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

It sounds like you had quite a lovely day too then. Despite the very unbalanced magazine article. There will always be some who are very certain that "their way" is best, and any other ways are wrong, and perhaps harmful. In the end, if the result is a happy youth, with a good sense of humour and ethics, and passes all of the 'standard' examinations ... Then who really cares about the orthodoxy of the method, eh?

And I am quite surprised that a CD got there so quickly. It would seem to have travelled about the same length of time as a copy to Germany. Anyway, sooner or later your daughter will need sleep. And you can reclaim it, and listen to the rest.

I am off to get my car....I am off to get my car...Hey Ho the Merry O

I am off to get my car

Into a pool of debt....Into a pool of Debt...
Hey ho the Merry O

Into the pool I go


Lucky for me I have a floatation device

Floatation device? I know some women are adequately "gifted" with natural extra 'water-wings'.

*hides under the sofa, in case the new hot-red sportster car roars past here ... *

Ha.......if only you will see me motoring past in a Turbo Diesel Nissan Patrol a good sturdy 4 wheel drive the kangas leave alone

And so you should duck under the couch the floatation device I was refering to was the big guy upstairs who who always comes through really some people

So how was your day

When you go for newer wheels, you DO take it seriously, eh? That beast ought to serve you well for quite a time.

The day was good, and today should be easy. I'm away to another base, our school of electronics, to deal with some new custom software. And then on Tuesday, I'm away from home for another 2-week work trip.

I am extremely proud of myself I found the car and saved a bundle too so haubby is pleased with me

Now all I have to do is sell of a couple of children to pay for it

Where are you off to had to somewhere pretty?

You can try to Google for "Truro, Nova Scotia" ... considered the hub of that province. It is a very nice region, very mild weathers, and at this time of our spring, very pretty. My actual work is about a 20 minute drive west of that town, but our meals and hotel will be in Truro.

So, how much can you get for one or two slightly used children anyway?

Depends on where you live the well bought up ones sell for as much as 16 cows in some countries I've been to...however mine have been bought up to be very very naughty

It has been a long day and I was going to sit down and play but I am simply too tierd and for some strange reason the screen keeps going fuzzy mmmmm another sign of sleep deprivation perhaps...

I am looking forward to this weekend what with extended trips to Perth and house guests assignments and a thousand phone calls from clients I am just plain worn out.....think it will be a case of sitting on the back porch and not moving

Winter is definitely here I have just lit a fire for the third night in a row except I havn't waited till this evening to light this one as it is already quite chilly....The wattle is now all in bloom and the smell of lemon is very heavy in the air.... the plants I planted a few weeks back around the water are growing nicely and the pansys and petunas are all starting to flower should get the new chickens this weekend.....Hows your garden looking now?

Iam off for a bubble bath a hot drink and to snuggle up in bed with an old movie ....okay its offical I am really pitiful now just looked at the clock... its only 4.30 in the afternoon and I want to go to bed for the night.....sad sad sad can be seen mubling to herself as she heads out of the room

We too seem to have a very cold spell here, but not enough to light a fire. In fact, we never seemed to find the occassion or time for one this past winter.

Do enjoy a week-end of rest, m'dear. I shall be running about like a madman, tidying up and then packing for a couple of weeks away ...

Have a good trip Nic

Well, first I have to mow a lot of grass, trim the edges, help plant the season's flowers, clean the eaves, hoover the place, finish washing the windows, ... And then on the 2nd day of the week-end .,..


*looks around for a really BIG table to hide under ...*

MMmmm is that music I can here in the backgroud saying tote that barge lift that bail

The wind is really bracing here now and the sky is purple grey and angry with rain being thrown at us in small outbursts reminiscant of a two year old in mid tantrum

I've just come in from seeing to the animals who were all glad to see me and the extra food to help keep them warm....I forgot that most Canadians have central heating don't you.... we only have a massport log fire to heat the house and for the most part it does a bonza job though some double glazing proabley wouldn't go a stray in retaining the heat....I remember a canadian friend in new south wales once said to me that australians have the loveliest caves she had ever seen.......she was refering to the lack of consideration we put into heating our homes in winter we all tend to focus on cooling them in summer

Well I had better get back to the books I know I said I was going to be lazy but my brain is refusing to cooperate mmmmaybe I should try a hot toddy I think I could fake the necessary cold that goes with that

Some folks I know still depend on a central wood fire to heat the most of the house. A rare few have electric heaters in each room, but these days the cost is prohibitive. For a lot of years, a furnace fired by fuel-oil (similar to diesel fuel) would either heat water to steam point, which would circulate through pipes and radiators ... Or heat a plenum of air which would be circulated through the entire house with duct-work, and a good-sized fan. (Still the method I employ, btw). These days, many use natural gas as the heat source, again for either a boiler system or forced air.

There, as a plumbing and heating contractor's son, I have met my duty of teaching someone a few of the basics. Oh, and any version of the forced air is also ideal for central air conditioning in the summer ... The plenum is cooled instead, and that air is pushed to every room.

Please do find atleast some rest for yourself ... I hear a nasty cough coming on, which just might need some medicinal hot rum ...

I am pleased to report that I have now finised the paper for the workshop in two weeks time one more thing crossed of my list and now I can concentrate on my last assignment I have started prereading the books for the two units I am going to tke next term very very intersting as by the way was your lesson on central heating.... think Ill go with the under floor heating through a series of pipes from a central diesl furnace with steam.... see I was paying attention

Well enough tom foolery back to teh keyboard

Keyboard? You're a raving, punker musician?



Well done on getting your various works and assignments and stuff done on good advance time. I always tended to leave stuff until the hour before it was due.

Mm if you mean a piano keyboard I would say I was a classical concert pianist (in my own lunchbox that is) if you mean my computer keyboard I would say I was an six finger fumbler

So I shall investigate further weather we are both on line at same time

No it would appear that as usual we are fingers flying past each other in the night...

I slept through the night last night however Tom claims I have passed on my chronic insomnia to him now as it was nearly 2.00am before he could fall asleep.....I have spent a good part of this morning looking up books I want to purchase I now need to find about $300.00 Australian dollars to order about 8 books from Amazon stares at children again and reapraises just how naughty they really are

I want to read Howard Gardners new book Five minds and a couple by Alfie Kohn and one by Thomas Kuhn this is the one that interests me the most its on people and societys changing paradigms and how they come about never mind the fact the intelligent smiley cant spell

My car is running like a dream I have just discovered I have cruise control just as well I read that article about cc and wet weather or I might have got my pilots licence sooner than anticipated.

Yes one day I hope to get a pilots license another insane idea of mine but then I did get to Africa so maybe there is hope for me yet...wonder how old you can get before they say no way ho say

Well that assignment is still not done and it is advancing on me from the corner of the room with a menancing look in its eye...mm I think it means business....excuse me while I bolt

And now it's my fingers in the night ...

I suppose I ought to feel a bit shy ... I don't recognize any of the writings that you are shopping for. I read what-ever fiction comes my way, but in spurts and spasms. It's been 10 months since I took up a novel, and when I next do, it will be one of 20. For days or weeks, I will read voraciously, of anything that isn't a romance. Adventure, sci-fi, thriller, mystery, horror, what-ever. And then another lull of how-ever long. It's the same way I have been with music. I follow for a time, and then lose track for a longer time.

I really am happy to hear just how pleased you are with your new wheels. But tell me, do you require the goggles, helm and scarf? Or does it mostly remain grounded?

It depends on whether I am in sopwith camel mode or mum mode, later this afternoon I shall be in mum mode as I run Rafe to his drama classes but later this year when I head up to the top end I will definitely require the full rigalia. I am hoping to take the three kids on a road trip to see the Bungle Bungles, lake Argyle and Coral Bay it will take me about 12 days just to reach lake Argyle I think So we look like being away for about 6 weeks I'd say.

I miss reading fiction though I did get four books in over Christmas this year...insert feeling proud of herself smiley here...I think you would find Howards books interesting he's a social scientist who studies intelligence and the diffenert ways there are to be intelligent and how best to use intelligence while Alfie kohn writes a lot on issues relating to education His book punished by rewards and the homework myth are very contreversial as they fly in the face of everything main stream education practices......

I might read more fiction if I could find stuff that was uplifting it doesn't need to be nice stories but when I read a fiction book I want something that inspires me to be more than I presently am, whether that means being more compasionate or having greater integrity which for the most part books just don't seem to go in for anymore....I don't mind pure escapist books but then they have to have really fantastic stories. When I was a kid I would read everybody from Robert Ludlum and Leon Uris thorugh to Agatha Christie and Jane Austen with the odd scifi book thown in for good measure now I tend to go back and read my favourites Like Uncle Toms cabin or To kill a Mockingbird I know I am boring boring boring.

Well Day has definitley broken here and the air is very sharp and over cast I have a ton of boxes on the front verandah I need to finish going through that I was given by a friend of my mums who has just retired from teaching after 30 years...its like goign down memory lane in some cases.....Beth made me laugh the other day when she looked up and said mum do you realise I can now say eight years ago when I am talking and I would have been four and I said why stop there you can now say ten years go and you will have been two she looked up and said yep next stop death...funny how our perception of what old is changes the older we get....my mum told me the other day i was doing too much for someone my age and I burst out laughing for the most part I dont feel any differnet on teh inside than I did when i was eight though i must admit my eight year old body climed trees better than this one

Anyway this is not getting the box sorting done hope you got away ok for your trip

I remember how surprised I was once, relating something that I had done or encountered, and then noted that it was 15 or so years ago. Now, mind you, some of my sillier escapades were 25 and 30 years ago.

And then there was the time that my little girl said that 30 was ancient. I was still 29, and so decided to remain 29 for a lonnnnng time. She was about 8 years old then, but now that her daughter is 8, and she approaches 26 herself though, 30 doesn't seem so old to her.