17:00 Lois er rastløs
igen. Jeg er tilfreds med at sidde ved computeren hele dagen, men det er hun
ikke! Vi går en kort tur i nabolaget for at kigge på den enorme byggeplads,
bestående af to enorme nye villakvarterer,
hvor to store byggefirmaer, Bloor og Bovis, er i gang med at skæmme
landskabet, hvor de grønne marker af den dejlige gamle bondegård, Starvehall Farm, engang lå – hulk hulk!!!
Hvor bliver de grønne marker af, hvor Lois og jeg engang strejfede om (Copyright The Brothers Four ha ha ha)?
18:00 Vi kommer tilbage og spiser aftensmad. Jeg kigger lidt på nettet, og
jeg ser et charmeredne billede af vores ældste datter, Alison, og Ed, hendes
mand, der bor i København sammen med deres 3 børn. Ali og Ed gør sig klar til ”en
date” i aften: rom cocktails, og senere Radio-restauranten, der ligger midt i
byen. Heldige dem!
Lois og jeg bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser et
gamle afsnit af ”Through the Keyhole”. Programmets
vært, Keith Lemon, besøger 3 boliger og
kigger rundt i husene. Lemons 3 gæster, Gino D’Acampo, Sue Cleaver og Johnny Vegas, er Keiths panel af eksperter, der skal
prøve at gætte, hvilke berømtheder husene hører til.
For Lois’s og mit vedkommende, er det et tegn på vores avancerede alder, at
vi ikke genkender nogen af de tre ”berømte” eksperter, der sidder på Lemons
panel. Dette bliver et problem for os, fordi der nu til dags er så mange
programmer, som ”berømtheder” deltager i. Du godeste!
Det er meget sjovt at se boligerne i programmet, men jeg synes, det er lidt
af en skam, at Lemon, programmets amatøragtige vært, og hans uprofessionelle
filmhold fucker det hele op, som sædvanligt.
Den første kendisboligejer er den berømte australske feminist, Germaine
Greer, men desværre blev videooptagelsen fucket op af en ubehagelig hændelse,
hvor én af filmholdet fjollede nøgen rundt i huset i Greers fravær, og blev
skudt tilfældigvis i de nedre regioner, da et haglgevær blev affyret. Det er
heldigt, at manden ikke blev såret mere alvorligt. Du godeste! Sikke et
vanvid!!!
Når det kommer til den anden kendisboligejer, en reality tv-stjerne, som
Lois og jeg aldrig har hørt om, blev hele videooptagelsen lidt af en fiasko, da
filmholdet opdagede, at boligen var propfyldt af pakkasser – den pågælene
berømthed var ikke færdig endnu med at flytte ind, så det var ikke muligt at
vise panellen spor om ejerens identitet. Du godeste!
Inkompetence synes at høre til dagens orden – Lois og jeg beslutter at gå
glip af resten af programmet og vi går i seng til sædvanlig tid (ved 22-tiden) – sikke en skør verden vi
lever i !!!!
Jeg læser 7 sider af min nye sengetidbog, ”Digte af Philip Larkin, valgt af
Martin Amis”, en fødselsdagsgave af Alison, vores datter i København, inden jeg
glider over i søvn – zzzzz!!!!
min nye sengetidbog, en fødselsdagsgave fra Alison
04:15 Jeg står
tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtester.
07:45 Jeg
skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem op i
soveværelset. Jeg hopper op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker téen. Vi går i bad
og bagefter spiser vi morgenmad.
11:00 Vi taler
lidt på Skype med Sarah, vores datter i Perth Australien. Hendes familie har
tilbragt dagen in Fremantle, en havneby, der ligger lidt syd for byen Perth, og
som Lois og jeg besøgte to eller tre gange, da vi var derovre sidste maj-juni.
Det er meget
sjovt at snakke med Sarah om familiens liv i Perth, og kigge på hendes
3,5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessica, mens de danser rundt i stuen.
Vi taler på Skype med Sara i Australien
Jessica
Sarah danser med Lily
Vi taler om,
hvornår er bedste tidspunkt at besøge dem næste gang. Sarah foreslog sidste uge
at vi besøger dem til oktober-november, men hun og Francis har skiftet mening,
og nu synes de at marts-april ville være bedre.
Uha, usikkerhed er ikke, hvad Lois og jeg vil have!
11:45 Vi
spiser frokost lidt tidliger, end normalt. Lois og Maggie, hendes veninde,
ønsker at deltage i en gudstjeneste, der finder sted i eftermiddag i byen
Tewkesbury. Solen skinner, og hverken Lois eller Maggie kan lide at køre bil i
strælende solskin – Lois lider af grå stær og Maggie har også svært ved at køre
bil, når solen skinner.
Jeg har tilbudt
at kører dem over, og vente i bilen i den nærmeste parkerindplads. Det giver
mig en lejlighed til at koncentrere mig om at læse de næste 2 kapitler af
Gunnlaugs saga, det projekt, vi medlemmer af Scillas U3A oldnorske gruppe er
begyndt på. Gruppens næste møde finder sted på onsdag i byen Cheltenhams hovedbibliotek.
12:45 Jeg kører over til Tewkesbury og sætter Lois og Maggie af foran
bibliotek, hvor deres kirkes medlemmer hver søndag mødes.
Mens jeg sidder i bilen i parkeringspladsen, blader jeg igennem nogle sider
af Gunnlaugs saga, og forestiller mig tilbage til 900-tallet og Londons
havneområdet, hvor Gunnlaug, den 18-årige islandske helt, er gået godt i gang
med at blive overfaldet af en aggressiv sørøver (den værste slags sørøver efter
min mening!!!!!).
Den 18-årige Gunnlaug har forladt sin forlovede, Helga, tilbage i Island,
hvilket synes at være en underlig beslutning, i betragtning af, at hun er
Islands smukkeste pige. Gunnlaug ønsker at se, hvordan resten af verden lever.
Han besøgt først Norge, hvor han med det samme blev involveret i et skænderi
med én af den norske konges rådgivere.
Gunnlaug sejler videre til England,
og mødes med den engelske konge, Æthelred II (den Rådvilde). Der var god kemi
mellem de to mænd, og Gunnlaug beslutter at tilbringe vinteren i England.
I mellemtiden i Island er stakkels Helga, Gunnlaugs smukke forlovede, helt
alene og mændene står i kø for at score hende – du godeste! Helgas far har
fortalt Gunnlaugs, at hvis han ikke kommer tilbage igen til Island indenfor 3
år, han vil give sin datter til en anden – og der er ikke nogen mangel på
kandidater!!!!!
Helga, Islands smukkeste pige: mændene står i kø
for at score hende!!!!
Gunnlaug gik i sengen med Helga i 6 år, men hun blev ikke gravid, hvilket
var heldigt. Det kunne være, at det var Gunnlaug, der var skyld i det - det lad
os håbe på!!!!!
15:00 Gudtjenesten slutter og jeg kører Lois og Maggie tilbage til
Cheltenham. Maggie kører hjem igen. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i
sofaen.
English translation
17:00 Lois is restless again. I'm happy to sit at the computer all day, but
she's not! We go for a short walk in the neighbourhood to look at the
huge building site made up of two huge new residential neighbourhoods, where two
major construction companies, Bloor and Bovis, are ruining the landscape where
the green fields of the lovely old farm, Starvehall Farm, used to be - sob
sob!!!
Where are the green fields where
Lois and I used to roam (Copyright The Brothers Four ha ha ha)?
18:00 We come back again and have
dinner. I take a little look online and I see a charming picture of our oldest
daughter, Alison, and Ed, her husband, who live in Copenhagen with their 3
children. Ali and Ed are getting ready for "a date" tonight: rum
cocktails, and later the Radio restaurant, located in the middle of town. Lucky them!
Lois and I spend the rest of the
evening watching television. An old episode of "Through the Keyhole"
is on. The program's host, Keith Lemon, visits 3 homes and looks round the
houses. Lemon's 3 guests, Gino D'Acampo, Sue Cleaver and Johnny Vegas, are
Keith's panel of experts who will try to guess which celebrities the houses
belong to.
For Lois's and my part, it is a
sign of our advanced age that we do not recognise any of the three
"famous" experts on the Lemon panel. This is becoming a problem for
us, because nowadays there are so many programs that "celebrities"
take part in. My god !
It's a lot of fun to see the homes in the program, but I
think it's a bit of a shame that Lemon, the program's amateurish host, and his
unprofessional film team screw the whole thing up, as usual.
The first celebrity home-owner is
the famous Australian feminist Germaine Greer, but unfortunately, the video
recording was screwed up by an unpleasant event, where one of the film team was
fooling around naked in the house in Greer's absence, and accidentally got shot
in the nether regions when a shotgun went off. It is fortunate that the man was
not hurt more seriously. My God! What madness !!!
When it comes to the second
celebrity home-owner, a reality television star, whom Lois and I have never
heard of, the whole movie sequence became a bit of a fiasco when the film team
found that the apartment was full of packing-cases - the celebrity in question
was not yet done with moving in, so it was not possible to show the panel any
clues about the owner's identity. My God!
Incompetence seems to be the
order of the day - Lois and I decide to miss out on the rest of the program and we go
to bed at our usual time (around 10pm) - what a crazy world we live in !!!!
I read 7 pages of my new bedtime
book, "Poems by Philip Larkin, chosen by Martin Amis", a birthday
present from Alison, our daughter in Copenhagen, before I drift off to sleep -
zzzzz !!!!
my new bedtime book, a birthday
present from Alison
04:15 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
07:45 I hurry into the kitchen
and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom. I hop into bed with
Lois and we drink the tea. We go in the shower and then we have breakfast.
11:00 We talk a little on Skype
with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. Her family has spent the day in
Fremantle, a port town located a little south of the city of Perth, and which
Lois and I visited two or three times when we were there last May-June.
It's a lot of fun to talk to
Sarah about the family's life in Perth, and watch her 3 and a half-year-old
twins, Lily and Jessica, as they dance around the living room.
Sarah
Jessica
Sarah dances with Lily
We talk about when the best time
is to visit them next. Sarah suggested last week that we visit them next
October-November, but she and Francis have changed their minds, and now they
think that March-April would be better. Oh dear, uncertainty is not what Lois
and I want!
11:45 We eat lunch a bit earlier
than usual. Lois and Maggie, her friend, want to attend a church service taking
place this afternoon in the town of Tewkesbury. The sun is shining and neither
Lois nor Maggie likes to drive a car in bright sunlight - Lois is suffering from
cataracts and Maggie also has trouble driving when the sun is shining.
I have offered to drive them over
and wait in the car in the nearest parking lot. It gives me an opportunity to
concentrate on reading the next 2 chapters of Gunnlaug's saga, the project we
members of Scilla's U3A Old Norse group have started on. The next meeting of
the group is taking place on Wednesday in Cheltenham's county library.
12:45 I drive over to Tewkesbury
and drop Lois and Maggie off in front of the library, where their church's
members meet every Sunday.
While I'm in the car in the
parking lot, I go through a few pages of Gunnlaug's saga, imagining myself back
in the 900's and in London's port area, where Gunnlaug, the 18-year-old Icelandic
hero, is being comprehensively mugged by an aggressive pirate (the worst kind
of pirate in my opinion !!!!!).
The 18-year-old Gunnlaug has left
his fiancée, Helga, back in Iceland, which seems to be a weird decision,
considering that she is Iceland's most beautiful girl. Gunnlaug wants to see
how the rest of the world lives. He first visited Norway, where he immediately
became involved in a quarrel with one of the Norwegian king's counsellors.
Gunnlaug sails on to England, and
meets with the English king, Æthelred II (the Unready). There is good chemistry
between the two men, and Gunnlaug decides to spend the winter in England.
Meanwhile, in Iceland, poor
Helga, Gunnlaug's beautiful fiance, is all alone and the the men are standing in
line to score with her - my God! Helga's father has told Gunnlaug that if he
does not return to Iceland within 3 years, he will give his daughter to another
man - and there is no shortage of candidates !!!!!
Helga, Iceland's most beautiful girl - the men are standing in line
to score with her !!!!!
Gunnlaug went to bed with Helga
for 6 years, but she did not get pregnant, which was lucky. It could be that it
was Gunnlaug, who was to blame for that - let's hope so !!!!!
15:00 The service ends and I
drive Lois and Maggie back to Cheltenham. Maggie drives home again. Lois and I
relax with a cup of tea on the couch.
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