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

I may be travelling up to the fair town of Gloucester in the next week or so.

Can you tell me how far Cheltenham & Gloucester's head office is from the town centre? Would you consider it town centre/outskirts/in the sticks?

RF

Are we talking about the one on the business park?

I would consider it to be a healthy but not particularly pedestrian-friendly 30-minute walk from the train station. You will probably want to consider a taxi, especially given the hideousness of the business park.

Give us a shout if you get any spare time, and I'll introduce you to some of the better bits of Gloucester, although I warn you there aren't many.

B

Yeah, it looks like the one I'm going to is on a business park - Barnett Way.

Thanks...I probably won't have time to hang around in Gloucester - at least on this occasion, but who knows what the future may bring?

RF

If you get the opportunity to fiddle with my mortgage papers while you're there, feel free.

B

Is Barnett Way named after Kim Barnett, the cricketer?

No. It's a fairly common Gloucestershire surname.

And Kim Barnett spent most of his career at Derbyshire in any case.

B

Well, he was playing for Gloucestershire when I saw him play

I've always thought that particular building pulsates with evil. I keep on expecting throbbing pulses of dark light to emanate from it like bad cgi. Why they built it out of shiny black granite in a world of mellow yellow limestone is beyond me.

I think you'll find that much of Gloucester pulsates with evil.

Leastways, the bits I come into contact with on a daily basis do.

B

Mmmmm.

Very probably true. It's remarkable how rarely I've been there considing that I could have abseiled into the place from where I was born and raised, and that I've lived within 25 miles of it for decades at a time.

B

I didn't notice much pulsating...although, to be fair, all I saw of Gloucester was the train station and the view from a cab to a well-known financial institution's offices.

RF

You didn't miss much.

B