17:00 Lois har blærebetændelse igen – stakkels Lois! Hun ringer til lægen,
og vi kører over til apoteket i landsbyen for at afhente tre dages antibiotika.
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mens vi
sidder og nyder aftenens underholdning, 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 – ingen tvivl om det!!!!!).
21:30 En
interessant tv-dokumentarfilm transporterer mig så tilbage til den 21.
århundrede. Programmet handler om Victoria Wood, den afdøde stand-up komiker.
Det er meget rart
at mindes om den afdøde Victoria Woods brilliant karriere som stand-up komiker,
men det er også desværre tankevækkende at huske, at Victoria, som mange
tv-stjerner, kom til at tro, at hun også kunne finde succes som skuespiller.
Succes i det ene
felt fører ikke altid til succes i et andet felt, som fx Victorias katastrofale
forsøg på at have succes i sæbeopera verden, med ”Acorn Antiques”, en elendig
serie, der kredsede om en antikvitetsforretning i Manchester-omegn.
”Acorn Antiques”-sæbeoperaen blev desværre skabt i en æra, hvor mange
programmer blev sendt direkte live. Manuscriptet og plottet var elendigt, og
skuespillet var forfærdeligt – ingen tvivl om det!!! Det er lidt smertefuldt at
skulle mindes om det – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!!
Hvem kan glemme den elendige episode, hvor fru Overall, butikkens køkkenassistent, kløjs desværre i én af sine
egne hjemmelavede makroner og falder død ned foran butikkens to ejere, Miss
Babs og Miss Berta. Det var en spektakulær hændelse ved slutningen af episoden
– ingen tvivl om det – men desværre var den dramatiske effekt ødelagt, da de
tre skuespillerinder, inklusive Victoria Wood, begyndte at kommentere scenen og
deres egne skuespil, mens programmet stadig var i gang med at blive udsendt .
Tekniske fejl var hyppige i showet:
Bemærk,
at ”Miss Babs”’s linje desværre lyder for tidligt her –
fru
Overall har faktisk ikke bidt i makronen endnu.
kameranørder, bemærk, at kameramanden har
”halshugget”
de to kvinder. Fru Overalls døde krop er også ude af syne.
Scenen,
hvor fru Overall kløjes i én af sine egne hjemmelavede
makroner,
og falder død ned, er ganske vellykket,
men
desværre bliver den dramatiske effekt ødelagt, da
seerne
helt klart hører de tre skuespillere kommentere scenen,
før
mikrofonerne bliver slukket
04:30 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske
ordforrådtester.
07:30 Jeg dasker ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op
i soveværelse og kryber tilbage under dynen til Lois. Vi drikker teen og står
op. Vi spiser morgenmad.
09:30 Bob, en Rentokil-ansat, ankommer
for at undersøge vores potentielle fugtproblemer i Alisons gamle værelse og i
væggen mellem spisekammeret og toilettet.
Bob siger, at fugten i toilettet og spisekammeret nu er tørret ud, efter
lækageproblemet blev fikset for 2 år siden. Problemet under vinduet i Alisons gamle værelse resulterer fra
beskadiget puds, tror han. Det er en stor lettelse, at vi ikke står overfor et
massivt reparationsarbejde, gudskelov. Bob råder os til måder, vi kan reducere
kondensation i huset på.
10:45 Vi går hen i landsbyen og smutter ind i Waghornes, den lokale
slagterforretning, for at købe kød og ost. Vi kommer tilbage igen og slapper af
med en kop kaffe.
12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en kort
eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!
13:30 Jeg står op og kører ind i byen, fordi Scillas U3A oldnorske gruppes
næste møde finder sted i eftermiddag kl 14 på byens biblioteket. Jeg parkerer bilen i parkeringsplads bag
biblioteket og trisser ind i bygningen. Det viser sig, at gruppens andre
medlemmer ikke kan komme af én eller anden grund, så vi kun er to – mig og
Scilla. Du godeste – det gør de to timer meget meget mere svære, fordi der kun
er Scilla og jeg, der skal skiftes til at læse og oversætte til engelsk den
femte kapitel af Gunnlaugs saga, hvilket er lidt udmattende – du godeste!
Men det er mere interessant på en måde, fordi jeg føler mig fri til at
spørge hende om den oldnorske kultur osv. Scilla har skrevet bøger om den
oldnorske / oldislandske litteratur. Jeg tror, hun en gang var lektor, og hun
boede i Island, da hun var yngre.
Vi synes, at den 18-årige Gunnlaug er en uansvarlig ung mand, der foretrækker
at snakke, nusse, kysse og elske med Helga, sin 18-årige elskerinde, end at
hjælpe med at forberede det skib, han planlægger at rejse til Norge og England med. Det er den ældre
generation, med andre ord, Gunnlaugs far og Helgas far, som gør hele arbejdet.
Det er fædrene, der arrangerer parrets forlovelse og finder et skib, som
Gunnlaug kan sejle i udlandet med. Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
Gunnlaug fortrækker at nusse og kysse
med
Helga end at arbejde – sikke et vanvid!!!!
Gunnlaug er teknisk set arbejdsløs men han har en nebengesjæft som skjald.
Lois og jeg diskuterede ordet ”skjald” tidligere på dagen, og Lois fandt ud at,
det oldnorske ord ”skjald” er kilden til den engelske ord ”to scold”. Skjaldes
digte blev gennem årene mere og mere aggressive, og til sidst lød de som om de
kritiserede publikummet i en uendelighed, og derfor det engelske ord ”to scold”
holdt op med at betyde ”at fremsige digte” og begyndte at betyde ”at skælde
nogen ud”.
Efter min mening er det simpelthen uacceptabelt for skjalde at kritisere
uskyldrene poesi-elskere på denne måde. Hvis der ikke var poesi-elskere, ville
digtere alle være arbejdsløse - det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om!!!
Ræk mig lige opkastningsposen, Alice !!!!!
16:30 Jeg kører hjem igen og slapper af med en kop te. Lois har efterladt
en seddel, hvor der står, at hun lige har smuttet ind hos naboen (Mary) for at
snakke lidt. Bill og Mary fejrer senere på måneden deres 60. bryllupsdag.
English translation
17:00 Lois has cystitis again -
poor Lois! She calls the doctor, and we drive over to the pharmacy in the
village to pick up three days’ worth of antibiotics.
18:00 We eat dinner and spend the
evening watching a little television. As we sit and enjoy the evening's
entertainment, I flip through a few pages of Gunnlaug's saga, and imagine
myself back in the 900's and London's docklands area, where Gunnlaug, the
18-year-old Icelandic hero, is busy getting a thoroughly good mugging from an
aggressive pirate (the worst kind of pirate in my opinion - no doubt about that
!!!!!).
21:30 Then an interesting tv documentary
transports me back to the 21st century. The programme is all about Victoria
Wood, the late stand-up comedian.
It is very nice to be reminded
about the deceased Victoria Wood's brilliant career as a stand-up comedian, but
it is also unfortunately sobering to remember that Victoria, like many
television stars, came to believe that she could also find success as an
actress.
Success in one field does not
always lead to success in another field, like for example Victoria's disastrous
attempt to be successful in the soap opera world with "Acorn
Antiques", a wretched series that revolved around an antique shop in the
Manchester area.
The "Acorn Antiques"
soap opera was unfortunately created in an era where many programs were
broadcast live. The manuscript and the plot were pathetic, and the acting was
terrible - no doubt about it !!! It's a little painful to be reminded of it -
that is something I know for sure !!!!
Who can forget the pathetic
episode where Mrs Overall, the shop's kitchen assistant, unfortunately chokes
on one of her own homemade macaroons and falls down dead in front of the shop's
two owners, Miss Babs and Miss Berta. It was a spectacular incident at the end
of the episode - no doubt about it - but unfortunately the dramatic effect was
ruined when the three actresses, including Victoria Wood, began commenting on
the scene and their own acting, while the program was still on air - good
grief, what madness !!!!
Technical errors were frequent
in the show.
Note that Miss Bab's line is unfortunately
delivered
too early here - Mrs Overall has not yet
bitten into the macaroon.
camera geeks, note that the
cameraman has"beheaded"
the
two women. Mrs Overall's dead body is also out of shot.
The scene where Mrs Overall chokes
on one of her own
homemade macaroons and falls down dead is fairly
successful,
but unfortunately the dramatic effect gets
ruined when
viewers quite clearly hear the three actors
commenting on the scene
before the microphones are turned off.
22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzz!!!!!
04:30 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
07:30 I shuffle into the kitchen
and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and crawl back under
the covers with Lois. We drink the tea and get up. We eat breakfast.
09:30 Bob, a Rentokil employee, arrives to examine our potential damp problems in Alison's old room and in the
wall between the pantry and toilet. Bob says that the damp in the toilet and
pantry has now dried out since the leakage problem was fixed 2 years ago. The
problem under the window in Alison's old room results from damaged rendering,
he believes. It is a great relief that we are not facing a massive repair job,
thank God. Bob advises us on ways we can reduce condensation in the house.
10:45 We go to the village and
pop into Waghornes, the local butcher to buy meat and cheese. We come back
again and relax with a cup of coffee.
12:00 We have lunch and
afterwards I go to bed and take a short nap - zzzzzz !!!
13:30 I get up and drive into
town because Scilla's U3A Old Norse group's next meeting is taking place this
afternoon at 2pm in the town's library. I park the car in the parking lot
behind the library and toddle into the building. It turns out that the group's
other members cannot come today for one reason or another, so there are only
two of us - me and Scilla. My goodness - it makes the two hours very much more
difficult, because there is only Scilla and me to take turns reading and
translating into English from the fifth chapter of Gunnlaug's saga, which is a
bit exhausting - my goodness!
But it is more interesting in a
way because I feel free to ask her about the Old Norse culture etc. Scilla has
written books about Old Norse literature. I think she was once an associate
professor, and she lived in Iceland when she was younger.
We both think that the
18-year-old Gunnlaug is an irresponsible young man who prefers to chat, cuddle,
kiss and make love with Helga, his 18-year-old mistress, than to help prepare
the ship he is planning to travel to Norway and England in. It is the older
generation, in other words, Gunnlaug's father and Helga's father, who do all
the work. It is the fathers who organize the couple's engagement and find a
ship that Gunnlaug can sail abroad in. What a crazy world we live in !!!!
Gunnlaug prefers to kiss
and cuddle
with Helga than work – what madness!!!!
Gunnlaug is technically
unemployed but he has a sideline as a skald (bard). Lois and I discussed the
word "skald" earlier in the day, and Lois found out that the Old
Norse word "skald" is the source of the English word "to scold".
Skalds' poems apparently became more and more aggressive over the years, and
eventually they sounded as if they were endlessly having a go at their
audience, hence the English word "to scold" stopped meaning "to
recite poems" and began to mean "to bawl someone out."
In my opinion it is simply
unacceptable for bards to criticise innocent poetry-lovers in this way. If there
were no poetry lovers, the poets would all be unemployed - I have no doubts about
that !!!
Pass the sickbag, Alice !!!!!
16:30 I drive home and relax with
a cup of tea. Lois has left a note saying she has just popped next door to see
our neighbor (Mary) and have a little chat. Bill and Mary are celebrating their 60th
wedding anniversary later this month.
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