Tirsdag den 27. september kl 1630 til onsdag den 28. september 2016 kl 1000

17:30 Vi spiser tidligt aftensmad og bagefter skal vi af sted. Lois vil gerne deltage i et bibelseminar i Brockworth. Hun må for tiden ikke køre en bil om aftenen/natten på grund af grå stær, så jeg skal køre hende derover. Vi lægger seminarets te-udstyr og kopper osv i bilens bagagerum, og så kører vi af sted. Jeg sætter hende af ved byens medborgerhus og kører hjem.

19:30 Jeg har lidt alenetid i aften, så tænder jeg for fjernsynet. Der er ikke noget interessant i de hovedsaglige kanaler, så jeg beslutter at se endnu et andet gammelt afsnit af ”Grand Designs” i den More4 kanal .

Channel Four har vist denne serie over næsten 20 år, men jeg opdagede den kun for nylig. Jeg interesserede mig aldrig for den indtil for nogle måneder siden.

Jeg er ikke ret meget interesseret i husdesign, arkitektur osv, men jeg interesserer mig meget for mennesker, der er helt anderledes end mig selv. Jeg vil gerne først og fremmest forstå, hvad deres motivationer er, hvad driver dem til at få bygget disse enorme huser med enorme stuer og enorme vinduer, som føles så gigantiske og forholdsvis tomme og uhyggelige, ligesom en offentlig bygning, et hotel måske.

Min konklusion er at disse mennesker vil gerne først og fremmest imponere deres venner, og de bekymrer sig ikke ret meget over at irritere deres naboer. De er meget ekstroverte og har få rigtige hobbyer, og har ikke brug for at koncentrere sig og have ro omkring sig i fem minutter. De kan godt lide at holde store middagsselskaber, for at imponere deres venner. De bekymrer sig ikke over om deres naboer kan se dem gennem de enorme vinduer, og de sender dem et signal, at de har en bedre livstil, end naboerne.

I aftens par har fået bygget et enormt hus i en forstad til London. Jeg må indrømme, at bygningen ser meget smuk ud, især når man kigger på den udefra, med sin stor kurvede mur. Men det minder mig om et smart hotel. Køkkenet ligner en hotelbar. På anden sal findes børnenes enorme soveværelse, og har ingen indvendige vægge – du godeste! Sikke et mareridt!!!!

Udenfra ser huset meget smukt ud med sin enorme kurvede mur,

men det ligner mere et smart lille hotel, end et hjem!!!

Børnene skal sove i ét stort soveværelse på anden sal – sikke et mareridt!!!!

22:00 Lois kommer hjem igen. Ken, hendes ven, sætter hende af foran huset. Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!

04:30 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtester. Bagefter laver jeg to kopper te og bringer dem op på vores soveværelse.

07:00 Vi står op og går i gang med at pakke vores ting i bilens bagagerum. Planen er som følger. Vi skal køre til Oxford i dag, og spise frokost med vores venner, Jen og Bill, i Kennington, en lille forstad til byen. På vej vil vi smutte ind i et plejehjem i Witney, og snakke lidt med min tante Bobbie, mor til min fætter John og mine kusine Susan, der bor i Monument, Colorado, USA. Vi vil bo to nætter i et hotel i Oxford og leger turister. Vi kører hjem på fredag, en lille eventyr for os, vores første siden vi fløj til Australien i marts for at se vores yngste datter, Sarah, og hendes familie i Perth.

10:00 Vi kører af sted.

English translation

17:30 We eat early dinner and afterwards we have to go off. Lois would like to participate in a Bible seminar in Brockworth. She cannot currently drive a car in the evening / night because of cataracts, so I have to run her over. We put the seminar tea equipment and cups etc. in the car trunk, and then we drive off. I drop her off by the town's community center and drive home.

19:30 I have a little time alone tonight, so I turn on the television. There is nothing interesting on the main channels, so I decide to see yet another old episode of "Grand Designs" on the More4 channel.

Channel Four has shown this series over nearly 20 years, but I discovered it only recently. I was never interested in it until a few months ago.

I am not much interested in housing design, architecture, etc., but I'm very interested in people who are completely different from myself. I would like to first of all understand what their motivations are, what drives them to build these huge houses with huge rooms and huge windows that feel so gigantic and relatively empty and eerie, like a public building, a hotel perhaps.

My conclusion is that these people would like first of all to impress their friends, and they do not care much about annoying their neighbors. They are very extroverted and have few real hobbies, and do not need to concentrate and have some quiet time for five minutes. They like to hold large dinner parties, to impress their friends. They do not care that their neighbors can see them through the huge windows, and they are sending them a signal that they have a better lifestyle than their neighbors do.

Tonight's couple have had built a huge house in a suburb of London. I must admit that the building looks very beautiful, especially when you look at it from the outside, with its large curved wall. But it reminds me of a smart hotel. The kitchen looks like a hotel bar. On the second floor is the children's huge bedroom, and has no interior walls - my goodness! What a nightmare !!!!

from outside the house looks very beautiful with its huge curved wall

but it looks more like a smart small hotel than a home !!!

the children have to sleep in one large bedroom on the second floor - what a nightmare !!!!

22:00 Lois comes home again. Ken, her friend drops her off in front of the house. We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!

4:30 I get up early and do one of my routine Danish vocabulary tests. Afterwards, I make two cups of tea and bring them up to our bedroom.

07:00 We get up and begin to pack our stuff in the car trunk. The plan is as follows. We are to travel to Oxford today, and have lunch with our friends, Jen and Bill, in Kennington, a small suburb of the city. On the way we will pop into a nursing home in Witney, and talk a little with my Aunt Bobbie, the mother of my cousin John and my cousin Susan, who lives in Monument, Colorado, USA. We will stay two nights in a hotel in Oxford and play the tourist. We drive home on Friday, a little adventure for us, our first since we flew to Australia in March to see our youngest daughter, Sarah, and her family in Perth.

10:00 We drive off.