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

I can't believe you have such big boys! I'm embarrased to say that I still believe you are about 23, and go to uni... I know it's wrong, but my mind is stubborn.

My god, my son has only 8.5 kg and wears clothes which they say are for babies 3-4 months younger than he is! (He seems to be perfectly in time in all other respects)

I don't think I mentioned that I finally got a real job. I'm a staff accountant for a manufacturing firm experiencing a major growth spurt. So, ~finally~, my financial future is looking up.

It's fascinating how such differences are all pretty normal in kids
Witty, that's great news! I hope you are happy at work too, with good colleagues and management!

Congratulations Witty!

That is so frustrating for you, Milla, when you are no longer recognised by a system. What makes it particularly annoying is that lots of other people would like to be forgotten, but the system doesn't let them!

In this case, it's important to cut off access when people leave (data theft and so on) but the bureaucracy of getting access back is staggering!

You may like to know that I was spurred on to do something about the brambles and nettles behind the shed, so yesterday afternoon I donned gloves, long sleeves and willies, and with a pair of secateurs I managed to clear the whole patch! I have a few ouchies on my hands today, but it was most therapeutic.

Well done! Brambles are a big hate of mine! I have a few that I try to keep away, but the roots seem old and established...

I finally had a fairly productive day at work! Of course, it meant spending all morning wrestling IT systems, and hassling Servicedesk staff, but I now have a functioning laptop and access to email, various other systems, and internet.
Also managed to update a bunch of documents and send them on electronic approval rounds (yay for not printing and chasing ink signatures!)
Of course, one wonders why hours at consultant rate cost should be spent on getting access and stuff, rather than getting it prepared the week before I arrived, but hey. At least I can work there now.

Yay™

Have fun w*rking

I brambles - provided that we are talking about the wild growing berries. My sister just brought me a jar of bramble jam. Mighty good with pancakes it is

I'm not a big fan of picking brambles, though. I remember being a small boy picking lovely tasting ripe brambles and suddenly realizing that I was standing in the middle of an hill. When I looked down I saw that the lower three quarters of my body was covered in huge angry

I shrieked with terror very loudly and ran to my mother who quickly brushed off all the big nasty

I have been wary of bramble bushes ever since - but the experience never managed to taint my for the taste

Don't have brambles locally, instead:

http://www.google.com/search?q=cactus+apples+edible,+images&newwindow=1&client=tablet-android-verizon&espv=1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CEQQ7AlqFQoTCIeWj7OyuscCFcKkiAodMSQNZw&biw=962&bih=601#imgrc=C7MCkgrDwyPBwM%3A

if the birds and squirrels don't get to them first.

Oh it's tasty! But I still don't want them in my garden!

I meant the brambles.
How do the cactus fruit taste? And where do you live, to grow them?

Taken fresh, tuna cactus apples like those pictured taste rather like a melon.

In the form of preserves, they taste rather like a berry.

They're also dangerously spiny, though there are many cactus fruits that are spineless.




I'm in the Coachella Valley, about 50 miles east of Palm Springs, ten miles north of Imperial County.

The Coachella Valley is the Riverside County extension of the Imperial Valley.

It merely changes its name at the county line.

Looks like mostly desert and golf courses there! Google earth is a magic thing. I suppose you know how to handle your water there? We've had a couple of dry and windy weeks, so the fire hazard is big, but there's no lack of water in the low ground. Yet.

We're in a drought emergency here, as almost everywhere on the American west coast.

Most of the local water is derived from the Colorado River system.

I'm current keeping my own water turned off at the meter except when I'm
using it.




Besides the resort cities, this is also a major agricultural area, signature cash crop, dates, and is part of the Imperial Valley system, reckoned the most productive agricultural district in the USA.

Quite a lot of the local environment is still wilderness.

I'm in a modestly developed desert wilderness area.




On fire issues, the local hazard is extremely low, wildfires don't spread readily in the local desert conditions except in desert dune grass growths following exceptionally wet rainy seasons.

Perhaps one year in twenty produces a hazard tbat way.

On the other hand, for the last three years, air quality has been horrible, especially March through June on account of wildfires in the greater San Bernardino area.




So. Milla, where in the world are you located?

I'm in Lund, the very south of Sweden
It's a university town now, founded by Sven Forkbeard (in 990), who went on to England to found other cities.
Lots of farmland just outside town, best soils in the country. So each time they expand the towns, there are outcries!

ITIWBS, you wouldn't happen to live on Covington Drive at the second house on the right past Hillcrest Drive would you? When I searched Google Maps for "Coachella Valley" it pointed me to a specific house.

http://www.google.com/maps/place/Coachella+Valley,+Palm+Desert,+CA+92211/@33.7666873,-116.3591772,672m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x80dafc5a94382c97:0x6c5f41e6f2b7596d!6m1!1e1

I just zoomed out. Holy Snacks! There are a lot of golf courses in Palm Springs. I knew it was famous for golf, but I just assumed they had one really terrific golf course, like Pebble Beach and maybe a couple of others.

I'm now quite disgusted by the existence of Palm Springs.