Fredag den 7. april 2017 kl 16:30 lørdag den 8. april 2017 kl 16:29

16:30 Jeg er stadig alene i huset – Lois og Brian (Lois’s fætter) og Ruth (Brians kone) er stadig ude på udflugt til Sudeley Castle, et nærliggende slot, der blev bygget i 1400-tallet.

I eftermiddags deltog jeg i det månedlige møde af Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe og vi læste de første 100 linjer af ”Ancrene Wisse”, en bog skrevet på middelengelsk først i 13. århundrede af en kanon i kirken: bogen indeholdt anvisninger og oplysninger til 3 kvinder, der gerne ville blive til eremitter.

Jeg finder min blok frem og opskriver mine idéer og tanker, mens mødet stadig er frisk i min erindring. I de første 100 linjer går forfatteren i gang med at advare hans 3 kvinder mod de 7 dødssynder: hovmod,  griskhed, nydelsessyge, misundelse, fråseri, vrede og dovenskab. Stakkels kvinder, det lyder ikke ret sjovt at være eremit, på trods af, hvad reklamerne lover!!!!

Vi finder ud af mange interessante middelengelske ord, som vi ikke længere bruger. Vores nuværende ord ”cheer”, som vi ser i for eksempel ordet ”cheerful” (munter) osv, betød i 1200-tallet ansigtet, og lidt senere en stemning, især en god stemning.

Den forældede gamle engelske hilsen, ”What cheer?” (Hvordan går det?), som puritanerne brugte i New England, blev sindssygt populær blandt de lokale algonkin-indianere, og til sidst blev udbredt blandt indianer i hele New England og Canada – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Når det kom til at tale om ansigtet i 1200-tallet, var ”ansyn” imidlertid det normale ord, som ligner det danske ord ”ansigt”. Begge ord betyder grundlæggende ”hvordan man ser ud”.

Circa 1300 blev det franske ord ”face” populær i England, og dette ord erstattede gradvist det oprindelige ordet ”ansyn”, der pludselig begyndte at virke lidt ”gammeldags” – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

I Danmark er det normale ord stadig ”ansigt”, selvom danskerne også har lånt ordet ’face’ fra England, som de staver som ”fjæs”. Det er interessant, at det nutildags er meget sjovere at være en kvindelig eremit, især i Skandinavien, og det er tilladt at få veninder, kærester osv. En skandinavisk håndbog til kvindelige eremitter advarer dem imidlertid imod, at vise deres ”orgasme-fjæs” (her bruger håndbogen det engelske låneord, hvilket er interessant!) til veninderne eller giver en opvisning i, hvad de og kæresterne gør i sengen, hvilket viser hvor meget eremitismeverden har ændret sig – du godeste!  Men man føler sig tvunget til at sige, hvad er pointen med at blive eremit, hvis disse er de eneste regler?

Ræk mig lige opkastningspose, Alice!!!!

17:30 Lois ringer til mig, at advarer mig, at slottet nu er lukket og de kommer hjem om 20 minutter. Det viser sig, at Ruth snakkede så meget under frokosten på slottets café, at de havde ikke ret meget tid at se sig om i slottet – ingen overraskelse der!!!!

18:00 Lois, Ruth og Brian kommer hjem, og snakken kommer på gled igen. Lois har taget nogle charmerende billeder på slottet.

Brian og Ruth på Sudeley Castle

Et dejligt træ i slottets haver

en ruineret del af slottet

Brian ser sig om i slottets haver

18:30 Vi sidder og drikker te i stuen. Ruth dominerer samtalen, som altid, og Brian falder i søvn i en lænestol (som altid!!!). Jeg formoder, at han mange mange gange har hørt Ruths meninger og anekdoter.

20:00 Vi spiser aftensmad. For Lois’s og mit vedkommende er det lidt sent – vi foretrækker at spise kl 18. Derefter slapper vi af i stuen. Ruth har ikke svært med at få tungen på gled igen – du godeste. Og Brian falder i søvn – du godeste (igen)!!!

21:45 Lois og jeg vil gerne i seng. Men Ruth finder sin bærebare frem og begynder at vise os billeder af Brians seneste fødselsdagsfest, som alle parrets børn eller børnebørn var med til. Det er rart at se de første få billeder, men det viser sig, at Ruth har hundredvis af dem. Pokkers! Og Brian har vågnet op med fornyet energi.

22:15 Jeg minder Ruth, at det har været en lang dag og Lois og jeg er trætte, og jeg presser hende og Brian (med succes) til at gå i seng. Hurra!

04:45 Jeg kryber ud af sengen og går stille og rolig ned ad trappen. Jeg laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtest.

07:30 Jeg trisser 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 kan ikke spise morgenmad, indtil Ruth og Brian står op og går i bad. Pokkers!

10:00 Vi spiser omsider morgenmad og snakken kommer i gled igen. Det er svært at tro, men Ruth og Brian kun kl 13:15 siger farvel og tager af sted – Ruths bror, Stephen, der bor i Filton i nærheden af Bristol, har inviteret dem til frokost. De vil ikke ankomme før kl 14.

Alt tager længere, hvis Ruth bliver involveret. I morges et ”hurtigt” smut ind i baghaven for at kigge på blomsterbedene tager en hel time – for de fleste mennesker ville det have været max 10 minutter. En kort gåtur til den lokale nærbutik bliver til en 90 minutters tur omkring hele landsbyen.

12:30 Ruth og Brian sætter sig i stuen og beder os om at lave dem en kop kaffe. Jeg begynder at bekymre mig over muligheden, at de vil spiser frokost hos os i stedet for at spise hos Ruths bror i Bristol. Du godeste!

13:15 De siger omsider farvel og tager til af sted. Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to portioner frokost. Bagefter tilbringer Lois og jeg eftermiddagen i sengen – du godeste (igen)!!!! Det er så rart at ”høre” tavsheden i sengen og i huset nedenunder – hurra!!!!!

16:00 Vi vælter ud af sengen og jeg kigger lidt på nettet og en betryggende artikel på den indflydelserige amerikanske nyhedswebsted, The Onion, som jeg må være gået glip af. En 7-årig dreng, Joshua Behr, har nævnt sin fars yndlingsbar som sin yndlings restaurant på grund af den høje kvalitet af forretningens nachos og pommes frites.

den 7-årige Joshua

Joshua ved ikke hvorfor, men hans far har tendens til at tage ham kun om tirsdagen med på restauranten, og Joshua og webstedet er ikke helt sikre på, om dette valg er på grund af tirsdagens specialitet (det er såkaldte bud kylling dag) eller fordi der er nogen, der hedder ”Heather”, som om tirsdagen tjener på baren.

Men det er rart, når en fraskilt mand og hans søn har noget til fælles, der kan give dem lyst til at være sammen. Når vi ser en far og en søn skabe denne slags bro mellem generationer, så kan vi se, at her ligger håbet om fremtiden - det ved jeg med sikkerhed!

English translation

16:30 I am still alone in the house - Lois, and Brian (Lois's cousin) and Ruth (Brian's wife) are still out on an excursion to Sudeley, a nearby castle built in the 1400s.

This afternoon I attended the monthly meeting of Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group and we read the first 100 lines of "Ancrene Wisse," a book written in Middle English in the early 13th century by a canon of the church: the book contained instructions and information to three women who wanted to become hermits.

I get out my notepad and write down my ideas and thoughts while the meeting is still fresh in my memory. In the first 100 lines the author gets going with warning his three women against the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, indulgence, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth. Poor women, it does not sound a lot of fun to be a hermit, despite what the ads promise !!!!

We find out about many interesting Middle English words that we no longer use. Our current word "cheer", which we see in e.g. "cheerful" etc., in the 1200s meant ‘the face’, and a little later meant ‘a mood’, especially a good mood.

The obsolete Old English greeting, "What cheer?" (How are you?), which the Puritans used in New England, became insanely popular among the local Algonquian peoples, and eventually became widespread among Indians throughout New England and Canada - good grief, what madness !!!

When it came to talking about the face in the 1200s, the normal English word was "ansyn", which resembles the Danish word "ansigt". Both words mean basically "how a person seems or looks".

Circa 1300, the French word "face" became popular in England, and this word gradually replaced the original word "ansyn", which suddenly began to seem a bit "old-fashioned" - my goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!

In Denmark the normal word is still "ansigt", although the Danes have also borrowed the word 'face' from England, which they spell as "fjæs". It is interesting that nowadays it is much more fun to be a female hermit, especially in Scandinavia, and it is ok to have female friends, boyfriends, etc. 

A Scandinavian handbook for female hermits warns them, however, against showing their orgasm-“face" (here the manual uses the English loanword, which is interesting!) to their female friends, or  giving information out on what they and their boyfriends do in bed, which shows how much the world of hermits has changed - my goodness! But one feels compelled to say, what is the point of being a hermit, if these are the only rules?

Pass the sickbag, Alice !!!!

17:30 Lois calls me to warn me that the castle is now closed and they will be home in 20 minutes.

It turns out that Ruth talked so much during lunch at the castle cafe that they did not have much time to look around the castle - no surprise there !!!!

18:00 Lois, Ruth and Brian come home and the talk gets going again. Lois has taken some charming pictures of the castle.

Brian and Ruth at Sudeley Castle

A lovely tree in the castle gardens

a ruined part of the castle

Brian looks around the castle gardens

18:30 We sit and drink tea in the living room. Ruth dominates the conversation, as always, and Brian falls asleep in an armchair (as always !!!). I suspect that he has heard Ruth's opinions and anecdotes many many times.

20:00 We have dinner. For Lois and me it's a little late - we prefer to eat at 6pm. Afterwards we relax in the living room. Ruth has no difficulty to getting the chat going again - my goodness. And Brian falls asleep - my goodness (again) !!!

21:45 Lois and I want to go to bed. But Ruth gets her laptop out and begins to show us pictures of Brian's recent birthday party, which all of the couple's children or grandchildren came to. It's nice to see the first few pictures, but it turns out that Ruth has hundreds of them. Damn! And Brian has woken up with renewed energy.

22:15 I remind Ruth that it's been a long day and Lois and I are tired, and I press her and Brian (successfully) to go to bed. Hooray!

04:45 I crawl out of bed and go quietly and calmly down the stairs. I do one of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.

07:30 I toddle 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 cannot eat breakfast until Ruth and Brian get up and take a shower. Damn!

10:00 We have breakfast at last and the chatter gets going again. It's hard to believe, but it's only at 1.15pm that Ruth and Brian say goodbye and leave - Ruth's brother, Stephen, who lives in Filton near Bristol, has invited them for lunch. They will not arrive until 2pm now however.

Everything takes longer if Ruth is involved. This morning, a "quick" pop into the backyard to look at the flowerbeds takes a whole hour - for most people it would have been a maximum of 10 minutes. A short walk to the local convenience store turns into a 90 minute walk around the whole village.

12:30 Ruth and Brian sit down in the living room and ask us to make them a cup of coffee. I'm starting to worry about the possibility that they want to eat lunch with us instead of eating at Ruth's brother's in Bristol. My Goodness!

13:15 They say goodbye at last and leave. I hurry into the kitchen and make two portions of lunch. Afterwards Lois and I spend the afternoon in bed - oh my (again) !!!! It is so nice to "hear" the silence in the bed and in the house downstairs - hurrah !!!!!

16:00 We tumble out of bed and I take a little look at the web and at a reassuring article on the influential US news website The Onion, which I must have missed. A 7-year-old boy, Joshua Behr, has named his father's favorite bar as his own favorite restaurant because of the high quality of the establishment's nachos and fries.

7-year-old Joshua

Joshua does not know why, but his father tends to take him to the restaurant only on Tuesdays, and Joshua and the site are not quite sure whether this choice is because of Tuesday's specialty (it's called “tender chicken day”) or because there is someone called "Heather", who tends the bar on Tuesdays.

But it is nice when a divorced man and his son have something in common that can give them the desire to be together. When we see a father and son create this kind of bridge between the generations, we can see that herein lies hope for the future - that is something I know for sure!