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

That's one drink I've never tried. Maybe I should, if it's anything like Pernod, Ouzo or absinthe. Aniseed and liquorice are certainly two of my favourite flavours. I used to buy liquorice roots to suck on when I lived in Lancashire, and now I find I can get the very same things right here in Austin, at the co-op

Well, the good thing about Jaegermeister is it's ubiquitous.

Organic, locally-sourced cyanide
http://www.theguardian.com/books/picture/2016/jan/09/tom-gauld-methods-for-modern-mystery-writers-cartoon

In my prime it was stiff peaks all the way. These days I'm more of a soft dropping consistency*

No, not that... my pecs

*Home bakers will understand

Dropping consistency was one that couldn't hold on to a spoon for a count of seven.

I've just discovered some peanut butter-filled pretzel nuggets in the break room here at work. This might be the best thing I've ever put in me gob

Those are nice, but my personal favorite indulgence now is from H.E.B.

Creme Brullee yogurt covered almonds.

*Faints* ::THUD:: ©®

I wish they'd spend a bit of money here upgrading things like the thermostats (or let us put in our own ones) instead of just making cosmetic improvements like fancy flowerbeds and painting the outside of the buildings (including the brickwork, which looked rather nice I thought, not to mention taking away laundry rooms to make expanded gyms that hardly anyone uses

On a cold morning like this it's frustrating to have to put the heater on when you get up and then wait half an hour before it's warm enough to take a shower, and an hour after that, step out of the front door to go and catch a bus to work just as the apartment has warmed enough to be comfortable. To have a thermostat with a timer on it, set to turn on the heat half an hour before I get up, would be heaven.

Yes, yes, I know... in my day, when we was kids, ice on the inside of the bedroom window, cold bathrooms, cold showers, uphill in a snowstorm carrying a satchel full of schoolbooks.

"Yes, yes, I know... in my day, when we was kids, ice on the inside of the bedroom window, cold bathrooms, cold showers, uphill in a snowstorm carrying a satchel full of schoolbooks."

I was just about to say all of that! I'm actually feeling pretty nostalgic for proper ice and snow at the moment - in my childhood days in Yorkshire we had real winters that seemingly provided sub-zero temperatures, blizzards and snowdrifts from about the second week of September until mid-June. Much as I love Devon, it's quite annoying to see pictures of beautiful snow scenes from all over the country when all we have is heavy skies, pouring rain and drifts of tractor mud.

Good grief. In all the time we've known each other, I had no idea you grew up in Yorkshireland

Well, partially. By which I mean I only spent part of my childhood in Yorkshire, not that I've not finished growing up...

Yes, I spent five primary school years living in Holmfirth, tucked into the edge of the Pennines. A beautiful place which I will always love dearly, but it could be very, very cold.

And no, I didn't spend my days barrelling down hills in an old bathtub, before you ask.

Well, either way, it's always good to a post from you

For me, tobogganing was a spring event, on southern California when the spring rye grass got to about a foot in height, on a toboggan made of waxed cardbord.

Didn't last but about a day, but neither did the grass.

. . . . .. ...

-'southern California hillsides'

We used to do something similar - grass-sledging as we called it - but down the carefully mown but very steep turf of the local park. Needless to say, it did not go down well with the council worker responsible for the park's upkeep and we sometimes had to leave in a great hurry.

Ah, the park keeper, otherwise known as Parky, and that most feared animal of kids across all Britain

Yes, though at our park by then it was no longer a peak-capped Guyler-alike but a stocky red-faced man in a council-issue donkey jacket.

Every one of our local parks had one like Norman Potter. What fun it was to them and then