17:00 ”Det er vigtigere at være frisk og rask, end at være tynd” – er nu
blevet min devise. Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og tilbagelægger endnu 6
miles (10km).
Jeg har for vane at høre YouTube musik på min smartphone, mens jeg cykler.
Jeg er samtidig optaget med en rejse tilbage i tiden og har nået til 1948 –
skræmmende!!! Og jeg kan helt sikkert ikke huske de fleste hitsange i denne
YouTube kompilation, hvilket måske er ikke ret overraskende. Jeg var kun 2 år
gammel, og jeg mistænker, at jeg har slet ingen ægte erindring om dette år.
Jeg var sandsynligvis i gang med at vænne mig til at have en lille søster,
Kathy, født i november det foregående år, en stor baby (over 11 pund), der
senere blev højere, end mig (pokkers!) indtil min lille vækstspurt i 1960’erne.
mig, min mor, og Kathy i 1948
mig,
min far, og Kathy i 1948. Min far er i sin hæruniform.
Kathy
havde min fars rødt hår.
Lykkelige dage! Det er meningen, at første barn føler jalousi, da det andet
barn kommer til verden, selvom hvis mellemrummet er kort nok, sker det ikke,
tror jeg. Min søster var 20 mdr yngre, end mig, og jeg kan ikke huske nogle
jaloux følelser.
Sangeren Andrew Golds yngre søster var ca 24 mdr yngre, og resultatet var
katastrofalt, det er både sikkert og vist. Stakkels Andrew!!!!! Men kom så, op
med humøret, se at komme videre, Andrew!!!!!
Se at komme videre, Andrew!!!!
18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad. Vi er begge to meget trætte – vi trænger
til en ferie. Heldigvis har vi muligheden for at tage bilen og smutte væk fra
det hele, når vi rejser sydpå på torsdag for at deltage i Julias bryllup.
Vi sætter os til rette i sofaen og smækker benene op foran fjernsynet. De
viser en BBC Proms koncert: vi ser den berømte hollandske dirigent Bernard Haitink
med sit mildt væsen (copyright Clark Kent), der er endnu ældre, end os (på 88
år – yikes!!!), sammen med Chamber Orchestra of Europe, spille Mozart og
Schumann.
Vores yndlingsstykke på koncertprogrammet er Mozarts rørende 3. violinkoncert,
men hele koncerten er så smuk, så smuk og beroligende oven i købet.
den tyske solist, Isabelle Faust, spiller Mozarts 3. violinkoncert (den
utroligt
rørende
2. sats). Vores yndligsfløjtist, den smukke Clara Andrade de la Calle –
skørt navn, skørt
kvinde! – ser ud som om, hun kigger over Isabelles skulder.
21:00 Vi overvejer at fortsætte med at se lidt fjernsyn, selvom vi har virkelig
meget lyst til at gå i seng. De begynder at vise en dokumentarfilm, ”Operation
Armbrøst”, der handler om den 2. verdenskrig og i sær om rollen spillet af
luftfotogravering i at finde og identificere tyske V1 og V2 raket afskydningsramper, der alle var pegede
mod det sydlige England, unødvendigt at sige.
Programmet viser sig at være meget interessant, så vi modvilligt udskyder
at gå i seng. Vi vidste ikke, at Peenemunde, en havneby på Tysklands baltiske
kyst, var stedet, hvor de britiske og amerikanske fotofortolkere først spottede
disse raketter. Lois og jeg besøgte Peenemunde først i 1990’erne sammen med
vores 2 teenagedøtre, Alison (17 år) og Sarah (15 år), under en ferie i det
nordlige Tyskland. Vi rejste derover med det formål at forbedre pigernes tysk.
Lois i Tyskland i 1992: åh hvor jeg dog elsker
hendes
dejlig kort hår – du godeste!
Sarah i Peenemunde i 1992
Mig i Peenemunde i 1992: vi var på ferie i det nordlige
Tyskland - havnebyen Peenemunde i lykkeligere tider.
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzz!!!!!
04:30 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske
ordforrådtest. Jeg kigger lidt på internettet. Alison, vores datter i
København, er for tiden på ferie i Norfolk, et grevskab, der ligger i det
østlige England og grænser op til Nordsøen. I dag rejser hendes familie til
Holland, hvor de skal leje et feriehus i nogle dage, på vej hjem til Danmark.
Hun har lagt nogle charmerende billeder af Norfolk op på Facebook. Landskabet i
Norfolk ligner i vis grad landskabet i både Danmark og Holland, sjovt nok.
Alison, vores datter i København, er for tiden på ferie
i
Norfolk, sammen med Ed, sin mand, og deres 3 børn
Eds job i København ophører ved slutningen af året, og Lois og jeg er meget
nysgerrige over for, hvor hans næste job vil være. Han har en mulighed for at få
et job i Holland, men Lois og jeg er ikke helt sikre på, om han gerne vil påtage
det eller ej.
På den anden side må vi acceptere, at hans næste job kunne være hvor som helst i verden. Spørgsmålet er meget vigtigt
for mit og Lois’s vedkommende, fordi det har en indvirkning på, hvor ofte vi
kan se dem – uha! Sarah, vores anden datter, bor nu i Australien, så det vil
være rart, hvis Alison i det mindste bliver boende i Europa.
07:45 Jeg hopper tilbage op i sengen
til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté. Vi har nu i ca 1 uge sovet i
dobbeltsengen i Sarahs gamle værelse. Det er så dejligt at kunne ligge og kigge
ud af vinduet, der har udsigt over
baghaven, så meget mere behageligt, end vores eget soveværelse, der har udsigt
til gaden, hvor vi konstant bliver forstyrret af trafiklarm – du godeste!
vi kan
ligge i sengen og kigge ud af vinduet
der har udsigt over
vores smukke baghave – du godeste!
Vi står op og spiser morgenmad.
09:15 Vi kører over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind.
Vi kører hjem igen og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.
11:00 Jeg graver mit eksemplar af Gunnlaugs saga frem, en oldislandsk
tekst, som er vores U3A oldnorske gruppes nuværende projekt, og jeg begynder at
læse den 11. kapitel for alvor – og jeg prøver at forstå grammatikken og
ordforrådet lidt.
Det lykkes Hrafn, en islandsk skjald, at gifte sig med Helga, Islands
smukkeste kvinde, efter Helgas far giver ham tilladelse til det. Men Helga
virker deprimeret under deres bryllup – hun er faktistk dybt forelsket i Hrafns
rival, en anden skjald, der hedder Gunnlaug, der har været ude i udlandet:
Norge, England, og Irland. Men hun hævner sig på Hrafn ved at give ham sex kun
sjældent. Stakkels Hrafn!!!!
Lidt senere på året, om vinteren, er der et andet bryllup, der finder sted,
og både Hrafn, Helga og Gunnlaug er blevet inviteret til festen. Gunnlaug er nu
kommet tilbage fra udlandet. Helga virker deprimeret igen, og under festen hun
kigger konstant på sin forelskede Gunnlaug, hvilket er lidt ydmygende for
stakkels Hrafn, hendes ægtemand. Sagaens forfatter kommenterer, at en kvindes
øjne vidner om, om hun er forelsket eller ej – kloge ord!!! Men stakkels Hrafn (igen)!!!! Og Helga har nu
holdt fuldstændigt op med at have sex med sin ægtemand.
Helga
og Gunnlaug – deres kærlighed er forbudt nu, hvor
Helga
er Hrafns kone – stakkels Helga!!!!
Gunnlaug og Helga snakker lidt i smug under bryllup – faktisk i køkkenet,
og Gunnlaug forærer hende den dejlig kåbe, som kong Ethelred 2. (den Rådvilde)
gav ham i London, da Gunnlaug tilbød at hjælpe Ethelred med at forsvare landet
mod danskerne. Sikke et skør verden vi lever i !!!!
Helga
i køkkenet ved brylluppet –
Gunnlaug
og Helga (Hrafns kone) sniger sig ind i køkkenet
for
at snakke i smug under festen. De lover deres udødelige kærlighed
og
Gunnlaug forærer hende en dejlig kåbe, han fik i England
Mange år senere, skrev nogen en sang om én, der altid kan findes i køkkenet
ved fester, men jeg formoder, det ikke var Gunnlaug, der inspirerede sangen.
Men hvem ved, underligere ting er sket.
12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzz!!!!
15:00 Jeg står op og vi drikker en kop te i sofaen.
English translation
17:00 "It's more important
to be healthy and fit than to be thin" - has now become my motto. I jump
on my exercise bike and clock up another 6 miles (10 km).
My habit is to listen to YouTube
music on my smart phone while I'm cycling. I am also engaged with a journey going back in time and have now reached 1948 - scary !!! And I certainly cannot remember
most of the hit songs in this 1948 YouTube compilation. I was only 2 years old and I
suspect I have no genuine memories of this year.
I was probably getting used to
having a little sister, Kathy, born in November of the previous year, a big
baby (over 11 pounds), who later became taller than me (damn!) until my little
growth spurt in the 1960s.
me, my mother, and Kathy in
1948
Me, my father, and Kathy in 1948. My father
is in his army uniform.
Kathy had my father's red hair.
Happy days! It is supposed to be
that the first child feels jealous when the second child comes into the world,
although if the interval is short enough, this does not happen, I think. My
sister was 20 months younger than me and I cannot remember any jealous
feelings.
The singer Andrew Gold's younger
sister was about 24 months younger and the result was disastrous, and that's a
fact. Poor Andrew !!!!! But come on, lighten up, get over it, Andrew !!!!!
Time to move on,
Andrew !!!!
18:00 Lois and I eat dinner. We
are both very tired - we need a vacation. Fortunately, we have the chance to
take the car and get away from it all when we travel south on Thursday to go to
Julia's wedding.
We settle on the couch and stick
our feet up in front of the television. A BBC Proms concert is on: we see the
famous Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink with his mild manner (copyright Clark
Kent), who is even older than us (88 years of age - yikes !!!), together with
the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, playing Mozart and Schumann.
Our favourite piece on the concert
programme is Mozart's moving 3rd violin concerto, but the whole concert is so
beautiful, so beautiful and soothing.
The German soloist Isabelle Faust
plays Mozart's 3rd violin concerto (the incredibly
moving
second movement). Our favourite flautist, the beautiful Clara Andrade de la
Calle -
crazy
name, crazy gal! - appears like she is looking over Isabelle's shoulder.
21:00 We think about whether to
watch more television even though we really want to go to bed. A documentary
film "Operation Crossbow", starts, all about the Second World War,
and in particular about the role played by aerial photography in finding and
identifying German V1 and V2 rocket launching ramps, all of which were pointing
towards southern England, needless to say.
The programme turns out to be
very interesting, so we reluctantly put off going to bed. We did not know that
Peenemunde, a port city on Germany's Baltic coast, was the place where the
British and American photographic interpreters first spotted these rockets.
Lois and I visited Peenemunde in the 1990s with our 2 teenage daughters, Alison
(17 years) and Sarah (15 years), during a vacation in northern Germany. We were
travelling over there with the aim of improving the girls' German.
Lois in Germany in 1992: oh
how I love
her gorgeous short hair - my goodness!
Sarah (15) in Peenemunde in 1992
me in 1992 on our visit to northern Germany
- the port of Peenemunde in happier times.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz !!!!!
04:30 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests. I take a little look at the internet.
Alison, our daughter in Copenhagen, is currently on holiday in Norfolk, a
county which lies in eastern England and borders on the North Sea. Today, her
family is travelling to Holland, where they are going to rent a holiday home
for a few days on their way home to Denmark. She has posted some charming
pictures of Norfolk up on Facebook. The landscape in Norfolk is to some extent
similar to the landscape in both Denmark and the Netherlands, funnily enough.
Alison, our daughter in
Copenhagen, is currently on holiday
In Norfolk, along with Ed, her husband, and
their 3 children
Ed's job in Copenhagen finishes
at the end of the year, and Lois and I are very curious about where his next
job will be. He has the chance of a job in Holland, but Lois and I
are not quite sure if he wants to take it or not.
On the other hand, we must accept
that his next job could be anywhere in the world. The question is very
important to me and Lois because it has an impact on how often we can see them
- oh dear! Sarah, our second daughter, lives in Australia, so it will be nice
if Alison is at least living in Europe.
07:45 I hop back into bed with
Lois and we drink our morning tea. For about a week we have been sleeping in
the double bed in Sarah's old room. It's so nice to be able to lie and look out of a window that overlooks the back garden, so much more comfortable than our own
bedroom that overlooks the street where we are constantly disturbed by traffic
noise - good grief!
We can lie in bed and look out
of the window
overlooking our beautiful back garden - my
goodness!
We get up and have breakfast.
09:15 We drive over to the local
Sainsbury's supermarket to do the shopping. We drive back home and relax with a
cup of coffee on the couch.
11:00 I dig out my copy of
Gunnlaug's saga, an Old Icelandic text, which is our U3A Old Norse group's
current project, and I start to read the 11th chapter for serious - and I try
to understand the grammar and vocabulary a little.
Hrafn, an Icelandic bard, manages
to marry Helga, the most beautiful woman in Iceland, after Helga's father gives
him permission. But Helga seems depressed during their wedding - she is in fact
deeply in love with Hrafn's rival, another bard called Gunnlaug, who has been
abroad: in Norway, England, and Ireland. But she takes her revenge on Hrafn by
giving him sex only occasionally. Poor Hrafn!!!!
A little later in the year, in
winter, there is another wedding taking place, and both Hrafn and Helga and
also Gunnlaug have been invited to the reception. Gunnlaug has now returned
from abroad. Helga seems depressed again, and during the reception she is
constantly looking at her beloved Gunnlaug, which is a bit humiliating for poor
Hrafn, her husband. The author of the saga comments that a woman's eyes testify
whether she is in love or not - wise words !!! Poor old Hrafn (again) !!!!
And Helga has now completely put a stop on sex with her husband.
Helga and Gunnlaug - their love is forbidden
now that
Helga is Hrafn's wife - poor Helga !!!!
Gunnlaug and Helga talk a little
on the sly at the wedding - in fact, in the kitchen, and Gunnlaug gives her the
lovely coat that King Ethelred 2. (the Unready) presented him with in London
when Gunnlaug offered to help Ethelred defend England against the Danes. What a
crazy world we live in !!!!
Helga in the kitchen - Gunnlaug and Helga (wife of Hrafn) sneak
into the kitchen
to talk in secret during the reception. They
pledge their undying love
and Gunnlaug gives her a lovely coat he got
in England
Many years later, somebody wrote a
song about a man who can always be found in the kitchen at parties, but I
suppose it was probably not Gunnlaug who inspired the song. But who knows,
stranger things have happened.
12:30 We have lunch and
afterwards I go to bed and take me a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzz !!!!
15:00 I get up and we have a cup
of tea on the couch.
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