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

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today my dear friend?

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

I've missed you! How have you been? I'm hoping that your cold has left you by now and that you'll be able to enjoy your Christmas holiday in much better health!

I've been busy with my mum, who came back from the rehabilitation facility last Thursday. There have been guests, nurses and therapists streaming in and out of the front door since she returned. She seems to be regaining her strength in a timely fashion and is enjoying the company of family and friends. She is quite fortunate to be able to be home for the holidays!

Of course, I've been cooking like a maniac for all these drop in guests. Plus I'm baking cookies and cooking up batches of sweets for next weekend. The lengthy h2g2 server implemetation problem just gave me that much more time to make myself busy in the kitchen!

I guess you start your vacation officially on Tuesday.
How's the script looking now?

Ooooh you are up late. I dashed off that poem to you in the other thread in about 10 minutes. It probably shows, too!

Sleep well and I'll see you soon !
Goodnight and sweet cyborg warrior dreams!

It was a very good poem and I posted two poems in response to it. I tell you how I've been and what's been going on in my life tomorrow as I'm off to bed now, goodnight!

Happy New Year CYBERHUMAN!

Hope 2006 will be a fantastic year for you and a lot of your dreams will come to fruition!

How have you been? I hope your holidays have been terrific...and that you've stayed warm during all the wintry weather lately in the UK.

I'd better get back to my guests! They've probably wondered where I went missing all of a sudden!*giggles*
Well, I couldn't resist stealing away for a moment to wish my dear friend a wonderful, healthy and prosperous new year!

I've missed you! I hope to catch up with you sometime soon.
Until then, take care and enjoy the rest of your holiday!

Hello Cynthesis!

Happy - belated - New Year!!!!!

Sorry for not being around very much over the last couple of weeks here on h2g2, but I was rather busy over my absolutely brilliant Christmas holidays and I have been bogged down by lots of very important English essays and the like since I returned to college at the start of January. So once again I apologise but I decided that tonight I had better catch up with my very good friend and see how things have been over the last two weeks, as well as let you know how my Christmas holidays went and what I've been up to recently!

So, here goes... My Christmas holidays were simply fantastic and one of the best Christmas holidays that I can remember, with almost all of the two weeks of the holidays being spent relaxing, chilling out, and doing as little as possible with regard to anything requiring much energy! I received some truly amazing presents on Christmas Day, including the scriptbook for the 2005 series of "Doctor Who," which was most appreciated and is extremely good to read, especially for a scriptwriter-in-training such as myself! I also received the DVD boxset of the "Doctor Who" 2005 series, all four novels of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in one volume, a gigantic encyclopedia-like book of all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets (for reference purposes only, not to read everyday as it's huge!), numerous DVDs and Xbox games, a "Red Dwarf" novel, chocolate and a great T-shirt with 'Lazy and Proud' on it. So, as you may have guessed, it was a very good Christmas overall for me! I still haven't looked at all of my presents yet as there are quite a few of them and so little time to get to see them all. My New Year was equally good, although a little on the dull side I have to say as I saw the New Year in while at my computer instead of down the pub or sat by the TV with a few beers, which is what most people do over here in good old Britain. Still, it was interesting to see the clock on my computer screen go from 23:59 to 0:00 and then hear my mum call up "Happy New Year!" I except New Year over in America is celebrated with much more style and sophistication than in Britain, and is slightly more exciting!

I was supposed to be meeting a few friends down the pub around New Year as two of them were on their long holidays from university and one of them had come back for the holidays from his university in Plymouth, which is about seventy miles away from where he lived before going to the university (the area where he lived is not too far away from me in fact). However, I didn't know that family members would be visiting over New Year and unfortunately I was drawn into seeing them as opposed to seeing my friends, so I had to cancel the trip to the pub. Anyway, my two friends are now back at university and both are doing well, although they won't be on holiday again until Easter so I'm going to try to see them at the pub then. Another of my good friends who I only got to know about four years ago moved to London earlier this month, and he's doing very well and off in search of his dad (who split from his mum when he was a baby and hasn't been around since). He started doing a chef course at the college near where I live back in September and was transferred to another college in London to resume his course. When he qualifies at the age of 22 (he's 19 in May), he will become a fully trained chef and will receive a license to open his own restaurant if he wants to! Not bad for a course that he saw advertised on the Internet!

I read on Nickelback's website about five days ago that they would be performing a concert in Southampton, which is only forty minutes away by car from where I live, on June 9th of this year, and two days after this I told a very good friend of mine who also likes Nickelback about this concert and arranged to go with her to the concert. However, we then tried together to book the tickets for the concert from one of the computers in my college, but when we went onto Nickelback's website to check the concert date, it had been removed, along with every other European concert date for Nickelback! I was totally thrown by this as two days earlier there had been two concert dates for Europe, both of them in Britain (June 9th and June 10th/11th to be precise), but they had been removed entirely and have not come back on the website since. Anyway, I'm keeping my eye on the website to see if it changes. It will be very annoying if the concert has been cancelled as it is one of my dreams to see Nickelback live, and my friend was likewise disappointed by the absence of the tour dates.

It's my birthday on Thursday February 16th!!! I cannot wait to turn 19 and I'm having a birthday meal on that evening with my friends at the pub, which should be great fun and most enjoyable! I wonder what presents I will receive, having received a mountain of presents for Christmas? I'm sure whatever they are they will be fantastic, as it's the thought that counts!

How is your mother? I hope she is recovering well, if not fully recovered, from the stroke that she had and you are looking after both her and yourself. I hope your Christmas and New Year was extremely good and happy for you, and you enjoyed every minute of it!

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

Glad to see you again! Sorry it took me ages to get to your last post. I'm still getting the hang of checking farther down my conversation list. Sometimes people have to get my attention on game threads to nudge me as a reminder. Thank goodness for the Yo! thread you set up for me. It's come in quite handily more than a few times!

Your holidays sounded rather ideally jolly for you! I figured you either became an X Box game addict, got engrossed in s or fell in love- since I hadn't heard from you for so long!
All of those Christmas pressies certainly will keep you busy for a long time yet. A lot of good stuff! That 'Lazy and Proud' T-shirt will see a lot of wear, I'm sure! I 'm happy to see that you got the complete works of your pal, Will Shakespeare, to keep you grounded.*giggles*

A quiet New Year's eve can be nice from time to time. American festivities can be pretty interesting sometimes, but for the most part they're probably as varied as what you get in the UK. I had planned on a quiet eve since my mum was still recuperating from her health problems experienced a month earlier.All of my sedate plans were toppled when my cousins (11 of them) arrived at my doorstep with the fixings for a flamenco themed party. I must explain that my childhood weekends were spent with my cousins at their vineyards/winery in Northern California where we took flamenco dancing lessons, rode horses and got into all sorts of trouble together. So, when we get together these days we tend to get out the guitars, castanets, sparkling wine and dancing shoes and
see who remembers the most dance moves and steps. My neighbours who stopped in to see what all the clamour was all about ended up staying to ring the new year in with us. It turned into a legitimate raucous New Year's party of about 30 people. I was busy making sure everyone was mixing well, dancing like a whirling dervish and producing trays and trays of hors d'oeuvres...
Supposedly, the whole tradition of partying on New Year's eve is to ensure that the rest of the new year ahead is a continuance of what you did to usher it in. Lots of happy friends and relations in high spirits
enjoying abundance of all good things...well, that is the theory. I'm hoping I won't be dancing like a dervish to survive, humouring complete strangers and engaging in endless manual labour for the rest of this year! The theory would have you peacefully ensconced in your room before a computer for 2006... Hmmmmmmm. Just musing!

The Nickelback concert listing on the website is a common thing that fans face these days. Sometimes projected concert dates and venues are posted there and then are abruptly pulled either because of production issues or a myriad other things that can come up with the band. Gee whiz, I hope they do perform near your town in the near future.

A couple of weekends ago, I performed in San Francisco as a backing vocalist for a folk/rock artist. It was so much fun! There were some real impressive performances by some respected rock legends sharing the bill that night as well. I saw on a wallposter at that venue that Nickelback had played there a few years ago. That's about as close as I've gotten to them; I used the same dressing room that they'd had.

My mum is doing all right for now. She fell last night but doesn't appear to have suffered any serious consequences from that after I picked her up. She did however, have to go back into the hospital briefly a couple weeks ago because she took the news of the death of her sister rather hard. Heart irregularities and low blood pressure were treated. While she was in hospital, I attended the funeral of my Aunt in northern California where I sang and did the eulogy.

I was with the flu for Christmas. Most of my plans were curtailed or cancelled. It was a fairly peaceful holiday, though, which I apparently needed. I got lots of books, CDs, gift vouchers for restaurants, bookstores, and one for a hot air balloon ride, some Belgian chocolates, roses, lingerie from naughty friends, a coffee grinder(from my big bro, who knows I don't drink much coffee...), a japanese maple tree, 2 cases of wine, a luxury office chair, tickets to the philharmonic and ballet, a Steiff teddy bear, lots of bath gels, beeswax candles, a Mont Blanc pen, some jewelry and funny socks. A pretty decent haul, now that I think of it!

Your birthday is coming upon us very soon! It's nice to hear that you've made some plans. Of course, we'll celebrate it here on h2g2, too!*puts her thinking cap on...*

I'd better close now and prepare some supper.
Hope you're doing well at college! How did that script fare in the midst of all your distractions of the holidays and major chillin'/relax fest?

It's lovely to hear from you again. I miss you when you're not around here much!
Hope to see you very soon...

Good night and sweet cybernetic dreams !

Hello Cynthesis!

It's great to be back online and don't worry, I also have a nasty habit of not checking far enough down on my conversation lists to read the most recent conversations that people have sent me!

I'm glad you had a good Christmas and New Year, even if you did have a few unexpected guests to keep you occupied and entertained! Hopefully this year will be a nice and peaceful year that does not see too many bad things happen for you or your mother. With any luck, 2006 will be a better year than 2005 and you'll look back on it fondly when it comes round to New Year again. I know I certainly hope that 2006 will be a good year as I want to move on to university in September and leave my college firmly behind, closing that chapter of my life and opening up a new chapter with a new environment, new people and new opportunities. I also have planned to write the first drafts of twelve scripts that I have up in my head, and if I can do all that by September I will be extremely proud of myself, and this year will have been very good by that point!

I find it strange that on the Nickelback website there are no concert dates for the whole of the European continent, Australia or Japan, while their concert dates for Canada and the USA go right up to the end of March. It just strikes me as a little odd that Nickelback, according to their website, aren't even coming to the eastern side of this planet during the forthcoming year. Now I'm no expert on concerts, having never been to one in my life before, but I would have thought that with the success of their latest album, "All The Right Reasons," released in October 2005, they would have been touring Europe, Australia and Japan to bask in the glory of their most recent album! The website hasn't changed since the concert dates were removed and I'm wondering if their visit to the UK has been cancelled permanently.

I'm glad you received some excellent presents for Christmas and am sorry to hear that you were ill with the flu while it occurred. I hope you are now taking good care of yourself and are feeling a lot better!

My birthday this year should be a good one! I'm really looking forward to it! I'd really like to have a party here on h2g2 if it's not too much trouble, as it's always nice to get your friends around and just enjoy life every once in a while!

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

about not getting here sooner. A bunch of cousins landed on my doorstep 4 hours ago and it was difficult to get away for long enough to start a post to you. They're now eating their dessert in the living room, so now I'm free for about ten minutes. Hooray!

Thanks for being so understanding about my inexperience in managing my conversation list better. I remember I mentioned to you my concern about adding any more friends to my list months ago.*shrugs* As hard as I try, it's still growing. Fortunately, all of them are people I love to keep in touch with on a regular basis. Unfortunately my conversation list is getting to be a faster conveyor belt whizzing past me than I reckoned on it ever being. If I ever considered Peer Review, it would be something akin to shooting myself in the foot right now. As it is, I've been unsubscribing from some threads just to keep things tidy! Don't worry, I'll get it together in a logical manner soon...

You've got TWELVE scripts in your head? That's quite a monumental feat to accomplish! Knowing you, I'm sure you'll get it done because you have enough passion and drive for the subject! And I'll be rooting and cheering for you along the way. I know how important writing these scripts are to you and hope you'll pace yourself enough to enjoy the goodness of life each step of the way!

How are things going at college for you? You really are on the home stretch there and it will be such a relief to fulfill all the requirements needed for you to head off to university. I'm really excited for you. There are so many changes and new things to experience before you. I hope that turning 19 will be an outright joy for you!

Yes, that it is rather peculiar that Nickelback doesn't have an extensive tour planned out for Europe. I wonder why

Sometimes, even if a group has a succesfully selling hit album, that success doesn't naturally carry over in a wider world market. I'm not sure about the European fan base. If figures are low, tours can be ruled out due to the unprofitability projected by economic analysis. A lot of groups and single artists have curtailed their touring schedules because of the rising $$$$$$ costs in producing a travelling act that might not draw a full attendance at potential venues. That's all bad news for fans, though. Live performances are soooooo worth experiencing! I hope you do manage to see some of your favourite artists very soon...*sigh*

How are Eddie, Willow and Anya doing these days? My is up to her usual tricks. She just burst into the living room, raised up onto her hind legs, pumped her front paws in the air and startled a couple of my cousins! now my cousins are spooked about spending the night here with a crazed that might attack them in their sleep!
The was pretty smug about getting a rise out of the guests. Naughty animal.*giggles* She's such a silly thing who gets her jollies out of shocking human beings. A harmless pastime.

I'd better get back to my guests and reassure them that their lives are not in any real danger...
for now.

Hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend and I'll see you quite soon!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today? I am doing very well at the moment and I'm looking forward to my birthday, which is now only thirteen days away!!! I think my meal at the pub with my friends should be a most enjoyable experience, even though it is a pity that one of my very good friends has agreed to work on that particular evening and will be unlikely to come unless she can leave work early, but nevertheless I've got several friends coming and it should be a fantastic evening of chatting, drinking and eating! I know that a couple of my friends have bought me birthday presents already, so it should be interesting to see how my guesses at what they have bought me compare to what they have actually bought me! Did that come out wrong? I didn't mean "compare" as in the presents may be worse than I have been guessing, I meant "compare" as in the presents may be what I have guessed they will be. No present from any of friends could ever be bad, as it's the fact that they went to the trouble of going out to buy me a present and wrapped it up for me with a tag and a card that means so much. It comes back to that old saying, it's the thought that matters the most.

I have been doing well in college recently, and am still bored of Shakespeare and "Twelfth Night," but there's only another three or four months of that and then we'll be on study leave to prepare for our exams in May and June! Fortunately, the two English exams (the only ones I'm doing) are at the end of June, so I have quite a while to prepare for them. I'm looking forward to seeing what the scriptwriting course at university (providing I'm accepted there of course, haha!) is like, and have a real urge to move on from college now, as I've said before.

Willow, Anya and Eddie are all doing fine and are still their amusing and energetic - well, Willow and Anya anyway - selves. Eddie has taken to lying down in front of the radiator in our hallway, where he will sleep for several hours a day, basking in the heat from the radiator and taking a big swipe at Willow or Anya with his paw if either one dares to approach him stealthily. For a cat who's supposed to be asleep, he has remarkably good hearing! The weather here in Britain has turned extremely cold and frosty, and according to the weather reports is expected to last well into next week! Brrr!!! No wonder Eddie has taken to sleeping in front of the radiator!

I was very worried today as Willow went out at about 4.00 this (Friday) afternoon and did not come back in again until about 2.30 in the early hours of this (Saturday) morning. This is very unlike her because both Willow and Anya have always come indoors when it gets to about 8.00 in the evening, especially in cold weather like what we are experiencing at the moment. Eddie doesn't mind being out at night and so he usually comes in at about 2.00 in the morning and then goes out again at about 5.30 in the morning. But Willow and Anya do not like being out at night. Now, Willow and Anya, both being females, were spade in May of last year, having their "sexual organs" removed by the vet so that they don't get pregnant and have kittens. It's not that me or my mum don't want them having kittens, it's just that there are some rather bad-tempered tom cats around our area and we don't want either Willow or Anya being wounded in a fight brought on by a rather angry tom cat. Unfortunately, Willow is part of the 1% of female cats in Britain who have what vets call "shadow seasons," i.e. they believe that they are coming into season and they go off in search of a tom cat to do his duty and make them pregnant, however, this belief is a false one as they can't get pregnant as there's no womb to grow the kittens in. Anyway, Willow has been "flirting" with a tom cat who keeps coming in our garden and at about 2.30 in the morning she came running indoors followed by this very happy-looking tom cat (guess what they'd been up to?!). Willow was very frightened and ran upstairs, so my mum shooed the tom cat away. I'm guessing what they had been doing had turned nasty and Willow wanted to get back to the safety of her home.

Anyway, I'm extremely glad that Willow was not run over or anything, as it's so unlike her to be away from home for so long, and hope that the tom cats of the local area treat her with the respect and dignity she deserves!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY Cynthesis!!!!!!!

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

Thank you so very much for the sweet Valentine's greetings!

How have you been doing? I'm hoping the Shakespeare studies don't kill your appreciation for his works. That's altogether too long a time to be studying one play... unless you're learning to be manically obsessive about it! I love Shakespeare's whole spectrum of works. A comprehensive overview would seem to be more beneficial to the student of Shakespeare's literary art. Of course, studying the one play can serve to teach you to have a more analytical eye for his craft and the discipline it takes to create that particular form of English literature. I'm just anxious for you to do well with this course and go on to do what you *really* want to do at university!

I've been practicing for my Mozart() concert set for April. The two performances pieces are really rather technically difficult and challenging. Thank goodness I like challenges, though! Some of the notes that I have to sing sound stratospherically high. I hope I don't call in all the canines of the neighbourhood with my sonic pitch!

Are you looking forward to turning 19?It really is quite close now.
It's amazing how many people I know who have birthdays in February. Most of my favourite people, too! There's you, my mum, my brother and 14 of my friends as well! I had a party here last night for 3 of those friends and I had another party on Sunday night for my big brother. February is a non-stop partying month!

How was your Valentine's day yesterday? I must admit I think I overdosed on chocolates that were lavished on me by well meaning friends. It's 2:30 in the morning and I'm wide awake! That's the typical effect that too much has on me...*sigh*

I hope Anya has been keeping safe from those tomcats lately. As much as I love tomcats, I know they can be one track minded and do what they do instinctively. The more that Anya stays indoors during this particular season, the better. It can be a pretty rough world out there sometimes for female cats. Besides, it's cold out there!

It's still ridiculously summery here in California.Maybe because I just stated that, there might be a cool spell on its' way. Wishful thinking, huh? Well, a girl can always dream...

I'd better go and tidy up my post-party disheveled house before I head off to bed.
Take care, CYBERHUMAN and I'll see you very soon!

Hello Cynthesis! How are you today?

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

How's my favourite 19 year old cybernetic friend?
Was your birthday a good one for you? Hope you got to get together with all your friends as you had planned.

I'm fine. I've been busy preparing for that Mozart concert. *giggles* I've been trying not to alarm Jek and Hade with all of the stratospherically high notes that are in these particular pieces. I hope I don't upset their circuitry!

What's new with you, dear friend?

Hello Cynthesis! I'm off to Rome tomorrow, woohoo!!!

Ciao CYBERHUMAN!!!

It's so good to hear from you! And I'm soooooo happy for you that you're going on your Roman Holiday!

I was just thinking of you last night and wondering if you'd be going off on that trip to Italy you had mentioned months ago. I've missed chatting with you for all these weeks- but I knew you were busy with college work and concentrating on doing all you could do to get into the university of your choice for this coming autumn. You were supposed to get results of your Maths exams this month, too, as I recall. All those steps leading to university admission are crucial right now. So I hope all has been going wonderfully well for you so far!

I've been well and dealing with the usual health situations with my mum. My Mozart concert performance is a week after Easter. So, I've been busy preparing for that.

I hope you get to see all the things you've planned on your trip and lots of unexpected gems along the way, as well! I just know you'll have a spendid time and charm all the Italians you encounter!
Bring back some great memories, okay?

Wishing you and your Mum a safe and highly enjoyable journey!
Take care and see you when you return.

Buon viaggio, dear friend!

W e l c o m e H o m eC Y B E R H U M A N!!!

So? How did your trip go?
I'm hoping you had a fantastic holiday and have brought back some wonderful memories. You probably found some places you're planning to return to in the near future. I don't think I'll ever get my fill of travelling in Italia.Or eating my way through that country either!

Get plenty of rest after your journey and I'll check in on you again soon to find out how you're doing (also to fill you in on what's been happening around here...)!

I'll bet that Willow, Anya and Eddie are delighted to see the likes of your mum and yourself!

Take care, dear friend. I'm glad you're back!

Hello Cynthesis! I had the most amazing holiday you could possibly imagine, and that's no exaggeration! While it's great to be back, I feel a strange kind of longing to re-live the holiday, or to go back to Rome as soon as possible in the near future! I shall endevour to tell you all about my very delightful and very busy holiday in great detail in this post.

Sorry for not being around very much here on h2g2 or talking to you at all for the few weeks leading up to my holiday, but I was very busy with my English work and sorting out my applications to the universities that I've applied to, and I had a very successful interview at Bournemouth University, which is just down the road from where I live, about three weeks before I went on holiday. But I'll tell you about that later, as for now I want to concentrate on my brilliant holiday to Rome. I'll tell you all about it in order, starting at the beginning, going into the middle, and finishing at the end. I've seen this technique used in a number of books that I've read and it seems to be very successful indeed.

My mum and I were due to depart from Dover, on the right south coast of bad-weather-cursed England at 3.15 in the afternoon of Sunday 3rd April, which meant that our coach would be leaving Bournemouth at about 7.00 on Sunday morning to begin the seven hour journey to Dover. We both decided it would not be worth going to bed on Saturday night as we would be too excited to sleep and would have to get up at about 5.00 in the morning anyway. So we stayed up all night and then my dad gave my mum and I a lift to the coach station along with our suitcases and hand luggage, and we departed for Dover at more or less exactly 7.00. I read an entire "Doctor Who" novel on the way to Dover, which I was quite pleased about! We arrived at Dover at about 2.15 in the afternoon of Sunday, and then we had an hour to stand around at the ferry terminal waiting for the ferry that would take us across the Channel to Calais in France (they had no seats at the terminal so we got sore feet from standing). Anyway, the ferry departed on time and we then had an hour and a half to enjoy the luxuries on board the ferry before we arrived in Calais at about 4.45 on Sunday afternoon.

We then went into our coach that would be our main means of transport for the remainder of the holiday, as the coach that took us to Dover remained there and our "holiday coach" was there to meet us in Calais. We were introduced to our coach drivers, Ray and Robbie, and then we travelled continuously throughout Sunday evening, the whole of Monday and into Tuesday afternoon, getting very little sleep on the coach as the seats are so upright. We travelled through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland on our way to Italy, and arrived in the north of Italy by about 6.00 on Tuesday morning. My mum and I actually weren't too bad with having three days of almost no sleep, and pure adrenaline kept us awake and alert on the journey (all 36 hours of it!) to Italy. We then spent from about 6.00 on Tuesday morning to about 4.00 on that afternoon getting from the north of Italy to Rome, which is quite low down in Italy, as you'll notice on any map. On the way, we passed the cities of Milan and Florence, two other Italian cities I'd be really interested in visiting.

We arrived in Rome at 4.00 exactly as scheduled. We arrived at our hotel, called "Aris Garden," a short while later, on the outskirts of Rome, about twelve kilometers from the centre of the city. The hotel was not too bad, and my mum and I went straight to our room (they automatically assumed we were a couple when we booked it, hence the one room for both of us) and fell asleep for two hours! Anyway, we had a delightful meal in the hotel restaurant, called the "Taverna degli Artisti," which I think translates to "Tavern delegated to Artists" as there was a stage at one end with microphone and keyboard set up for Italian bands to perform there in the evenings. We had leek soup, pasta and ham and chips for our meal. On Wednesday, my mum and I went into the centre of Rome and had a general look around, travelling there on the underground train and bus respectively. When I saw the Colosseum for the first time, I nearly fainted, it was that breath-takingly marvellous! When you think it was made by ancient Roman hands with primitive tools over 2,000 years ago, and is still standing today, it simply has to be seen to be believed. It's certainly left me with an image I shall never forget. We also saw the balcony where Mussolini made his speeches, and the Santa Maria church, where the Spanish Inquisition was held in the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as the Pantheon, a marvellous building similar to the Greek Parthenon which contains the tomb of the artist Raphael and has a wonderful domed ceiling. We have many photos of each of these places.

On Thursday, my mum and I went into the centre of Rome again and we spent three and a half hours in the Colosseum, and the inside is even more breath-taking than the outside! It quite literally blew me away and it didn't sink in until later that I'd actually been inside the Colosseum! We took loads of photos inside the Colosseum. Once we'd left, we travelled slightly away from the Colosseum and went to the Roman Forum and the Imperial Fora, the former government buildings of Rome and the Roman Empire. There are dozens of ruins there and we took quite a few photos there too. On Friday, we went with our coach group to the Vatican, as there was a tour of the Vatican with a tour guide included as part of the holiday, and we spent three hours wandering around St. Peter's Square and the Vatican. We went inside the Sistine Chapel and photographed the famous ceiling painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. After we visited the Vatican, my mum and I went by ourselves to the Theatre of Marcellus (Teatro de Marcello in Italian), which looks like a smaller version of the Colosseum, except that you can't go inside unfortunately as it's all railed off. We also saw near to the Theatre of Marcellus the ruins of the Temple of Apollo and the Mausoleum of Ottavia, who was the daughter of Emperor Augustus and died young, so he built the mausoleum in memory of her.

Saturday was our final full day in Rome, so the coach group arranged a trip to a pizza restaurant just down the road from the hotel, which made extremely good pizzas, and we went there in the evening and had a massive pizza and a slice of cake for pudding, which was lovely! I had three slices of cake afterwards! The coach group had 42 people in it (the answer to life, the universe and everything!) and about half of them were under the age of 25, which surprised my mum and I as when we did a coach holiday to Poland in 2002 the majority of the people were all aged over 80. We spent most of our evenings in the hotel bar drinking beer with the younger members of the coach group, and it was a very friendly and matey lot this time, whereas in Poland we didn't really hang out with the old people and there wasn't so much of a friendly and matey atmosphere amongst the coach group. We took lots of photos of the coach group, some with us included, and it really was a brilliant group this year. Call me a typical male or whatever, but there was one girl in that group called Lyn, who was 21, and I fancied the pants off her! Let's just say I had a few pleasant dreams on that holiday!

OK... maybe I shouldn't have said that... moving swiftly on... ahem...

We left our hotel on the morning of Sunday 10th April at 11.00 and then we sat around in the sunshine for two hours, before departing on our coach at about 1.30 on Sunday afternoon. We arrived back at Calais at about 12.30 on Monday afternoon, so we travelled back through Europe quicker than when we travelled through it towards Italy. We then travelled on the ferry back to Dover from about 2.30 to 4.00 on Monday afternoon, and then took a coach back home to Bournemouth from about 4.30 on Monday afternoon to about 8.15 on that evening, and fortunately the lack of traffic meant we arrived home earlier than expected! It was a simply superb holiday and I loved every minute of it. My mum and I took about fifty photos each, and that's no exaggeration, which we are going to get printed out later this week (we have digital cameras, being the funky technologically advanced people we are). I had a sinking feeling in my stomach on the way home as I really didn't want to say goodbye to all the lovely people I met on holiday (especially Lyn, sorry, couldn't resist!) and I don't like it when good things come to an end. I really did feel quite down on the final day, especially once everyone had gotten off the ferry at Dover, as my mum and I will probably never see them again. Lyn lives in Essex, not far from London (okay, okay, won't go into that again!).

Overall, that was the best holiday I have ever had in my life. Rome is a stunning city and an absolute must see for everyone! My mum and I are planning to go back there on the same holiday next year, woohoo!!!

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

I am so thrilled for you that your holiday was such a memorably wonderful life experience! Rome is an absolutely beautiful city to explore - and even more so when seen for the very first time during the season of spring! It sounds like everything conspired to make this journey very special for you. You're probably going to be on a high for a while after this, and all the great memories will only be welcomely reawakened when you see the photographs of places and people that you encountered along the way. And to think that you will be returning there next year !!!
Your mum certainly is worthy of a lot of appreciation for being the great travel mate that she's been for you! You really are blessed with one very cool mum!

I had no idea that it took as long as that to reach Dover from Bournemouth. The fact that the both of you had not slept the night before you left was surprising. *giggles*You really *must* have been wired about going on this trip! I'm awfully glad that you had such an engrossing book for the ride to while away the time. Which one was it?

Why don't they have seats at the Dover terminal? Is it a security measure to discourage people with questionable intent from loitering and observing the movements of others at this important port? That fact struck me as odd. I'd only been through there to catch a ferry a few times, but that was many years ago. Good golly, that makes me sound so ancient-and I'm not more than 10 years older than yourself!

You must have had some interesting rest stops along the way. Being in transit like that for such a long duration surely took you through areas you might want to return to explore in the near future. Maybe next time , you'll be able to stop in Milan and Florence. Were there any places along the way that piqued your interest enough to want to plan a trip specifcally to tour on your own?

I'm so impressed that your travel group got along well socially with one another. That always enriches the travel experience greatly. I think the trend in travel tours has evolved since the last time you traveled to the continent. More and more of the younger segment of travellers are opting for the excellent package tours available these days. Years ago, you'd find a more *ahem* mature crowd with disposable incomes and more time on their hands frequenting these all inclusive tours. Nowadays there are tours that cater well to a student's desire for a holiday that is good quality for the money and leaves all the decisions about lodging, ground transportation and itinerary to the travel industry experts. It's not unusual to see tour groups comprised of a majority of tourists under the age of 40 these days. It makes the tour company groups scramble to provide comparable or better services than their other competitors in the same field. That makes things so much better for the consumers.

I can see that you got caught up in the of Rome. I had the same feeling when I set foot in the Colosseum! It took my breath away. I may have read all the guidebook comments on the history of the place and studied scholarly textbooks, but nothing informed me so well of what took place there throughout its history than being able to walk on its grounds. The connection was immediate. Words were not needed. That place has a profound effect on a great many people.I'd give a lot to see the Colosseum for the first time again. The awe and wonder of it all is life changing. Things just aren't the same after.

You and your mum logged a lot of mileage walking around sightseeing! But I'm sure all the exertion and sore feet were worth it all. You were in Rome! Food always tastes even better when you've been out and about seeing all those new sights and cultural interests. You probably had some very good meals while you were there. I wonder if you two have been having cravings for some of the dishes you enjoyed in Italia since you got home.

Don't worry about going on about Lyn in your holiday accounts. I've got to admit that I invariably get infatuated with lots of men when
I'm out travelling. I used to review deluxe hotels for a guidebook six years ago for my job. There's something about seeing new things and experiencing the unfamiliar while travelling that heightens one's senses...okay, that's my excusefor falling for guys I travelled with or met during my travels. It happens to everybody at some point in their life!

It *is* a big mood dropper at the end of tours when fellow travellers go their separate ways- but at least you're left with some awesome memories to keep that can't be ever taken away. Those are my favourite holiday souvenirs to take home with me. It sounds like you've amassed a great treasure trove. I hope some of those vignettes can pop up in your future writing endeavours, maybe in different guises, but poignantly authentic
because of how close the subjects touched your soul. I'm sure you'll make good use of those souvenirs you've stored up within you when they're needed.

I'm glad you're home, though. Things have been a little intense here with the implementation of the profanity filter while you were away. Some researchers have gone off to do most of their journalling at different sites. They haven't completely left hootoo, but they've made their displeasure clear to the italics that it isn't just the censoring
aspect of this that has got them concerned. It was the underhanded way that the site administrators put an automated system that doesn't really effectively work (it censors common inoffensive words because the machine is limited in recognising the full spectrum of language meanings and intentions) and won't admit that it causes more problems than it solves.*shrugs*There's been a lot of mutual disrespect between the tower and hootooers lately. I just wanted to give you the heads up on it and save you the massive backlog. You've got other more important things to attend to at college and focusing on making it in to university!

*giggles*Isn't it funny how I don't use many smilies when it's early and I want to do things quietly?

Well, have a lovely Easter day and I'll see you soon!
Take care and enjoy your Sunday!

Hello Cynthesis! How are you today?

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

What a delight to hear from you! How are you doing?
I'm hoping all is well with you and that those college courses are coming to a successful close. I was just thinking of you today and wondering how you've been.

I'm fine. I've been doing a lot of the same old stuff; vocal sessions, ballet classes and looking after my mum. Yesterday, I started up my garden by planting tomatoes,courgettes,aubergines, green beans, basil, parsley, marigolds, cosmos, sweetpeas and moonflowers(a kind of very fragrant flower that blooms after the sun goes down and glows white in the dusk of the evening). Other than bears and raccoons coming out of the surrounding hills and visiting my neighbourhood, everything is pretty much the same.

What's new with you, dear friend?