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

Yes, it will be good to get newsful glasses indeed

That is a disappointing response, to offer survey after survey rather than offering action in response to the outcome of the survey... Maybe the onboarded installer will come up with something - best of luck with that

That is sad about the fathers Some people are much older than 44 before that happens, but others not. My mum has been diagnosed with pneumonia this week - some of the medication she was given clashed with other medication, but hopefully stopping taking that and carrying on with antibiotics will help

It is high tide on the Dee tomorrow, so birdie places are likely to get busy - I'll see if I can squeeze in somewhere, but if not I won't be surprised...

Sorry to hear that your mum's been diagnosed with pneumonia I wish her a speedy recovery.

I still think that being onboarded is something a pirate would do ... But we'll see what actually happens. It is actions rather than words we want.

Over the weekend we had the last CC6 we could run at, with us marshalling one next month. It was a very hilly and slippery course at Badger Farm, overlooking Winchester, but I successfully completed the course and came home exhausted. I believe I saw a cormorant on the way in to work today, so did you do any bird spotting in the end? And at nammettime I went to the music resourcecentre and found a Goons EP including 'Bluebottle Blues' and 'Walking Backwards for Christmas', so I'm very pleased about that.

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Thank you

Yes does sound like onboarded. Yes, if there have to be more words, they definitely need to lead to actions soon

Well done for getting round the slippery course. Congratulations on the music resourcing - excellent finds! That's good about the cormorant - I did indeed manage to squeeze in to a space and saw a cormorant plus large flocks of birds flying round as the tide came in I've sent a report in to and updated my bird list as I spotted a Kestrel and a Raven that are new for this year

I forgot to mention I had camera trouble again, as I accidentally pressed another button... When I arrived at the estuary, I tried to take a photo, and it recorded a 3-second video instead... Luckily I found out which button to press to undo that setting, so I only wasted 10 minutes of birding, but it was scary at the time wondering if I would be able to take any photos after all...

Another deja vu, too, as I found out today that one of the containers I bought at the supermarket on Saturday was open... Luckily the contents didn't spill, and it tasted OK today

and this lunchtime I did a bit of a twitch as it was high tide again - I spotted Bar-headed Geese. They aren't considered 'proper', as the original population was brought from Asia by humans, but I'm adding them to my list of birds I've seen outdoors in this country I'm up to 57 species seen this year, and 142 seen 2018-2024, so that's not bad at all

Yay! h2g2's working again, I hope!
Good to hear you've had a successful weekend and good bird-spotting session (even if I read it and automatically thought 'A Kestrel for a Knave' - 'knave' always follows through word association after 'kestrel'.)
And while the button pressing on the camera was frustrating, hopefully you know how to fix it for next time? And good/bad news on the shopping front with open containers, but no need to cry over unspilt goods.

It's been a pleasantly unremarkable week here.

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Yay indeed! Still a few gateway timeouts, but at least not the dreaded 503 error.

"no need to cry over unspilt goods." - no indeed. I'll keep trying to avoid picking up the open containers, but am glad it worked out OK this time.

Yes, certainly educational about my camera when I pick it up and accidentally press buttons I didn't even know it had Maybe 3-second videos will be useful for small birds that are moving fast - I might try it somewhen now I know where it is

'Pleasantly unremarkable' sounds good - I hope you all have a good weekend Not sure what I'll be doing - the weather looks wet, but it might just be 'lovely weather for ducks'

So, how did you get on over the weekend?

I had a good and busy weekend. On Friday we went to Winchester as the family to see their 878 AD interactive exhibition on life in Anglo Saxon England, though the children weren't impressed. There is a walk around Winchester included to go to different places and on an app see recreations of what it looked like during the reign of Alfred the Great.
On Saturday I caught up with friends from school, including my friend whose father passed away, so that was bittersweet. I think he appreciated being away from home for the day.
And yesterday I went to Beaulieu where they have a very small Doctor Who display, but nevertheless one worth seeing. It was also a good excuse to meet up with a friend who I've only seen once since Covid. So I really enjoyed the chance to catch up as well as see around the museum - it was just the two of us, so I actually got to have a look round without being constantly told by the children how much they want to go home. It was surprisingly warm.

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Yes the weather was much better than forecast, so I had a very pleasant birding session. One area of Burton Mere had flooded due to rain the day before, but there was still plenty to see on the higher ground - I added 3 more species to the list so I am now at 60

I did a bit of charity shopping, but didn't get anything - the shop had had a refurb in the last few weeks so there was more space to move around, but not as many books and things to browse.

Glad you had a good weekend with friends and family. The interactive exhibition sounds interesting - good to get out and about, and clever to use an app to see the recreations as you go around (provided one's mobile phone can cope) Glad you got to meet your schoolfriends, although bittersweet indeed Excellent that you got to see another exhibition with a friend, too

Congratulations at getting to 60 so soon! And making the most of better weather.

Ah yes, definitely still very much flooding weather here too - they've already announced that Eastleigh's parkrun is cancelled again, so I'll see if any trains are moving and possibly head somewhere new.

I'll have to let you know what the recreations are like when we return to Winchester, as we only got to see one. You can take photos of them too, so they may well end up on eventually.

I've finished polishing up the 40 pages of the next that are to do with the main story, so just got to finalise the decision of what 10 support pages will go with it, and possibly do some more doodling.

Other than that the last few days have been marvellously mediocre, no disasters, so no negatives must be a positive.

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Wow, that is wet indeed that the parkrun is already known to not be able to go ahead... Good luck with the parkrun tourism

Interesting that you can take photos of the recreations - will be good to see those whenever you get chance to explore further, yes

Well done with the book I published another h2g2 book in Lulu this week so I look forward to adding more books to my basket

There was more excitement here this week, but not too bad overall. My mum had to go into hospital with the pneumonia problem (2 years to the day since she went into hospital last time) but luckily was treated and discharged relatively quickly (only 2 nights). While she was in, my sister visited the house to pick up some belongings for her, and discovered that the shower unit had split so water was splurting everywhere... I waited in for the plumber, and sorted out various admin jobs, and luckily it was quickly fixed.

The other news is that I have collected my new glasses and can now see through both eyes at the same time - much improved for distance viewing, so I'm glad we got there with the prescription eventually I'm hopeful of having chance to test them for birdwatching this weekend as they should be better for seeing birds in trees etc I hope you all have a good weekend

Oh no, sorry to hear about your mum being in hospital, but good to know it wasn't for long. Hopefully in exactly two years time she'll take the time off.

And excellent news about your glasses Very important to be able to see, and hopefully you'll stay dry long enough for some spotting, though you're already doing well with spotting so far this year.

At present Woking isn't on the cancellations list, so fingers crossed it'll go ahead. If I'm lucky I'll see Woking's Martian too.

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Good to see your parkrun tourism excursion went well - did you get to see the Martian?

Unfortunately mum had to go back into hospital at the weekend, but is hoping to go home again today

The glasses did indeed work well for birdwatching I went to Burton Mere and it was damp in the lower section, but not flooded like last week, so I added one more bird to the list (a wren pretending to be a reed warbler by sitting on a reed and warbling! I usually see wrens among trees and shrubs, not in the pond area!)

I had more fun and games with the bins yesterday, but it worked out well in the end - we were given new stickers and I stuck them on the front of the bins, but then the gardeners came and put the garden waste bins back to front, so the stickers weren't visible... Luckily I could see the bin lorry approaching at lunchtime so I could run out and confirm to the binpeople that the stickers were there, and the bins were emptied OK. My neighbour also came out at that time and discovered that the food bin had been filled with garden waste, too - luckily the binperson was able to empty that one for us as well, so things are in order again for now

Sad that h2g2 was offline yesterday, as I was just ready to do something, but I cleaned my wheelchair instead - not what I had in mind, but was very satisfying after having been through some good mud puddles on Sunday

Excellent news about glasses letting you see sights never before spied already! Does that mean that the trees were full of ducks?

You really do seem to be playing musical bins at the moment - especially if they want more, new stickers on them. Your bins sound like an old trunk covered in travel labels with all the different things needed to be put on them. I assume your garden waste bins are a unique colour, and so distinguishable from food waste bins? Are you able to provide garden feedback to avoid a reoccurrence in future?

I did indeed get to see the Martian in Woking - as well as a statue of a sleeping man, which is exactly how I felt after the parkrun, which was definitely a mudbath through the woods. So I'm nicely in synch with number of total runs exactly 100 more than my number of runs at Eastleigh, so hopefully as it is dry at the moment Eastleigh might go ahead and I'll be able to go there for 3 weeks.

I'm currently assembling the next and will have to design a cover. Which reminds me, the character of Keith cameos on the very last page.

Did I tell you we had another Or round last week to do a damp survey?

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And wishing all the best for your mum!

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"Does that mean that the trees were full of ducks?" - I wouldn't be surprised if they were

The new bin stickers stated that we have to remove the old bin stickers first, so the bins don't look like suitcases It wasn't easy to get the old stickers off after 12 months even though they had been out in all weathers... Yes, the garden bins are green and the food bin is brown and a different shape I believe garden bins in Wales are brown, so the gardeners must have been working there and got confused. I will look out for the gardeners next time they visit and remind them that our brown bin is not for garden waste

Wow, that was lucky that the parkrun was able to go ahead even though part of it was a mudbath... Hopefully Eastleigh parkrun dries up soon indeed It has been a bit damp here today, but more drizzle than rain.

Good luck with finalising the book Yay about the Keith cameo!

My mum didn't manage to go home yesterday, because she was last on the list for transport, and by the time all the other people had been taken home it was 9pm... She was first on the list for transport this morning, though, so she is now at home Thank you for good wishes

You didn't mention that another Or had visited to do another survey... Reminds me I haven't received the results of the survey that was done here a few weeks ago, but that is really bad that you haven't received yours either, after all the rigmarole... Ors is the word... Highly possible that you're now in an infinite loop of surveys to look like something is being done without anything actually being done, but I hope you get some actual action soon

Another round of errors but hopefully I'll be able to post this!

Eastleigh's off again as it is still very wet here - and rain keeps pouring through our roof. I phoned our insurance company who said that they only cover storm damage, and our postcode hasn't had any official storms. Funny, it has definitely felt very stormy to me with all the high wind and lashing rain.
Last week we had an Or come by (survey not yet here). We asked a Which? Recommended damp specialist to come in and look at our damp. He looked at our damp and said, 'Yes, that's damp that is - but not the damp we specialise in. What you have here is the wrong type of damp on your walls. We deal with moisture issues - rising damp and penetrating damp. You don't have a moisture issue - that's structural damp or plumbing damp.' So no progress there.
We did have a bit of bathroom progress, though - the independent adjudicator B&Q asked to look at our bathroom after our complaints concluded that there was indeed a gap between the shower cubicle and the wall on both sides and it hadn't been sealed at all, and there was no trace of sealant around the bottom of the shower tray, so it was no wonder it was leaking, and that the hole for the extractor fan hadn't been drilled properly so was stopping the fan from fully working, so that's been rectified and we've a more powerful extractor fan now to help tackle the damp.

We have a doorman here today to replace the current door to my son's room. He arrived and immediately trapped himself in the room. He called out 'Help! The door's jammed and I can't get out!' That's the reason we called him....
My son's a bit fussy about wanting to have a door he can close without being trapped - I think it might be a self-conscious teenage phase he's going through.

Hopefully exciting Beatles biopic news as Sam Mendes has been signed to make four authorised Beatles biopics - one from each of their perspectives. Now that sounds really good if it is actually made - there was a lot of enthusiastic noise about making a film about Brian Epstein titled 'The Fifth Beatle' a few years ago, inspired by a successful graphic novel, but that came to nothing to date.

The latest has been done! I assembled it and ordered a proof copy yesterday, so publish date 29th February, which is nice. It is 40 pages of main story supported by 10 pages of miscellaneous, with the six Christmas pages and final Covid doodle held over. I've also got a new logo ready for anything drawn from now on.

Really glad to hear your mum's home again.
Hope you have a great weekend!

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Ah, sad but not surprising about Eastleigh being off. Lots of rain here overnight, too, but it seems to be brightening up this afternoon.

Sorry you've now got roof damp as well as other damp - I hope it can be soon sorted At least the Ors are consistent in saying that it isn't damp damp, although it is damp, but tricky to convert that into action... That is progress that it has been discovered there is no sealant - shocking that something so fundamental should have been missed by the fitters... Shocking about the fan, too. Glad that has been rectified for starters so hopefully things will start to improve indeed

Funny but not funny about the doorman discovering first hand what the problem with the door is Also rather fundamental that a door door needs to allow people to go in and out - it's not a trapdoor...

Interesting concept for Beatles Biopics indeed, but yes we'll believe it when we see it...

Congratulations on publishing on 29 February!

I hope you all have a good weekend and I hope you find a dryish parkrun I'll see what the weather is like, and maybe do birdwatching using the car as a hide

That reminds me, it really was a gamble last week in getting to Woking, as the train there was at 7:15am but they weren't doing a course inspection until 7:30am, when I was already committed to going there. Fortunately it all worked out.

This week to keep in sync I hope to do some voluntourism rather than run.

Good luck with the weather!

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Wow, that was lucky the parkrun went ahead last week while you were en route to it! I hope your voluntourism went well and didn't just consist of 'course inspection and go home'

I did reverse charity shopping on Saturday - I had listened to Born on a Pirate Ship (I especially enjoyed 'There's a in my room', plus I recognised 'If I had a million dollars') so I took it back to where I got it from The supermarket was weirdly busy, but well stocked so I got what I was looking for without too much trouble (and with no spillages that I am currently aware of ).

The weather on Sunday was very pleasant so I got out of the car and found a nice dry path through to a newish vantage point further up the Dee Estuary from Burton Mere No new species for the list, but it was pleasing seeing lots of little tweety birds in the trees, plus curlews, egrets and ducks in the marsh Then I went to mum's house and some Mandarin Ducks visited so I added them to my list