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

sorry I did not get to say Bon Voyage before you departed!

Yup, with one bound he was up and away - I'll pass the message on when/if I see him. How's your move planning going?

well my packing has been disrupted by a bout of illness - so I have Saturday to do it all in! Oh well!

Sorry I'm too far away to help. My husband used to say he'd married me because I could pack a house in 24 hours. (I proved it for friends who were given 24 hours to leave the country) Ultimately this wasn't enough to stop him packing up, but that's another story. I hope you've got that bunch of strong and helpful friends around to do most of it for you. Just sit there and languidly pass out the drinks and waft your hand towards the room that the labelled boxes are supposed to go to. Hugs

Cheers - its absolutely great so far...

I hope you are writing us some guide entries!

It's a bit tricky getting any meaningful time on the net here - many people, few connections.

Have done a short update to the "Great Wall" article of Wandrin'Star and have ideas for bits on "The Summer Palace" and "The wave-particle duality of Beijing traffic"

Must dash....there are nearly four people on my left knee

You are on holiday!! The fact you are logging onto h2g2 at all smacks of some kind of addiction

Addiction - yes and no, I suppose. I have no "hotmail" or similar address set up so this is the quickest and easiest way for me to let all concerned that my bout of "the China Syndrome" has cleared up and that I am in fair fettle. .

yeah yeah that is what they all say!

Sickening isn't it? He definitely left Hong Kong in a fever
They seem to be doing a backpackers tour by limo. Last time he went to Xian (with me, his brother and an honorary sister) we did bits of hard seat trains,lots of walking, out to the TerraCotta warriors by wheezy bus and cycling on equally ancient bikes. Don't know if I'm jealous or not. he's certainly getting better pictures of Chinese roofs than I ever did.

Well, yesterday I ploughed a field with a water buffalo and was massaged by a blind man - two firsts for the "things I've never done before" list were not this internet connection so slow and tai gwai .

Also - we have saved all our hardship for last..a massive 14 hour bus trip to Guangzhou. Worse for Christina than me as she doesn't like reading on moving vehicles....we might have to invest in some of that new fangled portable CD player technology the young folks are raving about .

The phrase for this holiday seems to be "hello, you look, how much?" which is some sort of bargaining ritual, I'm told. One stallholder was quite amused by me bargaining for her plastic chains that held the clothes display....but it didn't stop her driving a brutally hard bargain..nearly 50p more than I think I should have paid