17:00 Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og tilbagelægger endnu 6 miles (10km)
og jeg samtidigt ser på gamle popsange/videoer på YouTube, er det i dag året
1957, jeg er nået tilbage til. Hver gang jeg hopper op på min cykel, stiller
jeg året ét år tilbage.
Mine forældre, mine 2 søskende og
jeg boede dengang i Kingsbury, en lille forstad til London. I august holdt
familien en sommerferie i grevskabet Somerset, og i september skiftede jeg
skole på grund af min alder (11 år) – min nye skole var en ægte privatskole,
University College School.
Robin Wilson,
Harold Wilsons søn, var en af mine skolekammerater. Harold var dengang bare en
almindelig medlem af folketinget – 7 år senere blev han premierminister.
Desværre gik jeg i
denne fantastiske skole kun i 3 måneder. Min far fik et nyt job i
Manchester-området, og hele familien flyttede nordpå den følgende januar måned
– pokkers!!!! Endnu en skoleskift, på 11 år min sjette skoleskift. Stakkels
mig!!!! To år senere, flyttede vi sydpå igen. Sikke en barndom!!!! (Ingen kan
lide et pivehoved, Colin – red.]
Tilbageblik til sommeren 1957, og
min sidste
klassefoto på min primære skole.
Jeg sidder i midten
af fotoet. Jill, pigen jeg
var forelsket i,
sidder til højre. Det er lidt overraskende
hvor meget hun
lignede min kommende kone, Lois,
på samme alderen. Hr
Spicer var vores lærer
Vores sommerferie i
grevskabet Somerset august 1957.
Min far, min bror
Steve (5 år), min søster Kathy (9 år)
og min mor, i
Cheddar Gorge, den smukke ravine
Min far og mig på
Burnham-stranden.
Jeg er allerede,
som 11-årig, lidt af en bogelsker – du godeste!
Når jeg kigger på
disse fotos, mindes jeg
hvor kraftfuld og
egensindig min far var i sin storhedstid
dvs før han blev en
gammel mand
18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se
lidt fjernsyn.
De viser en interessant reality tv-program, ”Bedre sent, end aldrig”, der
handler om 4 ældre amerikanske berømtheder, der besøger forskellige lande i
Asien, tilsyneladende for første gang, hvilket er lidt overraskende. Dette andet
afsnit handler om Kyoto Japan og Hong Kong.
Der er en masse ganske morsomt drilleri mellem de 4 ældre kendisser:
William Shatner, Henry Winkler, George Foreman og Terry Bradshaw. Det er ikke
virkelig vores sans for humor, men det er meget interessant for os at se dem
besøge Hong Kong, fordi der er en stor chance for, at vores datter, Alison, der
for tiden bor i København, ved slutningen af året vil flytte til Hong Kong,
sammen med Ed, sin mand, og deres 3 børn.
Er morsomt afsnit, og det er interessant at se byen Hong Kong med de 4
ældre stjerner, og jeg kan se, at det ligner meget byen Tokyo, hvor jeg var
studerende i 1970-71, bortset fra, at der er flere engelske vejskilte i Hong
Kong end i Tokyo.
Vi ser stjernerne spise nogle underlige retter, men vi formoder, at
retterne er blevet valgt for komisk effekt, og ikke er helt typiske: for
eksempel babymus i en flaske ”musvin”, en (mandlig?) kos penis og en levende kongekobra.
Men det er nyttigt at få at vide, at disse slags retter eksisterer. Det kan
være, at Lois og jeg vil næste år besøge Hong Kong, så vi kan være forsigtige
at undgå disse slags retter, når vi spiser på restauranterne.
nogle af de eksotiske retter, man kan bestille
i
restauranter i byen Hong Kong
21:00 Lois lider af blærebetændelsen igen – stakkels Lois. Vi går tidligt i
seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!
04:15 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine
rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtest.
08:15 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 går i bad. Vi står op og spiser
morgenmad.
10:00 Lois smutter
ind i den lokale lægeklinik. Sygeplejersken giver hende en blodprøve, som en
del af lægens årlige gennemgang af hendes medicin. Lois lider af et kolestoraltal, der er lidt for højt.
Jeg går i gang med
at rydde op i stuen. Jeg rykker en ekstra stol fra spisestuen ind i stuen,
fordi vores U3A danske gruppes næste møde finder sted kl 14:30 hos os.
12:00 Vi spiser frokost
og bagefter går vi i seng i en time.
14:30 Gruppens
medlemmer ankommer og vi lærer dansk i en time og en halv, selvom vi også
snakker meget om vores familier – du godeste! Det bliver mere og mere hyppigt
nu til dags, at børn og børnebørn bor i udlandet, nogle gange i andre
kontinenter. Joys datter er lige flyttet til Singapore sammen med sin partner,
og har efterladt en masse møbler og kuffeter i Joys garage, hus og loftet.
Scilla har for tiden en barnebarn i Japan og en anden i Kina – sikke en skør
verden vi lever i !!!!
Jeg giver dem min
danske ordforråd test og derefter fortsætter vi at læse vores danske
kriminovelle, ”Forbandet” af Gittemie Eriksen. Vi skifter til at læse nogle
sider af vores novelle op og oversætte dem til engelsk. Jeanette,
vores danske veninde, retter vores ynkelige udtale.
Jeanette,
vores danske veninde
Vi har alle
bemærket, at novellens helt, landbetjent Per Janson, synes at være forelsket i
en smuk ung kvinde, Mia, der er enten morderen eller morderens næste offer –
det er vi ikke helt sikre på. Men Per er giftet og er ved at gå på pension, så
gruppens medlemmer er enige i, at det ikke ville være et lovende forhold. Der
findes ikke nogen nar så stor, som en gammel nar, siger vi. Du må opgivet håbet
om, at score hende, Per. Vær fornuftig, handle din alder!
16:15 Gruppens
medlemmer skal af sted. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Vi er
udmattede – uha!!!!
English translation
17:00 When I jump up on my
exercise bike and clock up another 6 miles (10km), and watch old pop songs /
videos on YouTube at the same time, it's the year 1957 I have got back to.
Every time I jump on my bike, I set the year one year back.
My parents, my 2 siblings and I
lived in Kingsbury, a small suburb of London. In August, the family had a
summer vacation in Somerset County, and in September I changed school because
of my age (11) - my new school was a real private school, University College
School.
Robin Wilson, son of Harold
Wilson, was one of my schoolmates. At that time Harold was just a regular
member of the parliament - 7 years later he became prime minister.
Unfortunately, I went to this
amazing school for only 3 months. My father got a new job in the Manchester
area, and the whole family moved north the following January - damn !!!!
Another change of school, at age 11 my sixth change of school. Poor me!!!! Two
years later, we moved south again. What a childhood !!!! (Nobody likes a
whinger, Colin - Ed.]
Flashback to the summer of
1957, and
my last class picture at my primary school.
I'm sitting in the middle of the photo.
Jill, the girl
I was in love with, is sitting to the right.
It’s a bit surprising
how much she looked like my future wife,
Lois,
at the same age. Mr. Spicer was our teacher
Our summer vacation in the county of
Somerset in August 1957.
My father, my brother Steve (5), my sister
Kathy (9)
and my mother, in Cheddar Gorge, the
beautiful ravine
My dad and me on Burnham Beach.
I'm already, at 11 years old, a bit of a
bookworm - good grief!
When I look at these photos, I remember
how powerful and headstrong my father was in
his heyday
ie before he became an old man
18:00 Lois and I eat dinner and
spend the rest of the evening watching television.
An interesting reality TV show,
"Better Late, Never" is on, about 4 elderly American celebrities visiting
different countries in Asia, apparently for the first time, which is a bit
surprising. This second episode is about Kyoto, Japan and Hong Kong.
There is a lot of amusing banter
between the 4 elderly celebrities: William Shatner, Henry Winkler, George
Foreman and Terry Bradshaw. It's not really our sense of humour, but it's very
interesting for us to see them visit Hong Kong because there's a big chance
that our daughter, Alison, currently living in Copenhagen, will move to Hong
Kong at the end of the year, along with Ed, her husband, and their 3 children.
It's a fun episode and it's
interesting to see the city of Hong Kong with the 4 elderly stars, and I can
see that it looks very much like Tokyo, where I was a student in 1970-71, except
that there are more English road signs in Hong Kong than in Tokyo..
We see the stars eating some
weird dishes, but we assume that the dishes have been chosen for comic effect,
and are not quite typical: for example baby mice in a bottle of "mouse
wine", a (male?) cow's penis and a live king cobra. But it is useful to know that
these kinds of dishes exist. It may be that Lois and I will visit Hong Kong
next year, so we can be careful to avoid these kinds of dishes when we eat at
the restaurants.
some of the exotic dishes you can order
in restaurants in the city of Hong Kong
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz
!!!!!
04:15 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
08:15 I amble out 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.
10:00 Lois slips into the local
clinic. The nurse gives her a blood test, as part of the doctor's annual review
of her medication. Lois suffers from a cholesterol level that is a bit too
high.
I get going with clearing up in the
living room. I move an extra chair from the dining room into the living room
because our U3A Danish group's next meeting will be taking place at 2.30pm.
12:00 We have lunch and
afterwards we go to bed for an hour.
14:00 We get up and prepare for
our Danish group's meeting.
14:30 The group members arrive
and we learn Danish for an hour and a half, even though we also talk a lot about
our families - my god! It is becoming more and more common nowadays that
children and grandchildren live abroad, sometimes in other continents. Joy's
daughter has just moved to Singapore with her partner and left a lot of
furniture and suitcases in Joy's garage, house and attic. Scilla currently has
a grandchild in Japan and another in China - what a crazy world we live in !!!!
I give them my Danish vocabulary
test and then we continue to read our Danish crime story, "Accursed"
by Gittemie Eriksen. We take turns to read some pages of the story
and translate them into English. Jeanette, our Danish friend, corrects our
pitiful pronunciation.
Jeanette, our Danish friend
We have all noticed that the
story's hero, village constable Per Janson, seems to have fallen in love with a
beautiful young woman, Mia, who is either the killer or the killer's next
victim - we are not entirely sure. But Per is married and is on the point of
retiring so the group's members agree that it would not be a promising
relationship. There is no fool like an old fool, we say. You must give up the
hope of scoring with her, Per. Be sensible, act your age!
16:15 The members of the group
have to leave. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch. We are
exhausted - oh dear !!!!
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