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

Time: 16h CET
Weather - it was nice and dry but it's started raining again. In Stuttgart - not far from here, they have snow and the traffic is struggling.

Tonight I am going to try out my birthday present - the overlock sewing machine. For the kids I now have all the ingredients together for their little Advent parcels. The spices I will put in little bags made from gauze bandages, which I thought would be nice and sterile, slightly see-through and already cut to about the right width. I just have to sew them up the sides.

I also bought myself some clothes this week and the trousers need taking up a little, so that's another little job I can try it out on.

Then I shall pack up the parcels and get out the Christmas decorations and look out my Advent stuff. I have about 5 skeletons of Advent wreaths to decorate - but I only need one for the door and one for the table. Maybe I'll hang one over the fireplace, too..... It depends how creative I feel.

If you think the English-speaking world have lost it with regard to spelling, you should see the stuff the French write. I have just discovered that I interpreted "Piece faisant office de plainte" (part which serves to complain ) was supposed to mean "plinthe" - plainte and plinthe sound the same, but how was I to know she meant the strips of wood (plinths) that our furniture sits on? I usually manage to interpret these things - it helps to read them out loud, and just ignore the endings which are guaranteed to be wrong - but that one slipped by me.

[Amy P]