Danskcolin: Lørdag den 1. april 2017 kl 16:30 søndag den 2. april 2017 kl 16:29

17:30 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal vi ud. Lois ønsker at høre en korkoncert i aften i Churchdown, og jeg har lovet at komme med. Vi kører over til Mari-Ann og Alfs hus og de kører os over til byen Churchdowns højskole.

En god nyhed – Janet og Alan kommer ikke (hurra!), så vi kun bliver 6 i alt, inklusive Gill og Margaret. Jeg hader ”store” grupper!!!!

Jeg har ikke glædet mig til at komme, men faktisk bliver aftenen meget vellykket. Haydns musik dominerer programmet – der er kun 3-4 komponister, man altid kan stole på, og Haydn er helt sikkert én af disse få – mange tak, Joseph. Hil dig, din østrigste person - du holdt os ud af krigen!!!

Vi har gode pladser, så vi ser udmærket – sopranen har en fantastisk stemme, også en utroligt glamorøs kjole på, og vi sidder lige højde til at få fuld valuta for pengene ha ha ha!! Du godeste, vi er så overfladiske!!!!

En anden plus – der er ingen lange pauser under de forskellige stykker på programmet, og koncerten er slut kl 21:30 (efter 2 timer) og det gør ikke noget, at der ikke er nogen bar.

Dette billede blev taget tidligere på dagen

under indstuderingen med kor og solister

Lois og jeg holdt vi en 6-ugers ferie i 2002 i Ungarn og Østrig, og vi ville besøge Haydns fødested, et lille hus, der ligger halvvejs mellem Wien og Bratislava i nærheden af den tidligere romerske militærlejr Carnuntum, som vi tidligere på dagen havde set os om i. Haydns hus var blevet til et museum, men desværre var det lukket, da vi prøvede at besøge det – pokkers, bare vores held!!!!

Tilbageblik til april 2002 -

vi ser os om i den tidligere romerske militærlejr Carnuntum i Østrig:

Her ser vi Lois i det tidligere romerske amfiteater

størstedelen af den tidligere romerske militærlejr Carnuntum

er desværre ruineret, men lejrens gamle romerske restaurant

blomstrer stadig heldigvis, med en autentisk romersk spisekort.

Vi ville besøge Haydns fødested, der var blevet til et museum,

men desværre var det lukket. Pokkers, bare vores held!!!!

21:30 Koncerten er slut. Lois og jeg kommer hjem igen og går i seng til sædvanlig tid – zzzzzzzz!!!!!

05:20 Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet.

07:30 Jeg dasker 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. Vi kan ikke ligge længe i sengen i dag, fordi Lois i dag skal lave 4 portioner frokost, lidt senere (kl 10) skal vi tale lidt på Skype med Sarah, vores datter i Australien, og kl 10:45 skal hun af sted.

09:00 Lois skynder sig ind i køkkenet og lave 4 madpakker: to til os, og 2 til kirkens besøgende prædikant og hans australske kæreste. Lois ønsker at deltage i dagens to gudstjenester, der finder sted i hendes kirke i byen Tewkesbury, og en besøgende prædikant holder prædikenen i dag. Ifølge kirkens turnussen er det Lois’s tur i dag at lave en madpakke for prædikanten og kæresten – stakkels Lois!!!!

10:00 Lois er stået op lidt tidligere, end normalt, så vi kan tale lidt på Skype med Sarah, vores datter i Australien, og hendes 3,5-årige tvillinger, så det er lidt af en skam, at vi får ingen svar, da vi ringer til dem. Pokkers! Jeg sender Sarah en sms, for at prøve at minde hende om vores aftale, men igen er der ingen svar. Vi venter omkring 30 minutter, og så opgiver vi håbet om at tale med dem. Jeg formoder, at familien i dag har travlt med noget uforventet – det er ikke nemt at opdrage to livlige tvillinger, det har vi ikke nogen tvivl om.

Lois læser en bog, mens vi sidder og

venter på Sarahs skype-opkaldet – du godeste!

Lois har sat på bordet blomsterne, Sarah sendt hende i andledning

af Mors Dag – men det nytter ikke noget!!!

10:45 Lois skal af sted. Hun kører over til Tewkesbury for at deltage i sin kirkes to gudstjenester. Jeg har lidt alenetid. Jeg skriver en email på ungarsk til Tünde, min veninde i Budapest. Du godeste! Jeg finder det nu meget svært at skrive på ungarsk. Jeg møder hver tirsdag med min ven, ”Magyar” Mike, for at lære ungarsk i en time, men desværre har jeg meget svært ved at hjælpe ham – han har glemt en masse ungarske ord over det seneste år. Resultatet er, at jeg selv får ingen tid til at forbedre mit egne kendskab til sproget – uha!!

I min email ti Tünde fortæller jeg hende om gårsdagens Haydn-koncert, og sender hende vores billeder af komponistens fødested i Østrig (se ovenfor). Jeg minder hende, om to dage før vores usuccesfulde besøg i 2002 til Haydns fødested, havde Lois og jeg besøgt hende i hendes lejlighed i Budapest. Hun har bagt os en kage med et britisk flag på toppen. Jeg mindes, at jeg dengang fortalte hende, at jeg var overrasket over, at se hvor mange EU-flag findes i offentlige steder i Ungarn, i sammenligning til Storbritannien, hvor de var et sjældent syn – du godeste! Men jeg tænkte aldrig, at vi ville trække os ud af unionen, og tvinge regeringen at spilde tid med at løse alle de dumme og undgåelige problemer, som tilbagetrækningen fører til! Sikke et vanvid!!!!

tilbageblik til april 2002.

Lois skærer den kage, Tünde har bagt.

Kagen har et britisk flag på toppen.

I baggrunden ser vi Tünde.

12:00 Jeg spiser frokost, og bagefter går jeg ud og luger lidt i køkkenhaven, for fjerde gang i år. Der er stadig kun meget små ukrudt der for tiden, men jeg må lægge et stort indsats i år i at forhindre haven i at blive til en jungle igen – uha!

14:00 Jeg kommer ind i huset igen og sætter mig ved computeren. Jeg udprinter de første 100 linjer af en middelengelsk bog, Ancrene Wisse, og jeg begynder at slå de svære ord op i min online ordbog. Medlemmerne af Lyndas U3A "Making of English" gruppe har valgt denne bog som vores næste projekt.

Bogen blev skrevet først i 13. århundrede af en kanon i kirken: bogen indeholdt anvisninger og oplysninger til 3 kvinder, der gerne ville blive til eremitter. Bogen lyder ikke ret spændende, men vi får se. En kirkelig bog kunne være lidt af en lettelse efter al den sex og vold, vi for nylig har oplevet både i andre middelengelske værker, også i hverdagen i vores privatliv – gudskelov for det!

en typisk 1-værelses hytte til kvindelige eremitter,

der havde tendens til at have store hoveder og korte kroppe.

Jeg forestiller mig, at kanonen, der registrerede hende,

var meget glad for, at sige ’godnat, sov godt’ til hende

og gå tilbage til sin dejlige kanoniske lejlighed – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !!!

15:00 Jeg kigger lidt på nettet. Min søster Gill, der bor i Cambridge, har sendt mig et charmerende billede af sig selv og hendes 3 døtre i byens botaniske haver sidste søndag.

min søster Gill og hendes 3 døtre

i Cambridge botaniske haver

16:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Tewkesbury og vi slapper af med en kop te og et stykke kage i sofaen.

English translation

17:30 Lois and I eat dinner and afterwards we have to go out. Lois wants to hear a choral concert tonight in Churchdown, and I have promised to come along. We drive over to Mari-Ann and Alf's house and they drive us over to Churchdown High School.

Good news - Janet and Alan are not coming (hurrah!), So we are only six in all, including Gill and Margaret. I hate "big" groups !!!!

I have not been looking forward to coming, but actually the evening turns out to be very successful. Haydn's music dominates the program - there are only three to four composers you can always rely on, and Haydn's definitely one of those few - thank you, Joseph. Hail to thee, Austrian person - you kept us out of war !!!

We have good seats, so we get an excellent view - the soprano has an amazing voice, also an incredibly glamorous dress on, and we are sitting at the right height to get full value for money ha ha ha !! My god, we are so shallow!!!!

Another plus - there are no long breaks during the various pieces on the program and the concert ends at 9.30pm (after 2 hours) and it does not matter that there is no bar.

This picture was taken earlier in the day

during the rehearsal with the chorus and solo artists

In 2002 Lois and I had a six-week holiday in Hungary and Austria, and we wanted to visit Haydn's birthplace, a small house located halfway between Vienna and Bratislava near the former Roman military camp of Carnuntum, which we had looked round in earlier in the day. Haydn's house had been turned into a museum, but unfortunately it was closed when we tried to visit it - damn, just our luck !!!!

21:30 The concert is over. Lois and I come back home and go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!

2002 - We have a look round in the former Roman military camp

of Carnuntum: Here we see Lois in the Roman amphitheatre

the greater part of the former Roman military camp of Carnuntum

is unfortunately in ruins, but the camp's Roman restaurant is still flourishing

luckily, with an authentic Roman cuisine.

We wanted to visit Haydn's birthplace, which had been turned into a museum,

but unfortunately it was closed. Damn, just our luck !!!!

21:30 The concert is over. Lois and I come back home and go to bed at the usual time - zzzzzzzz !!!!!

05:20 I get up early and take a look on the web.

07:30 I shuffle 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 get up. We eat breakfast.

We cannot stay long in bed today because Lois has to make 4 servings of lunch today, then a little later (at 10am) we have to talk on Skype with Sarah, our daughter in Australia, and then at 10:45am she must leave for church.

09:00 Lois rushes into the kitchen and makes 4 lunch packs: two for us, and two for the church's visiting preacher and his Australian girlfriend. Lois wants to participate in today's two services taking place in her church in the town of Tewkesbury, and a visiting preacher is giving the address today. According to the church's rota, it's Lois's turn today to make a packed lunch for the preacher and the girlfriend - poor Lois !!!!

10:00 Lois has got up a little earlier than usual so we can talk on Skype with Sarah, our daughter in Australia, and her 3.5-year-old twins, so it's a bit of a shame that we get no answer when we call them. Darn! I send Sarah a text message, to try to remind her of our arrangement, but again there is no response. We wait about 30 minutes and then we give up hope of talking to them. I suspect that the family today are busy with something unexpected - it's not easy to bring up two lively twins, we have no doubts about that.

Lois reads a book while we sit and

wait for Sarah's Skype call - my goodness!

Lois has put on the table the flowers Sarah sent her

for Mother's Day - but it is all to no avail !!!

10:45 Lois has to go off. She drives over to Tewkesbury to attend her church's two services. I have a little alone time. I write an email in Hungarian to Tünde, my friend in Budapest. My Goodness! I now find it very difficult to write in Hungarian. Every Tuesday I meet up with my friend, "Magyar" Mike, to learn Hungarian for one hour, but unfortunately I have a lot of trouble helping him - he has forgotten a lot of Hungarian words over the past year. The result is that I myself have no time to improve my own knowledge of the language - oh dear!!

In my email to Tünde I tell her about yesterday's Haydn concert, and send her our pictures of the composer's birthplace in Austria (see above). I remind her that two days before our unsuccessful visit to Haydn's birthplace in 2002, Lois and I had visited her in her apartment in Budapest. She had baked us a cake with a British flag on top. I remember that at that time I told her I was surprised to see how many EU flags were to be found in public places in Hungary, in comparison to the UK where they were a rare sight - my goodness! But I never thought that we would withdraw from the Union and force the government to waste time solving all the stupid and unnecessary problems that withdrawal leads to! What madness !!!!

flashback to April 2002. Lois cuts the cake, that Tünde has baked.

The cake has a British flag on top.

Tünde can be seen in the background.

12:00 I eat lunch, and then I go out and do a little weeding in the vegetable garden, for the fourth time this year. There are still only very small weeds currently, but I must put in a big effort this year to prevent the garden from turning into a jungle again - oh dear!

14:00 I come back into the house and sit down at the computer. I print out the first 100 lines of a middle-English book, Ancrene Wisse, and I begin to look the difficult words up in my online dictionary. The members of Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group has chosen Ancrene Wisse as our next project.

The book was written early in the 13th century by a canon of the church: the book contained instructions and information to three women who wanted to become hermits. The book does not sound very exciting, but we will see. A churchy book could be a bit of a relief after all the sex and violence we have recently experienced both in our other Middle English works, and also day to day in our private lives - so thank God for that!

a typical one-bedroom cottage for female hermits,

who also tended to have big heads and short bodies.

I imagine that the canon who checked her in

was very glad to say 'goodnight, sleep tight' to her

and go back to his lovely canonical apartment - I have no doubts about that !!!

15:00 I take a little look at the web. My sister Gill, who lives in Cambridge, has sent me a charming picture of herself and her three daughters in the city's botanical gardens last Sunday.