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

I posted a fossil egg today by virtual post. You should get it soon.

It is a beautiful one I found near the iron age fortress near Ightham Mote. It was quite heavy so I am not sure whether it has a dinosaur in it or what. Perhaps you could have it Xrayed at your lab!!.

I am off to look at my new pots - beautifully planted in colours. the purple pots have white and blue flowers in them. the orange pots have - well what I consider to be good matching colours etc. etc.

Have had a busy time on hootoo this morning so must get down to some RL dreary work like paying bills etc.

Have a happy day.

Also ran1

AR1, you shouldn't have! But thank you! I can see my egg in front of me now.

From the x-rays I do believe there is a young Albertosaurus curled up inside although to have found this dinosaur near Ightham Mote is quite extraordinary. Indeed it might be evidence of a heretofore unsuspected early trade in fossils, presumably of ritual/religio significance, between Canada and Iron Age Britain! This is of such significance that it may well be of interest to The National Geographic, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0005/dino/ , not to mention Time Team. I can see Tony Robinson getting all excited by this.

Thank you again AR1, and I hope you had a good day despite the bills.
Waz

PS . So what are the matching colours for the orange pots?

PPS it would be very weird if I knew K's Mabelreign girlfriend. I usually feel quite safe referring to schools I've been to because the chances of anyone knowing them, or remembering me from them, are infinitesimal .

Hi my dear friend,

I wrote you a reply a while ago and then someone interrupted me before I could proofread it and post it. Now I have forgotten what I was going to say. Exceptt that I thought I was being rather clevaire about the fossil egg!!.

anyway, Tony can come and see if he can find as nice a wone as I found.!! O hoe it has arrived safely, and that the innards were not spilt all over the box!/

Rather daull at the moment. things are happeneing, and hopefully I shall have more news later. No bridge today and I feel quite let down!!.

Must

also Ran1

I caught your news on the other thread AR1 - so pleased K has a place. For you and for him. Have a good time in France, and Ireland.

Waz

Hi Waz

I had a really great tiem in France. bought lots of fish soup and shoes and beautiful clothes for my great grandson !!

And ate the most superb food. It really was good.

Now getting used to having a quiet weekend without my dear K. He is really very well and very happy where he is. I am very thrilled about it. Just getting used to the idea of not worrying and being anxious about things. It really had become obsessive.

Have a good May day weekend.

also ran1

Hi there, I saw your update in the other thread. That's very good news. It sounds like a really good start for K. Not worrying is difficult to do though, isn't it.

My May weekend involved mayoral receptions, haggis, bagpipes (inseparable from haggis), reels, jigs, strathspeys, seagulls, a walk on a beach and a day back home with family just talking and walking. I heard the first cuckoo on Monday, saw masses of bluebells and the first set of ducklings too. So I'd say it was a good May weekend all in all .

Hope your picnic went well. And that you got your study tidied
Waz

PS why can't we get food as good as in France as easily?

Hi LLWaz,
Sorry about the delay in replying.

No my study is probably going to take yoincksx before it is cleared!!. And once it is tidied then I have to get the mould treated and the room repainted.

Your Mayday weekend sounds great. You must be very fit to do all those energetic dances. Tell me about the walk on the beach. I hope that it was with a soul-mate!

I have seen lots of bluebells but nary a duckling - shall have to keep looking.

I still miss K. so much - but on the other hand do not miss the continual nagging which I was obliged to do. Please: Shut the door(front!) (I notice that he is also doing it in his new residence!! at least I do not have to ask him to do it!!) take your shoes off -(full of mud)!! empty the ashtrays - everything is a potential astray! But although I miss it I am sure that I shall hopefully be more productive in other areas!!. -

I have had a couple of days compoletely on my own - pure bliss!!. the only problem is that I cannot get the paper into my printer. Blast!!

Have a good weekend.

also Ran1

Hey the delay is no problem - I haven't been here much myself just lately.

It must be a difficult adjustment to go from living with and taking care of someone to being on your own. All sorts of changes in priorities, when you do things, why you do them. I've lived on my own since moving out of my parents' place. And now I like having my own way so much it would be impossible to change!

I've close friends, and family, but on the whole I walk on my own. That beach walk was on my own and after spending the morning and half the afternoon shopping with friends I needed that. I needed space and space was what I got. I don't understand how the coast works there, whether it's an estuary or what it is but it's a bit like Morecambe Bay. When the tide goes out the sea disappears. The sand stretches as far as you can see. There are boats going through it so there must be a deep channel out there but you don't see the water - just boats sailing across the sand.

And there were wading birds calling, shells to pick up and seagulls. I caught a few rides with the seagulls .

I hope you get that printer sorted out. Pulling the plug out on mine does it wonders. Also hope you've had a good weekend, mine was very dull compared to the Mayday one. Just as well really.

Mould, AR1?

Just remembered something. Tony Robinson may be lurking here. Or spying on you. There was a Time Team from Ightham Mote in this last fortnight. I saw the beginning of it then someone must have phoned because that's all I saw. But obviously it was cover for a search for dinosaur eggs. Watch you back AR1. I've always thought there was a slightly obsessive glint in his eyes. He's never really satisfied by bits of broken pot. He likes Big Stuff.

Waz

Dear Waz,

As you say, it really is a major adjustment to start ot live, not only one one's own, but basically without the responsibility which I have had for over thirty years.

It is getting easier, and now I feel that I have to discipline myself so that I do not let good habits slip. I am determined that I shall try and continue to live as I have always lived i.e. like having my meals sitting at table, and having good balanced meals, with fresh vegetables , and my odd glass of wine etc.

I want to share in my journal the quite wonderful day I spent with him on Monday.

The attack on my computer was very frightening. I really thought that it had crashed - it never has, but it seems that it was some sort of programme which I had been sent. So disappointing, but hopefully I have promised myself to keep to my dear friends. But I realised how much I relied on the friendship which I have gained through this website and how much it means to me.

I understand your need for space. Both K. and I need it, and I think that maybe something which is difficult to find in the new residence.

Thanks for your delicious warning about Tony. I only hope he wasn't looking for my special site for fossil eggs.!! I shall be really upset if he does. Incidentally has yours arrived yet?

Your walk along the beach sounds quite idyllic. and to see a ship sailing through sand - magical.

Go well

Also Ran1

Hi AR1, the egg most certainly arrived!

I hate eating at table. But I do 'cook' proper meals. I'm putting 'cook' in 's because it's curtailed cooking not because it's 'shove it in the microwave' cooking. Nothing over twenty minutes and nothing involving ovens.

You're being very positive about what to change and what not to. I never gave it any thought.

I can imagine it might well be difficult for K to find space where he is now. If it's really important to him that's something that needs thinking about.

My computer crashed three years ago, I lost quite a bit and stupidly have still not put a virus checker on it. It wasn't pleasant. I don't think it's altogether possible to avoid viruses even keeping to known friends. Things attach themselves to emails without the sender's knowledge sometimes, apparetly. Perhaps I'll get that virus scanner done at the weekend.

Keep yourself and your PC well,
Waz (off to read your latest journal)

Hi Waz,

Goodness me you do take risks!!. I have had VirusScan installed for at least three years and before that another anti virus thing. VirusScan update it regularly and it is relatively easy, even for a technological duffer like me, to update and scan it on a regular basis. So Pleeeeze do it this weekend.

You see, I just enjoy good food and eating!!. It is difficult in a wheelchair, to keep my weight down, but I am able, thank goodness, not only to keep it stable, but am actually losing it slowly.

I do not have the footrests on my wheelchair, and when I am out on a level piece of ground, I try to "walk" myself along. I have also found, that if there is a hill, I go up it backwards - rather like the reverse gear of a car. It is very much easier to do.

I have had to learn - am still learning - a whole new method of getting around with K. away. I now carry my Zimmer with me in the car. I can get out of the car, take my Zimmer round to the boot. Balance myself on the Zimmer, open the book, very gently take out my wheelchair - open it - put the cushion on - sit on it exhausted - then put the zimmer in the back, close and lock the door.

Hurrah!! and off I trundle.

I have, on a couple of occasions, spent over an hour in the car because there was no-one to get either my wheelchair or myself out. The only problem now is that I cannot get the wheelchair back into the car. So I shall have to find a solution to that. Yesterday, as my carer is off today, I had to leave the w.c in the car. I have been humping everything around with the zimmer. It made having my supper rather difficult, but eventually I put everything into a bag, and sloshed my way from the kitchen to the dining table!.

Where do you eat if not at a table?

Well, it is now 5 a.m. I must get down to some work.

Have a happy day.

Also Ran 1

Hey AR1.
I'd forgotten I hadn't replied here - too many loose threads. Sorry about that. And this reminds me about the virus scan (which I haven't got round to yet).

I do occasionally eat at the kitchen table but usually in an armchair, watching TV or reading, or in front of the computer reading, working or typing (not good for the keyboard). And last night, being already late for the Village Hall AGM which I'd forgotten, it was a slice of bread eaten on the run down the road .

How's it going now with K? Are you more into the swing of not having him around and is he still happy there? Have you got back into writing yet?

That journal of mine did get confusing, being hi and byeJacked, not to mention Caddyshacked. Venice was real - spent the weekend before last there. It was a mystery trip that went somewhere never dreamt of. And it was magical. Have you been there?

On the Sunday we took a water bus across the lagoon to Torrocello and I not only heard but also saw, for the first time, a cuckoo. Then last week I saw a bird flying across the fields north of Shrewsbury with exactly the same rather flappy flight. So that's two! I reckon two cuckoos make a spring.

'til later
Waz

Hi

Two cuckoos in one week.!! My goodness that is incredible. and so fat apart.

No I have never been to Venice. I would have liked to have gone. Basically there is nowhere really that I have a yearning to go to now except possibly the Antartic. And that is probably out of the question.

I am going to phone the British Museum right now to see if they have the reference books which I need. and then I shall get crackinS. One gets lazy and I have been watching tennis, and yesterday and saturday had a wonderful two days watching all the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of D.Day- or as Prince Charles called it, quite correctly, Operation Overlord.

I do not know if you have SKy - probably not!! - but there was the most wonderful song and dance exposition of the occasion by a group of about 50-75 singers and dancers at the afternoon parade. It was quite magnificent and so touching and thought provoking. I do hope that the BBC try to show it because it really had much meaning. and also showed President Bush and his wife arriving 20 minutes late.(Her Majesty was kept waiting as well!!) all the other heads of State travelled by bus, but he was in a 6 motorcar cavalcade, and everyone was very surprised when he stepped out of a very ordinary car way down in the pecking order!!.

But the theme of reconciliation and also emphasising that the Germans as well needed to be liberated from the shackles of Nazism was extremely well portrayed.

Tomorrow is a most important meeting about the future for k. So say a silent prayer and I shall let you know how it goes.

Great to hear from you and I am so glad that you had this marvellous surprise of a trip to Venice.

Also Ran1

"So say a silent prayer and I shall let you know how it goes." I will AR1. I hope it goes as you wish it to.

You're right, I don't have Sky. Apart from the pc I'm a Luddite - no mobile, hand mower, washing machine you fill by attaching a hose to the tap...(and that falls off the drainer every now and then, as you know). I didn't watch much of the D Day coverage. I'm a bit turned off the VIP parades these days. I think I'm getting crabbier as I get older. How have you managed not to?

I did hear something about Germany being represented. That's good at least.

Hope you got your call to the British Library made. I still haven't sorted out a virus scan. Putting off messing with the pc while it's going ok you see.

All the best for tomorrow,
Waz

Thank you so much for the good wishes. I have woken up feeling all hopeful and optimistic.

I remember those washing machines which were attached to the tap. That was my first ever washing machine. A little Hoover which had a hand wringer and then you filled up with water to rinse the washing after you had wrung it out!!. I was Sooooo proud of it. Every year in Zim, I bought a new electrical appliance with my earnings from my swimming lessons. The second one was a Columbus Threebrush polishing machine!! I only got rid of when I came to live in england. My third purchase was an Elna sewing machine, which I gave to my one daughter as her 21st birthday present, and which she gave to her daughter and with which Philly is now turning out beautiful artwork with wooden beads on it!!.

Ah well - Tony Robinson has not been arouynd these quarters - although I frequently drive past Ightham Mote. But if I see him I shall make sure that I do NOT turn my back on him. But I am sure that he would not do such a dastardly act!!.

Coming back yesterday from Maidstone I went into a marvellous nursery at Wateringbury and bought six magnificent dahlia tubers in pots. I hasd seen the discreet ad on the sign of the road. they were so kind and went and got the catalogue and brought it to me in the car and I found six super duper dahlias which I do not have. So Otford Gardening Club here I come - to the Autumn show. I already have about five different types of dahlias which are really quite magnificent. I love them.

Blousy, overblown, full happy flowers in magnificent colours. I love them

Have a good day.

Also Ran1
go well - and have a happy day.

Also Ran1

I thought I'd come and find you this time, I hope all's well with you, K and the dahlias.

My 40 petunias and 40 columbines are getting decimated by slugs. The veggies though are doing well. I've some squashes, runner beans and globe courgettes to plant in pots round the back door.

I've got blousy, overblown beautiful colours too. My peony has flowered for the first time in years. It qualifies on all counts. I'm sure it's down to the change in neighbours. The new ones don't creosote the fence. The peony buds always went black and it seemed to coincide with the creosote.

Re the Columbus Threebrush polishing machine, did you have those highly polished parquet floors as well then? We used to help my mother polish those (hands and knees job) by skidding around the room wearing wool fleece attachments.

Hope to see you around soon,
Waz

Hi dear Waz,

Nice to hear from you. I have been offline for ages - with every sort of bug imaginable, plus having one of my outside lines removed as I want to go onto broadband.

Last weekend a friend came and helped restore 90 of the files which the virus scanner of another friend had removed. My poor computer has been very ill!!. Today the second friend has come and reinstalled a very good anti-virus programme which the other programme had also removed!!.

On Friday afternoon I drove two of my friends - one aged 83 the otherone indeterminate to a 93 year old friend who taught me bridge in Zim!. she was a wonderful player as was her husband. We are now both widows and she has just moved to Rochester where she knows no-one. She has a totally beautiful flat with a super roof garden. she still plays excellent bridge - does not wear glasses, but I had to remind her that we needed a cup of tea!!. It was great fun though and we had great fun and our calling and defence was not at all bad.

Have you ever wanted to learn bridge? Or are you a fundi!!.

K. is well, Enjoying coming home and just staying in his house.

I am going to France at the end of the month with a French cousin. I am really thrilled about it as I have not had a real holiday for many years. We are going to Etaples where apparently we have cousins whom he knows - I do not know them, but he is bringing along another special cousin of mine who lives in Aix en Provence. I seem to remember that Offenbach had a holiday home in Etaples. I shall dance the cancan in my wheelchair!!.

Your numbered plants being ravaged by slugs and snails. Can't you put a little bark or gravel around the plants if you do not want to use Sluggem!!. that should work. Otherwise stalk them at night and drop them into water. Horrid death I am sure, but think of what they do to your plants.

Still no sign of tony round here. I think he must have got lost in Ightham Mote!!

Keep well,

also Ran1