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

He is Ben, a yellow labrador, nine months old. He is a vandal.

All Labradors are. I have a long legged red healer and her name is Rusty, she was named by the boys when they were young. She is an old girl now but she doesn't know it. She loves people.

Moondancer

Your pictures are still missing.

It must be your puter I have checked on both of mine and it is still there. I even put the GAS cat on also.

Moondancer

Cat all present and accounted for but what is GAS? Other pictures are still missing.

Hi Walter,

When I was young, my father use to tell me that we were descendent from the last king of Ireland, and of course I would always say "Oh yare, tell us another one".

My name was O'Connor then, and a few years ago I took my mother on a trip and Ireland was one of the places we went to. We were being shown around an old church yard and grave stones when the tour guide said "in the corner over there is buried the last king of Ireland...O'Connor" you could not imagine the feeling that went through me, I believed my father, who was already dead, had brought me there. Wheither or not I am descendent from the last king of Ireland I do not know, it doesn't matter but I really felt a part of the land, of belonging. And I loved that feeling. And I thanked my father for giving it to me.

Huggs and kisses to you on your own

Moondancer

Hi Moondancer,

Yes, I think I know what you mean. That is why history breathes and lives for me. Much of my present lies in my past. The future we cannot peer into, but we can look back. In a real sense, history is about who I am, what I am, and even why I am. History has shaped me, you, everyone. But it is more than that; studying history gives me a sense of my place in the great chain of being. Some say why bother studying long-dead people or long-gone times: boring, useless. Those people, those times, they help me to understand my present, how I arrived here in the shape I am in.

A very learned historian, R G Collingwood, once wrote that "All history is the history of thought." Descartes wrote the famous "I think therefore I am." A very special person once adapted these two sayings as "I think therefore I am history." You may or may not be descended from the Irish king O'Connor, but for sure you, me, O'Connor are all related, we are all made from common stuff. To me what is important is not whether I share someone's blood, but whether I share or can empathise with someone's mind and spirit. Whether or not people move me, influence me even. How else to explain why my heroes range from Hector to Mandela?

Your father sounds like he had the same feelings inside, a real sense of the past and its tie to the present. Send him a big hug. And here is a hug for you, too.

Clive

Thank you Walter,

I loved Ireland, I felt the energy in the stones, and the experience and the time.
When I do my trip around Australia, next year, I want to find some cave paintings, I want to be able to stand and look at the rock the way the artists did so many years ago, and to try and to experience the exhilaration and the beauty, to get the vibrations of the living stone. Because I believe that stone can give out feelings and that it lives. This makes me tingle like I want to hug a tree or a rock, but there are none here I am too close to the city.

Huggs for you (you are not second choice but I really feel the need for a tree)

:X :O :X :O :X :O :X

Moondancer

Hi Moondancer,

You don't have to explain wanting to hug a tree before me.

The Anglican Cathedral in Hobart is St David's. It is not very big as cathedrals go, but it is a beaut place. It has a small museum in which there are some unusual 'exhibits'. My favourites are stones. These are stones, or small blocks, from famous cathedrals all over the world. One is from Canterbury Cathedral in England, and is dated to about 1100. It used to sit in an arch overlooking the High Altar at Canterbury, right over the spot where Thomas a' Beckett was murdered nearly nine hundred years ago. A friend of mine, my god-daughter's mother, visited the museum with me when she stayed here a few years ago, and she touched and felt that stone for what seemed like hours, quietly weeping with the emotion and spirituality that overcame her.

Yes, the "vibrations of living stone" are wondrous. Help yourself to another hug, if you would like.

Walter

I will be over on the next good strong gust of wind

:X :O :X :O :X :O :X

Moondancer

You couldn't have blown hard enough, or the wind is in the wrong direction - where were you?

The wind was obviously in the wrong direction.
I think I landed out side the black stump.
Now I have to start walking, so much for flying on a stiff breeze



hahahahahahah

Moondancer

That's some walk. In the meantime, am I supposed to just hang around and wait?

Hahahahah that is a good idea, and while you are waiting you can think of where you would like to take me in history. Nothing that is drudgery or unexciting, find somewhere that is fun to be, and look at how the people live and love



:X :O :X :O :X :O :X :O

Moondancer

Hi Moondancer

Okay, I'll work on it, especially since there are no alteratives given the sudden lack of wind. 'night.

Walter

Hi Moondancer,

I've made a couple of assumptions in relation to our historical exploration. One, that you want to remain a woman. Two, that by and large you will follow convention and not make things up or defy logic and law. On the other hand, innovation and imagination are fine, but not to the point of the absurd. If you can okay these few basic criteria, we can move back.

Sorry not to have chatted earlier, but have only just returned from Launceston.

Walter

Hi Walter,

Fancy you noticing that I would rather be a woman that was very astute of you. I also don't really want to be a down trodden woman, no fun in being a drudge.
Yes I like to have the foundation set in reality, from there the imagination is free to move in many ways.

I noticed you were not around but I had a busy day so I wasn't around much either

You are sounding a bit bossy, but I will let you have your way, you probably do always any way



moondancer

Hi Moondancer,

Bossy. Me? S**t, that's a laugh. And I thought you had insight for these kinds of things. You set the ground rules then.

Walter.

Morning Walter,

don't take offence your ground rules are great. I just felt the need to have a little dig .

You lead and I will follow, after all I have only had high school history, you are the one who has been to university, show me that you got value for this education that you paid for


Moondancer

Hi Moondancer,

Don't give me that "you're the one who has been to university, I've only had high school history" CRAP. If you want to see if I got value for money you would need to look at essays which, of course, are written for marks, not for the interest or entertainment of a wider audience.

Okay, Imperial Rome, under Augustus. Date: about 3BC. You are Livia, wife of Augustus for some thirty years (you have two children, Tiberius and Drusus by a former marriage, but none by Augustus). If you accept this nomination, then I think it is only fair that you specify who I am to be - but it can't be Augustus. I would prefer it if I was a male but not too low-life; however it is your choice - see, I'm not bossy, I am a doormat.

Walter