16:30 Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og tilbagelægger endnu 6 miles
(10km). Jeg er stadig bange for at takle HIIT-teknikken (høj intensitet
interval træning) – det ville være en skam, hvis jeg trak en muskel i benet
igen – jeg må først gøre lidt forskning på nettet.
Jeg tænder for min smartphone og ser på 1994s bedste sange på YouTube. Jeg
synes, jeg kan huske omkring 10% af sangene, og andelen går ned hver gang, jeg
stiller året frem. Hvad skal jeg gøre, når andelen går ned til 0% (eller lavere) ? Det må jeg
snart begynde at reflektere over – før det er for sent!!!!
Da jeg er færdig, laver jeg lidt mild vægtsløftning. Som TV-lægen
anbefaler, stopper jeg, da mine muskler siger ”vi har fået nok af det her”
(hvilket ikke tager længe ha ha ha).
17:15 Jeg sætter mig foran computeren og udarbejder en liste over 50
engelske ord, jeg vil have min ven, ”Magyar” Mike, til at oversætte til ungarsk
i morgen, når han kommer for at lære sproget med
mig.
18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og derefter bruger vi aftenen på at
lytte til radio og se lidt fjernsyn.
Vi lytter først til radio, det seneste afsnit af et interessant program, BBCs
længst løbende radioserie, ”Desert Island Discs”, der først blev sendt i
1942.
Serien går ud på, at en berømthed hver uge er bedt om at forestille sig, at
han/hun er blevet strandet på en øde ø. I løbet af programmet bliver han bedt
om at tale om sit liv og/eller karriere, og at vælge de 8 ”grammofonplader”,
han helst vil have ved hånden, for at underholde sig i sit ensomme
tilværelse. En simpel idé, men en meget
langvarig serie, måske verdens mest langvarig – det er jeg ikke helt sikker på.
June Brown, den berømte 90-årige sæbestjerne, er programmets skibbrudne i
aften. June har spillet rollen af Dot Cotton i BBC-kanalens mest populære
sæbeopera, Eastenders, siden 1985.
June Brown, der spiller rollen af Dot Cotton i den populære
sæbeopera, EastEnders
June har ikke lyst til at gå på pension, og hun synes, at det er fordi folk
ikke længere arbejder, at de har tendens til at blive syg og dø – du godeste!
Jeg synes, hun har en point, men hvis man har mange interesser, har man bedre
chancer for at undgå denne skæbne i længst muligt, og samtidig ikke at blive
nødt til at arbejde med en masse irriterende mennesker ha ha ha!
Hun har altid støttet det konservative parti, og hun sagde engang, at hun
”ville ikke stemme på arbejderpartiet, hvis du betalte mig, min ven!”. Lois og
jeg kan godt lide hendes valg af sange, især en meget ung-lydende Bing Crosby
og Andrews Sisters, der synger ”Accentuate the Positive”, en filosofi, det er
svært at argumentere mod!
Det er lidt af en skam, at Eastenders-sæbeoperaens forfattere ikke følger
denne filosofi oftere. Vi uddeler til showet prisen for verdens mest negative
dramaserie (ingen stemmer imod i vores
hus!!!!!) !!!!!
Vores yndlingscitat fra Winnie the Pooh
20:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en berømt ikke-sæbe opera, Richard
Wagners Rhinguldet.
Vi skifter kanal efter en time, fordi operaens komplicerede plot udvikler
sig meget langsomt, og der synes at være ingen arier, bare kedeligt recitativ.
Vi beundrer begge to de tre rhindøtres skræmmende barme, men vi synes, at
Wotan, gudernes hersker, ser alt for elegant ud, og ligner lidt en middagsselskabsgæst
– vi synes, at man kunne have skildret ham som mere jordnær og vild. Vi er
nogle gange helt ukultiverede – uha!
Vi beundrer de tre rhindøtres noget skræmmende barme, men....
....
vi synes, Wotan ser alt for elegant ud – du godeste!
21:00 Vi skifter kanal og ser to gamle afsnit af Father Ted, en sitcom fra
1990’erne. Jeg tænker altid på denne sitcom med hengivenhed, fordi den blev
sendt hver fredag, med andre ord, ved slutningen af arbejdsugen. Jeg plejede at
glæde mig meget til at se programmet, men jeg var altid meget træt og jeg ofte
gled over i søvnen, og vågnede op med et sæt kun ved programmets slutning –
uha!
I aften ser vi ét af vores yndlingsafsnit, stjernespækket den fantastiske
Biskop Brennan (spillet af Jim Norton).
ét af vores yndlingsafsnit, stjernespækket
den
fantastiske (og skræmmende) Biskop Brennan (Jim Norton)
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!
04:30 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske
ordforrådtest.
08:00 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem
med op i soveværelset og hopper op under dynen til Lois. Vi drikker teen og
står op. Vi spiser morgenmad.
10:00 Min ven, ”Magyar” Mike kommer, og vi lærer ungarsk i en time. Vi
bruger en anderledes lærebog i år, ”Learn Hungarian”, skrevet af tre
forfattere, Bánhidi, Jókay og Szabó, en bog, vi ikke i 10 år har kigget på.
Bogen er utilsigtet morsom – det blev skrevet for længe siden i 1965 (med andre
ord i den kommunistiske æra), og der er en undertekst af propaganda i flere af
bogens lektioner. I gamle dage var den kommunistiske retorik meget skræmmende,
men nu er den bare morsom, gudskelov.
I dag kigger Mike og jeg på Lektion 5, som gudskelov for det meste er fri
for kommunistisk propaganda, men der er et kort over Europa, der mindes os om,
hvor meget har ændret sig i de seneste 50 år. Du godeste!
11:00 Mike skal af sted. Lois og jeg går en kort tur i nabolaget. På vej
smutter vi ind i det lokale posthus for at sende en pakke til Australien, to
børnebøger til vores 3-årige børnebørn i byen Perth. Den første bog er ”Peppa
Pig går i motionscenteret”, og den anden er Flopsy-kaninerne, af Beatrix
Potter. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.
13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!
15:30 Jeg står op og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
16:00 Jeg kigger på nettet og jeg ser, at Alison har lige lagt endnu et
charmerende foto af sin familie op på Instagram. Familien sidder i
Gaiastova-restauranten i Hafjell i Norge, hvor de for tiden er på skiferie.
Josie, Rosalind, Isaac og Ed i Gaiastova-restauranten
i
Hafjell i Norge – tid til gluhwein! ....
16:30 I jump up on my exercise
bike and clock up another 6 miles (10km). I am still afraid to tackle the HIIT
technique (high intensity interval training) - it would be a shame if I pulled
a muscle in my leg again - I must first do a little research on the web.
I turn on my smartphone and look
at 1994's best songs on YouTube. I think I can remember about 10% of the songs,
and the proportion goes down every time I move the year forward. What should I
do when the proportion goes down to 0% (or lower)? That's something I must soon begin to
reflect on - before it is too late !!!!
When I have finished, I do a
little mild weight lifting. As the TV doctor recommends, I stop when my muscles
say "we've had enough of this" (which does not take long ha ha ha).
17:15 I sit down at the computer
and draw up a list of 50 English words I want my friend, "Magyar"
Mike, to translate into Hungarian tomorrow when he comes to study the language
with me.
18:00 Lois and I eat supper and
then we spend the evening listening to the radio or watching TV.
We listen first to the radio, the
latest instalment of an interesting program, the BBC's longest-running radio
series "Desert Island Discs", which first aired in 1942.
The idea of the series is that
each week a celebrity is asked to imagine that he / she has been stranded on a
desert island. During the program he is asked to talk about his life and / or
career, and to choose the 8 "records", he would prefer to have on
hand to entertain himself with in his solitary existence. A simple idea, but a
very long-running series, perhaps the world's longest - I'm not quite sure.
June Brown, the famous
90-year-old soap star, is the program's castaway tonight. June has played the
role of Dot Cotton in the BBC channel's most popular soap opera, EastEnders,
since 1985.
June Brown, who plays the part of Dot Cotton in the
popular soap opera EastEnders
June does not want to retire, and
she thinks that it is because people no longer work that they tend to get sick
and die - my god! I think she has a point, but if you have many interests, you
have better chances of avoiding this fate as long as possible, while not being
forced to work with a lot of annoying people ha ha ha!
She has always supported the
Conservative Party, and she once said that she "would not vote for the
Labour Party, if you paid me, dear!". Lois and I like her choice of songs,
especially a very young-sounding Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters singing
"Accentuate the Positive", a philosophy, it's hard to argue with.
It is a bit of a shame that the
EastEnders writers do not follow this philosophy more often. We award the show
the prize of world's most negative drama series (no votes against in our house
!!!!!) !!!!!
Our favorite quote from Winnie the Pooh
20:00 We continue to watch TV.
They show a famous non-soap opera, Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold.
We change the channel after an
hour because the opera's complicated plot develops very slowly, and there seem
to be no arias, just boring recitative. We both admire the three Rhine maidens'
scary bosoms, but we think that Wotan, Ruler of the Gods, looks too elegant,
and is a bit too much like a dinner party guest - we think they could have
portrayed him as more earthy and wild. We are sometimes completely uncultured -
oh dear!
We admire the three Rhine maidens' somewhat scary
bosoms, but ....
.... we think Wotan is too elegant
looking - my god!
21:00 We change the channel and
watch two old episodes of Father Ted, a sitcom from the 1990s. I always think
of this sitcom with affection because it was aired every Friday, in other
words, at the end of the working week. I used to be look forward to seeing the
program, but I was always very tired and I often drifted off to sleep, and woke
up with a start only at the end of the program - oh dear!
Tonight we see one of our
favorite episodes, starring the amazing Bishop Brennan (played by Jim Norton).
one of our favorite episodes, starring
the fantastic (and frightening) Bishop
Brennan (Jim Norton)
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!
04:30 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
08:00 I hurry into the kitchen
and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and hop under the
covers with Lois. We drink the tea and get up. We eat breakfast.
10:00 My friend,
"Magyar" Mike comes and we study Hungarian for an hour. We are using
a different textbook this year, "Learn Hungarian", written by three
authors, Bánhidi, Jokay and Szabó, a book we have not looked at in 10 years.
The book is unintentionally funny - it was written long ago in 1965 (in other
words, in the communist era) and there is a subtext of propaganda in several of
the book's lessons. In the old days the communist rhetoric was very scary, but
now it's just funny, thank God.
Today Mike and I are looking at
Lesson 5, which thankfully is mostly free of communist propaganda, but there is
a map of Europe which reminds us how much has changed in the last 50 years. My
God!
11:00 Mike has to go. Lois and I
go for a short walk in the neighborhood. On the way we pop into the local post
office to send a parcel to Australia, two children's books for our 3-year-old
grandchildren in the city of Perth. The first book is "Peppa Pig Goes to
the Gym," and the other is "The Flopsy Bunnies", by Beatrix Potter. We get home
and relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa.
16:00 I look at the web and I see
that Alison has just this minute put another charming photo of her family up on
Instagram. The family are sitting in the Gaiastova restaurant in Hafjell
Norway, where they are currently on a skiing holiday.
Josie, Rosalind, Isaac and Ed in the
Gaiastova restaurant
in Hafjell, Norway - time for gluhwein!
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