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

O.K. Helen,

You go and enjoy your day and offer up a prayer for this poor old fool and his troubles!

I shall try to write my verse and we shall talk next week or whenever about what we have or have not achieved.

Agreed?

Ron

morning Ron -

how are you? - just a quickie here - what's the title of your piece that you had selected for the Edited Guide? that'll make my search through your space quick and easy - and I can get onto reading it -

I've been scrawling in my notebook all weekend - lots of coloured fragments, held together with pen and ink scratchy designs -

nothing that I would submit as poetry ---- the Muse has turned surreal on me -

saw you'd joined the Collective - I joined it a few days ago, after being inspired by Blue Bird's posting - I think the Collective is a brilliant magazine - I already got involved in two conversatons, about the William Burroughs exhibition and the Arena programme last week about Bob Dylan -

anyway, if you have a moment, send us the title of your work and I shall peruse

take care Ron

Helen

Hi Helen,

My one Edited Guide Entry is called:

'Living with a Gastrectomy: One Researcher's Experience'.

It is easy to access if you scroll down in my Personal Space and click on
the title there... the 'top' version, which is noted there as the Edited edition.

I have'nt written my intended verse either; trying to drum up my flagging enthusiasm, with little success it seems!

Ron

- in short, Ron, reading 'Living with a Gastrectomy' was, for me, a moving, insightful, informative, awakening, rewarding experience.

I think your writing style is pure, concise, and unhindered by fancy deviation - the work of an informed and highly intelligent writer.

I think you are really courageous to write this piece, and you'd be one of the first people I would write to if I developed an illness - I would feel I could talk to you.

So there. -- oh, and thank you. I mean that.

I know you are dis-heartened with h2g2 at the moment - do you feel there's not the kind of subject matter, writing styles, etc - that you can relate to? Is it kind of like a culture shock? I wish I could make you feel happier. You're such an important chap around the site - hope you don't go AWOL - I'd miss you -

I wrote a story in my journal today called The Story of Purple Crow - which won't help you at all, as I suspect you are looking for the more classical style of writing - some fine literature instead of weird psychedelic ramblings from your friends -

however, I hope you find something soon to give you some faith in it all!

thanks again Ron for letting me read your Edited Guide entry - I do feel deepened by it.

speak to you soon

Helen

Helen, dear Helen!

Thank you for your lovely kind and warm words.

I shall always need your friendship (if your husband Chris doesn't object to my intrusion; but I think he must be a kind man, from what you tell me about you both sitting together enjoying a sherry or two each evening, and writing and making music together).

I seem to be 'on the mend' already. My problems are beginning to melt away. Both the troubles within the family, which I love dearly, and those of the structural aspect of our home. Repairs to the latter will cost us only £300, so that's not so bad. And our precious son and his wife and very young family are 'coming back' to us. This is a tremendous relief to both me and Pat.
By the by... if you should take a look at the Cheshire item thread currently near the top, you will see just how I have suddenly found my voice again! So, I'm going nowhere else while you are around to give me a boost into action.
With my utmost thanks and appreciation,

Your friend,

Ron

Hi Helen,

Your 'dream sequence' story is very interesting to read. You have an unusual and refreshingly new personal approach to dream-writing.

I can never remember my nightmares after waking; even immediately after the dream. perhaps I am lucky in that regard.

Although I do remember one nightmare of a few years ago, where a member of my family... I dare not write this... for fear of its materialisation!
I bet you can easily guess what the dream was about! The thing we all fear most in life.

Ron

- I'm really really happy that your house and family problems have resolved and that you and Pat are feeling so much better -

I'll check your Cheshire piece tomorrow! glad you've found your voice again -

phew -

life can continue -

the artists are back at work!

bye Ron

Helen

PS - thanks for understanding my dream brain - so great you're back and around -

by the way, when I went into your space to find your Edited Guide writing, I saw The Purple Badge! Nice one ....Never knew what you meant by the purple badge till today ---

I'll be polite to you for evermore - well, mostly ... well, sometimes ....


H

Just remain as you are Helen, that's good enough for me!

And it doesn't mean that you have to be so polite to me all the time just 'cos I've got a purple nose... I mean badge! I sometimes need a pep-talk to sort me out and put me on the straight and narrow path!
So; whether you are polite... or mostly polite with an occasional bite... or just sometimes polite with even more of a bite... is just fine with this guy!


Ron

someone's in festive mood!

thanks for the !

so glad you are happy again, Ron.

we're just having a sherry right now - cheers - and from Chris also -

so, I have just found my way to your Cheshire pieces, which I am going to peruse in the next day or so, as I am just popping in tonight --

do you ever write articles for magazines? I know a fellow who writes for Devon Life - it struck me, on running my eye over the Cheshire pieces that you might write for your Cheshire equivalent?

anyway, talk to you in the next day or two -

I'm going back into Dreamland - uh-oh, that's ominous. Actually, I'm trying to do some typing for my father, which is driving me nuts - its a very learned discourse on spirituality - good for me - - -?

talk to you soon, my friend

Helen

Friday -

morning Ron -

I think I may have gone quite bonkers - well I know that, but last time I looked into the conversation about the h2g2 writings on places in the UK, I thought I saw your Cheshire pieces - I know I did, as I thought they'd be good for a magazine like Devon Life -

anyway,now I seem to have lost them - I can find the conversation, but I can't find you - - -

it could be that I have a head cold - perhaps I'll try again over the weekend -

anyway, look, don't ever forget what I said to you earlier about your writing - OK OK OK - do you fancy swapping brains for a day? that would be interesting - I could do with being intelligent for a day ---

we are going on a holiday next week - Wednesday to Sunday - off to Brighton for a romantic break, to sit in cafes and visit the strange shops of Brighton Lanes and generally go nowhere and everywhere for a few days -

- but I'll talk to you before then -

apart from my head cold I'm feeling fine and OK - thinking about many things - strange and varied - sometimes get a bit paranoid that I go on too much, but, well, what's life without a sprinkling of paranoia?!

hope all's OK with your house and family

till later - and if you could direct me to Cheshire it would be good (on screen like, as I'm trying to get to Brighton and I'll get confused --)

Helen

Hi Helen,
Just to say I'm back again from Cambridge, at 3.00 pm today!

Sorry for the delay in replying to your postings. I shall read them again and respond either later tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers!

Ron

Helen,

You'll find my Cheshire postings in the thread:


UK Counties & Regions - England - Cheshire.

If you scroll through, you will find two or three postings there.

Talk to you later!


Ron

Cambridge eh? again? good sign! yes --

hullo my friend -

thanks for the directions to Cheshire - having been delayed by a brief bout of fever-flu I shall now have to put all on hold until next week, as on Wednesday (early) we depart on our little holiday to Brighton-sur-Mer - home of anything and everything, and time to breathe the ocean and go completely nowhere - and I have so much to do, and I am moving as slow as a sloth on Christmas Day - - - -

so I shall speak to you next week - - - when I shall be relaxed, unusually interesting and deeply hopeful - - -

matter of fact I am working on a story called 'spider-writer' which is defitely cause for concern and I fear might not further my career in the literary realms in any way whatsoever - - -

however, I have to follow the tail of the and the tale of the Muse

hope all's well with you my friend,

till next week then,

Helen

PS - for 'defitely' read definitely - I blame the vitamin tablets

H

Ron - thanks for being such a support to me -- don't feel quite so skinless now, and am writing, writing, writing -

don't forget you can always challenge me, like saying garden does not rhyme with leaf, or pardon, or thief -

your Cheshire writings are next on my agenda - so I'll be in touch in a day or two -

I'm doing a study course in my hometown, learning some things about semi colons and full stops and maybe even some poetic formats --

I'm going back to refer to that other post from you about starting with a word, keeping it simple, letting it develop etc - people on my study course might think I'm wise, but I'll say Ron told me how --

gotta go for now, speak to you later

Helen

Good Evening Helen; and Chris,

It's great to hear that you are taking a course of study locally, especially if it appeals to you, and you obtain pleasure and greater confidence from your tutor's comments and teachings.

You don't say whether the course is a creative writing class, or just a general English 'revision' programme, from which many of us, including myself, could benefit and learn a few new 'tricks' to improve our punctuation, style, approach and creative abilities.

When you are there, just relax and learn; don't get fearful when he/she asks you to attempt to create a short piece to read out to the other students. Take a long, deep breath and read at a reasonable pace. Don't give a thought, not even a damn about what the other students think.They will be equally apprehensive about their own efforts!

Yes. Start with a single simple word, and develop your piece slowly and deliberately. Watch it blossom, as it surely will!

Ron

how excellent to consider 'The Home County that slipped north' over a fine medium dry -

love the Cheshire series -- now we have both you and that morph fellow, taking us around the world ---

if I stick with you guys, I could be intelligent by 2010, and travelled, without leaving my armchair - - Chris is already intelligent, but loves to learn about different places --

seriously, do you write for the Cheshire equivalent of Devon Life? These writings would be wonderful for it, if there is such a magazine --- Devon Life is one of those lovely shiny magazines - - -

thanks for the tips - yep, gonna need all my resources - both for the class and for a family crisis that is developing and heading straight for me like an express train with its lights on -

its nothing to do with me -- its just in times of trouble, all my family look to me to sort it out ---- its gonna be tough, Ron - have to go to Sussex next weekend, and hope I won't be detained for too long, else I'll have to buy a laptop ---

my writing is really going to help - today I took a blank sheet, wrote chaos in the middle of it and watched what developed - you're a hero! it really works! its kind of like the mandala principle - start at the centre and move out -

gotta go my friend

talk to you later

Helen

Hi Helen,

No, unfortunately I don't write for 'Cheshire Life', which is the premier magazine in the county. It has the choice of all the best writers in the county, you see; and I don't figure amongst them!
It is a superb publication, which always has the best photographic records of the lives of 'The Great and the Good' of the county: the 'Cheshire Set' as they are often referred to as being. The Cheshire Hunt Ball, and such-like events, at posh venues in the county.

Speak to you later, A TV programme calls for my attention!

Ron

hullo Ron my friend - I encrypted my journal entry and our other conversation - simply because my niece has decided that she wants to be a writer and wants to study the work of her Aunty -

hmm - I think I'm going to encrypt all my work ---I have a reputation to protect - - - -

I've worked really really really hard in the last few days, on the task that I had to face - - - - - out of hard work comes headache, heartache, honey and hazy hope -----

hope you're well - - I am, never better


Helen