17:00 Jeg har ikke nogen kontrol over mit liv – det er jeg nu helt sikkert
på! Jeg havde planer om at lave en masse ting i dag, men jeg endte med at bruge
dagen på at male og havearbejde igen – pokkers! Jeg bliver gradvist mere og
mere desillusioneret om vores chancer for at forlade dette enorme hus og have.
Lois og jeg kommer til at dø her – det har jeg mindre og mindre tvivl om !!!!!!
Pokkers (igen) !!!!!
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt
fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om BBC og den 2.
verdenskrig. Programmets vært er den charmerende Jonathan Dimbleby.
Det har aldrig faldet mig ind før, at den 2. verdenskrig var første gang,
siden starten af ”radio-alderen”, at et demokratisk land blev involveret i en
stor krig, og først og fremmest i en krig, der for dette demokratiske land gik
rigtig rigtig dårligt under de første 2 år – du godeste!
Før krigen havde BBC ikke engang sin egne nyhedstjeneste, bortset fra, at
overbringe videre rapporter af eksterne nyhedsbureau som for eksempel Reuters.
Du godeste, sikke en overraskelse (til mig!) !!!
Så derfor skulle BBC ikke bare starte en nyhedstjeneste fra bunden, men
også modstå regeringens forsøg på, at forhindre dem i at overbringe ”dårlige
nyheder”, der ville være dårlige for landets moral. Du godeste, sikke et
mareridt, fordi der fulgte endnu to års dårlige nyheder – det er jeg helt klar
over!!!
Dårlige nyheder blev fulgt af endnu værre nyheder indtil 1941, da der skete
de første sejre i Nordafrika, Hitler besluttede at opgive massebombning af
Storbritannien og at invadere Rusland i stedet for, og det vigtigste, der i
december skete USAs indgang i krigen.
Også i første omgang ville
regeringen ikke have, at BBC rapporterer direkte fra krigsfronten, af frygt for
sikkerhedsproblemer osv. Du godeste – regeringer kan være så dumme, ingen tvivl
om det!!!!!
En anden overraskelse til mig var at høre, at BBC også var nødt til at
modstå pres fra ejerne af landets vigtigste aviser. Det var landets
pressebaroner, der før krigen havde forhindret BBC i at oprette sit eget
nyshedstjeneste, og under krigen ville de have, at BBC forsinker vigtige
rapporter fra krigsfronten, indtil landets aviserne blev trukket om morgenen.
Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!!
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!
04:45 Jeg står
tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtest.
08:00 Jeg lunter
ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op i soveværelset og
hopper op i sengen til Lois. Vi drikker téen og går i bad. Vi står op og spiser
morgenmad.
10:00 Vi taler lidt på telefon med Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien
og hendes 3,5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessica. Familien har brugt eftermiddagen
på at have en picnic og se Francis, Sarahs mand og tvillingernes far, dyrke
lidt windsurfing. Sarah og Francis har besluttet, ikke at sende tvillingerne i
vuggestuen indtil næste år, når regeringen vil betale for to dage om ugen –
hurra!
10:30 Jeg går i gang med at læse de første 173 linjer af Layomons Brut, der
blev skrevet i ca. 1200. Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe holder dens
månedlige møde på fredag, og Layomons Brut er gruppens seneste projekt.
Digtet handler om et stort slag, der fandt sted i det 6. århundrede i
nærheden af byen Bath, mellem kong Artur på den ene side og de angelsaksiske
hære på den anden.
I dette uddrag går kong Artur
hoved-til-hoved med en angelsaksiske leder, Colgrim. Hvor spændende (synes jeg ikke!!!!).
i digtet går kong Artur hoved-til-hoved
med
den angelsaksiske leder, Colgrim,
midt
i tusindvis af døde kroppe – du godeste!!!!
Det er lidt mærkeligt, synes jeg, at Artur er digtets helt og forfatterens
angelsaksiske forfadre er historiens skurke. Men min forklaring er som følger.
For Layamons vedkommende var det ikke vigtigt, at hans forfadre, de
angelsaksiske, var skurkene i historien. Det vigtigste aspekt var, at den
britiske hær bestod af kristne, mens forfatterens angelsakiske forfadre var
hedninger, så de helt simpelt kunne ikke blive tilladt at vinde slaget –
mysteriet løst ha ha ha.
12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter skal vi af sted. Lois ønsker at deltage
i en gudstjeneste, der finder sted i eftermiddag i byen Tewkesbury. Hun er ikke
tilladt at køre bil for tiden på grund af grå stær. Jeg kører hende og Maggie,
hendes veninde, over til Tewkesbury (Maggie vil hellere ikke køre bil i dag
fordi hun har hovedpine – stakkels Maggie!).
Jeg sætter de to kvinder af foran byens biblioteket, hvor deres kirke
holder dens gudstjenester, og jeg parkerer i en nærliggende parkeringsplads.
byen Tewkesburys bibliotek på Højgade
Jeg bliver siddende i bilen og fortsætter med at læse de første 173 linjer
af Layamons Brut, der handler om det slag, der fandt sted i det 6. århundrede i
nærheden af byen Bath. Slaget viser sig at være lidt af en walkover – du godeste!
Arthur og den britiske hær slog med Gud på deres side, mens på den hedenske angelsaksiske
side døde tusindvis af mænd, og ofte ikke på en meget pæn måde – yikes! Arthur
halshugger Colgrim, den angelsaksiske leder – staklen!!!!!
Mens jeg sidder i bilen og læser om dette slag, der fandt sted for 1500 år
siden, holder jeg øje med de underlige unge kunderne, der går ind og ud af tatoveringsbutikken,
der ligger på hjørnet af parkeringspladsen – meget interessant at kigge på hannerne
og hunnerne og deres fængslende subkultur (mere interessant end et 1500 år gammelt slag måske) !
jeg sidder i bilen og læner min middelengelske tekst
om
Kong Arthur på rattet.
Jeg
sidder i bilen og holde øje med
tatoveringsbutikken
på
hjørnet af parkeringspladsen, og dens fængslende subkultur – du godeste!
14:30 Jeg går en kort tur i bymidten og ser igen det lokale hospital, hvor
min 91-årige mor blev indlagt i 2010, 4 måneder, før hun desværre døde. Vores
datter i København, Alison, var dengang på besøg hos os, og hun viste min mor
sin 3 mdr gamle søn, Isaac. Det var min mors eneste chance for at se sit første
mandlige barnebarnsbarn. Dette hospital
holder en masser minder for Lois og mig – ikke ret behagelige.
byen Tewkesburys hospital i dag.
tilbageblik til oktober 2010. Lois, Isaac, Alison med Rosalind.
Vi
besøger min 90-årige mor i hospitalet, og vise hende Isaac,
hendes
3-mdr gamle barnebarnsbarn
Lois med Isaac
15:00 Lois og Maggie kommer ud af biblioteket. Gudstjenesten er sluttet. Vi
kører tilbage til Cheltenham, og Maggie kører hjem. Lois og jeg slapper af med
en kop te i sofaen.
English translation
17:00 I have no control over my
life - I'm sure about that now! I had plans to do a lot of things today, but I
ended up spending the day painting and gardening again - damn it! I am
gradually becoming more and more disillusioned about our chances of leaving
this huge house and garden. Lois and I are going to die here - that's something
I have less and less doubt about !!!!!! Damn (again) !!!!!
18:00 We eat dinner and spend the
rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary is on about
the BBC and World War II. The host of the program is the charming Jonathan
Dimbleby.
It has never occurred to me
before that World War II was the first time since the start of the "radio
age" that a democratic country was involved in a major war and, above all,
in a war that for this democratic country was going really really badly for the first 2
years - my god!
Before the war, the BBC did not
even have its own news service, except for passing on reports by external news
agencies such as Reuters. My god, what a surprise (to me!) !!!
So, the BBC had to not just launch
a news service from scratch but also resist the government's attempt to prevent
them from transmitting "bad news" that would be bad for the country's
morale. My god, what a nightmare, because there followed another two years of
bad news - that's something I'm quite clear about!!!
Bad news was followed by even
worse news until 1941, when there were the first victories in North Africa,
Hitler decided to abandon mass bombing of Britain and invade Russia instead,
and the most important thing, in December, was the US's entry into the war.
Also, initially, the government
did not want the BBC to report directly from the battle front for fear of
security issues, etc. My god - governments can be so stupid, no doubt about
that !!!!!
Another surprise to me was to
hear that the BBC also had to resist pressure from the owners of the country's
most important newspapers. It was the country's press tycoons that before the
war had prevented the BBC from setting up its own news service and during the
war they wanted the BBC to delay important reports from the war front until the
newspapers had been published in the morning. My god, what madness !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzz!!!!
04:45 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
08:00 I amble into the kitchen
and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and hop into bed
with Lois. We drink the tea and go in the shower. We get up and have breakfast.
10:00 We talk a little on the
phone with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia and her 2 and a
half-year-old twins, Lily and Jessica. The family have spent the afternoon
having a picnic and watching Francis, Sarah's husband and the twins' father,
do some windsurfing. Sarah and Francis have decided not to send the twins to
kindergarten until next year when the government will pay for two days a week -
hurray!
10:30 I make a start on reading
the first 173 lines of Layomon's Brut, written in approx. 1200AD. Lynda's U3A
"Making of English" group is holding its monthly meeting on Friday,
and Layomon's Brut is the group's latest project.
The extract is about a big battle
that took place in the 6th century near the city of Bath, between King Arthur and the Britons on the one hand and the Anglo-Saxon armies on the other.
In this excerpt, King Arthur goes
head-to-head with an Anglo-Saxon leader, Colgrim. How exciting (I do not think
!!!!).
King Arthur goes head-to-head
in the poem
with the Anglo-Saxon leader, Colgrim,
in the middle of thousands of dead bodies -
my god !!!!
It's a little strange, I think,
that Arthur is the hero of the poem and the author's Anglo-Saxon ancestors are
the villains of the story. But my explanation is as follows. For Layamon, it
was not important that his ancestors, the Anglo-Saxons, were the villains of
the story. The most important aspect was that the Britons' army consisted of
Christians, while the author's Anglo-Saxon ancestors were heathens, so they
simply could not be allowed to win the battle - mystery solved ha ha ha.
12:00 We have lunch and
afterwards we have to leave. Lois wants to attend a church service taking place
this afternoon in the town of Tewkesbury. She is not allowed to drive a car at
the moment due to cataracts. I drive her and Maggie, her friend, over to
Tewkesbury (Maggie would rather not drive today because she has a headache -
poor Maggie!).
I drop the two women off in front
of the city's library, where their church holds its services, and I park in a
nearby parking lot.
The town of Tewkesbury's
library on Højgade
I stay sitting in the car and
continue to read the first 173 lines of Layamons Brut, which is about the
battle that took place in the 6th century near the city of Bath. The battle
turns out to be a bit of a walkover - my god! Arthur and the Britons' Army
fought with God on their side while on the heathen Anglo-Saxon side thousands
of men died and often not in a very nice way - yikes! Arthur beheaded Colgrim,
the Anglo-Saxon Leader - poor thing !!!!!
While I'm in the car and reading
about this battle that took place 1500 years ago, I keep an eye on the strange
young customers going in and out of the tattoo shop located on the corner of
the parking lot - very interesting to look at the males and the females and
their captivating subculture (more interesting than a 1500 year old battle
maybe?).
I'm in the car and leaning my
Middle English text
about King Arthur on the steering wheel.
I'm still sitting in the car keeping an eye on the
tattoo shop
on the corner of the parking lot, and its
captivating subculture - my god!
14:30 I go for a short walk in
the town centre and see again the local hospital where my 91 year old mother
was hospitalised in 2010, 4 months before she died sadly. Our daughter in
Copenhagen, Alison, was visiting us at that time and she showed my mother her
3-month-old great-grandson, Isaac. It was my mother's only chance to see her
first great-grandson. This hospital holds a lot of memories for Lois and me - and not such pleasant ones.
The town of Tewkesbury's hospital
today.
flashback to October 2010.
Lois, Isaac, Alison with Rosalind.
We visit my 90-year-old mother in the
hospital and show her Isaac,
her 3-month-old great grandson
Lois with Isaac outside the hospital
15:00 Lois and Maggie come out of
the library. The church service has ended. We drive back to Cheltenham, and
Maggie drives home. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch.
