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

Hi Andy D

Now it's past the midnight curfew, and MableJane has introduced me to h2g2, I'm discovering by trial and error how to access trivia about various contributors. Don't take this personally, it's just that I don't have to get up early tomorrow, and yours is the first one I've tried (maybe subconsciously drawn by that Sandy Denny French thing?)

Anyway, it's interesting that you're and Andy Kershaw fan, because he lives not a few streets away from me, in Peel, Isle of Man, and since his part-time arrival here a couple of years ago, he's been hugely influential in bringing major performers back to the island. He moved here permanently quite recently, and I presume he broadcasts from his home (much in the way John Peel used to broadcast), as his radio 3 show still runs.

pb

Posted: Thursday 29 June 2006 01:04:18

I was just going to write to you re Sandy Denny - what a surprise to find you'd already posted something.

Posted: Thursday 29 June 2006 01:06:36

Hi again pb,

Did you ever look at the pile of bananas picture I posted to you?

MabelJane also introduced me to h2g2 - in mid-April - she's so enthusiastic about it, she never passes up a chance to tell people about it.

I'm a great Andy Kershaw fan - I love his programme and have listened to him off and on since he was first on Radio 1 in 1985? 1986?

I didn't know he now lives in the IoM - I know he's very enthusiastic about the the bike racing.

Sandy Denny - to get back to the original point - is one of my favourite singers - "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" is such an evocative song for me. And she died so tragically young.

Thanks for contacting me. Write again by all means.
Andy

PS they also have great smileys here - I wasn't a smiley person until I tried some of the ones here.

Posted: Thursday 29 June 2006 01:23:30

I know you and MabelJane are talking about cats but I don't want to intrude on her thread so I'll post this here.

I also have some nice cat pictures which you might want to look at - see:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyd.music/cat%20pictures.html

I always seize the chance to advertise my pictures!!

I took about 50 pictures of my friend Maggie's cats in 20 minutes but the ones I've posted there are the best IMO. Digital photography is so easy and it's quick to get pictures to people (as long as they are on-line) - are you into it at all?

Andy

Hi Andy
Re the bananas pic, yes I did, and I posted a response. It was probably snarled up in the pre-mod thing.

I have to confess I've only listened to AK occasionally, although I used to listen to John Peel before moving over here (reception's not very good and I can only really pick up ISIHAC online - digital's probably 10 years behind here)

I was, at one time, an avid fan of the Archers, but gave up when Sid Perks has his affair with Jolene - dread to think how many years ago that was.

However AK is a good bloke and drinks in our local (sometimes), and doesn't get credit for the wonderful influence he has here. Alice Cooper played here in TT practice week; Lou Reed was here two nights for TT week. Unfortunately the so-called Minister of Fun (Tourism & Leisure Minister - we have our own government you know?) has taken all the credit, when it was really AK who brought them here. But I'm really pleased he's here, because his influence will bring lots more interesting shows to the island. In the pub, he's actually asked us (the pleb punters) what kind of things we'd like!

Sandy Denny is one of my favourite female singers - I saw her last solo show in Cardiff in 1977 or 78 (frightening to think I can't actually remember the year) and I was here for the first time on IOM dossing at a friend's flat when I heard the news that she had died.

Sorry, but I'm just not into smileys. Maybe eventually.
pb

Like your cat pics. Do you have a freebie website to post them to? I'd like to try setting up something similar.
pb

Posted: Thursday 29 June 2006 16:41:17 Hi peelbananas, That sounds a bit formal, perhaps I should call you Mrs Peel!! I was just like you about smileys, remember saying that I never used them when I first came on h2g2 but MabelJane can be very persuasive. I still don't like the ones on the Radio 3 board - there are only a few of them and people tend to go over the top with them - so I never use those. And of course Radio 4 doesn't have them at all - presumably Radio 4 listeners are thought to be above that sort of thing You see that's one good use for them - they can indicate that a remark, such as my last one, wasn't intended seriously - which helps to avoid misunderstandings. And I quite like the smileys on h2g2. There are various options for putting pictures on-line, I'll let you know some of them when I get a chance. My cat pictures are actually hosted on the web space which comes free with my ISP and the web page is written by me. Glad you liked them If you're a bit of a night owl, you might like the Bull on the Archers board - it's open all night and is nothing to do with the Archers, in fact there are several MC type threads there such as Cheddar Gorge. I've got one on the go at the moment about very old jokes, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio3/F2693943?thread=3204716 Problem is you might be back in pre-mod because I think it's regarded as a different board to the R4 one. How long did they keep you in pre-mod on R4? I've been complaining to the hosts about this as you might've read. Glad you persevered but not everyone is going to bother and the MC board needs new posters. bye for now, Andy (oops sorry! - there's no banana smiley btw)

Oh, just call me Emma, please!

I've just posted on your old jokes thread on the Bull and, yes, I'm back in pre-mod! On MC it took only a couple of days to come out of this, but I was posting constantly. So the Bull is open all night! That's dangerous - having only just discovered the delights of MC threads, I'm suddenly sitting at this computer for hours without realising what time it is (...and then work tomorrow!) It's all very addictive and no, I'm not really a night-owl.


Back to MC I think
Cheers
pb

Posted: Friday 30 June 2006 12:21:19

Hi Mrs Bananas

Oooh, a couple of smiley sort of things - careful, that's how I started. I've even been making my own - here's Mr Worry from the Mr Men twitching his nose: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyd.music/mr_worry%20moves.gif

Liked your Bertrand Russell quote. I was once standing in a bookshop looking at Bertie's History of Western Philosophy (as you do - probably when I bought the copy I've now got) when a man next to me said, "What a wonderful book, I've read it ten times, he sums up each philosopher in a concise and witty way, blah blah blah." I couldn't get rid of him!

You're right, the Bull and h2g2 are dangerous places if you want to get a decent amount of sleep. I know all about sitting at the computer for hours into the early morning. Must log out soon.

bws
Andy

Hi Andy

What Bertrand Russell quote? I hadn't realised I'd made one... please enlighten me!

What does bws stand for?

Cheers
pb

Just looked at mr worry. I'm sorry... Do you really have a web page with just that one smiley on it?

Well anyway, it made me laugh. That's got to be a plus, hasn't it?



pb

Posted: Saturday 01 July 2006 22:23:47 Hi pb, You posted a Bertrand Russell interview on my old jokes thread. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers/F2693943?thread=3204716&skip=31&show=20 Re Mr Worry: no I don't have a web page with just him on, but the image is on my webspace so when you click on the link, your browser opens that image. Actually, you've given me an idea, I could make a web page full of Mr Worrys. What an agitating thought. Very warm here (Birmingham) today, what's it like in the IoM? bws (best wishes) Andy

Morning, Andy

I had completely forgotten about that posting - although if you'd have said Jonathan Miller I'd have remembered. I was briefly introduced to a BR piece of writing at uni, and have never felt the need to read him since. I am, however, a big fan of Beyond the Fringe etc.

Very hot here too. The vikings will be fighting on Peel beach today, so we're going to spend the afternoon walking the streets with plastic pints in our hands.

Cheers
pb

Posted: Monday 03 July 2006 21:00:07

Hi PB,

Weather far too hot for me at the moment. I don't expect you have it quite as hot as we do in Brum - looking on the weather map, IoM doesn't seem to get to the same deep orange colours. The fan on my PC is racing round, I've never heard it making such a noise.

What was the Viking thing you referred to? I spent most of my weekend watching my local cricket team (Harborne) - it's a lovely little ground and usually stays nice and cool when everywhere else is baking hot. I've been trying to keep the plants on my allotment watered but it's very difficult - unless you go more than once a day, everything just dries out completely. Still the plus side is that there is little sign of slugs and snails - every absence of cloud has a silver lining!!

Re putting pictures on-line:

the best bet is probably to start a blog - it's quite easy to upload pictures there - http://www.blogger.com

There are lots of good photo blogs around - have a look at http://www.andrewor.com/ as an example

or you could use flickr http://www.flickr.com/

I've tried both of these but there are lots of other options eg Yahoo and msn - the Archers place where MJ's cats are uses msn

However for most of my pix I usually use my ISP provided web space, as I said. Have a look at blogger and see what you think.

bws
Andy

Hi Andy
Can you help me? I'd like to start a conversation with Carole, to send her some poetry without cluttering up the threads, and if I access her "space" in h2g2, and try to leave a message, it tells me I'm not logged in. Then I get caught up in some kind of loop and sent back to my own space. I can "start a conversation" from there, but I don't know how specifically to direct it to Carole. Can you help?

Replying to your last post - it's between 25 and 28 here - much too hot for me, but maybe not as much as the UK. The viking thing is an annual celebration (!) of the viking invasion of IOM, and it happens in Peel. This year's is the biggest festival ever, run by a very rich property developer who has taken over Peel harbour, and is not allowing anyone to see the celebrations unless they pay lots of ticket money. Clearly alienating lots of local residents, who can ordinarily walk through the town unimpeded.

It also happens to be our national week, with Tynwald Day on 5th July, a bank holiday here. It's usually quite a dreary affair, so this year we're going with a crowd of drinking friends on a day-trip to Ireland on the Balmoral, sailing from Peel!! (Rarely do passenger ferries run from Peel).

I used to live just up the road from Durham cricket ground (Lumley, Chester-le-Street), and we would sometimes go down to watch one-day matches.

I used to have a huge garden in Lumley. Here, I only have a small yard with many pot-plants. I can't say I miss the toil of gardening, but I do miss the beauty (and our cats miss the freedom to catch and massacre many birds and mice!). What do you grow in your allotment? I always imagine them to be very utilitarian.

Thanks for the info re web pages.

(well it's a token attempt...)

Cheers
pb

Posted: Wednesday 05 July 2006 21:53:16

Hi Emma,

Just a quick post re your query. I couldn't post to Carole either but I asked the Help here and got the answer!! She originally registered with Radio 2, so go to that Message Board and you'll be asked to register using yr existing id. You don't have to post. You should then be able to post to Carole. Any problems ask again.

Andy

PS it's no good asking Mathos about h2g2!!!

Posted: Friday 07 July 2006 11:08:53

Morning Emma,

Saw yr bit about not being able to start a conversation on MJ's space - could be the same problem both you and I had with Carole, MJ is registered with Radio 3, so if you aren't, give that a go.

Nothing's private here as you might have gathered, even though it gives that illusion. It's just a little bit more secluded than on the other message boards, so that only those who know their way around h2g2 can find the discussions going on. You have given away who you actually are by posting your web site address. Be a bit carefull about that. I'm a really nice person and I know MJ is as well, but not everyone here necessarily is. However, having said that, if you were to plough through my hundreds of posts, I have carelessly given away my full name as well. I too have a web presence so once my name is known, it's possible to find out where I live etc.

Don't worry about it too much though.

bws
Mr Nosey (must do a smiley for him some time)

PS the title for your home page is quite appropriate isn't it?

PPS I'm not a teacher, although I did do a PGCE and "worked" in a school for a year.

PPPS I'm not sure whether MJ knows about my PPS but, if not, she'll soon find out now - she's just as nosey as me!

Posted: Friday 07 July 2006 11:41:00

PPPPS I half guessed you were a teacher, don't know why, perhaps I've a "nose" for these things

Hi Mr Nosey

I did think about posting the web address, but then I though it's in the public domain anyway, so why not?

What makes you think Fullfathom's appropriate? I chose the name when I started, and very soon wished I hadn't, because many people here don't know what it means. But I'm known by it now, and my market doesn't stretch beyond IOM, so the name stays.

It's infuriating that people guess I'm a teacher. But somehow they do. Well, I'm not really in the sense of being a government employee, anyway.

Rehearsals tonight, and I'm busy making props for the show.

bws
pb

Posted: Friday 07 July 2006 15:32:09

>>What makes you think Fullfathom's appropriate?<<

I actually meant the title for your h2g2 home page viz "PeelBananas background info for nosey parkers"

I've found the Fullfathom quote on your site but I didn't recognize where the name came from until I did

I'm off to make a Mr Nosey smiley

Andy