10:30 Vi kører over til Kennington, en lille forstad til Oxford, for at
tilbringe dagen med vores venner, Jen og Bill, og med Daniel, deres søn, der
kommer hjem fra arbejde ved 16-tiden. Lois har kendt Jen siden sin barndom i
Oxford – Jen er et par år ældre end Lois. Vi så dem alle for nogle uger siden,
da vi deltog i Basils begravelse – Basil var Jens far. Han havde lige fyldt 100
år, og havde fået den traditionelle fødselsdagskort fra dronningen – han døde
faktisk to dage efter. Stakkels Basil!!!
Lois og Jen er meget meget gamle venner, så selvfølgelig kommer de meget
meget godt ud af det med hinanden. De kan godt lide at snakke om de gamle dage,
også Lois hjælper altid Jen i køkkenet med at lave frokost og aftensmad. Dette
er lidt af en dårlig nyhed for mig, fordi det betyder, at jeg skal sidde i
stuen og taler med Bill. Jeg finder Bill ganske lidt af en udfordring at snakke
med – han ejer ikke en humoristisk sans og efter min mening har han en temmelig
kedelig personlighed, i modsætning til Jen, der er så livlig – pokkers!
Det er en lettelse for mig, da Daniel, deres søn, kommer hjem fra arbejde.
Dan har en meget god sans for ironisk humor, selvom hans livstil afviger fra
det normale på mange måder: han er i 40’erne, men bor stadig hos sine forældre,
hvilket er lidt usædvanligt. Han arbejder i et af universitetets biblioteker.
Så vidt vi ved, har han aldrig haft en kæreste.
Daniel har mange kvindelige arbejdskollegaer – det er Jen sikker på, fordi
hun har gjort lidt forskning på bibliotekets websted, men Daniel taler aldrig
om dem, og giver kun vage svar, når Jen spørger ham om dem – du godeste,
stakkels Daniel!!! Vi synes, han er bare meget genert.
Tilbageblik til sommeren 1986:
til
venstre Lois med Alison (11) og Sarah (9),
og
til højre Jen med Daniel (11), Naomi (13) og Quentin (9)
Lykkelige dage!!!!!
21:00 Vi kører tilbage til Cheltenham. Minx, vores datter Alisons kat, er
meget glad for at se os – du godeste! Vi smækker benene op foran fjernsynet og
ser to dokumentumfilm i BBC4s
”Japan-sæson”.
Den første handler om Hokusai, den berømte japanske maler, der bogstavelig
talt malede/tegnede tusindvis og tusindvis af billeder – han hver dagen af sit
liv arbejdede arbejdede arbejdede, op til dagen, han døde (på 90 år 4 mdr).
Hans fugle og dyr er så meget livlige – vi vil ikke se Hokusais lige igen. Jeg
er lidt jaloux på ham over, at han havde sådan en absorberende beskæftelighed
gennem hele livet.
Da han var 90 år og tæt på døden, malede han sit egne farvel, hvor han
samlede alle hans yndlingselementer i ét maleri – et forenkelt image af sin
højt elskede bjerget Fuji med sin yndlingsskabning, en lang, tynd drage, der
flyder opad i en mørk sky og er ved at forsvinde ind i himlen.
Hokusai malede sit egne farvel, med sig selv som en af
sine
elskede drager flydende væk ind i himlen over sin højt elskede Fuji
Dette er den bedste måde at forestille sig sit egne død på, synes jeg: at
dø er at flyve ud af et (ikke nødvendigvis åbent!) vindue op i himlen, fri for
smerter og bekymringer osv. Du godeste!!!
Denne slags død skete faktisk i tilfældet af RJ Mitchell, der udviklede det
ikoniske Spitfire-kampfly i 1930’erne. Jeg så det i en ”biopic ” (dvs
biografisk spillefilm), så det må være sandt ha ha ha.
Ved slutningen af filmen bliver han mere og mere syg og dør desværre som en
ganske ung mand (på 42 år), i 1937. Han bliver begrænset til en lænestol. Hans
sygeplejerske bringer ham et glas mælk og forlader ham et par minutter. Vi ser
hans sjæl forlade hans krop og flyve ud af vinduet og op i luften, hvor det
kongelige luftvåben er i gang med at teste Mitchells kampfly. Hans glas mælk
falder til gulvet, hvor sygeplejersken finder det, da hun et par minutter
senere kommer tilbage. Du godeste! Hvor rørende!!!
22:00 Vi er ikke natteravne, men vi bliver oppe lidt mere, så vi kan se den
anden dokumentarfilm, ”Tokyo Girls”, der handler om endnu en vanvittig japansk
fænomen: de såkaldte ”idoler” – unge japanske kvinder, der klæder sig ud som
skolepiger og sådan, og synger og danser på scenen foran tusindvis af
midaldrende mænd. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!
Ikke for første gang får vi det indtryk af, at japanerne bor på en
anderledes planet, end os. Japan synes at være et brudt samfund på mange måder,
især når det kommer til forholdet mellem kønnene. Så mange mænd gider ikke at
udholde de mange udfordringer, der er involveret i at bygge og vedligeholde et
forhold med kvinder, en proces der synes at være særlig kompliceret i Japan, på
grund af vanvittige sociale konventioner, formoder vi.
mændene: - de er ingenting uden deres kvindelige idoler
pigerne: - de er ingenting uden deres mandlige fans
En gensidig afhængighed. Det virker trist i vores øjne, men man kan ikke
nægte, at både mændene og pigerne hygger sig meget. Men sikke et vanvid!!!!!
23:00 Vi går i seng lidt senere, end normalt – zzzzzzz!!!!!
05:00 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske
ordforrådtest.
08:00 Jeg hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté.
Vi står op og spiser morgenmad.
09:30 Vi kører over til Bishops Cleeve. Jeg smutter ind hos den lokale
skomager og henter et par sko, som man har sat nye hæle på. Lois køber et nyt
par sandaler. Vi kører hjem.
11:00 Vi taler lidt på Skype, med Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien,
og med Jessica, én af Sarahs 4-årige tvillinger – desværre går Lily, den anden
tvilling, igennem en genert fase for tiden.
vi taler lidt på Skype med Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien,
og
med Jessica, en af Sarahs tvillinger
13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!
15:00 Jeg står op og læser et par sider af min bog om James, hertugen af
Monmouth, Kong Charles 2.s ulovlige søn.
I 1674 udgav Jarl Shaftesbury, oppositionsleder, udgav en politisk pjece,
hvor han anklagede kongen for at forsøge at blive en absolutisk monark. Som om
Charles ønskede at bevise Shaftesbury forkert (ha ha ha), krævede kongen en øjeblikkelig
undskyldning af Shaftesbury, og da han afviste, straffede han ham med
imidlertidig fængsel i Tower of London.
I 1674 anklagede Jarl Shaftesbury kong Charles
for
at prøve at blive til en absolutist monark.
Charles
straffede ham med fængsel (for at bevise ham forkert, måske????)
Shaftesbury blev lidt senere løsladt, men mens han sad i Toweren,
underholdte han sig ved at lave en liste over alle medlemmerne af overhuset og
underhuset. Ved siden af hvert navn, sat han et bogstav ’w’ ved siden af sine
venners navne (w = worthy – værdig på dansk), og et bogstav ’v’ ved siden af
sine fjenders navne (v = vile, nedrig på dansk). Ved siden af James, kongens
søns navn, skrev han tre bogstaver ’v’ –
du godeste! Han var åbenbart ikke en stor fan af James – det ved jeg med
sikkerhed!!! Politisk jalousi er ikke noget nyt.
Jeg mindes, at jeg lavede en lignende liste over venner og fjender, da jeg
gik i 1. klasse, men hvis jeg godt husker, brugte jeg aldrig mere end 2
bogstaver ’v’, selv i tilfælde af min værste fjende. Men jeg var aldrig sendt i
fængsel af nogen, så måske var dette ikke nogen overraskelse – men det er jeg ikke
helt sikker på.
English translation
10:30 We head over to Kennington,
a small suburb of Oxford, to spend the day with our friends, Jen and Bill, and
with Daniel, their son, who gets home from work about 4pm. Lois has known Jen
since her childhood in Oxford - Jen is a couple of years older than Lois. We
saw them all a few weeks ago when we attended Basil's funeral - Basil was Jen's
father. He had just turned 100 years of age and had received the traditional
birthday card from the Queen - and he actually died two days later. Poor Basil !!!
Lois and Jen are very very old
friends, so of course they get on very well with each other. They like to talk
about the old days, and also, Lois always helps Jen in the kitchen with cooking
the lunch and dinner. This is slightly bad news for me because it means I have
to sit in the living room and talk to Bill. I find Bill quite a challenge to
talk to - he does not have a sense of humour and to me he has a rather boring
personality, unlike Jen, who is so lively - damn!
It's a relief for me when Daniel,
their son, comes home from work. Dan has a very good sense of ironic humour,
although his life style differs from the norm in many ways: he is in his 40's,
but still lives with his parents, which is a bit unusual. He works in one of
the university's libraries. To the best of our knowledge, he has never had a
girlfriend.
Daniel has many female work
colleagues - that's something Jen is sure about because she has done some
research on the library's website, but Daniel never talks about them, and only
gives vague answers when Jen asks him about them - good grief, poor Daniel !!!
We think he's just very shy.
Flashback to the summer of
1986:
To the left Lois, with Alison (11) and Sarah
(9)
and to the right Jen, with Daniel (11),
Naomi (13) and Quentin (9)
Happy days!!!
21:00 We drive back to
Cheltenham. Minx, our daughter Alison's cat, is very happy to see us - my
goodness! We stick our feet up in front of the television and watch two
documentary films in the BBC4's "Japan season".
The first is about Hokusai, the
famous Japanese painter, who literally painted or drew thousands and thousands
of pictures - every day of his life he just worked worked worked, up till the
day he died (at age 90 years 4 months).
HokusaiListing
His birds and animals are so
incredibly lively - we will not see Hokusai's like again. I'm a little jealous
of him because he had such an absorbing occupation throughout his whole
life.
When he was 90 years old and close to death, he painted his own farewell,
collecting all his favourite elements into one painting - a simplistic image of
his much-loved Mount Fuji with his favourite creature, a tall thin dragon
floating upwards in a dark cloud about to disappear into the sky.
Hokusai painted his own farewell,
with himself as one of
his beloved dragons floating away into the sky over his
beloved Mount Fuji
This is the best way to imagine
one's own death, I think: to die is to fly out of a (not necessarily open!)
window up into the sky, free from pain and worries, etc. My goodness!!!
This kind of death actually
happened in the case of RJ Mitchell, who developed the iconic Spitfire fighter
in the 1930s. I saw it in a "biopic" (ie biographical feature film),
so it must be true ha ha ha.
At the end of the film he becomes
more and more ill and dies, in 1937, still a fairly young man (42 years old),.
He becomes confined to an armchair. His nurse brings him a glass of milk and
leaves him for a few minutes. We see his soul leave his body and fly out of the
window and into the air, where the Royal Air Force is testing Mitchell's combat
aircraft. His glass of milk falls to the floor where the nurse finds it when
she comes back a couple of minutes later. My Goodness! How touching !!!
22:00 Lois and I are not night owls, but
we stay up a little more so we can see the other documentary film, "Tokyo
Girls", which is about yet another crazy Japanese phenomenon: the
so-called "idols" - young Japanese women who dress up as school girls
and suchlike, and sing and dance on stage in front of thousands of middle aged
men. Good grief, what madness !!!!
Not for the first time, we get
the impression that the Japanese live on a different planet from us. Japan
seems to be a broken society in many ways, especially when it comes to the
relationship between the sexes. So many men cannot be bothered to put up with
the many challenges involved in building and maintaining a relationship with
women, a process that seems to be particularly complicated in Japan, because of
insane social conventions, we imagine.
the men – they are nothing without
their female idols
the girls – they are nothing without
their male fans
A mutual dependency. It seems sad
in our eyes, but one cannot deny that both the men and the girls enjoy
themselves a lot. But what madness
!!!!!
23:00 We go to bed a little later
than usual - zzzzzzz !!!!!
05:00 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
08:00 I hop back into bed with
Lois and we drink our morning tea. We get up and have breakfast.
09:30 We drive over to Bishops
Cleeve. I pop in at the local shoemaker's and pick up a pair of shoes that they
have put new heels on. Lois buys a new pair of sandals. We drive home.
11:00 We talk a little on Skype
with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, and with Jessica, one of Sarah's
4-year-old twins - unfortunately, Lily, the other twin, is going through a shy
phase at the moment.
we talk a bit on Skype with Sarah,
our daughter in Perth, Australia,
and with Jessica, one of Sarah’s twins
13:00 We eat lunch and afterwards
I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzzzz !!!
15:00 I get up and read a few
pages of my book about James, Duke of Monmouth, King Charles II's illegitimate
son.
In 1674, Earl Shaftesbury, the
opposition leader, published a political pamphlet, where he accused the king of
trying to become an absolute monarch. As if Charles was wanting to prove
Shaftesbury wrong (ha ha ha), the king demanded an immediate apology of Shaftesbury,
and when he refused, he punished him with temporary imprisonment in the Tower
of London.
In 1674, Earl Shaftesbury
accused King Charles of
attempting to become an absolutist monarch.
Charles punished him with imprisonment (to
prove him wrong perhaps???)
Shaftesbury was released a little
later, but while sitting in the Tower, he entertained himself by making a list
of all the members of the upper house and the lower house. Next to each name,
he placed a letter 'w' next to his friends' names (w = worthy) and a letter 'v'
next to his enemies' names (v = vile). Next to James's (the king's son's) name,
he wrote three letter 'v's - good grief! He was obviously not a big fan of
James - I know that for sure !!! Political jealousy is nothing new.
I recall that I made a similar
list of friends and enemies when I was in 1st grade, but if I remember rightly,
I never used more than 2 letter 'v's, even in the case of my worst enemy. But I
was never sent to prison by anyone, so maybe this was not a surprise – but that’s
something I’m not completely sure about.
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