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

It's quite pleasant here, actually. The sun peeps out from time to time and it is warm. My office is very quiet because most of my colleagues are manning the stand at the Suffolk Show. I had the office to myself yesterday, but today I have Harvey for company. I'm having a nice lazy couple of days (no change there then!).

Liz
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morning liz,might i just be nosey and ask who harvey is???The only one i can thnk of is a large white rabbit..i hope the silence in the ofice isn't getting too much for you!!!.
I never did manage to post the long message for you,but it's silent here at the moment..the children stayed last night,and now they've gone in to town shopping with their mum.We hada lovely evening,and a very late night,so the brain isn't firing on all cylinders yet,as my my beloved decided to snore most of the night.Why does it stop me sleeping after all these years i wonder???Hope you have a good weekend if i don't catch up with you before then.luv salx

Harvey is one of my colleagues and he is a good old boy. He takes virtually no notice of the boss, which is always a healthy trait I feel. He works here as a researcher (and probably does more work than most of them) but I think he would rather be a farmer. He lives way out in the sticks and keeps sheep and chickens.

Most people are back in the office today, except for Laura who is on annual leave to recover from the Suffolk Show. She manages to make a lot of noise for one person, so it is quiet when she is away.

Last night I learned that Chris is playing golf all day tomorrow and for much of Sunday. He plans to catch the train tomorrow and leave me the car. I will go and do the groceries and I could tootle off somewhere different to go shopping, but then again I have bought pretty much all I need for next weekend and I'm a bit poor this month. Chris thinks I should go up to my Mum's but it is a long drive for a day trip and I will see them next weekend in London anyway. Their anniversary is on Sunday so my brother and I have decided that I will ring them on their actual anniversary and enlighten them to the fact that they are not coming to my house at all next weekend, but going to London.

hi there liz,hope you're well luv.I have meant to post to you all week,and finally decided that i MUST make the time!!How did your mum and dad take the news about their anniversary??I hope they were very pleasently surprised.of course you'll be looking forward to an enjoyble weekend yourself ,i do hope it goes well for all of you.Theweather here has been beautiful,and even though it's a little breezy today,it's just right,the sun is still shining,and it isn't too cool to sit in the garden.I have two of the children here,keeping me company,and they're getting bored now,it's almost time to go back to school.We have a birthday tomorrow,it's the next to the youngest grandaughters,she'll be ten,then back to school friday.If i don't get to message you before,have a lovely weekend.chat soon.luv salxx

The parents were suitably delighted to learn that they are going to London at the weekend. They still don't know that we are going to see Chicago. I'm now at the point where I'm absolutely dreading it, but I'll probably be OK once I get there. Chris hasn't been able to swap shifts with anybody and so has to go to work at 2am on Saturday morning. As he can travel by train for free and London is only an hour away, he plans to travel down with me on Friday evening and have dinner with everybody, then go home and go to work (and drive a freight train back to London!) and then re-join the party in London on Saturday afternoon after he has had some sleep!

At least the weather forecast is good.

The weather has been lovely here for about five days running now.

hi liz,just a quick message to say i hope the weekend goes well for you,and that you all have a lovely time.Congratulations to your mum and dad,and i hope chris isn't too tired to enjoy the celebrations .It's been a hectic week here,a birthday,and a short hospital stay for one of my daughters,but all's well.I haven't known whether i was coming or going!!!chat next week ,have a great time!!luv salx

hi liz,how did the weekend go for you all?I am still trying to get back in to a routine,another couple of days and i should be back to normal.Did you have a good time,and how did chris cope with the rushing about?It's dull and grey here today....not at all the sort of weather for cheering anyone up!!!!!!!!Hope you're well.luv salx

Hi Sal

Yes, London was good, a bit stressfull on Friday evening but otherwise great. I've done a long and waffling journal entry all about it.

Busy at work this week but I will try and post properly later.

I hope your daughter is OK now - did you get saddled with her children while she was in hospital?

Liz
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hi liz,i read your journal,,it sounded as though you had a lovely weekend to remember.I only had the girls overnight,at my request though,and we had a lovely evening!!!!They wanted to go to bed ,so they must have enjoyed themselves,and it put the worry to the back of my mind,i was too occupied to have the time.She is fine now,but can't go back to work for a short while.
Look forward to chatting more soon.take care.luv sal

Hey-up Sal!

Still busy at work but boss is out today so I hope to catch up on a few more of my hootoo messages. I don't have much planned for the weekend, other than housework. As I was away all last weekend, my house is now in dire need of a thorough clean. I got some of my photo's back yesterday. About half of them are good but the rest are awful, either out of focus (how does that happen with an automatic camera that is supposed to focus for you?) or someone (usually my Mum) is pulling a face. Still, four other people had cameras with them so hopefully there will be some more good photos to come and I still have half a film in the camera to use up.

Bye for now
Liz
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hi there liz,sorry it took so long to post to you,for some reason
i haven't been able to post a great deal for a few days.I keep getting thrown out.I wish the photos had turned out better for you,but if you got a few good ones it's beter than none.I
seem to have a habit of chopping peoples
heads off(not literally ,of course),so if i take a photo the family are wise
enough to take another one,justin case!!I hope work has been a little more easy going this week.We didn't do a great deal over last weekend,it been fathers day we had company most of the day on sunday.I think we might have a shopping
trip tomorrow,depending on the weather,my hubby has decided
to take a day off.Better go and make a now,it feels like that
time of day!!!Chat soon.Take care,luv salx

Work is reasonably busy, actually, but my boss is out today so I can a**e about on here all afternoon. Bad Liz!

I didn't do much at the weekend either. We might go and see Mum and Dad next weekend. They have a couple of boxes belonging to me that I ought to collect before they move house and next weekend is the only one in the foreseeable future when Chris is not golfing, so we had best take this opportunity.

Liz
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Hi liz,how ya doing ??i'm getting worse at these postings ,aren't i?Are you still going to collect your boxes at the weekend??My hubby took a day off on wednesday,and we went to meadowhall in sheffield for the day.I really enjoyed it,and treat myself to some tops and shorts for the holiday.We had some lunch and set off back around five,but it was a nice day out,and we don't get many of them.Have you thought about taking up golf??You'd get to see more of chris that way!!!I haven't asked for a while,is his dad okay now??i hope he's much better,and that he approved of his decorating.I hope you have a good weekend,and the weather is better for you,it isn't nice at the moment here,
can't make its' mind up.Chat next week.luv sal

Hello.

Yes, we are still off up to Linky Land tomorrow afternoon, although we now have to come back straight after lunch on Sunday. Chris has a competition match that he must play this weekend or be disqualified, so he is playing golf at 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. So we will get about 24 hours to rush around and see everyone.

I've tried playing golf (well, pitch and put anyway) and I'm bored rigid after about three holes. It's not the sport for me.

Chris's Dad - well, that has been a bit of a saga. After 9 weeks in hospital, he persuaded them to let him go home but after a week, Chris and the GP between them organised for him to go into a convalescence place. He couldn't get out of his chair and consequently, kept wetting himself because he couldn't get to the loo. He was even sleeping in his chair but despite all this, he really didn't want to go to the convalescence home. However, he did go there for about two weeks and is now home again and seems to be a bit more mobile. Chris is fed up with the whole thing and doesn't think his Dad will be able to stay at home for much longer, but we shall have to wait and see.

The weather here is quite pleasant today. We had about one-and-a-half wet days midweek, and it has been very windy. I think we generally get more sunshine in this part of the country than you do 'ooop north'.

Chat next week.

Liz
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hi there liz,What a horrible day it is here,it's dul again,and threatening to rain,but not quite there yet!!Hope you had a reasonable weekend,mine wasn't all that thrilling,apart from seeing the grandchildrenIt sounds to me as though your'e going to need some help with chris's dad,if he contacts the occupational therapist they will help with care in the community(well.supposedly).They should have put a care package together for when he came home,i can't believe how slack they are sometimes!!!
AAre you still busy at work???Ihad the hairdresser here this morning,so got up early,and i've got less done than i usually do,so it's something totally lacking imagination for tea!!!It looks as though it'll be a a curry!!
Nothing much else to tell you i don't think,but catch you later in the week.Take care.luv salx

Hi Sal,

The weather here was nice earlier on, but it has now clouded over. I hope Chris gets my washing in before the rain comes!

Chris's Dad probably could do with more help but there are two problems; 1), Chris and his brother are c**p at getting things organised and, 2), Reg doesn't want any help and likes to be left on his own.

My weekend was OK, if a little rushed. Chris didn't get home from work until 9:30 on Saturday morning and went straight to bed, so we didn't set off for Mum's as early as I would have liked. We arrived at about half-past four on Saturday afternoon. Mum & Dad were out and their dog was so traumatised at being invaded by us that he pooed all over the carpet - so that was a nice welcome gift for me to clear up!

I managed to spend about an hour each with my best friend and my grandma on Sunday morning and then we had to head for home again by 2pm because Chris was playing golf at 4. He was late.

So, something of a flying visit but it seems that I was there for long enough for Mum to infect me with her cold as today I've got an even worse sore throat than the one I had before I went away! I collected my two boxes of toys and I now have to find somewhere to put them at my house. It seems odd to think that the next time I visit my parents they will be somewhere else - they have lived in their house for 19 years. I've seen a picture of their new place (and it really is new too, only built about 18 months ago) and it looks nice.

I'm planning to make Pasta with Spicey Sausage for tea, which is a receipe I don't think I've done before. We had a particularly yummy potato omlette last night, with a filling of spinach, yoghurt and feta cheese. I my food!

Liz
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good morning liz,hope you're okay ,and had a good weekend.Ihaven't felt brilliant for a few days,i seem to have been popping in and out,and haven't had much to say for myself.I don't post if i haven't anything to say,i think people find it boring!!!!
We've been looking for houses again,but not on a big scale,just browsing the paper,and the internet.
What a weekend.....it's rained..and rained....well,i'm sure you'll get the picture.We did manage a good hour in the garden on saturday,and everything's progressing well out there.We've had lots of cucumbers from the plants,and they're much nicer than shop boght ones,and the tomatoes are well on their way to being edible.I think the main part of them em will be readeady when were away.but with a little encouragement from the sunshine we might get them earlier!!Almost lunch time yet again,and some serious wo work on not eatng sweet things ...i really need to get rid of some we weight!!Chat soon...hope chris is okay.luv salx

Hi Sal,

I've got a bit of a cold but otherwise I'm fine. I had a fairly lazy weekend - lots of laying on the sofa watching the tennis.

It has rained here a few times, but we've had more sunshine than showers.

I haven't got much to say myself today. I went to a staff barbecue on Thursday afternoon (and very dull it was too, although the food was nice) and that is about the extent of my activities. Work is a bit quiet and I had hoped to do some internet surfing in search of places to go when we are on annual leave at the end of the month (not to mention catching up on my hootoo conversations). However, my boss has postponed her holiday, so I shall have to postpone my surfing until she is out of the office later in the week.

Liz
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good monday to you liz.hope you're okay.Did you have a good weekend??Talk about the best laid plansAt some point i must have been about twenty minutes away from you,but never made it to where i wanted to be!!!
We set off full of plans, and got as far as the hotel,you'll have to have a look at my journal liz!!!I don't have to tell you what the weather was like ,that was quite nice, and we had lovely food etc,all i can say is the weekend was an experience i wont forget!luv sal

Oh dear! I've just read your journal - what a tale of woe!

I did make it to the meet. We were terribly British and ate our picnic outside in the middle of a shower of rain (Chris told me later that there was no rain at all in Ipswich). The picnic itself was a bit higgledy-piggledy, but I still managed to give away most of the vegetable samosas that I had brought, and some crisps, but no one wanted my mini-scotch eggs. I sampled several of Unc's brownies, a sex on the beach jelly made by Reefgirl, one of Mystic Mel's sausage rolls and strawberries supplied by assorted hootoo researchers. For the first couple of hours I felt very much the outsider and wondered if I should really have gone. Some folks have been attending these meets for years and know each other really well. Very few people were wearing name badges and even fewer introduced themselves, and so I ended up hanging around with the studenty types because they were simply friendlier. I chatted to Mystic Mel, Z Phantom, Whoami?, PSG, Opti Strong Hands and her boyfriend Andy, Unc and a very tall young man who's name I have forgotten and later on I met Noggin the Nog. I feel bad that I didn't talk to more people but I just found it a bit difficult. I'm still glad that I went though.

After we had finished eating, six of us went for a walk to have a look at the new Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. It's hardly a fountain at all, but it is very pleasant. Who knew you could do so much with a stone ring and some water? It is very accessible and there was no end of kiddies paddling in it, despite the weather. It rained very heavily while we were round that side of the park, so when we got back to the site of our earlier picnic, we were not surprised to find that everyone else had gone. So we made our way to Holborn and met up again at The Shakespeare's Head before moving down the road to The Princess Louise, which was rather pleasant and very Edwardian in its décor. I didn't go to the main evening event at the Penderels Oak because I was travelling alone and I didn't want to be on the train by myself late at night.

As I was riding home on the train, it occurred to me that I have been out or been away every other Saturday since 11 June, that is three out of the last six Saturdays. I'm quite proud of that - it's the nearest I have been to having a life in ages. Coming up next is (hopefully) a short holiday to the West Country at the end of July and then Racing at Newmarket on 7 August with some friends that I used to work with.

So my weekend was good and I'm sorry yours was not more successful. Did you actually make it onto the London Eye?

Chat soon
Liz
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