18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte
til radio og se lidt fjernsyn. Vi hører først et morsomt radio-sitcom (sidste
del af 4). ”Den kolde svenske vinter”.
Serien handler om en engelsk komiker, Jeff, der er kærester med en dejlig
svensk kvinde, Linda (Andersson). Parret flytter til det nordlige Sverige og
købe et hus ude på landet, helt tæt på Lindas skræmmende forældre, hendes negative
far, Sten, og hendes liderlige mor, Gunilla.
Linda, Jeffs dejlige svenske kæreste
Dette sidste afsnit i den anden sæson kredser om en romantisk ferie, som
Jeff planlægger at holde sammen med Linda og deres unge søn, John, i familiens
feriehus i nærheden af Polarcirklen. Jeff har til hensigt at tage Linda med på
en luftballontur og foreslå ægteskab med hende, men alt går galt.
Jeff og Linda ankommer til sommerhuset, men Jeffs romantiske drømme bliver
ødelagt, da Lindas familie også dukker op. Lindas forældre sover (og snorker) i
værelset ved siden af Jeffs og Lindas, og væggene viser sig til at være meget
tynde – du godeste! Og Lindas bror, Anders, flytter ind til Jeffs og Lindas
værelse og sover på den ekstra seng. Du godeste, stakkels Jeff !!!!
Og værste af alt, en stemning af trussel hænger over huset, fordi Anders
har taget flere uåbende dåser ”surströmming” med. Surströmming
er sild som konserveres gennem fermentering, og ifølge Linda lugter værre end en blokeret
toilet, 100 rådne æg og en nedbrydende lig – du godeste!
en dåse surströmming (fermenteret sild – sikke et vanvid!!!!)
Da Jeff endelig når at foreslå ægteskab til Linda, tilbyder han at bevise
sin kærlighed ved at afprøve en surströmming-sandwich for første gang, hvilket
han gør. Hun siger ja, men hun nægter at kysse ham ”nogensinde igen” – stakkels
Jeff !!!!!
Lois og jeg kan godt lide denne serie, fordi vi lærer meget om skandinaviske
folklore og mytologi. Da Jeff bliver deprimeret, tilbyder Gunilla, Lindas
flirtende mor, at opmuntre ham ved at
vise ham sit personlige ”hemmelige skjulte sted”, sin Smultronstället, hvilket chokerer Jeff, indtil Gunilla
forklarer, at ordet bogstaveligt betyder et vildejordbærstykke, men henviser på
idiomatisk svensk til en undervurderet perle af et sted, der har personlig
sentimental betydning for én.
Gunilla, Lindas flirtende mor
Gunillas ”smultronstället” viser
sig at være ikke en kropsdel men et nærliggende vandfald, hvor hun undertiden
ser i vandet en nøgen mand spille violin så yderst godt, at man kan høre i
musikken lyden af naturen: en skov, en bæk eller en brise for eksempel.
Violinspilleren er faktisk en vandalf, strömkarl på
svensk, fossegrim på norsk. Gunilla kan godt lide at høre strömkarlens
violinmusik. Hun mindes, at hun hørte ham, da hun var gravid med Linda, og det
føltes som on han spillede inde i hende – du godeste!
en typisk strömkarl
Hun siger, at karlströmmen altid tilbyder at lære
én hvordan man kan spille på samme måde, men man må gøre gengæld ved at byde
ham én eller andet væmmelig svensk ret, for eksempel en hvide gedebuk eller
røget fårekød (forudsat, at det er blevet stjålet fra en nabo på 4 på hinanden
følgende torsdage – du godeste!).
Dette er hvad Lois og jeg godt kan lide, når det
kommer til skandinavisk folklore – det er så opfindsomt!!!
21:00 Vi slukker for radioen og åbner for fjernsynet. De viser to afsnit af
Big Bang Theory - den 10. (nyeste) sæson, 9. og 10. afsnit.
E4-kanalen irriterer Lois og mig hvert år i december, fordi de pålægger en
to måneders pause i den seneste Big Bang sæson – de genoptager serien i
februar. I år genoptager de den fra den 23. februar (med andre ord næste uge).
Vi har ikke den fjerneste anelse om, hvorfor de pålægger dette dumme pause.
Næste torsdag sender de den 11. afsnit, og bagefter den 12. afsnit
(hurra!), som ikke er blevet sendt før i
Storbritannien. Vi savnede serien julen og nytåret over – efter vores mening
toppede seriens humor for et par sæsoner siden, men den er stadig den morsomste
sitcom på fjernsyn, synes vi.
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzz!!!!
04:30 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske
ordforrådtest.
07:45 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem
med op i soveværelset og kryber tilbage i sengen til Lois. Vi drikker teen og
står op. Vi spiser morgenmad.
10:00 Lois ringer til hospitalet, fordi hun har ikke hørt noget fra dem om
sin lovede aftale hos specialisten – hendes oprindelige aftale blev aflyst i
januar. Hun lider af grå stær for tiden,
og hun er ikke tilladt til at køre bil om aftenen, hvilket er meget ubekvemt.
Hospitalets personale bekræfter, at hun stadig er på listen, men de venter på
at høre fra specialisten, hvornår han har ledige tider – du godeste! Vores
sundhedssystem er en katastrofe – ingen tvivl om det!
11:00 Vi kører over til det store Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. Butikken
er stuvende fuld. Mens vi står og venter i køen ved kassen, hører vi en
overraskende meddelelse over højtaleranlægget, bedende ”Stephen Hawking” om at
komme og åbne en ekstra kasse, på grund af de lange køer. Senere diskuterer
Lois og jeg dette hændelse, og vores konklusion er, at det er indlysende, at
den berømte fysiker ikke er den eneste person i England, der bærer dette navn.
Da vi er færdige med at betale, smutter vi ind i det nærliggende Whole
Foods-supermarkedet, hvor vi drikker en kop kaffe og spiser et stykke kage i
butikkens café. Vi kører hjem igen.
13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur.
15:30 Jeg står op. Lois går hen til Rose’s hus og tager Rose’s
fødselsdaggave og kort. Rose er én af Lois’s tidligere arbejdskollegaer.
Jeg har lidt alenetid, så jeg slapper af i sofaen med en kop te.
16:00 Jeg hører et interessant radioprogram , ”The Last Word”. Lois og jeg
har for vane at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om
nogen i de seneste 1-2 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste
uger kun er ca. 5 dødsfald). Programmets vært er den charmerende Matthew
Bannister.
Heldigvis har der hidtil ikke været mange dødsfald i februar, så Matthew
har chancen for at tale om nogle mennesker, der døde i januar, som han glemte
at tale om før – hurra! Men jeg vidste ikke, at Sir Peter Mansfield var død, den
berømte engelske fysiker, der udviklede den moderne MR-scanner.
Han var et beskedent menneske. Det er interessant, at Mansfield var i
badeværelset i gang med at barbere sig, da han fik at vide på telefon, at han
havde vundet Nobels fredspris i medicin. Han antog, at opkaldet var en fupnummer og
satte modtageren ned – du godeste! Han er min slags fysiker – ingen tvivl om
det!!!!
16:29 Lois har ikke dukket op endnu. Hvor bliver hun af????!!!!!
English translation
18:00 Lois and I eat dinner and
spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio or watching TV. We hear
first a funny radio sitcom (last part of 4). "The Cold Swedish
Winter".
The series is about an English
comedian, Jeff, who has a beautiful Swedish girlfriend, Linda (Andersson). The
couple move to northern Sweden and buy a house in the countryside, close to
Linda's frightening parents, her negative father Sten and her horny mother,
Gunilla.
Linda, Jeff’s lovely Swedish girlfriend
This last episode of the second
season revolves around a romantic holiday which Jeff plans with Linda and
their young son, John, in the family holiday cottage near the Arctic Circle.
Jeff intends to take Linda on a hot air balloon ride and propose marriage to
her, but everything goes wrong.
Jeff and Linda arrive at the
cottage, but Jeff's romantic dreams are destroyed when Linda's family also
shows up. Linda's parents sleep (and snore) in the room next to Jeff's and
Linda's, and the walls appear to be very thin - my god! And Linda's brother,
Anders, moves into Jeff and Linda's room and sleeps on the extra bed. My god,
poor Jeff !!!!
And worst of all, an atmosphere
of menace hangs over the house because Anders has brought several unopened cans
of "surströmming" with him. Surströmming is herring preserved through
fermentation and, according to Linda, it smells worse than a blocked toilet,
100 rotten eggs and a decomposing body - my god!
a can of surströmming (fermented herring
- what madness !!!!)
When Jeff finally manages to
propose marriage to Linda, he offers to prove his love by trying a surströmming
sandwich for the first time, which he does. She says yes, but she refuses to
kiss him "ever again" - poor Jeff !!!!!
Lois and I like this series
because we learn a lot about Scandinavian folklore and mythology. When Jeff
gets depressed, Gunilla, Linda’s
flirtatious mother, offers to cheer him up by showing him her personal
"secret hidden place", her smultronstället, which shocks Jeff until
Gunilla explains that the word literally means a wild strawberry patch, but
refers idiomatically to an underrated gem of a place that has personal
sentimental significance for a person.
Gunilla, Linda flirtatious mother
Gunilla's
"smultronstället" turns out to be not a body part but a nearby
waterfall, where she sometimes sees in the water a naked man playing the fiddle
so well that you can hear in the music the sounds of nature: a forest, a stream
or a breeze for example.
The fiddle player is actually a
water-sprite, strömkarl in Swedish, fossegrim in Norwegian. Gunilla likes to
hear the strömkarl's fiddle music. She recalls that she heard him when she was
pregnant with Linda, and it felt as if he was fiddling inside her - my god!
a typical strömkarl
She says that the strömkarl
always offers to teach you how to play in the same way, but you must return the
favor by offering him one or other nauseous Swedish dish, for example, a white
goat or smoked mutton (provided that it has been stolen from a neighbour on 4
consecutive Thursdays - my god!!!!).
This is what Lois and I like when
it comes to Scandinavian folklore - it is so inventive !!!
21:00 We turn off the radio and
switch on the television. They show two episodes of the Big Bang Theory - 10th
(latest) season, 9th and 10th episodes.
The E4 channel irritates Lois and
me in December each year, because they impose a two-month pause in the newest
Big Bang season - resuming the series in February. This year they are resuming
it on 23 February (in other words next week). We have not the faintest idea why
they impose this stupid break.
Next Thursday episode 11 airs, followed
by episode 12 (hurrah!) which has not been broadcast before in the UK. We
missed the series over Christmas and New Year - in our opinion the show's humor
peaked a few seasons ago, but it's still the funniest sitcom on television, we
think.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz !!!!
04:30 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
07:45 I hurry into the kitchen
and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and crawl back into bed
with Lois. We drink the tea and get up. We eat breakfast.
10:00 Lois calls the hospital
because she has not heard anything from them about her promised appointment
with the specialist - her original appointment was canceled in January. She
suffers from cataracts currently, and she is not allowed to drive at night,
which is very inconvenient. The hospital staff confirm that she is still on
the list, but they are waiting to hear from the specialist about when he has
available times - my god! Our health care system is a disaster - no doubt about
it!
11:00 We drive over to the large
Sainsburys supermarket to do the shopping. The store is packed. While we are
waiting in the queue at the checkout, we hear a surprising announcement over
the loudspeakers, asking "Stephen Hawking" to come and open an additional
checkout, because of the long queues.
Later Lois and I discuss this
incident, and our conclusion is that it is obvious that the famous physicist is
not the only person in England who bears this name.When we are finished with
paying, we pop into the nearby Whole Foods supermarket, where we have a cup of
coffee and a piece of cake in the store's café. We drive back home again.
13:00 We eat lunch and afterwards
I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap.
15:30 I get up. Lois walks round
to Rose's house and takes Rose's birthday gift and card. Rose is one of Lois's
former work colleagues.
I have a little alone time, so I relax on the couch with
a cup of tea.
16:00 I hear an interesting radio
program, "The Last Word". Lois and I are in the habit of hearing this
program every week because we want to find out if anyone has died or not in the
last 1-2 weeks (I have noticed that in most weeks there are only about 5
deaths). The program's host is the charming Matthew Bannister.
Fortunately, there have not been
many deaths so far in February, so Matthew has the chance to talk about some
people who died in January, who he forgot to mention before - hurrah! But I did
not know that Sir Peter Mansfield had died, the famous British physicist who
developed the modern MRI scanner.
He was a modest man. It is
interesting that Mansfield was in the bathroom starting to shave when he was
told on the phone that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize in medicine. He assumed
that the call was a hoax and put the receiver down - my god! He's my kind of
physicist - no doubt about that !!!!
16:29 Lois has not shown up yet.
Where is she ???? !!!!!
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