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

Oh!


Was it one of your Beta characters?

No - before school graduation, we had frequent "dress up days" in my year - and had one day where we were all to come as the opposite sex.

I made a moustache and goateee out of my own hair , and borrowed my stepdad's suit.

We had two totally macho Italians who came in miniskirts, heels, and fishnet stockings... It was hilarious. Especially when the construction workers at the house opposite the school whistled after them.

Oh! Very Good!!

See a psychiatrist? Okay, err, you do have these lumps, it's not in your imagination is it?
I though we had issues at times with the NHS here but blimey, seems like there are issues abroad too.

with it all. Lets hope someone sorts it soon.

Surely in one of your battle re-enactments, you could find someone a little handy with a broadsword to dispatch the pesky lumps? Just have to hope said sword wielder wasn't too enthusiastic about what to take off

before javelin arrives from across the channel

Oh, for pete's sake, Mala. You tell the tale in such an amusing manner, but really, what a crock. Every time I hear a story like yours, I am reminded how lucky I am to have access to good medical care.

Surely they can come up with something better than "we don't want to run that test, and you can't make us "?

And even if the lumps *were* psychosomatic, which seems unlikely but whatever, one can consider the option.... well, one of those doctors can surely figure it out and find a way to treat them.

I'm sorry you have to go through all of this, even if it does mean you tell a wonderfully funny story afterward.

<>



I've seen your pic too, in London, the absent friends gallery. 'Twas even in the Post Caption Photo contest (part of the photo)

I was being turned into a lolcat?

(Seriously, I was only joking!)

And that's a good summary of the situation, PC

Mala

...I thought we lived in a country that is developped quite well, but I start to doubt....

That's because we converse in English all the time. We think in English, so we get their treatment, because this really does sound like the English NHS.

brilliant theory!

Does that mean if everyone in England starts speaking German they'll get our health-care system?

This is getting alarming. I'm on the periphery of the UK and my German is crap. I hope I don't get ill.

So by inference, I can get better health care if my grammar improves?

Maybe we have to speak Denglish for it to truly work properly.

No wonder it's not working, then!

Have any of you tried speaking Newfinese? That peculiar accent known only to Newfoundlanders, a blend of olde Engerlish, Scottish and Irish. With a lot of harsh world and reality blended in.

Beware, it is spoken slightly faster than modern Oirish. My wife can only talk on the phone with my daughter briefly before she loses the plot.

I've tried it, Nick. Well, not speaking it, but speaking English while my interlocutor spoke Newfinese. A bit like speaking Spanish to an Italian, but we got there in the end.

And as for the fiddle style...

I lived there for four years, and was surprised to absorb and speak the same patter in a very short time. Including the slang. Now when I visit or phone, I slip right back into it. Not the fiddling though, I just ain't got that much music in me.

I guess I kind of absorb the regional accents and ways of everywhere I live, so that the upshot is a non-descript accent. I have spoken with many folks in the UK, Europe, Down-Under and the USA. None can really 'label' me by my accent. And when we visited the other side of the pond last year, many folks asked Milady where in the USA she was from ... but never asked where I hailed from.