16:30 Stephen, vores nabo, smutter ind og vi udveksler skriftlige
anvisninger om at passe på hinandens huse (samt en kat i vores tilfælde).
Stephen og Frances, hans kone, flyver til Berlin på mandag i et par dage, og
senere vil de passe på vores hus, når Lois og jeg flyver til København om et
par uger.
18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad, et par fedtfattige færdigret fra
CookShop. Bagefter smækker vi benene op foran fjernsynet.
De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm i 3 dele, der handler om fossiler.
Dette 1. afsnit handler om 520 millioner år gammel fossiler fra perioden
Kambrium, den tidligste tidsperiode hvor store fossilerede flercellede
organismer dukker op.
For det meste er det kun organismernes hårde dele, der overlever i form for
fossiler, men der er nogle specielle områder i verden, hvor vi også kan se de
oprindelige lem og andre bløde dele, og én af disse specielle steder var
Burgess Shale i Rockies, som resultat af en forbløffende tilfældig opdagelse af
Charles Walcott, en amerikansk palæontolog, i 1909. Burgess Shale er nu 6000 fods over
havniveau, men oprindeligt var det havbunden – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!
Dyrets bløde dele kan bevares, hvis det bliver begravet straks efter død,
og i dette tilfælde var der sandsynligvis en undersøisk jordskælv.
Walcotts opdagelser beviste, at der faktisk var en eksplosion af livsformer
i denne tidsperiode (tidligere troede
man, at kun få forskellige livsformer dengang eksisterede). Nogle af de dyre,
Walcott fandt, var meget underlige, som for eksempel opabinia med sine 5 øjne
og en snabel som en elefants – du godeste, sikke et vanvid (igen) !!!!
opabiniaen havde 5 øjne og en snabel
som
en elefants – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!!
Vi hører interessante detaljer om selve Walcott. Han blev fuldstændigt
optaget med sine opdagelser i Burgess Shale, og fortsatte med at arbejde
deroppe (sammen med sin kone og børn), indtil han fyldte 74 år.
Han var bare så begejstret over sine ambitioner for at opdage mere og mere
om vores forhistoriske fortid. Hvor var det et tilfredsstillende liv, han
levede! Jeg er lidt jaloux på ham – det må jeg indrømme.
For nylig har forskere fundet forskellige "mementoer" som Walcott
tilfældigvis efterlod deroppe på bjerget – dåser kød og en gammel avis – en
overskrift refererer til Teddy Roosevelt! Du godeste, hvor fascinerende!!!!
Forskere er ikke enige om, hvorfor denne eksplosion skete i denne
tidsperiode. Nogle tror, at det var udviklingen af ”moderne” øjne, som
trilobitterne var første til at mestre, men jeg ville have formodet, at
trilobitterne simpelthen ville have spist og fjernet meget hurtigt alt andet,
der dengang boede i havet: ingen andet dyr ville have set dem snige sig op til
dem – og diversitaten ville faktisk være blevet dramatisk reduceret yikes!!!!
Det kan være at vi aldrig vil forstå processen 100% - sikke en skam!!!! Men
det er så sjovt at spekulere om – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om. På detter
tidspunkt var de første dinosaurer 250 millioner år i fremtiden og vi mennesker
var 500 millioner år i fremtiden. Hvor heldige vi er for at leve i en æra, hvor
forskerne har fundet så meget ud af om jordens forhistoriske fortid!
21:30 Vi går i seng - lidt tidligere end normalt – zzzzzzz!!!!
04:00 Jeg står tidligt op, og laver én af mine
rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtest.
07:45 Jeg lunter ud
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 står op. Vi spiser morgenmad.
09:15 Vi går hen
ind i landsbyen og smutter ind i Waghornes, den lokale slagterforretning for at
købe kød og brød. På vej hjem smutter vi ind i det lokale postkontor, for at
afsend fødselsdagkort til Ed, vores svigersøn i København, og til Sarah, vores
datter i Perth Australien.
Vi kommer hjem igen
og slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
10:15 Jeg går ud i
forhaven og klipper den græsplæne, der ligger foran huset. Jeg klipper den ikke
ret kort, fordi Vince bedt os om ikke at gøre det – han kommer igen snart for
at fortsætte med at løse vores mosproblem.
Jeg går ind i
baghaven og jeg når at klippe den del af den store græsplæne, der ligger
tættest på huset, da det desværre begynder at regne. Pokkers! Jeg giver opgaven
op for nu, men vejrpigen siger, at vejret i nogle dage efter i dag vil blive
tørrere – hurra!
12:45 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går vi i seng i et par timer.
15:00 Gill, min søster i Cambridge, ringer til mig. Hun og Peter, hendes
mand, hyggede sig meget i deres 1-uges ferie i Malaga Spanien. Peter er meget
meget handicappet, og deres oplevelse i Stansted Lufthavn i England var meget dårlig.
Det skete næsten, at de ikke nåede deres fly, fordi flyselskabet glemte om dem.
Og da de endelig gik om bord, løftede to mænd Peter op og dumpede ham bare ned
på sædet.
Men derefter var resten af ferien meget nydelig. Deres hotel, der
specialiserer sig i handicappede gæster, stod i meget smukke omgivelser i
bjergene og meget interessante udflugter var blevet arrangeret. Der er meget at
se derovre, og Gill og Peter planlægger at tage derover igen inden alt for
længe.
min søster Gill på sin 1-uges ferie i Spanien
sammen
med Peter, sin mand.
15:30 Lois og jeg vælter ud af sengen og slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
Vi lytter til en interesssant radioprogram, der handler om amerikansk engelsk.
Programmets vært er Susie Dent, den berømte tv-leksikograf.
En interessant program. Susie Dent er en entusiastisk tilhænger af
amerikansk engelsk, som hun synes er en især livlig og farvelig form for
sproget. Men hun understreger, at de to versioner af sproget faktisk er utrolig
lignende.
Det er interessant, at mange ord og udtryk, som englændere betragter som af
amerikansk oprindelse er faktisk gamle
britiske ord, der over de seneste 200-300 år var forsvandt i Storbritannien, og
som er nu blevet genindført, som for eksempel, ”trash”, et ord vi finder i
Shakespeare, også ”gotten” og mange andre ord.
”Wow” var oprindeligt et lokalt udtryk i Skotland, og blev transporteret
til USA og senere genindført herovre, så vi alle nu bruger det – wow, sikke et
skør verden vi lever i !!!!
English translation
16:30 Stephen, our neighbour, pops
in and we exchange written instructions about looking after each other's houses
(as well as a cat in our case). Stephen, and Frances, his wife, are flying to
Berlin on Monday for a few days, and later they will look after our house when
Lois and I fly to Copenhagen in a couple of weeks time.
18:00 Lois and I have dinner, a
couple of low fat meals from CookShop. Afterwards we stick our feet up in front
of the television.
An interesting
documentary in 3 parts is on, all about fossils. This first episode is about the
520 million year old fossils from the Cambrian period, the earliest time period
when large fossilised multicellular organisms emerge.
Most of the time, only the hard
parts of the organisms survive in the form of fossils, but there are some
special areas in the world where we can also see the original limbs and other
soft parts, and one of these special places was Burgess Shale in the Rockies,
thanks to an amazing random discovery by Charles Walcott, an American
palaeontologist, in 1909. Burgess Shale is now 6000 feet above sea level, but
originally it was seabed - good grief, what madness !!!!
The soft parts of the animal can
be preserved if it is buried immediately after death, and in this case there
was probably an undersea earthquake.
Walcott's discoveries proved that
there was actually an explosion of life forms during this time period (it was
previously thought that only a few varieties of life-forms existed at that
time). Some of the animals Walcott found were very strange, such as the
opabinia with its 5 eyes and a trunk like an elephant's - good grief, what
madness (again) !!!!
The opabinia had 5 eyes
and a trunk
like an elephant's - good grief, what
madness !!!!!
We hear interesting details about
Walcott himself. He was completely absorbed by his discoveries in Burgess
Shale, and continued to work there (together with his wife and children) until
he reached the age of 74.
He was just so excited over his
ambitions to discover more and more about our prehistoric past. What a
satisfying life he lived! I'm a little jealous of him - I have to admit that.
Recently, scientists have found
different "mementos" that Walcott accidentally left there on the
mountain - cans of meat and an old newspaper - a headline refers to Teddy
Roosevelt! My god how fascinating !!!!
Scientists do not agree on why
this explosion occurred during this time period. Some believe that it was the
development of "modern" eyes, which the trilobites were the first to
master, but I would have thought that the trilobites would simply have eaten
and removed very quickly everything else that lived in the ocean: no other
animal would have seen them sneaking up, and diversity would actually have been dramatically reduced - yikes !!!!
21:30 We go to bed - a bit
earlier than usual - zzzzzzz !!!!
04:00 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
07:45 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 get up. We eat breakfast.
09:15 We walk into the village
and pop into Waghorne's, the local butcher's shop to buy meat and bread. On our
way home, we nip into the local post office to send birthday cards off to Ed,
our son-in-law in Copenhagen, and to Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia.
We come back home and relax with
a cup of tea on the couch.
10:15 I go out into the front
garden and mow the lawn in front of the house. I do not cut it short because
Vince asked us not to - he will be back soon to continue trying to solve our moss
problem.
I go into the back garden and I
manage to cut the part of the large lawn that is closest to the house when it
unfortunately starts to rain. Damn! I give the job up for now, but the weather
girl says that the weather will be drier for a few days after today - hurray!
12:45 We eat lunch and afterwards
we go to bed for a couple of hours.
15:00 Gill, my sister in Cambridge, calls
me. She and Peter, her husband, enjoyed themselves a lot during their 1-week
vacation in Malaga Spain. Peter is very very handicapped and their experience
at Stansted Airport in England was very bad. They almost missed their plane because the airline basically forgot about them. And when
they finally boarded, two men just lifted Peter up and just dumped him down
into the seat.
But then the rest of the holiday
was a lot of fun. Their hotel, which specialises in disabled guests, stood in
very beautiful surroundings in the mountains and very interesting excursions
had been arranged. There's a lot to see over there, and Gill and Peter are
planning to go over again before too long.
My sister Gill on her 1-week
holiday in Spain
together with Peter, her husband.
15:30 Lois and I tumble out of
bed and relax with a cup of tea on the couch. We listen to an interesting radio
program all about American English. The host of the program is Susie Dent, the
famous television lexicographer.
An interesting program. Susie
Dent is an enthusiastic supporter of American English, which she thinks is a
particularly lively and colourful form of the language. But she emphasises that
the two versions of the language are actually incredibly similar.
It is interesting that many words
and expressions which the British regard as being of American origin are
actually old British words that had disappeared in the UK over the last 200-300
years and have now been reintroduced, such as "trash", a word we find
in Shakespeare, also "gotten" and many other words. "Wow!"
was originally a local expression in Scotland, and was transported to the
United States and later re-introduced over here so we all now use it - wow,
what a crazy world we live in !!!!
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