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

At lunchtime today I went out to go to a book signing by one of my favourite authors. When I got to the shop nothing was happening. I asked and was told the signing had been cancelled weeks ago, and that they'sd put notices up (and had since taken them down). Oh well.
To make sure it wasn't a wasted journey I went over the road and spent the money I would have bought books with on more music instead.

Sorry to hear about this. I dropped in on your page because I was going to ask what he was like. Did they give a reason why he cancelled?
What music did you buy? Perhaps we can listen to it on the tour bus.

I didn't ask for the reason as I was slightly peeved at having gone up there and it not going on. Oh well some other time hopefully.

The music I got is a bunch of different stuff, Sonique, Hybrid, Belle and Sebastian, Handsome Boy Modelling School and Asian Dub Foundation singles. Some quite different styles there in that lot

I'd better start thinking where the tour can go next as well.

I think I would have been a bit more than 'slightly peeved'!
Do you mean the tour itinery has not been written? Well, why not take us to some mountains? /\ /\ /\ (Do you remember when Belle and Sebastian was a just a TV series, or are you far too young. )

Of course the tour itinery isn't written It always seems for the best just to go somewhere and see what happens...

I think I'm a bit too young for the Belle and Sebastian TV series, but do tell

My recall is a bit hazy, due to my advanced years! (I can almost see the brain cells dying!) It was a dubbed foreign children's series from France, or Switzerland I think. One of them was a shaggy white dog the other was a small child. It was set in the mountains. / \ /
I expect if we 'asked h2g2' we would find someone who knew more.

I was going to suggest something about a small child and dog, cartoon thing. Now which was wich. I'll have to go to the great tome of the internet and find out

I'm so ancient, I remember when there were test transmissions on BBC 2 before it started. 'The Red Balloon' was one of them, which I then saw as a play at the National Theatre about 3 years ago. (I do know you have no TV now, and if mine broke it would be at least a week before I noticed, but back then it was _the_ thing. There were people in my class who didn't have a TV!)

Actually, I think you will find on your trawl through the web that B+S was acted by real people before it was a cartoon.
*sips Sanatogen and remembers how things were so much cheaper in 'old money'*

Old money, LSD anyone

I sort of remember a cartoon thing by that name, but didn't know what went before it.

I can remember when you'd get the testcard on BBC2 before all day transmissions, and the hoo-ha when breakfast TV started. Does BBC1 still lay the national anthem before closedown - does it still have closedown, or is it all 24 hours?
The first TV i can remember the family having was this great big B&W thing, in it's own (probably for the time) taseful wooden case with doors on. One thing I can remember about it was that it was a dial tuner and my dad had put marks on for where the channels could be found

Did you get to visit the exhibition at the Imperial War Museum called 'From the Bomb to the Beatles'? It was a real 'trip down memory lane' for me. It had those tellys you recall, but I remember very small screens, and the disappearing white dot. I also remember everyone getting together to watch the '66 world cup, although I was quite a small fish then.
TV is 24 hours with no national anthem anymore. Mostly rubbish on, BUT.... I did see a coelacanth this evening in a prog about the LOCH NESS monster.


(Mumbles about decline of nation since National Service was abolished etc etc.)
It's no use, I am doomed to shop in B+Q on a Wednesday now!

I thought about going to that exhibition to see what it was like in the `olden' days

The disapearing white dot, how long was it around for, where did it go, what did it do while you were watching the tv. These are trhe questions nobody answered that needed answering

Cool about the Coelacanth on TV.

Talking of B&Q how's the moving coming along? Let's see. You're moving, I've a couple of friends who moved to Guernsey a few weeks back. Another couple of friends have announced they're moving from Birmingham to Branston. Yet another friend will be moving to Kent (from Norwich) to start a new job in september. Seems like it's one of those everybody up and change places summers.

Some links to info on Belle and Sebastian, tv show, NOT scottish indie pop band...

http://tv.cream.org/arkb1.htm
[Broken link removed by Moderator]
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Studio/8390/bas.htm

hope that helps get you moving on the nostalgia front some more

Great minds etc!
I remembered posting this page up in a forum before, and thought you would like it. I came here to tell you about it, and you've been here first.
Although it has no link to B+S it's a good place to get lost in for a while.
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/1011/
I'll be off to look at your links soon.
As for the move thing, all seems to be going well. I've had confirmation that Sunshine and Moonlight have places at the school too, after they took exams. I think my house is sold, and I've put an offer in on a small shoebox in Hampshire, which I am taking Sunshine and Moonlight to see during Half Term. It will only be home for the first year there, after which I hope to have an increase in time, pay etc. I will know the area better too. Full time staff can rent a property in the school grounds, but at the moment I don't know if I'd like that kind of whole committment to a job. I like time that no one else owns.
Everyone on the move? There's a few of use going at work, but teaching is like that really. It's a job that can take you anywhere if you want that. Everyone keeps telling me this will be a 'new start' etc, but to tell the truth, I've had far to many of those, and would really like to stop now.
Where in Kent are your friends moving to?
I'm up very early I know. Woken by the rain. Off to the BBC Food Show at Olympia today, if I can find it. This is not as easy as it sounds as I am some what directionally challenged, and I am always amazed when I find places. However, I insist on driving everywhere so the getting lost unsettles passengers, especially in central London. I have no problem with driving there, just finding places! I swear they move the Barbican regularly (have you noticed the roadworks and the temporary signs?)

Just finished wallowing in nostalgia. Thanks for the links. Not so much about the black and white 60’s TV series, but I was right about France. Just got the wrong side of it, Spain not Switzerland. Amazing thing, memory!
I realise that to you the 60’s is just something old people talk about in the Post Office queue or on their trips to B+Q, but hey – I was there for all of it bar the first 6 months!

Since we now know so much about Belle and Sebastian, why don’t we write a Guide Entry? We are supposed to be researchers after all. We could edit via e mail and then submit it.

Good to hear that your two have places. Hope they like the place you're taking them to. I'm sure that you've been in these `I'll just stay here for a year' place for longer than you expect though - it's why I'm still living where I am after a couple of years Making sure that my time is my own is something I feel strongly about as well. Working where I am now, it's easy to log in and do stuff from home and I'm not keen on that.
My friend is moving to somewhere near Dartford. He's a teacher as well and is moving into doing inclusion work which is what he wants to be doing.

By the time you read this, you'll have driven up to London, found Olympia and been to the food show. Did you have fun? Pick up any usefull tips and all that. Not driving I tend not to notice when they put diversions and roadworks in the way.

Guess the people who wrote those articles more like my age than yours and so remember the cartoon rather than the B&W series from before that.
As for the 60's comment, I can remember some of the 70's, but not all...

I have indeed been to Olympia and back. This in itself is a major achievement, but I found that it was in exactly the same place as the last time I went there, which was helpful. I often have this problem - for example, on my last visit to the Thames Flood Barrier it had moved from the place it was in when I went before. People don't believe me, but it happens far too often for there to be any other credible explanation.
Driving in torrential rain was not much fun, but the exhibition was rull of top TV chefs. I won't name them because you don't have TV but it was a day out for Sunshine really. She adores cookery programmes and has to spend Half Term revising for end of year exams, so I though she would like it, and I was right.
However, the highlight of the day was driving home and listening to the match commentary. I live a mile away from the Gillingham stadium, so you can imagine the noise in the streets this evening. In fact the whole town has been a great place to be this week, even if you know less than nothing about football.

BTW, last day of 'Bomb to Beatles' is tomorrow 29th May.

I might just go and have a look at that tomorrow (monday 2000-05-29) then.
Good to hear Olympia hasn't moved (though by the time I leave the great british beer festival, I could think it might have ) and that you and Sunshine enjoyed yourselves.
Gillingham, I'll say nothing about being a Man City supporter then
I used to live quite close to the football ground when I was in Swindon and got all the supporters walking up and down in front of the house back then, ah yes I remember it well...

I don't live near enough to the ground for it to be any nuisance, but the whole town has just been in a state of excitement all week. Today there is a parade and reception. As I said, I know nothing about football, but it's just a happy place to be this week. At the food show (which had large areas devoted to beer and wine too) one of the TV celebs did his demonstration in a Gills shirt and scarf, which surprised me, as I though it was only a local thing. But we made the national news.
(I'm trying to remember why I have been to Swindon. AH! Yes)
I drove to Swindon once just to visit the art gallery. Sunshine was doing Lowry at school, and there wasn't a single one on display in London. So I rang round the country and found Swindon had one. Later that year there was a big Lowry auction at Sotheby's so we went to see the preview. (This is an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon by the way. We've been back for several viewings since, including all the Rock and Pop memorabilia such as original Beatles lyrics).
Enjoy the IWM if you make it. I get very lost in the tunnels downstairs and find it quite disorientating. Either that or they move them around between my visits....