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

Hi BD

Thank you - you have just reminded me that I've got to renew my copy of Queen Noor's biog. Got quite a few books I want to finish before hols, so maybe not too much "Anna" this week.

Good luck with the job application. Remember - be honest! (Personally I am rubbish at lying about my abilities in interviews...)

Morning

I hope I get to talk to you live this morning and you havn't gone by the time I get this typed!! Got your email thanks for your kind words will pass them on.

The morning is a bit murky here but the sun is starting to peep through so we could be in for a better day.

I'm off in a bit to town to get HP kitted out with the last bits and pieces for Grammar School (scary) , rugby boots etc. plus he has some birthday money still to spend.

Finally finished work and after the hassle I am really relieved to be off for 10 days and feel much more relazed. One person can make a big difference to how you feel about work can't they.

Right I'm posting now so you have chance to reply before I disappear.



BD

missed you again!!!

See you tomorrow.



BD

Hi BD

Don't come too close this morning - I think I might have a cold.

Hope you are very "relazed" this holiday, or should that be "re-lazy"!

Don't talk to me about school rugby. The P.E. teachers decided I was too puny to play, so they put me into girls' hockey instead (true). That's yet another reason why I take a dim view of physical British contact sports.

Got a fantastic bargain at the remainder book sale yesterday: "Nashville: The Pilgrims of Guitar Town."

It's a coffee table book of recent photos of country stars & would-be-stars, including Dolly, Ray Price, Charlie Daniels and a lovely photo of Beth Nielsen Chapman, all taken by the renowned portrait photographer Michel Arnaud.

When the book came out in 2000, it was priced $28. I bought it for £6.99!

There's also a full colour guide to recent Celtic music CDs which I've got my eye on - original price $20, now £4.99.

Might catch you in a while. Leaving the library at 9.45 to get back home for today's Women's Hour on Radio 4. This morning's subject is: women who prefer message boards to coffee mornings!

20.35 hours

Hi

Oh no not a cold! I shall keep back a bit then. Do hope it doesn't develop into anything.

Mission accomplished yesterday all items purchased including three pairs of footwear! Cost me a fortune, once they go to senior school they double in terms of expenditure. One of the reasons I'm thinking of taking a full time job so we can afford the next 10 years of expense!

You like your bargains don't you? I used to love bargain hunting for all sorts of things now I just don't seem to get the time.

Had a make over today! New style haircut (now look like a shaggy dog!) and nails done, well I have to look my best for next week's social events.

I think HP will struggle with Rugby he's not the most physical of lads and prefers a good book, a man after your own heart!

Not done hardly any emails lately just don't seem to have the time, I like posting on here cos then we can do

Weather been much better today after last night's horrendous storms again. We've actually had some sun.

See you tomorrow.



BD

Hiya

The cold didn't amount to much, probably just house-dust. Have to get the hoover out!

As I suspected, your part of the country is underwater, whereas my part of the country is completely dry - apart from a light shower last Thursday evening. Hence, I've had to water all the vegetables every evening this week.

Latest pumpkin news: several more flowers out this week, mostly the "male" ones that don't develop fruits beneath them...

But my first pumpkin is now large enough to measure! Two and a half inches in diameter or, more impressively, seven inches round the middle!

Be thankful you have hair. Mine is still just at the "thinning" stage, but I actually know a couple of people with the two different types of alopecia. And the one with total alopecia is the same age as me!

Any sign of FBN lately, or has her puter gone wrong?

Hi

Well I can't complain today about the weather it's been hot hot hot!!! Just gorgeous. Trouble is I had things to do in the house getting ready to go away.

Managed 2 hours on the sun lounger, late afternoon and nearly finished Lovely Bones only a couple of chapters to go which I shall finish in a bit.

I have always been lucky with my hair no grey and lots of it. One of Lucy's carer's is only 20 and has loads of grey has to have her roots done, every six weeks. She tells the story of how the older women at work love it! She just laughs about it and it doesn't seem to bother her that much, you are what you are.

We had fresh runner beans last night most delicious, lots of butter. Your pumpkins sound to be doing very well.

FBN is around had a brief chat yesterday, I think everyone is too hot to be bothered to do anything! I know I am.

Tomorrow will be my last post before I go on holiday, although I might take a peep while I'm away! No picking up emails though as I don't have that facility set up.

Off to finish Lovely Bones will give verdict tomorrow.



BD

Hi BD

Back in contact with Catharina, thanks.

As usual, I am juggling a lot of books at once...

Anna Karenina, Crime & Punishment, an Elmore Leonard crime novel, and FBN's latest recommendation "Shooting Butterflies" by Marika Cobbold.

Also, a book of Oscar Wilde's plays. After I'd read the first one, "Lady Windermere's Fan", I checked on the internet to see if there was a recent DVD of that play. Answer: there will be in 9 months' time! Starring Scarlett Johansson as Lady Windermere and Helen Hunt as Mrs Erlynne.

Movie is released this Autumn, titled "A Good Woman" in the USA, but possibly the original title for the UK release.

Listened to the first Ipswich Town match of the season on BBC Radio Suffolk yesterday. Ipswich 2 Gillingham 1, so I will be listening again next week!

Hope your family enjoys the holiday. I'll post if I have any urgent pumpkin news!

Hi

Well the murk has returned, the remainder of Hurricane Alex is about to hit at any moment I think I shall stand outside for a shower! Except then there's the worry of being hit by lightening!

Finished Lovely Bones really enjoyed it. Very absorbing book and very well written. I was a tad disappointed that Mr Harvey didn't meet a more gruesome end or was deposited on death row awaiting his fate. Not that I'm in favour of capital punishment, but in his case just the waiting would have been justified. I couldn't really identify with the mother in the book either, to leave her children like that for years on end. Still women do it.

I can't really read more than one book at once, I like to start and then finish. HP does he has at least three books on the go at anyone time. But then his literary talent is far greater than mine.

What's the world record for a pumpkin then? Find out I bet it's huge!

Must maybe pop in during the week, if not see you next weekend. Have a great week.



BD

Hiya

I hope you don't mind - I skipped your part about what happens in Lovely Bones as I haven't read it yet.

Very quiet in the library at the moment, just the usual 4 people on the computers scattered around the balcony level.

I managed to reach the library before the thunderstorm began. This is the first heavy rain in Suffolk for about a month. (I can hear it rattling on the skylights above me.) Won't have to water the pumpkins tonight anyway! World record pumpkin is 1,385 lb! My largest is currently nine-and-a-half inches around the middle - that is, two-and-a-half inches more than it was on Friday evening!

Hope the weather clears up for you.

Hi

Sorry not to have been in touch. Been a hectic week away and a mad week back at work!! Plus I hate typing when I've got my nails on!

Thought of you today, when I had a mad urge just to sit down with an Argos catalogue which I did not have!!! So I ended up on line for hours looking for what I wanted.

Been for an interview today but don't think I got it, think they already had someone internally in mind (a vibe). Still it was interesting and all good experience!!

Sorry about mentioning Lovely Bones I thought you had read it!? Managed to complete The Full Cupboard of Life while I was away last week (won't tell the end in case you don't know!).

My brother gave us an intensive one day course of the geology of the Dorest coast, I now have some awareness of the implications of the African plate crashing into us!

Are you off to your sister's next weekend? It will be a birthday bash for me next Sunday hopefully with Lord Phil. Time to get out the

Speak soon.



BD

Hi BD

Great to hear from you again - hope you get the job you want. I always hate it when interviewers are transparently dishonest & just going through the motions because each interview slot has to last 50 minutes, or whatever.

Has your brother read "Revolutions in the Earth" by Stephen Baxter? The author is one of those "technical" science fiction writers who can understand heavy-duty PhD level research and incorporate it into his stories. He's also a popular science writer, and "Revolutions" is the true story of the Scotsman who calculated the age of the Earth from rock formations he examined...

Which day are you having your CB party?



Rich