17:30 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og snakker lidt om den email, som Sarah,
vores datter i Perth, Australien, sendte os i eftermiddags. Sarah vil have os
til at tilbringe flere måneder, muligvis et helt år derovre, eller beslutte
måske at bosætte os i Perth – hun anbefaler Scarborough, en nærliggende forstad
til byen – og har sendt os links til lokale egendomsmægleres websteder. Du
godeste!
Vi føler ikke desto mindre, at vi ikke er klar til at tage en beslutning.
Vores anden datter, Alison, bor for tiden i København, og hendes familie må
flytte andetsteds ved slutningen af året, og vi ved ikke, hvor Ed, vores
svigersøn, vil få sit næste job. Det er sandt, at Ed måske vil flytte mange
gange i løbet af sin kommende karriere fra land til land, mens Sarah og Francis
har besluttet sig for at blive boende i Perth.
Ed lagde i går dette charmerende billeder af sin familie
op
på Facebook
Perths klima er ubehagelig varmt om den sydlige halvkugles sommer, selvom
vi sandsynligvis ville vænne os til det. Vi har imidlertid hørt om andre ældre
englændere, der ikke går ud af huset om sommeren – uha!
Vi formoder, at Sarah tænker, at vi kunne hjælpe hende og Francis med at
passe på deres 4-årige tvillinger. Hun er ikke klar over, hvor meget vi bliver
svagere med hvert år, der går. Det ville måske være os, der inden alt for længe
har brug for hjælp – yikes!!!!
Sarah lagde i går dette charmerende billede af Francis
og
deres 4-årige tvillinger op på Facebook.
Vi ville opgive alle vores andre slægtninge, venner, og hovedparten af
vores interesser, hvis vi flyttede til Australien.
Sarah har lagt en stor indsats i at spørge ind til idéen, og vi ønsker ikke
at såre hendes følelser. Men det er i hvert fald ikke det rigtige tidspunkt til
at tage en beslutning, i betragtning af, at vi endnu ikke er sikre på Alisons
og Eds kommende planer.
20:00 Vi smækker benene op foran fjernsyn. De viser en interessant
dokumentarfilm, der handler om Trumps indsatser for at sende ulovlige
indvandrere tilbage til Mexico.
Vi hører hele tiden om Trumps
politiske vanskeligheder i Washington. Det er interessant, at høre for
en gangs skyld om, hvordan det lykkes Trump at have en indvirkning på dette
område – ulovlig indvandring – hvad enten mand siger god for det eller ej. Men Lois
og jeg spekulerer på, om han tager ikke-kriminelle ulovlige indvandrere som
mål, fordi de er nemmere at identificere og forvise, og vil gøre statistikken
mere imponerende i øjnene af offentligheden. Men det er vi ikke helt sikre på.
Det er også interessant, at se hvor populær Trump er i øjnene af lokale
politifolk og (amerikanske) indbyggere i grænseområder. Det minder os om
holdninger af mange Brexit-tilhængere i Storbritannien, der jubler over tanken
om, at mange indvandrere vil måtte ”fise af hjem” på grund af Brexit, hvad
enten dette i virkeligheden vil ske eller ej – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!
Mange års tv-billeder af mellemøstlige indvandrere, der krydser Middelhavet
eller Ægæerhavet med usikre både, eller venter på, at snige sig herover gennem
Eurotunnelen, har haft en stor indvirkning, mener vi. Vi mener også, at Angela
Merkel måske har noget at stå til regnskab for – hun ønskede at gøre det
rigtige, i sær i betragtning af Tysklands nazistiske fortid, men billeder af
mængder af mellemøstlige indvandrere og historier af kriminel adfærd, har også
spillet ind – det har vi ikke nogen tvivl om.
Det såkaldte ”arabiske forår” har voldet en masse problemer (og dødsfald) i
verden uden at skabe mange sandelig demokratiske stater, mener vi – uha!!!!
21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en anden interessant
dokumentarfilm, der handler om historien af kvindefodbold. Programmets vært er
Clare Balding, sportsjournalist og LGBT-aktivist.
Programmets grundlæggende tema er at
kvinder i den 1. verdenskrig overtog mange jobs, som mænd havde før krigen, for
eksempel i ammunitionsfabrikker. Disse fabrikkers ledelse opfordrede deres
kvindelige personale til at danne lokale fodboldhold, og deres kampe var meget
populære – de mandlige hold var forsvundet. Men efter krigen, besluttede
Englands Football Association (FA) at forbyde de kvindelige hold at bruge FAs officielle
fodboldbaner, og kvindebold ophørte et par år senere.
Clare, programmets vært, spørger ind til, hvorfor FA besluttede at droppe
kvindefodbold, da den var så populær, men grundene til det er stadig lidt
uklare. Lois og jeg mener, det var en del af et almindeligt udspil i samfundet
at genoptage kønsernes gamle traditionelle roller: udarbejdende mænd og
kvinder, der bliver i hjemmet.
Lois og jeg spekulerer lidt på, om kvindefodbold var så populær, fordi det
var en kontaktsport og også tilskuerne kunne se spillernes knæ og lår, hvilket
dengange ville have været et henholdsvis sjældent syn, bortset fra ”hvad
butleren så” maskiner ha ha ha – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Men det springer vi over. Programmets
formål var at bevise, at kvindelige
fodboldspillere var så dygtige til at spille, som mændene, og ikke at henlede
opmærksomheden på, at kvinderne havde smukkere bene. Du godeste, sikke en skør
verden vi lever i !!!!!
et typisk kvindeboldhold fra 1920s
Tilfældigvis, i løbet af aftenen spillede den engelske kvindeboldhold og
den skotske en kamp i første omgang af Europamesterskabet. Vi finder senere ud
af, at den engelske hold kom igennem med glans.
nogle medlemmer af den engelske kvindeboldhold,
der
slog den skotske i aftes (benene ikke vist i billedet,
for anstændighedens skyld)
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 ligger i sengen og snakker lidt om Lois’s administrative pligter i
forbindelse med hendes kirkes pop-up shop midt i byen Tewkesbury. Jeg foreslår,
at hun har brug for et websted, hvor hun kan publicere og opdatere sit skema,
der viser hvilke tidsrum mindst 2 kirkemedlemmer har indvilliget i at bemande shoppen til, og
hvilke tidsrum ingen har indvilliget i at være ansvarlig for endnu osv. Det vil
gøre det nemmere for Lois at finde folk, der kan fylde skemaets tomme tidsrum.
Jeg tilbyder at oprette webstedet på hendes vegne.
09:00 Jeg står op og opretter et spritnyt websted til Lois’s pop-up shop skema,
mens jeg venter på, at Lois kommer ned ad trappen. Vi spiser morgenmad.
10:00 Vi kører over til Leckhampton og smutter ind hos CookShop for at købe
nogle færdigretter. Lois er ofte for træt til at lave mad, efter hun har
arbejdet hele formiddag eller eftermiddag i pop-up shoppen, og mine kulinariske
færdigheder er ganske begrænsede – uha!
Vi drikker en kop te og spiser et stykke kage i butikkens café.
12:00 Vi kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage
mig en gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!!
15:00 Jeg står op. Lois ringer til Eds forældre, Stephen og Felicity i
Christchurch. Ed er vores svigersøn i København. Lois og jeg planlægger at
rejse sydpå til Christchurch om en uges tid for at deltage i Julias bryllup – Julia
er Lois’s fætters datter.
Felicity inviterer os til at spise frokost hos dem dagen efter brylluppet.
15:30 Vi kører ind i landsbyen. Vi smutter ind hos det lokale postkontor
for at afsende to (identiske) ”Peter Rabbit” magasiner til Lily og Jessica,
vores 3-årige børnebørn i Perth Australien. Det hele koster 15£ herunder porto
- du godeste! Men vi er begge glade for at kunne gøre dem denne lille tjeneste
og holde dem begge lidt i kontakt med ”det gamle land”.
vi afsender to identiske Peter Rabbit
magasiner
til vores tvilling-børnebørn i Australien
16:00 Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop te.
English translation
17:30 Lois and I have dinner and
talk a little about the email that Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia,
sent us this afternoon. Sarah wants us to spend several months, maybe a whole
year over there, or maybe decide to settle in Perth - she recommends Scarborough,
a nearby suburb of the city - and has sent us links to local estate agents'
websites. My goodness!
Nevertheless, we feel that we are
not ready to make a decision. Our second daughter, Alison, currently lives in
Copenhagen, and her family must move somewhere else at the end of the year, and
we do not know where Ed, our son-in-law, will get his next job. It is true that
Ed may move many times from country to country during his future career,
whereas Sarah and Francis have decided to stay in Perth.
Ed yesterday posted this charming
picture of his family
up on Facebook
Perth's climate is uncomfortably
hot in the southern hemisphere summer, although we would probably get used to
it. However, we have heard of other elderly English people who do not go out of
the house in the summer - oh dear!
We suppose Sarah thinks we could
help her and Francis take care of their 4 year old twins. She does not realise
how much we get weaker with every year that passes. It might be us who need
help before too long - yikes !!!!
Sarah yesterday posted this charming
picture of Francis
and their 4-year-old twins up on Facebook.
We would give up all our other
relatives, friends, and most of our interests if we moved to Australia.
Sarah has put a lot of effort
into looking into the idea and we do not want to hurt her feelings. But it is
in any case not the right time to make a decision, considering that we are not
yet sure of Alison's and Ed's future plans.
20:00 We stick our feet up in
front of the television. An interesting documentary is on, all about Trump's
efforts to send illegal immigrants back to Mexico.
We are constantly hearing about
Trump's political difficulties in Washington. It's interesting to hear for once
about how Trump is succeeding in having an impact in this area - illegal
immigration - whether one approves or not. But Lois and I wonder if he is
targeting non-criminal illegal immigrants because they are easier to identify
and expel and will make the statistics more impressive in the eyes of the
public. But that is something we are not entirely sure of.
It is also interesting to see how
popular Trump is in the eyes of local police and (American) residents in border
areas. It reminds us of the attitudes of many Brexit supporters in Britain
cheering over the idea that many immigrants will have to "bugger off
home" because of Brexit, whether this will actually happen or not - good
grief, what madness !!
Many years of television images
of Middle Eastern immigrants crossing the Mediterranean or Aegean in unsafe
boats or waiting to sneak over here through the Channel Tunnel have had a big
impact, we believe. We also think that Angela Merkel might have something to
answer for - she wanted to do the right thing, especially in view of Germany's
Nazi past, but images of crowds of middle eastern immigrants and stories of
criminal behaviour have also been a factor - we have no doubts about that.
The so-called "Arab
spring" has caused a lot of problems (and deaths) in the world without
creating many truly democratic states, we think - oh dear !!!!
21:00 We carry on watching
television. Another interesting documentary is on, all about the history of
women's football.
The basic theme of the program is
that women in the First World War took over many jobs that men had before the
war, for example in ammunition factories. The management of these factories
encouraged their female staff to form local football teams, and their matches
were very popular - the male teams had disappeared temporarily. But after the war,
England's Football Association (FA) decided to ban the female teams from using
FA's official football pitches and women's football ended a couple of years
later.
Clare, the host of the program,
looks into why the FA decided to drop women's football, when it was so popular, but the
reasons for it are still a little cloudy. Lois and I think it was part of a
general initiative in society to resume the sexes' old traditional roles: men go out to work and women stay at home.
Lois and I wonder if women's
soccer was so popular because it was a contact sport and also the spectators
could see the players' knees and thighs, which would have been a rare sight in
those days (apart from “What the butler saw” machines ha ha ha) - good grief,
what madness !!! But we will let that one slide. The aim of the program was to
prove that female football players were as adept at playing as the men were,
and not to draw attention to the fact that they had nicer legs. My goodness,
what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
a typical women’s football
team from the 1920s
By coincidence, during the
evening the English women's football team and the Scottish one played a match at
the start of the European Cup. We later find out that the English team came
through with flying colours.
Some members of the English
women's team
that beat the Scottish team tonight (legs
not shown for decency's sake)
05:00 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
08:00 I jump back into bed with
Lois and we drink our morning tea. We lie in bed and talk a little about Lois's
administrative duties in connection with her church's pop-up shop in the centre
of Tewkesbury. I suggest she needs a website where she can publish and update
her schedule showing what time-slots at least 2 church members have agreed to
staff the shop for, and what time-slots nobody has agreed to be responsible for
yet, etc. That will make it easier for Lois to find people who can fill in the
empty time slots. I offer to create the site on her behalf.
09:00 I get up and create a shiny
new website for Lois's pop-up shop schedule, while I'm waiting for Lois to get
down the stairs. We eat breakfast.
10:00 We head over to Leckhampton
and drop in at CookShop to buy some ready meals. Lois is often too tired to
cook after working all morning or afternoon in the pop-up shop, and my culinary
skills are quite limited - oh dear!
We drink a cup of tea and eat a
piece of cake in the shop's café.
12:00 We come home and have
lunch. Afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzzzz !!!!
15:00 I get up. Lois calls Ed's
parents, Stephen and Felicity in Christchurch. Ed is our son-in-law in
Copenhagen. Lois and I plan to travel south to Christchurch in a week's time to
attend Julia's wedding - Julia is Lois's cousin's daughter.
Felicity invites us to have lunch
with them the day after the wedding.
15:30 We drive into the village.
We drop in at the local post office to send two (identical) "Peter
Rabbit" magazines to Lily and Jessica, our 3 year old grandchildren in
Perth Australia. The whole thing costs £15 including postage - my goodness! But
we are both happy to do them this little service and keep them both in touch
with "the old country".
We ship two identical
Peter Rabbit
magazines to our twin grandchildren in
Australia
16:00 We come home and relax with
a cup of tea.
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