Tirsdag den 7. marts 2017 kl 16:30 onsdag den 8. marts 2017 kl 16:29

17:00 Lois er jeg er meget trætte efter dagens fest, som Lois arrangerede i anledning af Maggies kommende flyttelse fra Cheltenham til et plejehjem i Birmingham –  en fest Maggie desværre ikke kunne deltage i på grund af sygdom – stakkels Maggie!!!

Lois inviterede sammenlagt 12 kvinder, og satte en stor indsats i at arrangere festen, men faktisk kun 8 gæster dukkede op, hvilket var lidt skuffende, og én af disse 8 gæster forsvandt før maden – vi ved ikke hvorfor. Det kan være, at nogen krænkede hende. Men festen var ikke desto mindre en stor succes, synes vi.

Der er nu alt for mange stole både i stuen og i spisestuen, men vi er for trætte til at rykke dem tilbage til soveværelser osv – denne opgave overlader vi til i morgen.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal vi ud. Lois ønsker at deltage i et bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i Brockworth, og hun er ikke tilladt til at køre bil for tiden på grund af grå stær. Jeg kører hende over til Mari-Ann og Alfs hus og sætter hende af foran huset. Mari-Ann og Alf skal køre hende over til Brockworth.

På vej hjem kan jeg igen ikke modstå fristelsen til at køre forbi vores datter Sarahs gamle hus i Leckhampton. Huset er mørkelagt, som sædvanligt – jeg formoder, at den enke, der købte huset, af én eller anden grund ikke bruger rummet, der var Sarahs stue i den forreste del af huset.

Sarah bor nu i Australien, hvor klokken på det tidspunkt er 3 om morgenen, så det også er mørkt derovre, men temperaturen er lidt anderledes – ingen tvivl om det!!! Den nåede forleden mere end 100 grader (F) /  ca. 40 grader (C) (kun om dagen selvfølgelig!!!)  – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

19:00 Jeg kommer hjem og har lidt alenetid. Jeg bruger aftenen på at lytte til radio, et interessant program, der handler om Vernons Girls, en pige sanggruppe, der var populær i 1950’erne og 1960’erne. Programmets vært er den charmerende Michael Angelis.

Det er svært at tro nu, men i 1950’erne der var 2 store fodbold betting virksomheder i Storbritannien, Littlewoods og Vernons, to selskaber, der begge to havde til huse i byen Liverpool. Min far var en kunde hos Littlewoods, og han modtog hver uge med post en betting-formular, som han hver onsdag eller torsdag aften fyldte ud, siddende på bordet, mens jeg, min mor og mine søskende sad og så på fjernsyn. Han forsøgte at forudse, hvilke kampe ville ende i en ikke-målløs uafgjort, men han scorede desværre aldrig en formue – pokkers!!! Jeg formoder, han havde sine drømme.

Begge selskaber, Littlewoods og Vernons, ansatte hundreder af piger og kvinder, og begge organiserede af én eller anden grund amatørkor. Vernons-koret blev til sidst reduceret til 16 medlemmer (senere til 5, så 3) og helt tilfældigvis blev inviteret til at rejse til London, synge på radio, senere på fjernsyn. Lidt af en askepot-historie, så vidt jeg ved. Når de var i London og boede på hoteller, blev de ”beskyttet” af en kvindelig manager, der først og fremmest ville sikre, at pigerne ikke bliver involveret i nogle skandaler, så pigerne blev forbudt at gå på dates eller invitere mænd til deres hotelværelser.

Faktisk lykkedes det mange af pigerne nu og da, at smugle mænd ind i deres værelser, men det hele drejede sig kun om kys og kram. Disse var de dage, der kom før 1963s ”begyndelse af sex”, som blev fejret i Larkins berømte digt:

‘Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP.’

Vernons Girls optrådte i alle de tidligste tv popprogrammer –  Six Five Special, Oh Boy, Boy Meets Girls osv, programmer, som Jack Good organiserede. Han flyttede senere til USA og startede Shindig derovre. Vernons Girls arbejdede som backing sangere på mange hitsange af 1960’erne.

Jeg og Kathy, min søster, havde for vane at se Boy Meets Girls hver lørdag aften i 1959-1960. Showets store stjerne var Marty Wilde, den berømte popsanger (og far til Kim Wylde), som Kathy dengang var vild med. Vernons Girls optrådte regelmæssigt i showet, og Marty endte med at gifte sig med én af pigerne. Lykkelige dage!!!!!

(fra venstre til højre) min søster Kathy, vores kusine Kathleen, 

min bror Steve, og mig i 1959.

Marty Wildes bryllup

22:00 Lois kommer hjem. Aftenens seminar fandt sted i byen Brockworths bibliotek, i stedet af byens medborgerhus. Seminargruppen har besluttet at eksperimentere med biblioteket som alternativ mødested, fordi de ikke er tilfredse med medborgerhusets administration og personale. Lois siger, at eksperimentet hidtil går godt.

Jeg går i seng – zzzzz!  Men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare ned efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar. Stakkels Lois!!!!!

Som sædvanligt anbefaler jeg et par tv-programmer, der efter min mening er egnede til formålet, to gamle sitcoms fra 1980’erne: ”Yes Prime Minister”, der tager pis på engelske embedsmænd, og ”Allo Allo”, der tager pis på det besatte Frankrig, den tyske hær, den franske modstandsbevægelse, britiske agenter og alle klicheerne af den anden verdenskrig i bøger, film, og teaterstykker.

Jeg vågner ikke, da Lois lidt senere kryber ind i sengen til mig.

04:00 Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet.

08:00 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op i soveværelset og hopper op i sengen til Lois. Vi drikker teen og står op. Vi spiser morgenmad.

09:00 Jeg rykker de ekstra stole, vi i går brugte til festen, tilbage til soveværelserne osv. Bagefter går jeg i gang med at udarbejde en dansk ordforrådtest for vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer – gruppens næste møde finder sted her i morgen kl 14:30.

De korrekte svar til testen (en række bogstaver) vil stave en ganske tilfældig-lydende sætning , der er den første halvdel af en traditionel dansk ordsprog: ”marts vil søge dig, april vil prøve dig....”. Resten af ordsproget er lidt negativt efter min mening, så jeg har besluttet ikke at bruge den: ”maj vil sige, om du skal leve eller dø”.

Ordsproget synes at være unødvendigt pessimistisk, men jeg tror, jeg måske har fandt frem til hvorfor – indtil for nylig var politi, dommere og bødler kun deltidsjobs i Danmark. Det kan være, at det danske politi i gamle dage koncentrerede sig om at fange forbrydere kun en gang om året – i marts. Dommerne dømte dem i april til døden, og bødlerne halshuggede dem i maj. 

Jeg er helt sikker på, at gruppens medlemmer ikke vil kunne snyde ved at gætte sætningen, hvilket er det vigtigste  – jeg er så krævende ha ha ha!

11:00 Lois skal af sted. Hun kører over til Mari-Anns hus for at afhente hende og køre hende tilbage hos os. Mari-Ann opbevarer et bord i vores garage, og hun vil tage et foto af det i dag, så hun kan sælge det.

Jeg kigger lidt på internettet. Jeg finder Morten Ingemanns seneste tegneseriestribe. Du godeste! Jeg får lidt af et chok, da jeg ser den – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!

Danskeren Ingemann er min yndlingstegner  – ingen tvivl om det! Han interesserer sig meget for grimme, overvægtige, midaldrende eller ældre folk, de slags mennesker, som de fleste tegnere sjældent giver opmærksomhed til.

Jeg kan godt lide Ingemanns attitude – han afviser instinktivt negative følelser om alderdom. Han ved godt, at menneskers bedste år hyppigst er i fremtiden – i 80’erne og 90’erne, og videre. Med andre ord er det bedste endnu ikke kommet.

Men hans seneste stribe viser for engangs skyld, en overvægtig kvinde, der endnu IKKE er nået overgangsalderen, hvilket giver et lille sæt i mig – det må jeg indrømme!!! 

Jeg formoder, at kvinden er ikke ret meget uddannet – og mange vil blive fristet til at nedsable hende på grund af hendes enorme bryster og gigantiske tatoveringer. Men hun ejer faktisk en instinktiv forståelse af realitaterne i moderne liv, også en humoristisk sans! Og hun kan tænke udenfor boksen. Hun gør en klog sammenligning mellem sin løn og sin periode: begge to kommer engang om måneden og varer 6-8 dage, og hvis de ikke kommer, er det noget lort.  Hvor indsigtfuldt!!!

Men Ingemanns nye fokus på kvinder, der hver måned stadig får perioder er lidt bekymrende. Jeg begynder at spekulere om, om han har besluttet sig for at overlade ældre overvægtige og grimme mænd og kvinder til deres ofte væmmelige og skamløse aktiviteter, for at koncentrere sig fremover mere om folk, der er lidt yngre.

Jeg er begyndt at mærke andre tegn på lidt af en modreaktion for tiden mod de ældre. Min amerikanske svoger har sendt mig en email, der rapporterer forslag til, at regeringen gerne vil begynde at deportere ældre folk i stedet for ulovlige indvandrere – ældre folk er dyrere på grund af sundhedsproblemer, ældre folk er nemmere at fange, og de vil aldrig kunne huske, hvordan de skal finde vejen hjem. En no-brainer måske, men nogle ville kalde det lidt på den barske side – ingen tvivl om det!!!

en prototype-udvisningsbus

12:00 Lois kommer tilbage sammen med Mari-Ann. De går ind i garagen og Mari-Ann tager et foto af sit bord. De kommer ind i huset igen og vi spiser frokost alle sammen.

13:30 Mari-Ann skal til en begravelse i eftermiddag. Hun går over vejen til busstoppestedet og tager bussen ind i byen.

14:00  Jeg går i seng for at tage mig en gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzzz!!!!

15:00 Jeg står op. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Bagefter går vi op i soveværelset for at rede sengen med rene lagener, klar til i nat.

English translation

17:00 Lois and I are very tired after the day's get-together, which Lois organized on the occasion of Maggie's forthcoming move from Cheltenham to a nursing home in Birmingham - a party Maggie unfortunately could not attend due to illness - poor Maggie !!!

Lois invited a total of 12 women, and put a lot of effort into organizing the party, but actually only 8 guests showed up, which was a little disappointing, and one of these 8 guests disappeared before the food - we do not know why. It may be that somebody offended her. But the party was nevertheless a great success, we think.

There are now too many chairs in both the living room and the dining room, but we are too tired to move them back to the bedrooms, etc. - this task we leave for tomorrow.

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards we have to go out. Lois wants to take part in a Bible seminar taking place tonight in Brockworth, and she is not allowed to drive for the time being because of cataracts. I drive her over to Mari-Ann and Alf's house and drop her off in front of the house. Mari-Ann and Alf will drive her over to Brockworth.

On the way home, I again cannot resist the temptation to drive past our daughter Sarah's old house in Leckhampton. The house is all dark, as usual - I suppose that the widow who bought the house for some reason does not use the room that was Sarah's living room in the front of the house.

Sarah now lives in Australia, where the time is now 3 o'clock in the morning, so it's dark over there too, but the temperature is a little different - no doubt about it !!! The other day it reached over 100 degrees (F) / approx 40 degrees (C) (only during the day of course !!!) - good grief, what madness !!!

19:00 I come home and have a little alone time . I spend the evening listening to the radio, an interesting program about The Vernons Girls, a girl singing group that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The program's host is the charming Michael Angelis.

It's hard to believe now, but in the 1950s there were 2 big football betting companies in the UK, Littlewoods and Vernons, two companies that were both based in the city of Liverpool. My father was a customer of Littlewoods, and every week he received a betting form by post which he filled out on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, sitting at the table, while I, my mother and my siblings were watching television. He tried to predict which matches would end in a non-goalless ties, but he unfortunately never made a fortune - damn !!! I suppose he had his dreams.

Both companies, Littlewoods and Vernons, employed hundreds of girls and women, and both for some reason organized amateur choirs. The Vernons choir was eventually reduced to 16 members (later to 5, then 3) and completely coincidentally were invited to travel to London, and sing on radio and later on television. A bit of a Cinderella story, so far as I know. When they were in London and staying at hotels, they were "protected" by a female manager who primarily wanted to ensure that girls did not get involved in any scandals, so the girls were forbidden to go on dates or invite men into their hotel rooms.

In fact many of the girls succeeded now and then in smuggling men into their rooms, but it was all just about kissing and cuddling. These were the days that came before 1963's "beginning of sex", which was celebrated in Larkin's famous poem:

'Sexual intercourse began

In nineteen sixty-three

(which was rather late for me) -

Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban

And the Beatles' first LP.'

The Vernons Girls appeared in all the earliest TV pop programs - Six Five Special, Oh Boy, Boy Meets Girls, etc., programs that Jack Good organized. He later moved to the US and started Shindig over there. The Vernons Girls worked as backing singers on many hit songs of the 1960s.

I and Kathy, my sister, had a habit of watching Boy Meets Girls every Saturday evening in 1959 / 1960. The show's big star was Marty Wilde, the famous pop singer (and father of Kim Wylde), whom Kathy was crazy about at the time. The Vernons Girls appeared on the show regularly, and Marty ended up marrying one of the girls. Happy days!!!!

(from left to right) my sister Kathy, our cousin Kathleen, 

my brother Steve, and me, in 1959.

Marty Wilde's wedding

22:00 Lois comes home. The evening seminar took place in Brockworth library, instead of in the town's community center. The Seminar Group has decided to experiment with the library as an alternative venue, because they are not satisfied with the community centre's administration and staff. Lois says that so far the experiment is going well.

I go to bed - zzzzz! But Lois needs to relax and unwind after the evening's stimulating Bible seminar. Poor Lois !!!!!

As usual, I recommend a few television programs that I think are suitable for the purpose, two old sitcoms from the 1980s: "Yes Prime Minister" that takes the piss out of British civil servants, and "Allo Allo" that takes the piss out of occupied France, the German army, the French resistance, British agents and all the cliches of the Second World War in books, films and plays.

I do not wake up when Lois later creeps into bed with me.

04:00 I get up early and take a look at the web.

08:00 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 get up. We eat breakfast.

09:00 I move the extra chairs we used yesterday for the party, back to the bedrooms or wherever. Afterwards, I start to prepare a Danish vocabulary test for our U3A Danish group's members - the group's next meeting will take place here tomorrow at 2:30pm.

The correct answer to the test (a series of letters) will spell a rather random-sounding sentence, which is the first half of a traditional Danish proverb: "March will seek you out, April will try you ....". The rest of the proverb is a little negative in my opinion, so I have decided not to use it: "May says whether you should live or die."

The proverb seems to be unnecessarily pessimistic, but I think I may have found out why - until recently the police, judges and executioners were only part-time jobs in Denmark. It may be that the Danish police in the old days concentrated on catching criminals only once a year - in March. The judges sentenced them to death in April, and the executioners beheaded them in May.

I am quite sure that group members will not be able to cheat by guessing the phrase, which is the main thing - I'm so demanding ha ha ha!

11:00 Lois has to go out. She drives over to Mari-Ann's house to pick her up and drive her back to our place. Mari-Ann is storing a table in our garage, and she wants to take a photo of it today, so she can sell it.

I take a little look at the Internet. I find Morten Ingemann's latest cartoon strip. My Goodness! I get a bit of a shock when I see it - I know that for sure!

The Dane Ingemann is my favorite cartoonist - no doubt about it! He is very interested in ugly, overweight, middle-aged or older people, the kind of people that most artists rarely pay any attention to.

I like Ingemann's attitude - he instinctively rejects negative feelings about ageing. He knows that people's best years are most often in the future - in their 80s and 90s, and beyond. In other words, the best is yet to come.

But his latest cartoon strip shows, for once, an obese woman who has NOT yet reached the menopause, which gives me a bit of a start - I've got to admit that !!!

I suspect that the woman is not very educated - and many will be tempted to put her down because of her enormous boobs and giant tattoos. But she actually possesses an instinctive understanding of the realities of modern life, also a sense of humor! And she can think outside the box. She makes a clever comparison between her salary and her period: both come once a month and last 6-8 days and if she does not get them, everything sucks! How insightful!

But Ingemann's new focus on women who still get periods every month is a little worrying. I begin to wonder whether he has decided to leave older overweight ugly men and women to their often vile and shameless activities, in order to concentrate in future more on people who are a little younger.

I have started to notice other signs of a bit of a backlash against the elderly at the moment. My American brother-in-law has sent me an email reporting suggestions that the government would like to start deporting older people instead of illegal immigrants - older people are more expensive because of health problems, older people are easier to catch, plus they will never remember how to find their way home. A no-brainer perhaps, but some would call it a little on the harsh side - no doubt about that !!!

a prototype deportation bus

12:00 Lois comes back with Mari-Ann. They go into the garage and Mari-Ann takes a photo of her table. They come into the house and we eat lunch all together.

13:30 Mari-Ann has to go to a funeral this afternoon. She walks across the road to the bus stop and takes the bus into town.

14:00 I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzzz !!!!

15:00 I get up. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the sofa. Then we're off up to the bedroom to make the bed with clean sheets, ready for tonight.