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

Morning Rich

I hope things are fine in your neck of the woods. How are the chilis coming along? We've got black fly on ours unfortunately but doing our best to eradicate them.

Feeling a bit quiet this morning after an impromptu birthday party at a friends house last night involving champagne and rockets.
We had a great time catching up with old (as in long term!) friends and reminiscing about our previous outrageous parties/gigs etc. All kept out of earshot of the teenagers of course. Wouldn't want them to think their parents beat them to anything!

Hope your Sunday is grand!

PG

Hi Great to hear from you

My INDOOR chilis have greenfly & whitefly on them!!! Biggest chili is now 6" long and 1" wide, waiting for my young niece & nephew to visit so they can pick it. Also, in the garden there's a mixed pepper, 1" cubed and growing.

The party sounded fab - yes I heard it over here in Suffolk it was so loud! No wonder you are feeling fragile

Old-friends parties are always the best - Kool & the Gang, Kinks and no broken windows or destroyed carpets! (Or WERE there?)

My morning was going fine until I decided to log on to a certain site under an "assumed name" and started getting slightly grumpy/suspicious replies from other posters.

If you can guess who I am, I'll send you a "personal message" with a pic of the library (where the librarians are currently playing "Departure" by REM! Hurrah!)

Got to - Go Lance!

Ernesto the Bull?

Nothing broken or destroyed as far as I know but the music wasn't anything like as cheesy as you suggested! More like Bob Marley & the Clash!

Cycling not as exciting as yesterday, but after the Moto GP that's not surprising

Sorry, would have replied earlier but I was . Off now for a nice & some birthday .

Talk tomorrow

Hi

Oh yes, "Legend" - very popular party choice. I know certain born-again Christian types who always get down to Bob Marley at parties.

Moto GP? You mean the sport that was delayed until half-past-beddy-byes-time on BBC2, because of the golf?

Actually I could've stayed up & watched it as I was awake till 3.30 this morning. Did Rossi do another of his trademark overtaking-Gibernau-on-the-very-last-corner moves? The one that makes you fall off the sofa in astonishment?

As for "Ernesto The Bull" - hmmmmm. I'll have to get a judges' adjudication on that....

Morning

Unfortunately Sete fell off (as opposed to falling off the settee ) as did Capirossi, Checa and Bayliss. By far the most 'spectacular' accident was between Norick Abe and Marco Melandri, they both flew through the air but fortunately did not sustain any serious injuries. Valentino had tyre probs which led the way to Max Biaggi taking first place . This means that there is only one point between them and should lead to some exciting racing at the British GP next weekend .

Thank you for revealing the library of the ancients to me, it looks like a really beautiful building.

Got to go and make a delivery now. Speak soon.

Hi PG

The "library of the ancients" is actually the town's Corn Exchange. According to the keystone over the window arch:

"Erected A.D. 1841 - H.E. Kendall, Architect"

Saved from destruction (or worse) in the late 1960s and turned into the town library.

Sorry I missed the race, sounds like it was thrilling. I expect & demand that the British GP will get full coverage from the BBC.

Hey, guess which "Alpe" my lucky sister will be standing at the side of, tomorrow:

a. d'Huez
b. d'Artagnon
c. d'Ream...?

Hi

Well if she's not at Alpe d'Huez tomorrow she might be bored. Seriously, that is one mean looking stage . I feel tired just looking at it!

I'm on a 2-day course Tuesday, Wednesday (v esoteric feng shui-type thingy, to be precise) so a bit busy and very chilled . Will catch up at the end of the week.



Go Lancey

Hi

L'Alpe d'Huez is the correct answer!

You must be prepared to travel at short notice to...

Actually, can't offer you & yours a weekend in Paris on the Champs Elysees...

...But I think I have a spare copy of "Gary Imlach's Guide to American Football" I can give away!

I really like Gary Imlach (apart from the repetitive double-arm movements). I've been watching G.I. since the early 1990s when I used to see him every Saturday morning & Sunday night on Channel 4's NFL progs.

Strangely, Imlach reminds me of R2's own Nick Barraclough. They both love American culture, and both know exactly when it needs the pee taken out of it.

Have you ever seen the hiarious clip of Gary on the sidelines at an NFL game? He turned away from the camera at just the wrong moment and his nose came into contact with a passing lumbering shoulder-pad. Actually, there is a position called "Nose Tackle" in American Football...but in this case, the shoulder-pad won!

Rumour has it, ITV2 has bought the rights to next January's Super Bowl. Perhaps they'll get the whole of Season 39, and highlights will be shown at a sensible time. Regular season is only seventeen weeks long, for criminy's sake.

Hope you enjoy you intensive course of chilling out - all you have to do is learn 3000 years of knowledge in 3 days, I'm sure you can handle that!

Hi

If you're reading this before the weekend - get back to work! (Where's that "whip-crack" smiley?)

Your assignment for the weekend - I wonder if you can remember who sang this song, round about September 1988:

I'll do it on Thursday
Thursday
I'll do it on Thursday, yeah
Do it on Thursdayyyy

On allmusic.com, the only song with that title is by a band called Jim Jiminee - the name rings a bell but the CD release date is 2001, not 1988.

Morning

and Happy St Bridget's day to you.

I am still trying to assimilate all the 'stuff' from my course. It was very inspiring but has left me feeling a bit .

Lots of sport this weekend (spectating of course!) so Pondboy is particularly happy. Lots of sunny weather predicted here as well. PB has just started work on a new project building a lovely big pond for some clients who actually want to spend some money and who have reasonable ideas too . Pictures on the website soon.

Gotta , I'm responsible for looking after the out-laws garden pots whilst they are in Scotland and as they are hosting a huge family party next weekend I'll be ostracised if they aren't looking good.

Have a good weekend, I'll try and make more sense next week.

Lots of

Hi

You always make sense - to me anyway! And I hope I've got over my old problem of not making any sense to any of my former work colleagues.

Hope you enjoyed the course - is it for personal use, or will it be tax-deductible?!

Among the books I'm reading at the moment:

"The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made" by Chris Gore

Including:

David Lean's "Nostromo"

Welles's "Heart of Darkness"

Coppola's "Pinocchio"

Harlan Ellison's "Foundation Trilogy" & "Bug Jack Barron" (the author Chris Gore doesn't realise that the title is an invitation to the viewers to bug the host, Jack Barron, with their problems - Gore thinks "Bug" is the character's first name)

...also some weird stuff including Kim Cattrall's "The Betty Page Story" and a gangster film about a man with an ice-cream head!

The book is pretty badly dated - published 1999 - and the author complains about the constantly rejected "Hulk" scripts, no sign of a proper Asimov movie, and no sign of a comic-book movie directed by a comics fan. "Let's hope James Cameron gets to helm Spider-Man" etc...

Haven't figured out what sport I'll be watching this weekend - probably all!

Enjoy

Hi

Sorry about that crack, re: what you're using the training course for. None of my business, I know. Hope you weren't offended.

Hard choices today: cycling or motor cycling, cos they're on at the same time. Have to go with the TdF, as it should be a(n) historic win.

Last night I reached the end of part one (page 115) of Tolstoy's "Anna Kournikova" - plenty of balls, but not so much of the tennis as yet. Will Anna & Enrique find true love, or will it be "de-railed"?

Off to explore the wonders of www.oprah.com...

Hi

Just a quick reminder that it's July 26th:

The lovely Nana Visitor is 47 today!

Did you know, she played the villainess (opposite Sandra Bullock) in the ill-fated "Working Girl" TV series before she joined DS9?

My favourite Kira episode: "Second Skin", in which she's disguised as a Cardassian.

Fave Mirror Universe ep. featuring Nana as "the Intendant": all of them!