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

You're welcome to all the rain we have. I went wandering around for an hour and a half in the pouring rain yesterday, visiting some potential future Halls of Residence for next year, then looking for a cashpoint so I could get the bus home. By the end of it, my feet were absolutely sodden.
I then made the mistake of playing volleyball for an hour, still in my soaked shoes. As a result, the balls of my feet now ache, especially when I walk on them.
When I go home I will try to keep looking in on h2g2 as frequently as possible, but on past that won't be very often. I expect I will be back again in September.

It still hasn't rained here. Having said that, I am now expecting a downpour momentarily...

sodden shoes... Been soaked so many times that now I usually carry a waterproof jacket and a spare pair of sneakers(those running shoes made by Adidas,Reebok etc.) in my car.

Any of the Halls look promising?

Have a good Summer holiday. Do you have any trips planned for the Summer?

The local news reports say that this has been the wettest May on record so far. Today will be only the third day in the month with no rain.
I don't have a car, so I'm walking or bussing to most places. My bag isn't really big enough to take a second jacket and a spare pair of trainers (generic name for any sporty-type shoes as far as I'm concerned, including Reebok, Adidas, etc.), even if I could afford another pair. The trainers I'm wearing now need some replacing, which I may do some time this coming week.
None of the big commercial places looked particularly promising, so I went ahead and booked a place I visited last week. It's a big house with three or four floors, each of which has been turned into a sort of flat for three or four people. It's not a new building, but it's very cheap, covered by the Student Housing Authority Gold Standard, and the bedrooms are very large. It's also only about 500 metres away from the place I'm staying right now.
The summer is looking quite exciting. The first part of it will hopefully just be relaxing and lazy, although my mum will probably push me into some sort of job to fill the time. In August, though, we have two really big family gatherings within a couple of weeks. First there is my cousin's weding in Manchester, then we all go over to France (except the groom's family, of course) for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary party. We're expecting over 70 guests for each event!

A large ziploc sort of bag does come in handy for protecting valuables inside of a non waterproof bag.

Those accomodations sound nice: Big bedroom, convenient to move into, cheap...

Your Summer sounds exciting. Congratulations and best wishes to your grandparents. Fifty years is quite impressive these days.

I suppose it is quite impressive. I get the impression that it used to be quite unusual as well, but only because they didn't usually both live that long.

You have a point there.

Today was entirely too hot and bright. I've boxed some of the excess sunshine and heat. Where should I send it?

Unfortunately today it was much the same over here. I had a wander round town after my exam this afternoon, and it was really too pleasant for words. My skin is now actually browning, a rarity in itself.

How was the exam?

We had some lovely weather yesterday: sunny, bright, a bit of a breeze so it didn't seem so hot. Big chance of rain later today...we'll see.

I tan pretty easily. Well, when I am forced outside in that heat, I tan easily.

As a rule, I burn more often than I tan. This is the first time in years that I've actually noticed the tanning process going on. Usually I just go off for the holidays and suddenly realize that I am slightly less pale than I was in March.
The exam went okay, I think. A couple of things I neglected to revise came back to bite me on the bum, but otherwise I reckon I got a decent result from that one.
The one I had today is a different matter. It was a double-header, as most of them are on my course, and the section B (long-answer question) on one paper was so open-ended and without any clues as to how answer it that I couldn't even get started. Literally. Section B counts for 50% of the total paper, too!
Meanwhile, on section B of the other paper, I got a bit bogged down on how to work out the sequence of a peptide. It's basically a logic puzzle, but I'd forgotten what the various tests did, so I had to work them out from scratch. I'd just managed to work out the sequence in pencil on the test paper when they told us to put our pens down. I had no time to explain how I got to the sequence I had, which is obviously where most of the marks are picked up.
Having said all that, I'm not going to let it bother me. It's on to the next exam, with the prospect of holidays to spur me on, and I'll deal with the exam results when I get them.

*passes the sunscreen and the *
It's raining!

That's too bad that you ran out of time...in mid answer. Well, it happens to everyone at some point.

On to the next exam! That's the spirit.

I only deal with a minimal amount of chemistry most days. Usually it only stretches as far as the chemical and biochemical reactions from certain substances: Which medications react with which supplement, which natural substance will remove which type of stain, why zinc and B6 are so important... Beyond that it just gets confusing. I work in a natural food store. You wouldn't believe the questions and requests we get in an average day.

*leaves a tray of refreshments to help with studying/revising: *

I know it's naughty of me, but I really can't be bothered with sunscreen. It's annoying, doesn't feel right, gets in all the wrong places, makes and stick to you, wips off almost immediately... Grrr!!
I'd much rather stay under a sunshade or endure a bit of burning. Neither of them is enormously arduous, after all.

I prefer the spray on sunscreens. They are much easier to apply. If you don't use a sunscreen, you should use a moisturizer afterwards. A moisturizer containing aloe would go a long way to repair the hidden sun damage.

I don't really go for grooming much. Half the time I don't even bother with a comb, let alone some sort of skin-care products. I'll bear your advice in mind, though, if I happen to pass a supermarket shelf with some moisturiser on it.

Avoid products that contain any kind of petroleum: mineral oil, petrolatum, etc. Aloe, comfrey, and calendula are the main herbal moisturizers/healers. Some wrinkles that are caused by sun damage don't show up for years. No one wants extra wrinkles.

I was wondering a coiuple of days ago what I would look like with wrinkles. I think I might even be curious to find out.
I went to Southport yesterday, and got my first sunburn of the year on my arms. It's official: the Summer has started!

The first to show up are usually the fine lines around the eyes(crows feet). Smoking will cause fine lines around the mouth, as if there aren't enough reasons not to smoke.

Won't argue with you about Summer being official. I managed to get a bit of a tan Thursday...from taking several loads of empty cardboard boxes and packing materials to the dumpster/bin on the far side of the parking lot. The problem is: Our Summer weather lasts until almost Halloween .

Have you gotten any exam results back yet?

Our Summer weather lasts until almost mid-afternoon!
I won't get my results back for another month or two. I don't know why they take so long, but certainly 4 days is pushing it a bit.

*goes searching for a temperature converter... http://www.albireo.ch/temperatureconverter/ *

29 degrees centigrade = 84 degrees farenheit(temperature inside my house when I got home from work). 37 degrees centigrade = 98 degrees farenheit(usual outside Summer temperature here). I'll be happy to send as much heat and sunshine as you'd like.

Another month or two? I'd be a nervous wreck.

Here is an interesting link. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
That is the national weather site. It is quite helpful during hurricane season. Well, right up until the electricity goes out because of the storm.

It's 37 degrees?! [insert obscenity here]! It was about that hot here on _one_ day in late March 2000, and everybody was absolutely cooked. I remember that day because I was helping a class of 7-8 year olds. The teacher realized that none of the students were going to get any work done in those conditions, so he took the class outside, found a limited chunk of shade for them to sit in, and read Harry Potter to them for the best part of the afternoon.

It really is that hot here most of the summer. The hottest days are in August with temperatures of about 98- 110 degrees farenheit. On top of that we have humidity levels beyond 100%. The local forecast also gives a heat index(how hot it feels because of the humidity).

I've read the Harry Potter books, liked them a lot. Haven't pre ordered the fifth one yet.