18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad på terrassebordet igen, fordi vejret
stadig er ganske godt, og solen skinner. Jeg monterer vores gamle parasol over
bordet, men den er stærkt plettet – helt væmmelig. Du godeste! Vi fik den for ca. 12 år siden af
én af Sarahs eks-kærester. Efter måltiden bestiller jeg en ny (parasol, ikke
kæreste) fra amazon.co.uk.
20:00 Lois sætter sig foran computeren. Hendes kirke har givet hende
ansvaret for at opdatere og Hun har flere problemer med at opdatere og
cirkulere listen over de frivillige, der har lovet at bemande kirkens pop-up
shop på forskellige sessioner enten om formiddagen eller eftermiddagen –
shoppen holder åbent 6 dage om ugen midt i byen Tewkesbury.
Lois
i sin spritnye officielle pop-up-shop t-shirt!
Hvor
ser hun dog lækker ud!!!!
Det er lidt irriterende, men måske forståeligt, at de frivillige nogle
gange skifter mening eller siger, at de ikke længere kan deltage, når det
kommer til en eller anden session. Nogle gange bliver de syge – sidste uge var
det meget varmt i shoppen, og en af de kirkemedlemmer, der bemandede shoppen,
besvimede og gik i gulvet. Han blev taget til skadestuen – du godeste! Han blev
senere udskrevet, men alle hans kommende sessioner nu skal gentildeles – sikke nogle
gener!
Vi har en datter og svigersøn i Perth, Australien, og en svigerbror i USA.
De siger ofte, det er helt morsomt, at englændere begynder at beklage sig over
varmen, når temperaturen når til over 75 grader (F) eller 24 (C), og begynder
at besvime eller gå i gulvet alle vide vegne. Men det er bare et spørgsmål om,
hvad man er vant til, formoder jeg. Da vi besøgte Sarah sidste år (under den
sydlige halvkuglens efterår) i Australien, beklagede hun og Francis, hendes
mand, sig ofte over kulden, mens Lois og jeg syntes, temperaturen var meget
behagelig.
Lois fortæller mig, at pop-up shoppen hidtil har været meget vellykket.
Shoppen har haft mange ”kunder”, der har smuttet ind, siden kirken åbnede den i
begyndelsen af juli. Flere af kunderne har indskrevet sig til kirkens næste
seminarserie, der starter til efteråret. Og flere er dukket op til kirkens
gudstjenester om søndagen. De har fundet ud af, at pop-up shopper og
bibelseminarer virker meget bedre, end at gå fra dør til dør i lokale nabolag, hvilket bare irriterende boligejerne.
Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror,
sendte mig dette
charmerende billede af en bjørn, der bruger den gamle,
nu miskrediterede ”dør til dør” metode til at forkynde og sprede ordet,
hvilket desværre
kun irriterer boligejerne
Jeg synes, Lois’s kirke tiltaler i særdeleshed dem, der af natur godt kan
lide at studere og dykke ned i komplicerede emner. Bibelen giver selvfølgelig
mange udfordringer – der er en masse detaljerede, 2.000 til 3.000 år gamle historier,
begivenheder, tro og profetier osv, som nu til dags for det meste er svære at
fortolke.
Hendes kirke tror, at bibelens tekst er inspireret af Gud, så derfor kan de
ikke indrømme, at der er nogle uoverensstemmelser – alle tilsyneladende
uoverensstemmelse skal forklares eller bortforklares: dette betyder, at man må
”dykke ned” i bibelen for alvor – ingen tvivl om det!!! Herunder påstand om
misoversættelse, analyse af det oprindelige hebraiske/græske tekst osv. Men det
er præcis det, der tiltrækker en vis type personlighed, synes jeg.
Det er selvfølgelig ganske nemt for kirken at vise, at nutidens
mainstreamkirker har anderledes tro, end de kristne i det første århundrede. Og
det nægter selve kirkerne ikke!!!
Om søndagen udenfor kirken står et reklameskilt, hvor der står, ”Første
århundrede kristendom praktiseres her!”, men nogle af kirkens medlemmer (inklusive
Lois) synes, at dette slogan ikke betyder ret meget i nudtidens offentligheds
øjne, og det giver jeg dem ret i.
21:00 Vi smækker benene op foran fjernsyn.
De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om den britiske hærs
evakuering ved Dunkerque, der fandt sted i 1940, da den tyske hær rykkede
hurtigt frem ind i Belgien og Frankrig – en af deres forbløffende ”blitzkrige”.
Et interessant og rørende program – Lois og jeg lærte meget, vi var
uvidende om. Selvom evakueringen uden tvivl udgjorde et stort nederlag, er det
imidlertid ikke en overdrivelse at kalde operationen for et ”mirakel”. I
begyndelsen troede Churchill, at den kongelige flåde ved hjælp af små civile
både måske kun ville kunne evakuere og redde ca 25.000 soldater, men faktisk
nåede de at redde 350.000. Uden denne evakuering ville Storbritannien måtte
søge fred med Tyskland. Krigen ville have været slut efter kun 1 år, og nazismens
dominans over Europa ville være blevet forsikret, måske i generationer.
min far i begyndelsen af krigen, i London
min far med min mor og mig i 1946-7
Det må ikke desto mindre have været et helvede for soldaterne, der oplevede
evakueringen. I programmet var der mange interviews med nogle meget gamle
soldater. En af dem sagde, at han stadig (på over 90 år) tænker på oplevelsen
hver dag. ”Det forlader mig aldrig”.
Programmets største åbenbaring var, at det kongelige luftvåben spillede en
afgørende rolle ved at angribe tyske bombefly på vej fra Tyskland, før de kunne
nå den belgiske kyst. I sammenligning med tyskerne var de engelske piloter
meget uerfarene, og deres nye Spitfire kampfly var forholdsvis uprøvede, men
deres erfaring under evakueringskampagnen blev tilsyneladende nyttig senere
under slaget om England.
22:00 Vi går i seng. I nat sover vi i dobbeltsengen i Sarahs gamle værelse,
så vi kan åbne både det lille vindue og det store, uden at høre trafiklarm osv.
Sengen er lidt smallere (4 fods 6 inches eller 137cm), end vores normale seng,
men der er dejlig stille og roligt, fordi værelset har udsigt over baghaven.
Det er helt forbløffende, hvor stille haven er, så snart det bliver mørkt –
absolut ingen trafiklarm, og heller ingen fuglesang. Vi ligger og spekulerer
om, om små mus piler rundt mellem buskene og parre sig, eller ej. men vi har
ikke lyst til at tjekke op på dem ha ha ha! Det er lidt underligt at ligge i en
fremmed seng, men vi glider endelig over til søvn – zzzzzz!!!!!
05:30 Jeg kryber ud af sengen ikke for, at forstyrre Lois, men
gulvbrædderne knirker desværre – pokkers! Jeg må eksperimentere senere for at
identificere de knirkende brædder og planlægge den bedste rute fra sengen til
døren – du godeste, jeg er sikke betænksom ha ha ha!!!!
Jeg går stille og roligt ned ad trappen og kigger lidt på nettet.
Jeg ser en interessant fremlæggelse af Prof. Traci Mann, en professor af
social og sundheds-psykologi. Hun nægter, at der en en ”fedmekrise” i verden.
Fedme komme ikke til at dræbe os, siger hun. De fleste overvægtige mennesker
ikke har kortere levetid, end de ikke-overvægtige. Fedme er bare korreleret med
tre ting, der i virkeligheden afkorter levetid: at være stillesidende, at være
fattig, og ikke at have adgang til læger, hospitaler osv.
Prof Traci Mann – hun har samme stemmen som Lesley Winkle
At tabe vægt er ikke den bedste metode til at undgår alvorlige sygdomme,
den bedste måde er at dyrke mere motion og at blive rask, siger hun. Hvis du
vil vide, om din motion er effektiv, så kig ikke på din vægt, kig på dit
blodtryk – du godeste, hvor enkelt!!! Det er meget nemmere at blive rask, end
at blive tynd. At blive tynd er ikke svaret på mange sygdomme: i mange tilfælde
er det de tynde, der har de største problemer med at overvinde sygdommen, siger
hun.
Hvor interessant! Jeg er ikke overvægtig – faktisk er min legemsmasseindex er 19,4, hvilket er sundt, men er
tættere på den undervægtige kategori, end de overvægtige. Måske kan jeg
fortælle mig selv, ”Op med humøret”, da jeg tænke på slankekurer osv.
Jeg kan godt lide
Traci – hun har samme stemmen og accenten som Big Bang Theorys Lesley Winkle (Sara Gilbert).
BBC-webstedet har vedlagt et varsel om, at mange forskere ikke er enige med
Traci i hendes meninger, men jeg formoder, at dette bare henviser til hendes
mening, at der er ok at være overvægtig, så længe du er rask. Det gælder mig alligevel
ikke, fordi jeg ikke er overvægtig.
08:00 Jeg hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté.
Vi står op og spiser morgenmad på terrassen, men jeg har på fornemmelse, at
vejret er ved at ændre sig – det er meget køligere i dag. Efter måltiden dækker
jeg vores 2 terrasseborde og rydder væk i skuret de ekstra terrassestole, vi
sidste uge brugte under besøget af Alison, vores datter i København, og hendes
familie.
09:45 Lois skal ud. Hun mødes i formiddag med sine tidligere
arbejdskollegaer, Rose og Sheila. De skal drikke en kop kaffe og spise et
stykke kage i M&S stormagasins café i bymidten.
12:30 Lois kommer tilbage - hun siger,
at hun hyggede sig meget i morges og købte også neglelakfjerner i
Boots-apoteket i bymidten. Hun går i gang med at afprøve den, med succes –
hurra!
Vi spiser frokost på terrassen og går i seng i et par timer. Jeg læser 6
sider af min sengetidbog om James, hertugen af Monmouth. Som sædvanligt, vinder
Lois konkurrencen – det lykkes hende at læse 14 sider af sin godnatbog, ”Ét par
fødder” af Monica Dickens.
16:15 Vi vælter ud af sengen og slapper af med en kop te og en kiks på
terrassen.
English translation
18:00 Lois and I have dinner on
the patio table again because the weather is still quite good and the sun is
shining. I fix up our old parasol over the table, but it is highly stained -
completely disgusting. My goodness! We got it about 12 years ago from one of
Sarah's ex-lovers. After the meal, I order a new one (umbrella, not lover) from
amazon.co.uk.
20:00 Lois sits down in front of
the computer. Her church has given her the responsibility of updating and
circulating the list of volunteers who have promised to staff the church's
pop-up shop during various sessions either in the mornings or in the afternoons
- the shop is open 6 days a week in the middle of Tewkesbury.
Lois in her brand new official pop-up shop
t-shirt!
How dishy she looks !!!!
It's a little annoying, but
perhaps understandable that the volunteers sometimes change their minds or say
they can no longer attend when it comes to one session or other. Sometimes they
get sick - last week it was very hot in the shop, and one of the church members
who was manning the shop fainted and passed out on the floor. He was taken to
the emergency room - good grief! He was later discharged, but all his
forthcoming sessions must now be reallocated - what a nuisance!
We have a daughter and son-in-law
in Perth, Australia, and a brother in law in the United States. They often say
it's quite funny that English people start to complain about the heat when
temperatures get to over 75 degrees (F) or 24 (C), and they start to faint or
pass out all over the place. But it's just a matter of what one's used to, I
suppose. When we visited Sarah last year (during the southern hemisphere's
autumn) in Australia, she and Francis, her husband, often complained about the
cold, while Lois and I thought the temperature was very comfortable.
Lois tells me that the pop-up
shop has so far been very successful. The shop has had many
"customers" who have popped in since the church opened it in early
July. Several of the customers have enrolled in the church's next seminar
series, starting in the autumn. And several have turned up to the church's
services on Sundays. They have found that pop-up shops and Bible seminars work
much better than going from door to door in local neighbourhoods, which just
annoys homeowners.
Steve, my American brother in
law,
sent me this charming picture of a bear that is using the old,
now discredited, "door to door"
method to preach and spread the word,
which unfortunately only annoys homeowners
I think Lois's church in
particular appeals to those who by their nature like to study and delve into
complicated subjects. Of course, the Bible presents many challenges - there are
a lot of detailed 2,000 to 3,000-year-old stories, events, beliefs and
prophecies, etc., which are for the most part difficult to interpret nowadays.
Her church believes that the text
of the Bible is inspired by God, so they cannot admit that there are any
inconsistencies - all apparent inconsistencies must be explained or explained
away: this means that one must seriously "drill down" into the Bible
- no doubt about that !!! - studies including allegations of mistranslation, analysis
of the original Hebrew / Greek text, etc. But that is exactly what attracts a
certain type of personality, I think.
Of course, it is quite easy for
the church to show that today's mainstream churches have different beliefs than
Christians in the first century. And it is something the churches themselves do
not deny !!!
On Sundays outside the church
there is an advertising sign saying "First century Christianity practised
here!" But some members of the church (including Lois) think that this
slogan does not mean much in the eyes of the public nowadays, and I think they
are right about that.
21:00 We stick our feet up in
front of the television. An interesting documentary is on, all about the
British Army's evacuation at Dunkirk, which took place in 1940 when the German
army was moving quickly into Belgium and France - on one of their amazing
"blitzkriegs".
An interesting and touching
program - Lois and I learned a lot we were unaware of. Although the evacuation
was undoubtedly a major defeat, it is not an exaggeration to call the operation
a "miracle". At the outset, Churchill believed that the Royal Navy, even with the help of small civilian boats, might only be able to evacuate and save
about 25,000 soldiers, but in fact they managed to save 350,000. Without this
evacuation, Britain would have had to seek peace with Germany. The war would
have ended after only 1 year, and Nazi domination over Europe would have been
assured, perhaps for generations.
My father at the beginning of the
war, in London
My father with my mother and me in
1946-7
Nevertheless, it must have been hell for the soldiers who experienced the evacuation. In the program there were
many interviews with some very old soldiers. One of them said that he still (at
the age of over 95 years) thinks about the experience every day. "It never
leaves me".
The biggest revelation of the
programme was that the Royal Air Force played a crucial role in attacking German
bombers on their way from Germany before they could reach the Belgian coast. In
comparison with the Germans, the English pilots were very inexperienced, and
their new Spitfire combat aircraft were relatively untested, but their
experience during the evacuation campaign appeared to be useful later in the
Battle of Britain.
22:00 We go to bed. Tonight we
are sleeping in the double bed in Sarah's old room, so we can open both the
small window and the big one, without hearing traffic noise etc. The bed is a
little narrower (4 feet 6 inches or 137cm) than our normal bed, but it is nice
and quiet because the room overlooks the back garden. It's absolutely amazing
how quiet the garden is as soon as it gets dark - absolutely no traffic noise,
nor any birdsong either. We lie there and speculate about whether little mice
are piling around between the bushes and mating or not. But we do not feel like
checking up on them ha ha ha! It's a little strange to lie in a strange bed,
but we finally drift off to sleep - zzzzzz !!!!!
05:30 I crawl out of bed so as
not to disturb Lois, but the floorboards creak unfortunately - damn it! I will
have to experiment later to identify the creaking boards and plan the best
route from bed to door - good grief, I'm so considerate ha ha ha !!!!
I walk quietly down the stairs
and take a little look online.
I see an interesting presentation
by Prof. Traci Mann, a professor of social and health psychology. She denies
that there is an "obesity crisis" in the world. Obesity does not kill
us, she says. Most overweight people do not have a shorter life than the
non-overweight. Obesity is just correlated with three things that actually do
shorten the lifespan: being sedentary, being poor, and not having access to
doctors, hospitals, etc.
Prof Traci Mann - she has the
same voice as Lesley Winkle
Losing weight is not the best way
to avoid serious illnesses, the best way is to go in for more exercise and to
get fit, she says. And if you want to know if your exercising is effective, do not
look at your weight, look at your blood pressure - good grief, how simple !!!
It's much easier to get fit than to get thin. Getting thin is not the answer
to many diseases: in many cases it's the thin that have the biggest problems in
overcoming the disease.
How interesting! I'm not
overweight - actually my body mass index is 19.4, which is healthy, but is
closer to the underweight category than the overweight. Maybe I can tell
myself, "Lighten up!" when I think about dieting, etc.
I like Traci - she has the same
voice and accent as the Big Bang Theory's Lesley Winkle (Sara Gilbert).
The BBC website has attached a
warning that many researchers do not agree with Traci in her opinions, but I
suppose this just refers to her opinion that it's ok to be overweight as long
as you're fit. That does not apply to me anyway because I'm not overweight.
08:00 I jump back into bed with
Lois and we drink our morning tea. We get up and have breakfast on the patio,
but I have the feeling that the weather is changing - it is much cooler today.
After the meal, I cover our 2 patio tables and clear away to the shed the
extra patio chairs we used last week during the visit of Alison, our daughter
in Copenhagen, and her family.
09:45 Lois has to go out. She is
meeting this morning with her former work colleagues, Rose and Sheila. They are
going to have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake in the M & S department
store cafe in the town centre.
12:30 Lois comes back - she says
she enjoyed herself a lot this morning and also bought nail polish remover in
the Boots pharmacy in the town centre. She gets going with trying it out,
successfully - hurrah!
We eat lunch on the patio and go
to bed for a couple of hours. I read 6 pages of my bedside book about James,
the duke of Monmouth. As usual, Lois wins the competition - she succeeds in
reading 14 pages of her goodnight book, "One pair of feet" by Monica
Dickens.
16:15 We roll out of bed and
relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on the patio.
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