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

Hi SEF,

Just thought I'd drop in and see if you are coming to the Summer Meet-up in a couple of weeks. I haven't been watching the list where people are signing up, so I thought I'd drop in in person. Any chance you can make it?

I wasn't planning to go to the meet - I hadn't even checked the date though I did notice the front page advert. Right now I'm supposed to be away but I'm ill again instead. So even things I do plan to do don't always work out and I tend not to take unnecessary additional risks (such as meeting lots of people in a dangerous environment would be).

I'm sorry to hear that you're not well. I'm not sure that I'd consider Hyde Park to be a dangerous environment, but of course it's up to you. If you do happen to be feeling better and you're in the vicinity, at least wave from a distance.

Hyde Park probably _isn't_ dangerous for you, Mina.

I'm allergic to many of the substances on the planet, especially the organic ones (eg pollen, alcohol, petrochemicals, hair/fur) but even some of the inorganic ones (eg silver). I suspect the average h2g2 meet consists of a number of hairy people wearing perfume and drinking alcohol in a smoke-filled bar or pollen-filled park. So I have to balance these obvious risks against less obvious benefits. My family can resort to emotional blackmail of course for their meet-ups, but I don't think many researchers are going to be "desperately disappointed" at my absence.

Of course! I'd read that on your Personal Space and it hadn't registered that the park would be a bad place. And I thought you meant that the Researchers themselves were dangerous.

You seem to have summed up the average meet-up pretty well. Maybe you can attend by webcam. There's normally one person who turns up with a laptop and immediately connects. We can be the ones waving from a distance.