Onsdag den 14. september kl 1630 til torsdag den 15. september 2016 kl 1629

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og derefter bruger vi aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn og lytte til radio, ligesom et ældre ægtepar (ingen overraskelse der!).

De viser Grand Designs. En ung ægtepar vil få bygget et moderne hus i de skotske bjerger.

Da det nye hus er færdig, besøger Kevin McCloud, programmets vært, ægteparret, og selvfølgelig roser han huset til skyerne, som altid. Men jeg kan ikke forstå – hvordan kunne nogen synes, at dette hus ikke er grimt???? Det ser ud som en toiletbygning eller en anden slags offentlig bygning, eller en bygning hvor landbrugsudstyr eller foderstoffer bliver opbevaret. Og er det ikke tragisk, at få bygget sådan et grimt hus i sådan et skønt landskab???

Er det muligt, at der er nogen, der synes dette hus er smukt???

Da vi ser huset indefra, er det ikke så skidt: de tre vigtigste områder (køkken, spisebord-område, sofa-område) er i vis grad afgrænset af ”halv-vægge”. Men hvorfor dokumenterer ingen, hvor højlydt det er i denne slags stuer? Hvis nogen i familien er ved at se fjernsynet, må alle de andre hører det – er dette ikke noget problem???

Det er rart at se i det mindste halvvægge, der afgrænser de vigtigste områder,

men det kommer til at være alt for højlidt – ingen tvivl om det !!!!

Og hvorfor kan alle nu til dags lide superhøje lofter? De er ikke hyggelige og de ser ud som man finder i en offentlig bygning: et hotel, et kontorbygning eller noget lignende. Og de gør det meget sværere og dyrere at opvarme stuen. Ræk mig lige opkastningspose, Alice!

endnu en anden superhøj loft – ræk mig lige opkastningsposen, Alice!

21:00 Til sidst slukker vi for fjernsynet og lytte lidt til radio: en interessant program (tredje del af fem) der handler om ”at have travlt”. Programmets vært er Oliver Burkeman, en journalist fra The Guardian, en radikal avis. 

I dette afsnit siger Burkeman, at vores hjerner har begrænset kapacitet, mere begrænset, end vi tror – han bruger udtrykket ”begrænset båndbrædde”.  Han mener, at for meget multitasking fører til dårlige beslutninger osv. Han anbefaler, at man koncentrerer sig mere om en opgave ad gangen, og afmærke lejlighedsvise halvtimer for at udføre de små opgaver, som for eksempel at tjekke emails.

Han roser den medarbejder, der kommer tidligt på arbejde og koncentrer sig i et par timer om vigtige omgaver, før de andre ankommer og begynder at distrahere én. Jeg er glad for, at høre dette, fordi jeg havde selv det for vane at komme meget tidligt på arbejde, inden jeg blev pensionist.

Lois kommenterer, at unge mødre ikke kan undgå at dyrke multitasking!

Selvfølgelig er det nødvendigt for ”management guruer” og firmaer, der sælger management-lærebøger, management-kurser og andre arbejdsstil-bøger og kurser, at sælge nye idéer og nye slagord, der strider mod nuværende arbejdsstiler, ellers kommer de aldrig til at score en stor formue – for at sige mildt! 

22:00  Vi går i seng. Vi tænker på vores yngre datter, Sarah, der bor og arbejder i Perth, Australien. Den er nu kl 5 om morgenen (westaustralsk tid), og hun er sikkert allerede på Perth-lufthavn. Hun flyver i dag på forretningsrejse til Sydney, hvor hendes firmas hovedkontor ligger. Vi tror hendes fly afgår kl 6 om morgenen (lokal tid) – du godeste! Vores lille datter Sarah, forstil dig det! Vi glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzz!!! 

04:45 Jeg står tidligt op. Jeg tænder for min smartphone, og lige med det samme får jeg en sms fra Sarah. Hun siger, at hun er lige nu ved at kigge på det berømte Sydney operahus. Hendes første arbejdsdag i Sydney er slut (lokal tid), og lige nu er hun ombord på et krydstogt i havnen – du godeste!

Jeg fuldfører min rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtest og laver to kopper te. Jeg bringer dem op på vores soveværelse. Vi ligger inde i sengen og drikker teen. Vi går i bad og bagefter spiser vi morgenmad.

11:30 Vi går hen til den lokale legeplads, og plukker nogle pund af de vilde solbær, der gror i buskene tæt ved sportspavillonen.

12:30 Vi kommer tilbage og spiser frokost. Mens vi spiser, hører vi en interessant radioprogram, som jeg optog i aftes:

Det er fængslende at høre Barry Humphries tale om sit liv som teenager i 1930’erne i Melbourne, en by han ikke kunne lide, ”fordi den var for rent og pænt” – du godeste! Han droppede ud fra det lokale universitet. Han ville gerne blive skuespiller, men hans forældre misbilligede denne plan, og hans far fik Barry et job på EMI Records afdelingskontor i Melbourne.  Han sagde imidlertid  op et par år senere, og hans arbejdskollegaer gav ham et farvel kort og en tin kop – du godeste!

Han flyttede til England i 1959, lige før Londons sidste vaudeville-teater (på Edgwarevej) lukkede, og han var meget glad for at kunne få mulighed for at se en forestilling derinde.

Nogle år senere var han i et schweizisk hotel, og han faldt over Graham Greene, den berømte forfatter, der var ved at beskæftige sig med noget i hotels lobby. Han spurgte Greene, hvad han var ifærd med, og Greene svarede, at han var ved at slette de døde venner fra sin adressbog – du godeste! Sikke en grusom aktivitet ! Humphries tænkte aldrig dengang, at han selv i fremtiden ville skulle gøre det samme. Humphries fyldte 82 år i februar 2016. Han siger, at der er nogle navne, han ikke kan tåle at flette, for eksempel Spike Milligan, den berømte komiker.

Det er rart at høre mange ualmindelige sange, vi kender ikke. Vi hører for eksempel den tyske udgave af ”Happy Days Are Here Again”, der hed ”Wochenend og Sonnenschein” (weekend og solskin), som blev optaget af Comedian Harmonists, en tysk sanggruppe. Vi hører også en sang af Charles Penrose / Charles Jolly, der hed ”I’m 82 tomorrow”, en sang der ser ud til at være meget egnet for Humphries! Du godeste, han er nu godt oppe i årene – ingen tvivl om det!

14:00 Jeg går i seng og tager mig en gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzzz !!!!

15:30 Jeg står op og vi slapper af med en kop te på sofaen.

English translation

18:00 We have dinner and then we use the evening to watch TV and listen to the radio, just like an old married couple (no surprise there!).

They show Grand Designs. A young married couple want to get built a modern house in the Scottish mountains.

When the new house is finished, Kevin McCloud, the program's host, visits the couple, and of course he praises the house to the skies, as always. But I cannot understand - how could anyone think that this house is not ugly ???? It looks like a toilet building, or some other public building, or a building in which agricultural equipment or animal feed is stored. And is not it tragic to have had built such an ugly house in such a beautiful landscape ???

Is it possible that there is someone who thinks this house is beautiful ???

When we see the house from the inside, it's not so bad: the three main areas (kitchen, dining area, sofa area) are in some degree demarcated by "half-walls". But why does nobody document how loud it is in this kind of living room? If someone in the family is watching television, all the others hear it - is this not a problem ???

It's nice to see at least half walls defining the main areas

but it's going to be too noisy - no doubt about it !!!!

And why does everyone nowadays like super high ceilings? They are not cosy and they look like one finds in a public building, a hotel, an office building or something like that. And they make it very difficult and expensive to heat the living room. Pass the sickbag, Alice!

yet another super high ceiling - pass the sickbag, Alice!

21:00 Finally we turn off the TV and listen to some radio: an interesting program (Part three of five) which is about "being busy". The program's host is Oliver Burkeman, a journalist from The Guardian, a radical newspaper.

In this episode Burkeman says that our brains have limited capacity, more limited than we think - he uses the term "limited bandwidth". He believes that too much multitasking leads to poor decisions and so on. He recommends that one concentrates more on one task at a time, and set aside occasional half hours to perform small tasks, such as checking emails.

He praises the employee who comes to work early and concentrates for a few hours on important tasks before the others arrive and begin to distract one. I am glad to hear this because I had the habit of getting up very early to work before I retired.

Lois commented that young mothers cannot avoid doing multitasking!

Of course, "management gurus" and companies that sell management textbooks, management training and other workstyle-books and courses, need to sell new ideas and new slogans that conflict with current work styles, otherwise they will never get to make a great fortune - to say the least!

22:00 We go to bed. We think of our younger daughter, Sarah, who lives and works in Perth, Australia. It is now at 5 in the morning (Western Australian time), and she is probably already at Perth Airport. She is flying today on a business trip to Sydney, where her firm's head office is. We think her flight leaves at 6 am (local time) - my goodness! Our little daughter Sarah, imagine that! We drift off to sleep - zzzzzzz !!!

04:45 I get up early. I turn on my smartphone, and right away I get a text message from Sarah. She says she is just now looking at the famous Sydney Opera House. Her first working day in Sydney is over (local time) and at the moment she is on a cruise in the harbor - my goodness!

I complete my routine Danish vocabulary test and make two cups of tea. I bring them up to our bedroom. We lie in bed and drink the tea. We take a shower and afterwards we eat breakfast.

11:30 We go to the local playground, and pick a few pounds of wild blackberries that are growing in the bushes near the sports pavilion.

12:30 We come back and eat lunch. While we eat, we hear an interesting radio program I recorded last night:

It is captivating to hear Barry Humphries talk about his life as a teenager in 1930 in Melbourne, a city he did not like, "because it was too clean and neat" - my goodness! He dropped out from the local university. He wanted to become an actor, but his parents disapproved of this plan, and his father got Barry a job at EMI Records' office in Melbourne. He resigned, however, a few years later, and his work colleagues gave him a farewell card and a tin cup - my goodness!

He moved to England in 1959, just before London's last vaudeville theater (on Edgware Rd) closed, and he was very happy to get the opportunity to see a show there.

Some years later he was in a Swiss hotel, and he came across Graham Greene, the famous writer who was busy with something in the hotel lobby. He asked Greene what he was doing, and Greene said he was about to delete the dead friends from his address-book - my goodness! What a gruesome activity! Humphries never thought then that he would in future have to do the same. Humphries turned 82 years in February 2016. He says there are some names he cannot bear to delete from his address-book, for example, Spike Milligan, the famous comedian.

It's nice to hear many unusual songs, that we do not know. We hear, for example, the German version of "Happy Days Are Here Again" called "Wochenend und Sonnenschein" (weekend and sunshine) which was recorded by the Comedian Harmonists, a German singing group. We also hear a song by Charles Penrose / Charles Jolly, called "I'm 82 tomorrow," a song that seems to be very suitable for Humphries. My goodness, he is now well on in years - no doubt about it!

14:00 I go to bed and take a giant nap - zzzzz !!!!

15:30 I get up and we relax with a cup of tea on the sofa.