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

I'm a civil servant - I work for the Welsh Assembly Government. (major wow factor...)

sounds ! I get paid to drink ... not really. It just sounded good.

I'm glad you think it's - someone's got to!

It's a bit dull at times - but it pays me enough to keep strings on my viola...

I wouldn't mind being paid to drink , but I think I'd have to work at PG Tips or Twinings to do that - and then they'd make me spit it out!

Yeurgh. Monday again. Roll on Friday!

Owlatron sent me some PG tips... I thought it was really really good.

Today I've been practicing diatonic scales in G on my guitar... Demazed is back home so I'm catching her up on my latest poetry and painting and songwriting... so fun!

That's the tea that used to be advertised by Chimps. It's advertised by plasticine models now.

Just out of interest, I found out from reading Michael Palin's 'Full Circle' book that the name 'PG Tips' is actually a sort of 'tea' description - it means 'Premium Grade' (or something similar), and the 'Tips' refers to the very young, tender camellia leaves at the end of each branch on the bush. Apparently it's a real skill by the pickers to ensure that they always pick the 'PG Tips'!

I'm back on the Earl Grey myself - I found some decaffeinated Earl Grey in the supermarket that was on offer and actually *cheaper* than ordinary Earl Grey! That was so unusual that I bought myself a box of bags and rooted out my little brown tea pot to do that tea justice.

Ooh yum.

Mind you, I've got a mug of 'Blackcurrant, Vanilla and Ginseng' tea beside me at the moment - though technically I suppose it should be called a tisane because it's not got any tea in it really. Twinings blended it though, so I'm happy to call it tea.

I haven't had a proper cuppa in a while... I have a kettle but not a pot. I've been off Earl Grey for awhile as part of my caffien cut down... will be on the lookout for decaf! "Blackcurrant vanilla ginsing"? Wow. That sounds just completely amazing. I'm really into herbal "tea" right now... lots of celestial seasonings and stuff.


Not allowed to have or any other beverage by the computer... I've fried like 2 keyboards inthe past month.

I tried an interesting new one last night (also by Twinings) - Camomile and Lime Flower.

I usually have a cup of camomile before bed as it's meant to help you sleep (still trying to prove that theory) - but I'm not that fond of it. It tastes a heck of a lot better with citrus bits in it!

The range of teas is huge here, though they tend mainly to stick to old favourites like peppermint, camomile and stuff.

Lemon and Ginger is a nice one. I came across one with Elderflower in it - and I love elderflower cordial, so I snapped that one up straightaway.

I don't know if they have all these health benefits that people claim - I just think they taste nice!

Finally got some time to write you!!! So much ACEing so little time...

Plus the other night I couldn't get into a concert with my friends because I didn't have photo I.D. so I killed three hours in a grocery store, checking out their ethnic section, which had some super british goodies and made me wish I had more money.

Other than that, I have been working, not sleeping, and going to concerts and giving guitar lessons to an adorable golden curled 11 year old girl, who I'm sur thinks I'm Adolf Hitler reincarnated.

How are you?

With commendable timing, my computer has suddenly decided that it wants to work at the usual speed after nearly two weeks of being slow to the point of being catatonic, so I've been mostly lurking myself for a while - apart from the occasional short post in Bar Bacchus.

We had our first really *nice* day of the year so far yesterday - it was pleasantly warm, outrageously sunny and whilst it was a bit on the breezy side, it was enough to make sure my heavy coat wasn't warmed up too much by the sunshine (it's black, so it absorbs heat like blotting paper absorbs ink). It was one of those days that you get towards the end of winter that reminds you that there *will* be a spring, and the daffodils were out and nodding their heads in the ornamental gardens that are scattered around Cardiff City Centre.

It was so lovely that I just *had* to go out for a walk, and I'm so glad I did because it's back to normal today, with cloud in the sky and rain on the way!

We have this old saying about the month of March - that it comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Looking at the weather charts on television last night, I can see that the lion is all set and ready to roar. Gales Ahoy!

On the music front, I've had a week off this week because one of the orchestras has just had a concert so we don't start again for another fortnight - whilst the conductor of the other one is playing in a show. Never mind - we rehearse on Sunday again, and we get our first go at the Vaughan Williams Fantasia! Can't Wait!

I'm Back! How are you doing?

Pretty - though I'm back at w*rk again on a slowly brightening Sodit morning (I may not own a , but I know the words!).

Never mind, half an hour and the canteen will open - and I can get myself some toast and marmalade .

We have been spending the last few days (even the weekend! Wow!) in bright spring sunshine and wonderfully balmy temperatures. I was actually sat out in the sun yesterday afternoon in a friend's back garden (without a coat! In a T-Shirt! In *March*!) scoffing smoked salmon on rolls (something I've never tried before - and will definitely try again!) and a tasty mincefruit tart with Ice-cream.

Luverly...

Yum! Sounds nice!

We are in the beginning throes of spring... the grass is greening, the geese have returned, and the senioritis has hit the graduating class of this highschool. It's actually kinda neat, even if they do disrupt like EVERY class.

This weekend was Alumni Weekend, so I did a lot of late nights over pancakes (with peanut butter and maple syrup), belgian waffles (with strawberries and whipped cream), Slurpees, microwave burritoes, and too much cream soda.

I performed a new song on Dobry... it was recieved with mixed feelings by the crowd, I think it is lyrically the heaviest thing I've ever written, so that was kinda the effect I expected.

I was also greeted by a nasty surprise when I got home. At first glance it looked like a violin string had broken (figured it was temperature changes or something)... turned out that it had taken part of the bridge with it .

Oh well. More money down the music chute.

Lovely day, though! Think I'll soak up some rays!

That must have been some string snap to take out the bridge as well!

I haven't had a string snap on my viola in years, because I change the whole lot of them every six months or so. I used to change a string as it wore out (quite literally - it used to have the metal winding fraying off), but a new string with older ones sounds so incredibly obvious, that it's actually easier to have all new strings on, and change them at the same time. The only disadvantage is that a new set of strings (I use three different makes) costs about £80

Did you say belgian waffles and whipped cream?

Microwave burritos? How do you fit the microwave into the burrito?

Can you tell it's Wimpy today? Not my favourite day of the week, so I have to extract humour (even humour of the lamest kind) from somewhere...

Mmmm... I'm hungry just reading our posts. We talk about and munchies and music a lot.

Those are the best subjects to talk about!

The one thing about talking about food - it means I'm too busy doing something else to eat it!

Food is wonderful. I am very thankful we were created with the sense of taste!

As the greatest sage of them all, Garfield the Cat, once sighed:

If I couldn't have food - I'd just *die*.

Well said, that Cat.

Imagine that, a Dog agreeing with a Cat!

Garfield, a great sage....

I'm currently trying to keep my parents from giving away my dog before I get up there. They don't have time for it, but I'll be up there this summer, and I don't wanna lose my puppy! He's such a good boy!

My cat is a dictator. He's fat, fluffy, growly, and I love him. His name is Bluebeard.

Do you have any pets?

<fairy.

I do - well *we* do. We have a grouchy, sharp toothed, gastronomically fussy gerbil by the name of Smokey (because he is a lovely pale grey).

There's a story behind the little , as he's the son of one of my sister's gerbils (she has a whole family of them!).

Once upon a time, my sister went to the 'Pet' section of a local DIY store with the intention of purchasing a couple of gerbils (she'd intended on getting a cat, but her closest friend is allergic to them) as company in her house. She reckoned that a couple of males would fight each other, and getting a male and a female was completely out of the question, so she settled on two females - and named them Bubble and Squeak (after two gerbils of the same name in a children's book she read when younger).

About four weeks after getting these little creatures, she noticed one night that one of them, Squeak, was behaving a bit oddly, apparently gathering bedding together and nesting, but thought nothing of it as she was going halfway across the country to Chelmsford the following day to watch her favourite Cricket Team in action.

Now it gets interesting...

At about half past four in the morning, she came downstairs to find an extraordinary sight in the gerbil cage: four little pink things the size of butter beans (I think you call these 'lima' beans?). Bubble was clearly not happy with the arrivals, and was attempting to attack them. Fortunately, my sister had a spare container (a salad container, believe it nor not) to evacuate Bubble into, which she did (it's not the first time she's used the salad container to contain a rodent, she trapped a wild mouse in it a couple of years ago before releasing it into a field).

As well as watching the cricket match, she now had the additional task of buying a Gerbil care book to find out how to deal with a mother and newborns, and another cage for Bubble, who went ballistic at the sight of the babies.

We heard of this that evening when Mum took a phone call. We were suitably sympathetic - but, boy we laughed afterwards. It seems that she bought a pregnant gerbil! Major oops - particularly on the part of the pet store.

Fortunately for all concerned, Squeak turned out to be a superlative mother, and we daily watched the babies growing to a point where we could sex them and thus prevent any further outbreaks of pregancy. Less fortunately, we found ourselves with three girls and one boy. Whilst the girls could stay with their mother, obviously the boy couldn't, and my sister didn't think she had enough room for another cage. So he came to live with us.

We were a little worried about him at first, because he had to contend with being taken away from his mum, his sisters and all the familiar smells around him and plonked somewhere completely different. Needless to say, we made sure he had some familiar toys and stuff with him (he really was *very* when he first arrived), and left him in peace to get used to it. He seems to have done so - and has been with us now for nearly two years.

He's a contrary little monster at times, and free with his nips and bites (but that's normal for a lone male gerbil). Despite this, he really is a member of the family, and is invariably more interesting than the drivel that is known as 'television'. He's probably more intelligent than the drivel on television as well!

!!!!

We got hamsters from a pet store when I was younger... turned out the lady gave us boy and a girl instead of two girls... Libby quickly became Liberace, and soon we had a bunch of little monsters... They were so cute! Sadly, none survived, although I did my best to care for them after the two parent hamsters made a great escape (we still don't know how!) I want to get some when I get to my own place though... they're sooo cute!