18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og derefter skal Lois af sted. Hun ønsker
at deltage i en bibelklasse, der finder sted i aften i hendes kirke i
Tewkesbury. Alf, vores ven, skal køre hende derover – hun er ikke tilladt at
køre bil for tiden på grund af grå stær.
19:30 Jeg har lidt alenetid, og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til
radio, et interessant program, der handler om den 73-årige digterinden, Diana
Hendry, og hendes tanker om glæden ved alderdom osv.
Diana har skrevet et nyt digt om glæden af alderdom, inspireret af en strofe
i Philip Larkins digt ”De gamle fjolser”, hvor den 52-årige Larkin spekulerede
om de ældre mennesker, han så omkring sig. Hans reflektioner var for det meste
ikke ret venlige eller gunstige – du godeste, det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om
!!!
Men i den 3. og 4. strofer tænker Larkin på, hvorfor ældre mennesker nogle
gange er så fraværende og så ofte ”går i hi” i 2-3 minutter. Larkin spekulerer
om, at gamle mennesker har ”belystede rum” inde i hovedet, hvor venner eller
slægtninge fra deres fortid, den ene efter den anden, kommer ind i et par
minutter, ligesom en skuespiller kommer på scenen, gøre noget eller andet, og
så forlader scenen (måske forfulgt af en bjørn, men sandsynligvis
ikke!!!!).
Diana har skrevet et digt, hvor hun lister dem, der kommer ind i sine
”belystede rum”: for eksempel, sine børn, da de var små, en ven, hun ikke i
årevis havde set, sin svigerbror, der i fjor døde, en pige, hun kendte på
skolen osv. Det er en af glæderne ved at være gammel, siger hun, at man kan
nyde både nutiden og fortiden. Og hun glæder sig til at kunne selv måske komme på scene i andres "belysede rum" nu og da.
Det giver jeg Diana
ret i - det er én af glæderne ved at
være gammel, at kunne mindes og tænke på mennesker og steder fra vores fortid. For
mit vedkommende har jeg desværre også en masse pinlige minder, som jeg kommer i
tanke om – pinlige minder af, dumme ting jeg har sagt eller gjort, og jo mere
man bliver gammel, jo mere pinlige oplevelser der er, at fortræde - pokkers!
I min erfaring er
der kun én måde, at gøre disse pinlige minder til at gå væk på, og det er at fremsige
halvhøjt ud i luften så mange eder og forbandelser som jeg kender – det er som
om, jeg lider af Tourettes syndrom, men det virker sindssygt godt– det ved jeg
med sikkerhed!!!! Sikke et vanvid!!!!!
22:00 Lois kommer
hjem og jeg går i seng. Men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare lidt ned
efter aftenens stimulerende bibelklasse, og hun ser lidt fjernsyn.
23:00 Hun vækker
mig ikke, da hun kryber under sengen til mig – zzzzzzz!!!!
04:00 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.
10:30 Vi går ud i
baghaven og luger lidt mellem frugtbuskene. Vi er nu næsten færdig med at gøre
hele området ukrudtsfri – hurra!
12:00 Vejrpigen
siger, at det kommer til at regne senere på eftermiddagen. Jeg skynder mig ud i
forhaven og maler den nye poststolpe, som Bob, vores nabo, i går installerede,
med en sjat grundmaling. Den gamle poststolpe var rådden.
derfor
har jeg tjent mit gode navn som
mestermaler – ingen
tvivl om det!!!!
13:00 Vi spiser
frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!!
15:00 Jeg står op.
Både Sarah, vores datter i Australien, og Francis, Sarahs mand, har sendt mig
beskeder i dag om de første nonstop flyveture mellem England og Australien, der
starter den 24. marts mellem London og Perth, ifølge i dags meddelelse af
Quantas/Emirates. Lois og jeg vil måtte begynde at kigge på vores optioner nu!
Vi bliver nødt til
at planlægge vores næste besøg mere alvorligt, end det forrige. Problemet er,
at Sarah arbejder fem dage om ugen, og måske i marts vil Francis også være
udarbejdende, og derudover vil tvillingerne gå mindst 2 dage om ugen, måske mere, i vuggestuen
startende fra næste januar.
Det er helt sandsynligt,
at Lois og jeg bliver nødt for det meste til at underholde os selv i hverdagen,
og vi har allerede set de fleste af byen Perths seværdigheder – du godeste! I
weekenderne vil vi få det sjovt alle sammen, ingen tvivl om det. Men i
hverdagen er det lidt dumt at rejse til den anden ende af verden for at
tilbruge dagene på caféer, i biografer og i indkøbscentre – du godeste !!!!!
Hvad er svaret?
15:30 Lois og jeg
slapper af med en kop te og en stykke brød med hjemmelavet marmelade – nam nam!
16:00 Jeg kigger
lidt på nettet, og på www.theonion.com,
den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedswebsted. Jeg ser en betryggende og
hjertevarmende nyhed, der handler om en meddelelse i dag af USAs gadefejrere og
sanitetsarbejdere, at hele landet nu efter mange års arbejde endelig er
fulstændigt rent. Arbejdernes repræsentanter, i en presskonference, bad
offentligheden om at prøve nu og fremover meget ihærdigt at holde landet rent
til evig tid.
Sanitetsarbejdere
annoncerer,
at USA er nu pletfri –
hurra!
Der er en smal
gyde, der ligger ikke ret langt fra vores hus. Lois og jeg går ned ad denne
gyde mange gange om ugen, og vi har for vane at opsamle affald, som folk har
smidt. Vi mærker, at hvis gyden er rent og affaldsfri, har folk mindre tendens
til at smide mere.
Det er hårdt
arbejde – ingen tvivl om det, så vi sympatiserer med de amerikanske gadefejere
og sanitetsarbejdere: de må have arbejdet sokkerne af, for at opnå dette
resultet! Ros til dem, siger Lois og jeg. Og vi håber sandelig på, at den
amerikanske offentlighed ikke fucker landet op igen – det ved vi med
sikkerhed!!!!
English translation
18:00 Lois and I eat dinner and then
Lois has to leave. She wants to attend a Bible class taking place tonight at
her church in Tewkesbury. Alf, our friend, is going to drive her over - she is
not allowed to drive a car at the moment due to cataracts.
19:30 I have a little alone time and
spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio, an interesting program
about the 73-year-old poet Diana Hendry, and her thoughts about the joys of old
age, etc.
Diana has written a new poem about the
joys of old age, inspired by a verse in Philip Larkin's poem "The Old
Fools", where the 52-year-old Larkin speculated about the older people he
saw around him. His reflections were mostly not that friendly or favourable -
my God, that's something I have no doubts about !!!
But in the 3rd and 4th verses, Larkin
thinks about why older people are sometimes so distant and so often seem to
"hibernate" for 2-3 minutes. Larkin wonders whether old people have
"lighted rooms" inside their heads where friends or relatives from
their past, one after another, come in for a couple of minutes, just like an
actor comes on stage, does something or other, and then exits (perhaps pursued
by a bear, but probably not !!!!).
Diana has written a poem where she lists
those who come into her "lighted rooms": for example, her children
when they were small, a friend she had not seen for years, her brother-in-law
who died last year, a girl she knew at school etc. It is one of the joys of
being old, she says, that you can enjoy both the present and the past. And she looks forward to maybe being able to appear herself in other people's "lighted rooms" now and then.
I agree with Diana about all that - it's one
of the joys of being old, to recall and think about people and places from our
past. Unfortunately, in my case I also have a lot of embarrassing memories that
come into my mind - embarrassing memories of stupid things I have said or done,
and the more you grow old, the more embarrassing experiences there are to
regret - damn!
In my experience, there is only one way
to make these embarrassing memories go away, and that’s to recite under my
breath as many oaths and curses as I know - it is as if I am suffering from
Tourette's syndrome, but it works amazingly well - that's something I know for
sure !!!! What madness !!!!!
22:00 Lois comes home and I go to bed.
But Lois needs to relax and wind down a little after the evening's stimulating
Bible class, so she watches a little television.
23:00 She does not wake me up when she
creeps under the covers with me - zzzzzzz !!!!
04:00 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 jump into bed with Lois. We
drink the tea and go in the shower. We get up and have breakfast.
10:30 We go into the backyard and weed a
little between the fruit bushes. We are now almost finished making the whole
area weed-free - hurrah!
12:00 The weather girl says it's going
to rain later in the afternoon. I hurry into the front yard and paint the new
gate post that Bob, our neighbour, installed yesterday, with a drop of primer.
The old gate-post was rotten.
this is why I have earned my good
name as
master painter - no doubt about it !!!!
13:00 We eat lunch and afterwards
I go to bed and take an afternoon nap - zzzzzz !!!!
15:00 I get up. Both Sarah, our
daughter in Australia, and Francis, Sarah's husband, have sent me messages
today about the first nonstop flight between England and Australia, starting on
March 24 between London and Perth, according to today's announcement by Quantas
/ Emirates. Lois and I will have to start looking at our options now!
We will have to plan our next
visit more seriously than the previous one. The problem is that Sarah works
five days a week, and maybe in March, Francis will also be going out to work,
and in addition, the twins will go to the kindergarten at least 2 days a week, maybe more, starting from next January.
It's quite likely that Lois and I
will have to mostly entertain ourselves in the week, and we've already seen
most of Perth's sights - my God! At the weekends we will have fun all
together, no doubt about it. But during the week it's a little stupid to travel
to the other end of the world to spend days in cafes, cinemas and shopping
malls - good grief !!!!! What is the answer?
15:30 Lois and I relax with a cup
of tea and a piece of bread with homemade jam - yum yum!
16:00 I look a little online, and
at www.theonion.com, the influential American news site. I see a reassuring and
heartwarming news item about an announcement today by US street-cleaners and
sanitation workers, that after many years of work, the entire country is
finally completely clean. The workers' representatives, in a press conference,
asked the public to try and keep the country clean forever and ever, from now
on.
Sanitation workers announce
that the USA is now spotless - hurrah!
There is a narrow alley that is
not very far from our house. Lois and I go down this alley many times a week
and we have a habit of picking up litter that people have thrown down. We find
that if the the alley is clean and litter-free, people have less tendency to
throw more down.
It's hard work - no doubt about
that, so we sympathise with US street cleaners and sanitation workers: they
must have worked their socks off to achieve this result! Hats off to them, Lois
and I say. And we truly hope that the American public does not fuck the country
up again - that's one thing we know for sure !!!!
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