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

Very very early (probably around 2am) on Monday my dad's car was stolen. It is a bright yellow G-registration Ford Escort. That's the one I'm insured on... The people who took it then drove around a mile and a mile and a half along an old bumpy farm track and cleared most of our stuff out (except the toolbox and one L-plate) onto the mud, very nearly in a farm yard. (A few hours later the herd of cows walked over it all as they went for milking.) The car was then used as a get-away car in a smash-and-grab job on a local jewellry shop, but although the window of the shop was smashed, nothing appears to have been taken, sop they must have been disturbed. Around 2:30am we got a phone call from the police asking if we owned the car, and could we please check outside. This was the first we knew that it had been stolen. It later turned up somewhere in Brighton on Monday afternoon - and NOT as a burnt-out!
The insurance company have no got our car to have the damage valued.

Monday afternoon, someone (possibly BT) dug a hole up our road, and our phoneline went dead, and has since been dead. There was a BT man fiddling with our wires today, but the hole appears to have been filled in, so I don't know when we'll get it back.
I can't get at my e-mail from the school system, so please excuse me not answering....

So what else is going to happen?

Anyway, got to run now, I'm five minutes late for maths...

¦M¦

Sometimes things *can* happen in threes, but most of the time it's just selective categorising... hopefully it will be neither in this case!

Well, the amount of trouble we're having with these two things I hope there isn't a third thing going to happen...

Here's an update:
The police released the car to our insurance people on Tuesday, but yesterday the police rang us to say that they'd forgotten to get forensics to check it over before releasing it, so they want it back. Also, they have found a golf set in the car... now, as none of us have ever been in the slightest interested in golf and none of us have ever owned a golf set, this is particularly interesting. And odd. So we shan't be getting the car back (if at all) for a while longer now...

And as for BT, it has turned out that the hole up the road was dug for them by a sub-contractor, and they managed to get it filled in before the BT guy came out to see us. He had no idea about the hole. So they're assuring my dad (who is being very pushy about the whole thing) that we're top priority and they'll be down today to dig the hole out again...

Anyway, the third thing could well be this: me and a few of the other guys at the club were going to go and shoot on an electronic range next week on Tuesday, but the mobile clubhouse we were going to go in (someone's camper van ) has sprung a leak, and we may not be able to go after all... unfortunately I need to shoot an assessment for the Squad, and I was relying on having that Tuesday to shoot it on... ah well.

Still, yes, it probably is just selective categorising.

¦M¦

Good good... I knew you'd come around to my way of thinking

Let me know how things go, okay?

No email???

And my main reason for coming online was to send you an email!

I'll send you one anyway, and just say an (early) Happy Birthday here!

Oh... a simpost!

It must've been a while since you've had one of them Ottox

Hey yeah, good point... no reason not to start the celebration a few hours early

Since I probably (surely) won't be here tomorrow...

Oh, you remembered! Thank you!
*doesn't go to thread until tomorrow*

OK, another update:
The insurance have announced that the car is a write-off, but have offered us an amount that is actually about what the car was worth! The reason it is a write-off is that the engine is making funny noises which cannot be located, and the steering wheel keeps falling off. The police, who have now got the car back, have discovered a lot more articles in the car which do not belong to us (and also our toolbox ) which includes: three concrete garden ornaments in the shape of an elephant, a buddha, and a windmill with only one sail, an assortment of several car radios and CD players, and a loaf of bread, as well as the set of golf clubs I mentioned earlier. These thiefs are strange.

BT have finally sorted out our phone line!

And we can't go up to Bisley after all now, as the camper van definitely has a bad leak and has gone in to be serviced...

¦M¦

My life.. And here's me wondering why prof's forums are empty of replies from Ming (Or indeed, prof - wonder if he's having a trio of problems too? Well, let's hope not )

On the subejct of BT messing up your phoneline,

a) Get broadband :P
b) The green box on our street for cable has a fault, and has done since last sunday. When we phoned 'Customer Services' up, (The day after, them being closed on sundays) they told us there'd be an engineer out to fix it the next day. (Tuesday) this is now Thursday, and still no sign of any engineers, so we're without a phoneline too. (Although I was organised and got broadband way back in advabce )

And yes, these theives are strange. Very strange indeed - stealing concrete elephants and a loaf of bread? What are they, Gibbons?

I'm glad to hear your phone line is back on now How far is Brighton from that place where you live, Ming?

Prof keeps w*rking, that's his problem...

a) it hasn't reached the desolute town in which I live, and this computer probably couldn't bope with it anyway.
b) phone BT again.

Brighton is about half an hour away driving at and below the speed limit.

¦M¦

Errr... actually, the computer couldn't cope with it...

And there is a further update: there was also someone's AA membership card found in the car. We're members of the RAC, not the AA.

¦M¦

I think this may be the single oddest case of car-theft I've ever heard about...

I think so too. So odd, in fact, I'm writing an entry about it that I'll ask Shazz if she wants it in The Post.

¦M¦

Oooo, Ming the reporter!

I don't make a very good one I'm afraid.

¦M¦

Oh, so you'll be a columnist then

Nah, I'm bad at that too.

¦M¦

You don't mean you'll sink so far as to write Editorials??

Nope.
Anyway, I'm going home, and next week is a holiday from school, so if BT have done something stupid like cut us off again, I shan't be online at all for quite a while... so I do apologise if I'm not online, but blame BT.

¦M¦