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

WHO PUT YOU UP TO THIS????

Nobody, honest. I'm just being a *freelance* troublemaker in this instance.

I heard murmerings and rumours a while ago that you might be going to London. Is that still likely?

Not very, I'm not sure I can get the Friday off... it's a tempting thought, though. Right now, I'd be glad to fast-forward to a week from now...

Too bad! I thought maybe you could be dragged across the Irish Sea, too.

I'm sure you'll be relieved when it's just yourselves and the menagarie again.

Oh, I'd love that, but I doubt I would get any time off in May.

I take it you're including Mala and the Sistabarista in the menagerie?

I originally wrote "yourself" and the menagerie - I changed it for that very reason!

Oh - by the way,

I carefully security-vetted your daughter's coloured jumpers last year, and can vouch for them all being perfectly inoffensive and unobjectionable.

Even the orange one she is planning to wear in Dublin?

Yes, it won't be a problem.

Even though she's half-Dutch. (That gave me a chuckle, I must admit. It's always interesting to see how mad outsiders think we are here! )

That's all right, the sweater is only half orange.

Aren't we all?

BTW, I was never serious about orange sweaters, in case you were wondering... actually, I'm very rarely serious about anything...

*for no particular reason*

*blame Mala*

It's nice to know you're rarely serious. Now if I can only discover whether it was you I got on the phone that time...

Pity you can't come too though. You could have busked your way round the country. And I could have...clapped my hands or something.

I was thinking about it, but I can't get the time off...

Oh well. The place probably won't go away.

And I won't go on about the things you'll be missing out on - because I'm not 100% sure what they are, yet. One or two ideas, though.

Having been to Ireland before, I know exactly what I'm missing out on...

Were you in the north too when you were here? What did you like so much about Ireland?

No, I wasn't in the north, just in Dublin, Tipperary, Kerry, Cork...

Most of all, of course, I like the music, the sea, the accent, the horses, Aran sweaters (I design and knit them for fun), the countryside... well, all kinds of things... not the food, though. I agree with a Spanish friend who used to work in Dublin and claimed that no Irish person should ever be allowed to approach a stove.

I've been to Ireland only once, on my honeymoon... only to find that practically every man I met there was much nicer to me than my new husband... well, you've heard from Mala how... different he is. Still, when we returned I soon found out that I was pregnant... it must have happened near Blarney Castle... in case you were ever wondering about my eldest.