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

Hey Mark!

I can’t believe I have to type this thing over again. What happened? I typed it first on Microsoft Word and pasted it in. Damnation!!! And the library was closing and I had to rush. I think I posted it without previewing it first. Maybe that's what happened. But then I had to leave and couldn't do it over again with the word document, and hadn't saved it to a disk. GRRRR!!

Well, I know my posts over the weekend turned out pretty long; but I was basically just replying to YOUR posts. I’m not the most concise person. Why use one word when you can use 15 or 20! (I guess I was one of your loose ends, huh?)

I just hate seeing ex-students when I’m out and about. I mean, I love seeing them; but they always say to me, “Do you remember me? What’s my name?” God, I hate that! Because I can NEVER think of their name! I can remember absolutely everything ELSE about them: conversations we had, how well they did on particular assignments, how well they did in sports, etc; but I just can’t come up with the name on the spur of the moment.

A few weeks ago, I saw one of my absolute favourite students of all time at a fast food place. He had on his baseball uniform, and had obviously just come from a game. I guess he’s 16 now. Just couldn’t think of his name! But I remembered everything else! It’s so frustrating. We talked for a while, standing in line together. It was wonderful to see him.

And thinking of him reminds me of how cute the boys are when they get crushes. After the bell rings at the end of class, they’ll find some reason to be the last one out of the room, mostly by having a great deal of trouble getting all their books back into their bookbag! I have seen this so many times, and it’s always the same! I guess they want to be in the room alone with me, and have my undivided attention, even if it’s just for a few minutes. I imagine every teacher has this kind of thing happen, though I’ve never really asked anyone about it. Once I was a chaperone when we took the whole 7th grade to a water park at the end of the year. At the end of the day, we were sitting on the bus waiting for stragglers, when this kid got on the bus and practically leapt into the seat with me! I would NEVER have had the nerve to do that as a 7th grader if I had a crush on a teacher! He was so brazen. It was funny.

I did have one kid this year who must be as tall as Steve was in 7th grade (or whatever it is you guys call it). It’s hard to think of them as ‘boys’ when they’re 6’4”!!! He could hardly fit in the desk, poor thing!

Speaking obliquely. If you only knew how many times I’ve tried to figure out: “What is Mark REALLY trying to say here?” over on the boards. I have to confess that I’m not very good at taking a hint (in case you hadn’t noticed!). You pretty much have to hit me over the head with a 2x4 (a thick board) for me to get the message. You’d think someone with ESP (smile) would be more perceptive; but it doesn’t seem to work that way for me. You pretty much just have to spell it out for me in no uncertain terms, Mark. So when you are being polite to me over there, but seem to be trying to tell me something, I start to get nervous; because I’m not sure quite what you want me to do, usually. By the way, is a moderator reading these messages, too?

I certainly didn’t think you were a stalker, Mark. If I were a host, and curious about someone, I would certainly look up their email address. I don’t think that’s particularly invasive. I mean, the BBC trusts you as an honourable person. I figure I can too! ~ Well, if you’re not a teddy bear, that’s ok. That could probably get to be too much of a good thing, anyway. And as I said, even though I do like the ‘work’ Mark very much, the ‘real’ Mark feels much more comfortable, somehow. It’s hard to explain the difference, and how that mask dropped away from you on that very first message you wrote me here. It’s kind of like when my students run into me at the grocery store. They are dumfounded that I actually shop, and thereby must have a kitchen, and consequently must live in a house, just the way they do!

“Easy-going” is a wonderful trait. It appeals to me very much. I am easy-going, too, which is lucky for my students. I take things in stride and don’t make a big deal of stuff. I feel exactly the way you do when things go wrong. No point in getting all bent out of shape now, because it’s already happened. I do everything I can in advance to keep things from going wrong; but when they do, I know that it couldn’t be helped and I don’t worry about it.

You get all shouty! I would love to see that. I guess I’m still kind of used to picturing the other Mark. Can’t picture him all shouty. Like what might you get shouty about, if that isn’t prying too much? At school, I’m always so calm and easy-going with the kids. But once every so often, I’ll shout, and they are so incredibly shocked. Terrorized, really. It’s kind of like marshalling your resources for battle and saving the big guns for when they’re really needed! One thing that has always amazed me, is that they always do what I ask them to do. Especially at the end of the year, most of them are taller than I. Many are LOTS taller, even the girls. Yet these big boys, when I escort them to an 8th grade corner (not a fun time), always come obediently along and do what I say. If they only knew how easy it would be just to NOT do what I say! (Scary thought.) But it pretty much never happens.

Nah, I didn’t expect ever to hear from the Department of Justice. If they were spending their time writing courtesy letters, I would be upset. A postcard might have been nice. Or a standard, two-line email saying “thanks for your interest”. But I’m fine with not hearing from them.

About holiday. Well, I have so much to do. But I know that if I don’t get away, I will just hate myself. So I plan to book 2-3 weeks up at a cabin in the mountains. I go there every summer, even when I have gone up to Oregon for a few weeks. Oh, Mark. That’s such a wonderful thing about being a teacher. All that time in the summer to go travelling. It’s just too glorious!!! There’s a cottage in Oregon on a hillside overlooking the ocean, and it has wrap-around windows and a wrap around deck. So in the early morning and in the evening, I can sit at the table and see the fog drifting in. It’s a little beach town called Oceanside. Has a little teensy post office, the size of a walk-in closet; one little restaurant with a gourmet cook; one saloon (like in cowboy movies) with less expensive food than the restaurant; a teensy coffeehouse; and that’s it! No other commercial facilities. So when the mist rolls in, there’s one red neon sign down there that shows through the fog. And it’s just so wonderful. I would love to be able to sit there and write my books. Then I wouldn’t feel cooped up and would be at peace with spending the time writing.

I think you’re exactly right about the poetry/song lyrics. “I am the walrus”. I have to laugh. But I have written some good songs in the past, IMO. I mean they express what I feel, and that’s the point, really. I definitely have no trouble coming up with words. The music is the challenge; but that’s what makes it interesting. When I start going to see my musician friend, I intend to ask him to let me switch over to electric guitar and see how I do on that. Obviously, I have an acoustic guitar right now. I’d like to get an acoustic guitar with an amp hook-up, because my voice is really soft, and I want to keep it soft while I sing. ~ That song I wrote while annihilated – I can probably salvage some of it. There are a few lines, a few sections, and few images that aren’t half bad. But looking at it sober was such a shock. My god!

In I Wanna Be Adored, I love the beginning. The bass is up front and loud. The drums in mid-distance, and lead guitar way in the background, unobtrusively; and the lead almost sounds like chimes a little bit for a moment or two.

Gosh, Mark, you’ll be gone the rest of June. Then I might be gone the last two or three weeks of July. But up in the mountains, there’s a cool library with computers. If I were to go there at 9:00 a.m., while all the teenagers are still in bed, I probably could get online for an hour or two. So all is not lost. The next two weeks will be a little tough. But I’ll be thinking about you the whole time. Be sure to take gallons of sunscreen along. I don’t know how tan you are. Probably not much, going by the weather in London. You know what? You really should keep a journal!!! I kept journals of both my really long trips, and will eventually write about those trips, in either a fiction or travel-writing format – or, preferably, both. So I hope you keep a journal of your thoughts and musings. You’ll be glad you did. Take it from me!

I also wrote the FBI an email (which is in the Department of Justice, too, under John Ashcroft), during all those sniper shootings. I worried from the beginning that it was an Al Qaida operation and was actually a diversionary tactic so that other activities could be carried out with little notice; like the planting of poisonous substances near air-intakes on large buildings, the caching of plastic explosives near Washington, DC, buildings, to be used at a later time. It would have been a perfect strategy. Just two guys to set the suburbs on edge; and then all this other stuff going on in D.C. itself while law enforcement was totally distracted, which they were. All this turned out not to be the case. But I'll just bet you that Bin Laden's followers took note of the whole thing and got some great ideas from it. It would be so easy, so effective, so low-tech. And I wrote the FBI about my concerns before these exact same speculations started surfacing in the media.

Hey Mark!

What a terrible night this has been. I have had nothing but computer troubles, first at the library, where the fiasco above happened. I was rushing to finish, and they start flicking the lights off and on, and making annoying announcements. And I think I posted without previewing, and didn’t have time to repaste the word document. So then I went over to the 20 cents a minute place, and had to re-type this because I hadn’t saved it to a disk. And then typed a LOT more stuff that, oh god, I can’t even remember now. Tried to print. Printers weren’t working. Posted all that stuff, all happy that I got it done. Had to leave there because they closed. Came over to the 24 hour location and called up your journal so I could print the stuff out. And none of it’s there! I just cannot believe it. All that stuff! GONE!!!!! I have gone all these months and never saved anything to a disk for these boards, but I will never again fail to do so. Because now it’s midnight here and I’m tired, and I’m going to try to remember all the stuff I said and do it again. This place is giving me free time, as well they should. Now if I can keep my brain functioning another hour or two!
**************************************
Well, I know my posts over the weekend turned out pretty long; but I was basically just replying to YOUR posts. I’m not the most concise person. Why use one word when you can use 15 or 20! (I guess I was one of your loose ends, huh?)

I just hate seeing ex-students when I’m out and about. I mean, I love seeing them; but they always say to me, “Do you remember me? What’s my name?” God, I hate that! Because I can NEVER think of their name! I can remember absolutely everything ELSE about them: conversations we had, how well they did on particular assignments, how well they did in sports, etc; but I just can’t come up with the name on the spur of the moment.

A few weeks ago, I saw one of my absolute favourite students of all time at a fast food place. He had on his baseball uniform, and had obviously just come from a game. I guess he’s 16 now. Just couldn’t think of his name! But I remembered everything else! It’s so frustrating. We talked for a while, standing in line together. It was wonderful to see him.

And thinking of him reminds me of how cute the boys are when they get crushes. After the bell rings at the end of class, they’ll find some reason to be the last one out of the room, mostly by having a great deal of trouble getting all their books back into their bookbag! I have seen this so many times, and it’s always the same! I guess they want to be in the room alone with me, and have my undivided attention, even if it’s just for a few minutes. I imagine every teacher has this kind of thing happen, though I’ve never really asked anyone about it. Once I was a chaperone when we took the whole 7th grade to a water park at the end of the year. At the end of the day, we were sitting on the bus waiting for stragglers, when this kid got on the bus and practically leapt into the seat with me! I would NEVER have had the nerve to do that as a 7th grader if I had a crush on a teacher! He was so brazen. It was funny.

I did have one kid this year who must be as tall as Steve was in 7th grade (or whatever it is you guys call it). It’s hard to think of them as ‘boys’ when they’re 6’4”!!! He could hardly fit in the desk, poor thing!

Speaking obliquely. If you only knew how many times I’ve tried to figure out: “What is Mark REALLY trying to say to me here?” over on the boards. I have to confess that I’m not very good at taking a hint (in case you hadn’t noticed!). You pretty much have to hit me over the head with a 2x4 (a thick board) for me to get the message. You’d think someone with ESP (smile) would be more perceptive; but it doesn’t seem to work that way for me. You pretty much just have to spell it out for me in no uncertain terms, Mark. So when you are being polite to me over there, but seem to be trying to tell me something, I start to get nervous; because I’m not sure quite what you want me to do, usually. By the way, is a moderator reading these messages, too?

I certainly didn’t think you were a stalker, Mark. If I were a host, and curious about someone, I would certainly look up their email address. I don’t think that’s particularly invasive. I mean, the BBC trusts you as an honourable person. I figure I can too! ~ Well, if you’re not a teddy bear, that’s ok. That could probably get to be too much of a good thing, anyway. And as I said, even though I do like the ‘work’ Mark very much, the ‘real’ Mark feels much more comfortable, somehow. It’s hard to explain the difference, and how that mask dropped away from you on that very first message you wrote me here. It’s kind of like when my students run into me at the grocery store. They are dumfounded that I actually shop, and thereby must have a kitchen, and consequently must live in a house, just the way they do!

“Easy-going” is a wonderful trait. It appeals to me very much. I am easy-going, too, which is lucky for my students. I take things in stride and don’t make a big deal of stuff. I feel exactly the way you do when things go wrong. No point in getting all bent out of shape now, because it’s already happened. I do everything I can in advance to keep things from going wrong; but when they do, I know that it couldn’t be helped and I don’t worry about it.

You get all shouty! I would love to see that. I guess I’m still kind of used to picturing the other Mark. Can’t picture him all shouty. Like what might you get shouty about, if that isn’t prying too much? At school, I’m always so calm and easy-going with the kids. But once every so often, I’ll shout; and they are so incredibly shocked. Terrorized, really. It’s kind of like marshalling your resources for battle and saving the big guns for when they’re really needed! One thing that has always amazed me, is that they always do what I ask them to do. Especially at the end of the year, most of them are taller than I. Many are LOTS taller, even the girls. Yet these big boys, when I escort them to an 8th grade corner (not a fun time), always come obediently along and do what I say. If they only knew how easy it would be just to NOT do what I say! (Scary thought.) But it pretty much never happens.

Well, lo and behold, the missing stuff has suddenly appeared. This journal isn’t closed when the board is closed, is it? I’m so confused!

Anyway, when you’re in Greece, I’m sure there are internet cafes. If something cool happened, you could drop me a line about it here, if you found that you simply couldn’t restrain yourself. (ha ha) No expectations, mind!!! Just a thought. I am prepared for your absence. Who knows. I might even get caught up on the millions of chores I have to do. Think of the sleep I’ll be able to get when I’m not sitting up at 2:00 a.m. at 24 hour copy places!!!! Of course I wouldn’t be doing this except for the fact that you are leaving. Maybe you should take a hat along, and some quality sunglasses. Everything will probably be expensive there, or unavailable. And if you happen to sit on a wall, watch out for any Arabs that might want to hop up beside you and put their hand on your thigh!!

I’m skipping around now. I think the worst place to see ex-students would be at a concert. Some of the concerts we have here are outside on a grassy hillside, so you’re sitting with your friend on the grass or a blanket. I was high at one particular concert, and I was getting a little rowdy. My friend said kiddingly to nearby people, “I don’t know her!” The rat! I mean, I wasn’t terrible or anything. Just having a good time! I would not like to have students around at such a time. There may well have been some there that night, but I never heard about it.

Well, I like the 12-13 yr. olds that I teach. It’s a good age, because they believe you when you tell them things (7th graders). They are quite impressionable. Just one year later, the 8th graders, are infinitely wiser!!! They know the ropes. They know how to play the system. I think I may actually have a section of 8th graders for Lit. next year. So four sections of 7th and one of 8th. ( I won’t teach six, because the schedule is changing because of those 6 laid-off teachers I mentioned.)

The difference between 7th and 8th is incredible. The 8th graders seem like college students compared to the 7th! You give them an assignment, and they actually DO it. The 7th graders, for the first half of the year, have about a 20-minute attention span; so I would usually have 2 or even 3 different types of activities during the 50-minute class period, to keep them involved and not fidgety. You don’t really have to do that with 8th graders. But 7th graders are a lot of fun. They are very open and not quite so impressed with their own ‘coolness’ as the 8th graders are. I don’t know if you have seen any 8th grade girls lately (13-14), but some look ten years older than they are. It’s amazing! And they are totally aware of this and play it for all it’s worth. They dress in provocative clothes and are seductive. A tricky age group for a male teacher, I would think!!!

I think juniors in high school (age 16) would be a great age to teach, because you’re right, you could have good conversations with them. Seniors are jaded and just want to get out – even I was that way the last semester of my senior year. I’ve always heard that 5th grade was a great age (age 10-11). One thing you could do, Mark, is go observe in the schools! Observe at each grade level that you might be interested in. At one time, I considered getting out of teaching and getting into television news in some capacity. So I contacted all the TV stations in town and told them that, as a teacher, I was researching media careers for classroom instruction, which was actually true. So I went along on news stories with TV reporters from every station in town. There was a lot of stress from deadlines. I found that unappealing, because it would be day in and day out stress.

Hello Carol!
What are you doing up at this hour, it must be very late where you are? Just thought I'd drop you a quick line now as you seem to be around - but I haven't read your messages yet!

God!!! I feel like I’m doing a term paper! I know this is getting ridiculous. But I keep thinking of the two-week dry spell.

I love picturing you in these meetings! You said if things are being said you don’t like. Any examples you can think of about something you didn’t like? You’re right; I am an inquisitive person; but you know what happened to the cat!

A coward at heart. I don’t really think so. You know, I’ve been meaning to ask: you did all this coursework in history and philosophy; but what you’re doing for a livelihood is websites, right? So where did you learn to do that????

You’d much rather win the lottery. Well, I read an interesting article about this once. It was about people in their 20’s in New York City. There are a lot of affluent females in that age group who would spend all their time going out to expensive lunches with each other every day. In other words, they really had no life. And the ones with any ambition all went and got jobs like the rest of us, though they didn’t need to. Kind of like John Kennedy, Jr. It turns out that doing nothing was uncool, unproductive, and looked down on by all those who were doing something with their lives. So winning the lottery sounds great, but at the end of the day, you’d want to have done something worthwhile with your life, don’t you think??

We have a teacher show called Boston Public. (I think it’s still on.) I’ve only watched it once or twice. It would be kind of like you watching a show about some guy setting up websites, don’t you think?? J And I don’t really watch tv anymore. I tune in to Jay Leno’s monologue every night at 10:35 to get 10 minutes of jokes. I heard that you guys are getting him over there now. Have you seen him? Of course the quality of the jokes depends on the writers. He has some good ones.

You say you didn’t apply yourself as much as you should have. But Mark, you studied history and philosophy! That’s not quite like majoring in PE, now is it?? I minored in Russian. That was 12 hours per week of translating. I don’t see how I did it with all the other reading and papers I had to do.

One last thing before I sign off into oblivion. One thing I tell my kids is that in America, there’s really only one way to tell your past socio-economic background on a first impression, and that is how you speak and act. I tell them that educated people speak well, use good grammar and have good manners. And any of them could speak well and use good grammar, if they would just learn these irregular verbs!!! I mention it because I remember one boy who was a rowdy kid, not interested in school, not from a good background. And I saw him listening to me. You should have seen him memorizing those irregular verbs for the next few weeks. It was incredible!! He got 100% on every test. You see what I mean? You can really have an impact and change a life. I think you’d be a GREAT teacher, Mark!!!

Have a wonderful vacation! Don’t worry about answering any of these posts. Just get your packing finished and leave light of heart for your adventure in the sun!!

Your friend,

Carol

God!!! I feel like I’m doing a term paper! I know this is getting ridiculous. But I keep thinking of the two-week dry spell.

I love picturing you in these meetings! You said if things are being said you don’t like. Any examples you can think of about something you didn’t like? You’re right; I am an inquisitive person; but you know what happened to the cat!

A coward at heart. I don’t really think so. You know, I’ve been meaning to ask: you did all this coursework in history and philosophy; but what you’re doing for a livelihood is websites, right? So where did you learn to do that????

You’d much rather win the lottery. Well, I read an interesting article about this once. It was about people in their 20’s in New York City. There are a lot of affluent females in that age group who would spend all their time going out to expensive lunches with each other every day. In other words, they really had no life. And the ones with any ambition all went and got jobs like the rest of us, though they didn’t need to. Kind of like John Kennedy, Jr. It turns out that doing nothing was uncool, unproductive, and looked down on by all those who were doing something with their lives. So winning the lottery sounds great, but at the end of the day, you’d want to have done something worthwhile with your life, don’t you think??

We have a teacher show called Boston Public. (I think it’s still on.) I’ve only watched it once or twice. It would be kind of like you watching a show about some guy setting up websites, don’t you think?? J And I don’t really watch tv anymore. I tune in to Jay Leno’s monologue every night at 10:35 to get 10 minutes of jokes. I heard that you guys are getting him over there now. Have you seen him? Of course the quality of the jokes depends on the writers. He has some good ones.

You say you didn’t apply yourself as much as you should have. But Mark, you studied history and philosophy! That’s not quite like majoring in PE, now is it?? I minored in Russian. That was 12 hours per week of translating. I don’t see how I did it with all the other reading and papers I had to do.

One last thing before I sign off into oblivion. One thing I tell my kids is that in America, there’s really only one way to tell your past socio-economic background on a first impression, and that is how you speak and act. I tell them that educated people speak well, use good grammar and have good manners. And any of them could speak well and use good grammar, if they would just learn these irregular verbs!!! I mention it because I remember one boy who was a rowdy kid, not interested in school, not from a good background. And I saw him listening to me. You should have seen him memorizing those irregular verbs for the next few weeks. It was incredible!! He got 100% on every test. You see what I mean? You can really have an impact and change a life. I think you’d be a GREAT teacher, Mark!!!

Have a wonderful vacation! Don’t worry about answering any of these posts. Just get your packing finished and leave light of heart for your adventure in the sun!!

Your friend,

Carol

Carol, I think you must be too tired now, everything is getting posted twice! Actually, I think it's more likely due to our website as it happens so often with so many people.

I'm just reading through your posts now. I don't think you need to worry about finding the time to write a book, there's enough here for one!

I'll draft you a message today to keep you going while I'm away. I'm quite enjoying having myself a little e-pen-pal.

Best, Mark

Well, Mark, I post it but it doesn't show up! Or even sometimes, it's there and then later, everything's gone! I just don't understand what's going on. I mean, I've been on the boards long enough not to be having this problem.

Yes, Mark, dear. It's 3:35 a.m.!!!!!

You'd be amazed at how many people there are here at this hour of the morning. It's kind of fun in an exhausting kind of way! A ton of people are here! What in the world are these crazy people doing here at this time of the morning!!! What kind of lunatics would be here, I ask you. I can tell I'm starting to lose, it Mark.

*Starting* to lose it? I think it's too late for that...

Actually, I seem to be getting a second wind. Though I won't be posting any more of that other stuff. But this little short stuff is kinda fun, too.

Really, what's the point in going to bed now? It'll be dawn soon. My favorite time of the day. I'm usually up at 5:00 at first light. It is so beautiful at that time of the morning here. And all the birds around my house are up and about.

You know hummingbirds are little warrior birds. They come right up to your face to discuss just what it is you're doing on THEIR territory!!! I have to tell you a quick hummingbird story! I like to read out in the back yard. I did the landscape design for my house, so I have 115 flowering bushes, three trees in back, three in front. Lots of cover for birds. Anyway, there were two baby hummingbirds in this bush, and the mother would come to each one to feed it. But the babies kept squabbling with each other. So she made them go to opposite sides of the bush to keep them from fighting. It was so cute. And another hummingbird was building her nest using the silk from a spider web under a lawn chair. I just love stuff like that. Think about what birds do! If you had your hands pressed to your sides, could you build a house by hopping around carrying boards in your mouth??? See what I mean?

"Too late for that"? Now, now. You must be kind to your sleepless friends. Or they will hunt you down and smack you around a little!!!

Carol

I don't know where you get your stamina from! Up at 5am? That would kill me if I had to do it regularly! I have to be up around 5 tomorrow to get to the airport and I'm dreading it.

I haven't really spent a great deal of time watching birds I must say, but then again, my garden in the house I rent is really quite poky. And the little blighters do annoy me when I roll in at 3 or 4am and I'm trying to get to sleep and the birds are sqawking away. Little blighters.

3 or 4 a.m. ???

Sounds like fun to me! Do you do this regularly on the weekends? Surely this isn't on weeknights????

Yeah, I could see where the birds would be a major pain in the posterior regions if you were just turning in. Solutions! 1) Get one of those noise machines that have ocean sounds, or babbling brook sounds. 2) get a noisy humidifier and turn it on full blast. Makes enough noise to overshadow the little blighters.

Gee, Mark. 3 or 4 a.m.?? I'm having to completely revise my picture of the 'real' Mark all over again. You sound like one of those 24-hour party people!!!

Tsk, tsk. You chose an early morning flight. Or was that the only choice available? I only get up at 5 when I DON'T have to. When I HAVE to get up, I push the snooze alarm about 10 times and drag out of bed about 6:30.

What poor sucker is taking you to the airport that early?

In my youth, Carol, in my youth!

IT doesn't happen so often, maybe once a month, 6 weeks? It depends really, one of my friends is a manager of a nightclub, which helps, plus there's often a birthday/leaving do/pay day to be celebrated. And every now and then me and the guys have a poker night which often ends up being silly. Fortunately we don't play for real cash, we'd only fall out. The last one didn't finish until 4am...
But no, not on school nights. Well, not very often anyway...

I think it was the package flight - we couldn't be bothered to arrange it all ourselves, so we've gone for the package. And we decided not to inflict an early start on the housemates, so we've booked a car to take us...

Well, you'll need to set 10 alarms, don't you think??? I mean what if you fell back to sleep??!!!

Yeah, the package flight will do it every time! They have no mercy. Just think of the added stress of having to get up at such an unaccustomed hour! Not the best way to start a vacation. Someone should have a little chat with those package people!

Are you all packed? Travelling light?

Not all packed at all. I have a load of clothes laying on my bed waiting to be ironed tonight and that's after I leave early to get to the shops to buy some flippers!

I'm not sure if I travel light or not really. I just take a bunch of clothes, a load of books and my snorkel and face mask, and I'm happy! Actually, I went to the bookstore yesterday lunchtime and bought a load of new books to read. The store wasn't very good though, it didn't have everything I wanted - Terrible Beauty, recommended by Paul, and an Isaac Newton biog mentioned by Mike. They didn't have either, terrible really.

But I did pick up:
Lord of the Flies (never read it, can you believe it!)
Blindness (a novel by Jose Saramago that was recommended)
The Art of War, Sun Tzu
The Art of Travelling, Alain de Botton
The Man who mistook his wife for a hat, Oliver Sacks (neurology)
Stupid White Men, Michael Moore

So a bit of everything really. They should keep me out of mischief for a few days anyway.

Hey Mark!!

Guess what?? I’m still here!!!! Can you believe it??!!! It’s hard to see their clock, but it looks like 7:30 a.m. I wonder if they’re really going to give me all this time for free. Their credit card is in the machine. So it’s a possibility. They’ve had a shift change, so it’s a different guy! I wasn’t too crazy about the other one.

Well, Mark, I’m just going to have to go out in the next week or two and break down and buy that computer I’ve been talking about with Mike. This has been an interesting experience, and kinda fun in a twisted sort of way!! And, actually, I feel fine right now!!! Hard to believe. When I leave here, I’ll go out for a nice breakfast, and then go home and see if I can catch a nap. I’ll have to read my birds the riot act first, though!! Or, I could just have a few drinks, put on the stone roses, write another appallingly terrible poem, and make a morning of it!! Drinking in the morning is kind of fun when you’re on vacation. I know it sounds decadent, but hey – who cares!!!! Carpe diem!

You’re so funny, Mark. Not packed yet!!!! I love it. That's such a "guy" way to be!!!! I guess you ARE easy-going. But that's a whole lot better way to be than these regimented types that would have been packed for a week by now. So tell me, you’re going to iron the clothes and then put them in the suitcase? I guess that makes sense. Remember the WATERPROOF sunscreen, whatever you do!!!! …gotta keep that nose from frying.

You know it’s funny, because when I went to Europe, I had my snorkel and face mask with me, too. In my backpack. And I snorkeled off the Greek island called Hydra (pronounced EE-drah). I don’t think I saw one fish! I have a feeling that fish like the lee side of the island, but I could be wrong about that!

Are you going to go to any place dressy, or is it going to be all casual? If it’s all casual, that will help a lot on the packing!

Oh, but you don’t want to be kept out of mischief, do you? I mean, mischief could be very interesting!

Oh, I’m getting very excited for you, Mark!!!! Advice? = Take a couple of disposable cameras, so you don’t have to worry about a good camera. Keep them in a carry-on bag so they won’t go through the x-ray machine and ruin the film!

Is your girlfriend going with you? She probably doesn’t travel light! Girls never do. Make her carry her own suitcase! (ha ha)

I think your books sound fine. It’s been ages since I read Lord of the Flies. Really can hardly remember it at all! You might even see a paperback in the airport gift shop that looks good. They usually have current top-sellers. I do have Sun Tzu and have been meaning to read that for ages. I remember a conversation I was in when I first came to the boards about the merits of reading Sun Tzu vs. Clausewitz. I wonder who was talking to me then...since I didn't know anyone. I'll have to go back through my print-outs to see if I have that one. They said Sun Tzu was better.