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

I always wonder what my parents say too. One of my siblings is a hotshot academic, although no-one can actually explain what it is that she does so I guess it works that way too

Ooops, that was a strange with anhaga.

It was scary how intense my parents were about monetry ambition. Whenever my dad got promotion we had a special meal. And we nearly went to Canada at one point...apparently if he didn't get promotion...he did obviously.

My earliest memories from about the age of 3 was of him studying for his Accountancy exams. I so wanted him to play with me..but oh no...

I discovered only recently that my father had been accepted to a fairly prestigious university when he was young but decided not to attend because . . .





they didn't let freshmen play on the football team!



My two older brothers attended university intermittently but never completed a degree.

I was the first of my family *ever* to finish a university degree. In the next generation three of six have graduated.



The recent discovery that my father had chosen business over university (because if he had to wait a year to play football he'd rather just give up football completely) certainly helps me to understand why it is he was so supportive of my university career while inevitably greeting each scholarly publication with 'do you get paid for that?'


'I so wanted him to play with me..but oh no'


Almost every evening of summer for years I have played with my neighbour's kids (and other neighbourhood kids) outside. The two oldest ones have outgrown it a little but the third (she's twelve now) is still hanging on. This evening we were playing catch. What I find sad is that her father comes out as well and he and I chat and laugh and share beer while *I* play catch with *his* kid. He's so stiff and distant with them! But, I've learned from talking with him and with his wife, that his parents were the same with him while he was growing up and so, he is simply unable to relax and be childlike with his children.

I find it truly tragic.

I think I've become their worst nightmare as a child going down in the world

Hey it's good to talk about this stuff here.

I really, really have to go to sleep.

>One of my siblings is a hotshot academic, although no-one can actually explain what it is that she does ,

...That's probably what my brother says about me, kea..

But if only we'd stayed living in Barming (yes it was called Barming)..I'd have been normal.

I can't remember my parents ever actually playing with me either. They did things with us, like taking us for hikes through the countryside.

Oh, my mother taught me chess at one time, but she _never_ let me win. Ever. I hate chess. ( I mean I was about 6 and she never hinted when I could have had a good move)

I just learned from that there is no point in competition. I'm terrible at anything like that now, I just give up.


Did you stay awake all night Sleeting? Please don't fret too much.

Yep alnight.

My dad drummed it into me that you win at all costs. It caused me a lot of problems at the Grammar..because although they loved us winning lots of matches and cups in sport..you were meant to be ladylike. The teachers were middle class/upper..but we pupils lower middle/working class.

Yeah competition is something I still enjoy...but it's just one thing you can enjoy.

My parents were that way because they were desperate to escape poverty.

here's a link to that famous Larkin poem.

I won't quote in case it gets modded. But I'm sure we all know it anyway.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178055


I must get coffee . . . back in a bit

I'm pretty familiar with poetry but not that one...

But yes

I haven't had kids.

A very wise move I think.

ha ha - someone told it me after meeting my mother.

At school we were advised to steer clear of Larkin....too depressing apparently.

I feel like I'm all posted out..and could sleep for a week.

I'd love to dream of that time before i was 7..and ran pretty much wild in the countryside.

But probably see you all later..

Just been violently sick. This honesty stuff is hard going for the psyche.

It's hopefully okay to talk about here though.

You sound like you need to lie down awhile. I'd pop round with chicken soup if I was close

Drink something that will settle your tummy and find a nice soft pillow for a while. We'll be here later! Promise.


G'Night!

and for sleeting

And, Taff, you'd make an absolutely fabulus village Idiot someday... as would I... just think; There are probably a pair of villages out there somewhere, just crying out for us to turn up and be stupid for them on their behalf

The no news/scilence from the BBC, isn't I think probably entirely their own fault... Its probably not what the Italics would want to have to do; I think the BBC is having to be ultra ultra careful with the disposal/sale, - the BBC in its broadest sense has come under a lot of flack in the media over various things over the years, and I guess with a lot of the sale stuff its all having to be filtered through a gaggle of solicitors and barasters to the umpteenth degree; I imagine one thing their desperately trying to avoid is the red-top headline 'BBC sells valuable online assets for £1...", or some such...
We're all feeling very and about this, especially those like me who're prevaledged to a bit more information due to teh H2g2c2 thing, but which ourselves are unable to necessarily say as much as we'd like, prefer and certainly which the wider ocmmunity would prefer... doing so would likely as not stand a good chance of screwing up waht has been done so far; both by the h2g2c2 group, but perhaps more importantly what the wider community has done, in terms of contributing to all the conversations regarding the sale and the newhootoo....

oo Sleeting!; lets both find a suitable field and go run through it as if we were 7 again, it just sounds a fabulus idea!
h2g2 has taken me through two degrees, including one awful awful time when I was doing my Masters, its taken me from a person just out of their teenager years, to someone now approaching middle age (but acting more and more like a teenager each day so it seems ), its taken me through coming out... and even a cursory glance through my mind shows that with very rare exception the majority of people who I call 'friends' these days are people I've met through the h2g2 community... I think 'devistating' would not come close to describing waht I'd feel were we to loose it forever... but we're not... no way...

I'm just lucky at the moment, whilst this is all goine on, to have something... someone who's distracting me nicely from it all

I wonder if you can get a diploma or graduate degree in village idiotocy ... might be worht me considering a bit of a career change...

I agree, it's never too late to have a happy childhood (said the great Tom Robbins). Find that field where-ever you need to (and get some sleep!).