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

Poor you, Folly. I haven't got a cough..... yet. But I feel so weak and weary. I haven't been able to sleep much so I have been lying on the settee each night and reading. My throat has been too horrible for sleep. Last night I finished reading the final 'Shardlake' book(mentioned elsewhere) and felt rather sad. I had come to like Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Barak.

W4aT - you lucky thing! Red Kites nearby! How wonderful. I've only seen them once, in Wales a few years ago. They are beautiful creatures. I do envy you!

Get well soon, Folly.

Thanks, Nurse Polly! Feeling a bit better in that the big sorethroat lurgy is less painful now (6.20 p.m.) but when I cough !

Anyway, enough of my troubles, you need cheering up, too methinks. When I read your second sentence, I misread it as "...so I have been lying on the settee each night and EATING" !!! And I thought, 'when I'm ill, I go OFF my food, especially with htis throat thing - I've had a temp and, as they say, 'Starve a fever, feed a cold' So I've been starving myself - good news! Lost 3KG in 3 days!! Whooppee! Must be ill more often!!

Anyway, lying around not sleeping is, to me one of the worst things of old age. I have no probs getting to sleep in the first place - often my book falls to the floor and my wife turns my light off - but when my bladder wakes me up - normally at least twice a night - it's virtually impossible to get back to sleep.
So. Nightime tv? - dire. Sit in an armchair and read? Can't get comfortable. So I go back to bed and lie there thinking! And the things that go round your head! Often it's paperwork of some kind that I have on the go: minutes of a meeting, letters I must write, etc. And after about half an hour, these subjects mix themselves up in my head with the story I'm reading at the moment. That just gets too confusing, so I get up again and suffer the night time tv.

Broken nights? Sheer unadulterated misery!

BUT! Oh bliss! Isn't it wonderful when you wake up ay 5.30 having slept 5 hours non stop! You feel so refreshed even with only 5/8 the sleep you used to have. Why is that?

Count yourself lucky to feel so refreshed when you wake up in the morning, Folly. If it comes to that, count yourself lucky to sleep 5 hours non stop. That's not something I often do. Of course, I might have more chance if I went to bed a bit earlier. I generally wake up just after 5:30, 'cause that's when the dratted alarm goes off. I go straight back to sleep, of course, and get woken up again an hour or so later, when I have to drive Mrs Tickle to work. Even then, I'm lucky if I've had 5 hours' sleep, since I seldom get to bed before 2 o’clock. And I certainly don't feel refreshed.

However, I guess how you feel in the morning is not only related to how much sleep you’ve had, but also to your general psychological well-being and how well-disposed you are to the world. “I have not that alacrity of spirit, nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have” said Hamlet, and I echo the sentiment. All things considered, I’ve made rather a mess of my life, and it’s not always easy to forget that and embrace the new day with a heart full of joie-de-vivre. As Leonard Cohen put it once, “The future seemed unnecessarily black and strong, as if it had received my casual mistakes through a carbon sheet.” But then again, you're never fully dressed without a smile.

BTW, Folly, did you find out anything useful about delivery work for your local council?

Shakespeare (from Macbeth) says this of sleep :

"...Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast" .

Isn't it so true! I had to look up these lines because I never remember them exactly. But I often think of them.
When we are ill and suddenly have a few hours decent sleep we feel that we have had some healing. Or when troubles fill our minds it is a blessed relief to escape and get some much-needed sleep.
Sleepless nights are awful. I have them very often. The hotel generator opposite my home makes such a noise every night. When I do have a good night's sleep I am so thankful in the morning!

Folly, I do hope that your cough goes very soon. I haven't got a cough. But I'm pleased that I took advantage of a Kleenex offer a few months ago! May I remind you of my own cough mixture:

Juice from half a lemon
1 tablespoon of honey
Grated ginger (any amount)
Grated garlic(any amount)
Add hot water.

The more ginger the better!

W4aT, I have made a bit of a mess of my life too.......We shouldn't look back. But I do.

Hmm, compost from human waste!

Not sure what to say about that, Polly, but these lines of Jackson Browne's strike a chord:-

Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams
But that magic feeling never seems to last
And while the future's there for anyone to change, still you know it seems
It would be easier sometimes to change the past

Ah, if only...

Human waste compost? How I wish I had had it installed. It answers so many problems - saves water, saves chemicals, good for the garden, saves usage of sewage plants, and so on.

I'm all in favour of them and if I could persuade MOH, I'd even consider installing one now.

You can read all about them on

http://www.lowimpact.org/factsheet_compost_toilets.htm

Note the bit that says the finished article smells exactly like a bag of compost from the garden centre

That sounds brilliant, Folly - and a good way to get rid of all those old bills and bank statements! I'm not sure Mrs Tickle would be keen, though. How much do they cost?

Forget to mention that amongst the addressees on the poll cards I delivered this morning were Gordon Brown and Wendy Christmas - nice name that. And I was rather amused to find myself delivering five cards at one smallish house to the Fuller family - it couldn't get much fuller there, I'd say.

My old Auntie Flo got me posting Labour bills through doors when I was a wee lad; then I had to listen to stories of the hunger marches from an almost Communist mate I worked with, at a time I was building myself up and taking a rather right wing viewpoint. Then real life took over from any politics when I had young kids to support; any party that served my needs got my vote. Maggie destroyed the Tory image; New Labour destroyed Old Labour; the Liberal party had it's problems; they all behaved disgracefully one way and another, and I can't see myself canvasing for any one of them.
How is everybody? Hope you are avoiding the swine 'flu.

Morning all!

What an excellent summation of British Politics in recent years, Frank!

My views exactly, having been brought up in a socialist family as a lad, I was encouraged to read Robert Trestle's "A Ragged Trousered Philanthropist". All about labour relations and the life of the working class in the early 20th century, it set my mind into an anti-capitalist state that I have never really come out of.

I have regularly swung back and forth, left, left of middle, middle, rarely more right than that, and certainly, when Maggie was around, I almost became a communist as a reaction to her. But always the needs of the family were there and that dictated where I put my cross.

Now, more or less left of left of left of centre. I can't help but admire Tony Benn, for instant. He does seem to talk an awful lot of sense. But then, sometimes, even old Ken Clark seems to talk sense - (he's a jazz aficianado, of course, so I feel kindly towards him!! )

Have a good day everyone - hope the sun shiones on you

"The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist", one of the hard backed tomes that nestled in a glass fronted book case that my dad made out of packing case ply wood and solid oak scraps; the door being a de-pictured picture frame.

I tried to encourage my Mormon American sister to read it right through recently, (sent a free download to her) but she could not handle the fact that some of the characters drowned their sorrows in alcohol, a banned substance in every Mormon mind, let alone body.

I identified with the main character, I recall, always considering myself better than, and oddly responsible for my working class mates.
Where ever do we get these pretentious ideas, I wonder?

I think I am Lib-Dem these days, but I conduct my affairs independently, and do not look to politicians to solve my life problems.

Gibraltar was warm and sunny, but now I am back in Hampshire.
The sun is shining on me as I type, so something must be good out there. Maybe the Devil is asleep today.

Good day to you all!
fxx

I see the madman is still at it over in that other place!
Why do the moderators allow it?

Calm down, Frank - I've made a decision not to respond to any of his contributions - even if I happen to have a good follow up. That way, I only occasionally antagonise him and if I do, I just ignore it.
I find I keep calmer and feel I am not embittered by his bile.

I was just trying to engage without any thought of malice and he attacked me again. Had a go at Polly yesterday I see, again with no reason. And he always seems to get away with his rudeness. I do not understand the monitoring system that supports him against all of his victims. Are they blind? Does he work for the BBC? Is he a plant?

frank - you are objectionable in writing your nasty snide remarks here - the only "madman" is you - try writing 6 words on the "5 words" thread - try the "next word" thread without linking - rules exist - live with it. In addition, we have given you lots of freeform threads.

A thread here always offers you a way to respond, if you do not like it, stay away.

Rules are a mental discipline to make "games" more fun - as you have no mental discipline saty on the "bad poetry thread" where your anarchy is welcomed.

I did not break your stupid rules. You are the offensive one.

frank - you have been a malcontent since I first noticed you on these threads. If you don't like the rules, or you think they are "stupid" (eye of beholder and all that), first speak to your pal W4 whose rule is that he throws his dummy out if he cannot find your contribution on the net, and then find a thread that you like, and that you think is not stupid. "My house has many rooms....etc"

I played to your rules, and still you were unhappy.

I do not go looking for trouble. When posting in that other place I feel I am walking on eggshells. I never know when my contributions will be met by an outcry of disapproval, and always from the same person.

Nobody else finds me offensive or bullying, so what is it about you that you insist that others are bullying you? Can you not see that it is you that has the problem?

Leave people alone and you will find that it will all go swimmingly, and peace will settle on the boards that you use.
Try not to make trouble for others. Keep the peace.

frank, you are deluding youirself - you have done nothing else for weeks but prowl around any thread I start and try to be awkward. If you are as senior as you say, act your age. There is fun to be had on the MC board, why not try for the fun and avoid being awkward.

Frank, I have a feeling that Hairy enjoys your discomfort more than any 'one-upmanship' he may seem to acquire.
So, to my mind, it would be more appropriate simply to ignore any contribution he makes.
That's just a suggestion which you may or may not feel appropriate to follow. I relaise by making it I will incur the wrath of the Hairy one, but, hey. what the heck.

Well, folder, good of you to ignore me so much!

The thing is, I do not think frank is suffering any discomfort - he revels in being awkward and making waves. whether it is against me or against the mods, or against anu other imagined dragon that sneaks into his mind - the same applies to his best pal W4 - and by association, it is quite likely that you do too.

All of you might consider just boycotting any thread I am on, that way the whole of the MC board will have much more fun, and everybody will be happy.