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

Glad you liked the Christmas present . And I hope your Christmas day was a good one. Christmas dinner was very good - the only drawback was that we had it at midday and got very sleepy afterwards. Actually the Christmas holiday is still going on - my mother's birthday is on the 29th, today in fact, so my brother has stayed on as he usually does and I've been spending most of my time around at my parents too. My brother cooked us all a curried chicken and noodle soup last night. It was excellent. I'm due back there now for lunch. Later we're going to see the Two Towers, have you seen any of The Lord of the Rings films?

I've put you on the friends list - to do it you need to go to the homepage of whoever you want to add and click on 'add to friends list' which appears near their name. I haven't used it before so I'm not exactly sure what it does - I'll find out shortly!

I'm not sure if all animals are the same but during Christmas dinner I had a very good view of the birdtable in the garden where a nuthatch was steadily removing every sunflower seed. It made repeated trips to the birdtable and cannot possibly have eaten all it took. All the other birds gave way to it the second it came into sight. On the other hand I had a budgerigar once who fed and took care of his mate for years when she became too weak to fend for herself. I'll tell you the whole story later - it's a real greek drama.

In the meantime I hope you're still enjoying the twelve days of Christmas,
Waz

Very dear Waz

Thank you for your super interesting letter. So glad you have all your family around you and are able to celebrate Christmas in the "right" way. Living in Africa all my life I have always had all the waifs and strays to Christmas lunch . |It does not seem to have changed much here. But this time I was very tired doing it although I had my granddaughter to help.
My New Year has been extremely quiet. I lent my friend my car to go to work today as she was on duty at the hospital (she is a physiotherapist) and I was waiting for my son to come from his house hext door in order to open the bottle of sparkling wine. He has not come!!So I cannot open the bottle with my silly hands. I shall have to drink several "glugs" of the Chartreuse that I brought back from France on my first visit.

I loved the story of the nutthatch. I do not know what they look like. I shall have to buy a book of British birds. I want to put a bird table up but do not know which is the best one to have. The tree outside my bedroom has been nicely pruned so I could have a wonderful view of birds coming to feed.

My poor carer/cleaner lives in Yalding and their house has been under water for the last two days. it really must be awful. I wonder how the residents along the Severn in Shrewsbury are coping. I nearly bought a house on the river. It would probably have been flooded several years back.

Well, my dear friend take care of yourself. A happy 2003 and may all the good things you would like to happen -Happen!!
With affectionate
AR1
I have just spoken to one of my friends in Zim It is tragic the things which are happening there - and yet they want to have the cricket tour there!!. They are quite bats.

Very dear Waz

Thank you for your super interesting letter. So glad you have all your family around you and are able to celebrate Christmas in the "right" way. Living in Africa all my life I have always had all the waifs and strays to Christmas lunch . |It does not seem to have changed much here. But this time I was very tired doing it although I had my granddaughter to help.
My New Year has been extremely quiet. I lent my friend my car to go to work today as she was on duty at the hospital (she is a physiotherapist) and I was waiting for my son to come from his house hext door in order to open the bottle of sparkling wine. He has not come!!So I cannot open the bottle with my silly hands. I shall have to drink several "glugs" of the Chartreuse that I brought back from France on my first visit.

I loved the story of the nutthatch. I do not know what they look like. I shall have to buy a book of British birds. I want to put a bird table up but do not know which is the best one to have. The tree outside my bedroom has been nicely pruned so I could have a wonderful view of birds coming to feed.

My poor carer/cleaner lives in Yalding and their house has been under water for the last two days. it really must be awful. I wonder how the residents along the Severn in Shrewsbury are coping. I nearly bought a house on the river. It would probably have been flooded several years back.

Well, my dear friend take care of yourself. A happy 2003 and may all the good things you would like to happen -Happen!!
With affectionate
AR1
I have just spoken to one of my friends in Zim It is tragic the things which are happening there - and yet they want to have the cricket tour there!!. They are quite bats.

Entertaining waifs and strays seems pretty 'right' to me AR1, but you need to have a good time too. So sorry to hear you couldn't get at the sparking wine! That must have been very frustrating. In all ways. I used to find Christmas in Africa a let down. It never felt right in the heat and we had no family out there to visit. Everyone else seemed to be having big family gatherings. The best part was getting those little green slips in the post saying there was a parcel to pick up. Then cycling to the Post Office to fetch it and trying to see who it was from without seeing the details on the customs sticker!

My New Year was quiet too, but by choice. I'd hardly spent any time at home since Christmas Eve and needed some 'time out'. I did absolutely nothing on New Years eve. Mum and Dad did call in on New Year's day to first foot me for a change. Luckily they brought mince pies with them - I have nothing to offer at home over the holiday because it so often gets wasted. I take what I have to wherever I'm visiting. When I called round at theirs to pick Mum up for a quick visit to the D.I.Y. Stores (very seasonal!) I had nothing to first foot them with so I gave them the really traditional piece of coal! Traditionally wrapped in newspaper.

How is your carer/cleaner's house? Can she still get insurance cover? I don't think any homes were flooded in Shropshire, this time round although the Severn was very high. One our catering staff (from work) lives in one of Shrewsbury's flood areas. She was flooded twice around this time last year. I can imagine coping with it once in a life time but twice in a year with the threat of more doesn't bear thinking of.

I have written up that story of the budgerigar I mentioned. If you are interested it's here A917084. It's nonsense really but it has always intrigued me why he went so far beyond the usual requirements of budgerigar society.

I have just put up a new bird table. It was an RSPB one with a simple mesh tray, that is cleaner I think, and nothing else. But lots of the bread crumbs I had were too small and just fell through! A roof on the table stops everything washing away in the rain but the larger birds will be more wary of landing in a confined space. One with a seed dispenser is supposed to mean you have to top it up less often. But if you have nuthatches that doesn't work! I think the wire mesh hanging tubes that you fill with sunflower seeds or peanuts are as good as anything really. There's a hanging thing that looks like a round wire spiral that takes hunks of bread and ball of fat too. I only put my table up to put some fallen apples on as nextdoors cat is a problem when the birds eat them on the ground.

Nuthatches are worth seeing. They're very elegant, streamlined birds, slightly larger than sparrows I'd say, longish pointed beak, short pointed tail, grey blue top, back and wings, pinkish beige underneath. They tend to run up trunks and branches and are quite at home hanging upside down.

I could be rude and say that anything about cricket is bats! But I won't, I like a game that can last five whole days with hours of nothing happening. I used to love listening the the BBC cricket commentary in the days of Tony Grieg and Mike Brearley. I'm not keen on mixing politics and sport. Boycotts always seemed to me to be the easy choice when the teams involved could have used the opportunities to do something much more positive. But in this case the idea of putting on a big sports event in a country where people are facing starvation shows some very wrong priorities.

The my friends list works the way I though! Your latest journal appeared in my conversations list. It was interesting but I'll comment on the correct thread.

"A happy 2003 and may all the good things you would like to happen -Happen!!" You too AR1. And the first being that you got that bottle opened! I think most of the time you need to know what you want for it to happen - so I'll have to think about that - I have a tendency to just drift , not always a bad thing though .
Waz

Dearest Waz

thank you so much for the super long letter you sent me for the wonderful New Year. I did eventually get someone to open that bottle of And enjoyed it thoroughly. I do enjoy having waifs and strays around. It makes me feel so blessed and thankful for what I have got. which is so much.

I must try and get a decent bird table. The view outside my bedroom window has been fantastivc with the snow. I have taken down my heavy velvet curtains and the "nets" of my bedroom window. fortunately I have a strategically placed fir tree and around it my friend the gardener has made some super beds. I have had her plant all sorts of bulbs and also lilies of the valley. As I can only see them if I go up some stairs, having changed the curtains (I now have a Venetian blind which has been specially made for the window) I can now look out and see from slightly above what I could not see from lower down. It is quite wonderful.

I had the report from the specialist yesterday. It is SO encouraging that I cannot quite believe it. He feels that I have been wrongly diagnosed. that I actually have two illnesses instead of one and that I should, with intensive physiotherapy be able to walk again!!. And do you know what the first thing is that I shall do? Go and swim and surf in the sea. That is probably what I have missed the most. It is very encouraging. Now of course I am planning all sorts of journeys to go to my granddaughters wedding in Johannesburg in their Spring. Going to visit my brothers in the States and Canada, And generally being more independent that I can be at present. He was so abrupt but my goodness he was quite outstanding in his reporting of what the matter is with me. I am to go to him later so that he can do more tests and make his diagnosis.

My son is a member of the RSPB. We must get one of their books on British birds. And a decent pair of binoculars.

Well my dear, I am off to the land of Nod.
Sleep tight.

AR1

AR1 that is fantastic news! Really good. I wouldn't be surprised if swimming didn't turn out to be part of the therapy. I hope that next appointment is soon.
Off to Nod myself now,
Waz

Very dear Waz,
Thanks for sharing the happiness with me. I am getting slightly more circumspect about it now, but feel that it is so wonderful that he has told me thst I can hopefully walk WITHOUT having the double hip replacement. You will have to come surfing with me!1.

Sleep tight,

AR1

Good morning,
I'm usually all for a bit of circumspection but on this occasion... just don't let it stop you aiming for the best. Sometimes the medical services under pressure will settle for less unless you push them. I'm sure you know that already, so I don't know why I'm saying it. Physiotherapy can do wonders.

I will surf with you, just say when!

Waz

Thank you my dear,

I shall let you know when. But I think that it will have to be in the Indian Ocean. Far too cold over here.!!
Hope you had a good weekend. I am hoping to have news tomorrow about when I can start the exercises.

sleep well.

AR1

Hi AR1, the Indian Ocean is fine by me! Anywhere's good with a wetsuit but the snorkelling would be better there.

Have you heard any more about starting the exercises?

It's already next weekend now. I did have a good weekend last weekend - one day looking at the new house a friend of mine has bought and one day doing not as much as I should have.

I'll have to catch up this weekend. Particularly as work is getting very busy.
I'll write more later,I'm due round at my parents shortly,
Waz