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

Hello ecotype. I stumble across your conversation with my friend Waz when I was nosing about her page. Just thought you might like to check out the h2g2 vege soc since you're a herbivore.

h2g2 vegetarian society page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A393176

Members of h2g2 vegetarian society:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A564347

Sal

Hi there! Nice of you to drop in - welcome to the newly revamped page.

I have indeedy visited the Vege Society pages before now, and had a fine time at the same party that I believe you were invited to yourself. (Although I made something of an exhibition of myself)

I had a snoop round your home and found it very interesting, particularly the bit about slugs. Please be consoled that *nowhere* has as many slugs as my old garden on Barry Island, which was walled with a nice, loose limestone dry wall which was basically a slug condominium. I restructured my whole garden by only growing woody, aromatic things and/or covering every bit of bare earth with prickly horticultural grit. My attempts to use beer traps failed due to a snag: my dog found the beery slugs irresistably tasty. This was so revolting (and potentially dangerous, given my neighbours' love of slug pellets) that I gave up and changed the garden instead...

Incidentally, I am also a "cat person" and found shorn canary's article really spot on. However, nobody mentioned the fact that the majority of pedigree cats don't actually go outside at all (most breeders refuse to sell their posh kitties to anyone who lets them out of doors unsupervised - because so many cats die outdoors at night). Argument rages about how suitable this is for cats, but as far as I can see, if properly entertained, Oriental cats seem pretty contented with this. (Mine can go out, but prefer to hang around tormenting the dog...)

d'you live anywhere near a canal, by any chance? I used to moor up in Leicestershire occasionally when I lived on the boat...

Well, blow me down! Such and embarrassment of coincidences! ('embarrassment' is the collective noun for coincidences, isn't it? ) My mother came from Barry Island. I remember it only slightly but fondly. Yes I live near the Grand Union canal. It's a few hundred yards away on the other side of the village from my house.

Do you not like slugs then? Bet you found a few in the canal tunnels. I have the same problem as you with one of my dogs. They don't even have to be soaked in beer - she just likes them and the bigger and slimier the better . Shan't tell you what I call her . You should get Waz on the subject of slugs. They find their way into her house - even upstairs. At least the thrushes can be depended on to eat the snails.

I didn't know the thing about posh cats. Sounds like a sound idea. I'm sure the birds would vote for it. Your cat must be a bit like my brother's. He sits contentedly on the lap of, well, whoever's sitting and if the dog comes over for a bit of fuss, he gets up, has a stretch, biffs the dog on the nose, turns round, curls up, goes back to sleep. Like a royal spoiled brat. Cute really

Shame I missed the parties. Haven't been in here for a while. I only logged on now to do a message for Waz about the RSPB and the ruddy ducks. Think I'd better do it tomorrow instead.

Sal

for some reason, the very large number of H2G2 Researchers still seems to throw up an awful lot of coincidences!

I've put an extra link on my page to a ruddy duck related site - it's labelled For Wazu. I'll leave it on for a few more days. You might find it interesting.

My cat sounds very like your description of your brother's!

I can recommend Barry Island for a mixture of nice beach, classic tacky seafront shops and outrageously run down and surreal funfair (but with a really beautiful old fashioned galloping horse roundabout). Go to look, not to ride!! The older bits of Barry town are very pleasant too; the rest is unfortunately very run down.

Although I miss my nice little *cheap* house on Barry Island, I have to admit that the Isle of Man is a lot prettier. So if you've a spare opportunity for a seaside holiday, I'd have to recommend here first. Particularly if you like watching seals, puffins etc. And because so few people "across" seem to hear about the Island, it's never crowded except for TT fortnight. The beaches and walks get the Amber (my dog) seal of approval too!

I read the report on the end of your link last weekend thanks ecotype. It's not just Waz's page I nose around on. I like rummaging about on interesting pages like yours. Hope you don't mind

This ruddy duck issue is very interesting. It's really made me think and question some things I must've been rather taking for granted. It seems quite extraordinary that an organisation like the Royal Society for the PROTECTION of Birds could be spending members' contributions on actually trying to exterminate a species of bird.

Cats are rascals aren't they? Another cute little habit of my brother's is, if he's bending over, say, gardening, the cat creeps up on him and launches himself to land on his back then wraps himself round my brother's neck and won't be shifted. He also ambushes my unfortunate brother by hurtling from various parts of a wooden frame-work (possible called a pergola) surrounding the house. Little monkey

Reading your description of Barry Island, I now see what must have attracted my mother, two of her sisters and one of her brothers to move to Brighton. I expect they would've missed the crunch of sand in their sandwiches if they'd moved in land. I miss living by the sea and the smell of candy-floss and warm dough nuts (though the occasional smell of raw sewage is a good miss).

The Isle of Man sounds like a wonderful place. How lovely to be able to see seals and puffins, right there on your own doorstep! My dogs used to love galloping on the beach and swimming in the sea. I think dogs have been banned from Brighton beaches now though. Shame.

I sympathise with your plumbing problems. When I first moved in to this house, which had been empty for about 3 years, my father turned on the central heating then came down to Brighton to help me move. When we arrived, the pipes had burst and the fitted carpet was floating. What a nightmare! Hope you get everything comfy and cosy before winter sets in.

Sal

Have a on me!

just got back from a really good course at Losehill Hall, Derbyshire. No time to go round any caverns, unfortunately, and a rather choppy ferry journey home. Ah, the joys of living on an island. Got home to find the mains water isn't flowing through the pipes - filter is blocked in the central heating boiler. AAAAARGH when will this house settle down and behave??

I don't know I'm comforted or not to hear that others have had flooding/pipe problems too... Still, it does seem to be very widespread. Several other researchers have had similar hassles. (i.e. you're not alone in rummaging round interesting-looking personal pages)

I'm going to cheer myself up by making a nice pumpkin soup. I've a recipe for soup actually cooked in the shell of the pumpkin. Don't know whether it matters if you've already carved a face out of it or not... I guess I'll just have to make do with a rather shallow soup bowl

Sounds very enjoyable up until the journey home. Hope you don't get sea-sick . I thought I'd try to cheer you up on the plumbing front. My central heating isn't working very well and hasn't for a couple of years. Fortunately it hasn't been very cold for the past couple of winters. I didn't get it sorted out because I'm allergic to plumbers (isn't everyone?). The last time I met a plumber with any skill in plumbing was in 1983. All the rest have been dangerous maniacs without the first clue about how to plumb. Perhaps it's just the plumbers in my area ... anyway

I thought, I know what I'll do, I'll telephone the "Corgi" head office and ask them for a list of decent plumbers in my area. Did that. The first one came out, gave a price, said he'd come back to do the job and I never saw him again. Phoned half a dozen more before I got one who would agree to come and have a look. He said I needed a new pump and sent one of his boys out to do the job. The boy fiddled for 3 hours then left, leaving water gushing in my garage and my freezer in the middle of the garage. The central heating was worse than before he fiddled but he said he'd come back and finish the job. Two weeks later I got a bill for almost £200 and heard nothing about actually getting the heating working. I've phoned them every 2 or 3 days for the past couple of weeks to see if they're ever going to finish the job. Today it's been snowing and the weather's freezing - and so am I. I'm not in the least bit surprised to hear other researchers have had plumbing problems. I think plumbers may, in reality, be a bunch of space aliens from a planet where there's no water.

Did you enjoy your pumpkin soup? Did it taste better for having been carved before being boiled? Thinking about your soup has made me feel hungry. Better go and feed myself.

Sal

Thanks for trying to cheer me up!
If it's any consolation, it's NOT just the plumbers in your area! And heating engineers are, if anything, worse. I managed to get two reasonable plumbers to fix my gunged up rising main and restore water to Sea Bean Cottage, but finding a heating engineer to service the boiler (functional but ageing, and with a slight leak) has proved very difficult. The first one I rang up was very rude and ended up virtually shouting at me over the phone, after I followed a plumber's suggestion of calling him about my mains water hassles. The plumber thought the boiler might have a blocked filter, preventing water from flowing on into the rest of the house; the heating man thought otherwise, and seemed to take it as a personal insult. Almost but not quite deterred, I contacted another heating person, who took over a fortnight to not return my calls. Now I've tried another, who can service the boiler, but will ring (WHEN??) to sort out a suitable time. just don't get me started! Oh - you just did

Having said all that, my kitchen, such as it is, is now restored to sinkdom and cookerability. It's really nice to be able to use an oven again And yes, the soup was nice. But I'm afraid I cheated and poured it into a pan - the teeth holes were cut too low for soup!