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

But K and I went for a walk yesterday, and walked past a local farmer's market/garden center... and all along the fence we were walking beside was lavender. I've heard you mention more than once not particularly caring for lavender, so now, of course, every time I see or smell some, I think of you.

I know winter is starting there soon- presumably it gets too chilly 'round there for flowers to bloom year round? Aside from it having been so dry, which of course isn't conducive to a madly flowering garden, either. Of course, I ask dumb questions like these all the time, but I really do try to pay attention to the answers.

Summer's swinging into full force here. We've already had four or five quite warm and humid days. It doesn't seem to be bothering me as much as it did last year, though. If I could shake off some of this excess weight, it would bother me even less; with the added bonus that I could get away with wearing less as well. Lots of flowers blooming, and cottonwood and dandelion fluff everywhere, ensuring allergic symptoms from hell.

Lavender.

Still, at least it's in your hemisphere.

Generally, there's not a lot of flowering going on at this time of year but some of the native plants don't especially bother paying attention to the seasons. Some of the grevilleas are putting out flowers even now, when we're starting to get frosts. Strange things, grevilleas. Some of the correas still have flowers too. None of the exotics are flowering, and most of them aren't enjoying their lives all that much.

So yes. It's getting cold, and the days are getting shortish. I leave at dawn and get home at dusk; I only have weekends for looking at the garden in any detail. One's general level of glumness does rise at this time of year.

I know what you mean. During winter, I leave for work a good two hours before sunrise, and it's already dark (or darn near) by the time I head home, too. It does get a bit depressing. Luckily I have three big windows along the left side of me at work- with an eastern exposure. So at least I get a little sunshine every day.

I actually probably see more sunshine, indoors at least, at home during winter. We keep the blinds open during winter days to allow the sun to add warmth. During summer we keep them closed so as to keep the extra warmth out.

I've got a bit of a summer cold coming on. I usually get one three-day cold in mid-January, and one week-long one sometime in June or July. I'm like clockwork.

It'll be below zero here overnight. First time this year. (0 deg C, that is.) I can't find my decent cold-weather socks, so I'll have frozen toes on the way to w*rk tomorrow.

This house is a nice place to be on winter days; the northern wall of the lounge is mostly glass, so it gets flooded with light and there's a bit of extra warmth. It's just a pity that I only get to revel in it on weekends. At the office, unfortunately, I'm right in the middle of the floor so I get no natural light at all. Still, we'll be in a brand-new building soon, and it's designed to use natural light and recycle water etc etc, so things will be better there. It's just a pity it's in Tuggeranong - an ancient Ngunnawal word meaning 'ends of the earth'. Well, almost. It means 'cold plain'. Oh the joys that await.

0° C isn't exactly balmy, no. Warm socks are definitely imperative! I can get away without wearing my winter jacket, and with just wearing my courderoy jacket instead, in that temperature range, as long as I wear a scarf and warm socks. I seem to lose most of my warmth through my feet.

Is the brand-new building at The Ends Of The Earth located far from where you're at now? Is it within reasonable proximity to home, or will there be a substantially long commute? I live around 7 miles north and a mile west of my office, so it takes me 30-40 minutes, door to door.

I never realized just what I was missing, for lack of natural sunlight indoors. My mother always had heavy draperies in the house when I was a kid, and the other two apartments I've lived in were garden level (below ground level- basically the basement) with a dearth of windows. The first one had one two-foot square bit of glass block and that was it. And I've previously always worked in a cubile out in the middle of the room, rather than with windows, and a view.

Of course, working in an enviornment that doesn't suck the life out of you seems to make the sun shine just a little brighter.

The new office is only slightly further away than the current office, as the currawong flies, but it'll be a two-bus job rather than a one-bus job. Never mind, it'll give me a bit more reading time and there's one part of the second bus route that goes through paddocks where roos graze, just before there's a good view of (sometimes snow-capped) hills. Visually, it's a nice area. Pity it's so dull in other ways.

The current job did a bit of life-suck on me this afternoon. *sigh* It'll pass, with any luck. I think it's time to start looking for an alternative again. But there's no pressing urgency. Probably.

My job occasionally does a bit of a life suck, too. Not often, mind- but every once in a while, I have one of those days. I'm not entirely comfortable discussing the office online- we're a large enough company and I'm paranoid about saying something I shouldn't- but it's been hectic lately. Something resembling normality should resume within the next two weeks.

My ride to work isn't especially interesting. My train stop is about 3/4 of a mile from the house. K drops me off mornings and I walk home in the afternoons. Six of the twelve stops between where I get on and where I get off are aboveground (the other six are in the tunnel), but there aren't any snow-capped hills or roos to be seen.

If you start seeing grazing roos while you're travelling to w*rk, it might mean you've eaten some of those funny mushrooms... Enjoy, but have a word to your greengrocer afterwards. Probably best not to tell the boss, though.

My roos are very real. Hallucinations don't leave a mess on the footpath.

I'm talking rubbish. This usually means I'm tired and trying to distract myself from something or other. I wonder what. It must be working.

You know, the past week or two have been so surreal, I have wondered if it's all been a hallucination. Seeing some grazing roos on the way to work would be oddly reassuring, as it would mean that I have in fact lost my mind, and some of the yuckier bits might have been the product of hallucination.

But, like you, I work for a large enough organization that I oughtn't get into it online...

As it's Friday morning here, around 8 AM, I'm guessing it's round about midnight in your part of the world. Any wild and woolly plans for the weekend?

I'm going to the bank to move some funds from our checking account into a savings account; this means we need to go and actually set up a savings account. How exciting. While we're at it, we'll swing by the imported foods spot and get some chocolate Hob Nobs. And that should be the pinnacle of excitement, unless I'm feeling frisky and do one of two minor repairs in the bathroom.

2:37am. No plans, now that I'm out of vodka. *hic* Am reduced to vermouth & dry, Might have to lapse unto beer... Also phoned UK. Must phone Chicago one day. Pls advise number by email... *hic*

Will do! Would love to speak by phone. As soon as my line's repaired, mind. I think it blew down in yesterday's storm.

Sounds like a good plan for you would be a bit of a lie-in!

I should have rather more of a lie-in than I've already had. I'm remembering why I don't habitually do late nights any more.

I do feel better than I've a right to, but gosh I'm tired.

Ooof, did I get busy (and tired) toward the end of last week. How was your weekend? We went to a barbecue of sorts at the home of a couple of old friends of K. I really hate eating outdoors, but I still had a really fun time. All that fun kind of takes a lot of you, though, you know? I'm feeling ready for another weekend, and it's only 9:00 AM Monday.

Hope you're doing well in general. I was thinking of you the other day... perhaps that's best saved for email. Watched an old Russian film (Andrei Rublev) that reminded me of you, too- one of the actors looked kinda like a baby photo of yours you'd once shared.

Any rain yet? We had nothing but last week. I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to get to and from work by ark.

No rain here at all. Rather a lot up in Newcastle, though, with nine people drowned and rather a mess to clean up. Things could be managed better. There's also a large freighter washed up on D's favourite beach. He claims that as it's his beach it must be his ship, and that's quite handy because he needs somewhere to store stuff. I think the shipping line might see things differently. At any rate, I'm assuming from the above nonsense that none of D's family and other connections got flooded out or otherwise harmed.

I've just had a lovely long weekend - public holiday for the Queen's 'official birthday' and another day off for no good reason at all. I have seen nobody. The odd bit of being a hermit is good. Next weekend I'll be madly sociable and the weekend after that my mother will turn up here, so this was my Last Chance to Shun Society for a while. I've enjoyed it immensely.

That's awful about the flooding! Fingers crossed that your assumption is correct, and all of D's family and connections are safe and sound.

I hear you about the madly sociable bit- I am still tired from Saturday. I'm hoping for a bit of hermitude next weekend- unless we venture out to the forest preserve for a bit of cicada hunting. We haven't seen or heard any this far into the city, but about a mile west of here, they're all over the forest preserve.

Days off are nice. I won't have another public holiday (we observe federal holidays at the office, nine days per year) till July 4th. Then from July 16th through 20th, I'm taking a week off to use some of my vacation time. In a few months I'll stop accruing if I don't actually use some. I've got about 27 days to use up at some point.

How long is your mother visiting for this time? From your descriptions of her, she sounds like a really nice lady. Of course, she'd have to be- look how you turned out.

Mum will be here from 24 (or maybe 25) June until 9 July.

I'll be in Adelaide from 26 June to 2 July. I'll be staying with my sister in Mum's house for the first couple of nights, and then with the Happy Couple (plus child and cats) for the rest of it. The wedding's on 30 June; we'll all be lolling about on 1 July; I'll come home on 2 July and they'll leave on their semi-honeymoon (without the cats) on 3 July.

It's very good of Mum to come over here to house-sit for me. Then again, she wants some time alone, so why not? She intends to fill my freezer with soup. It's a hobby of sorts.

It is nice of your mom to house sit! The wedding stuff sounds like a good time, too. Lolling around with child and cats doesn't sound like a chore, either. Sounds like a great trip! And only two weeks away... definitely requiring a privacy recharge before and after, indeed.

Got a new toy- photos shared in a new blog post. I won't link to it here, but I believe you know how to find it, if you so desired.

Since it appears that your mom will be there for several days after you get back home, do you have any other exciting plans, involving soup or otherwise? A freezer full of soup sounds like a good deal...

Mum doesn't really do excitement. She never has. What she does do, and brilliantly, is 'companionable silence'. I might drag her out to a restaurant or two, and maybe the markets, but that'll be about all. Like me, she's quite happy to just hang around in a house full of books.

Things have gone A Bit Wrong today. The groom-to-be is unemployed again after his employer decided to close its Adelaide IT facility. Great timing, eh? I've no idea what they're going to do now...

Sounds like my kind of mom. Companionable silence has definite merits.

Poor groom-to-be... isn't that ALWAYS the way? Hopefully IT professionals are in as great demand there as here, and he'll have another position lined up in no time. I've been through a facility closure/ layoff and it's terribly nerve-racking. Fingers crossed that not only will something else come along, but that it will be something better. And that they both do OK in the meantime.

I think the Happy Couple will cope, somehow. They're both quite resilient. My only concern is that she's not w*rking at the moment; she's on maternity leave, and has decided to train as a teacher while she's on leave. The idea was that she'd quit her notional job and live off him for the second year of the course... She might have to defer her studies for a while if he doesn't get another job soon. IT people are in high demand in Canberra, but there's less call for his sort of stuff in Adelaide.

In other news, there was snow today all around Canberra, but none in town itself. I feel very cold and somehow cheated.