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

As you visited my space, I thought I would repay the compliment by visiting yours. Your space is pretty interesting.

I just read your journal about your kids fighting and thought it was funny. I've added you to my friends list (hope you don't mind) so next time you write a journal you might even get a reply to it from me.

So, what age and variety are your children? I don't have any myself, so I tend to be rather curious about other people's.

I see you are a fan of Mr Michael Moore. I haven't seen either of his films (watching films generally requires a much longer attention span than I am in possession of) but I own and have read (and enjoyed) two of his books.

I must go now because I am well behind with my hootoo messages as a result of having had no internet at work for three days.

Bye for now
Liz
~

I am glad to be added as a friend - my thanks.
kiddies are just coming up to 3 (girl) and 7 (boy). Good ages both for being hateful - to each other and to me. I believe the hateful phase will last 20 years or so. Remind me to get sterilised.
Seriously though, they're ok. I'm a facist about what they eat and as a consequence they're healthy and marginally less appaulingly behaved in public than a lot of the other kids I seem to see. They're despicably active but I've only myself to blame for encouraging them to be healthy and making them walk places.
to mr moore- I have only read SWM - although I've heard the audio book of 'dude'. Both excellent - but I would recommend getting the films out. They're not normal documentaries. They're a bit Wayne's World - as in 'you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hurl' (told you I was a quoter)
His website is worth a daily peek because the 'just in' section picks up the best bits of nastiness from around the world - esp with regard to wubbya and cohorts. It's a good cheat's method of keeping up and seeming worldly. You can guarantee something every day or so that will make your blood boil in your veins.

anyway, take care and 'smell you later'

kd

Three-year-olds are usuall really cute - but I tend to go off kids once they go to school and start getting an opinion. Kids from 6 through to about 12 are like aliens from another planet to me - I like them really little and cute or grown-up and teenage-ish. My best mates kids are 13, 17 and 18 and they're fab. Sometimes I sort of wish I'd had some sprogs, but I'm getting a bit elderly in terms of child bearing (38 in 3 months time) and I really don't think I can be arsed to start now. I was very briefly pregnant in my early 20's but felt so utterly ill for 10 weeks that I was actually glad when I miscarried. Lack of enthusiasm for another attempt plus lack of suitable 'father' candidates has lead to my remaining childless.

I heartily approve of your feeding your kids real food - I'm convinced that low achievement and bad behaviour are linked to crap diet. I know I feel heaps better if I eat well and am inclined to feel a bit sluggish if I OD on junk, and I don't imagine the average child's metabolism copes any better with sugar and fat than mine does.

I will have a look out for Michael Moore's website. I definitely prefer Stupid White Men to 'Dude...' as it is more about America's failings as a whole and less of an all out anti George W Twat rant.

Anyway, I hope this is a coherant message - I've just consumed a rather large, stiff drink, so typing is a bit challenging. Mrs Boss has been particularly annoying (not to mention patronising) today and I feel I should be congratulated on the fact that I haven't beaten her to death with a heavy-duty stapler.

Chat soon.
Liz
~

hearing you talk about your boss, I feel as if I'm listening to an echo of myself - it's spooky. fantasies about aggrivated assault on boss are a daily occurence. I have also just consumed stiff as have also had particularly aggrivating boss experience. Boss works at other end of country - so communication consists mostly of phone and email - which is fine. However, sent me berrating email about accounts at beginning of week. He was due up for a meeting and had promised to spend time with me going through some stuff, because I'm fed up of being the scapegoat when all i do is process everyone else's crap. Then, after meeting with accountant which exonerated me of blame, rather than come and have meeting with me as promised, he just buggered off back down south rather than face me and apologise. Ggggggrrrrrrrrrr.
hic
consequently have consumed half a bottle of red, large chunks of green and blacks 70% choc and a puff of the other green and am watching the Brits - mouth open and agast at the awfulness of Natasha Beddingfield - who is she anyway?
Nightmare.

You're quite right about kids being aliens. My son is a source of utter mystery to me - this morning on the way to school, he was regaling me with tales of playing super hamster. There's no sane response to that before you've had a cup of coffee.

If you enjoyed SWM - may I recommend Greg Palast's 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy' - it's tremendous reading - but you will walk around for the couple of weeks you reading it, attacking people with passages. The world is so much worse than you think. This is the bloke that broke the story about the 2000 florida election scandal. Scary reading.

The miscarriage thing is very sad - I had one myself at 13 weeks in early 20's - it was the reason i ended up having a couple while I was still youngish - 32 now. I knew then that I really did want them - I suppose if you come through that and aren't potty to replace what you've lost, you can be a bit more sure that it's not for you. For me, it just made it clear that I really wanted kids. It's no easy thing to go through though. And trust me, as great as they are, there's always a part that wonders about what you might have been free to do if not for them - not something that you can admit to those who know you.

Right, where's the rest of that bottle....

Poor you. Unfortunately, when you do finance/accounts kind of jobs I think you do carry the can for stuff far too often. That is one of the many reasons why I got out of it two-and-a-half years ago. Sometimes I miss the work because it occupied by brain more than some of the stuff you get to do in a general admin role, but I don't miss the stress one bit.

I wish my boss was at the other end of the country - unfortunately, she's usually just in the next room. Apart from when I need her urgently for something, of course, in which case she is nowhere to be found. When she's in a good mood (like Monday & Tuesday of this week when she'd just returned from a skiing holiday) she's great, but stay the f**k out of her way when she's in a strop! Much of the time she's arrogant, patronising and condescending to all her staff and she wouldn't know how to motivate us if her life depended on it! Her managerial skills are so crap that we mostly do whatever-the-hell we like. However, as the only admin person in the department, I have less scope to please myself than the others (5 tutors, 1 researcher and 2 multi-media authors). Fortunately, she was out for most of Friday, so I was not driven to drink.

I started to watch the Brits (loved the Scissor Sisters number right at the start) but I'm a bit out of touch with the pop scene and I don't have the patience to watch the same programme for two-and-a-half hours. When Natasha Beddingfield came on that was my cue to phone my Mum. The success of Ms Beddingfield is a mystery to me - I can see the appeal of her sibbling Daniel (indeed, I actually bought 'Gotta Get Thru This' as a CD single) - but Natasha? Not pretty, rotten voice - how the smeg did she ever get a record deal? (Uh-oh, starting to sound old).

My personal life around the time of my miscarriage was complicated to say the least and my marriage broke up a year later. I met my current boyfriend about a fortnight before my divorce was finalised but he's a bit commitment phobic and I, having married at 21, was quite happy to have a boyfriend and my own space, so it's always been a somewhat half-arsed relationship. We've been together for 11 years, but he only moved in with me 3 years ago and that was more by accident than by design. I've never taken a definite decision on whether or not to have kids - if it happened then that would be OK (I think), but if it doesn't then it's just not meant to be.

Chris is at the gym at the moment. The weather here is horrid today. I went out for walk for about an hour this afternoon and got rained on at least 4 times. Still, I needed the exercise.

Chat again soon.

Liz
~