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

I meant 'people like you' in the sense of people who have such a straightforward, take it or leave it approach to life. Surely this is an acceptable generalisation? The reason that my reaction is ambivalent is that on the one hand it is pleasant to deal with open people and on the other hand I feel a little besmirched by the comparison with my own messy personality.
I have to go now - on Wednesday I too drive a Taxi, a private one that shuttles my children between home, swimming pool and cubs. Have a good evening.

oic, yes, with me what you see is what you get, nothing hidden and shady about me. Yes it is acceptable, I thought you might have meant "people that think they are so bloody interesting, but aren't".
So that's ok.

Enjoy your evening driving the kids about, I'll be here for a while, then I have a visitor, wow, RL approaches!

Bye for now.

If I had thought you uninteresting I would hardly have continued the conversation. There are a lot of correspondents out there - unfortunately very few seem to have sufficient interest in the absurd, arcane or downright obscure to hold my interest. Or perhaps it is in the nature of virtual relationships to be more fickle and fleeting than RL. Anyway,I need a guide to current capital culture (whoops, more alliteration). I noted your comments on body piercing.
It may be a symptom of my suburban sixties childhood but I cannot comprehend why anybody should wish to mutilate themselves to the extent of having half a kilo of assorted minerals in each ear, a permanently sagging lower lip or a much increased likelyhood of jogger's nipple when exercising. Navel piercing seems allright largely on the grounds that the navel is the dead stump of the umbilicus so one can't really do much damage to it - and perhaps because, from a personal viewpoint, the most visually attractive aspect of the female body is a well defined waist.

I think that you have just called me interesting? That's nice, you are too.
I don't consider it mutilation, I consider it decoration. I am not pierced at all on my face, just ears. The nipples I got pierced more for the sensations than for the looks, although I think it looks nice too. I feel "dressed" there now. There is no topless for me anymore.
As to the navel being dead, it has a lot of feeling there, it was the most painful part to have pierced. And the sensations I get from there now can only be described as sexual.
My waist was well defined, but I've put a little weight on sine the New Year, so it's not as neat as it was. I am trying to correct that though,with excersize, so it will soon be better. (I hope without too much hard work.)

What a wonderful thought, exercise without hard work. I played squash with my friend Gene yesterday. She beat me 3-1, so I did better than usual. I think I must have lost about half a stone in fourty minutes. Then I had a couple of pints and put it back on again. That is exercise without hard work, its a game - fun. Unfortunately neither my wallet nor my limbs would stand up to the strain of playing squash four or five times a week, so I have to resort to the cheaper option of running, and that is sometimes hard work.
The idea of 'topless' is interesting. I don't think men can feel 'topless'. I suppose I had rather hoped that in our enlightened (?)
age people would be comfortable with whatever degree of dress or undress an individual chose and that, as a consequence, individuals would feel free to dress, or undress, as they please. Except at work, of course, where the expectations of others often have to be pandered to because they pay the bills! What do you think?

The places I go and people I hang with all dress up or down, or even sideways, however they please. And none of us even think twice about it. We are all comfortable with whatever our friends are wearing, even when it is drastically different to the way we look ourselves. I think our live and let live policy can't be anything but good. It does make it odd when strangers comment or react unfavourably, because we think there is nothing unusual about us. We have reached a lever of acceptance of each other that means we don't see the outside, just the friendship that binds us. I'm not sure how that works with "at work" as I drive a taxi, so I dress how I please. (Although as I often drive at night I am careful what I wear.) Some of my friends have to wear shirts and ties to work, some don't. My friend the Goth wears his everyday Goth stuff to work. I am lucky to have such good friends, and I try my best to let them know it.

Exercise - I did Khai Bo this morning, and although it was hard work, it felt much more like fun! Good music, getting our aggression out, girlie bonding, and then a quick bit of retail therapy afterwards.
And now I need some cake.

Khai Bo? Explain please.

I like dressing up but seldom get the opportunity. I cannot resist the 'retail therapy' of buying interesting clothes from second hand shops and markets against the day I may be able to wear them. I got to wear a beautiful Dior silk shirt (blue and purple abstract print) for the first time last month. The problem is that there are not that many excuses to dress up - and I am sad enough to need an excuse. I am determined that the next time I take Alex to Leeds I will look up those addresses you gave me and get the shirt I have been searching for for ten years!
Enjoy your cake.

Khai Bo is sort of a boxing, kicking, martial arts type aerobic work out thing. My friend that I went with did look it up on the net and tell me properly, but my arms ache too much to go searching myself. It was fun! I felt like shouting as the aggression came out.
You need to make yourself an excuse to go out and dress up.

(Please excuse the name, I am at a Fancy Dress Ball elsewhere.)

Enjoy the ball. I'll work on the excuse. Have a good weekend.

Hope you had a good weekend.
I worked Saturday night, then went out. Spent all afternoon yesterday in bed, and missed the sun.
I'm going to make use of it today though. A quick run round with a Dyson, then outside to suck up sunshine!

Lucky beast, I'll be stuck in this sticky office all afternoon. I went for a run around Digley reservoir yesterday. It was perfect, neither too hot nor too cold, far enough to get a buzz but not so far as to make muscles ache for several days thereafter. I had to get up at 05.45 this morning to take Alex to swimming training. I am going to reward myself by going to the local blues night tonight. I shall probably fall asleep!
How can you work until late on Saturday and then go out? I know that sort of thing is possible in the metropolis but it must play hell with you biological clock - hence Sunday afternoon in bed I suppose.
I can burn the candle at both ends, but I still need to sleep a bit in the middle.

Running for fun?
I haven't got to that stage yet. Khai Bo was fun, but my arms still ache a bit now. I hope they are better by Friday when I can do it all over again.
It is so warm here I have had to come indoors. I am giving my duvets a good wash, as once winter comes they don't get washed so often.
They'll be dry in no time.

I can work til late and then go out on Saturday nights as it is sometimes the only night I get to go out. the rest of the weekend I was here. I catch up the sleep in the week, and normally on Monday mornings. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance this week as my son came home from his dad's early. I wouldn't have gone out if I had known.

You are that rarity on H2G2, somebody who writes with intelligible grammar and syntax. I don't know if you speak in the same way - I know that I do not.
I am well aware of the mechanics of split families and how difficult it can be for separated parents to organize, or agree, how to arrange time with their child(ren). It is a reason why we indulge in the hypocrisy of pretending to our children that our marriage is 'good'.
I nearly wrote 'normal' but then decided that I really do not know what a normal marriage is. As long as we both pretend adequately then the children get security and attention, even if they are deprived of a model of mutual parental affection. It is an invidious choice, but one that, with a little tacit negotiation, permits us to pursue our personal interests.
I suppose that I am telling you this because I feel safe discussing the matter with a virtual friend. I would never discuss it with 'RL' friends or acquaintances. Not an open book, you see. I hope that you do not regard this confidence as an imposition.

Thanks very much for saying I write intelligibly on here. I do tend to keep a dictionary close to me.
I speak much more colloquially IRL, as speech is much faster, and it's harder to delete mistakes.

I don't know what a "normal" marriage is either. My mum kept telling me that we were like two single people living in the same house. I fell out of love with him, and I have the sort of personality that once I have finished with something I disgard it totally. I left when I met someone else. If I had stayed, I would have made everyone unhappy. I would have ended up having affairs, and going out, constantly leaving my son with his dad, and have them both wondering where I was, and when I would be coming home. It's the adolescent in me, I can't control it. This way, my son gets to see his dad, his dad gets to work in the week, and I (should) get to go out at the weekends.
I don't mind you confiding in me, that's what friends are for, virtual or RL. And of course, there is the added bonus that I only know you, therefore you are in no danger if me repeating anything you say. It does make slightly more sense of some other things in the fisrt page of this forum, although I could just be assuming too much.

No, I believe that you are exercising you deductive faculty - I think I have just swallowed my dictionary.
I know that different people deal with 'falling out of love' in different ways. A good friend did exactly as you have done, and in a way it is braver to make an honest break. As I said, an invidious choice.

I had to put up with a lot of abuse from various people, as my ex-husband had done nothing wrong. I had no excuse. Except for not being ready to settle down.
From the day we married I felt stiffled, as if I had been put in a box and had the lid shut on me.
I don't like to think about it now.

I do feel bad for my son, that he is split between us, but it is better than never knowing where Mummy is.
Whatever way we chose to deal with it, the kids always seem to get the worst of it.

It is so easy to make a mistake. I did not marry young - twenty seven in fact - but to some extent I did marry in haste. Now I regard weddings as sad occasions. Sooner or later we must build a social framework where adult relationships are not expected to last forever.
Marriage and religion were necessary in the dark ages - but these are not the dark ages. I hope that people no longer think ill of you for what you did - after all everybody makes mistakes, some just never admit it. Rather a depressing subject.
How is your car going? I have been hearing the most bizarre stories about petrol queues and shortages.

I think the only person who doesn't realise it was for the best is my ex.
He insists on following my every move, driving past to see who's car is outside, and then interrogating me on my love and sex life. I have friends over once or twice a week for RPGing, all brought over by one friend every time. My ex has phoned when his car is there, repeatedly asked if he'd got me out of bed, then complained that the car is always outside my house!
All on behalf of my son.
He does annoy me.

I think weddings are lovely, but not marriage. We need a system where you take on marriage for a limited time, then it is up for renewal. That would have suited me, as I knew on my wedding day I would be getting divorced. I don't think I am capable of staying in love for ever.

My car is fine. I filled up with petrol (£10!!) at 4am on Sunday, and was told about the blockades that would be happening. Apparently some local stations were out already. I don't go very far in the car. My insurance is limited to 3000 miles oer year.

Huddersfield is devoid of petrol. Why? Because everybody has panicked and filled up their tank on the same day.
There is a strange idea in government circles that people like driving. That we use petrol for the sake of it and that we enjoy spending a large chunk of our lives watching red, green and amber lights. This is nonsense. We like going to places to see and do things, and we want to travel in such a way as to make the most efficient use of our mortal span. If the huge amount of revenue raised on fuel was used to provide efficient mass transport systems, including rural areas,it might be justifiable. Taxes in the UK are not hypothecated, so it probably goes to supporting EU Bureaucrats in their ludicrous lifestyle.
Guess what - I dissapprove of the EU and the thought of monetary union gets me as close to anger as I ever get - except for when lunatic motorists try to kill me, of course.
I do not know how long your ex has been ex, but it sounds like he needs to get a life of his own.
I suspect that few people are realistic enough to have a 'wedding' on the understanding that their 'marriage' is for a strictly limited period. The idea, however, is appealing.

You've seen Indy? Well, I am much better with a whip than he ever was.

~flicks her wrist and the whip coils around Kes, effectively trapping him~