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

Ah yes Phil the greek is a bit of a one for those kind of comments isn't he.
Brussels was like Brussels is. As ever, too much to see and not enough time. We didn't die 'a la Mort Subite' but their beers were great (as were many other beers we had elsewhere). We were only thrown out of one museum - well it was closing time. And the trains sort of worked enough to get us there and back at roughly the right times.

hah .. its Phil (the other Phil ) .. returned from the city of beer, chocolate, fries and waffles ... just Googling la Mort Subite here .. .. yup gotcha gotcha .. except I can't type accents .. need a more cosmopolitan keyboard ..

never been to Brussels .. sounds like a fine city ...



....reckoned it would be incredibly boring of me to ask about the sprout ... so I went to Wiki ... only to find that, although their forerunners were possibly cultivated in Ancient Rome ... Brussels sprouts as we now know them were grown possibly as early as the 1200s in what is now Belgium ...

... which I think is in fact extremely interesting ..

cue Hyp ... (I remember everything) ... brussels sprouts and liquorice ..(not necessarily eaten together) ... she just lervs them ... heheheheheh ... ooops .. I'm outta here ....



OK .. so where are we ... brotherXantief .. your sunsong .... worked for us also .. we are wrapped in goldensun .... springsun ... not yet the ...erm . all over toasty .. kind of warmth .. but getting there ... heheheheh .. yay ...



wonder if the Fireclouds are in Kansas City yet ... in their RV highway angel ..

found out what Tin Roof Sundae is .. heheheheh .. and a Mercury ... via urgent e-mail to Kansas .. hmmm .. both delicious in different ways .. thanks LadyC ..

yuh well .. week from now we're heading out on the highway to Eastbourne ... ... doesn't sound quite as romantic as you guys one and all .. but hey .. ... hmm



how would the song go ...

well we found ourselves on the road to Eastbourne with our Coleman coolbox full of lots of interesting vegetarian snacks to nurture the mind and spirit ... ... ...

.. or erm ..

well we took the road to Eastbourne
with faith and holy wine
we kissed the ancient sunset
where thorn and rose entwine ...

hmmmm nah

Lady C .. C wanted to tell you that we just acquired two new Coleman coolboxes ... and we think of you always ...they still say 'made in Wichita KS! ... a 9 quart and a 15 quart (excursion) .... they're great .. blue with white lid ....



heheheheh .. must go eat .. not brussels sprouts .. even though I love them ....beer chocolate fries and waffles would be nice ..



speak soon

H

Phil,

Does Amsterdam atill have parks full of young travellers with sleeping ...openly consuming vast amounts of hashish drugs.

Coleman...Made in the U.S.A...a fine product line...gas stoves, gas lanterns, coolers, sleeping bags...they don't break, rust or wear out...Grumman canoes are also cool and indestructible...maybe Grumman Kayaks?

So Mrs. Phred and I were in a kayak up in a glacial ice field. It was so cold that we built a small fire in the middle to warm up...it caught fire and burned up...it just goes to show...you can't have your kayak and heat it too....

We are in Arkansas...We blew off the first 14 planned stops...A week here should allow time for needed maintenance before the big push west.

Maybe Wal-mart has a laser sight device and a protractor to help with the angles on the crop circles.

"You can't have your kayak and heat it too."

For a long time, "Coleman" was simply the name for the Yank version of the Tilley lantern. They make good stuff.

Phil, I'm guessing you didn't travel from Belgium through Heathrow T5......as a man myself, I've enjoyed Belgian beer but I'm not really keen on Lambics. We sampled a bottle of Kriek some years back, it's quite tasty, but not to guzzle copious amounts...Have you found reason to sample aught from the Sam Adams label? I'm interested in the opinions of connoisseurs (Holy Spelt right on the first attempt!) from the Home Isles. Bagpuss either quietly enjoyed or stoically endured the local brews when he was in the neighbourhood...

Phil the Greek. I'm more fascinated with his head state than anything else. He'd be a riot at a smokeout, I'm sure. Match him up with Robin Williams, and we might have a durable act.

Phred, I'm understanding you'll bounce through Californoia this July. I'd certainly like to convoy with you for a couple stops, just for the halibut.

Hyp and Lady C, greetings and wondering questions concerning the weather and flooding and all in your area. I hope you're doing okay, but I think it highly unfair that your garden and trees had to suffer so much, Hyp....

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/ The New Madrid fault zone is quite conspicuous [NB the maps are probably perishable]

Phred, I've no idea about the parks in Amsterdam as I was in Brussels I've yet to sample the delights of that dutch city.
T5 at Heathrow. What a mess. From the few times I've flown from or to Heathrow airport it always reminds me of why I don't want to go there. It's a huge sprawling mess and in totally the wrong place for an airport now.
We travelled on the train from the grand victorian edifice of St Pancras station. A huge single arched train shed makes it feel bigger than it is as there are no columns supporting the roof restricting sight lines. A neo gothic building attached to the front (currently be renovated) makes for a very imposing frontage to the main road. Shame the new extension to the station is quite a boring box shape added on.
So no problems with lost baggage on the journey, quite the opposite, it was in sight all the time and when we got off the train we were there, right in the city without any problems of finding transfers and so on. A much more civilised way to travel all round I think

Xantief,

We'd like to meet you on the East side of the mountains in some of the big parks if we can work it out.

Xantief,

Here's a link to the 2008 magical mystery tour.

Is any particular part appealing?

http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/03/last-hurrah.html

Er... in the photograph, will you be comparably dressed?

heheheheheh ...

hmmm

one of my fave films .. The Magical Mystery Tour .. (Beatles) .. I have it on DVD and watch it every twenty minutes ... or so ..

Ivor Cutler as Buster Bloodvessel ..

ah yes ... I could go on .. and probably will at some stage .. heheheheh ..

but at present the moments of my life are stretched like strands of chewing gum across the valleys and zones of my clattering bones ..

...which means that I have various engagements which are taking me away from this alphabetical keyboard ....but I will check in on y'all somewhere between the dot and the dash and the inspiration flash ..

.............-----------...........

sort of thing, like

H

Friday, 4 April 2008
Motorist Bites State Trooper
Mountain Home, Arkansas

We're back in Arkansas to see our old friends, Paul and Diane.

The first morning I raid the laundry fund for two quarters and head down to the Wal-Mart to buy a Baxter Bulletin. The news in Mountain Home always has a different flavor.

On the right side of the front page I read that a local lady has been sentenced to three years ib the State Prison for rustling 20 cows. The left side of the paper has several pictures of a man being wrestled into a police car by five burly state troopers.

The man left the road a high rate of speed, leaped over a culvert and crashed into a fence. When State Troopers arrived on the scene, the man refused to get out of his car and responded to the officers with a stream of obscenities. When the officers attemped to forcibly remove the man from his vehicle he responded by biting one officer on the hand. The motorist is now in jail. Apparently local bail bondsmen have declined to help him post bail.

The property next door is for sale. It is 25 acres of woods and pasture with a four bedroom home and a four stall red horse barn. The asking price is only $250,000. Paul says he will give me $60,000 to title over the 15 acres closest to his property. I imagine making a workshop out of the big barn.

It's 298 miles to Big Brutus. The route leads though Webb City, where we know the librarian. I borrowed Paul's library card yesterday. They were updating records and asked my address and telephone number. I had to confess it was a borrowed card. They asked me Paul's wife's name to make sure I really knew Paul. In a less trusting place like New York City, I probably would have been spread-eagled on the ground by armed security guards.

Leo, I confess that the concept of a nude photo at Mono Lake never occured to me before this moment.

Phred, your itinerary doesn't seem to be in sequence, going by the list anyway, but in any case, I've sorta piddled away my vacation time on those spurious Martian holidays of mine...I sure didn't realize there were so flippin' many of them! ...thus, I'm pretty much limited to weekend + one or so. Therefore, if you happen to be within a handful of hundred miles from Sacramento on a Thursday, a smuggler rendezvous would be doable. Negatory for Fridays, traffic is insane.

'Moon'rise over Mono Lake, ah yes....

Right...You're in that town I used to pass in my Green TR4-a on the road between Mather Air Force base and San Franciso...Mrs. Phred was a cute little Lilly Tomlin-type telephone operator who used to plug wires into switchboards and chat with celebrities like Ricky Nelso on the graveyard shift....all automated now.

Ok...we'll keep in touch..I haven't bothered yet to sort the possible destinations in California in any logical geographic order...July is far away.

Said librarian always has an open door for the Fireclouds.

So, I have good news on the gardening front for a change. The almond tree that was uprooted and replanted after the last ice storm - we had 4 of the damned things this winter - is in full bloom! Mother Nature is forgiven. And, the BCs actually did something right!

I have next week off. Getting ready to lose vacation time if I don't take it. I'm heading for Kansas on Wednesday to see Lady C and the great nephews.

Helen, dear lady, I may see you this fall. It depends on Mother's health and how much it costs to refinish my floors. That is definitely NOT a job for the BCs.

Liam, was that you in my trash can last night? Or perhaps it was DB.

Phred - I once posted a package from Pittsburg. I then spent the next 15 minutes standing in the post office staring like a half-wit while I tried to figure out what felt so wrong.

I did figure it out eventually.

The post people were just standing behind a counter, like in a department store. No 3-inch bulletproof glass. No double-locked cabinets for handing over packages. No shouting through the little slot for communication.

And it was kind of nice.

But don't you try stealing my library card and gettin' away with it, mister.

New York City...one of my favorites...looking down from the top of the WTC...feeling it sway...there's my old green GTO convertible parked on Liberty Street...it looks like a matchbox toy...we ride the ferry...Can I have two bagels, please?....YOU GOT TWO F***ing DOLLAS, YOOSE DONT HAFTA SAY PLEASE!

The black santa in the alley is breaking whiskey bottles and using bad language ...there's the scruffy guy in the wheelchair...he looks like Forest Gump's lieutenant...my son and I look at each other and lift him over the curb so he can go listen to the Christmas Carols on the waterfront and see the 400 foot Honda yacht with the helicopter...he curses us for our efforts...

No place like it...

I NY.

Hypatia,

If you're leaving for a week on Wednesday, we will miss you on this go-around.

The Fireclouds send their regrets...they were looking forward to seeing the new you...but the halibut is all gone anyway.

-Liam

When will the Fireclouds be in the Wichita area? Let us know. Hyp will be here next Wed. for a couple of days. Perhaps you will be here about that time also?????

I haven't received departure orders yet from Mrs. Phred. I'll let you know. Are any big wheat field sprouting around Wichita yet?