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

Yep very pleased indeed!



And it just gets better; watching Lewis storm to victory at Monaco, the most kudos Grand prix, apart from the British one of course It kept raining on and off, the safety car was out, everything happened, poor old Kimi was all over the place bumping into things, but Lewis raced like a demon, all the commentators comparing him to Senna; never Schummi. Had Senna not been killed in that crash, Schummi wouldn't have had half his success. And Schumi never set the heart racing.

Lewis went crazy after he got out the car at the end, as did his supporters. I've never seen him so excited.

Poor old Ferrari and the Italians...

Yes! Leon who is having the 3rd of four days off in a row (lucky so and so!) stayed up and 'watched' it on his computer, and then came in to tell me all about it...

So exciting!

(I was a wee bit sorry for Sutil and Kimi though...)

Vicky

>I was a wee bit sorry for Sutil and Kimi though..<

Yeah I was nearly crying for them

So was Leon and I did when he told me, despite being half asleep!

Vicky

Except we *really* were,

Vicky

I think you were probably crying with happiness for Lewis......

I'll confess to a little tear when I heard our national anthem being played as Lewis stood there proudly, and then had a massive hug with Ron Dennis at the end.

Vicky I've posted you an email about something I'm a bit fed up about. I'm not posting it here.

Take care. Goodnight.

<>

I am happy for Lewis.. He's done well!

I was mostly crying that Leon doesn't understand that I need to sleep and he can tell me about it the next morning!

Ah, he means well...

Why can't Leon understand such a simple thing?

He has a degree in Nursing, yes? Would he behave like that in his job?

I find it highly unlikely that he's incapable of understanding.

Iam sure it's not that he can't understand, so much as he doesn't want to - it's "attention seeking behaviour"... It comes, I think, of him and me having always been alone, his father and brothers having never lived with us...

I've never heard of anything so ridiculous. You need a man around to explain to an adult nurse that it is not okay to wake someone up in the night. Unbelievable. Either he has no respect for you or you just put up with unacceptable behaviour. I'd put a lock on my door immediately, if after speaking straight I was ignored. I'd also ask someone of that age, capable of working as a nurse to move out if they continued to show me no fundamental respect for things like needing sleep.

Attention seeking? Unbelievable.

He's very young for his age, and he's had some terrible events in his life, what can I say?

I've just seen a snippet of an email about my ignoring you... I am not, it's just that I am working as well, and I have (for a nice change!) lots to do..

Vicky

Well it still mystifies me that a young man working as a full time nurse, with peoples' health and well-being in his care, is incapable of not waking his mother up in the middle of the night to tell her the result of a car race, however excited he is. He maybe young for his age and had some bad experiences, haven't we all, but I don't see that that has any bearing on basic respect for others wishes. He knows you have to get up reasonable early for work the next day. 'Ah he means well' just strikes me as making excuses. Apart from making you cry as you say, at the time, lack of sleep, when its needed, puts people in a bad mood the next day. As a nursing graduate, he would be well aware of that.

But it's up to you, if you want to put up with such behaviour; it's you that lives with him. I certainly couldn't live with someone who behaved like that, when they had deliberately chosen to do it.

OK I think I've said quite enough about all that for now.

Now for something completely different. I posted this YouTube thing of Maria Callas as Carmen on Mar's space, but I think you might quite enjoy it too.

What's so incredible is the way she is, whilst she waits for the bit to start singing. It's brilliant the way the camera stays on her the whole time. And then when she sings....

This is art as religion.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lKnR9VIK3MA&feature=related

Oh yes, absolutely! She's amazing, and it sends chills up and down my spine... I know exactly, perfectly what you mean, it's

Vicky

Glad you liked that recording...

I'm a big fan of opera. We have the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden here in London. It's one of the main opera houses in the world; you may have heard of it? It's been an Opera house since the 1730s. Rebuilt and refurbished 3 times. The last occasion took years and the cost skyrocketed to over £200 million pounds. It finally re-opened in 1999. Yes I know it might sound a bit much. But cathedrals do. And that is just what it is. The size of it needs to be seen to be believed. And now they've built this whole really cool modern airport style thing inside, full of bars and restaurants and terraces, and stainless steel escalators, which connects to the really old bit and the actual main auditorium. Because many operas go on for hours and hours, there are frequent intervals for people to come out and chat together and drink. What with the intensity of a lot of opera, you need a few breaks to keep you sane..

I've been there twice. Once in the eighties and once last year to see Tosca. Both experiences will *always* stay with me for a variety of reasons. There's too much to tell really.

The main theatre auditorium is just so big, its breathtaking. The space of it does compare to an enormous cathedral. It's not possible to convey it with normal photography.

The first image suggests something quite rigid.

http://info.royaloperahouse.org/Tickets/Index.cfm?ccs=167&cs=202&login=0

But it's very rounded as well. This fish eye lens shot is taken from the ground of the auditorium, looking up at the ceiling, it gives a better suggestion of its bowl like quality. In this image, the bands around the edge are the outer bits of its many tiers of seats, that go up and up and up. The top bits being known as the 'gods'.

http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/uk/images/uk_london_coventgarden_5.jpg

The outside is amazing too. The building goes back forever behind its main front entrance, if you walk down Floral street on the right. You just can't comprehend how big it is.

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/RoyalOperaHouse/Theatre1.jpg

****

It's very good because they now have regular performances where tickets are sent out to all sorts of groupsof people on low income, to be able to see stuff. In the past it was only rich people that could go. It's bloody brilliant.......

Oh that's awesome! Fantastic! Thanks for the pictures (although I wasn't authorised to access one of them. )

The others are just amazing, and it seems well worth every penny spent on it. What a marvellous evening it would be to attend an opera there. (The closest place we have here, is a nasty modern place. built at enormous expense as a monument to the vanity of a particular Mayor in the 1980s.)

http://www.nzopera.com/index.cfm

(Well, we try!)

http://www.the-edge.co.nz/About-THE-EDGE/Our-Venues/Aotea-Centre.aspx

But, it just doesn't compare! As far as I know, Covent Garden dates from the 16th century, am I right?

Vicky

Yeah but there's more important things in life aren't there, than all this show-offness and cultural baubles?

I'm sure you Kiwis have just as much of the most *important* stuff as we do.

Yes, but I'd like for us to have it all! The cultural baubles as well... Really, that Cathedral of Art (Covent Garden) is so beautiful!

There are many different types of beauty of course, and I am looking out at the harbour from my window, I wish I had our digital camera here, it's so awesome!

The glittering silver sea, the Harbour Bridge crossing it, everyting shining in the bright sunshine, cars, buildings, the bridge, and across it, the trees and houses on the North Shore. So beautiful, and the beauty of nature *and* human achievement.

I have found some images but none of them is exactly right...

http://piotrzurek.net/wp-content/thumb-auckland_by_nite_2.JPG

http://www.dosomethingdifferent.com/images/store/experience/landscape_image/149/Auckland_Harbour_Bridge.jpg

I love this one..
http://images.google.co.nz/imgres?imgurl=http://www.shorelibraries.govt.nz/Topics/Heritage/HarbourBridge/index.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.shorelibraries.govt.nz/Topics/Heritage/HarbourBridge/Slide1.php&h=274&w=450&sz=7&hl=en&start=17&um=1&tbnid=Oq0uKtqWpYdqlM:&tbnh=77&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAuckland%2BHarbour%2BBridge%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26lr%3Dlang_en%257Clang_it%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN

At night
http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/David-Wall/Auckland-Harbour-Bridge-and-Waitemata-Harbour-at-Dusk-New-Zealand-Photographic-Print-C12222921.jpeg

As is this one
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/SSPOD/SuperStock_442-7358~Auckland-Harbour-Bridge-and-Hauraki-Gulf-Auckland-North-Island-New-Zealand-Posters.jpg

>There are many different types of beauty of course<

Very true. The very best being invisible, IMO.