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

Put that hair back in Gwennie!
Jump up like a woman!
Tie up the children!
Grab the switchin stick!
They'll be employed very shortly indeed let me tell you! 1 Weeks treatment wiht this method and my cat was working for McDonalds and selling franchises to the neighboring kiddies.

Great to hear from you again Gwenmeister! I'm not yet fully right and this winter here in Melbourne has hit hard and fast.
It's not like it is in Britain but it is a lot harder on the Athritis than I thought it would be. bummer. Still , and here is the kewel bit!

I've secured funding for the Scotland trip!!!! YAY!!!BALOOONS!!!YAY!!!!!!CHAMPAGNE!!!!!YAY!!!MORE BALOONS!!!!(not that I'm fxated).

And I turned 30 couple weeks ago. Hipity bipity day to me I tells ya.

Seeya soon. Ado!

Fantastic! Hooray! Do you have a date for your trip yet? You'll have to find out if there are any fellow reasearches nearby or attending the festival too.

I hope you don't have grotty, damp weather in Scotland whilst there! It's poured with rain this past week, and the town next to us was flooded so badly that it was on to the national news! *Gwen looks at the grass reaching jungle proportions in her back garden which is too wet to mow*

My mum-in-law has just returned from a trip to New Zealand and Australia by the way. She'd been visiting family.

Hope the arthritis is soon less bothersome.

The wee beasties have been back at school a week now and it was lovely and quiet last week. I've even borrowed a couple of library books to read!

Hi Gwennie!

I'm glad to hear things are cool at yours. Your kids will be out again soon for the summer break won't they?

This is something that has always puzzled me. As I understand it European and U.S. kiddies go to school from Autumn to Summer which would make it from about (roughly) September through to (roughly) end of May. Is this right?

In Aust the School year starts with the calendar year. Summer (the main break for all learning institutions) goes from Dec, Jan, Feb. So you're only ever in 'year6' during one year. Christmas Season therefore is when the big celebration happens. New-years, harvest the lot, it's all sort of packed in around those three months. Easter is a four day affair and is as cold as b*****y. Oh I'm so brunette and confused, it's probably the extra sun or pesticides or something. As I understand it and I'm expecting to be wrong here mind, a school year is split up over two years..... ow mi hed is ow. What's going on there?

How are you? how's everything going.?

I'm going to be in Scotland for the Edinbugh Fringe. Basially I can afford to be away from my day job for roughly two weeks. So it'll be the second and third weeks of August.

As for the Arthrity, well I'm going to start looking at manufacturing some of my own drug combinations. A dangerous game, to be sure. But if I arm myself with enough information, and I'm accurate in measurment I should be O.K. The philosophical postion is clear enough. If I get it wrong I could die, but if I don't do anything my quality of life could reach critical tediousness, a kind of death no?
If, as my doctors keep assuring me has to happen eventually (cheery lads that they are), I end up in a vegetative state, unable to move my limbs or straighten my back, then what happens next is that the immuno deterioration jumps to a major internal organ system and then I die, quelle bummer.
So my conflict is this---- do I go the new drug combo and risk straight out death or massive joint damage by putting stress on artificially well feeling-joints, or do I sit around waiting for the sword of Damoclese to drop? Gotta say though, daytime soapies just don't cut it for drama in situations like this.
Ooooooh! And I'm Sooooo eyeing off these new petrol powered little scooters that are popular here at the moment. You've probably had them in Britain for a thousand years, they look like skateboards that have a tiny motor at the back and and a T-bar steering column at the front. Just the thing for a sexy/suave/sophisticated young man with walking stick to be getting around in.!!!

God I'm rambling again, sorry you must really tell me to stop when I do that.

Oh btw. A friend of mine couldn't be bothered to mow her lawn over a particularly wet summer one time here, so she put up demonstration style handpainted signs saying things like "Lawn Peace!" "Ecosystems are a local responsibility" and "Proud to refuse to murder the natural living things in this garden!".
Then she called the local paper to do a story and pretended to be the leader of some new as yet unheard of green group.
It scared the shit out of her land lord and they didn't touch her for two years, even though she was clearly in violation of her lease.
The weirdest thing was, about three years after she made up this whole phenomenon simply to get out of mowing her lawn, she got a leaflet in the maibox inviting her to attend a rally of "Backyard Nature Peace.".
Remember she had made the whole thing up. When she got there, there was about four hundred people there. They had a fully organised club set up with a prsident secretary treasury and activist co-ordinator. She was thank several times for founding the movement, and asked to give the keynote speech.
She freaked completely, moved out of her place, and mowed the lawn before se left. Weird huh? But what a ride! seeya .... Ado!

Thanks for reminding me about the summer break! Old pal and friend of mine... *Starts to sulk!*

Yes, the summer holidays usually last about six weeks here, from the third week in July to the first week of September. The school terms run from September to July, with breaks for Easter, spring bank holiday and half terms. Mair starts in year nine at her secondary school in September. In September, Christopher is being moved up a class at his autistic unit, as he's improved so much.

I've just taken an exam for the latest module for my college course and have a written exam next week, ecompassing the whole course. *Crosses her fingers that her memory doesn't play tricks on her* The instructor says it's relatively straight forward, but the "civil service speak" employed in the paper makes it difficult to understand. (I think a wee civil servant is trying to justify their existence somewhere along the line...)

Bad news on the health front though. My doctor is sending me off to get my knees x-rayed and have a blood test done to test for rheumatoid arthritis. The old pins have been giving me jip these past few weeks and I've been using pain killers just to stay on my feet! On a lighter note, he says to carry on working out as exercise is good for me...

Gosh, I hope your new medication(s) help. You must be bad to think it's worth the risk. I'm really sorry.

Are you going to be given assistance at the airport and be given a wheelchair with a member of the airport staff to wheel you about? (My mum-in-law, Joyce, had similar treatment on her recent trip to NZ and Australia and found herself wheeled on and off the plane first as well as being given a seat with lots of leg room. (Joyce had one hip replaced last November and is waiting for her other one to be replaced).

Here's my Email address so you can Email me if you like and can ramble to your hearts content (it's always a pleasure to talk with you). Then, I can give you our telephone number so you can phone for a chat, if you like, while you're in Edinburgh.

My email address is: [email protected]

Gosh! Yes, we've had those scooter thingees since the late 1950's/early 1960's. I remember as a kid, playing on my neighbour's scooter with all the other little sprogs. He must have been very patient as he never came out to chase us away!

The tale of your friend's lawn is amazing! The story could be exagerated and expanded to make a really funny short t.v. play or something...

I managed to cut my lawn at last, a couple of days ago, and had to use the highest setting on the mower! It already looks as though it could do with another trim - the lawn that is!

What do you think of the new skin on h2g2, then? I'm getting quite used to it now and, having found adding "&show=100" to the forum address, in order to skip having to click "show newer posts" all the time, don't mind the changes at all. Mind you, I think the classic "goo" is more fun, as it's how I imagine a real Hitch-Hikers Guide layout should be!

Catch you soon, I hope.

Gwennie
xxx

Hi GwenniE!

I'm unwell! and have been for some time.

Bu I'm on the mend!

I may have to cancel Edinburgh

But I may well be ordered to go!

As soon as I have anything like my shit together I'll write properly!


Congratulations on Christopher moving up a class!

I'm more than confident that you nailed your exams! How did they go?

Seeya soon --- Ado!
And thanks for your E-mail address I've got that well and truly stuck away in my list of 'important things on paper'.

And may I finally close with a heartfelt request to NOT GET ARTHRITIS as it completeley sucks and is religiously FUN FREE.
All positive vibes and healthy thoughts going in your direction.

Thanks for the good wishes Ado. I had the x-rays taken last night and it'll be about another 10 days before I know the results. Unfortunately, the Path Lab was shut when I visited the hospital, so will have to go another time for the blood test.

I'm taking Ibuprofen and Co-Proxamol at the moment.

Sorry to hear you've been ill and I hope you "get your shit together" very soon.

Yes, thanks. The exams went really well. Just a couple of questions on the written test were "ambiguous" but I think gave the answer required...

I hope you don't have to cancell Edinburgh as you've been looking forward to it for so long...

Two weeks before the sprogs break up from school and counting...

*Shudders in her corner of the room and sticks her thumb in her mouth*

Hey Gwennie howyadoin?
I'm really sorry about my extended absence but, quite frankl;y I've been as sick as a dog.

You'll be really pleased to know after a big arse fight with my Arthro specialist I got official clearance to go to Edinburgh.
and Yay!

I'd love to blah on about the thrill ride that it will be when I get there and if everything goes very well I'll be possibly cruising in your zone also, So well who knows!

If at all you want to catch up with myself while I'm in blighty please drop us a yell on [email protected]

I'll also try and catch up on what's going on here at this wonderful establishemnt.

I hope and wish that everything is going very well for you and yours. Seeyou soon --- Ado!

Thanks for the Email address and I'll drop you a line soon.

Gwen