16:30 Lois og jeg sætter os foran computeren, og jeg viser hende, hvordan
man skal redigere webstedet, jeg skabte tidligere på dagen. Lois’s kirke har
åbnet en pop-up shop midt i byen Tewkesbury, og den er bemandet af
kirkemedlemmer, der har indvilliget i at hjælpe til. Lois har ansvar for at
publicere, hvilke tidsrum der endnu ikke er folk, der har indvilliget i at
dække.
Lois’s kirke har åbnet et pop-up shop midt i byen Tewkesbury
Lois i sin spritnye officielle pop-up shop tshirt
Jeg har ”designet” et meget enkelt format (efter min mening!), som er nemt
at redigere, og som beskytter de indvilliges identitet, for det tilfælde, at
nogen er nervøs over, at have deres navn på nettet ha ha ha!
Der er flere tomme tidsrum, end forventet, fordi et ægtepar
(kirkemedlemmer) oprindeligt indvilliget i at dække en masse tidsrum, men
senere desværre blev de begge to syge, og de trak sig ud – du godeste, sikke et
vanvid!!!! Nu skal stakkels Lois finde andre, der er klar på at dække disse
tidsrum.
17:15 Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og tilbagelægge endnu 6 miles (10km).
Jeg tænder for min smartphone og høre amerikanske hitsange fra 1949 på YouTube
(sidste gang var det 1950, jeg fokuserede på). Som jeg rejser tilbage i tiden,
bliver det sværere og sværere at finde en passende videokompilation på YouTube.
Den, jeg har fundet, spiller hele sange, men kompilationens skaber desværre
også indeholder sin politiske platform: han er (eller var) en politisk kandidat
i et lokalt valg i Arizona, lader det til – pokkers! Jeg har kun tid til at
høre ca. 6 sange efter hans politiske skvalder – uha!!!!
Jeg kan ikke undgå at bemærke, at der er flere sange, der fokuserer på livet
i USAs store vestlige regioner og landets cowboy-arv: ”Ghost Riders in the
Sky”, ”Mule Train” osv, og landets fællesskab med Mexico og sine
latin-amerikanske naboer (lykkeligere, end under Trump ha ha ha). Var dette en modreaktion mod amerikaneres traumatiske
oplevelser i Europa og Asien under den 2. verdenskrig? Hvis jeg husker godt,
var der en masse amerikanske film og tv-programmer i 1950’erne, der fokuserede
på cowboys og det vilde vesten. Men denne fokus er nu forsvandt, fornemmer jeg.
“Ghost Riders” og “Mule Train” – hitsange
fra 1949
mig og Kathy, min lillesøster, i 1949
et kys til min lillesøster (1949) på markerne højt oppe
over
byen Dover. Derfra kunne vi se den franske kyst (hvis det ikke var tåget ha ha
ha)
-
lykkelige dage !!!!
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter smækker vi benene op foran
fjernsynet. De viser et gamle afsnit af ”Top of the Pops” fra marts 1984. Lois
og jeg så ikke dette afsnit, fordi vi mellem 1982-85 boede i USA – selvom vi så
nogle af disse britiske hitsange på USAs MTV-kanal.
vi ser Janice Long, en af programmets djs,
præsentere
Weathergirls ”Det regner mænd” video, en sang,
der
stod på nummer 5 på hitlisten
Lois og jeg har glædet os meget til at se Lionel Ritchies ikoniske
”Hello”-video igen, så vi kan prøve at fordømme, om lektoren Lionels blinde
studerende har skabt en akkurat reproduktion af Lionels hoved, eller ej.
hvordan gættede den blinde studerende
hvad
Lionels hoved så ud som?
Hvordan har hun gættet, hvad han ser ud som, da de ikke engang har kysset?
Og har skulpturen en hage, der er lidt mere udstående, end Lionels? Det er
juryen stadig ude på! Og det hele kan Lois og jeg ikke blive enige med hinanden
i!!!! Et evigt mysterium, der kommer til at hjemsøge os til vores dages ende –
yikes!!!!
Vi er også ikke enige med hinanden i, om parrets forhold var upassende,
eller ej. Det er muligt, at det var okay i 1980’erne for en lektor og en af
hans studerende at blive kærester, men det er vi ikke helt sikre på.
I marts 1984 boede Lois og jeg i Maryland, sammen med vores to unge døtre,
Alison (8 år) og Sarah (6 år). I påskeferien tog vi på ferie i Virginia
(Virginia Beach). Vi besøgte Jamestown og andre historiske steder, og tilbragte
en masse tid på delstatens strande. Vi rejste tilbage hjem gennem Newport News,
hvor der er en stor flådebase. Det ville være
ironisk i dag, hvis Alison (nu 41 år gammel), Ed (hendes mand) og deres 3 børn
flyttede til Newport News, hvor Eds nuværende selskabs hovedkontor har til
huse.
VirginiaSnakes:
Lois, mig og Sarah i 1984 på en strand i Virginia
Lois sammen med vores to unge døtre i Newport News Va
Lykkelige dage!!!!
Newport News – jeg
har altid været vild med byens charmerende navn. Ingen er helt sikker på, hvor
navnet kom fra, men det daterer fra periode af den Jamestown koloni. Mange år
senere hørte jeg Paul Simon synge sin rørende sang, ”Was a Sunny Day”, hvor
byens flotte navn lød.
21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant
dokumentarfilm, der handler om tidselsommerfuglens fantastiske
migrationsmønster. Programmets vært er den charmerende Martha Kearney.
Generelt har jeg ikke tendens til at se programmer om dyreliv - jeg finder dem ganske kedelige. Det er
Lois’s valg at se dette dokumentumfilm, men jeg bliver faktisk meget glad for
det, da jeg begynder at fokusere på den.
Den smukke tidselsommerfugl tilbringer vinteren i Marokko, men mange af dem
migrerer om sommeren til det nordlige Europa, så vi ser dem i vores haver i
England. En lang rejse, tusindvis af miles, for sådan en lille sommerfugl.
Hvordan når de til at finde vej? Det viser sig, at de beslutter at flyve fra
sekund til sekund i den retning, hvor det føles lidt bedre, end, hvor de er
lige nu: millioner af små beslutninger taget trinvist på hvert minut – du
godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!
Men det er også nødvendigt, at de engang imellem kan se solen – ellers
bliver de forvirrede og begynder at flyve i tilfældige retninger.
Det er heldigt, at de ikke lever længe, så derfor er de ikke nødt til at
finde vej hjem igen – det må være lidt af en lettelse for disse modige små
fyre, ingen tvivl om det!!!!
Lois tror ikke på evolutionsteorien, så finder hun det lidt irriterende, at
programmer om dyreliv anser teorien for givet, men ellers nyder hun meget programmet.
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!
05:00 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske
ordforrådtest.
08:15 Jeg hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté.
Vi står op og spiser morgenmad.
10:00 Lois sætter sig foran computeren for at opdatere sit pop-up shop
skema. Jeg går op på loftet for at bære ca. 100 børnebøger ned, så vi kan se på
dem og forhåbentlig tage nogle af dem med til i Røde Kors’ lokale
genbrugsbutik. Det er sandelig
skræmmende syn at se loftet, der er propfyldt af ting, som vi for det meste
ikke længere har brug for.
Vores hus er alt for stort til os, men jeg er tæt på at opgive håbet på, at
vi nogensinde vil kunne forlade huset, før vi dør - yikes!!!!
Det ville være rart at kunne flytte ind i en dejlig lille lejlighed. Man
skal aldrig sige aldrig, men jeg kan ikke se det ske.
Jeg føler mig nogle gange skyldig over, at vores døtre en dag, efter vores
død, vil skulle beskæftige sig med at tømme huset, men nu til dags tænker jeg
mere og mere, at de ikke engang vil være i England, og bare vil betale nogen
for at tømme det og smide det hele væk – uha!!!!
13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzz!
15:00 Jeg står op og kigger lidt på nettet. Steve, min amerikanske
svigerbror, har sendt mig en mail, der henleder min opmærksomhed på nogle nye
sokker, der fås fra etsy.com .
attraktive nye ”talende” sokker fra etsy.com
Disse slags ”talende” sokker er en velkommen idé, synes jeg. Noget som
helst, der forbedrer kommunication mellem familiemedlemmer, må være en god ting.
Jeg synes, at sokker, der bærer en besked, er på mode for tiden. Alison,
vores datter i København, gav mig et par ”Quiet Reflection” sokker som julegave
for nogle måneder siden, men jeg mener, at sokkernes besked, er måske ikke
direkte nok, for ”britiske” måske. Det kan være at mange tilskuere ikke vil
gætte sokkernes undertekst af ”Fis af, jeg tænker bare”.
de attraktive ”talende” ”Quiet Reflection” sokker,
som
vores datter i København sidste år gav mig som julegave.
16:00 Bedre kommunikation, unanset gennem sokker eller via mere konventionelle
metoder, bør være alles mål.
Jeg synes personligt, at bedre kommunikation kunne have forpurret det nye
udbrud af fjendtligheder mellem krydstogtskibe i Caribien, rapporteret i
gårsdagens bulletin fra theonion.com, den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nye
kilde.
MS Allures Kaptajn har udtalt
(ifølge TheOnion), at angrebet var nødvendigt for at beskytte
fritidsaktiviteterne hos de kunder, som han har svoret ved sin mors grav at
tjene. "I overensstimmelse med det normal forretningsorden henledte vores
limbo-emcee først MS Magics opmærksomhed på, at de var kommet ind i vores
territorialfarvande, ved at udstede en verbal advarsel og udsendelse af
conga-musik over vores PA-system. Da skibet nægtede at skifte kursus, fortsatte
vi med at starte en bredside fra vores styrbordskanoner, hvilket gav et direkte
hit til deres mest afgørende faciliteter, herunder maskinrummet,
vandrutschebanen og Rødfrog rumbaren. "
"Vi har selv kun lidt ét ulykke og tabte en tango instruktør på grund
af egenbeskydning (”friendly fire”)," tilføjede han.
Sikke et vanvid! Ved disse skibe ikke, at ingen kommer ud som vinderen i
denne slags krig? Det er imidlertid hjertevarmende, at høre, at den
menneskelige ånd kan triumfere, selv i disse vanskelige omstændigheder. Det er
rart at læse, for eksempel, at MS Magics komiker, Joe Rogan, forsatte med at
fortæller vittigheder, indtil han var helt under vand.
Men du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
English translation
16:30 Lois and I sit down in
front of the computer and I show her how to edit the website I created earlier
in the day. Lois's church has opened a pop-up shop in the centre of Tewkesbury,
and it is manned by church members who have agreed to help. Lois is responsible
for publicising what time-slots nobody has agreed to cover yet.
Lois's Church has opened a pop-up shop
in the centre of Tewkesbury
Lois in her shiny new
official pop-up shop tshirt
I have "designed" a
very simple format (in my opinion) that is easy to edit and protects the
identity of the volunteers, in case anyone is nervous about having their name
online, ha ha ha!
There are more empty time-slots
than expected because a married couple (church members) originally agreed to
cover a lot of slots, but later unfortunately they both became ill and they
pulled out - good grief, what madness !!!! Now poor Lois has to find other people
who are willing to cover these slots.
17:15 I jump up on my exercise
bike and notch up another 6 miles (10km). I turn on my smartphone and listen to
American hit songs from 1949 on YouTube (last time it was 1950 I focused on).
As I travel back in time, it becomes harder and harder to find a suitable video
compilation on YouTube. The one I've found plays whole songs, but the
compilation's creator, unfortunately, also includes his political platform: he
is (or was) a political candidate in a local election in Arizona, it seems -
damn! I only have time to hear about 6 songs after his political rants - oh
dear!!!!
I cannot help noticing that there
are several songs focusing on life in the USA's great western regions and the
country's cowboy heritage: "Ghost Riders in the Sky", "Mule
Train", etc., and the country's shared relationship with Mexico and its
Latin American neighbours (happier than under Trump ha ha ha). Was this a
counter-reaction to the traumatic experiences of Americans in Europe and Asia
during World War II? If I remember rightly, there were a lot of American film
and television shows in the 1950s that focused on cowboys and the wild west.
But this focus has now disappeared, I sense.
“Ghost Riders” and “Mule Train”
– hit songs from 1949
me and Kathy, my little sister,
in 1949
A kiss from me for my little sister (1949)
on the fields high up
over the town of Dover. From there we could
see the French coast
(if it was not foggy ha ha ha)
Happy days !!!!
18:00 We eat dinner and
afterwards we stick our feet up in front of the television. An old edition of
"Top of the Pops" from March 1984 is on. Lois and I did not see this
edition because we lived in the United States between 1982-85 - even though we
saw some of these British hits on the US MTV channel.
We see Janice Long, one of the
programme's djs,
present the Weathergirls "It's raining
Men" video, a song,
that was number 5 on the charts
Lois and I have been very much
looking forward to seeing Lionel Ritchie's iconic "Hello" video
again, so we can try to judge whether Lecturer Lionel's blind student has
created an accurate reproduction of Lionel's head, or not.
How did the blind student
guess
what Lionel's head looks like?
How did she guess what he looks
like when they have not even kissed? And does the sculpture have a chin that is
a little more prominent than Lionel's? The jury is still out on that one! And
on all of this, Lois and I cannot agree with each other !!!! An eternal mystery
that will haunt us to the end of our days - yikes !!!!
We also disagree with each other
about whether the couple's relationship was inappropriate or not. It is
possible that it was okay in the 1980s for a lecturer and one of his students
to become lovers, but we are not entirely sure.
In March 1984, Lois and I lived
in Maryland, together with our two young daughters, Alison (8 years) and Sarah
(6 years). During the Easter break we went on vacation in Virginia (Virginia
Beach). We visited Jamestown and other historical sites, and spent a lot of
time on the state's beaches. We travelled back home through Newport News, where
there is a large navy base. It would be ironic today if Alison (now 41 years
old), Ed (her husband) and their 3 children moved to Newport News, where Ed's
current company has its head office.
Lois, me and Sarah in 1984
on a beach in Virginia
Lois with our two young
daughters in Newport News Va 1984
Happy days !!!!
Newport News - I have always been
crazy about the city's charming name. Nobody is completely sure where the name
came from, but it dates from the period of the Jamestown colony. Many years
later, I heard Paul Simon sing his touching song, "Was a Sunny Day",
where the city's great name could be heard in the lyrics.
21:00 We continue to watch some
television. An interesting documentary is on, all about the painted lady
butterfly's amazing migration pattern. The host of the program is the charming
Martha Kearney.
In general, I do not tend to watch programmes about wildlife - I find them quite boring. It's Lois's choice to watch
this documentary, but I'm actually very pleased when I start focusing on it.
The beautiful painted lady
butterfly spends the winter in Morocco, but many of them migrate in the summer
to northern Europe so we see them in our gardens in England. A long journey,
thousands of miles, for such a little butterfly. How do they find their way? It
turns out that they decide to fly from second to second in the direction where
it feels a bit better than where they are right now: millions of small
decisions taken step by step every minute - good grief, what madness !!! !
But it is also necessary that
they are able to see the sun now and then - otherwise they get confused and
start flying in random directions.
It is fortunate that they do not
live long, so they do not have to find their way back home - that must be a bit
of a relief for these brave little chaps, no doubt!
Lois does not believe in the
theory of evolution, and she finds it a little annoying that wildlife
programmes take the theory for granted, but otherwise she greatly enjoys the
programme.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!
05:00 I get up early and do one
of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.
08:15 I jump back into bed with
Lois and we drink our morning tea. We get up and have breakfast.
10:00 Lois sits down in front of
the computer to update her pop-up shop rota schedule.
I go up to the attic to bring
approx. 100 children's books down, so we can look at them and hopefully take
some of them along to the Red Cross's local recycling shop. It is a truly scary
sight to see the attic, which is packed with things that we mostly do not need
any more.
Our house is far too big for us,
but I'm close to giving up the hope that we'll ever be able to leave the house
before we die - yikes !!!!
It would be nice to be able to
move into a nice little apartment. One should never say never, but I cannot see
it happening.
I sometimes feel guilty that some
day, after our deaths, our daughters will have to deal with emptying the house,
but nowadays I think more and more that they will not even be in England and
will just pay someone to empty it and throw it all away - oh dear !!!!
13:00 We have lunch and
afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzz!
15:00 I get up and look a little
online. Steve, my American brother in law, has sent me an email that draws my
attention to some new socks, available from etsy.com.
attractive new "talking"
socks from etsy.com
These kinds of
"talking" socks are a welcome idea, I think. Anything that improves
communication between family members must be a good thing.
I think socks that carry a
message are in fashion at the moment. Alison, our daughter in Copenhagen, gave
me a pair of "Quiet Reflection" socks as a Christmas present a few
months ago, but I think the socks may not be direct enough, too "British"
maybe. It could be that many spectators will not guess the socks' subtext of
"Bugger off, I'm thinking".
The attractive "talking"
"Quiet Reflection" socks,
which our daughter in Copenhagen gave me
last year as a Christmas present.
16:00 Better communication
whether by socks or by more conventional methods, should be everyone's goal.
I think personally that better communication
could have prevented the new outbreak of hostilities between cruise ships in
the Caribbean, reported in yesterday's bulletin from theonion.com, the
influential US new source.
MS Allure's Captain has stated
(according to The Onion) that the attack was necessary to protect the
recreational activities of the clients whom he has sworn on his mother's grave
to serve. "In accordance with the normal rules of procedure, our
limbo-emcee first drew MS Magic's attention to the fact that they had entered
our territorial waters by issuing a verbal warning and broadcasting conga music
over our PA system. When the ship refused to change course, we continued by
launching a broadside from our starboard cannons, making a direct hit to their
most crucial facilities, including the engine room, the water slide and the Red
Frog rum bar. ""We ourselves have only one casualty, losing a tango instructor to friendly fire," he added.
What madness! Do these ships
not know that no one comes out winner in this kind of war? However, it is
heartwarming to hear that the human spirit can triumph, even in these difficult
circumstances. It's nice to read, for example, that MS Magic's comedian Joe
Rogan, continued to tell jokes until he was completely under water.
But my goodness, what a crazy
world we live in !!!!
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