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

It would be a bit odd, selling live fish online, but if people can get excited by a 10-year-old half-eaten toasted sandwich, I'm sure it would be possible to sell them. But all things being equal, a big glass thing would be easier to sell locally, surely. At least you won't have to try to post it to the buyer...

I'm feeling much better than I was last week, that's for sure. It was my second bout of pneumonia, which bothers me rather a lot. Last time I caught it I was in the sub-tropics, so there's no logic to any of it. My doctor is constantly amused by the things that I manage to pick up. This time I only had a problem in one lung. I don't know how that works.

Sorry to hear you have been ill again, you probably still had a weakness there from the last time. I have always associated pneumonia with cold conditions, so is that just an 'old wives tale'?

I have not managed to sell my fish tank yet . I have tried advertising it in the local paper several times but not even had an enquiry. For information, I was not intending to advertise it on ebay with the fish with it!! I can always return the fish, and 3 dwarf frogs to the aquatic centre that I bought them from, and it looks like that is what I might have to do before I move.

The last time I moved one fish got stuck in the pump housing and it took me ages to coax it out, and the frog jumpted out of the net before I could get it into the water bag for transport. I had to chase it round the lounge carpet as it made it's escape bid. I definitely don't need that kind of hassle on moving day again!

All the best Suzie

Pneumonia is more common in cold damp places, but I think it's available anywhere, anytime.

Once upon a time, when I was about 10 and I had a fish-tank, one of the fish (my favourite, of course) got a pebble stuck in its throat. Poor Mum had to grab the fish, pull it out of the tank, twiddle the pebble with tweezers, dunk the fish for a moment, twiddle again, and so forth until the pebble came out. She refused to do mouth-to-mouth. Oh, the things I put that poor woman through...

The last week or so has been busy as anything here. Christmas stuff starting up, a wedding invitation from my best friend's ex-fiancee (that'll be odd), the friend himself resigning his job, sundry other ructions... I hope this weekend's quiet.

Hope your weekend quietened down as you hoped, but life does get a bit more hectic this time of year. Last night was our office Christmas party, (the manaager left it late to book so they only had midweek dates left ), for some reason the office is very quiet this morning! We went to a place that is specially constucted every year just to put on Christmas Parties, they have a different theme every year, this time is was Red hot in Rio, there was a smoking volcano (didn't know Rio had a volcano, but it looked effective), there were carnival dancers and acrobats. It was very well organised, but I am rather tired today (mainly due to the lack of sleep, not the alcohol, as I drove myself home). One of the guys in the office lives quite a distance away, so he caught a taxi back to work and slept on the bed in the first aid room!

Hope you have a great Christmas .
Suzie

The weekend was quiet, but things are getting again. I've just made a phone call on behalf of the girl whose wedding I'll be going to; it's a long story, but I didn't expect to have to phone a complete stranger in Guatemala this evening. I also got stuck in a lift today. Things can only get loonier from here...

I'm looking forward to a nice quiet Christmas... I'll be alone, by choice, surrounded by books I haven't read yet. Perfect bliss, in my opinion!

Merry Christmas to you, and a Happy New Year...

Ivan.

Well, it's all over and back to the usual routine again. Took the tinsel off my monitor and cleared away the cards, and appart from the few cadbury's roses that are left (because nobody likes them), and the few extra pounds in weight everyone has put on , you would not even know it had been Christmas!

Did you get to read your books? What sort of books do you like? I read the Da Vinci Code recently which was very good, and some of it is based on fact which is intriguing.

Happy 2005!

Suzie

*smug* I managed to lose weight over Christmas - but I wouldn't recommend it. I got a touch of sunstroke on Christmas Eve, so Christmas Day and Boxing Day passed me by. Oh dear. Never mind, I've had Christmas before.

Books. My house is full of books. I'll read anything, but it's mostly history, biography and travel. My Christmas reading included a biography of Nefertiti, a novel about Caligula, and a book about the history of embalming... Yep, I'll read anything.

Here's hoping that 2005 is better than 2004, which won't be too difficult.

Sun stroke at Christmas is a very alien concept for us here in England, we actually had a few flakes of snow on Christmas Day! So what tips have you picked up on embalming? You must be quite an intellectual to read such books - I'm impressed, although I am rather more low-brow when it comes to my choice of reading. I like more fantasy/fiction adventures!

Suzie (but trying to cut down!)

All I've picked up about embalming is that it's basically horrid. I think I'll look for another hobby.

I do't just read heavy things - I also have a bookcase full of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Tom Holt, a few stray things by Stephen Donaldson, and my recent discovery Jasper Fforde. (If you've not read anything of his, I recommend it most highly.) And there's Douglas Adams, of course.

I should be packing a bag right now. I'm off to Sydney in the morning, for a long weekend. The down side of that is that it'll be 41C, and humid. I'll just have to stay in air-conditioned places, like pubs.

How did your long weekend in Sydney go? Did you find any suitably air conditioned pubs?

We spent a busy long weekend moving home, the removal men were 40 minutes late arriving (as they had the address spelt incorrectly and could not find it on the A-Z), I was getting seriously concerned that I would be all packed up and have nobody to move it all!
When they came they were an odd pair, one looked like a bouncer and the other move like a retired jockey! There were a few crashes and bangs, but I think most things are still in one piece.

Now I have to connect everything back up, and hope the telephone company come on Tuesday, when they say they will, to connect the phone and install broadband (I am using the computer at work to write this, as the computer at home is still in bits, looking more like a Chinese puzzle, with wires and different connections sticking out of bags - why are things always so much easier to take appart than they are to put back together again? )

I don't think I will be doing much reading for a while, unless it's instruction manuals or DIY books!

Regards

Suzie

I found several air-conditioned pubs in Sydney. We only went into the ones that looked nice and friendly and comfortable, so that meant we only spent time in 14 of them... We did some shopping as well. Shopping and - what else is there? (Apart from , that is.)

After all that, I'm suffering a large sleep shortfall. I'll be trying to make up some of that fairly soon. I'm too old for riotous living - even though it's great fun at the time. Still, as long as I can have the occasional bout of recklessness - and survive - I don't mind turning into a real grown-up.

Good luck putting your house in order, and lots of luck with the computer... Oh, how I hate moving house - you have my sympathy. And ...

Well the worst (I hope) is over, I have almost finished getting the last place spotless so that when we hand the keys back to the agent we get our deposit back. I have also got the washing machine and dish washer working, so at least we can start living almost normally again !

Unfortunately I am still having problems with the computer, I spoke to some 'off shore' (meaning India) helpdesk person last night and we tracked the problem down to my router, which is attached to the ISP's router and that is as far as we got. Being the only even slightly technial one in the household (slightly being the operative word!) I am left with sorting out. If I can sort my way through the mountains of boxes lying around I might be able to find the manual, at least that will be a start!

Glad to hear you had a good time in Sydney, hope you have caught up on your sleep!

Suzie

I've caught up on sleep now, but I'm just getting over a sprained ankle - which seems to have happened while I was asleep, a few nights ago. Things like that just happen to me, and there's nothing I can do about it.

I'm also faced with rebuilding my garden, after a sudden hailstorm the other day. The street drains were blocked by hail, so the water backed up and poured onto my garden... Half the garden was washed away down the slope, so the front garden topsoil is piled up in the back garden. I just got it all sorted out, too.

Good luck with the computer...

I have half sorted my computer, I can now access the internet OK, but I still have to figure out why the scanner and printer will no longer communicate with the PC.

You seem to be having a lot of bad luck lately, illness, ailments and now your garden, it must have been some hailstorm! Are hail storms like that an unusual event? Hope you have managed to redistribute your top soil, is there any way you can sure up the side so that it can't happen again?

I suppose with a sprained ankle you can't do too much physical activity at the moment, so maybe you should just pull the blinds or curtains, and rest your ankle whilst reading a good book!

Suzie

Hailstorms like that are very rare indeed. This was the worst I've seen. There's not much that can be done to prop up the garden beds; this block has only a very gentle slope, and none of the beds are raised; the hail and rain was heavy enough to strip the topsoil and float it away. All I can do is put it all back, plant lots of groundcovers, and hope.

My ankle's better now, but I've managed to acquire a bad hangover. Serves me right for having fun yesterday. It was a public holiday, you see, and going to the movies and then the pub seemed the thing to do. I must have done a bit too much of it.

Never mind, a very quiet weekend looms, and I'm looking forward to it.

Good to hear your ankle is better. Not a good idea to over indulge in the amber nectar when you have to go to work the next day - sounds like a "2 asprin job" as my father always used to say about any ailment . What film did you see? Was it any good?
Hope your weekend was the quiet one you hoped for and you have recharged your batteries. I have still not sold anything on e-bay, but I could easily get addicted to buying things from there. Handmade card making is very popular at the moment (for those with nothing better to do), so I thought I would indulge my creative side and join them. I have bought some blank cards from e-bay, and when they arrive I will spend the dark Winter/Spring evenings trying to think of ways to decorate them in a cost efficient, novel and original way, either that or buy a selection of pre-made card toppers and stick them on in a totally non novel and original way!
I had my performance review at work yesterday, I think it went OK, but they always want you to tell them how you are going to improve over the next year, it's never enough to do your job well, but we can't all be high flyers
Have you got your garden back in shape?

Regards
Suzie

The film was 'The Motorcycle Diaries' - Spanish language with English subtitles, about Che Guevara before he became a revolutionary. Very good and a lot more entertaining than it could have been. One doesn't expect to laugh out loud in a film about a socialist revolutionary, somehow.

Last weekend was completely devoid of excitement, and other people. It was perfect; just what I needed. This weekend will be semi-quiet. There's more gardening to be done, after another (less severe) storm. I'll be off to the garden centre tomorrow, and then spend lots of time grovelling about in mud. Some people do this sort of thing for fun.

I haven't injured myself at all in the last week. I'm quite happy about that. It makes a nice change.

Hope you are still injury free. Just had an email from my friend who has emigrated to Australia, he has been picked to play for the Cairns Thunder Rugby Team. He's off to play in a tournament in Mackey which he says is about a 10 hour drive away. If you drove for 10 hours from where I live, barring traffic jams and road works you could get to anywhere in the whole country!

We have been having snow flurries all week this week, but it has only settled once, and that was only about an inch. We are in a sheltered part of the country so we don't usually get the worst of the weather.

I have been busy making cards. Spent lots on materials, but as yet have not been able to sell any (not good at that sort of thing ), approached my first shop yesterday as I know the woman who owns it but her sister-in-law already supplies her with handmade cards so no luck there. Finally put my first 2 items for sale on ebay, a DVD and a Disney Mug - the DVD is doing well but nobody wants the mug

I turned up for my college class last night to find I was the only one there, Steve the lecturer was off sick and everyone else had been contacted by the college, but because I have moved I think they must have tried my old number (even though I have told them about the new one!) - turned out alright though, because the lecturer in the other half of the room (well it's acutally 2 rooms with part of the dividing wall removed), said I could stay, and as I was trying to use Photoshop he gave me more help than my usual lecturer because that is his speciality.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Suzie

I'm still injury free, more or less, apart from a persistent headache that results from too much social life over the last week. I don't know, I can go for weeks without doing much at all, and then suddenly there's a complete avalance of invitations and unmissable events... It's all stopped now, which has something to do with the fact that I've run out of cash. Whatever the reason, I need a good lie down.

The weather here's still warm, which is nice, and mostly dry, which isn't. Both aspects will probably change sometime around Easter, and then I'll be moaning about frosts That's something for you to look forward to.

(A ten-hour drive from here only gets me a bit more that halfway to my mother's house. There's far too much of this country.)

Your lucky! Less than a 10 minute drive gets me to my mother! Only joking, she moved from 20 minutes away to closer when she sold the family home and moved into a warden aided flat. She is still capable of looking after herself, but lately her memory has started to be rather unreliable. It's Mothering Sunday this weekend, so I am making her a card, getting her a present and having her round for lunch. Is Mothering Sunday on a different date in Australia?

Regards

Suzie