16:30 Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler om Cary
Grant, den kendte filmskuespiller.
Vi hører mange interessante kendsgerninger om Grants liv, fra en fan (Lucy
Porter) og fra Grants biograf, Geoffrey Wansell. Grant blev faktisk tilbudt
hovedrollen i ”It’s A Wonderful Life”, men afviste den. Jimmy Stewart tog
rollen i stedet for Grant. Wansell synes, at Stewart gav en meget bedre
præstation, end Grant ville have gjort – Grant udstrålede ikke nogen personlig
varme ifølge Wansell, i modsætning til Stewart. Grant var tilsyneladende også
en meget doven mand – du godeste, hvor bliver vores helte af? Men han havde en
besværlig barndom.
Mine forældre og mine søskende var altid meget interesserede i Grant, fordi
han var født og voksede op i Bristol, hvor vi boede fra 1960-1968. Han gik
faktisk i samme skole som min lillebror, Steve, nemlig Fairfield Grammar
School.
I
dette foto, taget i juli 1966 ser vi min lillebror Steve,
på
14 år. Han er lige kommet hjem fra skole (Fairfield Grammar School)
og
bliver hilset af vores hund, Plato.
Steve
har smidt sin skoletasken på jorden
så
han kan bøje ned, og Plato kan slikke på ham!
Steve
fortsætter med at lege med Plato i vores baghave.
Plato
elskede ham – ingen tvivl om det!!!!
Steve havde som dreng en åben, varmhjertede og sjove personlighed, men i
sine sene teenageår blev han gradvist mere og mere introvert, og til sidst
begyndte han at lide fra ocd, en tilstand, der mere og mere forværredes indtil
hans død i 2013. Stakkels Steve.
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal vi af sted. Lois ønsker at
deltage i et bibelseminar i aften i Brockworth, og hun må ikke køre bil for
tiden på grund af grå stær. Jeg kører hende over til Mari-Anns hus, og sætter
hende af. Mari-Ann skal køre hende over til Brockworth.
På vej hjem kan jeg igen ikke modstå fristelsen til at køre forbi Sarahs
gamle hus i Leckhampton og dagdrømme om de lykkelige dage, når Lois og jeg
passede på Sarahs små tvillingerne, vores yngste børnebørn, Lily og Jessica.
Sarahs familie bor nu i Perth i Australien, men Lois og jeg vil altid være
glad for, at have haft oplevelsen af at kende vores yngste børnebørn så godt.
Nogle dage tog vi næsten forældrenes rolle – vi plejede at passe på tvillingerne
hos os i 10-12 timer hver mandag og fredag, herunder måltider, bleskift,
eftermiddags lure, alle de forskellige daglige opgaver – du godeste! Lykkelige
dage!
Tværtimod er det uundgåeligt, at vi fremover vil være nødt til at spille en
meget marginal rolle i deres liv, nu hvor de bor i Australien. Vi boede hos dem
fra april til juni, men det er desværre langt fra sikkert, at vi vil se dem
igen bortset fra på Skype, i betragtning af vores alder, og prisen af
flybilletter osv – uha!!!
19:00 Jeg kommer hjem og jeg har lidt alenetid. Jeg skriver endnu 10
julekort: 9 til Storbritannien og 1 til Irland.
Derefter bruger jeg resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en
interessant dokumentarfilm (1. del af 3) der giver en oversigt af hvad landets
arkæologer har afdækket i 2016. Dette første afsnit handler om udgravninger i
det sydvestlige England og det sydlige Wales. Programmets vært er den
charmerende Alice Roberts.
Lois og jeg kan godt lide denne serie, nu i dens 5. sæson, fordi vi ser så
mange dokumentarfilm om arkæologi, nogle af dem genudsendelser, og det er
derfor nemt at blive forvirret over hvad der er nyt, hvad der ikke er nyt, hvad
der er vigtigt osv. Og teorier ændrer sig konstant for hver eneste dag, og den
almindelige person får ikke altid nys om disse ændringer. Stakkels almindelige
personer!!!! Men denne serie gør os til at føle, at vi endelig forstå den
nuværende viden – hurra!
Programmet har desværre en begyndelse, der er ikke så lovende – en
himmelråbende fejl. Det er svært at tro, at ingen, der arbejder på denne dokumentarfilm, ikke bemærkede den! Alice
siger, at vores forfadre byggede Stonehenge for 3.000 år siden. Hun mener
selvfølgeligt for 5.000 år siden eller 3.000 år f.Chr. Du godeste! Hvor
pinligt!!!!
Dette afsnit begynder med at tage en himmelråbende fejl – uha!
Programmets første nyhed handler om endnu en større forhistorisk opdagelse
i nærheden af Stonehenge, lidt uden for landsbyen Bulford, der kun ligger 3
miles væk fra Stonehenge på den anden side af floden Avon. Et hold af
arkæologer har været i gang med at afdække et unikt forhistorisk monument, en
dobbelt cirkulær jordvold, og de har bekræftet, at dette monument blev gravet,
og eksisterede, samtidig med selve Stonehenge, og mysteriøse ritualer fandt
sted derhenne.
Et
unik monument er blevet afdækket –
en
dobbelt circulær jordvold, der ligger 3 miles fra Stonehenge
Hele område omkring Stonehenge er så mysteriøst! Nogle gange dagdrømmer jeg
om at kunne afprøve tidsrejse og se med mine egne øjene, hvad der (for 5.000 år
siden, Alice!) i virkeligheden skete der – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !!!
Men naturligvis at kunne rejse tilbage i tiden ville spolere glæderne ved at
forstille mig, og at spekulere, og leve i en boble af denne glæde.
Programmets anden nyhed handler om den enorme samling af jernalderlige
mønter, der er blevet fundet på øen Jersey. Sammenlagt 70.000 mønter blev
afdækket, også store, tunge, gyldne halsringer og andre smykker – du godeste! Mønterne daterer fra ca. 60
f.Kr og blev brugt af en stamme i Bretagne
(Curiosolitae – skør navn, skør stamme!!!). Denne opdagelse er verdens langt største
jernalderlige depotfund – ingen tvivl om det!
det gule område på kortet viser,
hvor
depotfundets jernalderlige ejere boede.
men
de valgte øen Jersey for at gemme deres penge og smykker.
Verdens langt største jernalderlige depotfund – ingen tvivl om det!
Det er klart, at depotfundets ejere var meget rige og vigtige mennesker. De
var åbenbart bange for, at Julius Caesar, der var i gang med at rykke sin hær
gennem Frankrig i den nordlige retning mod den engelske kanal, ville ”befrie”
deres penge og egendele – ingen tvivl om det!!!! Ejerne valgte øen Jersey for
at gemme dem, fordi øen var lidt fjern og svær at lande på dengang, formoder
man.
Det er mig interessant at prøve at forstå tankegangen af folk, der gravede
disse slags depotfund under farlige kriser. Verden var et farligt sted dengang
– det ved jeg med sikkerhed!
Selvfølgelig afdækker arkæologer kun de depotfund, som ejerne senere aldrig
fik tilbage på en eller anden grund – måske de blev dræbt. Jeg er sikker på, at
årsagen ikke var, at de glemte hvor de havde gravet dem, som hunde og egern
ofte gør! Selvom det er måske muligt, at der dengang også var rige mennesker,
der også var åndsfraværende eller glemsomme.
Det er det svært at være sikker på!
Programmets tredje nyhed handler om en mørkemiddelalderligt slot, der er blevet
afdækket i nærheden af Tintagel i grevskabet Cornwall.
Arkæologer har i år fundet resterne af en massivt mørke middelalderligt slot,
i
nærheden af Tintagel i Cornwall.
Opdagelsen var fuldstændigt uventet. Slottet og dets omgivende kompleks er
massivt, og udvendige væggene er 3 fods-tykke – du godeste! Slottets ejere var
meget rig, og arkæologer har fundet ornamenter, gods og egendele af høj
kvalitet, der var blevet importeret fra Middelhavet og omgivende lande.
Mange folk begynder at undre sig, om slottet var Kong Arthurs slot, men der
er selvfølgelig absolut ingen beviser for, at der var nogen sammenhæng mellem
slottet og den legendariske konge. Det var først Geoffrey af Monmouth, der i
det 12. århundrede ”afslørede”, at Arthur blev undfanget i Tintagel, i sin
historie af Storbritanniens konger. Opdigtede
Geoffrey denne ”kendsgerning” om Arthur, eller havde han adgang til orale
traditioner, som vi nu til dags ikke kender til ???
22:00 Lois kommer hjem og vi snakker lidt. Det viser sig, at hun tidligere
på aftenen efterlod i vores bil de små kager og mince pies, vi i morges købte
til seminarets deltagere – du godeste! Vi bliver gamle og glemsomme – ingen tvivl
om det! Så må Lois og jeg fortære dem i stedet – pokkers!!!
Jeg går i seng – zzzzzz!!! Lois bliver seende fjernsynet. Hun trænger til
at slappe af og geare ned lidt efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar. Stakkels
Lois!!!!
04:00 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. Vi drikker teen og står op. Vi spiser morgenmad.
10:00 Vi går i gang med at skrive vores resterende julekort – hurra! Vi har gjort et godt stykke arbejde de
seneste 2-3 dage, Lois og jeg – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !!!! Nu kan vi
tage en kort pause indtil folk, vi ikke har sendt julekort til, begynder at
sende os julekort, og vi skal på grund af anstædighed gøre gengæld! Det er den
sande ånde af julen !!!
13:00 Vi spiser frokost og derefter går jeg i seng og tager mig en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzzz!!!!
15:30 Jeg står op og kigger lidt på internettet, www.theonion.com . Jeg
følger for tiden med juletræet, der i går ramte overskrifterne, da det blev
afsløret, at træets ejere havde dømt en brudt træornament til en ensom
eksistens på den side af træet, det står overfor væggen. Jeg er glad for, at
kunne rapportere i dag en meget lykkeligere historie: gaver fra en tante ligger
allerede under træet – hurra!
Til sidst kan jeg rapportere nogen lykkeligere nyheder om det træ,
der
i går ramte overskrifterne for alle de forkerte grunde.
Gaver
fra en tante ligger allerede under træet – hurra!
16:00 Vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
English translation
16:30 We listen a little to the radio, an interesting program about
Cary Grant, the well-known film actor.
We hear many interesting facts
about Grant's life, from a fan (Lucy Porter) and from Grant's biographer,
Geoffrey Wansell. Grant was in fact offered the lead role in "It's A
Wonderful Life", but rejected it. Jimmy Stewart took the role instead of
Grant. Wansell thinks that Stewart gave a much better performance than Grant
would have done - Grant radiated no personal warmth according Wansell, unlike
Stewart. Grant was apparently also a very lazy man - my god, what's become of
our heroes? But he had a difficult childhood.
My parents and my siblings were
always very interested in Grant, because he was born and grew up in Bristol,
where we lived from 1960-1968. He actually went to the same school as my
brother, Steve, namely Fairfield Grammar School.
In this photo, taken in July 1966, we see my
brother Steve, aged 14.
He has just come home from school (Fairfield
Grammar School)
and is being greeted by our dog, Plato.
Steve has thrown his school bag on the
ground so he can bend down
and Plato can lick him!
Steve continues to play with Plato in our
backyard.
As a boy Steve had an open,
warm-hearted and fun personality, but in his late teens, he became gradually
more and more introverted, and eventually he began to suffer from ocd, a
condition that increasingly worsened until his death in 2013. Poor Steve.
18:00 We have dinner and
afterwards we have to go out. Lois wants to take part in a Bible seminar in
Brockworth tonight, and she must not drive at the moment due to cataracts. I
drive her over to the Mari-Ann's house and drop her off. Mari-Ann will drive
her to Brockworth.
On the way home, I again cannot
resist the temptation to drive past Sarah's old house in Leckhampton and
daydream about the happy days when Lois and I took care of Sarah's little
twins, Lily and Jessica, our youngest grandchildren.
Sarah's family now lives in
Perth, Australia, but Lois and I will always be glad to have had the experience
of knowing our youngest grandchildren so
well. Some days we almost took the parental role - we used to take care of the
twins at our house for 10-12 hours every Monday and Friday, including meals,
changing diapers, afternoon naps, all the different daily tasks - my god! Happy
days!
In contrast, it is now inevitable
that in future we will have to play a very marginal role in their lives, now
that they live in Australia. We stayed with them from April to June, but
unfortunately it is far from certain that we will see them again except on
Skype, considering our age and the price of airline tickets, etc. - oh dear !!!
19:00 I come home and I have a
little alone time. I write another 10 Christmas cards: 9 to the UK and one to
Ireland.
Then I spend the rest of the
evening watching TV. They show an interesting documentary (Part 1 of 3) giving
an overview of what the country's archaeologists have unearthed in 2016. This
first episode deals with excavations in southwest England and south Wales. The
program’s presenter is the charming Alice Roberts.
Lois and I like this series, now
in its fifth season, because we see so many documentaries on archaeology, some
of them reruns, and it's easy to get confused about what is new, what is not
new, what is important and so on. and theories are constantly changing every
single day, and the ordinary person does not always get wind of these changes.
Poor ordinary people !!!! But this series makes us feel that we finally
understand the current knowledge - hurrah!
The program unfortunately has a
beginning that is not so promising - a glaring error. It's hard to believe that
nobody working on this documentary did not notice it! Alice says that our
ancestors built Stonehenge 3,000 years ago. She means of course 5,000 years ago
or 3,000 years BC. My God! How embarrassing!!!!
This episode begins by making a glaring
error - oh dear!
The program's first news is about
another major prehistoric discovery near Stonehenge, just outside the village
of Bulford, which is only 3 miles away from Stonehenge on the other side of the
River Avon. A team of archaeologists have been working to uncover a unique
prehistoric monument, a double circular earthwork, and they have confirmed that
this monument was dug, and existed, at the same time as Stonehenge itself, and
mysterious rites took place there.
A unique monument has been
uncovered –
a double circular earthwork, located 3 miles
from Stonehenge
The entire area around Stonehenge
is so mysterious! Sometimes I daydream about being able to try time travel and
see with my own eyes what in fact, happened (5,000 years ago, Alice!) - I have
no doubt !!! But of course being able to travel back in time would spoil the
pleasures of imagining and speculating, and living in a bubble of this
pleasure.
The program's second news item is
about the huge collection of Iron Age coins that has been found on the island
of Jersey. A total of 70,000 coins were unearthed, also large, heavy, golden
neck rings and other jewelry - my god! The coins dates from about 60 BC and
were used by a tribe in Brittany (Curiosolitae – crazy name, crazy tribe!!!!).
This discovery is by far the world's largest Iron Age hoard - no doubt about
it!
the yellow area on the map shows
where the hoard's Iron Age owners lived.
but they chose the island of Jersey to hide
their money and jewelry.
by far the world's biggest Iron Age hoard
- no doubt about it!
It is clear that the hoard's
owners were very rich and important people. They were apparently afraid that
Julius Caesar, who was starting to move his army through France in a northerly
direction towards the English Channel, would "liberate" their money
and possessions - no doubt about it !!!! The owners chose the island of Jersey
to hide them, because the island was a little remote and difficult to land on
then, one supposes.
It is interesting to me to try to
understand the thinking of people who buried these kinds of hoards in dangerous
crises. The world was a dangerous place then - I know that for sure!
Of course archaeologists uncover
only the hoards that the owners never got back later, for one reason or another
- maybe they got killed. I am sure that the reason was not that they forgot
where they had buried them, like dogs and squirrels often do! Although it is
perhaps possible that at that time there were rich people who were also absent-minded
or forgetful. It is hard to be sure!
The program's third news-items is
about a Dark Age castle that has been uncovered near Tintagel in the county of
Cornwall.
Archaeologists have this year found the
remains of a massive Dark Age castle,
near Tintagel in Cornwall.
The discovery was completely
unexpected. The castle and its surrounding complex is massive, and exterior
walls are three foot thick - my god! The castle's owners were very rich, and
archaeologists have found ornaments, goods and possessions of high quality that
had been imported from the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding countries.
Many people are starting to
wonder whether the castle was King Arthur's castle, but of course there is
absolutely no evidence that there was any connection between the castle and the
legendary king. It was in the first place Geoffrey of Monmouth who
"revealed" in the 12th century, in his history of Britain's kings,
that Arthur was conceived in Tintagel. Did Geoffrey concoct this
"fact" about Arthur, or did he have access to oral traditions which
we nowadays do not know about???
22:00 Lois comes home and we talk
a little. It turns out that earlier in the evening she left behind in our car
the little cakes and mince pies we bought this morning for seminar participants
- my god! We are growing old and forgetful - no doubt about it! So Lois and I
have to eat them instead - damn !!!
I go to bed - zzzzzz !!! Lois
carries on watching television. She needs to relax and unwind a bit after the
evening's stimulating Bible seminar. Poor Lois !!!!
04:00 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. We drink the tea and get up. We eat breakfast.
10:00 We begin to write our
remaining Christmas cards - hurrah! We have done a good job the last 2-3 days,
Lois and I - I have no doubts about that !!!! Now we can take a break till the
people we have not sent Christmas cards to, begin to send us Christmas cards,
and then we need to return the favor on grounds of decency! That is the true
spirit of Christmas !!!
13:00 We eat lunch and then I go
to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzzz !!!!
15:30 I get up and take a look on
the internet, www.theonion.com.
I am "following"
developments with the Christmas tree that yesterday hit the headlines, when it
was revealed that the tree's owners had sentenced a broken tree-ornament to a
lonely existence on the side of the tree facing the wall. I am pleased to
report today a much happier story: gifts from an aunt are apparently already
under the tree - hoorah!
Finally, I can report some happier
news about the tree
that yesterday hit the headlines for all the
wrong reasons.
Gifts from an aunt are already under the
tree - hoorah!
16:00 We relax with a cup of tea
on the sofa.
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