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

Thanks Waz for all that info ... that will cheer my buddy, as he was expecting prices to be more than that. When we were over there in 1995, prices were about 60p/litre. Here, they hover at about 90c-$1.00 per litre (about 30-35p according to the exchange rate), but there is a big difference depending on where you are in Australia.

I shall let you know about the conference when I return next week ... should be a lot of fun.

Till then
Bran.

P.S. What has happened to Sal?

Hi Bran, glad that was of use. 35p a litre!!!

I've copied Sal's journal from 21st May, (I hope you don't mind Sal, and I hope you're getting better.).
"I will return - To any friends who might be wondering where I've got to: I hope not to be away too long but I can't sit for long enough to do anything useful at the moment. My back hurts too much to allow me to think straight. Please don't think I'm ignoring you if you've left me a message and I haven't replied. Sorry."

Have a good time in Perth.
Waz

Hi Waz

Sorry to hear about Sal ... and if you ever see this Sal, best wishes.

The conference in Perth was tremendous ... wall to wall history and literature ... you can't but be happy. Perth is a really nice city: very affluent, very rich, and the University of WA were we were has to be one of the most stunning I have seen in Australia. All that money from mining has at least had some benefit for the place.

Kind of a wierd place in some respects ... it is a four hour plane trip from Melbourne, which I understand is like flying from London to Moscow. You get a real sense of distance, and of separatness from the rest of Australia. They see themselves as different from "The Eastern States".

Back to the real world now (whatever that is?).

See ya
Bran.

Hi Waz,

Am I correct in understanding that you actually lived in Oz at some point? If so, where and when? (If that is not being too forward and beaky).

Cheerio
Bran

Evening Bran,

Canberra, 1964 March to September, roughly.
A long time ago. We spent nearly as long on the boat getting there and back. The voyage one way, can't remember which, was, appropriately, on the Canberra. I remember Sydney Harbour and little bits from Canberra but we didn't get to see any of the rest of Oz. An incredible wasted opportunity . But I did see a possum, wattle in flower, a Kookaburra, parrots, budgies and Sydney Harbour bridge . And all sorts of wonderful things from the boat.

I certainly didn't experience Aussie living as portrayed by Neighbours. My father was so busy saving the fares home we lived on a shoestring!

Are you thinking of moving to the mainland? It sounds as if you were very taken with Perth.

That was a brief sojourn in Oz for you Waz. Did your parents not like it and become desparate to return home, or were you on your way from Africa? 1964 was the year I was born by the way, so we shared some time in the country. At least you saw some of the stereotypical Australiana - I'm impressed that you remembered a wattle in flower.

No, I'm not planning a move to Perth. It is a nice place to visit this time of the year ... but it is too isolated for my tastes; yes, even for someone who lives in Tasmania! We are only a 55 minutes plane ride from Melbourne ... a four hour flight from Perth to the same is a bit much. Also, in summer I am told that the heat can be unbearable. That is the main reason we fled Brisbane for Tassie, so that is not a big draw card. Still, I was impressed with the place, and would not mind going again.

We are actually planning a move to the Pacific North-west USA as our next adventure, in about 2 years time. Wot fun!

Cheerio
Bran.

It was a very brief stay in Oz, my father flew there while my mother followed with my sister and me by boat. After a four week voyage my father met her on the Sydney docks saying he'd changed his mind. The family back in Glasgow knew before she did. They were getting letters from Mum who thought she wasn't going to see any of them for years and letters from Dad saying don't sell my car, can you find us a flat.

It wasn't on the way back from Africa, that was in '62. Also by sea, I've sailed across the equator five times . Oz just didn't suit Dad. I think nothing could match his District Officer job in middle of nowhere places in Kenya. He spent a lot of time trying to find something that would. This was not our shortest move - we moved to Edinburgh once. For a week. (By car.)

I ought to have said Canberra didn't suit Dad. He really didn't give Oz a chance. I keep forgetting how big Australia is, a four hour flight would just about get me to Kenya I think. Or Eastern Europe.

Is that a permanent move to the USA or a temporary one?

Wow ... it sounds like you moved around a lot Waz when you were a wee'un.

My parents did similar, mostly cos my Dad, who is English by the way, had to keep moving for work after he came out here in the early 50s. But, by the time I came along, they had settled down a little. I spent my first 18 months of life in Tassie (yes, I was actually born here, by freakish coincidence), the next 18 months in Adelaide (South Australia), the next three years in Woollongong ("The 'Gong", NSW), and then from 1970 till I went to boarding school in 1977 in Rabaul (Papua New Guinea). Brisbane from then on until Hobart in 1996.

Actually, now that I list it, that was a bit of moving wasn't it?!

My older brother also had to endure moves that included Christchurch (NZ), Sydney, Darwin, Sydney, Darwin (and a few others), before I arrived.

What an image of your father and mother both writing home with different tales. Did you find that at all disconcerting as a kid - all that moving? Most of mine was before I really cared, so it did not have a big impact ... but my older brother had to put up with more, and I wonder if that is related to his currently tiny number of friends ... perhaps he finds it hard to make friends cos he had to leave them when young? (there's the psychologist in me coming out).

We see the move to the US is more temporary ... we are not the sort of people who ever do anything "for good". But, as to how temporary, who knows? We only thought to be in Tassie for 1-2 years and it has thus far been five and a half. There are lots more jobs in history academia in the USA hence the thinking in that direction. And my partner is keen to avail herself to the numerous courses that are available over there (she is a counsellor/psychologist/therapist).

Oz really is bloody big when you think about it. We are about the same dimensions as the "Lower 48" of the USA.

Did you ever live in South Africa? Have you been near Kilimanjaro (sp?) in Kenya? (I am listening to Michael Palin's Hemmingway Adventure at the moment, and the "Snows of Kilimanjaro" features big).

See ya
Bran.

We moved so often I think I took it as normal, so no I wasn't disconcerted by it. I wouldn't have missed all I've seen. But I got into the habit of not expecting to stay anywhere and so not really seeing the point of making ties to places, or people.
We moved house four times before I started school, then there were 9 junior and 2 high schools. I missed out on boarding school though (why New Guinea btw?). The last junior was in Chiredzi in Zimbabwe's deep south, (the closest I've been to South Africa apart from a brief stop at Joberg airport), no high school within a half day's drive. I was dreading boarding school. But then we moved!

I can relate to your brother in not making large numbers of friends - but it's quality that counts . It might be as much to do with learning to be self sufficient as anything else. If you are always 'new', not part of the gang or whatever, you have to be pretty independent. Then people treat you differently and the openings for making friends seem to be less. Or so it seems. For me it meant I was, and still am, closer to my younger sister, and later my brother, than might otherwise have been the case. Did it have that effect on you, I suspect age gaps might make a difference here?

Yes I saw Kilimanjaro . It was a game on car journeys in Kenya; looking for the ring of white above the horizon and shouting 'Kilimanjaro', over and over. As you do when you're four. I've only seen it (is a mountain an it? doesn't sound right) in the distance. My brother tried to climb Kili but twice came down with altitude sickness.

Oz just doesn't look that big on the maps. I once asked Walter about Arthur Upfield books because I love the places he describes in Australia. Oz seems to have more than its share of seriously impressive weird and wild settings. I thought your USA move might be work related. There must be a lot more opportunity there in all sorts of ways. Still, in the end I don't think I'd choose the US permanently over Oz.

and its past midnight yet again, just as well there's no work tomorrow,
G'day, Waz

Hi Waz
We lived in PNG cos my Dad applied for and got a job as port manager of the Rabaul port facility. He was initially only on a five year cotnract, but this kept being extended and reoffered, so that in the end, they were there from 1970-1995 (not all in Rabaul). I think that they got into the expatriate life, and the money was good ... in the end, I reckon they had a better social life than I did in Brisbane! They have since retired to New Zealand (Mum is a Kiwi), and I suspect that they miss the life.

My brother is seven years older than I am, and so I think that the age difference affected our becoming that close with all the moving. He went to boarding school also, when I was seven, so he was away most of the time, and when he finished school he went to live in New Zealand. So ... we only really lived in the same house for seven years. I was more stable, as I said ... after I began school, there was only the one move (in grade 1) to PNG, and then I did the rest of primary in the same school. I did one year of high school in PNG, but that was only to fill in till I could get in to boarding school in Brisbane - not really much of an education available at that level in Rabaul for Aussie kids.

I have a friend who has climbed Kili ... he is a bit of an adventurer (a GP who earns a bit of money and then blows it on travel - or he used to until he got married and had a child). He is about to go to Antarctica in Feb next year ... that will mean that he has been to all seven continents. Much envy.

I would not change all the experience I had living in different places either. PNG was a great place to grow up in the 70s. I hated boarding school, but it did teach independence.

I agree that the US would not be a good prospect long-term compared to Oz. This is a fantastic country to live in ... admittedly a little bland. BUT the lifestyle is great and the standard of living high. We regularly reflect, while watching the world news, that we are fortunate to live here (British tourists going missing in the Outback notwithstanding - how has that been reported over there by the way?). And I think you appreciate it more when you have been away.

It is the middle of the day here and I am meant to be working, so I'd better leave it there. Really enjoying our chats Waz.

See ya
Bran.

Evening Bran,
Seven years is probably too much of an age gap to be companions as children. I've found that the gap disappears though when you get older. My brother is twelve years younger and I barely acknowledged his existence up to the age of fourteen. Then he became tolerable ( to brother - just in case I get him to join in here and he passes by one day) and now I'd say, and I hope he'd say, we were friends.

I think one of the British tourists missing in Oz has Shropshire connections, the girl I think. The local radio has been reporting it quite extensively. Not making a big deal of it, just reporting the personal facts - no slating Oz over it or building it into more than it is. People who do these things can be found anywhere can't they. The local paper is suggesting the girl may have been stalked, in which the fact that it was the Outback may be coincidental. Have you heard that over there?

I spent today watching my sister and brother in law take part in a sprint triathlon. Its not supposed to be a spectator sport but I love watching it. 800 competitors this year. There were no dramas this time, no punctures, no missing the route on the run, no swimming into the pool wall or losing count of the number of lengths. There was one hiccup in the men's cycling when a local farmer took his cattle across the road for milking. Quite a few cyclists came to an abrupt halt and those going through later had to be careful not to skid. You would not believe all the gadgets you can buy for triathlons but none of them dealt with this problem.

You know I really can't find it within myself to be envious of a visit to Antartica! It's very blinkered but if I was making a major journey anywhere other than Africa I'd be thinking all the time, I've got the time off and the budget, why am I not going to Africa with it? . I might change my mind if there's whale watching involved.
'til next time,Waz

Hi Waz

Long-time, no post! Sorry for the delay, but I have been rather busy with this new job thing that I have and in the remaining time trying to keep on with the PhD, and sleep and have some spare time. I just don't know how people manage full-time jobs! This is the first one that I have had since 1994, so I am quite put-out by it all.

Last weekend, we took a much-needed wilderness break and went up to a place called Lake St.Claire - part of our World Heritage Area - and walked up the lake to spend the night in one of the huts that National Parks provide. They supply a pot-belly stove and coal for fuel, so though the temp got to below freezing (we had a thermomoter), it was fairly bearable in the hut. Dazzling scenery and sunny days - we could see the lake the whole way, and occasional glimpses of snow-capped mountains through the breaks in the trees. Hardly anyone about - did not have to share the hut. Came back fairly whacked though, as I came down with a cold on the way, and did not sleep well. Good fun but.

No, I have not heard anything about the Shropshire girl being stalked in the Northern Territory. They thought that they had someone last week, but it was a false alarm. Still no word on the guy ... does not sound good at this late stage. Poor folks.

I have managed to find a guy on H2G2 who lives in Seattle (as per our plan that I mentioned to you), AND who works at the University of Washington. I have been pumping him for info. Sounds like a great place to live, if a little damp and misty. Still, I rather like that.

Hope you are keeping well and happy. Hello Sal and Case, if you are reading any of these.

Cheerio
Bran.

Sal hasn't posted here since you asked about her before, I hope she makes it back soon. I wanted to tell her we have a whole crop of thrushes here. For the first time in years. They seem to be all over the village. There was one singing beautifully every evening from the top of a pear tree at my parents house, then one singing not so beautifully - decided it must be junior learning the tune!

Jobs take altogether too much time but as long as you make the space for some breaks, - Lake St.Claire sounds wonderful. I spent a day messing around with two friends and a rubber dinghy on a lake in Wales last week. Not quite the same as a wilderness hike - we only walked a few yards to the shore and had a Fisherman's Breakfast (everything fried you can think of ) for lunch at the visitor centre, but it was fun. And we got sun burnt.

I'm planning on going to Aberdeen later this month. Not exactly wilderness either and I hope it won't be anywhere near freezing. But the empty North Sea beaches and sea birds might satisfy the cravings for the islands that I'm getting and which I'm not going to this year.

'Til the next time
Waz.

Hi Waz

A trip to Aberdeen sounds great - is this the "Sands of Forvie" (if I have spelled that correctly) spot that you have written about? I am envious that you can even consider taking a trip to the Isles - I think I have told you that I have some MacNeil heritage, and they herald from Barra. I have wanted to go there for a long time.

We have had some birds return here lately as well, which is kind of interesting as we are still in winter here. Some wattle-birds have appeared (so named 'cos of wattles they have hanging off their cheeks). There is a pair who have been around for the last couple of years, and it is nice to see them back. Also, we are just starting to have some flowers come out - still a few weeks till official spring, but nice to see. Some native plants are out, as well as introduced ones like daffodils and jonquils.

Today is absolutely glorious - blue sky as far as the eye can see, and a balmy 13 celcius. We are going to go for a walk to the beach, and maybe have some coffee and a cake at a cafe there (as it was my birthday yesterday, a cake would be appropriate!).

The job goes OK ... I am managing to squeeze it into three days and have the rest on PhD, so that is not too bad. I'm getting the hang of it.

Have a good weekend Waz.
See ya
Bran

Many happy returns Bran ,
I hope the and the walk on the beach were good.
Seven more days and I'll be on Aberdeen beach . Yes, Forvie is near Aberdeen and a visit there is definitely in the plan, if not two visits. I do remember you saying you had connections with Barra - it really is worth visiting, Barra beaches can't be beaten.

I spent some time this weekend trying to find traces of my mother's family on the net - without any luck so far. What she remembers is confusing so I wanted to sort it out. She thinks of her father's family as connected to Harris, Lewis and Tiree but the only records we have show Orkney addresses.

I can't even start on my father's side because he doesn't know full names. I have clear memories of visiting my grandmother and listening to her giving him the news of hundreds of Duncans. He obviously never listened to a word of it. But then my brother didn't know his grandfather's name until I told him yesterday.

It is still supposed to be summer here but the canada geese have taken to the air already. It's such an autumn sound. I want to shout 'Not yet!' at them (actually I did the first time, but I was on my own in the car so no harm done).

So how long is the Tome now, must be heading for the 100,000 words or are you at the editing/refining stage?
Saying goodnight from Britain,
Waz

Hiya Waz

Thanks for the birthday greetings. I expect that, as I type, you are striding along the Forvie Sands with nary a care in the world. I hope that the weather is nice, or at least as tolerable as you can expect for off the North Sea.

Over here, we are in the first real cold snap of this winter (a little late in the day for it, you might say). It is currently about 5 celcius, and has actually snowed in town - though not settled. I drove half way up The Mountain earlier (about 1pm), to about 400 metres, and there was snow everywhere, and still a lot falling. It was very pretty .... and there must have been about half of Hobart up there frolicking! Wot fun! The town really comes over all odd when it snows. People pile snow up on their cars and then drive through the city ... like the old hoons doing a circuit on Saturday night. Its really quite endearing, that people have so much fun with it.

Re The Tome: I am at about 85,000 words, and have slowed down a little cos of the job. But it is still going forward and ever growing. My bibliography is now at about 650 items ( !), and I suspect that they are now breeding and multiplying of their own accord. It is all good fun, and I find it a welcome change from the job. I hope to have it all submitted by this time next year (isn't that what all PhD students say?!).

There are more flowers out and more birds about here ... spring is definitely springing, despite the current cold weather.

Hope you had a great trip Waz ... fill me in when you get back.
Cheerio
Bran

G'day Bran,
I don't know which day you posted that but if it was Wednesday you were right, I was on Forvie's sands. And it was a beautiful day, hardly a cloud in the sky, dawn to dusk. The wind was cool but it was warm in the shelter of the dunes. The dunes had all moved again, the way from the river to the beach was unrecognisable. I didn't see many terns but accordinging to the visitor centre they had a record year for Sandwiches, a good year for Common and Arctic, but only six Little terns. Because the weather was so good the eider ducks were all out at sea, too far out to hear their muttering.

To make up for the lack of eiders and terns, at one point, walking down the estuary, there were three sparrowhawks flitting over the fields on the left and an osprey fishing over the water on the right. Up river, on the mudflats, was a flock of what must have been over a hundred golden plover, together with as many lapwings. Along with the usual set of waders and curlew. The heather in the heathland behind the dunes was out too, it was a glorious day.

We had a picnic at Balmedie beach, south of Forvie later in the week and there were plenty of tern there, fishing just off shore. We also walked on Aberdeen beach, a two mile stretch of pink sand between the harbour on the river Don at one end and the mouth of the Dee at the other. And had a walk through the cobbled high street of old Aberdeen and through the squares of the old fishing village at Footee. This was all in the time spared from painting, and the countless trips to various DIY stores. We painted in the kitchen, we painted in the living room, we painted in the bedroom, we painted walls, vases, filing cupboards, moved cookers, fridges, wardrobes, bookcases, mended blinds, curtain rails, sofa legs, clothes horses, cleared the shed and, during coffee breaks, watched the pile drivers at work on the old scrap yard site opposite. Had a great time altogether - didn't want to come back.

Hobart sounds fun. I like driving into Shrewsbury with a pile of snow on the roof. But to do it, it has to last the twenty mile trip down the A41 - doesn't often happen! We've had a mini heatwave for the last couple of weeks but it drizzled all day today.

You will miss the Tome when you do finish , its going to leave a very big hole to fill. Which reminds me, I must ask my brother where he's at with his thesis - he seems to have a lot more free time this summer.

How is the job?
Waz

Yoo-hoo! It's only me. I'm back in reduced postings form. Missed you all. Hope you're all ever so well!

Lapwings?!?! I haven't seen any lapwings for years. Have they all moved up to Forvie Sands? Send 'em back. Please.

Waz, can't help noticing you've changed your name. Should I shouldn't I ask? Azara says you've done some more entries. I'm going to read them over the course of the next week and (I have no doubt) tell you how good they are.

Bran, if you get bored when you've finished The Tome, you can always spend some time writing guide entries

Hey Sal! Welcome back - I was beginning to really worry. I've missed talking to you. Sorry about the reduced posting form, I hope you are doing ok.

It was wonderful to see those lapwings, and in those numbers, not to mention the golden plover. I would have yelled at them to move south, but that sort of thing is frowned on, (heavily 'ed on), in bird hides. I was ridiculously pleased a couple of weeks ago to see one, one!, near Shrewsbury a couple of weeks ago.

Yes I changed my researcher name but I'm thinking of changing it back. I changed to just Waz but got mocked at by my brother in law for its alternative meaning. I didn't know it had one, then someone here pointed it out too, so I added the 'u' but I think that has alternative meanings too and I'm not too keen on it anyway. So when I get round to it it'll be back to Wazungu and I'll stop messing around with it.

I started messing around with it because its English translation is often taken to be 'white person', which is not its original translation, nor the one I understood it as when it came to mind when I registered here. That seems ages ago.

I have been writing more entries, mostly because the one I started (ages ago) about the village referred to them and it was too much to put in one entry. It just keeps growing like Topsy, 'tho nowhere near like a Tome. I suspect The Tome could be a source of hundreds of linked entries.

While you're reading you should check out Shorn Canary's entry on domesticated cats, and the peer review thread attached.

One last thing before I go out to rescue the rest of the victoria plums before tonights forecast winds; last week the exit hose of my washing machine seemed blocked. Then the water spurted out into the sink, clearing it, but then the sink wasn't draining properly. I put my fingers in the plughole and hauled out ...................... a slug. Took me five minutes to get my stomach unknotted again and to stop the silent 'nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!........' in my head.

Off to pick victorias
Waz

PS *wave* to Bran, I liked your post on the 11th September 'What should happen now' thread, hope you didn't mind my picking up on it.