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

re: trust Milla...

Of course. Couldn't have one of you pillars of society get yikesed, could I?

I hope no one ever counts me among the pillars. I'm not a pillar. I just move kind of slowly...

If you are a pillar, i reckon i am probably a cushion.

Just got desperate message from Couch Surfer "Help! Want to come to BD but no beddy!" This happens every year, why on earth Angouleme didn't build a large Youth Hostel or El Cheapo Hotel on the old bus station site, instead of idiotic shops selling idiotic overpriced clothes, i can't imagine... There are only 3 medium priced Hotels & 1 very expensive one in town, yet we get an extra 200,000 people each year for the Comix Fest. Looks like i may have a unique type of loft insulation again this year; i'll be hanging them up vertically from the rafters at this rate "pretend you are a bat, fold your wings up under your armpits , it may stop you freezing to death"

I'm taking bets on the first day of Real Snow here being 23rd Jan (when they all start to arrive & realise they didn't bring thermal underwear!)

Hopefully, most of them will take up my offer of cheap, filling, tasty home cooked meals "en masse", which would sort me out financially; i've already bought in loads of veg etc, prepared & frozen it, so if they don't eat it & cover the costs, i'm stuffed. Two have confirmed they wish to eat, one confiirmed he just can't afford even that small cost, fine, just so long as i know how many i am catering for. The rest seem to not realise this is a "need to know" thing!

Trudged out in evil howling sleet yet again to Soc W**ker lot, to see if any news on helping out with last hospital bill etc. Nope, it's been refused, i am 6 euros over the limit 'cos they increased Disability Benefits by 9 euros this year.What a clever little barstool Monsieur Sarkozy is. I rather enjoyed reading this quote from the Sunday Times:

<<"Love machine & President of France, told a press conference last week that he was "serious" about his new girlfriend, Carla Bruni.
What next...a party Political Broadcast?
'People of France, I really love 'er, but do you think she'll go for a short bloke like me? What about this jacket, do you think she'll like it? Noooo! I think i've got a spot coming on. Mon Dieu, it's so unfair' ">>



zdt

I had heard on the news last night that he'll be 'kozying up to Carla on a regular basis - they married in a secret ceremony last week, but I assume you've heard that!

*sigh* About Angouleme not building 'a large Youth Hostel...instead of...idiotic overpriced clothes', it's what I call the 'consumer-go-round' or 'consumer carousel' The local government or the builder doesn't foresee that numerous people will pay a-true, minimal-fee fo accommodation. And no consideration is given to the installation(& profits from)vending machines. Clothes are a changeable commodity. Sacre bleu, the citizens Must be in style...you don't expect them to wear last years fashions, mais non! And like your plan for unique insulation, yes '...fold your wings up under your armpits...' it'll hold the blanket in place. Oh you didn't bring a blanket...doesn't matter, you Probablywon't need it!'


Since you mentioned thermal underwear*ahem*... (or longjohns), a clothing-related reflection of the Global Warming/Climate Change phenomenon. As a child I was usually wearing a pair almost All winter-often mid or late-Dec. right through until mid-March. One pair was in the laundry & one pair sat in reserve. Over the past couple decades or thereabouts, there have been more & more weeks at a time when all 3 pair sat unworn. Then one pair is actually required for sporadic days or weekends. A total-over the course of 3 or 4 months-...perhaps 8 or 9 days!

This i find interesting, debate on "should we ban traffic lights?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7187165.stm

I squeak as somebody who has been knocked over by cars 3 times (so far!) in UK. Here in Angoulême, around a year back TPTB suddenly removed the traffic lights from the main junction between 4 roads in City Centre, one of which was "Rue de Pietons" (pedestrian shopping street)....most of us on foot thought "Mared! We are gonna die even faster!"...but what in fact has happened is that pedestrians seem to have, for once, gained "right of way": obviously everybody, whether on foot, in a car, driving a huge truck...has to slow right down, look, listen, keep their wits about them & make eye contact with each other. So i reckon it's worked here.

Not so sure if it would work in a really big city, or for that matter, in a small village. What do you think?

zdt

Nope that would never work here Terri. Absolutely not.

Oh, we definitely need traffic lights here. Hell, the street at my corner has six lanes; at the nearest major intersection, the intersecting street has four. We need traffic lights.

Canberra may have more roundabouts per capita than any other city. One of them's big enough to include a bit of a creek and a walking trail. Parliament House is treated as a roundabout. It all seems to work pretty well - which is more than I can say for the lights. They don't seem to be programmed all that well.

There are a few areas where there are no lights and no roundabouts, but pedestrians aren't geting mown down in large numbers. The fact that Canberra's not exactly a densely-populated area might help. The roads in question aren't wide ones either.

There are places in Thurrock that need traffic lights and other places that have too many. Going to Lakeside shopping centre by bus or by car is a nightmare as they have so many traffic lights in a short space. If the traffic is bad, you stop one lot wait a while for the traffic to move and buy the time you get to the top it is red again and then there is another traffic lights and you go through the same thing. Luckily because of the time of the year it is not too bad but it won't be long before it gets back to stop, start and stop.

I think I know what you mean- though fortunately, in my area, most of the lights which are on timers, are timed similarly so several in a row change within a few seconds of each other, as do the affected cross streets.

Sometimes I think we have too few traffic lights around here. Especially when I'm trying to walk home and I'm playing Frogger across rush hour traffic. I don't know why some people think an extra 3-4 seconds is going to KILL them....

Hmmf, takes a microsecond to kill a pedestrian with a heavy fast moving metal box on wheels & an impatient driver behind the wheel.

I can see that lights (& heavy penalties for not obeying them) are maybe the only way in busy cities; this place is small enough to manage in that particular junction, because there are more pedestrians than cars, it's the main shopping street.

Grr, i'm dying to talk to you offsite PC, but email is still refusing, let me know if you're around on MSN sometime will ya?

zdt

Hmmm, well the geezers have a show Friday night and K wants to practice tomorrow evening after dinner. So, I'll log in after we eat and he's headed off to practice. You're 7 hours ahead of us, so I'll be available around 2:30- 3:00 AM your time. Whether or not you'll be up is another matter. Otherwise, same time Friday night, maybe, or we're looking at Saturday morning my time and probably noon- 1:00 PM your time. No can do MSN from the office.

Oh, and the "testing" email you sent made it through to both the Comcast addy and the office addy.

Yes, just got it my wooh! Stressed out right now 'cos the latest is my bloody landline isn't working to make outgoing calls; probably 'cos i haven't paid the bill! It still recieves calls & connects to internet so far, but means i can't phone to placate my creditors, no credit left on mobile phone, if the next stage is cutting off internet connexion (& probably charging me a fortune for each day i haven't paid) i've really had it. can't get a rdzv with Soc W**ker till 23rd & the guests start arriving then. If they cut the water off, i am really up a creek without a paddle & so are they. I'm depending on them paying for their food so that i can at least pay a bit towards the bills; since i've already stocked up the freezer at the start of the month.

I've been trying to "chill out", cut down smoking & drinking,get some early nights, just hibernate, however, this sort of approach doesn't work when woken at 3.30am "look i found some nice pots in the street, a for you!"...he was damn lucky not to get them smashed over his head!...finally got back to sleep again around 9am.

Probable BD visitors now at 7; i'm taking no more, there are limits, especially with dodgy phone & email connexion.

zdt

It would seem strange that if your service wasn't working because of non-payment, that you'd be able to dial out to the internet- unless, of course, you have DSL and not dial-up.

When you say "credit" on your mobile phone, does that mean you pre-pay yours? I guess some companies offer that here, but I've never gone that route. It always sounds so strange... what happens if you run out of credit in the middle of a call, like invariably happens when I use those stupid pre-paid calling cards to place long-distance phone calls?

The system i chose here is this:

I "prepay" automatically debited from the bank my internet connexion (ADSL) & 20 euros worth of calls from my mobile per month. Some may call me stupid, but communication with "you lot" is vital for me & 20 euros is usually more than enough for calls to another mobile (cell phone/portable) within France, any surplus gets carried over to next month & if it is about to run out they text you, so if you have 10 euros, you can top it up with a Mobicarte.

The fixed line is what connects the modem to internet, i very rarely use it for actual calls; i had a bloody phone stalker at one point, so disconnected the ringing in noise, it now only rings upstairs, i can phone out from downstairs *if* the actual connexion into the wall socket hasn't got dislodged; it's under the computer & i simply can't get down there to fix it back in.

I pay a quarterly bill for the fixed line, of which 25 is just for the service, usually calls are only around 10, plus tax is 25%. If you don't pay the bill on time, in total, they cut you off from making outgoing calls, but you can still recieve them, plus keep internet acces for at least another month; don't ask me why, this is France, French logic applies!

So: the financial situation now is as usual a balancing act. Managed to email the visitors, got positve "OOOOh yes please!" to meal service from another one, so i now have at least 3 wanting meals, which means 135 for 3 days, i spent 143 on getting stocks in, so it's starting to look like breaking even. Still waiting for another couple to reply, if they do a "yes please!" also, i will be in a position to keep the wolves from the door. It's all budgeted out & menu planned very carefully, but nerve racking until you don't know how many people are eating; i have to cost in future electricity bills etc...they actually get a bargain, i may make a tiny (around 5%) profit on 4 eating but a bigger one on 8 people eating. (i am well used to all this, having managed restaurants before!)

But the immediate thing is that on 24th, people arrive & will be asked, very politely, after their first meal, to pay cash for tomorrows meal, which means i can to bank, dump 20 at them, to stop me paying Overdrawn fees, then start paying bits off to the rest of them. It's a balancing act with no safety net!

Obviously, Yoda's vet bill & special food last month has totally wiped me out, plus the bleeding bank charges.

As to the mobile phone, i've got around 2 minutes credit left, Dubman has 30 seconds, so we just do "beep" the number, switch off: ie: i am here & awake, shall i arrive?"...which costs nothing, if no knock on the door, they are asleep, out, or into Personal Space right now & will doubtless beep back when it's a good time.

Garrgh, the undiscovered reality of clever people on limited incomes could rule the world if "they" are not careful!

"Where there's a Will, there's a Weigh" We Will Survive. Though it may be interesting cooking for 8 if they cut the water off; luckily it's raining constantly! (Last time the elctric died halfway through spag bol: i just lit candles & sent 'em all out "Go find fuses: now!")

zdt

It all makes sense to me now.

Well, not really, but what ever does?

Hope the visitors all manage to cough up their fair share on a timely enough basis to be useful.

I'm off to bed; got about 6 hours sleep Tuesday and last nights, and I'm bushed!

Sleep well, my wooh!

zdt

Goodness me, i seem to have suddenly gained myself a social life once more! Spent this afternoon watching a National geographic DVD about lions in the Serengeti: yoda was fascinated & horrified in turns, kept pawing at the screeen when the cubs miaowed, ran & hid behind Mummy when The Big Papa roared; hilarious!

Finally shifted all the stuff from the stairs up into the grenier, with Dunman doing most of it, this took aroound 5 minutes, with me alone it would have been more like 3 days, total exhaustion & probably a week in hospital with a broken knee. Very good bloke to have around, now all i have to do is start realising not everyone is out to rip me off...some RL people *can* actually be as decent as "you lot" on here.

Last night Dubman & his mate P were here, we watched videos & had a jolly meal, P is just back from his Moroccan trip, so lots to talk about.

What i found incredible was that I was Not Allowed to wash the dishes "No way; you cooked, we clean!"

And now, just as Dubman has gone back to tinker with my old dead stereo i donated to him (i'm not putting it in the street, in this weather, it would rust before finding a grateful new home!)...Si & Lau & Zen Ben are en route "We're passing by the supermarket first, give us a list"...

I am continuing to defragment, i should be in some sort of record "longest defrag ever attempted by an amateur in Foreign language"...it ain't finished yet, but i've doubled the memory from 275 MO to 585 MO; whatever Mo stands for.

Managing to get emails, & reply (but please still NO image stuff till it's finally done please, my fiends!)...latest is 3 of the 7 BD visitors have backed out, but that's fine, i can cope better with 3 girls & 1 guy, who will all be eating here, the ones who have found other places are gonna drop by anyway, it's nice to be a sort of Introduction Agent!

zdt

Aww, that's so sweet with Yoda and the nature program. Cool.

I continue to be glad to hear that this fellow helps with dishes etc. Tis a good thing.

Good luck with your coming guests, hope they are all nice.

Not much new here, still settling in, the place looks nice with a few posters up. Need to take photos of it.