16:30 Jeg
hopper op på min kondicykel og cykler 6 miles (10 km) – hurra! Jeg ved nu
endelig, at jeg kan blive rask igen!
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger aftenen på at lytte til radio og se lidt fjernsyn.
Først tænder vi for radio og høre et interessant program: Saturday Review på
BBC Radio 4.
Jeg må
indrømme, at vi sjældent høre denne slags program, fordi de for det meste
diskuterer film, vi ikke har set og aldrig vil se; bøger vi ikke har læst og
aldrig vil læse, udstillinger (som regel i London), som vi aldrig vil besøge
osv.
Men vi gør en
undtagelse i aften, fordi de ifølge Radio Times skal diskutere en film, som vi
allerede har set i Australien: den new zealandske film ”Hunt for the
Wilderpeople”, som vi så i en pæn og ren biograf – Grand Cinemas, i Currambine,
en lille forstad til Perth.
Vi går
sjældent i biografen i England, men vi så faktisk to film i Australien,
herunder ”Hunt for the Wilderpeople”, som vi meget nød, efter vi havde vænnet
ørerne til den new zealandske accent.
Biografer er hyggelige
i Australien. Vi opdagede, at det regner ikke ret meget i Australien, men når
det regner, er der tendens til at regne kraftigt. Men det regnede faktisk
engang imellem, og Lois og jeg havde lyst til at give Francis, vores svigersøn,
nogen alenetid med sine 3-årige tvillinger, så derfor gik vi i biografen.
Vi ville
opleve australske biografer, og jeg har fundet, at man aldrig glemmer film, man
har set i udlandet. Jeg kan tydeligt huske, den film Lois og jeg så ude på
landet i Norge i 1972 ”Girl on a Motorcycle”, i en lille norske biograf, hvor
publikummet sad på træbænke – uha! Man kunne ikke glide over i søvn midt i
filmen, hvilket jeg nogle tider gør i England – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!
20:00 Vi
slukker for radioen og tænder for fjernsynet. De viser en interessant
dokumentarfilm, der handler om de skibe, der blev bygget i Glasgow, i midten af
det 19. århundrede, kun for at hjælpe sydstaterne i den amerikanske borgerkrig,
ved at bryde den føderale blokade.
Selvom
Storbritannien var officielt neutral i krigen, havde den britiske regering
dengang ingen beføjelser til at forbyde, hvad de skotske skibbyggere og
forretningsmænd gjorde – og disse skibbyggere scorede dermed en gigantisk
formue – du godeste! Eksperterner tror, at de forlængede krigen med minst 2 år
– uha! Det er svært at tro,men sydstaternes eks-præsident, Jefferson Davis, besøgte
nogle af disse forretningsmænd, efter han blev frigivet – du godeste! Sikke en
skør verden vi lever i !!!!
Jefferson Davis besøgte senere nogle af de skotske forretningsmænd,
der
hjalp Sydstaterne under borgerkrigen – du godeste! Sikke et vanvid!
Det var
interessant at høre, at både den føderale amerikanske regering og sydstaternes
regering sendte masser af spioner og agenter til Storbritannien for at samle
oplysninger og slå hemmelige handler osv. De sydstaternes agenter plejede at
holde hemmelige møder i et hus i en smuk lille by, Bridge of Allan, der ligger
i nærheden af Stirling. Byen var meget lille, men den var også et
jernbaneknudepunkt, og derfor brugte de sydstaternes agenter den.
Lois og jeg
besøgte tilfældigvis den der lille stad, da vi besøgte Skotland i 2005. Bare vi havde kendt noget på byens historie i
forbindelse med borgerkrigen.
Maj 2005: vi besøger Bridge of Allan, en meget smuk skotsk by, hvor
sydstaternes agenter engang var meget aktive – uha! Her
ser vi Lois (til venstre) med vores veninde, Eunice
Det er
interessant, at arbejdere i de britiske bomuldsmøller i, for eksempel, New
Lanark i Scotland og Lancashire i England, støttede ikke blokadebrygningen og
deltog i kampagner imode den, selvom deres jobs afhang af importeret rå bomuld
fra sydstaterne. Jeg tager ikke parti, som regel, med arbeijdsstyrken, fordi
deres interesser for det meste strider mod forbrugernes interesser, men denne
gang må jeg indrømme, at bomuldsarbejderne i dette tilfælde vandt moralsk
overhånd – ingen tvivl om det!
Maj 2005 – vi besøger New Lanark, hvor der var mange
bomuldsmøller,
der
havde brug for rå bomuld fra Sydstaterne – uha!
22:00 Vi går I
seng – zzzzz !!!!!
05:00 Jeg står
tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtester. Jeg laver
to kopper te og bringer dem op på vores soveværelse. Vi går i bad og bagefter
spiser vi morgenmad.
10:00 Vi taler
lidt på telefon med Sarah, vores yngste datter, der bor og arbejder i Perth,
Australien, sammen med Francis, sin mand, og deres 3-årige tvillinger, Lily og
Jessica.
Sarah
fortæller os om sin forretningsrejse til Sydney (i torsdags og fredags). Hun
ankom i Sydney midt på dagen og lige med det samme tog hun et krydstogt i
havnen. Hun siger, at det var en udmærket måde at kigge på byens vigtigste
seværdigheder på, herunder det berømte operahus og også den ikoniske Sydney
Harbour Bridge. Senere tog nogen fra firmaets hovedkontor Sarah og to af hendes
arbejdskollegaer fra Perth til en bar for at slappe af lidt. Desværre gik hun
sent i seng – uha!
Den følgende
dag var der et stort møde i firmaets hovedkvarter. Deltagerne diskuterede det
nye computersystem, der bliver indført i firmaets hele kontorer. Sarah havde
udarbejdet en liste over de mange problemer, der medarbejderne i Perth har
oplevet.
Hun fløj hjem
og ankom meget sent til Perth, og hun er stadigvæk meget træt. Stakkels Sarah!
Men hun er meget glad for, at hun kunne deltage i mødet og udtrykke sin mening
om det nye computersystem.
10:45 Lois
skal af sted. Der er to gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i Tewkesbury, som
hun gerne vil deltage i. Hun kører med sin veninde, Maggie.
11:00 Jeg går
i gang med at klippe endnu 3 græsplæner bagved huset. Da jeg er færdig, spiser
jeg frokost og går i seng. Jeg tager mig en gigantisk eftermiddagslur –
zzzzzz!!!!
14:00 Jeg står
op og læser endnu 10 sider af min interessante bog, ”Language and History in Viking Age England”
(Sprog og historie i vikingetidens England) af Matthew Townend. Jeg tager
rigelige noter, mens jeg læser. Jeg er nu medlem af Lyndas U3A gruppe ”The
Making of English”, og gruppen skal samles den 7. oktober i Everyman-teatret
for at diskutere hvordan det danske sprog påvirkede det angel-saksiske/engelske
sprogs udvikling.
15:30 Maggie
sætter Lois af foran huset og kører hjem. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te
på sofaen.
16:00 Vi
ringer til Alison, vores ældste datter, der bor i København sammen med Ed, sin
mand, og deres 3 børn: Josie (10), Rosalind (8) og Isaac (6). Ed er for tiden i
England hos sine forældre i Bournemouth omegn. Han har mødtes med de bygmestrene,
der er i gang med at bygge til på familiens hus i Haslemere, og han har fået
fat i nogle brochurer for nye køkkener – hurra! Han skal på mandag besøge sit
firmas hovedkontor, der ligger i nærheden af Reading, og så flyve tilbage til
Danmark.
English translation
16:30 I jump up on my exercise bike and cycle 6 miles (10
km) - hurrah! Now finally I can get well again!
18:00 We have dinner and spend the evening listening to
the radio and watching TV. First, we switch on the radio and hear an
interesting program: Saturday Review on BBC Radio 4.
I must admit that we rarely hear this kind of program
because they mostly discuss films we have not seen and will never see; books
we have not read and will never read, exhibitions (usually in London), which we
will never visit etc.
But we make an exception tonight because, according to
Radio Times they are to discuss a film which we have already seen in Australia:
the New Zealand film "Hunt for the Wilder People", which we saw in a
neat and clean cinema - Grand Cinemas, in Currambine, a small suburb of Perth.
We rarely go to the cinema in England, but we actually
saw two movies in Australia, including the "Hunt for the Wilder
People", which we very much enjoyed after we had accustomed our ears to
the New Zealand accent.
Cinemas are cozy in Australia. We discovered that it does
not rain much in Australia, but when it rains, it tends to rain heavily. It
did actually rain sometimes, and Lois and I wanted to give Francis, our
son-in-law, some time alone with his 3-year-old twins, so we went to the
movies.
We wanted to experience Australian cinemas, and I have
found that you can never forget the movies you've seen abroad. I clearly
remember the film Lois and I saw in the countryside in Norway in 1972 "Girl
on a Motorcycle", in a small Norwegian cinema where the audience sat on
wooden benches - oh dear! You could not drift off to sleep in the middle of
the movie, which I sometimes do in England - I know that for sure !!!
20:00 We turn off the radio and turn on the television.
They show an interesting documentary about the ships that were built in Glasgow
in the mid-19th century, only to help the Confederates in the American Civil
War, by breaking the federal blockade.
Although Britain was officially neutral in the war, the
British Government had no powers at the time to ban what the Scottish
shipbuilders and businessmen were doing - and these shipbuilders made a
gigantic fortune as a result - my goodness! The experts believe that they
prolonged the war by at least 2 years - oh dear! It's hard to believe, but the
Confederate ex-president, Jefferson Davis, visited some of these businessmen,
after he was released - oh my! What a crazy world we live in !!!!
Jefferson Davis later visited some of the
Scottish businessmen,
that helped the Confederacy during the Civil
War - my goodness! What madness!
It was interesting to hear that both the US federal
government and the Confederate government sent lots of spies and agents to the
UK to gather information and strike secret deals and so on. The Confederate
agents used to hold secret meetings in a house in a beautiful little town,
Bridge of Allan, which is located near Stirling. The town was very small, but
it was also a railway junction, and that's why the Confederate agents used it.
Lois and I happened by chance to visit that little town
when we visited Scotland in 2005. If only we had known something of the town's
history with regard to the civil war!
May 2005: we visit
Bridge of Allan, a very beautiful Scottish town where Confederate agents were
once very active - oh dear! Here we see Lois (left) with our friend, Eunice
It is interesting that the workers of the British cotton
mills in, for example, New Lanark in Scotland and Lancashire in England, did
not support the blockade-running and participated in campaigns against it, even
though their jobs depended on imported raw cotton from the South. I do not usually take
sides with the workforce because their interests are mostly contrary
to the interests of consumers, but this time I must admit that the cotton
workers in this case won the moral high ground - no doubt about it!
May 2005 - we visit New
Lanark, where there were many cotton mills,
which needed raw cotton from the
Confederacy - oh dear!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz !!!!!
5:00 I get up early and do one of my routine Danish
vocabulary tests. I make two cups of tea and bring them up to our bedroom. We
take a shower and afterwards we eat breakfast.
10:00 We speak a little on the phone with Sarah, our
youngest daughter, who lives and works in Perth, Australia, along with Francis,
her husband and their 3-year-old twins, Lily and Jessica.
Sarah tells us about her business trip to Sydney
(Thursday and Friday). She arrived in Sydney at midday, and right away she took
a cruise in the harbor. She says it was a good way of looking at the city's
main attractions, including the Sydney Opera House and also the iconic Sydney
Harbour Bridge. Later, someone from the company headquarters took Sarah and two
of her work colleagues from Perth to a bar to relax a little. Unfortunately she
went late to bed – oh dear!
The following day there was a big meeting at the
company's headquarters. Participants discussed the new computer system which is
being introduced in all the company's offices. Sarah had compiled a list of the
many problems that employees in Perth have experienced.
She flew home and arrived very late in Perth, and she is
still very tired. Poor Sarah! But she is very happy that she was able to attend
the meeting and express her opinion about the new computer system.
10:45 Lois has to be off. There are two services taking
place today in Tewkesbury, that she wants to take part in. She is riding with
her friend, Maggie.
11:00 I begin to mow 3 lawns behind the house. When I am
finished, I eat lunch and go to bed. I take a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzzzz
!!!!
14:00 I get up and read another 10 pages of my
interesting book, "Language and History in Viking Age England" by Matthew Townend. I take copious
notes while I read. I am now a member of Lynda's U3A group "The Making of
English", and the group is to gather on October 7 in the Everyman Theatre
to discuss how the Danish language influenced the Anglo-Saxon / English
language development.
15:30 Maggie drops Lois off in front of the house and
drives home. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the sofa.
16:00 We call Alison, our oldest daughter who lives in
Copenhagen along with Ed, her husband and their 3 children: Josie (10),
Rosalind (8) and Isaac (6). Ed is currently in England with his parents in the
Bournemouth area. He has met with the builders who are starting to build on to
the family home in Haslemere, and he has
got hold of some brochures for new kitchens - hurrah! On Monday he will visit
his firm's headquarters, located near Reading, and then fly back to Denmark.
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