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

So how was the holiday?

I had my blasted dates wrong. It's mid-July, not mid-June. I made this mistake because, apparently, I'm stupid.

However, the weather here has been absolutely stellar. It's been over 20 degrees all week (24 degrees yesterday and feels like 25 or 26 today). It's a scorcher. And now that I'm riding my bike over the Granville Street bridge to get to/from work, I get an incredible view all the way there. I love this new office.

I'm also glad that summer finally decided to show up.

So how's the weather lately in Blighty, then?

That bike ride sounds fantastic! I cycle into work and it is a very boring journey. I used to live on the seafront and used to cycle along the promenade, but now it's just town centre traffic and tarmac.

The weather here is pretty hit or miss - it was really hot (for GB) a couple of weeks ago, but now we've reverted to standard summertime overcast days with the sun struggling valiantly to appear (but always just failing).

The bike ride is, indeed fantastic. The view on a sunny day is so amazing that I want to grab my digital camera (well, a friend's digital camera that I'm borrowing) and take pictures from the middle of the bridge (and I'm a geek - I usually don't think of doing things like that ).

A day or two ago, I was distracted during my bridge-crossing by what has to be the biggest "kite" I have ever seen in my life. It had no "framework" - rather, it was more of a massive, parachute-like thing with a long tail. This thing was *huge*. Much bigger than a parachute.

Perhaps I'll take some pictures and put them up either here or on my web site. However, it's all cloudy so maybe I'll wait for another sunny day.

I'd love to see a view from you bike ride - there's nothing geeky in that! I'll see if I can sort out a typical view from my bike. We have a digital camera at work (although it's now a bit old, it is fine for web quality pics) - so I'll sort out a view of Dover as seen from my bike.

Bit drunk at the mo (Friday evening) - what a surprise.

Frizz
XX

I also have access to a crappy (first-gen) digital camera. When I take my pictures I'll post them on my web site. Let me know when I can see yours. It's all so exciting.

I hope it's sunny tomorrow.

It was kind of sunny today, so off I went with camera in hand to take some pictures from the bridge. I've posted them on my humble web site (which you can get to from my h2g2 home page). I wish it were sunnier, but sometimes that's just the way things go, I suppose.

So have a look, should you feel so inclined.

Fantastic!

OK - ready for a slight change of tone (or enormous culture shock)?

http://www.frizzychick.co.uk/journey.htm

It may be really slow. I'll see if I can find an alternative and somewhat quicker site...

Be prepared, it's staggering dull.

An alternative if that one's too slow:
http://www.frizzy.freeserve.co.uk/dover/journey.htm
can't guarantee it will be nay better (cheapo ISPs)

Great pictures. Why am I getting a sort of 'city Nick/country Frizz' kind of feeling? Is it because you have a frigging CASTLE on a hill looking off your balcony?? Hmmm... could be. We don't have any castles here, so I guess you win.

The shot of the bins was particularly exciting. I think I prefer the first route, rather than the alternative route because the alternative route doesn't appear to include the scenic bins vista.

I think you have a slightly less-crummy camera than the one I was using. Did you actually manipulate those photos at all (ie, sizing, cropping, scaling, etc)? They're all different sizes.

I should have taken more shots from my neighborhood, like you did, but I wasn't sure how many pictures would fit on the disk I was using. I worked it out when I got home and realised that I could have taken twice as many pictures. Doh!

I have _got_ to get a digital camera of my own. Terribly addictive things. I should first get a scanner, though, so I can scan some of my Antigua pictures. Money, money, who's got the money?

Thanks!

You get the bins whichever way you travel - bins are compulsory.

The camera is pretty lousy - I am just a superb orperator - the images are re-scaled from 800 pixels (max dimension) to about 400 pixels - and a couple are cropped. But other than that they are pretty much untouched

The view of the castle is pretty cool, eh? Thought you'd be impressed/slightly less bored by that.

So that is pretty much my route to work, it's probably only about 5 minutes (if that) from the Christmas tree to work (Can you handle the excitement of that!) I think for the sake of completeness I should really take one more pic from between the tree and work. There's a pretty attractive chip shop, or multistorey car park... um, no more bins though.

Oh yeah - and havfe you checked out the h2g2 front page today? One of my articles is BIG on the front!! I'm terribly excited!

Hey, congrats, Frizz! Geez, it's like a front page headline there, all to itself. How often does _that_ happen? Now I understand the message posted on your page by Joolsee. Guess I better head back there and claim sudden enlightenment.

I didn't think to crop/scale my pictures. I hope they didn't take a long time to load for you. Your pictures took quite a while to finish loading, but it was worth the wait, especially for the scenic bins.

I'll bet you take that castle for granted, don't you?

The castle is pretty cool, but as with anything on your doorstep, you do get used to it. Being in the heritage business though, I do appreciate it (sort of).

How many times have you been in that castle, anyway? When I was in England back in 1996, I spent a day at Warwick Castle, which was very exciting, even though they had wax dummies all over the place which made the place seem less like a majestic castle and more like a tourist trap.

Castles are neat-o.

I haven't been v. often (the shame) - it is way too expensive!

How long were you in England for? Holiday?

Yes, a very expensive holiday, at that. I was there for a week back in 1996 with a couple of friends. Lots of power sight-seeing.

As with probably most tourists in Britain, you pay with a bill and you get a handful of coins back. Eventually, I had a massive pocketful of coinage dominated by a plethora of two pence pieces that was starting to cramp my style. So I became "The Tuppence Bandit". Everywhere I went - pubs, restaurants, the cafeteria at the British Museum - I would hide two pence pieces. Under flower pots, under ash trays, just about anywhere. Eventually, I had hidden most of my pesky two pence coins all around most of London.

Aren't vacations fun?

You could have just spent them, you know! They are legal tender. What do you think us Brits do with them? If we all went round hiding small change the world would be chaotic!

I just don't understand the logic behind the two pence piece. I mean, here is this _enormous_ coin, a coin larger than every other British coin, and it's worth two flipping pence! What's the deal with that? I had what felt like five kilos of change in my pocket and about 90% of it was two pence coins totalling less than a pound!

Perhaps, if a two pence denomination is really necessary, they could come out with a paper version. It would be way cheaper and wouldn't cause sudden hip fractures or anything.

Besides, it was much more fun being "The Tuppence Bandit".

LOL!

And Britain has never felt quite safe again!