17:00 Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg har for vane at cykle 6 miles
(10km), men i aften beslutter jeg at cykle lidt mere – downside til dette er at
det tager mere tid. Pokkers! Men jeg når at tilbagelægge 8,25 miles (13,25 km),
før jeg føler en ukontrollabel lyst til at hoppe ned, fordi den Youtube
videosamling, jeg ser på (1982s bedste sange), er slut. Du godeste, jeg er så
overfladisk!
Mens
jeg cykler, ser jeg på en videosamling på YouTube –
1982s
bedste sange
Mellemkamps
tekst har en flot linje, som jeg på det tidspunkt bemærket:
Livet
går videre, længe efter, at spændingen ved at leve er gået af.
Jeg kan igen ikke modstå fristelsen til at kigge tilbage på 1982 i min
lille families livshistorie. Vi flyttede i august 1982 til USA, hvor vi boede i
tre år i Columbia Md. Lois og jeg havde to døtre, Alison (der fyldte 7 år lige
efter vi ankom) og Sarah (5 år). Det må have været lidt skræmmende for dem, at
starte en ny skole i USA, men det hjalp, at de snart lærte nabobørnene (Derek
og Darren, i samme alder) at kende.
Alison og Sarah sagde aldrig noget om at være nervøse, men jeg bemærkede,
at Sarah ofte var tør i munden de første få uger. Stakkels piger!!!! Sarahs lærer fortalte os, at Sarah var meget
tavs i klassen, og kun efter et par måneder blev læreren klar over, at hun
”havde en accent” – du godeste!
Sommeren
1982 i baghaven, før vores amerikanske eventyr startede.
Stående (fra
venstre til højre) Dennis (Lois’s far), mig, Ruth (Lois’s mor),
og én af Dennis’s
amerikanske venner.
Siddende: Alison,
Lois og Sarah
juli 1982: Alison
vinder et løb med glans
ved sin sidste sportsdag
på sin engelske skole
Efteråret 1982 –
Alison ligger og sover i sin amerikanske seng -
hun havde for vane
at suge både pegefingeren og langefingeren
(Sarah plejede at
suge tommelfingeren) .
Jeg tog dette foto
for min mors skyld. Hun savnede sine to børnebørn.
Det kan jeg
relatere til, nu hvor Sarahs tvillinger bor i Australien – uha!
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt
fjernsyn. De viser en underholdende tv-quiz, Mastermind.
Jeg nyder meget de spørgsmål, der handler om Seinfeld-serien, én af
mine yndlingssitcoms. Det er meget
nostalgisk for mig at høre disse spørgsmål (desværre kunne jeg ikke svare dem
rigtigt, bortset fra det obligatoriske Newman-spørsgmål selvfølgelig – uha!), og
nostalgisk også at se én af deltagere besøge caféen og etageejendommen i New
York, hvor mange af seriens scener blev skudt.
Jeg er meget glad for, det obligatoriske ”Newman”-spørgsmål !
21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant
dokumentarfilm, der handler om de britiske krigsfilm, der udspillede sig i den
2. verdenskrig, og som kom ud i 1950’erne og 1960’erne.
Jeg interesserer mig meget for denne dokumentarfilm, fordi jeg i 1950’er
var en lille skoledreng. Min klassekammerater blev alle født efter krigen, så
vi kun har hørt om den, og havde ingen direkte oplevelse af den. Men denne
traumatiske krig var stadig en meget frisk og levende minde i vores forældres
hoveder, og mange af drengenes fantasispil i legepladsen kredsede om ”britere
og tyskere”. Det var tilfredsstillende
for mine forældres generation at kunne kigge tilbage på denne traumatiske
oplevelse og gratulere sig med at komme igennem det hele og ende med at være på
den vindende side – du godeste!
Min far tog mig med i biografen for at se nogle af disse film, der var
meget populære, da de kom ud: lidt kompensation for Storbritanniens økonomiske,
militære og politiske tilbagegang! Nostalgi
og stolthed, samt den traditionelle britiske filosofi af ”stiv overlæbe” var
centrale temaer i disse film i den første halvdel af 1950’erne. Men den
gennemsnitlige skuespiller, man ser i disse film, var selv blevet involveret i
krigen som soldater, piloter osv.
Filmenes stemning ændrede sig lidt i årtidets anden halvdel, efter
Suez-krisen, og filmene blev mindre én- eller to-dimensionelle, og mere
realistiske. Jeg mindes i særdeleshed ”En iskold i Alexandria” (1958), der
udspillede sig i den nord-afrikanske ørken, fordi jeg var lidt forelsket i
kvinden, der spillede sygeplejersken, Sylvia Syms (forelskelsen var ikke
gensidig – jeg fandt aldrig ud af, hvorfor – hvor tragisk!!!).
Sylvia Syms
En kærlighedsscene, Sylvia Syms havde med John Mills, blev censureret,
fordi hun viste for meget kavalergang, selvom scenen er ganske mild efter
nutidens standarder. Sikke et vanvid!!!!
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!!
04:45 Jeg står op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtest.
Jeg surfer lidt på nettet.
07:30 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager de
med op i soveværelset og hopper op i
sengen til Lois. Vi drikker teen og går i bad. Vi står op og spiser morgenmad.
09:00 Vi taler lidt
på telefon med Sarah, vores datter i Australien, med Francis, Sarahs mand, og med
deres 3,5 årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessica. Familien har tilbragt dagen i
Rockingham, en lille badeby, der ligger lidt syd for Perth. De tog en bådtur og
så en masse pingviner på Penguin Island.
Lily er blevet til
en sand sludrechatol – hun er en god efterligner, og kopierer en masse
”voksene” udtryk, hun hører på sine forældres læber. Sit yndlingsudtryk for
tiden er ”jer der” – du godeste! Jeg synes, hun vil være god til fremmedsprog,
når hun vokser op – ingen tvivl om det!!!!
Tvillingerne malede
lidt i baggården i morges tidligt.
Hvor er de dog søde
!!!!!
12:00 Vi spiser frokost. Bagefter skal Lois af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage
i en gudstjeneste, der finder sted i eftermiddag i Tewkesbury. Jeg har lidt
alenetid, så jeg går i seng for at tage mig en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.
15:00 Jeg står op og lytter lidt 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.
Jimmy Carr, den berømte stand-up komiker, er programmets skibbrudne i dag.
Jeg er overrasket over, hvor meget jeg kan lide denne mand, og jeg finder, at
jeg bliver inspireret af ham. Han var sønnen af irske indvandrer, og led af
ordblindhed. Han kunne ikke læse, indtil han var 10 år gammel, men han
overvandt handicappet i løbet af de følgende 8 år og læste på Cambridge
universitet.
Jimmy
Carr
Han siger, at der er ingen bedre gave i livet, end at have en positiv
holdning. Og livets vigtigste spørgsmål er, at finde ud af, hvad du ønsker dig.
Han arvede sin humoristisk sans fra sin irske mor. Han mindes, at hun havde en
bunke af morsomme udtryk, som hun godt kunne lide. Hvis han fortalte hende, hun
så godt ud, svarede hun altid, at hun så ud som en hore ved en barnedåb – du godeste!
16:00 Lois kommer tilbage og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
English translation
17:00 I jump up on my exercise
bike. I am in the habit of cycling 6 miles (10km), but tonight I decide to
cycle a little further - downside to this is that it takes more time. Damn! But I
get to travel 8.25 miles (13.25 kilometers) before I feel an uncontrollable
urge to jump down, because the Youtube video compilation I'm looking at (1982s
best songs), is over. Good grief, I'm so superficial!
While I cycle, I look at a video compilation
on YouTube -
1982s best songs
Mellemkamp's lyrics have a great line,
which I noticed at the time :
Life goes on, long after the thrill of
living is gone.
I again cannot resist the
temptation to look back at 1982 in my family's life story. In August 1982 we
moved to the United States, where we lived for three years in Columbia, Md.
Lois and I had two daughters, Alison (who turned 7 just after we arrived) and
Sarah (5). It must have been a bit scary for them starting a new school in the
US, but it helped that they soon got to know the neighbor kids (Derek and
Darren, the same age).
Alison and Sarah never said
anything about being nervous, but I noticed that Sarah often had a dry mouth
for the first few weeks. Poor girls !!!! Sarah's teacher told us that Sarah was
very silent in class, and it was only after a few months that the teacher
became aware that she "had an accent" - good grief!
Summer of 1982 in the back garden before our
American adventure started.
Standing (from left to right) Dennis (Lois's
dad), me, Ruth (Lois's mother)
and one of Dennis's American friends.
Seated: Alison, Lois and Sarah
July 1982: Alison wins a race with flying
colors
at her last sports day at her English school
Autumn 1982 - Alison asleep in her American
bed -
She had the habit of sucking both her index
finger and middle finger
(Sarah used to suck her thumb).
I took this photo for my mother's
sake. She was missing her two grandchildren.
That is something I can relate
to, now that Sarah's twins are living in Australia - oh dear!
18:00 We have dinner and spend
the rest of the evening watching TV. An entertaining TV quiz Mastermind is on.
I enjoy very much the questions
about Seinfeld series, one of my favorite sitcoms. It is very nostalgic for me
to hear these questions (unfortunately I could not answer them correctly,
except for the mandatory Newman question of course - oh dear!), and nostalgic
also to see one of the participants visit the café and multi-story building in
New York, where many of the show's scenes were shot.
I am very pleased to hear the
mandatory "Newman" question!
21:00 We continue to watch TV. An
interesting documentary is on about British war films set in the 2nd World
War, that came out in the 1950s and 1960s.
I'm very interested in this
documentary because in the 1950s I was a young schoolboy. My classmates and I were
all born after the war, so we only heard about it and had no direct experience
of it. But this traumatic war was still a very fresh and vivid memory in our
parents' heads, and many of the boys' fantasy games in the playground revolved
around "Brits and Germans". It was satisfying for my parents'
generation to look back at this traumatic experience and congratulate
themselves on getting through it all and ending up on the winning side - good
grief!
My father took me to the cinema
to see some of these films, that were very popular when they came out: a little by way of compensation for Britain's economic, military and political decline! Nostalgia
and pride and the traditional British philosophy of "stiff upper lip"
were central themes in these films in the first half of 1950s. But the average
actor you see in these films, had themselves been involved in the war as
soldiers, pilots etc.
The mood of these films changed
little in the decade's second half, after the Suez crisis, and the films were
less one- or two-dimensional and more realistic. I recall in particular
"Ice Cold in Alex" (1958), which was set in the North-African desert,
because I was a little in love with the woman who played the nurse, Sylvia Syms
(this love was not mutual - I never found out why - how tragic !!!).
Sylvia Syms
A love scene Sylvia Syms had with
John Mills, was censored because she showed too much cleavage, although the
scene is quite mild by today's standards. What madness !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!!
04:45 I get up and do one of my
routine Danish vocabulary tests. I surf a little on the web.
07:30 I hurry into the kitchen
and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and jump into bed with
Lois. We drink the tea and take a shower. We get up and eat breakfast.
09:00 We speak a little on the
phone with Sarah, our daughter in Australia, and with Francis, Sarah's husband, and with their 3 and a half year old twins, Lily and Jessica. The family have spent the
day in Rockingham, a small seaside resort located just south of Perth. They
took a boat trip and saw a lot of penguins on Penguin Island.
Lily has become a real chatterbox
- she's a good mimic and copies a lot of "grown up" expressions she
hears on her parents' lips. Her favorite expression at the moment is "you
guys" - good grief! I think she will be good at foreign languages when she
grows up - no doubt about that !!!!
The twins were painting a little in the back yard
early this morning .
How cute they look !!!!!
12:00 We eat lunch. Afterwards,
Lois must go out. She wants to attend a church service taking place this
afternoon in Tewkesbury. I have a little alone time, so I go to bed and take a
gigantic afternoon nap.
15:00 I get up and listen a
little 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 most like to have on
hand to entertain himself in his solitary existence. A simple idea, but a very
long-running series, perhaps the world's longest - I'm not quite sure.
Jimmy Carr, the famous stand-up
comedian, is the program's castaway today. I am surprised how much I like this
man, and I find that I am inspired by him. He was the son of Irish immigrants,
and suffered from dyslexia. He could not read until he was 10 years old, but he
overcame the disability over the following 8 years and studied at Cambridge
University.
Jimmy Carr
He says there is no better gift
in life than to have a positive attitude. And life's most important question is
to find out what you want. He inherited his sense of humor from his Irish
mother. He recalls that she had a bunch of funny expressions which she liked.
If he told her she looked good, she always replied that she looked like a whore
at a christening - good grief!
16:00 Lois comes back and we
relax with a cup of tea on the sofa.
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