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

Dispose of all unnecessary belongings: check.
Pack everything into a big van: check.
Find nice house in a 'foreign' land: check.
Get the stuff from a to b: check.
Put the nippers into new school: check.
Work out how Jersey traffic lights and give-way signs work: check.
Organise the contents of the house: check.
Notify the Inland Revenue of 'elvis' status: check.
Get new social security number: check.
Spend lots of time on beach: check.

... and, err, ...

Work out what to do with all this extra time: hmmmm. Difficult.


Finding a new routine has been the hardest thing to do. Even as I sit here typing this, I wonder if it would be best to go and do something else. Not sure what, but, something else.

It's not that I've forgotten about hootoo. Or that I'm taking it for granted. But being 'stranded' on an island with the missus and nippers is the best:

Check my email? Read some posts? Write a journal? I'd much rather sit and have another cuppa with the missus and just, well, talk about stuff. Or help youngest nipper clean out the gerbils. Or talk to eldest nipper about electric guitars. Or have another cuppa with the missus. Or walk the dog on the beach. Or play scalextric. Or have another cuppa. Or colour-code the recycle bins and bags. Or search out the best seaside easting establishment. Or find all the odd socks. Or - have I mentioned - have another cuppa.

As I said two weeks ago: Normal service will be resumed shortly. "Just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway. Thank you."

I haven't forgotten about you all. I'm writing some entries in my head and just need to type them up. Just as soon as I've had another cuppa with the missus.



Paff

Good to hear from you! Can't you get online at work? That would solve your dilemmas.

Say hello to my dad's cousin Elaine if you see her.

I imagine you're enjoying to be able to spend time with the family, so don't worry about us. I'll still leave you the odd message now and then, asking for your 'howabouts'.

I presume you haven't forgotten my earlier advice that all cuppas taste best in the shower...

I read posts like this and curse my single status

>>Say hello to my dad's cousin<< Yes, there are only 80 people on Jersey, so I'm sure to bump into any relatives you might have . ( or is it 80,000 I never can remember.)

>>get online at work<< I have considered that, but at the moment I've been spending lunch breaks coming home and having a cuppa with the missus. A habit I'm trying to get out of I must admit.

>>all cuppas taste best in the shower<< I must run this idea past the missus .


Oh, and from the other journal entry...
>>How is the dog taking it?<< The dog is loving it too. He's still not particularly obedient at a distance. But whereas on Dartmoor he might be over the next hill chasing sheep for all I would know, here he's on a flat beach where I can at least _see_ him half a mile away chasing some other dog's tennis ball.

I'm sure you'll soon find a routine you're comfortable with.

Oh, and before I forget: Post deadline is this Sunday, in case you planned writing something.

Your wife must love having you around so much more! After a while she'll be sick of you hanging around all the time and will want you to clear off out of the way so she can get on with things, and you'll come crawling back to us.

And of course we'll be waiting with open arms!

And there goes another week.

Oh yes, I'll come crawling back at some point. Bel, I did take your deadline to heart (as we say in the Paff family: "there's nothing like a good deadline"). But by Saturday evening it had turned into a stress, so my Post article is still half written . I guess that gives me another 2 weeks to get on with it...

Don't worry about it, and sorry if my reminder put you under stress, this wasn't my intention at all.

Don't worry about the stress Bel, twas all my own doing. There's nothing wrong with a friendly reminder

I've written an extra paragraph now, but I'm a bit worried that it's now just a bunch of sentences on the same page with nothing in common. I need some thing to glue them together. I suspect I'll 'cement' them together actually (as you may see soon, I hope!)

I'll look forward to reading it - but remember: no rush.

Pressure him, Bel! Don't let him off the hook. I sense his fear

It might well be fear you sense . However, it's turned into fear of this thread. This journal is like a clock, ticking away at the unsteady rate of around 3 posts every week or two, relentlessly marking the time that has passed since I decided I ought to be getting back. Watching this thread go by is starting to get me down (and I've got this terrible pain in the diodes down my left side ).

On the other hand, I've just yesterday finished the arduous task of visiting every beach on Jersey so we know which ones are good, which ones are great, and which ones are just plain nice.

But that doesn't help with all the stuff going round in my head. If I could sit infront of a keyboard for a few hours I could write pages about all sorts of stuff. I've even got an entry with a sub-ed which needs a tweak of around two sentences before it can get properly in the queue for the FP and I can't even get round to that.


See you all back here in another two weeks then?

Paff

Nooo, you can't do that - you'll miss tomorrow's deadline.

If you don't feel like hootoo, or don't have/find the time, it will just have to wait.

Yep, RL comes first - always. Don't feel guilty about us *sniff* or you'll stay away longer. No doubt we'll still be here

And there goes another 3 weeks. Hello again folks. I'm still scared of this thread. I'm experimenting with starting some new journals, just to get myself writing some things on here.

I am, however, feeling guilty about turning up and writing stuff without even popping into any PSs to check how any of you folk are doing. And if I have lurked in a journal or two, I've been too embarrassed to post, having been 'away' for so long.

I'd even go as far as saying I feel like a bit of a newbie. When I said "normal service will be resumed" back in Feb/March/whenever, I seriously didn't expect to still be here 3 months later posting drivel about not getting round to popping back in here.

You're always welcome to post in any of my silly journals if you feel like it and read them in the first place.

Have you at least seen the Meet photos and read the meet reports in <./>ThePost</.>?

Don't be scared, no shotguns too! I always liked h2g2 best because it would always be here no matter how long I stayed away.

Sometimes I come back after as much as a whole HOUR and people still remember me and want to welcome me back.

'Sometimes I come back after as much as a whole HOUR and people still remember me and want to welcome me back'

I don't believe that for a moment. Well, I suppose we remember you, but...