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

and a busy weekend it was: Boat Race, clocks (*spit*), theatre (Terence Rattigan's Cause Célèbre which opens at the Old Vic this week), Hash, Census form...

Forgot to tell you that I went to a concert by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band last weekend . Brill it was. Another one coming up soon with the Brighouse & Rastrick

Also, a little bird tells me that you've been recommending entries of mine to the noohootoo Consortium

the question was knowing *which* one


Terence Rattigan, how uncanny, we went to see a play of his at the Louth theatre on Saturday, The Winslow Lad. Very good it was too

Tonight Gordon was entertaining the conductor and her hubby so he asked me to be hostess, all I did was turn up and entertain them while he dished up sausage casserole followed by an apple concoction invented by Gordon then they all went off to rehearsal at 7pm so I came back home. She (Sue) won an award from the BBC for her conducting, and she is conducting the Requiem on Sat 16th April. It's my brother-in-law's birthday tomorrow so I'm paying for his and my sister's tickets to the Requiem

It's Gordon's Mum's birthday tomorrow as well. She is 92. I've got her a flowering plant in a pretty pot which will look nice on her windowsill. Gordon's got her 2 new nighties, it's difficult to know what to buy So the usual Tuesday routine is a little changed tomorrow, we're still going to the cinema but before that I will go down to spend a little time with Doris. After the cinema we're going to the auction rooms at Brigg to have a painting valued. I think I've mentioned it before, although if I haven't (or I did and you've forgotten the details) just prod and I will email, there's also a pic now,

Did I mention it's also Goldie birthday tomorrow? She's 2. That makes her a teenager in cat years! Must see if I can find a

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/russia-stops-clock-change-it-stresses-the-cows/story-e6frfkui-1226029067999

Interesting that you picked the Das Lied entry. The one I think I am proudest of is Klever Kaff.

Busy birthday time then. Hoopy barfday to Goldie

I don't recall you telling me about a painting, so yes, fill me in.

Permanent Summer Time is no good (unless of course it's accompanied by permanent summer Still at least it stops all the faffing about changing clocks. Did I mention that it annoys me at all?

Must go to the vet to get my udders checked. Moo!

Das Lied wasn't the only one I picked. You can also recommend your own work, and grant permission for them to use the work if chosen. Just let Ben or Z know.

I'll email about the painting

We went to an excellent concert last night, a trio called "Electric Shock" comprising a girl singer (she was 14) and 2 lads on electric violins (one was 15, the other 16). Highly recommended if ever they're in your neck of the woods

Our friend Pailaway had a lucky escape this week, he reported winds topping the insane-o-meter and wildfires, he and his family had to be evacuated, but they've moved back now, and all's well ()

Another mutual friend had a piece in The Independent - an obit about her cousin http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/isis-nassar-artist-who-worked-and-taught-in-farflung-communities-2264195.html

As I feared, I don't drop in for several days (rushed off my feet ) and now when I do I am inundated with convo posts

I've also promised to do some proof-reading for Ben...and the oven packed up last night

Where's that ?

Gordon managed 100 lengths of the pool in the Cleethorpes Leisure Centre last night, for the Swimathon 2011. He's raised about £230 for Marie Curie but we still have a cheque on the way from Spain

Well I was very impressed. After the oven played silly whatnots on Friday evening, an inspection on Saturday morning revealed that the heating element had gone faulty. Not usually a problem to replace it - I've done it before on a previous oven - but the screws holding the cover plate to the back of the oven had rusted in solid and defeated all attempts to remove them - they are Torx screws in which the Torz screwdriver either fits or it doesn't, nothing in between.

So an online browse for a replacement oven found a suitable candidate. A quick telling bone call to the supplier confirmed that they had it in stock and could deliver next day: "What even on a Sunday?" "Yes no problem, we'll call you to confirm a delivery time when you place your order".

So the order was placed and confirmation by both text and telling bone followed in quick order. "Tomorrow between 10am and 2pm".

Sunday 9am, another call: "We are on time and will deliver between 10am and 1pm". I was out hashing but my son took delivery. They arrived at 11.45, brought the oven in, unpacked it, went over the inspection with him and then took away all the packing materials.

I got home just after 2, had a spot of lunch and wired the oven in. All completed by 3.30pm and ready to cook the evening meal.

Don't you just love the Internet?

That's amazing! In fact I'd call it a small miracle! to them for great customer service.

I had to laugh at your reference to the telling bone; my family were big Catweazle fans and my children invented their own familiars to guard their stuff while they were at school, and checked the garden for belongings (our then-neighbour had a pond and we had quite a few aquatic visitors). We still use Catweazle language when we're all together it can be confusing for anyone who never saw the original show

I've told you Gordon is chairman of the Grimsby Philharmonic? Tonight they're joining forces with the Grimsby Bach Choir for a performance of Verdi's Requiem. http://grimsbyphil.edwilldesign.com/

It's highly appropriate as this week we lost our first lady through the Pets As Therapy charity

http://www.thisisannouncements.co.uk/9238484 that photo I've uploaded is of Cath stroking Snoopy. She was a 78-y.o. widow, no children, kept dogs all her life. She kept saying how much she loved us coming in with Snoopy and called him her "little boy", I will miss her as she was one of the smilers (some are just getting by and others are downright rude) but Cath always said "Take care" when we left and nearly always walked us to the door to wave us off...such a shock as she was right as rain last Thursday and then first thing we said when we walked in this week was "Where's Cath?" only to be informed she'd passed away on Tuesday. I wasn't very professional and burst into tears. Luckily the chief of staff said she "knew there'd be tears today" and she made us a

Would you like to see how the professional astronomer at APOD has described today's entry? http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110419.html

Well I'm sure you have to listen to something while you're sat at the telescope all night!

Un crescendo di stelle

PS to the email, the painting turned out to be a copy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Maja_Desnuda and they're hopeful of a huge interest (???) it's going in a fine art auction in June... keep you posted

and

Interesting

<--for the morning

I'd rather have a fresh one in the morning, thanks

<--- for now

Have only just come in

Top-up for teatime + as it's teatime

Ships that pass in the night, eh?

I had such a day yesterday, beginning with a call from my sister that she thought Mum had had another heart attack, and had called out so I went round, she'd fallen out of her recliner chair on Monday night and badly bruised her leg, my brother was with her Tue, I went round Wed then did all the shopping alone then took sandwiches & back to hers, stayed with her until 2pm. checked that she hadn't broken any bones but while I was looking upstairs for a wheat blanket to microwave for Mum's sore hip, the left! Hadn't even checked her heart or blood pressure so I stayed until my sister arrived then went home to prepare for Cath's funeral. After that I couldn't get online, and I had to write my May BATS which I did offline then sent it during a window when the 'net seemed to be back up. We're doing the OAP Home visits this afternoon due to postponing yesterday.



After the Easter Bank Holiday I'm going to get in touch with the hosp clinic to get Mum checked out, although with the state of her yesterday I don't think she can remain alone in that big house much longer, she hardly seems to know what she's doing and I have no idea how she manages the stairs.

Oh dear, about your Mum It's no fault of their own, but elderly parents can be a bit of a trial at times. Still, we will be one day

Had a fabulous day on Friday. We had the second of our training walks in preparation for the 20 peaks challenge at the beginning of June. We covered about 12 miles up and over the Downs and back via Whipsnade Zoo and the Tree Cathedral. It was hot in the sun but an amount of our route was through woodland, so providing patches of shade. We had split into 2 groups. The other group chose to take on an 18-mile hike, which turned out in the end to be nearly 20 miles. They were well-lathered by the time they got back, while my group was sitting in the pub with some ice-cold drinks I'm leading the next walk - a 25km trail with two steep ascent and descents - a week after the London Meet.

BBQ with Dad today. Just hope this spell of weather doesn't turn out to be 'the summer' for this year

or if you prefer

with my lunch, thank you.

Interesting conversations on here, in one thread I am chatting with 3Dots about plastic surgery and its effects, and in another poor Prof's son has been horrifically injured F1926355?thread=8175284 the trials we go through as parents! and also as children of elderly parents as you say we will be like that if we live that long some of the ladies in the Homes we visit with are well into 90s and one is 103.

Remember my Mum lost her best friend some weeks ago? The inquest have declared "accidental death" due to her falling and banging her head, then not telling anyone, then collapsing with a brain haemorrhage. That was in last night's local paper which Mum won't have read yet as my sister collected her and took her to theirs for the Easter weekend.

We had a lovely time last night - went to the Caxton theatre in Gy and saw a play "Bouncers" it was very funny plus they did two dance routines which I enjoyed very much, "Men In Black" and "Thriller" (obviously a trimmed-down version) then when we left there was a torrential downpour and a huge thunderstorm. When we got back to Gordon's there was pink blossom all over the drive where the rain had beat and stripped his neighbour's cherry blossom tree. The air was certainly a lot fresher this morning!

Hope you enjoy your family bbq