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

Actually slept in my bed last night. Oh, it was lovely. Got masses of sleep in. Delicious.

From 1am until 8.30am and then from 8.30am untl 10.30am. I'll get up now.

So nice to get some decent sleep in again.

My mate Count von Z is in hospital over in Blighty. I hope he's OK. He went in because he got sick and no-one knows what's wrong with him. A case for Doctor House, perhaps. Oh well as long as he's OK.

If I ever have children, they will be brought up to be trilingual. The nurse will speak to them in Xhosa; the wife in Afrikaans; and I in English. They will be encouraged to spend time with children of all language groups. And I will teach them Hebrew and Greek from a very early age, so that they can read the Bible in the original languages from the cradle. I wouldn't know how to teach a child these languages. No idea; I'd have to find out. Back in the 17th century, children learnt the Biblical languages as a matter of course, and were reading Plato at the age of 9. Well, my kids will be reading the Bible at that age. Perhaps I could hire an Israeli au pair to speak Hebrew with them. So little Eric and Erica will grow up speaking Xhosa, Afrikaans, English and Hebrew, and reading New Testament Greek.

He de parousia tes gynaikos mou met' emou estin. Khaire w philtate. En tei kardiai mou thesaurw se.

President O'ba'mama'ma'mama has asked Congress for two billlion dolllars in order to process the illegal immigrants and disappear them into Amerikan society.

Read the Declaration of the State of Israel online. Fascinating.

What I want people to understand is that two people saying contradictory things can both be right. Rightness doesn't inhere in any logical properties of a proposition. Rightness is a personal quality. It inheres in a person. It has nothing to do with any logical properties of a proposition. It isn't what we say that makes us right, but how we live. You can say things that are formally indistinguishable from the truth, but they can still be wrong, because the person saying them is not living righteously. To live righteously is to live in tune with God's Word as it unfolds through creation continually. Such a person lives with God. (Christian theology defines more precisely how this life is lived, viz in the Spirit through the Son to the Father.)

It's a shame I wasn't mentally strong enough to stay at university. I had just gotten used to Aberdeen and I should have stayed there really instead of following F's advice and going on a wild goose chase to Leeds. I should have done a joint systematics/ pastoral care thesis and ended up teaching there. Oh well, should have, what's that. I should have liked to have done work on the Old Testament as well, the Wisdom books. Yeah, Old Testament, Systematics and Pastoral Care, those were the ones I was best at, although I was good at all of them really. But I liked OT, Systematics and Practical Theology the best. I was interested in cross-discipline study. How I wish I could have stayed at Divinity in Aberdeen and made a difference. Oh well. God knows. If he wants me to engage with this world in any sustained way he'll have to provide the Biblical help even he says is necessary. I simply can't exist on my own in this world, it's just too difficult. I have to admit I've given up somewhat. Faced with a complacent, indifferent world of people stuffing their faces and staring at the television, what can you do? Very little really.

I may go to Grabouw some time and deliver those books to Mimi's relative.

Well it's the second week of July and, apart from two cold snaps, we haven't had much by way of real winter weather yet. By which I mean dull, drear, cold, damp weather embodying the worst of Blighty, seemingly for weeks at a time. It hasn't rained much so far.

phylakes melanes ahoratoi eisin nukti! It's pretty bad. They sit in their cars and you just cannot see them, with the blue of the uniform and the black of the face, you cannot see them. I just went down and saw an ADT car with its front door open but inside the inside of the car all there was to be seen was a black hole of nothingness from which not even light could escape. Sucking in stars and galaxies and whole universes of numbers and gravities and planets populated by invisible policemen and their invisible wives and invisible children. I had no idea whether I had been seen or not. Such a difficulty.

Aw, a thirteen year old girl is phoning up Rush and complimenting him on his children's books. That is so touching. Rush wasn't in a good mood this morning but the girl's phone call has lifted his spirits, as it has lifted mine.

Now it's Doc Washburn. Funny name, funny guy.

Ooh I'm looking forward to the renovation of my den. It's going to be lovely in there. I shall be able to sit in there on my Copenhagen chair and nod off in the wee small hours of the cream of the night, while the radio burbles on quietly in the background and I've just finished watching a movie on the Entertainment Screen, with the rain lashing against the windows trying vainly to get in, while I sit warm, dry and snug, ooh what a difference in there from the way it has been these past 2 winters, with the rain getting in causing all kinds of horror and jam. No no no, it's going to be marvellous. I'll use the electric oil radiator, which you can adjust for temperature, and there will be work done in there, and it will be marvellous. Absolutely marvellous in there. Very warm and comfortable.

I need to get on with Volume Three of Words from the Word: The Wisdom Literature.

Paidizousi men ton mwron oude sumpaidizw egwge.

...and her brain fell out onto my lap:

Nasty. That's what Tim Buffington did. Speak truth to power, man.

I am a child of the 80s. I am a Mrs Thatcher's child. Doc Washburn is a Henry Kissinger's child. Are YOU Henry Kissinger's child?

Song for Wally Oo

Wally wally oo. Wally wally oo. Wally wally wally wally oo, wally wally oo, wally oo. Wally wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo, wally oo, Wally wally wally wally oo, wally wally oo; wally wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo wally oo, wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo wally oo. Wally wally oo. Wally wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo wally oo. Wally wally wally wally wally wally oo, wally oo; wally wally wally wally oo, wally oo. Wally wally wally wally oo, wally oo, wally wally oo. Wally oo wally oo, wally wally wally wally oo wally oo; wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo wally oo. Wally wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo wally oo, wally wally wally wally wallly wally oo, wally oo. Wally oo wally oo, wally oo wally oo. Wally wally wally wally, wally wally wally wally, wally wally oo wally oo, wally wally oo wally oo.