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

The plan is also to make a scrapbook of memories of Maxy and print some photos to put in it. It is difficult that death and loss may well open up strong feelings of when my mother-in=law died for everyone in the family, so I hope we can approach the grief positively and show that it is acceptable to grieve and a way to express it positively.

Which it sounds like you have been doing for Valentine's Day - and even better with Lego, the flower that keeps building. I was given a Lego plant from my friend Chris for my birthday thus year, which was very kind and the kittens enjoyed helping me build.

But talking of birthday that requires construction, today my daughter and I made the Gingerbread House. We didn't have any icing sugar before, you see, and every time we'd been to the super resource centre it has been something that's slipped our minds, but we remembered and bought lots of sweets to go on it too. As we don't have a piping tube, well, we used a spoon and at first it looked very neat and tidy, but the house collapsed, so we added some more icing to hold it together better, but before you could say, 'I'll huff and I'll puff and blow your house down!' the house collapsed once more. So we decided to repeat the same tactic of adding more icing sugar, in the hope that if we kept doing the same thing, eventually we'd get a different output, and bits of it held. And well, long story short, it is still held together but we made a bit of a mess.
Very therapeutic activity, though, so very much appreciated. And after dinner we'll get to taste it. I'll send you a picture!

- Interrupted by delivery, to be continued later. -

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Sorry about that, the week's Tesco delivery arrived (other supermarkets are available).

Oh yes, Strava. I wondered whether you'd be interested in trying something? I've tagged you in when we went to Titchfield Abbey last year on Strava, and wondered if you are able to accept that you were there with me. You should then be able to edit your version of that activity to crop the start and end from the railway station to by the roundabout, and change the activity from cycling to wheelchair, without it affecting my activity at all. I think it is worth a try at any rate?

Well done on getting the report out of the data system - that's a herded for now!

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That's a lovely idea about the scrapbook, too. Yes, grief can be different at different times... I know Maxy isn't the first your family has grieved, but this grief could mix with other griefs indeed... All the best to you all

The Lego flower series is very clever - a mix of Technic Lego and specialist pieces Not always easy to fit the pieces together, but very satisfying when it's done

Well done to you and your daughter for constructing the Gingerbread House! Thank you for the photos - great to see! Sorry I didn't realise it wasn't a complete kit like the other ones my sister gave me in previous years... That was a challenge that the icing wasn't included, and they didn't even give you a piping bag... Glad it was therapeutic overall Definitely a year for difficult kits from my sister - I managed to do the Cloisonné one within a couple of weeks. It involved bending metal wire and gluing it to the board that was provided, then adding coloured sand like paint, and then adding spray glue all over to fix the sand in place (sounded easy when my sister saw the advert!). The wire bending didn't need too much strength, but was very fiddly, so I simplified the design a bit and left one of the birds unpainted just for comparison. The sand wasn't as difficult to work with as I had feared, as the grains generally stayed where they were put rather than escaping into other compartments. There was a bit of seepage of colour when the spray glue was added, but not too bad. Overall I am pleased with how it turned out

Thank you very much for the Strava record of the Titchfield Abbey trip I wasn't able to edit it, but appreciate having it in my profile - I knew it was a record distance, but didn't realise it was a record climb as well! I'm still impressed with that achievement - an excellent day out

Glad your Tesco resources arrived promptly I went to Sainsbury's and found they had moved everything around and taken half the ceiling down, so it was quite messy, but I just about managed to find everything on my list without having to retrace my steps too far (plus a few items that weren't on my list, but which I found when looking for other things )

Yes indeed I'm very pleased with the herding. The next challenge will be to do the comms about it - when I produced the report, my boss said, 'That's great - can you do reports for previous years, too?' so I sent the reports that I had already done from the old system in previous years, but which had apparently been ignored... Hopefully people will read the report this time and find it as useful as I intended

Next week will involve some catching up to do on things I put to one side while herding the too, eg minutes of last week's meetings - the meetings were in the office building and thankfully I met a colleague on my way there so when I discovered the door at the top of the ramp was locked, my colleague was able to use the door at the top of the stairs and let me in

Anyway, before then is another day of weekend - not sure what I'll be doing, but hopefully will see some birds

Maxy is the second cat that we have lost as a family, but the first - Alfie - was only with us a month before he passed. He was a very small cat and we suspect that he had health problems when we got him. We got Maxy in 2020 so was the first cat who has been with us a number of years to have passed, so was much more a member of the family.

Thanks for sending the cloisonni picture, that was quite interesting. When I was younger there was an art gallery at Alum Bay displaying pictures made of the different coloured sand, and they were every bit as detailed as watercolours, but I don't think they have them any more. That didn't involve bending wire, but ensuring each coloured grain of sand ended up stuck in the right place. Sand, I'd've thought, would be an even more unco-operative medium than icing sugar. (I assume your cloisonni picture didn't use icing sugar as the adhesive).
It certainly did look good, and I'm sure was even better when seen live rather than a photo.

For my birthday I was given a by popular children's author Terry Deary, of Horrible Histories fame (don't mention libraries!). The child-friendly book, published in 2024, mentioned 'toasting forks'. How many children these days have experience of toasting forks?
Growing up, when we wanted toast we had a gas oven with grill and a clicking igniter that never really felt long enough when after 20 or 30 seconds of trying to light the gas it finally went 'Wumph!'

Today for work I have to go to the farm

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Yes - I remember you mentioned your son was very upset at losing Alfie - that was a sad shock Different for Maxy as a member of the family who was not well, but there was the hope 'not yet'... Very sad

Amazing what can be done with sand indeed - it was hard enough for me to just fill a compartment with sand, never mind using sand like watercolour paint, so I admire those more skilful pictures Yes, the glue I had to use was tricky, but not as tricky as icing sugar as an adhesive!

Funny about toasting forks in the book indeed - I wonder if it might have relevance as something to use with marshmallows, but certainly there are easier ways to toast toast in 2024... I remember that gas oven with grill, and the 'Wumph!' - we had one, too! I can't remember whether we had a toasting fork for marshmallows, or used a kebab skewer or something when we cooked one with a candle, but I do remember I tried to eat it, but it turned round and went the other way because my stomach decided 'no'

I hope all went well at the farm

I had a good day yesterday as I went to Burton Mere - not quite as wet as last time, but my front wheels managed to find some good mud so that took a bit of cleaning off. I added Raven to my list, as two went flying by and calling to each other with their characteristic voice, so I could tell they weren't crows

Funny bug with h2g2 - luckily <./>info</.> is working OK but My Space is not updating and new replies are showing as negative numbers The Tech Team are working on it

I filled in a funny questionnaire today - reminded me of the Dave Gorman sketch. It was asking about various scenarios, then asking the standard psychological evaluation questions that can seem a bit repetitive, so it was a difficult slog. The last page of questions was how much we agreed with 'This questionnaire was too long', 'This questionnaire was too boring', etc They asked me if I would like to do the questionnaire again next year as a longitudinal follow-up, but I declined as it was too long and boring

Good to know that after 25 years, h2g2 can still come up with new, never-before-seen errors.

And that sounds like a cunning plan to discourage everyone who thinks that a questionnaire is too long and boring from completing it in future, so that by a process of elimination everyone who keeps doing the questionnaire doesn't think it is long and boring at all.

Congratulations on still finding birds to add to this year's list - yesterday I went to a farm for work purposes and saw ducks and chickens, if that helps?
Each year staff have a day they can use to do voluntary work in the Southampton area as part of the uni's civic charter, and as no-one knows what they can do, and many live outside Southampton and the volunteering has to be within the city, most people don't use the day as they don't know what to do. I was investigating the possibility of seeing if a team of people could volunteer at Southampton City Farm, which is a small farm charity. The answer is they are happy to have groups to volunteer, but they expect a £200 donation for it, which is a bit of an issue. While charities obviously need money, the idea is that the uni would be providing labour for free, not labour plus money, and once we start giving money then lots of organisations would expect handouts. So it is over to our Communities Engagement team to see if they can do a deal using our students' labour. If given time then often students can do work for organisations that are assessed as part of their course of studies, so for example provide clothing designs that can be sold, or website design, short films, artwork, even the engineering students do something. As long as the uni has time in advance to work out how to provide something as part of a live brief that fits within the existing course of study then students might be able to give something to the farm and hopefully allow both staff and students to volunteer for 'free'.

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"Good to know that after 25 years, h2g2 can still come up with new, never-before-seen errors." - yes indeed! This is another good one, alongside the weird appearance of the BBC error message after all this time...

Yes - I do like a questionnaire, but thinking about how long and boring it was really did put me off from wanting to do it again next year! If I hadn't have thought about it so much, I might have agreed, but then a larger proportion of people might not bother next year, whereas targeting the ones who didn't think it was long and boring will make much better response rates indeed, as you say

I had another look at the Titchfield Abbey excursion in Strava and it did allow me to Edit (mustn't have finished processing last time I looked) so I have now sorted out the start and end points and set it to Wheelchair Excellent! It gave me a good line for my birdwatching excursion on Sunday, too, so that's pleasing

Glad you had a good time with the animals at the farm, but that is disappointing about the staff response to your offer of volunteering... Like offering someone a , and they say, 'I don't want the unless you give me £10 cash as well'... Hopefully the Engagement team can negotiate something indeed as people's time and labour seems a fair offer to me...

I am glad that my tagging you in on Strava has proved to be useful and actually able to be set to what you did after all. I don't think you can search what other people have been doing, other than see what they have done on the day if Strava itself chooses to show you - which is probably for the best to avoid too much privacy invasion.

This week has been quiet, despite being half term. I still don't have my bike back as they are awaiting the chainset to arrive. They did offer to let me have the bike back and then return it when it is in, though as they're in an awkward, out-of-the-way location that isn't helpful. I will be off on Friday to go to a logistics museum with my school friend and indeed his nephew, who I'm not sure how old he is. I'm not sure to what extent logistics interests younger children....?

Anyway, I was doing some reading about the Matt Helm films and I had to check I hadn't skipped a line when I read 'actress Stella Stevens was born in Hot Coffee', which sounds scalding to me.... But no, apparently there is a town in Mississippi which originally was a crossroads with a dinner which had a big sign outside saying 'Hot Coffee', and over time more buildings were put up next to the diner until the area became a town called Hot Coffee. But then I read that Stella Stevens wasn't actually born in Hot Coffee after all - that was invented by her publicist - and she was really born in nearby Yazoo instead, which is a yoghurt drink.
Which all seems highly appropriate for a film starring a spy who solves cases by holistically drinking alcohol non-stop until the enemies are defeated.

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Ah, yes I see your activities appear in my home feed on Strava, but the Search box only appears on my activities feed - makes sense for privacy indeed

That's sad that it is taking so long for the bike parts to arrive - not worth the effort of fetching the bike while it's not working well, though, indeed... The logistics museum sounds interesting - there might be trucks and other vehicles that will be of interest to your friend's nephew

I'm having a busy week, because I completed the project and told people about it, so I now have a pile of queries to deal with. Satisfying, though A couple of other going on at the same time, but juggling keeps things interesting

Another pleasing thing was that the son of my favourite of the academics who died last year announced he is doing a sponsored run in aid of the local hospice - I was glad to make a donation to the good cause

That is interesting about the existence of Hot Coffee as a place not just a beverage " she was really born in nearby Yazoo instead, which is a yoghurt drink" - True! Fascinating that 'Born in Hot Coffee' was preferable to 'Born in Yazoo'... Highly appropriate for a beverage-rich spy film indeed

If there are lorries and so forth I'll let you know about this time tomorrow and give you my review of the logistics museum

Good to hear that you've been able to sponsor in the name of the hospice on behalf of your colleague, that sounds a very worthy cause.

Yesterday my son made chocolate and marshmallow , which went a bit wrong but hopefully will till taste lovely. (The cake tin lid didn't seal and the mixture spilt everywhere, so instead of rising in a circle it leaked and filled the tray the tin was stood on.

Good luck juggling !

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" I'm sure was even better when seen live rather than a photo." - yes, I was pleased with the photo, but I've now displayed the cloisonne disc so it is visible in my videoconferencing window, and I see the sand sparkles in the sunlight, so that is extra pleasing

Ah, that is a challenge when things leak, but yes I'm sure misshapen will still taste good

juggling didn't go too well today, as another was thrown into the mix, but I managed to sort out two of them so that 'just' leaves two to sort out tomorrow... In theory they might be rather than but we shall see - I will put my Excel skills to the test to see how fast I can prepare the data reports

I hope Strava doesn't spam you with my random workouts, but I am enjoying it The top 3 personal best thing is not the best, as it mainly relates to whenever the GPS goes squiggly, but it is fun to draw shapes on the map - I missed that after the other app I used to use was discontinued. I like the Kudos, too

I look forward to learning what you find at the logistics museum

I did indeed have a good time at the logistics museum, thankyou - as did my friend and his eight-year-old nephew. Turns out the reason he was so keen to go was because his father did his National Service in the Water Transport Unit at Fort Victoria, which was part of the Logistics Corps. The museum itself unusually has different names, as the road signs pointing to it call it both 'Royal Logistics Corps Museum' and 'Museum of Army Logistics', so I'll just call it Logistics Museum as those two words are at least consistent.

It is quite a good little museum with some interesting exhibits, but strangely some of their key displays aren't actually particularly visible. They seem to be vehicles on the other side of a glass wall without a door - maybe they occasionally have summer running days? But they have Montgomery's Normandy Rolls Royce - most people left the beaches of Normandy after D-Day with wet feet or in a Bedford lorry, but Monty in his typically understated way went for a Rolls Royce.

Talking of Strava, one tip is that if you ever park in a gigantic car park, such as found at a zoo or other gigantic attraction where there is parking as far as the eye can see (such as Warner Bros Harry Potter Studios), if you turn Strava on when you get out the car, it can direct you back to where you parked.

I had a very good club trip to Broadwater parkrun, which is just as well as Eastleigh was cancelled due to the rain. There were about a dozen of us and the run itself was very muddy, initially out and back along the side of a pitch before running around a lake and then around the outskirts of a former golf course. I'm sure in late spring or a warm summer's day it will be lovely, but it really was mud everywhere.

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Glad you all had a good time, and your friend got to learn more about Logistics Corps National Service Strange that the vehicles weren't well displayed - perhaps there are summer running days indeed.

Glad you managed to do some parkrun tourism on a wet day, but that's a shame Broadwater was not much less muddy than Eastleigh...

I had a good non-muddy weekend - successful food shopping, and indoor birdwatching, which included adding to my bird list I also got back into some crochet while listening to John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme A good episode, with some of the threads starting to become clearer now as we go back in time Weirdly on the journey to the resource centre I didn't just see three yellow cars, I saw three yellow cars of the same make and model! Possible that it was the same one going round in circles, but still fascinating to see

That is a handy tip for using Strava I discovered the Strava Trophy Shelf at the weekend, so I added a February Activities trophy to it

I only managed to finish one of the two on Friday, as my Excel skills weren't good enough to go any faster (or rather the data I was working with was not very 'clean', so more human judgement was needed to sort it into the correct categories). Not too bad, anyway - the second was easier so I finished sorting that out this morning

I could understand things being behind glass to protect them, but to put them in a separate room without any way of really viewing them is something quite different...

Good to hear that you had a great mud-devoid weekend complete with food shopping and dry birdwatching, presumably managing to spot indoor-flying birds that cannot be seen in the great outdoors. It sounds like you saw three yellow cars of the same make and model - unless you went a particularly circuitous route there while the yellow car was going an equally many-looped journey back? I don't know what the one-way systems near where you live are like.

Today at nammettime I went to the charity shop and purchased two CDs - 'Deep Cuts' and 'Deep Cuts 2' (no 3) but still very pleasing.

I've decided to start a new charity - Spoon Aid!
Did you know there are office workers in our office without basic access to clean cutlery?
When wanting to make a cuppa, they are forced to dip their nails in to get the tea bag out, or even stir their mug with their fingers!
Give an office worker a teaspoon, and all their team can stir tea before an office meeting. Give two teaspoons and two office workers can each enjoy eating a yoghurt together.

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Yes, that was strange - they are definitely missing some signage or something to explain that...

The indoor birdwatching was me indoors and birds outside, so that was all fine

Yeah, not that many one way systems in that area - there is a shortcut my sister likes to use, and it's possible a yellow car went that way to pick something up so we met it again at the other end of the cut-through, but it is more likely that that model (a Nissan) is just popular in yellow and they just happened to be on the move at the same time

Wow, that was a good find in the charity shop - those Queen compilations passed me by in 2011 but I see they contain some good tunes - Lily of the Valley is one of my favourites, and Put Out the Fire is the one dedicated to John Lennon.

"Give two teaspoons and two office workers can each enjoy eating a yoghurt together." - I support Spoon Aid - that is a plight indeed... Need spoons with holes in so that you can add large wooden tags to them like they do to RADAR keys for disabled toilets so people can't easily steal them. Shocking that it should come to that for a teaspoon, though...

I watched Modern Life is Goodish last night - up to Dave Gorman's usual excellent standard Laugh out loud moments

The Frequency Illusion is fascinating - I hadn't heard the term 'shop in shop' until Dave Gorman mentioned it in the programme last night, and today I looked at an advert for birdwatching coats in the RSPN magazine and noted the company recommends going to a shop in shop to try the coats on...

I'll write more later, but for now I'll let you have a sneak peak at the inevitable Spoon Aid Charity Single:
There won't be spoons in our office this lunchtime
The greatest item of tableware is a knife.
Where no-one ever stirs,
Where cutlery is cursed,
Do they know where the spoons have gone at all?

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A noble charity single

After avoiding the mud at the weekend, I had to go on a diversion down a lane to get to the office today, and the car got covered in mud - when I got out of the car, I inadvertently transferred much of the mud on the side of the car to my trousers, and didn't realise until after my meetings... On the way back from the office, I went a different way, but so did everyone else, so it took me an hour to do a 15-minute trip... Interesting, though - I first headed towards the zoo, then went past the hospice I donated to in memory of my late colleague.

Speaking of memorials, I found out another lecturer has died... I had had some correspondence with him over the years, but didn't know him very well, so I was pleased to see his webpage hadn't been deleted yet so I could learn more about his career.

I see you saw my Strava experiment, doing the same run on two days to examine how different the GPS route would be. Rather different indeed, but there's definitely a consistent blip when I go past the large green space - that is next to a wall under some trees

I'll be honest upfront and confess that I hadn't been aware that 'Modern Life Is Goodish' had been on and so had missed it. So yesterday I planned to see if I'd be able to watch it online and catch up. So I found out that Dave's iPlayer equivalent is called 'U', managed to install it on the telly and saw the first episode, and had expected to write some more - only for h2g2 to be down. So I do apologise.

I did enjoy that the first episode heavily featured office portaloos as well as shop-in-shops, which I hadn't heard of before other than the existence of post offices in Smiths. The jargon for 'shop' keeps expanding, from 'resource centre' to 'setting' as they were known in the pandemic. In the town centre there is a post office in Smiths in the shopping centre, so is that a shop-in-shop-in-shop? Or in case of lockdown - setting-in-setting-in-setting? Or shop-in-shop-in-shopping centre? Or resource-centre-in-resource-centre-in-resource-centre-centre? What does that make a department store? We also have a shop that is both Johnsons and Timsons, but I think that's shop-beside-shop rather than one in the other...?

Good to hear that you were indoors and birds were outside, rather than you outside and the birds indoors

Today I dashed to the middle of nowhere by in order to get my bike back, hurray!

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h2g2 has gone even more tricky with new bugs - not easy to tell when there are new posts because of the numbers being negative and threads not moving up the list in the Personal Space, so I think we have a situation Should sort itself out somehow soon

Glad you managed to catch up on Goodish "What does that make a department store?" - that was my thought, too. I do like "shop-in-shop-in-shopping centre"

Hurray indeed that your bike is back after all this time