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

Oh my! A dull, uninteresting, painful and exhausting day for you. I'm glad you survived it so well!
I trust that your leg *is* getting stronger and stronger with the torture devised by your physiotherapist.Hmmmm. No doubt you were given a whole set of exercises to continue to do at home also. You've got to do what you've got to do! I just hope you're not in too much residual pain from the original operation and the therapy. Although, thinking about your situation further, I'm also hoping that the cold weather doesn't affect your leg in any adverse way! *sighs*

Snow! That should be interesting! I remember that when I lived in London we had frozen pipes on the outside wall of my mews house blow torchedby a (conveniently blowtorch wielding)plumber to thaw them out. Thank goodness that freezing winter weather is not a constant in England.
I do love snow, though. It's lovely to watch it fall from the relative safety and warmth of a heated home. Your mum's idea of hibernating is a fine one! As long as you're stocked up on supplies(hotand goodies) and don't need to be anywhere, hibernation is a wonderful option!

Keep warm and enjoy a well deserved day of rest for you tomorrow!
I hope to chat with you again soon.
Until then, sleep well and sweet dreams to you!
Goodnight !

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today my dear friend?

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

I'm fine, thanks.
I wasn't online much for the past couple of days due to all the Thanksgiving day preparations and such over here.

Today I went to a recording studio to read some literature that is used by the viually impaired/blind. I've been providing my voice doing books and magazines on tapes for the blind for about ten years now. It's one of my favourite volunteer jobs to do.

How was your day?
So, did it ever get cold enough to snow over there?
How are you doing?

I am doing very well thank you, and this weekend is going to be a particularly good one for me because my single lecture on Thursday morning was the last time I have college before next Tuesday, so I will be enjoy a nice four day weekend! I've already been relaxing and not doing much today and it has been very delightful indeed! Also I have no college work to be doing this weekend, so I will be able to just relax and enjoy my free time before heading back to college on Tuesday.

The weather over here has been bitterly cold today and there has been frost on both the ground and the windscreens of people's cars, with an icy chill to the air and quite a strong breeze lasting nearly all day, although (unfortunately!) there has been no snow in the area where I live. The nearest place in the south of England which has seen snow today is about twenty miles away from where I live, so I hope they consider themselves very lucky as they have been receiving all the snow today!

Apparently the weather is supposed to remain like this for the entire weekend, with the temperatures reaching -5C in some places in central and southern England, although with the breeze coming in from the sea places along the south coast can expect temperatures of more like -8C! I'm definitely going to hibernate indoors over this weekend!

I bet you'll make me more envious by saying you've been having temperatures of over 20C and almost summer-like weather!

Well, it *has* been cooler here...21C today!
What can I say? This is downright cool for most Californians!
I admit I was wandering around the house in khaki cargo shorts, a camisole top and flip flops until just now. It is relatively warm but hearing about your weather in Britain made me put on a sweatshirt!
Actually, it's cool enough outside now to be wearing autumn clothes and I will do so because I'm going out to the cinema in an hour.

A four day weekend sounds lovely. Hibernation is the sure way to go!
I'll bet your cats are staying close to the radiator these days.

I'd better go and change into some going out clothes now or else!

Enjoy the start of a long relaxing weekend and I'll be sure to contact you tomorrow to chat!

Slumber warm and well!
Goodnight and sweet cybernetic dreams!

I hope you really enjoy your time at the cinema. The last film I saw in the cinema was "The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers" in 2002 and I loved it! So do enjoy yourself and be sure to tell me how it goes at the cinema! Speak to you tomorrow! Goodnight and sweet dreams too!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today?

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

Sorry I haven't been around much for the past couple of days. My mum had to be taken by ambulance to hospital for a slight stroke on Friday night.>
She sustained minimal brain damage but is sufferng ill effects from the drugs used to save her life. It's been a very difficult few days and I've not had much rest. Still, I think things will be alright eventually for my mum and I'll sleep when the right time avails itself to me during a future lull of affairs.

I hope your extended weekend was lovely and that the cold weather was enjoyed safe and snug indoors!

How are you doing?

I'm very sorry to hear that your mother has been committed to hospital again and I wish her the very best of luck in making a full recovery and getting back home again. I guess that a stroke must be quite demoralising because it weakens part of your body and therefore you can't do very much physically, but your mind is still fully active and you're almost trapped within your own body. I'm very glad to hear that the brain damage is minimal and very sorry to hear that the drugs used to save her life have backfired and done more damage to her. I do hope she makes a full recovery soon though, and am sending her "get well soon" thoughts across the ether!

I guess this must also be very demoralising and hard on you as well, what with your mother having not long recovered from her fall. I can understand why you have not been online much in the last couple of days and I'm really sorry to hear that it is affecting you almost as much as it's affecting your mother. I guess you've had a couple of extremely trying days and so you deserve lots of s!!!!

All I can say to you is to remain strong and just be there for your mother whenever she needs you to be. It's good that she has you to look after her and she's not on her own or dependent entirely on the doctors and nurses to look after her. I'm sure seeing you turn up at the hospital must cheer her up and probably you just being there is making her fight this predicament and want to make a full recovery. I think getting some much needed rest is very important because if you get too tired then you'll be of little use to her as you'll need to take care of yourself before you can take care of her! After a few hours of good sleep, you will be in a much better position to help her and care for her! I'll be sending "get some rest soon" thoughts out to you across the ether!

I'm doing very well thank you and will be having my Christmas holiday from college in three weeks time, which will be very nice!

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

Thanks for all your kind and caring thoughts across the ether!
I do believe they've made quite a difference here. My mum is starting to improve after a few nightmarish emotional rollercoaster-like days. The physcians have adjusted her medications and it looks like she's responding in a positive way now.
Before this, she was having great fits of violent hallucinations and was pulling out her IV's and worse things... I was certainly at my wits end trying to not have her forcibly restrained. That was why I spent so much time by her side. I was constantly talking her down to a calmer state while pinning her down physically when needed.*sigh*
Yesterday, she was able to sit up and could actually carry out coherent conversations with people. She's still confused though, but I'll take mildly confused over what she went through prior to this any day!

I've been able to get some rest and that has made things so much better.
Trying to be relentlessly strong for others can take its toll on anyone.
I was walking around looking shell-shocked and dazed at the end of each day and then putting on a cheerful determined battle face when in action during the day. A bit of rest has restored my equilibrium and strength to cope.

Thanks for your friendly words and support through this ordeal. That kind of caring smooths the way and enables real healing to flourish where it's most needed.

It's good to hear that you're looking forward to the Christmas holiday break from college.
I guess an absence of Shakespeare is a welcome Christmas present in itself!

How have you been today?

I've been not too bad thank you, but am tackling a rather nasty essay on Act 3, Scene 4 of "Twelfth Night" at the moment!

Not that dastardly Shakespeare again!
When will it ever end?

Carry on!

I'm hoping to get the essay finished tomorrow so I can hand it in on Thursday, which is the due date for it anyway. Apparently we're going to be going through certain scenes in "Twelfth Night" in even more detail once we've finished going through the whole play, which won't be very long from now as we're already up to Act 5, Scene 1. I can't believe we're going to be going through those scenes in even more detail than we already are, but the good news is we will soon be moving on to other types of spoken language in literature. So I may only be doing Shakespeare for another few weeks!

How is your mother today and how are you coping? Did you get any rest yesterday or today?

Thank goodness there is an end in sight for that Shakespeare!
I never dreamed I would ever say such a thing, but really, that much time spent on study and analysis of 'Twelfth Night' is bound to make a student not want to have anything to do with it again! Tsk, tsk, tsk...

My mum is looking much better today, thanks for asking. She is able to take only a few steps with assistance but she seems to be regaining her coordination. One thing that kind of concerned me today was that her left hand seemed to have lost some range of mobility and the blood circulation was quite poor. This is a new development.I had the staff do an x-ray on it a couple of hours ago and I'll know a bit more tomorrow. I have a sneaking suspicion that it may have occurred from an IV set up that may have hit a nerve during its application.*sigh*
Otherwise, my mum seems to be doing better and improving well enough!
I'm coping with this as well as I can. Catching up on some sleep is one of my priorities now. I was extremely depleted with all that went on and being on call like that was rather stressful. I plan to get some major sleep tonight because my mum is past critical stage and has been confirmed stabilised in status condition. I'm feeling deeply relieved today!

Do you have anything planned for your upcoming Christmas hols?
Ooh. I'd better say goodnight to you.
Looks like it's near recharging time for you, dear friend!
So goodnight and sweet cybernetic dreams to you!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today?

I am doing very well today as my lecture at college tomorrow afternoon has been cancelled and the college is closed next Monday and Tuesday, while Wednesday is always my day off, so I have no more college until next Thursday, giving me an unplanned week off from college! I have no college assignments to be doing so I get to spend an entire week just relaxing and chilling out, enjoying my free time and doing as little as I possibly can in the way of stressful or energy-devouring activity! So, quite understandably, that has cheered me up immensely and it means that I'm really looking forward to the next week off from college.

I have worked out that we have now been studying "Twelfth Night" for four months now and the end of the tunnel is only just in sight, as we have more or less finished reading through the play now and just have to go through a few scenes in more detail before we can finally say goodbye to Shakespeare and his plays, which will be rather nice! I think it's absolutely true that studying a play, a novel, a short story or a poem too much can put you off the play, novel, short story or poem in question as your brain just gets fed up of seeing the same words on the page day after day for four months without rest! That's partly the reason why I decided a while ago that I would never consider studying English for a degree, with the other part of the reason being that I strongly feel that English literature or English language/literature in schools, colleges or universities today is far too analytical and nowhere near creative enough. As a creative person who simply thrives on creating characters, plots and themes and turning them into works of literature, I really did not like English at school because it was far too analytical for my liking. I'm only doing it at college because Sociology was too heavily based on Maths!

Well, that's only partly true, I do love English in all it's forms and am prepared to put up with the heavy emphasis on the analytical side of it at college, but I don't think I could ever carry it through to a degree. Fortunately, the BA (Hons) Screenwriting course I'm really interested in doing at Southampton University is more based on 'experience and understanding through practice' rather than 'analysing and assessing.' So you spend more time writing scripts than analysing them, which suits me absolutely!

How is your mother today? I hope she is continuing to make a speedy recovery and is healing well from the bad after-effects of the drugs that were given to her! My "get well soon" thoughts are chugging their way through the ether to your mother, and hopefully they will get to work in aiding her recovery in no time at all! I also hope that you are now getting enough rest and are taking good care of yourself so that you can care for your mother in the best possible way you can!

It's December 2nd today, hooray!!! Christmas will be coming our way in just twenty-three days and I cannot wait! I have already written out my Christmas list and hopefully I'll get the things that I want the most from that list, namely books, Xbox games and DVDs! It's strange I think how I still retain some child-like enthusiasm and eagerness for Christmas to come round nice and quickly, even though I'm turning 19 in February and probably should be slightly less enthusiastic about the whole affair by now!

The wonderful quote from the Fourth Doctor springs to mind there - "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

A whole week off of college is terrific!And then the true Christmas holidays will come round soon as well. Not bad at all. I'm sure you'll use your time to its fullest advantage.

My mum continues to improve in health. Thanks for your "get well soon" thoughts sent over the ether. They arrived in full force and my mum was upgraded in condition enough to be transferred to a rehabilitation facility today! She should be in there for about a week and a half or two until she's stronger and feels safe enough to go home.
In the meanwhile, I will be performing a concert 900 miles away on the 10th. There really was no way to get out of this particular contract but I do know that my mum will be safe and concentrating on working hard to be well and stronger at the rehabilitation facility. All in all, things are working out surprisingly well regarding my mum's recovery.

Unfortunately, my friend in London that I told you of a couple weeks ago passed away from cancer yesterday morning. You know how stressed out I have been lately...the news hit me pretty hard and I'm dealing with the shock and grief as best I can. I still had to rehearse last night and I found out that singing while hysterically sobbing is something I do not want to ever repeat again. I had to keep running out of the concert hall to get my wits back together and then run back in and continue the rehearsal. All the while, the musicians I was working with just shook their heads in puzzlement wondering if I could possibly get through this rehearsal and actually be fit enough for the coming performance.*sigh* I'll be alright. I just need to make sure I stay healthy enough between now and then. I'm determined to make this concert a tribute to my friend's memory and I know he'd want me to carry on with the performance as best as I could despite the extenuating circumstances.

I'm glad you're eager for Christmas. It really is so sad when people lose that basic child like joy of anticipation when pressed upon by the weight of the world to grow up too fast. At least you'll have a fresher outlook that I think is rather valuable in life. And as someone that I know who is creatively gifted, you're bound to use this outlook with a lot of success in your future. The fourth Doctor knew what he was talking about when relating to the fullness of life's experience!

It's getting late again.
Even though I know you're off from college tomorrow, I think I'd better say goodnight to you now.
Just to give you the option of doing the healthy thing and getting a decent recharge at a decent hour.
Of course, it's all up to you! You'd probably suggest the same thing to me if we switched time zones!

Have a nice slumber and sweet cybernetic dreams, dear friend!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you my dear friend? How is your mother recovering now?

Hi CYBERHUMAN!

I just returned from a concert gig in Seattle, Washington! I didn't see your message sooner. It was forced way down the conversation listing!

I left on Thursday and did all the usual required rehearsals and the performance was last night. It was a wonderful experience. Seattle is a beautiful city and my hotel suite was quite posh. It was difficult to leave this afternoon!

My mother is doing better and shall be returning home on Thursday this week. She has been in the rehabilitation facility recieving all sorts of therapies. They've worked her quite hard and I know she's going to appreciate the comforts of home that she has missed these past 16 days since her slight stroke.(Technically she has been diagnosed as having chronic subdural hematomas which will have to be watched closely for the rest of her life.)

I've missed you! How have you been?

I have been doing extremely well over the last few days and have been busy writing the first draft of my "Doctor Who" script called "Child of the Mandragora," which is going very smoothly at the moment and should be completed during the two weeks of my Christmas holidays. I will then write two more drafts of the script before writing my fourth and final draft, which will be the finished version of the script, and my best friend Simon (a big "Doctor Who" fan like me) will be reading each draft and offering me his thoughts and opinions on the current draft so that I can make improvements and editorial changes to it before writing the next draft and repeating that process until the final version is written.

My Christmas holidays begin a week on Tuesday, so that will be December 20th, and will last until either on or around January 4th of next year (I can't remember the exact date the holidays will end, but I know they are definitely two weeks in length). They are beginning so late this year because of when Christmas Day is, as it is the law in Britain that Christmas holidays in full or part-time education must be only one week before Christmas and one week after Christmas. Sometimes they have started as early as December 16th, but other times they have begun as late as December 23rd, all depending on when Christmas Day is. I don't have any real plans for my Christmas holidays, except that I should be going round to my friend Peter's house to watch the new Blink 182 DVD and should also be going to the cinema with Simon to see the new "King Kong" film. I might also be going down the pub a few times with my friends, but that's about it really.

Unfortunately, I am rather ill at the moment with a very bad cold that has been brewing inside me for the last three or four days and has now blossomed into a full-blown cold, which has made me feel both dizzy and hot one moment and cold the next moment all throughout the day. I took an aspirin earlier and now feel somewhat better, and I'm hoping that it will just be a quick cold as I have college on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. With any luck it will pass in the next couple of days and I'll be feeling much better again.

I'm very glad that your mother is now recovering well and will be home again soon! You must be so relieved that all is going smoothly and she is back to good health! I'm also glad your concert went well!

I'm glad to hear that you're doing what you love best. Writing a Doctor Who script fully uses your skills and talents as they were meant to be used. I'm sure the script will turn out very well. It's great that your friend Simon can offer his input and support. It does help to have someone along during the writng process who knows what direction you are headed towards and knows you well enough to make objective suggestions.

For someone who says he hasn't any real plans for his Christmas holidays, I would say that what you've mentioned so far here constitute some pretty good plans. They sound perfectly good to me!

I'm just now getting in gear for the holidays. My mum's care and the concert preparations took precedence over everything else lately. Luckily I fit in some shopping while I was in Seattle. Pretty soon I'll be starting up with the holiday baking. There's so much I'll be needing to do in the next 2 weeks!

I'm so sorry to hear that you're feeling poorly! I hope you're being especially good to yourself and doing all the right stuff to get well quickly. In the meantime, I'll be sending out get well and healing thoughts to you on the ether hoping that you'll be feeling much, much better soon. This is your second cold of the season that I can remember! Hopefully, no other cold bugs will want to visit you again for a long while after this bout.

I'd better get going. You'll need to recharge about now.
Take care!Hope you have a healthy dose of restful slumber and sweet dreams!
Goodnight dear cybernetic friend!