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

Apart from the fact I am 300 odd words over and still to finish the conclusion you could say that whether its any good or not is anyones guess. insert shrugging smiley here.... Its my birthday this weekend and Tom has arranged for the chidren to be looked after while he takes me out for the day I admit to loving my birthday's I am like a little kid....and while I share the rest of my sex's addiction to chocolate I don't share their obsession with hiding my age I am actually looking forward to turning 50 and going completely grey currently my red hair has only a few greys at the side....I think it will give me a new lease on life and I 'll be able to get away with far more outrageous behaviour

50? You still have quite a ways to go for that, haven't you? I only have a couple of years to go myself. And birthdays kinda lost their sparkle for me the 2nd time my family totally forgot about it. Then having been single, in barracks or working shift for so many. Just my own perspective.

I really do hope that you and the Mister can make a lovely and special day of it.

So you got a bit wordy with your first big task, eh? I always found it a problem to come up with enough of them. If I was writing a story, just because I felt like it, then the words would run on and on. But if they were needed for any school submission ... writer's block.

A red-head, eh? That's not a characteristic I had thought of. I usually develop a sort of mental image of on-line friends, finding that I'm close to correct somewhat more than half the time. So now I'm seeing the "little red-haired girl" of the Charlie Brown cartoons.

Hello Yep thats me to a T the little red haired girl in charlie brown my favourite cartoon series as a child growing up in south east asia among loads of Americans at the Taipei American school in Taiwain. I was madly in love with Schroder and thought lucy was pronounced Lucky and thought pig pen was marvelous but it was Snoopy and his fights with the red baron on his sopwith camel that helped me cope with being one of three ausie children in a school of over 5000 Americans.

I turn 43 this Saturday and I plan to make the most of every minute my dad makes the best cornish pasties in the world which he makes once a year on my birthday so what ever we do it will involve stopping off to pick up my order of pasties.

Okay curious now what mental image did you have of me before you knew I had red hair, green eyes, fair skin and stood 5ft 5inches tall

Ah, so still younger than my missus as well. She turned 45 in the last July, costing me a smidge more on a life insurance premium. She assures me that she will reimburse me the $2 a month or so, ... somehow.

My general image was close, but I had somehow guessed at auburn hair, and perhaps blue eyes. Maybe because they are the most likely to be found, eh? But hey, I had the height about right.

Snoopy has always been one of my favourites. In fact, for me, it isn't the Christmas season yet until I hear The Royal Guardsmen on the radio, with "Snoopy's Christmas". This past season, I finally found and bought the CD's with all the Snoopy and the Red Baron tunes. And a number of other silly things. If, sometime before the next festive season rolls around, you provide a mailing address ... I could forward a copy of said CDs.

But I warn you, be vary wary of also including a phone number ... I have been known to phone many friends, anywhere in the world.

Goodmorning Nic so we are both here at the same time, will email an address as I am very curious I have never heard any of the music you are talking about. I hadn't realised how late it was I got up at 3 to start next assignment and I have to get ready before I get the children up as I have to go to the city today Uni, shoe shopping the dog chewed up two pairs and a long promised visit to a friends house and the recyclying centre for materials for a project my son wants to build.

I warn you now my aussie accent may mean you will need an interpreter to understand me if I send a number

No worries, m'dear ... I've spoken with Aussies, Germans, Oirish, Brits of a half-dozen "flavours" ... And of course, the 30 or so accents and dialects that I have met across Canada and the US. My ear adapts fairly quickly.

You'll enjoy the tunes. On the radio, it was just the main recordings. On these discs, each Snoopy piece is preceded by a 1940's style BBC Radio prelude. Quite funny.

Goodo ooops hubby is up no more playing for me time I got a move on or I'll be running fater than an emu all day

Cheers and have a fine day, Lady.

Just FYI, ... Sometime or somewhere around the 2,000 post mark, Lil begins a new thread for the Atelier chats. This helps to keep things manageable if someone wants to recall a time and subject. She usually has a volunteer who will track the whole thing, summarize all that has gone on, and then begin a new thread.

If you want to track everything, as new ones begin, you really should go to the main Atelier page, look at the list of conversations, and "subscribe to any new threads" ...

Or, if you haven't done so already, try clicking on the following:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/FSB38024?cmd=subscribeforum&page=normal&desc=Return+to+the+Guide+Entry&return=A304354

Morning Nic thanks for that I slept like a baby last night which was just as well as I was dead on my feet yesterday evening

My computer is running very slowly and doind some really strange things it just dumped a whole pile of work I was doin and gave me some strange message so now I have to start all over again. I have done a virus check and checked it doesn't need defragging but it is running very slowly and according to the flashing light on the front of the panel something is certainly working overtime I checked the usage and my spyware seems to be in overtime but I cant figure out why. I thik the thingites may have launched a secret attack on my computer in a bid to get my breakfast

And yes possibly she could use a little more sleep I hear you thinking

Which operating system is your PC running? Windows 2000, or Windows XP? The super-duper busy light sounds like a complete virus scan going on, but if it's XP ... It does weird and magical stuff all on it's own. No explanations or pop-ups about it. I really don't know what to suggest except to let it run, and see what happens. And perhaps cross a few fingers, toes and that it's nothing virulent.

I am running XP and I think you are right about it running the scan but it seems to be doing it several times a day and its not scheduled to do that

Computers they are both a blessing and a curse

I have not had a chance to go over to your friends site yet but plan on doing so later today and saying G'Day

I am looking forward to a quite day and by the feel of the air and the look of the sky hopefully a cooler one with some rain.

I am sincerely hoping it rains on my birthday I love the winter and the rain my favourite birthdays on memory all had rain. One in particular involved driving up into the hills to a place called Roleystone and having a devonshire tea under an old stone pergola in the rain and then going to my favourite place in the whole world Araluen just Tom and I before children . Araluen is this wonderful botanical garden my parents started taking me to when I was just a child now I take my children.

Yes, computers are the saving and the curse of today's world. So much is now dependent on them that when they go lame, many of us 'hurt'. Disconnection from the on-line friends, for some, can bring on anxiety. For others, it's such a nuisance, to lose contact with product suppliers, bank accounts just when we need them ... I never could have envisioned all of this when I first dealt with computers. 1972, bigger than most house-hold 'upright' freezers, and demanding more electricity than most homes of today.

I have never been a great appreciator of rain, except for what it does for crops and nature. Partly because, as a lad, rain kept me from gathering crops, and the labours of the farm day were so much more annoying. Fiddly little stuff indoors ... Of course, being older now, and haunted by more points of arthritis than I can count, dampness is even less of a friend. Still, a warm summer rain, the right company and a leisurely stroll ...

For you, I wish the mildest, refreshing rains on Saturday.

Ahhh rain for me brings memories of the few times my mum and dad would sit down and play a board game with us most of the time we were suppose to be seen and not heard

Now however rain means being tucked up inside with a fire and books lamps and canles lit classical music in the back ground and either baking, reading or playing with the kids with a fire going, or sat on the veranda with a rug and a hot drink breathing in the cold cold air watching the birds find shelter and looking at a purple grey skies smelling damp earth listening to the sounds of rain beating down on the tin roof and feeling very glad to be alive and a part of it all and of course if it's evening add a glass of port to the picture.

Do you take fish oil for the arthritis

And yes I am a hopeless romantic who sees life through rose coloured glasses so B4 was not to far out on his journal entry

Rains, when I was young, simply meant having to stay indoors and well out of mother's sight or notice. So there are no pleasant associations in that way. The rarest of family-game times might happen over Christmas or Easter holidays. When allowed to watch the games, I quite enjoyed them. At the tender age of 27, when I joined one such game, mother was surprised that I knew the rules of play.

It's so nice to hear of, and know, that some of today's families do enjoy the simple and warm times.

The family life Tom and I have constructed for our children and ourselves was born out of a strong belief and desire for something better than what we experienced as is many peoples I guess.

While I have good memories of childhood their are many that it would not being going to far to say were horrific as were some of Toms, but then I think possibly this is true for many people born of parents who went through the war... my dad was British (we have since neutralized him my mum is Australian and when my dad was young he was shipped out of London and sent to live with a family in the country who I am sad to say abused him horribly so instead of bombs he faced a daily terror of another sort for many years.

It took a long long time and a lot of heartache before I came to a place of peace and even now I have days when I will get angry with him but for the most part I now believe that while what he did as I was growing up has no excuse I can understand why it happened and thats enough for now.

Very serious conversatin for this time of the day I need another how about you

Awww, I am sorry, ... I didn't mean to drag stuff down. It's over 30 years gone, and I sometimes still let stuff bother me. Done and done, eh?

Here's a little query for you. Are any of you handicraft oriented? I've never been terribly talented at creative works, but have tried my hand at a number of things. Knitting and crocheting were disastrous, as was bird-house building. But such things as chemically frosting/etching glass, plastic-canvass and yarns, minor needle-work, hooked rugs ... I find that I enjoy such things as a bit of a challenge, but also as a soft release of the day. My wife is more inclined to cross-stitch, and occassional stencilling. Just yesterday, I received a plastic-canvass "Christmas Holiday Train" kit, ... 4 pieces that need to be cut, trimmed and stitched. It's been 5 or so years since the last, and I'm rather looking forward to it.

No need to apologise Nic I am happy with who I am continuing to become and in large part this is because of the things I have had to overcome that have made me a stronger person it's my experience that nothing in life is ever wasted if you trust him above and that eventually something good comes from even the worst of circumstances.

Ah a fellow dabbler yes I do try various things from time to time I especially like paper tolling, card making and at present I am messing around with soft pastels though I am never going to be Pro Hart or Norman Lindsay (Aussie icons in the art world)

I am a hopeless sewer though it doesn't stop me I just stick to table cloths, cloaks for budding magicians and repairing stuff though I actually really like hand sewing I enjoy long stitch but can not manage cross stitch as for knitting I have never forgottern the year at boarding school where I spent the whole year knitting a Tom Baker Dr Who scarf for my dad who was working in Alaska...oh boy over 30ft long with every colour and ply wool imanagibale involved strangely enough it didn't come home with himn when he came home

My night just ran away on me ... I'm sorry, but will have to read and reply to the last in the morning. Nighty-night from Canuck-land