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

I saw a really sad movie this week (Atonement), and am reading a really sad book (Thousand Splendid Suns), and heard some sad news (see journal). Not so surprising then that I have been a little sad.

JEllen, don't let all the sad stuff get to you! Try abnd think of some better/happier things...how's the new apt.?

It's beautiful. I put up an angel shower curtain in my bathroom, and my sister got me some rose colored towels to match.

Nice, so it's feeling more like home(well, you know more familiar)?

Yes, , I'm not fumbling for the light switches quite so badly. It is starting to feel like home.

Great! And how's Micio's heart murmur?

Mostly better, thanks. She is gaining some weight back, which is good.

That's good to hear!

*Finally drags in her Matt*


Better late than never!

Oooh shower curtains & coloured towels!

Since i chopped up my shower curtain to cover up the yukky kitchen walls; my poor guests haven't got a curtain at all, as for towels it's "bring yer own or help yourself to whatever you can find"...some having been magnificently chewed by puppies.... i think i shall pass any spare visitors over to you JEllen! (OK, OK, small matter of crossing the atlantic, but we can work around that, i'll stick them on a carpet aka Lil's Matt....)

Ooh, just received Skanky's CD!!!

So, what's jazz up to these days?

zdt

I still have the orange monkey shower curtain and bath mat. We have some black and white towels to match, hand towels and some spare bath towels, and two light blue ones that match the floor tiles.

It doesn't take too long to settle into a nice, new place, fortunately. Though I still occasionally fumble for a light switch.

Oh gawd, talk about it!!! I've lost track of the number of times i've utterly failed to find a light switch that i've been using daily for years! Glad the orange monkeys are alive & wet. Do you use the stuff from the bottle to keep them that colour?

"Orang-U-Tan"?

Yippee, The BD's back in town!!!! Last year because of massively stoopid building works in Centre Ville, they bussed all the 3000 or so visitors to the BD comix festival out of town to a horrible anonymous exhibition centre, obviously all the local businesses lost loads of custom *plus* it really didn't feel like there was any sort of festival happening in town. This year, Yippeee, we are back to marquees on every street corner, mostly free to snoop into.

The hordes have started arriving, constant procession of lost looking people passing by my house clutching maps! I went into town to spend the last of my money on 10 litres of; i will need it, tomorrow i am feeeding 8 people (at least)!...but most of them pay me enough to cover costs, with a bit left over if i am clever (which i am!

I adore the "ambience" of BD time, the streets are full of shiny happy people going "Oooh lala!" etc; makes me feel very priveleged to actually live here.

Oh, also, after i got back from shopping, you will never guess what i found on my doorstep.....

A scanner. yup, printer/scanner thing that with luck will hook up to the Beast (which is continuing to plod through defrag, now up to 500MO memeory, but email is still playing up.

So: i think "Hmm; either was a bit late this year" *or* my fellow poubellier has spotted this... (poubelle = lovely french word for trash/rubbish/garbage/recycling bin)...it was the latter; for Dubman please!

Oh, & his Papa is coming round next week to asess the list of little jobs which need doing on the house, he's a builder/decorator, my landlady knows the family, she will probably be delighted to get them in to stop me nagging her, plus obviously it's "jobs for the boys"

So now i'm starting the great Cooking Thing, tomorrows lot get:

Minestrone soup
Cheat Loaf, baked potatoes, peas, gravy
Choice of chemical filled prepackaged sugary dessert

And lots of vile cheap wine & all night music probably, Dubman on percussion, me on bass, two vistors on guitar, Dubmans mate on keyboard. What a good thing i don't have neighbours, only a poltergeist in the attic ....poor little spirit fiend will probably be lurking in the rafters in horror!

I really *do* have a poltergeist, i am not imagining things. Dubman went to the loo & came down & said "I had to go & check the attic, 'cos i heard footsteps directly above me, i thought "Jeez, a breaking in via the roof? Went up, nobody there, went back down & "something trotted along behind me!"

"Fret not, it's just my fiendly!"

He is eyeing me suspiciously, but since i hadn't even mentioned it to him, it's slightly boggled his mind. (i have reassured him i am a good, not a bad one!)

Any of "you lot" have spirit fiend things?

zdt

Actually not too much going on here Terri. Some ice-carving going on just down the street(not alot of photos on the site but) http://www.iceonwhyte.ca ...a local journalist has already got a few photos up from this year, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/raisemyvoice Other than that, kind of winter doldrums. Had been doing some reading, of course aceing now'n'then & been 'talking to' an English teacher there in France -originally from northern France the Ardennes region, U9937105.

?

Grandpa's house had them, and my brother sometimes played with them, but I have not seen any. Except mum and dad claim that when I was a baby, I kept staring at something that noone else could see.

Dad tells a story, about one time he visited mum at Grandpa's house. He got to sleep on a guest bed, but as soon as he fell asleep, he was awakened by something. After several hours, he gave up, moved to a cough, and slept soundly the rest of the night.

Oh, I could go on, about these stories of my parents...

Ohh please do Milla! Sounds fascinating!

Ice carving Jazz! a bit too chilly in your part of the world for me i think! What sort of carvings are they?

Well, my first two guests have arrived, nice young ladies (French) Cy & So, they seem fine with their accomodation in the bedroom...just as well really, since they didn't bring sleeping bags!

The next one due later (depending on whether he managed to hitch a lift direct to Angoulême, or have to hop on a train from "somewhere") is much more well travelled. Heard nothing from the Belgian guys, who were suposed to arrive today, not got their phone number, maybe they will arrive, maybe they won't!

Whatever, i've prepared a meal for between 6 & 9 people...Dubman & P & P's mate Stef are also eating here tonight. Organised little me, all that needs to be done to it as/when folks arrive is re-heating. Thank the Powers That Be for microwave ovens!

As to the spook, never seen one, it's just noises, but noises that are "someone" stamping around the attic,doesn't worry me at all, if it gets too noisy i just ask "it" to shut up & it usually does. People who've actually slept up in the attic have never reported anything "feeling weird"...but people in the rooms underneath often say "I thought you said you had no neighbours?"

I think i'm going to try & get a little snooze in now, Dubman wisely suggested i went to bed early (ie: 1am) but as is my way, i ignored this & stayed up until around 3 then suddenly collapsed in a heap!

zdt

I wish we had ice carvings out around here. It hasn't been that cold this winter, before today. This morning, when I left, the wind chill was around -32°C, but it didn't feel that bad- only my feet were cold.

As far as spooks and "spirits" go, I have no reason to believe they exist, so I have no experience with or opinion of them (other than assuming they don't exist, that is).

Meanwhile, I've got a microwave oven, K brought it with him when he moved in, and I use it for a bread box.

The ice-carvings Terri are of King Kong, animals, etc. Of course thers's an ice cstle for the kids and an ice maze, as well as a large ice slide. A winning carving a few years ago was a Finding Nemo seascape...quite amazing!

Terri Minestrone soup, Cheat Loaf, baked potatoes, peas, gravy
Choice of chemical filled prepackaged sugary dessert sounds delicious , it makes me hungry just reading it.

Do relative count, sometimes I can feel the presence of my late Dad. It is not scary and it does not frighten me.

Life in Essex, is getting weirder. Newsagents still selling Christmas cards and a major supermarket still selling . Neighbours getting weirder shouting and arguing from early in the morning and it always happens if they are going to have a party.

Ah,

My dad would hear his dad come home, bike across the gravel in the yard, newspaper snapping off the back, and walking up to the house.

Ten minutes later, he would hear the same sounds once again, and *then* his dad would come home from work.

Next up is 'the replaced stairs'...

microwave for breadbox...