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

So what have you been up to, and would you like to hear about my weekend in Winchester?

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Me?

I've been packing

We are supposed to be moving house, but I'm not sure if it's this Friday or the next. We are waiting for the solicitors to advise when the completion day will be

Yes. I'd love to hear about your weekend in Winchester


lil xx

On Saturday we went to Winchester - my wife, children and I - as they had a Heritage Open Day. A lot of the museums in Winchester were open for free, so we took the children along to many of the little museums we've not been to before. I met up with my dad outside the Royal Green Jackets (The Rifles) Museum (which the kids weren't that fussed about - lots of display cases and writing, which doesn't interest those who can't read the labels), but the West Gate was more popular and James loved the Watermill, seeing how corn is turned into flour.

Yesterday we saw the world's largest deck chair.

I hate packing and moving house. Probably will have to soon, though. Not much room for the 4 of us in a small 2 bedroom flat. How's it going?

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I love museums!

When the girls were little, hubby and I used to take them to York for the day out. So much history... and it was written all over the walls. We didn't really need to venture inside a lot of places, because they told you everything you needed to know on the plaques.

The girls still love York today


Not doing too badly with the packing, we are leaving a number of items for the young couple coming in, they are only just setting up home and we are moving into hubby's family bungalow as his dad died a few months ago. We are going to be using some of the stuff in there for now. It's mostly new and a shame to just get rid of it all

lil xx

I've been to York many, many times (my in-laws live half an hour away in Leeds) - it is somewhere you can go to again and again and always see something new (and not just because they've recently opened a chocolate museum). My wife and I visited York for a weekend break just the two of us earlier in the year and they were holding a chocolate festival, but it was during Lent, and guess what I'd given up? Still have to go back there.

We were in the York Castle Museum about 4 weeks ago. The children loved looking at all the old rooms and running around the street - but found the gaol a little scary. And I could (and have) spend hours in the National Railway Museum. They love climbing onto all the trains, and having rides outside too.

Winchester, though not as large as York, has a similar feel to it. Lots of little, small but intimate museums which manage to fascinate in ways that the bigger, more popular museums can't quite manage.

Good luck with the packing. I hope when you move, it manages to feel like your home, and not that you're staying in hubby's family's bungalow. We've still not fully unpacked where we are - mainly because there's no room. So I keep most of my books up in boxes in the loft, and frequently go up to see if I can find them. So yesterday I brought down my books on the history of Winchester, and to make room for them took up my 1970s Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica annuals. I'd love a house big enough to fit all my books on bookcases. I'd have no wallpaper, only floor to ceiling bookcases on every wall...

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Isn't that just typical - a chocolate festival during Lent. Someone had a quirky sense of humour to chose that date!

You are bringing back so many memories for me now! We used to leave our car parked close to the Railway Museum, so that was usually our first port of call before walking into the city itself

Hubby and I have only driven through Winchester after a day out at Weymouth. It is a beautiful city, and one that I would be willing to visit properly one day.

*giggles*

The bungalow is still referred by hubby as his dad's, and I call it his mum's. Once we've made the decorative changes and added a new kitchen and conservatory things should become ours, eventually

I am slowing down with the packing, I had a slip on the stairs on Sunday and my back is rather iffy. Currently boxes are being shifted by sliding them across the floor, until hubby gets home and stacks them... I iz not that daft


lil xx

We've also parked our car by the Railway Museum. Last time we were there, the other side of the very tall fence was the Hogwarts Express, just about visible if you climbed over a big pile of coal (which I did). I was surprised that they hadn't put it inside the museum to make it easy for people to actually see, but I suppose it had just either come from somewhere or been from somewhere.

Winchester is definitely a city well worth visiting - we've been time and time again. The hill is a bit steep, though, and it does get very busy with tourists in the summer, but if you get away from the High Street it is surprisingly quiet. I was thinking of writing an article about Winchester's West Gate, having been there on Saturday, but couldn't find my books on Winchester for ages. I kept coming across books which would help me write about the airports of the Isle of Wight, something I've had in mind for a while, but found the Winchester ones eventually. Before Ian died I'd planned to write about half a dozen articles on British war films, and had written one on Zulu and next up would have been The Dam Busters, but I don't feel like doing that any more. Not at the moment, anyway. Winchester's West Gate next, I think.

It's definitely important to try to make your house feel like its your home - not that we've done much to our flat. The trouble is there's so little room - we can't move the furniture etc out of one room to paint it or put new carpet down, as there's no room to put anything in any of the other ones. So it has stayed with what's probably the same decoration it had when it was built in the 1970s. But you never know - when we were at the York Castle Museum last month, one of the exhibits was a 1980s Kitchen. So perhaps we could charge people a £1 to look at our 1970s kitchen - I'll dig out my old soda stream...

Sorry to hear about the slip on the stairs - hope it's not too bad and you're on the way to recovery. It always seems to happen when you're packing. My mum had never broken a bone in her body until she decided to move house...

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BB, you do whatever makes you happy. The Guide will still be there when you are ready to add more


Yesterday was a reality check for me and my family. I won't go into detail here as it is too close to what you have already recently experience. I've put a journal up about it, but only read if you want to.


I shall be online intermittently, as we are moving next Weds and won't have any broadband until late Friday afternoon. I might fight hubby for use of the laptop, but I hate the keyboard on that thing!


lil xx

I think I just like writing too much - I always want to write about something. It's the choosing what to write about that's the difficult bit, as well as the finding time. I sometimes feel I have to write about popular things quickly, before someone else nabs the subject

I know how busy life can be when you're moving house, so don't feel you need to speak to me until you're ready to tell me how smoothly everything went and you're in your new home.

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I'm too much of a hootoo addict to stay away too long

I am never very far away, hunny

Nor I - except at weekends

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Still packing!!

I will be offline from Tues night until late Fri evening, or even Saturday


*withdrawal shakes already starting*




lil xx

I'll miss you! I hope it all goes well, you never know, with all the excitment of moving the time might go so quick that you never notice the time go by.

Possibly not, though

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I might be able to view from hubby's laptop in the evenings.

I just hate the keyboard on it


Must remember to ask where his dongle is (it's been such a long time since I've seen it).


lil xx

I find laptop keyboard annoying - the letters are too close together and often they don't have all the buttons you need. Just don't get me started on trying to use laptops without a

But it is better than nothing.

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I *know* exactly what you mean! I can't use the laptop without the either


As the pc and laptop are both wireless... I nick the batteries from the laptop when mine run out!



lil xx

I've never had a wireless - I just have the old roller ball variety, which always seems to attract vast amounts of dirt no matter how often we clean the desk, and so always needs to be cleaned off.

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I got fed up with the sticking and getting the wire caught up under the things on the desk

A wireless was the way to go! Just remember to have extra batteries in the cupboard on standby

I hope to chat with you tomorrow, before the pc is dismantled


lil xx

I'll see your wireless mouse and raise a wireless rechargeable mouse. Just plug it in to the USB cable for an hour and your back in business for weeks at a time.

Oh, I do beg your pardons! . For some reason I thought this thread was in Ask!

*Backs meekly out of the conversation.*