18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad i stuen, og mens vi spiser, ser vi et
gamle afsnit af ”Big Bang Theory”.
Hun mindes pludselig, at vores U3A danske gruppes næste møde finder sted
hos os i morgen. Hun bruger ikke reg meget tid nu på at lære dansk – vi har for
nylig haft mange andre ting, der har distraheret os: vores uplanlagte
”arbejdende ferie” i Danmark i juni, og besøget af vores datter Alison og
hendes familie fra København i juli... for ikke at nævne havearbejde og hendes
arbejde i forbindelse med hendes kirkes pop-up shop i byen Tewkesbury, og nu i
de seneste to dage mere forskning om hendes familietræ.
Det ser ud som om vores forbindelse med Danmark (på grund af vores datters
ophold i København) ophører ved slutningen af året, men for mit vedkommende vil
jeg gerne fortsætte med at lære den danske sprog: fremmedsprog har været min
hobby, siden jeg var 12 år gammel og så en bog, ”Lær dig selv finsk” i det
lokale bibliotek, en udfordring jeg ikke kunne modstå fristelsen til at tage op. Du godeste, hvor var jeg dog en irriterende ung mand –
ingen tviv om det!!!! Det er
interessant, at Sheldon i Big Bang Theory bliver to gange skildret som i gang
med at mestre et fremmedsprog, det første er finsk, og det andet er kinesisk,
som han bruger for at bestille kinesisk mad på telefon og på en restaurant, med
ujævne resultater.
Sheldon forsøger at tale kinesisk på en restaurant,
med
ujævne resultater
Jeg kan godt lide det danske sprog: udtalen er et mareridt, en udfordring,
jeg igen kan ikke modstå fristelsen til at tage op. Og sprogets historiske
forbindelse med det engelske sprog er konstant fængslende, synes jeg. En norsk
professor besluttede for et par år siden at klassificere engelsk som et
skandinavsk sprog – og jeg har en del sympati for hans optik.
Hvis Ed, vores svigersøn, får et job i Holland, når hans job i København
ophører, vil jeg begynde at lide af et dilemma, fordi hollandsk er et eksempel
på det andet vigtige element i historien af engelsk: det nedertyske (vestgermanske)
element. Beslutninger, beslutninger!!! Men hvis han får et job i Hong Kong, kan
der ikke være tale om, at jeg lærer kinesisk: jeg er alt for gammel til at
påbegynde det mareridt af et projekt – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !!!! God
nat, Vien!!!! Sheldon er ung nok – det er jeg IKKE!!!
De
germanske sprog
20:00 Jeg går i gang med at udarbejde en ordforrådtest, jeg vil have vores
danske gruppes medlemmer til at tage. De rigtige svar staver sætningen ”Husk at
smile før du sover, så går dagens surhed over
”, endnu en citat, der stammer fra Piet Hein [Niels Bohrs ven], viser
det sig – men er det godt råd? Det er jeg ikke helt sikker på. Jeg har lidt
hele mit liv af konsekvenserne af at undertrykke negative følelser!!!! Stakkels mig!!!!!
Vi har et nyttigt udtryk på engelsk, ”at smile med/gennem sammenbidte
tænder”, men jeg er ikke helt sikker på, at det er god forberedelse på at sove
godt.
Hvis jeg ville etablere en ny religion baseret på Piet Heins citater,
tænker jeg, at jeg ville fortolke denne citat som følger: lav noget sjovt før
du sover.... så går dagens surhed over. Men jeg ville være bange for, at denne
fortolkning, som i en vis grad ændrer den store mands oprindelige betydning,
kunne føre til en splittelse i min nye kirke. Men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på.
Den såkaldte ”smiley” sekt kunne
insistere på, at de sande troende smiler bare, og ikke lave noget sjovt,
før de sover, for eksempel.
I øvrigt er de
rigtige svar på vores danske gruppes nye ordforrådtest tophemmelige indtil
torsdag kl 15, unødvendigt at sige ha ha ha!!!
21:00 Vi smækker
benene op foran fjernsynet, og ser en reality dokumentarfilm, hvor udlejere og
lejere bytter bolig (og ugentlig indkomst) i en uge. Pointen er, at udlejerne
finder ud af, hvad problemerne er med boligen (fugt, mangel på skabe osv), og
hvor svært det er at leve af deres lejernes lave indkomst osv.
At se dette dokumentar er Lois’s valg. Jeg holder ikke ret meget af dette
slags program – det må jeg indrømme. Siden
jeg gik på pension, har jeg haft en slem tendens til at ignorere samfundets
problemer, hvilket jeg ikke er ret stolt af. Lois er langt mere menneskekærlig,
end mig – sikke en kvinde!!!!! Jeg må forsøge at være ligesom hende.
Jeg finder programmet meget rørende, selvom jeg formoder, at eksemplerne vi
ser, ikke er helt typiske. Kun rimelige udlejere og kun samvittighedsfulde
lejere ville være villige til at deltage i sådan et program. Der må være mange
andre udlejere og lejere, der ikke udviser disse kvaliteter – det har jeg ikke
nogen tvivl om.
Jeg må forsøge
at være ligesom Lois. Heinz, den
engelske popsanger, udsendte en sang i 1963 med titlen ”Ligesom Eddie”, som
hyldest til Eddie Cochran. Vi elsker begge to denne sang. Teksten var
som følger: “Whenever I'm sad, whenever I'm blue /
Whenever my troubles are heavy / Beneath the stars. I play my guitar / Just
like Eddie (C’mon everybody….)”. Jeg skriver mig bag øret, at jeg skulle
komponere min egen version, som hyldest til Lois – men det vil desværre tage
tid til at perfektionere den præcise nye tekst – uha, hvis bare jeg havde mere
tid!
Lois i sin spritnye officielle pop-up shop t-shirt.
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzz!!!!!
04:00 Jeg står
tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet.
08:00 Jeg
hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté. Vi står op og
spiser morgenmad.
10:00 Jeg går
i gang med at montere vores spritnye parasol, som jeg bestilte fra
amazon.co.uk . Det er ironisk, at vejret
er meget koldere nu, end da jeg bestilte den, og solen skinner kun endgang
imellem. Sikke et vanvid!!!!
Det lykkes mig at montere den spritnye parasol
jeg
bestilte fra amazon.
12:00 Vi
spiser frokost på terrassen under vores spritnye parasol, og bagefter går jeg i
seng for at tage mig en kort eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!!!
13:30 Jeg står
op og forbereder mig på vores danske gruppes næste møde.
14:30 Vores
danske gruppes medlemmer kommer. De tager den danske ordforrådtest, jeg har
udarbejdet, og bagefter læser vi de næste 6 sider af den kriminovelle,
”Forbandet”, af Gittemie Eriksen, der er gruppens nuværende projekt.
Der har
allerede været ca. 12 mord i denne rolige danske landsby. Offerne har alle
været enten tidligere elever eller tidligere lærerinder på den lokale skole –
eleverne er nu alle i 30’erne. Det synes åbenbart, at den (ukendte)
gerningsmand forsøger at dræbe alle sine tidligere klassekammerater udover
nogle af sine lærerinder. Vi har læst til siden 60 og det er betryggende at se,
at der stadig er ca. 10 elever, der gik i den pågældende klasse, der lever
endnu – hurra!
Det er
interessant, at den lokale landbetjent, Per, der undersøger sagen, sværmer
åbenbart for én af disse hidtil overlevende elever – en smuk kvinde, der hedder
Mia, en sexet advokat. Det synes lidt uprofessionelt, for at sige mildt. Per er
en gift mand, og Mia er en gift kvinde. Per får fugtige håndflader, og hans
stemme begynde at dirre, så snart han hører Mias navn. Sikke et vanvid!!!
Vi spekulerer
lidt om, hvor gammel Per er. Vi har på fornemmelsen, at han er betydeligt
ældre, end Mia, men vi formoder, at en alderforskel ikke forhindrer mange ældre
mænd (eller kvinder – de såkaldte cougars) i at skabe fantasier, der lyder lidt
latterlige – du godeste!
16:15 Mødet
slutter og gruppens medlemmer skal af sted. Vores næste møde finder sted om 4
uger, fordi vi er blevet inviteret til et bryllup den 28. juli, og vi kører den
27. juli sydpå til badebyen Bournemouth. Julia, Lois’s fætters datter gifter
sig for anden gang.
Julia sendt os
en email forleden, hvor hun spurgte os, hvilke sange vi gerne vil danse til på
aftenens diskotek. Jeg foreslår til Lois, at vi citerer sanglisten, som de
moderne striptease-dansere alle bruger. Vi hørte forleden et interessant
radio-program, hvor en stribe af moderne stripteaseartister sagde, at de ikke
længere bruger de gammeldags bigbandnumrene, som ”The Stripper”, ”Big Spender”
osv, der var blevet til lidt af en kliché.
Vi må huske at
bede Julia om at indeholde Norman Greenbaums ”Spirit in the Sky”, Reverend
Horton Heats ”D for Dangerous”, og Nero’s Day at Disneylands ”No Money Down Low
Monthly Payments”. Hun vil blive imponeret, at to gamle krager som os har hørt
om disse underlige titler, og vores omdømme vil blive sikret. Eller vil hun
blive mistænkelig – det er vi ikke helt sikre på.
English
translation
18:00 Lois and
I have dinner in the living room and while we eat, we see an old episode
of the "Big Bang Theory".
She suddenly remembers that our next U3A Danish group's
next meeting will take place here tomorrow. She does not spend much time now
learning Danish - we have recently had many other things that have distracted
us: our unplanned "working holiday" in Denmark in June, and the visit
of our daughter Alison and her family from Copenhagen in July ... not to
mention gardening and her work in connection with her church's pop-up shop in
the town of Tewkesbury, and now in the past two days more research on her
family tree.
It seems that our connection with Denmark (due to our
daughter's residence in Copenhagen) finishes at the end of the year, but for my
part I want to continue to learn the Danish language: foreign languages have
been my hobby since I was 12 years old and saw a book, "Teach yourself
Finnish" in the local library, a challenge I could not resist the
temptation of taking up. My god, what an annoying young man I was - no doubt about
that!!! It is interesting that Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory is twice
portrayed as mastering a foreign language, the first one is Finnish, and the
second is Chinese, which he uses to order Chinese food on the phone and at a
restaurant, with uneven results.
Sheldon tries to speak
Chinese at a restaurant,
with uneven results
I like the Danish language: the pronunciation is a
nightmare, a challenge that I again cannot resist the temptation of taking up.
And the historical connection with the English language is constantly
fascinating, I think. A Norwegian professor decided to classify English as a
Scandinavian language a couple of years ago - and I have a lot of sympathy for
his view.
If Ed, our son-in-law, gets a job in Holland when his job
ends in Copenhagen, I will start to feel a dilemma, because Dutch is an example
of the second important element in the history of English: the Low German (West
Germanic) element. Decisions, decisions !!! But if he gets a job in Hong Kong,
there can be no question of my learning Chinese: I'm too old to start on that
nightmare of a project - I have no doubts about that !!!! Good night, Vienna
!!!! Sheldon is young enough - I'm NOT !!!
The Germanic languages
20:00 I prepare a vocabulary test
that I want our Danish group members to take. The correct answers spell out the
phrase "Remember to smile before you sleep, and the sourness of the day will go away", another quotation
from Piet Hein [Niels Bohr's friend], it turns out - but is it good advice? I'm
not entirely sure. I have suffered all my life from the consequences of
suppressing negative feelings !!!! Poor me!!!!!
We have a useful expression in
English, "to smile with/through clenched teeth," but I'm not quite
sure that that is good preparation for sleeping well.
If I wanted to establish a new
religion based on Piet Hein's quotes, I think I would interpret this quote as
follows: do something that's fun before you sleep .... and the sourness of the day will go away. But I would be afraid that this interpretation, which to some
extent alters the great man's original meaning, could lead to a split in my new
church. But that's something I'm not entirely sure about. The so-called
"smiley" sect could insist that the true believers just do the smile, and do not do anything that's fun before they sleep, for example.
By the way, the correct answers
to our Danish group's new vocabulary test are top secret until Thursday at 3pm,
needless to say ha ha ha !!!
21:00 We stick our feet up in
front of the television and watch a reality documentary, where landlords
and tenants swap residences (and weekly income) for a week. The point is for
the landlord to find out what the problems are with the housing (damp, lack of
cupboards, etc.) and how difficult it is to live on their tenants' low income,
etc.
Watching this documentary is Lois’s
choice. I am not that fond of this kind of programme, I have to admit. Since I
retired, I've had a bad tendency to ignore society's problems, something I'm
not that proud of. Lois is far more charitable than me - what a woman !!!!! I
have to try to be just like her.
I find the program very touching,
even though I suppose the examples we see are not completely typical. Only
reasonable landlords and only conscientious tenants would be willing to take
part in such a program. There must be many other landlords and tenants who do
not exhibit these qualities - I have no doubts about that.
I must try to be just like Lois.
Heinz, the English pop singer, released a song in 1963 entitled "Just Like
Eddie", as a tribute to Eddie Cochran. We both love this song. The lyrics were as
follows: "Whenever I'm sad, whenever I'm blue / Whenever my troubles are
heavy / Beneath the stars. I play my guitar / Just like Eddie (C'mon everybody….etc)
". I make a mental note to compose my own version as a tribute to Lois -
but unfortunately it will take time to perfect the exact new lyrics - oh dear,
if only I had more time!
Lois in her brand-new official pop-up
shop t-shirt.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!!
04:00 I get up early and look
online.
08:00 I hop back into bed with
Lois and we drink our morning tea. We get up and have breakfast.
10:00 I get going with fixing up
our brand new parasol, which I ordered from amazon.co.uk. It is ironic that the
weather is much colder now than when I ordered it, and the sun only shines once
in a while. What madness !!!!
I manage to fix up the brand
new parasol
I ordered from Amazon.
12:00 We have lunch on the patio
under our brand new parasol, and afterwards I go to bed and take a short
afternoon nap - zzzzzz !!!!!
13:30 I get up and prepare myself
for our Danish group's next meeting.
14:30 The members of our Danish
group arrive. They take the Danish vocabulary test I have prepared and
afterwards we read the next 6 pages of the crime short story,
"Accursed", by Gittemie Eriksen, which is the group's current
project.
There have already been about 12
murders in this quiet Danish village. The victims have all been either former
students or former teachers at the local school - the students are now all in
their 30's. Apparently, the (unknown) perpetrator is trying to kill all his
former classmates in addition to some of his teachers. We have read to page 60
and it is reassuring to see that there are still approx. 10 students who were
in that class, who are still alive - hurrah!
It is interesting that the local
police constable, Per, who is investigating the case, apparently has a crush on
one of these surviving students - a beautiful woman called Mia, a sexy lawyer.
It seems a little unprofessional, to say the least. Per is a married man, and
Mia is a married woman. Per gets sweaty palms, and his voice begins to tremble
as soon as he hears Mia's name. What madness !!!
We wonder how old Per is. We have
the feeling that he is considerably older than Mia, but we assume that age
difference does not prevent many older men (or women - the so-called cougars)
from creating fantasies that sound a bit ridiculous - my goodness!
16:15 The meeting ends and the
members of the group have to leave. Our next meeting will take place in 4 weeks
time because we have been invited to a wedding on 28th of July, and on July
27th we are driving south to the seaside resort of Bournemouth. Julia, Lois's
cousin's daughter is getting married for the second time.
Julia sent us an email the other
day, asking us which songs we would like to dance to at the evening disco. I
suggest to Lois that we quote the song list which the modern striptease dancers
all use. We heard an interesting radio programme the other day, in which a
bunch of modern strippers said they no longer use the old-fashioned big-band
numbers, such as "The Stripper", "Big Spender", etc., which
had become a bit of a cliché.
We must remember to ask Julia to
include Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky", Reverend Horton Heats
"D for Dangerous," and Nero's Day at Disneyland's "No Money Down
Low Monthly Payments." She will be impressed that two old crows like us
have heard of these strange titles and our reputation will be assured. Or will
she be suspicious - we are not entirely sure about that.
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