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

*first things first*
*Lovely on bows in forgiveness*
*Lovely on to Cooper and explains that she herself is not a carnivore, and perhaps Lovely on will be leaving a message on Cooper Copper's page soon*(I've got absolutely no idea where that came from!)

Dammit dammit dammit
Our show just got cancelled

P

*ponders comprehedability of last post*

Ha HAAA! I get post 42!

*shakes fist* IT WAS MINE!

Yes, I quite agree about the comprehensibility of post 41.

*shrug*

All's good.

--Cooper
(fearing Carnivore)

Dude. Now the whole conversation's been messed up!! GP and I had this lovely continuity... and now look at it!! Barrel-maker, you've turned her into an incomprehensible chick!!! Poor girl. Cooper, say you're sorry!!!

As for post 42.... ::squint:: I was gunning for that one myself... But that's what I get for not posting for two weeks.... I should be shot.

Anyhow... How's the south this time of year, GP?

Shanana the freezing banana (it's -22*C here!!! ACK!)

You posted one minute ago, me thinks you are on line! What time is it over there?

GP

I have that effect on women, Banana. You of all people should know that.

*wink*

--Cooper
(fearing Carnivore)

Well, the time difference is as follows: I am one day behind and four hours ahead of New Zealand. (20 hours behind). I'm not sure what area of Oz you're in, so I don't know which time zone to reference.

Hey, could you fill me in on something: why do NA and SA do that whole half hour off from the rest of the world thing?? Why don't they just do an hour like the rest of the civilised world?? I've been pondering that forquite a while now. I still can't make any sense of it - perhaps you can!!

Shananana

NA and SA? SA = South Australia?
I think it may be just because they are a bit weird. Also, all the states in Australia start Daylight saving at different times, and for different times, and with different times, so it's always hard to know what's going on. It's getting lovely and warm here, so I think you must be starting to get a bit chilly!

GP

Starting?? A "bit chilly"? Dear, I'm in Alaska. Well, actually, I'm *currently* in Seattle, but I live in Anchorage. We've been skiing for a month now - Temperatures are running -5* to -25*C currently. The creeks are almost completely frozen over, and the inlet (salt-water) is frozen, too. All of the lakes are available for ice-fishing and skating and snow-machining. Terribly groovy.

Actually, groovily enough, I just got a letter from my friend in Perth, and he told me it's been about 30*-35*C in his area. He also claims to be on vacation until *MARCH* How unfair is that??

Oh!!! What are you planning to do for Christmas? My friend in Ne Zealand is going to the beach (which seems incredibly foreign to me) - are you going to take advantage of the warm summer weather, or are you going to have a proper Christmas??

I should probably go, as it's pretty late and I've got a full day and quite a deal of traveling to be doing tomorrow. I get to do lots of homework that I've been procrastinating on (the whole basis of our conversations, originally!). I've got a good 5 hours to do before school starts Monday morning... Ick.

you still didn't tell me what time zone you're in... So I'm incredibly confused... Then again, Cooper will attest to the fact that I'm in that state quite often.

Peace, Luv, Jello and Bananas

PS have you seen the HP movie yet?

Aaah. I didn't realise. Sounds fun though! Would you believe that I've never been skiing or taboggonning, or anyhthing like that? Slightly weird.

Thank God it hasn't got above about 27*C here yet, but over the summer it normally gets to at least 38

A normal Christmas??? To me that IS a day that's hot enough to go swimming. But we normally get up, open all the pressies round the tree then go to the friend's house designated for the celebrations that year. Then, we nearly always swim in the afternoon, have a light sort of supper affair at about 8 and gloat over our presents...

We had to hand our english books in today, which meant I had to homework I've had for a month, but I got my very first in-class essay back, and I got 9.5/10!

Five hours before school What time do you get up?

Peace, love custard and strawberries

Five hours was my rough estimate for how much time my homework would take me. I still don't know how long it will be, as it's 12:30 am Monday and I just got back in from Seattle and I still have Chemistry and some German to do. Needless to say, it's not getting done by tomorrow. Fortunately, that's not a problem, as I don't have Chem tomorrow and I got enough German done to get by.

I don't think it's weird that you've never been skiing or sledding (easier to spell that tabbogon) - I used to live in Texas where many people have never seen snow in their lives, and one of my best friends lives in Caracas, Venezuela and he hasnever seen temperatures below 10*C. So never skiing isn't that weird. Heck, some people *here* haven't been skiing... Those people are officially freaks.

What time do I get up, eh? Well, as my bus comes at 6:45/6:50 am, I am up at 6:30/6:40. I figure, never spend more time awake in the morning than you have to.

I'm also deeply longing to go traveling right now - I want to go to either Bedford, England or Wanganui, NZ right now... Am I twisted?

Btw, We all know there's a *New* Zealand, but where's the *Old* Zealand??

Shanana

"Old Zealand" is in the Low Countries--I believe it's called "Seeland" now or somesuch. And it either has something to do with it being on the sea, or it has nothing at all to do with it being on the sea.

That's the problem with knowing so much word history--you get it all tangled up in your head.

--Cooper
(fearing Carnivore and a run on pizza sauce at the local market)

Hmmm. Thank you kindly, Barrel-maker.

That's interesting, as it rather departs from the traditional English naming system, of naming a new area after a town from the old country - same with other immigrant groups. But New Zealand is mostly English, so it seems odd that they'd name it after a Dutch place.... Any ideas why?

Shanana

Perhaps the namer thought the terrain was similar or somesuch. It could also be that the first immigrants were from Seeland. At that time, there was a lot of migration between England and the Low Countries.

Donno.

--Cooper
(fearing Carnivore and birth control being unreliable)

Duh! I just remembered. Tasman was Dutch!

He sighted NZ in the early 1600s, but was unable to land. Cook ended up being the first European to actually colonise.

--Cooper
(fearing Carnivore)

Sorry I haven't posted for so long, we just finished school for the year and it was kind of busy towards the end. Our hottest temperature so far has been 34, which isn't too bad, I s'pose.

Ouch! I am so glad I don't have to catch a bus to school! Quarter to seven is too early to be running around after great big metal things on smaller rubber things.

I'm going to NZ in...four days!

Have a good christmas.

GP

Merry Christmas, belated, of course. And also, Happy New Year!!! I muct hear *all* about your vacation to New Zealand - I'm so entirely envious, it's not even funny.

I'm in the middle oof my two-week break for Christmas, and am suddenly cheerful, because it cooled down and snowed again, after three days of rain. You don't realise how sad we were because of the rain - it closed the snowmachining trails and ruined the skiing - there was ice everywhere!! It was up to 5*C at times... fortunately, it's back down to -5*C. Much better for this region. Much.

What are your plans for ringing in the New Year - 20 hours before me, no less? you're not still going to be in New Zealand, are you? ::sigh:: I wish I could go to New Zealand so badly... I still want to go to Germany, though.. ::sniffle::

I wish Alaska wasn't so incredibly far from civilisation! You know, to get back to people, I have to go over a thousand miles in any direction (except north and due south). Which is why I live in the only real city - we have half of the state's 600,000 population right here. Isn't that pitiful? But I must admit, it makes for some truly magnificent areas, and some truly gorgeous scenery and very little of it has been defiled by man.

And it's not all that impossible to live with, either. I just moan every so often when I get to missing my friends elsewhere, but honestly, I think this is about the best place I *could* live for many things (just not for my plans for the future). But Mum'll still be here, so that'll be groovy! I'll always have an excuse to come back up.

Dude. Sorry about my rambling like that....

How do you think you did on your exams, btw??

Shanana

Happy New Year, Shanana, and the best of luck

New Zealand was FANTASTIC. It really was, though that was more because of the people I met than the scenery or anything. I went for a jamboree, which is a big scout camp. The one in Sydney last year had 12000 scouts, this one a small 4000, but apparantly in America they get really big. But it was good anyway. There were people from all over the world - US, UK, Oz, Pacific Islanders of all sorts and so on. Oh, and Japan! I remember that because a friend and I learn Japanese at school and we spoke to them with our rather meagre language skills and they understood us! It was very cool. They were so damn funny as well. While sitting with them for about ten minutes they broke two chairs and mistakenly used Homo sapien instead of homosexual.

There was an international night (on new years eve) and all the fijians and Tahitians and various other nations where the traditional male costume is rather little did dances and things which was really quite cool. Followed by that was the New Years Eve party and that was awesome. It went from about 10:30 when the international night finished until 12:30 or thereabouts, though our troop had to be back on our campsite at twenty past. At midnight they let down all these balloons from the roof. There were about 3400 people there, and when the balloons were released and everybody clustered in two areas you really didn't have to stand up by yourself, in fact you couldn't have if you'd wanted to.

Now, I imagine that in most people's minds scouts is really clean and stuff, and though I hate to sully its reputation I must mention some entirely different incidents. Like half ok, that's an exxageration, say 3 or 4) our troop coming back each night off their faces, I mean completely smashed. It was not pleasant. And what made it all the more awful was that some of those who were doing this I had met at the ozzie jamboree last year and they were really sweet and innocent and there they were, so changed. And of course it stank. It's not so much drinking that bothers me but smoking. Sure, they can both do permanent damage, but smoking is so much dirtier somehow.

But anyway. I made some really good friends, and they've convinced me to get msn for the especial purpose of talking to them!

What else...oh, we went to a farm for an overnight trip to go caving and abseling and stuff, and it was really bizarre to see in this [beautiful] landscape conifers, deciduous trees and palm trees all growing together with cows grazing beside them. The caves were cool too, it was the first time I'd ever been caving so that was very exciting. We even saw some bones from the moa (the big old New Zealand bird). And there were lots of glowworms.

Along with all that I developed a new music crush: "in the end" by lincoln park. I've been singing it ever since I got back and a fair bit of the time I was there and everytime I do it reminds of one of the friends I made there, because he had this MAJOR crush on one of the Australian girls but she already has a boyfriend and he was so depressed...actually, he became my adopted big brother and I his little sis

bye bye

GP