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

Great to hear that you have a multi-purpose jacket (or at least one used on multiple occasions, even if there;s a degree of repetition). I must admit I too have a suit worn on all smart occasions. Much more environmentally friendly.

Today I was e-mailed and told:
"With sincere respect, we would like to inform you that we have been notified by the Netherlands Army’s Recovery and Identification Unit (RIU) that their laboratory analysis has confirmed that the remains recovered from the wreckage of Lancaster ED603 belong to all three missing aircrew. This means that P/O Charles Sprack can now be officially accounted for.
The UK MOD JCCC has been notified of the RIU’s findings. It will however be taking a few more months before RIU’s full and final case report is ready to be presented to the JCCC. After which JCCC will be contacting you for the follow-up. Please note that it will be exclusively up to the JCCC and Commonwealth War Graves Commission to decide where and when the remains of the three airmen are going to be re-interred. This again will take some time."

So that's good news.

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Yes, multi-purpose/multi-occasion jackets are handy.

That is a poignant e-mail and good news that the mission has been successful in its objective.

I hope you all have a good weekend and recover from any remnants of lurgies

I had one of those weeks where last week I was not particularly busy, and then this week I had to do two weeks' worth of work in one week but it was satisfying

Will be interesting to see if the supermarket is as busy as it was last week, or whether people have finished stockpiling for Christmas or whatever it was they were doing last weekend that made everywhere superbusy...

My fortnight's thirdment started on Friday, and already I've been plunged into questions that I don't know the answer to - so I'm delighted to be able to say that I'm now completely ignorant of far more than I was before. It's a situation where I used to do that sort of thing back on the old record system, but I've no idea how to do it all on SITS, which seems to work backwards and not the way I'd expect at all.

Hope you have a quiet weekend. Mine has been nicely uneventful, although I wouldn't've minded trains running and the option of going to a different place for either parkrun or take the children to Southampton's Christmas market and Ferris Wheel. Why can't they do the rail works during the working week when I don't want to go anywhere, eh?

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Arh... Sorry the thirdment is 1/3 data you're familiar with and 2/3 system you're not familiar with... I remember SITS being quirky, and I can imagine it is even more so when you already have knowledge of how things work in other systems... Good luck with it all

Glad you were able to get to local parkrun after all the rain, even though it would have been good to have been able to go by train to somewhere more unusual. In this day and age it would make sense for railworks to take place during the week, as commuter traffic has decreased and leisure traffic has increased since Covid...

As I suspected, the supermarket was superquiet after being superbusy last week I did do a bit of birdwatching, but that was also very quiet - the weather was misty and the tides probably weren't right, but I did have a chat with some of the friendly birdwatchers, so that was good

I also enjoyed watching a programme on Sky Arts about the Freddie Auction They had some footage from the Evening Sale, but the programme must have been finished before the final online sale took place, so they didn't know the moustache comb sold for 120,000 pounds in the end - they only mentioned a bid of 100,000 pounds had been placed. Good to see footage from the exhibition, too, as there wasn't much about that online before the sales - it was pleasing to see the items laid out as if in a dining room etc, with pictures on the walls, and 'exquisite clutter' dotted around

One thing I miss is knowing what I can get away with fudging. An urgent query came in that was only spotted as students need to submit work today and required their course to be rebuilt. In Quercus I knew what could be done instantly, the basic skeletal structures I could get away with creating in a hurry to ensure enough was ready in time for students, and then be able to fill in the gaps later. Now I have no idea, and I don't know if I make some changes in one area, what knock-on effects and impacts will it have in other areas. So I have experience and knowledge, but none of it seems useful, and SITS isn't as intuitive a system as Quercus is. I do like Quercus - shame it's been run into the ground, but it did have a lot of positives before Ellucian under-supported it.

Glad you managed to enjoy a quiet superresourcecentre - perhaps everyone had already stockpiled ahead of the bad weather. Glad you enjoyed the birdwatching and catching up with friendly souls (who give the bad ones a good name). Sadly the team bully has been trying to raise the stakes in his attempts to undermine me, only to very much shoot himself in the foot. I still have no idea what he is trying to achieve, but he didn't.

Was that Sky Arts programme a repeat if it didn't cover the end, or a Part 1? Sounds like a very interesting documentary that had behind-the-scenes access that you missed, but seems an odd abrupt end. I did enjoy the music programmes on Sky Arts, back when we had telly reception. I managed to watch yesterday, did you?

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Ah, yes - I know what you mean. Yes, very tricky when you don't know how things fit together yet so you don't know what is essential to make things work and what feeds into other things... I'm not having such issues with my system, but it does have its quirks - an update was done so that a report that used to take 3 seconds now takes 3 minutes to download... They call this an improvement, but I've asked them to check if there is an error somewhere in the report that is making it so slow...

Sorry your team member is still being difficult, but glad other people are becoming aware... Sounds like he is asking to be fired at this rate...

I think the programme was rushed to get it on to the TV as soon as possible after the auction (and coinciding with Freddie's anniversary ) so they weren't able to wait until the following week before putting it together, but they could have put a subtitle or something to confirm the final selling price when they found out what it was... Anyway, overall it was a very interesting documentary, yes

I had a look at yesterday, but wasn't sure what was going on so didn't get past the introduction - is this the series with Jinkx Monsoon, or is it a special series before the series with Ncuti Gatwa starts?

My line manager and his manager are both away at present, and my colleague for some reason decided to e-mail another department with lots of accusations about me, asking that department to raise a complaint to their managers and ask those managers to put pressure on our manager to implement disciplinary proceedings. The result wasn't what he has expected, as while the matter was raised with their managers, it was over his unprofessional behaviour in doing this in the first place.
I'm still not sure what the fallout will be.

There are a series of three specials to coincide with Doctor Who's 60th anniversary featuring David Tennant, and then Ncuti Gatwa starts from Christmas/New Year. Trans woman Yasmin Finney co-stars as recurring trans character Rose Noble, daughter of Catherine Tate's Donna Noble.

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Yikes, that is a difficult situation Sounds like the colleague is struggling with something and taking it out on you - I hope this helps the situation to be resolved effectively soon, but can only say all the best to you while you're caught in the crossfire

I had an interesting day today as I was in the office for a meeting - I got in later than planned, as it was frosty weather this morning, and then met three colleagues I hadn't seen in ages. I could have ignored them and run to the meeting, but I decided to have a chat instead Then when I got to where I had been told the meeting was, the door was locked so I had to go on a quest to find the other door - thus I would have been late for the meeting even if I had run past my colleagues. Luckily when I found the unlocked door a colleague met me with the key to unlock the door to the lift, so I didn't have to go on another quest for a key... After all that the meeting room wasn't great, especially on a cold day so we will all try to avoid booking that one in future...

Aha Thank you Good that many episodes are on iPlayer at the moment, so I can investigate earlier episodes too.

I got a Christmas card today Are you going to the Christmas Tree Festival on Saturday? I hope to be able to go there

I really don't know what's going on with work, but fortuately next week is a short one with Mediaeval Baebes to look forward to with my sister. Not sure what my brother-in-law will make of it, though

Sounds like you had quite the key kerfuffle! But very positive you got to speak to comrades too. I'll be unusually in the office tomorrow - I've not been in on a Friday for some time - quite possibly since early 2022? Not sure. Not this year anyway, but meeting a friend in town at the Christmas market so it makes sense to be in.

I'm glad to hear you have had a Christmas card already, I wonder who it is from? I must admit I wrote a card to you over the weekend or Monday and went to the post office on Tuesday lunchtime (75p for a second-class stamp! The cheap card shop next door was selling packs of 30 cards for less than that) and afterwards stamped the cards and took them to the postbox, so this was about 12:45pm, and the notice plate on the door said the last collection was at 11am while the next collection indicator tablet said 'Friday'. So I posted them, hoping they would be picked up on Wednesday at 11am and not tomorrow, thinking if they're collected on Wednesday then second class should arrive Friday, which is the 1st December and thus perfect timing. Although it might still be in the postbox until tomorrow...

So are you heading down the country this weekend then? I expect I'll be at the St Andrews Festival parkrun willing, but I've missed puppeting rehearsals so will probably just help with the stage. Are you heading down the country? If so and keep me appraised of your progress!

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That is good when you can combine a trip to the office with a trip into town Yes, when we're not often meeting in person it makes sense to make the most of it when we do, so I enjoyed chatting to colleagues and still participated in most of the team meeting after learning

That is impressive about your Christmas Card getting first class service! Typical that things you would like to take a little longer often get there super fast while other things that could do with being prompt can take longer

Yes, I'm hoping my summer holiday trip will go ahead tomorrow I'll be in Fareham but plan to visit festival on Saturday, and will be great to see you there if possible

Yes, parcels never do that when you hope they'll arrive before Christmas and then they don't. Perhaps Royal Mail have ramped up their staff and service ahead of the Christmas rush, only for it not to have started yet and that's why the service was outstanding? Or it might have just been your card - no-one else has contacted me about it yet, so it might have instinctively known to rush ahead to ensure you saw it before your trip.

Talking of which, I'll be at the St Andrews Christmas Tree Festival, but almost certainly not for 10am as I probably would finish parkrun about 9:40am, and I won't get home, showered, changed and out by 10am. Before 11am certainly, but not 10. My wife's still not feeling 100% so not sure if she'll be performing or not. But if you let me know what the plans are and I'm sure we can figure something out.

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Sorry your wife might not be there, but would be good to see you. I expect to be there around 11am so it sounds hopeful

Yes, that makes sense about seasonal staff being eager at this point in the year, but also true that it was good for me to receive a card before my holiday

I got to try the new Merseyrail train today. Not too bad, although I was glad of help with the little step on to the train. The good thing is that there are now two carriages with wheelchair spaces instead of one, but the weird thing was that the member of staff loaded me into the cycle carriage instead I managed to find a handrail to hold for safety, and then a kind passenger helped me with the step off the train as the assistance team didn’t know I was there..

Sorry your wife might not be there, but would be good to see you. I expect to be there around 11am so it sounds hopeful

Yes, that makes sense about seasonal staff being eager at this point in the year, but also true that it was good for me to receive a card before my holiday

Sorry your wife might not be there, but would be good to see you. I expect to be there around 11am so it sounds hopeful

Yes, that makes sense about seasonal staff being eager at this point in the year, but also true that it was good for me to receive a card before my holiday

I got to try the new Merseyrail train today. Not too bad, although I was glad of help with the little step on to the train. The good thing is that there are now two carriages with wheelchair spaces instead of one, but the weird thing was that the member of staff loaded me into the cycle carriage instead I managed to find a handrail to hold for safety, and then a kind passenger helped me with the step off the train as the assistance team didn’t know I was there..

It is possible that I'll be called in to puppet after all - if so, I'll be the one who hasn't rehearsed

Hopefully you've managed to have a successful and stress-free journey with sensible staff and information passed on so that it all works smoothly.

Take care and see you soon!

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Yes, a relatively straightforward journey, thankfully, after all the disruption this year and the trouble in the heat last year. A few delays, but not enough to miss connections. A couple of difficult passengers, too, but not too bad. I got stuck with a man with dementia who wouldn’t take no for an answer when he was determined to push my wheelchair, but it was ok as a member of staff kept an eye on him and he was only on my train for a few minutes so we managed to keep him happy. Another passenger did well dealing with a man who was very drunk. On the plus side I got a decent cup of tea for once

All the best for tomorrow, and hopefully we will get to say hello

And indeed we did! Hope you enjoyed the morning despite the lack of preparation and available dinner (the house is still a mess but a decorated mess in honour of Christmas, so that's something).

And indeed have a good journey back. Take care

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Yes indeed It was a brilliant morning - I doubt it could have been better with preparation Impressive that I could climb into the car, thanks to knowing you were ready to support me if needed, and I'm glad the wheelchair fitted in with no trouble

Lunch was secondary as I had had a large breakfast anyway, and the fine biscuit kept me going until we got to the Lakeside Station Cafe

Sorry I didn't remind you that I'm a fan of thimblefuls of tea rather than mugs, but the proper brew was much appreciated (that morning I had got a cup of tea at breakfast, then went to fetch a piece of toast ready to enjoy the tea at the perfect temperature, and when I got back to my table the tea had been cleared away The member of staff who did it brought me another cup, but I had to drink it faster so it was not ideal ).

Excellent to catch up, meet your wife and and enjoy seeing your display cabinets in real life I'm glad I got to meet puppet as well - thanks for the great photo of us

Coincidentally on Saturday I discovered that The Grinch was on TV! I didn't have time to watch all of it, but what I did see was very poignant, and then funny with the stealing of Christmas I also saw the Raymond Briggs Father Christmas

Birdwatching on Sunday was superb, too - when you suggested in March that I might be able to see and photograph 140 bird species in total, I thought that was too ambitious, but actually I smashed the target - a Goosander kindly came in to shore from out in the Solent, and then some Bearded Tits showed in the reeds on the Meon - I'm up to 141 species in total! For 2023 I'm up to 104 now, so I'm on track to match 2022's record total of 105

The journey back was thankfully very good - I checked the train website in the morning and discovered that the train I was expecting to get had been cancelled, but there was enough time for me to rush and get the earlier train. The second train was then delayed, so I was able to catch that one rather than having to wait for the next one 2 hours later A good finish to an excellent holiday

I hope you felt that we were happy to provide assistance if needed, but otherwise supportive of your independence - after all, you've managed to get in and out of cars numerous times over the years, but every car is slightly different. Some preparation I would have made is have Christmas goodies prepared ahead of your crossword completion! Note to self: get Christmas goodies.

Not to worry about the - hope you didn't feel under any pressure to drink more than you wanted.

There have been three Grinch adaptations, a 1960s short film, a 2000s? live action starring Jim Carey and a more recent computer-animated film, both of the recent ones I saw in the cinema with my wife and I would thoroughly recommend (I prefer the live action and my wife prefers the animated). If they make another couple of adaptations I could do an entry on Grinch film adaptations...

Good to hear that you have smashed the birdwatching target and you'll spot something else - maybe a fairly common bird you missed in January?

Also good to hear that you had a fairly good journey back home too.

This week Monday and Tuesday I was off on strike, which means I spend more time at work than I do when I'm working, and only worked a half day on Wednesday because of the transport strikes, in order to get to the Island in time to get to the Mediaeval Baebes concert with my sister and brother-in-law. And they really were fantastic. I don't think many - possibly only one, maybe two - are original Baebes, but seeing them live was definitely well worth it, and in the church made it very atmospheric. I'd say it was maybe half Christmas and half not, so a huge thank you for introducing me to them a few years ago with 'We Three Kings'.
Surprisingly enough I played that earlier....

Oh yes, and I also spent time with my granddad, whose birthday is coming up, and saw my Dad too in Busy Bees, which claims to be one of the nation's best Christmas-themed garden centres. It may well be, lots of stuff there, but not much that I could carry easily at affordable prices. Perfect if you have a way of carrying delicate items, not ideal for backpacks and .

I've a puppetry rehearsal tonight - we're doing a similar show to what you saw somewhere in Wellow on the edge of the New Forest this weekend, but have to rehearse the main Christmas show.

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Yes indeed you were spot on with the support - gave me space to work out a technique, but were ready in case of problems Not to worry about indeed - I was worried you would think I hadn't liked it because I didn't drink much, but it was a proper good brew how I like it

Ah, yes - it was the computer-animated Grinch that I saw

Yes, birdwise I am hopeful of seeing something relatively common this month - owls have been seen out and about, so they might put on a display for me around Christmas like they did in 2021/22

Glad you had an excellent time on the Island with family as well as seeing the Mediaeval Baebes Clever that the Mediaeval Baebes lineup evolves - great that they are still doing well

I trust all will go well with the puppetry The supermarket was busy again today as we get nearer Christmas. I'm currently experiencing the effects of Storm Elin - there was some heavy rain and flash flooding on the way to the supermarket, then it eased off, but now the wind is howling at my window...

To be honest I thought we'd talked so much you hadn't had a chance to enjoy your , but wasn't upset about it. The number of times over the years I've made tea and not had a chance to drink it all, it is understood that tea isn't always drunk to the last drop, c'est la vie.

Hope you've survived the storm! Yesterday our local parkrun went ahead but possibly should have been cancelled as the course was predominantly underwater - I've never seen it so waterlogged. And today was a CC6, which was soaking wet and cold, particularly the mile's walk to and from the start/finish from the car park. But otherwise a good weekend.

What have you been up to?

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