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

So, did you watch Queen Mania last night on telly? I thought it was good fun for the most part. I couldn't believe how enthusiastic the audience were for Lesley Garrett's high notes on 'Barcelona' (whether you like it or not, it has to be conceded that opera singing is pretty amazing!). I was disappointed with Heather Small's rather subdued version of 'Somebody to love' as that is a song that needs to be given a bit of welly in my opinion - but I thought everybody else made a fair fist of it.

I spent the afternoon with friend yesterday. I hadn't seen her for about two years as she has only recently returned to this area after living away for nearly four years. We went to a really picturesque little village, had a pub lunch and then went walking for about two-and-a-half hours. I had lovely time and enjoyed my walking, but today I've been too tired to do very much, which is annoying given that it has been such a lovely day. I've done a bit of housework and bogged about on my PC and the only other thing I've done is some reading (including a magazine still left over from the paper that I bought last Sunday!)

Hope you've had a nice weekend.
Liz
~

No, I didn't, lol, I was out with my parents visiting a family friend. I've heard mixed reviews about it, but the general gist is the same, lol. I don't think I missed all that much... lol
I'm not a great fan of opera at all, but I do like the Barcelona album very much, and it's not just because of Freddie's involvement... It's very fresh and different, even now.

I really haven't done much. Visited the family friends on saturday, as I mentioned. They used to be out neighbours about eight years ago, and before they moved away we (well, my parents) fell out with them for complicated reasons. Over the ensuing eight years, the complicated reasons have unfolded, unbeknownst to my family, and have escalated and exploded in completely unexpected ways- ways which you would not believe if you saw them in a film or read them in a book- and now we have become friendly again It's nice, because we always got on really well. It's odd, but I'll be babysitting the kids on wednesday. Last time I did that, one of them wasn't even born... and now the youngest is 8.

We were planning on going to a WI table top sale on sunday (yes, yes, the excitement... hold me down...), but my grandmother told us Braybrook instead of Bugbrook. The difference is about 45 minutes in the car. So my parents and my grandmother decided to go to a garden centre instead. So I stayed at home.

I have done nothing else other than overtime, so I have nothing of interest to say. I really need to acquire some kind of life from somewhere.

TK[1]

You need to acquire a life? What about me My afternoon out with Sharon was the first weekend social outing I've had since Chris left

Did I tell you he rang me up? He's not very happy still If I get bored enough at the weekend I might call him. He's still not eating or sleeping properly and he has some unresolved health issues (which he isn't too forthcoming about). He's still a worry to me.

Somebody rang my house looking for Chris on Monday night. He was suitably mortified when I explained that Chris no longer lives with me To be honest, there are still a couple of people that I haven't told yet.

So I haven't got much to report today either. At least you're getting some overtime. I could do with a bit of extra dosh myself.

Liz
~

I'm really feeling very lonely at the moment. Don't feel like anything's happening, regarding either my work life or social life.

Poor guy. At least you care, though. That's something, at least.

Aw Well, it's not the kind of thing you're enthusiastic about sending out brightly coloured pamphlets about...

The overtime doesn't really give me much extra after tax... I have to do five hours of overtime just to hit the £200 mark for the week. Doesn't really make me all that enthusiastic about doing overtime at all... still looking for another job. I've applied for a couple, but heard nothing back.

Hope you had a good bank holiday weekend. Sorry about taking so long to reply...

TK[1]

There you are! I was wondering what had happend to you.

Sometimes we all get stuck in a rut. I'm sorry you're not happy at the moment. I'm sure it's no consolation, but you're not alone.

As for being lonely - tell me about it! The May Day Bank holiday weekend was probably one of the lonliest times I've ever spent. I find some weekends tough anyway, but for some reason last weekend was just awful

If you have seen the journal entry I posted earlier today, you will know that I am about to go through some upheaval at work. I'm not best pleased about this - my life is quite crappy enough already without having to adjust to more changes. I'm trying to be positive about it - it might turn out to be a good thing in the longer term. If I like my new role, well good and if I don't, it might prove to be the kick up the arse that I so badly need to make me go out and find a job that I might actually want to do.

I keep reminding myself that I've been through much worse times than this and that plenty of people are worse off than me. I have a friend whose 17-year-old son was diagnosed with testicular cancer a month ago and yesterday they found out that the cancer has already spread to his stomach, kidney and lungs - I think we can safely assume that their lives a great deal more difficult than mine!

Still, none of these things are going to stop me from feeling sorry for myself. Sometimes life just isn't what you wanted for yourself. But it can (and will) get better. For me and for you.

Good luck with your job hunting. If you feel like a good old moan then this is the place to do it.



Liz
~

Sorry Things backed up a bit on here...

That's the thing... I am alone. I'm not the only one by any means, I'm under no illusions there, but there's a difference between being alone and being by myself.

Conversely, I had a very good bank holiday weekend. It was, unusually, quite active. I went to visit a friend in Leicester on the saturday, and we went to see the new hitchhikers film, and did some other stuffd through the evening. Saturday, two other friends came down from Leicester to visit me, and we went bowling and sat outside the pub all evening. was very nice, for a change!
I find the bank holiday weekends are usually the worst. They seem like they should be something special, but when it turns out that they're just the same as the usual weekends, it makes them seem even worse.

Yes, I saw that. Crap timing, indeed. It's funny how people can't seem to be happy with their jobs... You don't like the fact that yours is changing- I hate mine because it's staying the same. Lol. Humans, eh?

That's not nice. 17 is far too young for that. Makes me wonder why some people believe there's a God. Even less understandable is why such people then pray even harder... If I'm wrong, and there is a God, S/He's obviously a spiteful git. Poor sod. There are certainly more deserving people out there.

No, well, you have to have a certain amount of selfishness, don't you? You can spend as much time as you like feeling sorry for AIDS, cancer, terrorism and tsunami victims, but if you stub your toe it's still going to piss you off, isn't it? It's all relative anyway, and you have to look out for yourself.
We can only hope it will get better, but it doesn't help that things are stagnant as far back as I can see, and as far as I can prject for the future.

Thanks. And thanks The same is true for you, should you need to vent. Should you need to vent more privately, you have my email address I hope the job-change goes smoothly, and, you never know, it may be for the best

TK[1]

Evenin'

The work thing probably will be for the best and what I don't like about it is the way it has been handled (ie, badly) by the assorted managers who were involved in the decision process. And I don't like being moved away from a group of colleagues that I am fond of, particularly at a time in my life when I need some friends around me. However, it looks likely that I will maintain some links with them (they don't get rid of me that easily).

I've sent an e-mail this afternoon to the young man with cancer - just to wish him luck with the chemo. I've had a brush with cancer myself, but I was fortunate that mine didn't spread and surgery was all I needed. I don't know much about chemo therapy, but I'm sure it's not nice. I entirely agree with you about 'God'. I've always had somewhat heathen tendencies in that area and it mystifies me that anyone can believe in a merciful god when there is so much suffering in the world.

I feel like I'm in an even deeper rut now that I'm on my own that the one Chris and I had got into Having said that, I've spent a more pleasant weekend than I did last week. Last week I was miserable at home, but this week I have enjoyed just pottering about, fetching groceries, doing housework, and reading (lack of reading material was a big factor last weekend). I seem to have been at the PC for the last four-and-a-half hours and I really must get off it now as I'm starting to feel stiff.

Chat again soon.
Liz
~

Ar'noon.

Isn't it always poorly orchestrated where any kind of company is involved? Ineptitude and chaos are the buzzwords of today.

I didn't know that... it's scarily common.
Having a conversation with someone who believes devoutly on such subjects is eye opening, in more ways than one. Eyebrow rasing would probably be a better term. For instance, a friend of mine at uni who is a very committed christian (No sex before marriage, church every sunday morning without fail, member of various christian groups, hosts tamborine and rainbow guitar strap happy clappy evenings in her bedroom etc etc...). She goes to all these church meetings, and has a tendancy to walk back, by herself, late at night, taking all sorts of silly shortcuts through notorious alley ways and parks. We keep telling her not to. She always asks why. We say because people get raped, mugged, beaten up and sometimes murdered in a lot of those places fairly regularly. Her response? "God will protect me." Well why the hell hasn't he protected everyone else who's been raped, mugged, beaten up and murdered there, then? Well, they obviously weren't christian enough.
It's scary, it really is.

This weekend was O.k. I went to see Hitchhikers again on saturday, this time with my Dad. Then we (as a family) went to a party at a family friend's. She was holding a party to introduce us to a guy she's become friendly with that she met on the internet. He seemed like a nice guy, and actually lives up the road from me. I walk past his house when I'm visiting my grandparents. Today was the usual sunday lunch at my grandparents' house.
Would be nice to have some people other than family to socialise with around here, though.

Speak soon, hope work is O.k this week

TK[1]

Work has been a bit of an anti-climax today (as you can tell from the fact that I'm on here in the middle of the working day). I went across to my new department this morning for some 'induction' which took all of ten minutes. Then some crisis about enrolment forms occurred and all hell broke out, so any further training got postponed. I am going to spend some time in the FE Enrolments office tomorrow for some training on the college's computerised records system (which I have very little experience of, despite having worked here for two-and-a-half years).

Mrs Boss is out at a College Operational Group away-day all day, so things have worked out pretty well.

Strong religious beliefs are a puzzle to me. In the modern world, where science can explain so much - why is it that so many people believe in some omniscient being that does everything for us? That said, if people can take comfort from their religious beliefs, then good luck to 'em! As long as they don't try and preach to me, folks can believe in whatever takes their fancy. I have an old acquaintance who is a devout methodist (and married to a muslim - I have no idea how that works) and she has always had a good social life as the result of her chuch membership. Anytime she moves somewhere new, she always joins the local church and always makes tons of friends.

I could do with expanding my social life - how does one do that exactly? I am getting pretty fed up with doing everything on my own.

I haven't been to see the Hitchhikers film yet (something to do with going to the cinema on my own). I need to find out if it will still be showing come Friday. I have Friday and Monday as annual leave and I could fancy going to the pictures on a weekday afternoon when it will not be full of kids. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to go in the evening - I don't like travelling home on the bus at night because I don't share your friend's conviction about being protected from weirdos by god!

Liz
~

Lol, always the way... I didn't have my 'induction' until I'd been working there for two weeks already...

I'm much the same. I find it hard to believe how otherwise intelligent people can believe so profoundly in something with so little basis, but if it helps them to explain their universe, then good luck to 'em. Personally, I much prefer to accept that lots of things are currently unexplained and more than a little weird, rather than inventing some dude on a cloud as a sort of umbrella explanation for everything I don't understand.

I have no idea how that particular goal is achieved, or else I'd have done it myself. What are you doing next thursday?

I've seen it twice now Though I probably mentioned that in my last message (I couldn't be bothered checking right now...)
I have the same problem- I find saturday showings are populated with kids, no matter what film it is, and saturday evening/ night showings are even worse- they're populated with chavs. O.k, so these are basically kids with goatees, but you get the idea. Last time I went to the cinema on a saturday night ("the last time" being used to indicate both the chronologically ordered meaning, and the terminal sense of the phrase), the row in front of my friend and I was populated entirely by burberry caps and cigarettes. If that wasn't enough, they kept yelling half-articulated heckles at the screen. WHY?!?
Well, yes. I feel that if there /is/ a God, then he's more likely to send the weirdos after me just to annoy me. Or at least to distract them from my Faithful friend...

TK[1]

I went to see the Hitchhikers film this afternoon and I thought it was very good. I have today and Monday as annual leave - I carried forward two days from the 04/05 leave year but I was only allowed to do so if I took them before the end of May, so here I am taking them!

Going to the cinema in the afternoon is great - lovely and quiet and pretty much a chav-free zone. I slipped up slightly in that I went past the point of no return before I realised that the place where you buy the loose sweeties is near the door, so I didn't get my usual bag of goodies. They sold sweets in the bit where I bought my drink, but they were those big packs of only one kind of goodie and as they were about two-and-a-half quid each, I went without.

Anyway, I really liked the film and I'm not surprised you've been to see it twice - it is definitely a film I could watch again (and there aren't many of those).

Among the other excitement of my day off was a trip to Sainsbury's and a ride home in a taxi. I needed some tinned stuff which I didn't fancy lugging home via two different buses, so I made sure I got a good trolly full of food to justify the £4 taxi fare. The taxi driver was a nice, friendly talkative sort, which is always nice - one or two of the taxi drivers I have ridden with over the years could easily pass for axe murderers, but this bloke was really pleasant and helped me carry my shopping to the front door when he dropped me off.

I bought a lot of stuff today, but I still don't know what I'm going to have for me tea. I think it's time I made myself something to eat as I am feeling more than a little peckish. Time to log off hootoo and go and trough I think, but I'll be back later as there is bog all on telly tonight.

Liz
~

It's all right for some! I only get two floating days off out of my entire year!

Lol, not a regular flicks- goer, then? Think of your figure

I could watch again.... I wandered into Woolworths earlier, and they have a load of 'action' figures from the film, and there's also a life- size copy of Marvin's gun that fires foam darts and make's space-y noises! Wow!

Lol, marginally more exciting than my day... although I did take delivery of my nice new purple DMs... oh, ebay, how I love thee...

All I bought today was a couple of bars of chocolate, a pair of shoelaces I didn't need and this week's New Scientist.
Nothing good one?!? I've just watched For Your Eyes Only!

TK[1]

Oooh, your annual leave sounds a bit mean! Do you have some fixed leave? (I used to work in manufacturing and we had to take around half our leave when the factory was shut) Do you earn more leave over time? Where I work, the basic entitlement is 20 days per year but you earn an extra day for each years service for the first five years so after 5 years the leave entitlement is 25 days. That's for Business Support Staff like me - staff on academic contracts get between 25 and 50 days depending on their role (although that does include bank holidays).

So you're another E-bayer are you? Two of the blokes that I work with are well into E-bay - Mrs Boss would have a fit if she knew just how much of their working day they spent on what they call "The Communit-ay".

<> Er, no. The last film I saw at the cinema was the first Shrek movie, which is at least three if not four years ago. I don't usually have the attention span to watch films - often when films are on TV I start watching and then tape the end to watch later. However, when the Lord of The Rings was on Channel 4 the other week, I actually watched all three hours in one sitting. I'm rather proud of that.

For Your Eyes Only is a film I saw at the cinema with my family about 20 years ago. My youngest brother was still a little boy then and he joined in with the underwater scenes by miming swimming actions and pretending to breath oxygen out of the strap of my Mum's handbag He hates it when I tell people about that!

I spoke to my Mum on the phone last night and rashly mentioned my couple of days off. Next thing I know, my parents have invited themselves down for the day tomorrow! My Mum doesn't work Monday's, so they will stay overnight and go home sometime on Monday. Oh well, at least I wont be lonely for the next couple of days.

Liz
~

We get bank holidays off, and we get a few weeks off fixed. They're basically dictated by the holiday dates of the types of companies that rely on us- Got a week off in a couple of weeks time, then another two at the end of July. I think we have a week in october, and another over christmas. I thin I'll get more floating days when I've been there a few years, but to be honest, I don't intend to be there long enough to find out.

Lol, I'm a bit too much of an ebayer, but I've got some good stuff out of it.

Sound slike my mum... It's a joke in our house that she's only ever seen the first half of any film she's sat down to watch. It's not totally tue, but not far off. I'd like to see more films at the cinema, but I don't often have anyone to go with.

Aww, that's cute I think the first film I saw at the cinema was Bambi, but I can't remember it.

Ahhh, the parents' prerogative Hope you have a good time

TK[1]

I can't remember my first trip to the pictures either, but I have it on good authority that the film was 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', I was about four years old and I got out of my seat and danced in the aisle everytime any music came on.

A lot seems to have happend since I last left you a message. The parents visit passed off OK. It was tiring because my Dad was talking a lot (very loudly, same old thing over and over and over...) so I was quite relieved when they went home. However, we did have a nice walk around Ipswich's waterfront area on the Sunday afternoon (in warm sunshine too) and then on the Monday we went to Felixstowe and managed a walk along the front and a pub lunch before the rain came.

I moved to my 'new' office the next day (almost a fortnight ago now). So far, it has mainly been the same old c**p, just in a different office and I have done a lot of running about from one office to the other and my new line manager has been on holiday for most of the time I've been in my new habitat. I'm not very enamoured with my new surroundings so far - it's far too busy with telephones ringing constantly and people (including students) in and out all day long. I think it may be time to start looking for another job (if I wanted to do course administration, I wouldn't have applied for a job in a research centre). I could do with earning a bit more money now anyway. I take it that you plan to tunnel out of your job sooner rather than later?

I went to see Jack Dee on my birthday and he was excellent. I had a really nice couple of days, actually.

My Mum and Dad have cancelled their trip to Canada (long story, related to my Dad being a miserable old git and a hypocondriac). I can't get any time off work in September so, even if it hadn't been such a long visit, I couldn't have gone in his place. However, Mum still wants to go and we hope to go together next spring, just us girls.

I had lunch with Chris on Friday. He was a looking a lot better than the last time I saw him, but he is still very thin. He has lost a lot of weight and his face now looks rather haggard. Still, it was nice to see him and have a natter (and he paid for my lunch!)

I hope you are having a nice bank holiday weekend. I haven't really done that much, but I've had a nice relaxing time so far. I've done a bit of shopping and a lot of reading - I spent much of yesterday sat in the garden with my book and I have finished reading it in doors this afternoon. I feel incredibly tired today, which has been a good excuse to ignore the housework. However, my brother and his girlfriend are supposed to be coming to stay next week, so I will have to summon up the energy to clean their room tomorrow.

Take care and chat soon.

Liz
~

Awwwww

Aww, that's not so bad then At least it only happends once in a while...

Gah, the working world ain't all it's cracked up to be, is it?
Yes, I want to get out as soon as possible. Mainly because I want to become self- sufficient as soon as possible, and that's not going to happen on £5.50/hour. Trouble is finding something I want to do, and then getting them to realise I'm the man for the job.

I'd love to see him! A beleated happy birthday for whenever it was

Even jolidays are difficult. HArdly seems worth it, lol.

That's good Wish I could lose a lot of weight.

I went up to Leicester on friday night, went to a pub with some of my friends- haven't seen a few of them since october, so it was nice to catch up. It'll be much better next year- Abi will have taken bitchqueen's place at the house, so I'll feel more comfortable about visiting.
Got this week off, thankfully, though I can see it being squandered on nothing much at all. I really hate working :-S. I need a life of some kind.

TK[1]

I wish I had the week off . I've got some leave coming up towards the end of June and I'm looking forward to it already

Being peed off at work makes the weeks seem long, doesn't it? Last week really dragged. I'm fed up with spending so much of my life wishing it was the weekend.

£5.50 an hour sounds pretty dire in this day and age - I know cleaners who earn more than that! Mind you, when I first left school, I only earned £30 a week and that was crap even 22 years ago!

It's been a bit showery here today, so my only outing has been to the Co-op to buy some milk I don't know how I stand the excitement.

Liz
~

I've got two weeks off coming up- last week in July, first week in August. Would be nice if it was my choice, though... I'd have them a week later and then I'd have a week to recover from Rachel's wedding

Same here But I've just had a phone call inviting me for an interview with one of the companies I've recently applied for!

Looks better on your CV than "Dossed for six months", though, doesn't it? Lol If I get this new job, I won't be getting much more, but I will have a company vehicle and a company phone which helps. I think there's a pension scheme too.

I haven't stepped outside at all. I spent most of this morning and a part of this afternoon having a webcam conversation with EE (you may have run into her around here). She's lovely
Going out to get my hair cut at 5, though. Should be an adventure

TK[1]

Helloooooo!

As you can see, I've actually got on to hootoo today. I had a job getting my broadband connection to work again today but this time I only had to unplug the upstairs phone. My down stairs phone now works with the ASDL filter that I acquired on Friday. I can't decide at the moment if the problem is that the filter I've got upstairs is faulty or whether it might be something to do with the upstairs socket - it does say something on Tiscali's FAQ's about not using extension cables and this makes me wonder if my upstairs extension might be the problem.

Anyway, that's enough of the science stuff I've had my brother and his girlfriend to stay this weekend and we've had such a nice time. The only spoiler was that my brother has a really bad cold, poor thing. They arrived Friday night and I made jambalaya for supper. Yesterday we went to Aldeburgh and walked on the beach before having a light lunch in a pub. We then spent most of the afternoon dodging showers, and ended up at a place called Snape Maltings. My brother’s girlfriend found some plates and dishes that she liked in the posh house wares shop at Snape, so she was really chuffed. We went out for a particularly nice meal in a French restaurant on Saturday evening. T'other Liz teaches French, so she had a fine old time chatting up all the waiters and the owner seemed really pleased when she discovered that our comments card had been completed in French

They decided to go home this morning, thereby depriving me of the opportunity to make them a huge Sunday lunch, but never mind. I'm hoping to go and stay with them at the end of next month. I have spent most of today tidying up, reading a book and at one point I fell asleep on the sofa. No stamina me! My only foray into the outside world was to pull up some weeds in an attempt to wake myself up after my afternoon nap!

Good luck with your interview! . I haven't heard back from either of the jobs I applied for last week and I didn't apply for anything this week. As much as I dislike my current work situation, I'm still going to be fussy about my next job.

I should probably think about eating something as it's nearly eight o'clock, but I'll probably stay on here a bit longer yet.

Bye for now.

Liz
~

Hi!

An extension cable is probably half the problem I have here... another half is the fact that mum's TV interferes with the wireless network I set up... gah!

Sounds like a nice weekend . My weekend consisted of not going to a party in Leicester because my ex was there. Still, Lisa brought the girls (and the dog) round, so all was not lost

Sign of getting old, that is

Thank you I hope you hear something from your applications
I'm much the same- I hate my current job, but I'm not going to just skip to any old job. It's got to be something I think I might enjoy, and it has to have either higher pay or better prospects (preferably both).

And I must go to bed, else I'll be extra grumpy tomorrow.

TK[1]