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

The morning was good; my copy of "The Zen of CSS" arrived, closely followed by my Humax digibox. Unfortunately, so did a final demand for back Council Tax that I didn't know I owed.

I planned a bit of a trip out. Looking out the window, it was cloudy, so I put on my coat and headed round to Mike the Upholsterer's place to borrow some -fare change. By the time I was halfway there the sweat was already running down inside my sleeves. It was hot.

I borrowed £1.40 in change, and headed off to Maplin, where I returned the Modulator I bought two days ago - with the Humax back I had no need of it now. The guy behind the counter was nice enough to give me a large carrier bag to bundle my coat into... Then, I took a number 17 to Union Street and headed to the bank. There, I upped the level of two of my standing orders, taking care of both my Council Tax and Rent shortfalls. Onwards to John Menzies, where I bought a copy of "Computer Arts Projects", a USB lamp for £1.99 and a rather spiffy fountain pen for 29p.

Round the corner to Oxfam, where I picked up an HP USB printer for £7.99. I jumped on a number 19 back up the road, wherein I bumped into Mike's wife, Marion, on her way to the hairdressers. I got off the bus halfway down George Street to pick up my copy of Personal Computer World, found the shop closed because of illness and managed to get back on the same bus again!

I got to Mike's, repaid the £1.40, then heaved all my stuff home. That was when I spotted the instruction manual for the modulator I'd just returned.

I headed *back* to Maplin, stopping off on the way to pick up some bargains from Iceland, returned the manual with my apologies, got a couple more bargains from Farmfoods and headed home to put it all in the 'fridge. Without the coat to carry around, it was so much more pleasant. There was a 'phone message waiting from Chris; I returned his call - it seems he's back in the country, but off to England for a week. This means the pressure's off a little.

I decided one more trip out was in order, as it was a beautiful day and I still had the bus pass. I headed off on a number 23 to visit the Magic Shop that opened up on King Street a few months back. It was mostly curiosity on my part, but in the end I bought a pretty deep-blue satin bag filled with a mixture of semi-precious stones that were hoped to "Inspire" me, for a tad over £6. Apparently, I need to "cleanse" the stones by passing them individually through the plume of smoke from an incense stick and/or passing them through running water. After that, I should handle them as much as possible, but let no-one else touch them. I'll try anything once...

I walked down to Grambo's but he wasn't home, so I headed home with a song in my and a bottle of Coke. I got in, shot up some insulin, drank some Coke and collapsed on the bed for an hour-and-a-half.

Then, I got up, listened to "The Archers", watched "The Bill" and rewired my digibox just in time to watch Hugh Lawrie in "House". Now, I'm listening to "The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy" on Radio 4.

A good day.

Excellent. I also had a good, if somewhat less productive day. I spent the afternoon drinking beer in the town centre.

Peet, I'm sorry for the extra hassle involved for you in seeing to that DVD again ... Douglas tells me you are doing it ... if you want those DVD boxes back, email me your address and I'll send them all back.

Richard

It's not a problem. It turns out I still have Doug's copy of that episode, so I'll find it, check it out and copy it for you if it plays OK. If not, then neither of you will get it, as I've wiped the RW I originally recorded it on.

Don't worry about the boxes; they're the ones from free AOL disks.

"Grambo, there's something I still need to do: set a new system restore point to replace all the others, so the next time you play silly buggers with your computer, at least it'll restore to a place where *I* know things were working!"

I think you'll find Peet's waaaaay ahead of you on this one...

Douglas

Actually, I just asked Andy to nuke all the restore points so he didn't get offered the option.

When you post things like this, I need to lie down...

I needed to lie down for most of the next day.