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

I have a special deal at the gym for yoga classes. Usually you have to pay a membership fee (about 40 euros) and then about 40 euros a month, to be able to have access to everything the gym offers, including yoga.

Right now I'm paying 30 euros a month for yoga classes (no membership fee required) but I am only allowed to take yoga. Fair enough. Thing is, until I feel more secure about my **BACK** then I don't want to invest in more options that I may not be able to do.

But I'm still enjoying the yoga classes. Did I tell you I also have a Friday morning private class with a yoga instructor in my house? We are trading an hour of English for an hour of yoga. And that works out great because they only offer yoga in the mornings on Monday and Wednesday, so I can also have a Friday class with my *private instructor*. Poco á poco, as we say here in Spain . . .


az

Sorry your posting got a bit lost in the 'Nostalgia' thread I don't think the others realised there was a bit of back-story there. It's always difficult when you've taken a deep breath and divulged some fairly important stuff - which then seems to be totally ignored. I hate it when that happens to me in a thread

Anyway - s again.

Oh, thanks honey.

I know I'm sometimes prone to feeling a bit 'over-sensitive' and no doubt yesterday was one of *those* days. But looking the thread over this morning it seems that no one even took any notice of me unsubbing and just carried on as they were . . . so that's okay for them, I guess.

Yeah, it did take a bit of a deep breath to post what I did, but oh well. It's just one thread.

Thank you for noticing that, though, and taking the time to comment on it here. I really do appreciate it.


az

Lazy old me, can't bother to check back, but didn't you once recommend the book Pompeii to me? Anyhow, just bought it yesterday. It reads quite like a television miniseries, but is quite entertaining.


az

Very readable - and Mr T enjoyed the engineering stuff.

Speaking of tv mini-series - there's a massive Beeb/US collaboration just begun over here - Rome.

Looks promising so far - plenty of intrigue and action, both swashing and bonking

It ought to be jolly good - they've spent millions making it.

I still haven't got back to doing any proper reading - which is quite unlike me. Blame those damned Sudoku puzzles.

I can't seem to get out of ancient Rome these days. After reading I Claudius I then bought Claudius the God, which is not as entertaining (lack of a good villain, I reckon). I'd also started Robert Graves autobiography which was so heavy into war stuff that it became quite tedious reading for me.

Anyhoodle, in my humble opinion, Pompeii is lightly written fluffy stuff. Yeah, entertaining, but not well-written at all. I find myself cringing at some of the author's turns of phrases, stereotypical descriptions, stuff like that.

I think Lindsay Davis does much better at re-creating ancient Rome in a manner that is both informative and entertaining. She also shows wonderful humour and intelligence when writing about her subject, which whats-his-name doesn't manage to do at all.

az

Phew - is it really 'that' long since I posted on here?

I also seem to be stuck in Ancient Rome - watching the Beeb/US collaboration 'Rome' on tv - which is about Pompey and Caesar fighting it out for control over the Empire. It's very well done - the film sets match my mental picture of the city in Falco's time, although he was on the scene about 100 yrs later.
They don't exactly stint on the sex and swashbuckling either

Also reading Steven Saylor's recent Roma sub-rosa mystery - where Gordianus is in Alexandria at the same time as Caesar, who's trying to sort out Cleopatra and her brother Ptolomey. Pompey's just been decapitated - and Cleopatra's made her entrance via the rolled-up rug routine.
All very entertaining and page-turning.

Sorry you didn't find Pompeii that good I rather enjoyed it - and Robert Harris generally got good crits for it.

There's a new Lindsey Davis out in hardback - but I'll be waiting until it appears in paperback. It annoys me when a book I want to keep and read again doesn't match the others on the shelf - never mind the extra expense.

Now reluctantly off to do some cleaning and tidying while there's still some daylight. We're expecting a house full over Christmas and I really should try to rise to the occasion.
What plans do you and Noggin have - or are you just going to go-with-the-flow?

Hallo!

No big Christmas plans here . . . just the usual. We'll probably make a huge Christmas feast and then invite a Christmas 'orphan' or two to share it with us - non-Spanish friends who are here without family and would like to have a nice meal on Christmas day and then flop out on the sofa watching It's a Wonderful Life or whatever on dvd.

I didn't know that Lindsey Davis has a new book out - like you, shall wait till it comes out in paperback.

I'm finally out of ancient Rome and am reading an interesting and somewhat strange book called Morocco by David Flusfeder. About a woman who is a psychologist in pre-WW2 Germany or maybe Poland - from what I can gather. A curious book and still not sure how the title fits in with what the book is about . . .

As for cleaning . . . aaack! My three tenants next door have all decided to move out all at once, for various reasons (mostly financial, though one had a family problem and had to leave because of this). They've only been there since October but the state of the kitchen and bathrooms is quite scary. Anything other than taking a blow-torch to the kitchen . . . I really don't get it. In just two months all kitchen surfaces seem to be covered in sticky greasy goo - and it was totally clean when they moved in. I won't even go into the state of the bathtub . . . ick.

Meanwhile, I'm one to talk. This morning Noggin and I had a visit from a supplier and he asked if he could use the bathroom - and I went aaaaaaaaaaargh! Give me a minute! Because the cat sand box was way overdue for a change the room really was not 'acceptable for visitors' if you know what I mean. How embarrassing! So after a rapid couple of minutes I said he could use our facilities . . .

But at least our bathtub and sink is not a totally different colour like next door - ie - totally greyish-black and scummy - and the floor looks like it's been washed recently, not like, two months ago! I'm constantly amazed at how some tenants never bother to clean anything at all during their stay.

Anyhow, Noggin and I are now looking for new tenants for next door, but we are also thinking about wanting to use some of that extra space for the biz, so we may end up only renting one or two of the three rooms there now and keep one for storage and packing materials. This and that. We shall see . . .

Otherwise and that, things are quite fine.

How are you?


az

Merry Christmas!

I got a new book for Christmas from Noggin - The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. As well as a chess set and a very weird vibrating massage gizmo that looks like a ladybug.

Have just finished a book that I think you'd like. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. And have just started Amarican Gods by Neil Gaiman, which also looks quite promising.

Hope you had a lovely holiday.

az

Happy New Year

I'll come back for a proper chat later but wanted to leave this before I forgot...

http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/index.html

Well worth a browse - she sounds like a very interesting and humourous woman.
You may want to turn down the tweetering birds!

Feliz año nuevo!

Thanks for the link. I have seen her site before but haven't visited it for awhile. Last time there weren't any birds tweetering.

So where did you book in the end - the Marques Santa Ana? If you saw my post on the mini meet thread you'll know Nog and I checked it out and it is superb!

We've just spent a few not-very-festive hours cleaning the flat next door as a new tenant is arriving tomorrow. Another arrives next Saturday and the third is yet to be found (eep!).

Tomorrow we have to clean up this joint. Gaaa. Have been doing a lot of re-arranging for the clothing biz. Got new tables from IKEA yesterday for me to cut on and draft patterns and it took us ages to put together the four adjustable trestle legs . But it's all coming together . . .

Slutty Housekeeper, eh? Glad to hear it. My place is not exactly *dirty* but it is always amazingly untidy somehow. I think it's partly to do with us both living here and working from home, but it's also to do with me not really caring about stuff like dust and papers and books strewn all over the place. And the kitchen is almost always a semi-disaster area.

Last week I visited one of my students at her place - she's a nuclear medicine doctor. And holy sh*t! There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere. The kitchen and bathrooms were totally *sparkling* (like in a Mr Clean ad) and the highly polished marble floors made me want to reach for my sunglasses. And I decided right then and there that I would never invite Isabel over to my place!

Though I have to say I prefer a more 'lived in' looking place. Isabel's apartment actually looked kind of sterile - as if nobody lived there. There weren't any dirty coffee mugs or glasses in the sink, no magazines or books lying about, no unopened mail on the dining room table. I wonder how people do that?


az

We booked at the Marques Santa Ana - it looked attractive on the website and it's good that you and Noggin were able to give it a once over and came to a similar conclusion

Sounds like things are beginning to fly, business-wise - which seems appropriate for the start of a new year. I wish you every success in the coming months - and you mustn't let a crowd of Hootooers disrupt things too much when they land on your doorstep in March

I'm not looking forward to going back to wo*k on Tuesday - but needs must.
Would far rather stay at home and play in my garden - I was out there for a few hours today and found it very therapeutic.

Does Isabel the Clean live alone and possibly have a 'lady wot does'? Maybe she just finds cleaning activities restful, in contrast to what she does for a living.
Me - I'd rather ignore the mess, put my feet up and read a book.

I always wonder where tidy people put their bits of paper - we seem to be awash with the stuff.

Off to bed now
Wish I could say we were up late last night bringing in the New Year in style - but we struggled to stay awake for the bells and then I spent several hours worrying about what No3 was up to.
He wasn't with his usual mates who I can trust to look after him and was looking worse for wear when he came in at 9.00 this morning to get ready for work at 11.00. Had I realised he was still pi**ed - he wouldn't have been let out the house. Apparently he puked in the sink at the bread counter in wo*k

Just wondering if it would be okay to put this photo of you in the gallery (B'Elana took it at the meet - number 13).

http://www.arcor.de/palb/thumbs_public.jsp?albumID=3541433&pageNr=2


az

S'pose so - if Ben's okay with it.

I have a rather unfortunate resemblance to Albert Steptoe - due to my Class 3 skeletal arrangement.

B'El is my new Best Friend - she thinks I'm MUCH younger than I actually am

S'pose so, if Teuchter's ok with it.

I really like this one of you, Teuchter: http://uk.geocities.com/agirlcalledben/H2G2Winter2006/photos/thumb12.jpg

Mind you, I always think I look like a fat chipmunk who's cornered the market in double chins, so though I disagree with you about the Steptoe thing, I sympathise with your feelings on the matter.

B

I don't know who Albert Steptoe is.

Thanks for the okay, guys. I think it's a nice pic of the both of you and (until I saw your link, B) the first photo of Teuchter I'd ever seen - she insists on not having any that don't make her look like Albert Steptoe.

Off to the gallery before you change your minds . . .


az

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/s/gallery/steptoeandson_7776035_3.shtml

I also can't see the resemblance, Ben. Perhaps if she was wearing a hat?


az

And I don't think Ben looks like a fat chipmunk - but I do admire her 'knowing' expression.
Maybe one day she'll tell me what she knows

Me? I know no-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-thing!

B

Aye, right