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

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

The 40s were the best decade of my life!

I would agree with that although the sixties was the fastest decayed of my life

happy birthday!

I remember 40. Happy Birthday Sol!

Happy birthday Sol.

I found 30 so much harder than 40. I'm 46 now and find I'm kinda almost sorta looking forward to hitting 50 and joining the saga generation. Mostly I think because of that purple dress/red hat thing. I like that idea.

http://britishredhatters2.weebly.com/index.html

So that gives you something to look forward to for the next decade!



Deb

hey! nothing wrong with wearing a purple dress in one's thirtys!

Just don't wear a red hat with it until you're 50. It's only fair.

Deb

the only hats I have are black (the two trilbys and the bowler)

Thanks for all the cheerful thoughts and birthday wishes!

Day 5

My daughter, it turns out, is a tantrumer. My son was never a tantrumer, so this has come as something of a surprise.

I tend to just deal with this by ignoring her for a bit and then, and only then, going in with the soothing noises. It doesn't help much to try distract her before she's had a good yell, drummed her heels quite energetically on the floor and tried to hit me a few times. About five minutes of monstering usually does it and then she subsides wetly into a small hiccuping girl again.

Unfortunately she doesn't just have melt downs at home.

She had one, for example, in the Kremlin over the summer. On the central square where all the churches are. I forget why. The cobblestones were the wrong shade of grey perhaps, or Mama refused to let her eat her brother's ear, or maybe she wanted to go left. Left where the wall blocked the way.

While we were standing waiting for the screaming to slacken off a bit, and while the Asian tourists took a LOT of photos of her lying on the ground and kicking and shrieking, a plain clothes FSB security chappie came over and told us that we were bringing the Kremlin into disrepute.

Not as much disrepute as sitting on the grass next to the toilets apparently though. According to a suspiciously similarly dressed young man, with a suspiciously similar haircut and carrying suspiciously exactly the same make of camera as the first man.

The Kremlin is the least toddler friendly place on the planet. The toilets are also disgusting.

Anyway, I was going to write about my daughter's Russian lessons, on the grounds that I would get a bit of time to do so while she was actually having her Russian lesson. But she had a meltdown in the middle of it and therefore I was engaged as mean old whatsit followed by comfort blanket and couldn't.

Hey ho. Next week.

I've decided (and told students and Notepad) that, if the definition of "mean" is "doesn't let me do what I want, when I want", then I'm mean

I'm definitely mean. In the sense that I am average.

Deb

Day 6

This eveing I am mostly watching the Ambassadors. It's a new series by British comedians, Mitchel and Webb on BBC2. They are playing the Ambassador and Deputy Ambassador to a fictional country Tazikstan, not particularly loosely based, I suspect, on Kazakstan. Kazakstan being one of the Former Soviet Union States down in the oil bearing regions of the Caucuses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassadors_(TV_series)

It's a lot better than I thought it would be. I wasn't a huge fan of their previous series, the Peep Show. The characters were a bit too hough some of the individual jokes were rather good. In the Ambassadors, they've toned it down a bit, and Webb in particular is playing it straight. So I get to luxuriate in the fact that someone seems to have turned bits of my twenties into a satire.

While they take some sideswipes at the natives, it is mainly a show about the Brits abroad, and whoever is writing this certainly knows their expats. And even better, they know their expats in the Former Soviet Union. It's really very very good, although I do sometimes wonder if they have the actual workings of an embassy down. B and I have been having a lively 'discussion' about whether a high ranking embassy official would, in fact, have as a girlfriend a local barkeeper for example. I pointed out that when we got married, most of the other banns notices at the Embassy in Moscow were of diplomats marrying Russian girls. He countered that none of them were the Deputy Ambassador. We have agreed to disagree (he went to bed).

But I do hope they are taking dramatic licence to the limit - this week they are sending the Ambassador to a politically (and, actually, actually) risky meeting with a rebel leader. Personally, I'd have thought that was what Deputy Ambassadors were for myself. Or, even better, the 'military attache' *cough cough cough*. Still, I might be overestimating the professionalism of the Foreign Office there. Heaven knows I have little enough experience of diplomatic circles.

Best of all, the characters even talk Russian to each other when, you know, there are two Russians talking to each other! It's not very good Russian - I must tell B they filmed it in Turkey, because he keeps muttering about how many actual Russian speakers there are in Britain that they could have asked to fill the roles of non-English speakers - but still.

What is really freaky, though, is that Webb has just made a joke about S________________.

[Amy P]

I must look out for this series, thanks Sol

This series was reviewed on a regular Radio WM slot and the reviewer did say you should forget it's Mitchell & Webb otherwise you'd be disappointed as it's not like their usual stuff. That tallies with your review.

I didn't see it but maybe I should check it out on iplayer.

Deb

Pants. Missed yesterday. In my own defense, I spent the morning wandering around down by the river with the Comet and doing some much needed housework, and when the Comet flaked out for her nap, I spent my free time writing to the Council (I have become Disgusted of Green Biro, but we are talking about more than one thousand of pounds here) and making pho. Which was actually very nice, except that I do not recommend ever letting corriander actually cook. Very bitter. Then I went to work, and that finished at 9pm, and when I got back B was watching No Country for Old Men and wanted the southern accents translating. And by the time that finished I staggered upstairs to bed and only remembered about the JoPo just as I was dropping off. So. It must have been a Thursday, etc etc etc.

I think because it was a Thursday you should be forgiven.

Deb

[Amy P]