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

Hi y'all!

Jan and I have just got in from an evening stroll around the village, including standing and watching our local barn owl swoopoing over a field on the lookout for poor little voles etc. A wonderfrul evening, so still and cool. But not a partic red sky so looks as though twill be cloudy tomoz (!)

Re your escape to the countryside, Polly - give it a fortnight and we'll be camping at Golden Cap for a week. A huge Nat Trust field overlooked by G Cap with buzzards overhead, deeer in the woods at the bottom of the field, an idyllic stream flowing through the wood and pond meadows and a short walk to the cliff at St Gabriels with steps down to the deserted pebbly beach. Then up and down G Cap to bujild up an appetite for a night cap. Bliss! Trouble is, if all the family and a few friends meet up on the same day it can be as many as 30 of us at a time and with a fair few being kids, that can get a bit boisterous - unless, like me, you take the youngest toddler off for a walk round the field.

The campsite is not really what you would call 5 star. Just an emptying point for portaloos and a single cold water tap. No caravans allowed. But I defy anyone to come up with a more restful, idyllic, beautiful place. OK, I'm biased. My family's from west Dorset and I've been going to the field for nearly 30 years. Anyway, if you have a tent and are a Nat Trust member, you can find the place in the NT book. If you come when we are there, we can supply very basic toilet facilities - and I mean basic......

Well, Rik and POlly, have a v good week. Jan has the delights of supervising year 5 (8 and 9 Y olds) at their end of term disco and of being in attendance at the year 8 (12-13 yo) leavers ball - which is now called a 'Prom' and includes stretch limos etc! But friday evening makes it all worth while - 6 weeks of no work! Meanwhile, I have a couple of days off mid week so nothing too strenuoous for me.

Nighty nighty

Hi dear Rick.

Have you got a tent I could borrow?? I would love to camp at Golden Cap. Fancy coming along too?? You could erect the tent and I would make the meals! Sounds fair, doesn't it? I don't snore, and I'm very clean.

I'm off to bed shortly. I meant to nest much earlier but I had a long email to write.

Have you got to be up early in the morning? I hope not. You need a camping holiday!!



Folly~~thank you SO much for the offer. I haven't got a tent though. It would be be great fun, I'm sure. Sounds as though you have all that I need for a break~~peace, peace, and peace. Could you bear Rick and I camping nearby??

I have 2 toddler parties to help with this week, at church. I am playing the piano for their little end of term service too. And I have made 2 lots of pass-the-parcels-each with 15 'presents'.

Goodnight both of you.

Lots of hugs.....

Polly

XXXX

Hi Polly,good luck with the BT's today.

Hi Rick.

The 'BT'?? Um, Birthday tickle? Brown toffee? Brighton Theatre? Broken television?

I DID see my GP. Is that possibly what you mean?


I've got a tent!!! But can't get to the site.


Polly
x

Blood test?

Oh, I'm sorry Rick. Daft me!

I have got very high blood cholesterol (probably FH). That is not very good. In fact it is very scary. 1 in 500 people have it.....

And I have to go to a spinal unit at hospital.

Have a very happy Tuesday, Rick.

Goodnight dear friend. Goodnight to you too, Folly, if you drop by later.

Polly


xx

I didn't drop by later last night but I woke to a lovely morning at 5.30 and really fired up to do some 'things' today as I have no 'work work'. When Jan got up, as usual we gazed out the bedroom window sipping our tea and what did we espy?
A lesser spotted woodpecker on the bird feeder!
It stayed for ages. Oh such a beautiful bird but with a bit of a fearsome beak and face - I suppose it's because of the strength it must have to tap trees. It loves peanuts apparently.
That's a first for me, if you don't count the dead one that crashed into the school hall windows a few years back. I've heard them often but never seen one before.

Sorry to hear about your blood chlor Polly. Let's pray now they've identified it they can solve some of your problems.

And Rick - hope you have a good day too - where are you off to, gallavanting about in your van? Do you ever call into those layby snack bars? I have now and then and I always found them great value and excellent fried egg and bacon sarnies. There's one on the A34 near Bicester that is a regular stop if I'm on my own on my way down to the west country.

Well, I'm off to the delights of MIlton Keynes today - I know, you're all so envious - 1. to pick up some walking poles I bought off the internet and I wasn't in when the couriers tried to deliver them, so I have to go to the depot, and 2. To go to the big M & S to get a dinner jacket and dress trousers. I have a wedding to go to in Dublin at the end of August - a posh do - and they wear dinner jackets and bow ties in Ireland - not like in England with our Victorian/Edwardian clobber. But M & S do them at £50 the lot which is far cheaper than hiring from Moss Bros etc.

I'm rabbitting on again - must get up and dressed - have a good day you two.

's all round

Hi Folderol Matalan do monkey suits as well as M&S.

http://www.matalan.co.uk/pages/products/001/011/formalwear

Thanks Rik, but I picked up the email to late - any way, M & S were a whole 50p cheaper!! So I think I can afford a mars bar tomorrow.

Good morning, dearest Folly and Rick.

Folly, I can see that you are 'inline'. I've been awake since just after 4am. I am in so much pain, and so I eventually got out of bed because I felt so scared. I feel quite awful.


All that you have written about you and Jan (the walks, and looking out of your window together etc) has made me cry. It reminds me so much of when I was happy with someone very special. We would sit watching the sunset with a flask of tea. Or lie in a field, under blue skies, and fall asleep. We did romantic things (well, they were very romantic as far as I was concerned. The world might not agree). We often would take supper to the Badbury Rings road and sit on the grassy verge (it's wide and hidden by the beautiful trees). Oh dear-it makes me so sad. We also had a special place to watch barn owls(on the Cowgrove road)....

Anyway you two, I pray you will have a happy day. Dear Rick~~take it easy if you can. Dear Folly~enjoy your day/evening with Jan. I think I shall have no option but to rest. My legs are so painful that I can hardly bear to stand. And my arms are becoming effected too. Time for a new body!

Love you both.

Polly

xx

Polly, please don't be sad when you recall the happy times or hear of other's experinces. Memories are so important to us all and the best ones should make us happy again. Dwell on how you felt then and not how you feel now. Remember how good life can be, and think positively about it. It does no harm at all to cry, though, just cry with joy that you were givent he chance to experience those times.
I know it's easy for me without the aches and pains and health problems that you have - and I do pray for you daily - but please try to rejoice in this wonderful world around you. You, like me, live in a beautiful part of the world, and even when you can't get out, you can still see the sky and clouds and trees and garden and, that most wonderful thing in all creation, friends.

So, I've decided. I'm going to be positive about all things today. I'm off work so the day's my own. If I fancy sitting down for a read of a magazine (do you get 'The Oldie'? It's brilliant) I'll do so. If I fancy a walk round the village I'll do so. If I fancy - as Jan hopes I will, starting to redecorate the bedroom, then I will - although that is very unlikely!

Try it. And try handing the pain over to God. He sent his spirit to help you through times like this. (Easy for me to say? Well, yes, but you never know, it oculd be just YOU that is the thing that is stopping him from helping you)

I've re-read this and I am aware that I must sound glib, but I do believe what I've said and I do hope you can come to terms with things and have a happy day. Perhaps the alcoholics' approach is what's needed - one day at a time?

And as for Rik - you have a good day, too, Rikki. Do a spot of Stobart spotting, it helps to pass the time on long journeys. Although I see less of them nowadays - I see lots of Dresstangle(?) and Christian Salvesen though, when I'm out on the motorways.

Have a good day, both of you, however it moves along.

Hugs all round

Folly (and Rick['cos you will have read all my moaning]), I'm so sorry if I seem to go on and on. My only excuse is that I haven't been entirely open about how I live. I know that if I had total peace...then I would be very VERY happy. But I haven't. And because of that, I am very stressed etc.

I know that what you have said , Folly, is so very true. Thank you for the reminders. If only I would let God into my life fully. By that I mean trust Him and put myself into His loving arms ALL THE TIME. I do the classic thing---I give my problems to HIm. And then I pick them all back up and reload myself with them.


I'm so sorry to be so miserable. Especially since dear Rick has health problems. Please forgive me-both of you?

But I do often cry tears of joy. It's just that there is a lot of sadness within me too. I can't help it.

xx

Polly, I'm not entirely sure what you are getting at except that if you are feeling that your faith isn't totally 100% then join the club - and it's a mighty big club - about 100% of Christians, to my sure knowledge.
Surely we all go through times of doubt? Most of us, most of the time. And we do and say and think things we know we shouldn't and although we say sorry to God, and to those affected, how can we be sure we really mean it?
And so on, but the thing to remember is that, whatever happens, whatever you say or do or think, God knows and understands and has sent his son to be alongside you at ALL times - you probably know the 'Footsteps in the sand' thing.

So, be positive, think lovely things about the world, about other people, about yourself. And treat the whole of your life as a prayer. I always take concolation in the fact that one can, say, walk down the street and look in a shop window and think - "That's nice," and that very thought is a prayer - we are saying to God, "You enabled that thing to be thought of, to be made, to be put in the window, to be admired. You provided the resources for man to create. Thank you God." Or you can cross the road and think a prayer - thanks for seeing me across the road.

God is there always and will always be there alongside you.

Here endeth the sermon for today!

Now it's my turn to say sorry for rabitting on, but Rik and I love you, Polly, and we don't like to see you down in the dumps.

It's a lovely sunny morning here and I've got a day on duty at the Garden Jazz Festival at the Dankworth's Stables - 5 hours of open air Jazz! To me, at least, that's bliss.

Hope you both have a good weekend.

Rik - I trust you will be having a well earned rest this weekend - look after yourself, because we - Polly and I - love you too.

Hugs all round



Fol

Hi Polly and Folderol,well,have I been busy.the brain of Britain here went to Maplins last week and purchased a sattellite and receiver kit at £100 off the kit was a bargain@about 160 quid.

Well dummy here did'nt realise the connections that came out of it were all HDMI thingy's so it would'nt connect to the old telly upstairs on to of the chest of drawers in our bedroom(as I've got a cable tv downstairs)so I went and bought a new nineteen inch HD tv.(another 200 quid,gulp)

That is when everything turned into utter chaos and Me and the other half almost started the war of the Rose's again,dummy here after many hours up a ladder continuosly fiddling with the wretched sattelite dish,finaly coceeded defeat and dashed bak to Maplins to purchase a sattelite finder and extra lead at another whopping twenty quid.

After locating lots of wrong sattelites then penny was now dropping,ladder sore I meekly knocked my old neighbours door to beg off him(as he's a bit of a spotter,Stars etc)if he had one, a compass to locate the sattellites at the reference of 28.2 degrees East,not knowing I had to knock off five degrees for the magnetic North scenario,the farce continued.

Well, after much muttering and strop suppression I have now got about sixty percent of the programmes I was looking for,with over a hundered programmes scanned and loaded Im now leaving well alone.

So with the freestat box inside my receiver not activated I have most of the channels loaded seperately anyway,I shall be having more fun in my loft tomorrow as I endeavour to wire everything in the bedroom.

So Monty Python eat your heart out,some good news though,after dashing to the airport(Brum)at five this morning in my lads car with him an his mate at least we've got the house to ourselves this week.

Polly,come on now you must try and lighten up,my dodgy belly's still giving me gip and Im off to see boy wonder tomoz to try and get a hydrocortisone injection in my painful left heel(ohh the woe of getting older!)anyway head up gal and give the world a black eye for me.

Hi Polly and Folderol,with the sattellite etc now fully installed I reckon it'll be about a week before I stop scratching from the itchy rockwool loft insulation.

My loft space was absolutely disgusting,as it has no floor I was trying to balace my huge frame on some tiny 3*2 timber joists which were covered in about thirty years black dust,needless to say after my escapade I emerged covered in the fibreglass rockwool and the black dust? looking like the coalman did forty odd years ago.

Anyway I did manage to see the doc(boy wonder)His instant diagnosis of my painful heel was Plantar Faciitis,after presenting me with a prescription for something to inject into my heel the ealiest time he could jab me with it was yesterday.

Well,I turned up for my appointment with the doc who proceeded to stab at my heel making three holes in the side with what felt like a huge javelin(sorry folks I'm ashamed to say I did'nt look)when he had finished stabbing at my heel it then erupted like an old vulcano,squirting the old red stuff,which alerted him to semi panic mode.

Then he exclaimed"I've never had one do that before!"

Well,all I can say is if that guy used to practise on an orange to hone up is hypodermic technique it must have looked like a sponge afterwards.

Anyway enough waffle how are you both???

Hi Rikki - and Polly if you're around.

I had to go to the doc too, this morning Rik, to get results what the endocrinologist thinks of my high sodium levels and whether my large heart - which showed up on a chest xray - is anything to worry about - I had to have an ecg. The ecg showed up nothing special and the endocrin thingy said it was probable that I naturally had hig sodium levels and probably have had since I was born. So as I've lasted 62 years so far, I should be a safe bet for another few - come back in 6 months.

Doc then took my bp and found it still a fraction high - although as I've always been 140/80 which I was told once was the World Health Organisations norm, the fact that it is now 145/85 doesn't sound anything spectacular to me. Up shot was - keep taking the tablets for the prostate problem - actually this latest lot seem to be doing some good.

On the news they're talking about assessing gp's every year - surely that's done already? If not, it's about time.

Her indoors says 'I told you it was all a mountain out of a molehill!' Yes, I said, as usual you were right. (Can you hear the strains of the old Rolling Stones tune - 'Under my thumb')

Well, that's enouhg of me - hope your bits and pieces sort themselves out, Rik, and that your heel 'heels' up - .

Oh where oh where has our little Poll gone?
Oh where oh where can she be?
With her lovely Limerick
She's missed by Foll and Rik
Or where oh where is she?


Have a good day tout le monde

Foll

Hi Folderol,my old doctor once told me if he had everyone in his surgery with BP around 150 over 80,there would be half the country in there.

I got the impression as I'm one of the above that as we get older a little rise is normal,salt? levels that's a bit of a dark horse as manufacturers of all our processed foods tend to sneak in quite a bit,nowadays I rarely add it to any of my food though I do make exceptions for boiled eggs.

You mention 62,I'm 59 in November,as a manual worker time is starting wear away now at some of my joints,mainly my old knees,I feel like the old shire horse in animal farm,Boxer,I keep looking for a greener pasture but as the OH has'nt worked(I dont mean she does nothing,but as an housewife she's always busy doing something)for thirty years and with the prospect of virtually no pension,I cant see retirement anytime soon,I will have to wait until I am 68 before I can get my wife's allowance of the state pension.

Still I'm not bitter I started work at fifteen,my mom took most of my one and nine pence an hour for my keep,that's the way it was in those days ahh if only????

I wonder where is our friend Polly her last posting lead me to believe she was feeling a little down,if you are reading this Polly hurry up back again and if you cant the get well again real soon

Dear Rick and Folly,I've been feeling sad and hurt so I thought it best to keep quiet for a day or two!

Rick, I can't help being very sensitive and serious. That is my nature~~be it good or bad. It probably does me no good at all, but I prefer it to being insensitive and foolish.

Folly, my faith is fine and will never be shaken. What I alluded to were the problems in my life--for which I have frequent prayer.

I trust you are both well.

Polly

xx

Thank you Polly,even at your lowest time,sorry but it makes me feel better to hear you are bad,'cause any news is great news