call it "half a kilo"!

isn't the term for the whole inch-foot thing "imperial"or something like that? would that be the same for weight measurement?

I'm with Beatrice. Definitely half-a-kilo. I don't understand why countries that have used metric for years on end need a term like 'metric pound'. A pound's a pound, a kilo's a kilo, 500g is half a kilo *not* a pound of any kind.

Of course it's a pound. Well, ok, it's a "pfund" or a "pond" or something along those lines. But it's not a new unit of measurement by any means.

Yes, briskt. Inches, feet, pounds and pints are all imperial. However, while inches, feet and (AFAIK) imperial pounds are a standard size the world over, pints aren't. A pint in the UK (imperial pint) measures 20 fluid ounces. A US pint measures 16 fluid ounces. As both countries use 'a cup' to refer to a half pint measure, it's best to check the country of origin of any recipes you use. (I've actually been told that a US 'fluid ounce' isn't a fluid ounce, but that's another matter.)

I'll have to check with my Mum about metric pounds in Germany. She was born there, back in the days when the idea of the UK going metric would have been laughed at over here. I'll have to see if she recognizes the term 'metric pound'. If she doesn't, it's something that's been dreamed up since the Second World War. (She came over here some time around 1950.) She'll recognize it if it did exist, as she's a cook by training and will have known all the various measures in common use over there.

We used to have ounces here (Germany), too, and I'm not sure that a pound has always been 500 grammes, or if it used to be 450 grammes. But I can assure you, that nowadays, a German pound does weigh 500 grammes, as does a French, Spanish, or Italian pound.