16:30 Lois og jeg har været meget
forkølede i næsten en uge, men vi føler, at vi begynder at vinde kampen over
det. Lyset for enden af tunnelen er så småt på vej.
Lois sætter sig foran computeren i spisestuen for at arbejde lidt på sit
pop-up shop skema. ”Sundhed og sikkerhed” kræver, at der altid er 2 personer,
der må arbejde sammen i kirkens pop-up shop. Hun skal finde endu en person, der
kan dække næste torsdag formiddag, og to personer, der kan dække næste lørdag
formiddag – ellers desværre vil shoppen måtte holde lukket de der tidsrum.
Lois
i sin spritnye officielle pop-up shop t-shirt
Desværre har ingen indvilliget i at dække disse ledige tidsrum, på trods af
den mail, hun i går aftes sendte til alle kirkemedlemmerne. Ærligt talt, skulle lokale kirkemedlemmer
skamme sig lidt over, at det er for det meste mennesker fra andre byer, der
arbejder i shoppen, i sær når det kommer til weekender. Du godeste! Og stakkels
Lois!!!!
18:00 Vi spiser
aftensmad og smækker benene op foran fjernsynet. Vi putter os ind til hinanden
i sofaen og bevæger os næsten ikke resten af aftenen – vi ser en stribe gamle
afsnit af Big Bang Theory, og en film, jeg forleden optog på vores YouView-enhed,
”Man Up”.
Jeg kan for det meste ikke lide romcomfilm, men jeg må indrømme, at jeg
nyder meget den første time af denne 90 minutter lang film – dialogen og
situationerne er meget morsomme.
Jeg genkender ikke ansigtet af skuespilleren i den kvindelige hovedrolle –
Lake Bell, og jeg klassificerer hende straks som en slags ”engelsk Sandy
Bullock”. Det er kun senere, at jeg læser i Radio Times-tidsskriftet, at hun er
amerikaner. Hendes engelske accent er forbløffende, og jeg læser, at selve
filmbesætningen troede, hun var englænder – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!
Det er lidt af en skam, at filmen i dens sidste 30 minutter degenerer til
en traditionel Hollywood-stil lykkelig slutning, hvor Simon Pegg og Lake Bell
til sidst finder sammen, efter en vild biltur gennem London. Der er endda en
scene, hvor en flok tilstedeværende står og klapper ad dem og råber hurra, da
parret til sidst finder sammen, kysser og krammer hinanden, hvilket er romcom-verdens
værste kliché, ingen tvivl om det!
Romcom-verdens værste kliché: en flok
tilstedeværende,
der råber hurra, da parret til sidst finder sammen – øv!
21:00 Vi lytter lidt til radio, ”Saturday Review”, et interessant program,
hvor 3-4 kritikere anmelder aktuelle bøger, film, teaterforstilllinger eller
ligende. Programmets vært er den charmerende Tom Sutcliffe.
Programmets deltagere taler om en ny dansk film, ”Under Sandet”. Lois og
jeg vidste ikke, at nazisterne engang troede, at de allierede i 1944 ville gå i
land i Danmark, snarere, end i Normandiet. De indstillede derfor tusindvis af
miner langs den danske kyst. Efter slutningen af krigen tvang den britiske hær
4.000 unge tyske soldater til at fjerne disse miner, og næsten halvdelen af
soldaterne blev såret eller dræbt i processen. Planen var i hvert fald i strid
med Geneve-konventionen, men selvfølgelig måtte en eller anden (hvad enten
tyskere, danskere, eller englændere) fjerne dem.
en ny dansk film, der handler om unge tyske krigsfanger,
som
briterne tvang til at fjerne tyske miner langs den danske kyst
Det lyder som om, det er en meget intelligent og atmosfærisk film, der
kombinerer smukheden af de lange danske
strande med rædslerne af krigens eftervirkninger – ingen klichéer her! Men vi
er ikke helt sikre på, at Lois og jeg gerne vil se den. Lois har et kriterium
for disse slags beslutninger: er den en film, et par gerne vil se på deres
første date, eller ej. Og denne film består desværre ikke den der test – det
ved vi med sikkerhed!
21:15 Programmets kritikere diskutere så Bernard MacLavertys nye roman,
”Midwinter Break”, der handler om et
ældre ægtepar fra Nord-Irland/Skotland, der tager en mini-feriepause i
Amsterdam og ender ud i at overveje en potentiel maxi-pause i deres ægteskab –
uha! Forfatteren siger imidlertid, at det ikke handler om et ældre par, men om
to unge, der blev gamle og svagt ud af takt med hinanden.
Parret har forskellige prioriteter. Gerry er en alkoholiker, der ikke desto
mindre på en eller anden måde formår at fungere. Stella er interesseret i at
forske videre i religiøse kolonier bare for single kvinder. Du godeste, sikke
et vanvid!
Programmets kritikerne synes, de er ligesom mange ældre ægtepar: de er
tætte på hinanden på grund af vane, som en komik duo: Gerald som komikeren,
Stella som ”straight man”. Men de er også på anderledes måder ikke
så tætte.
Deres respektive eksistensberettigelser er blevet væk: for Stella, hendes
datter er vokset op og flyttet til Canada, og for Gerald, hans arbejdsliv er
slut (hvilket er ligesom Lois og mig, med vores døtre i Danmark og Australien).
De er efterladt med bare sig selv og hinandens
idiosynkrasier. Deres uudtalte spørgsmål er, ”Er dette alt?”, et
spørgsmål, hvis svaret sandsynligvis er ”ja” !!!!!
Parret holder en daglig ”sygdomstime”, hvor de diskutere dagens fysiske
smerter og symptomer, hvad er faldet af hinandens krop i det seneste døgn.
Men parret virker imidlertid rimeligt kærlige over for hinanden,
gudskelov!!! Og de har charmerende-irriterende vaner begge to. Når Gerry kommer
ind i deres hotelværelse og placerer nøglekort i holderen for at få
elektricitetet til at virke, siger han hver
eneste gang, ”Lad der være lys”.
22:00 Vi går i seng – adskilte senge og værelser igen på grund af vores
forkølelser – zzzzzzz!!!!!
04:00 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssiger danske
ordforrådtest.
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 udarbejder en danske ordforrådtest, som jeg vil
have vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer til at tage på torsdag, når gruppens
næste møde finder sted hos os. De rigtige svar staver sætningen, ”Det er så typisk dansk at spørge, hvad der er typisk
dansk” (Elsa Gress, den danske forfatter). I øvrigt er de rigtige
svar på vores danske gruppes nye ordforrådtest tophemmelige indtil torsdag kl
15, unødvendigt at sige ha ha ha!!!
10:30 Lois har et gennembrud i familietræ forskning. I årevis har hun været
totalt uklar over, hvad der skete med sin grandonkel Mark, en gartner og don
juan, der havde forhold med flere kvinder i løbet af sit liv. Hun har nu fundet
ud af, at han og sin sidste partner Caroline, døde i badebyen Weymouth, Mark i
1958, på 89 år, og Caroline i 1961.
Hun har også fundet ud af, at parrets søn, William, en bager, flyttede til
den engelske koloni Bermuda i 1948, sammen med sin kone / partner, Janet, og
deres 2 døtre, Margaret og Janet. William
var kok i den kongelige flåde i 1930’erne og under den 2. verdenskrig, og
forlod flåden i 1948. Hun har endda fundet et billede af Janet i en lokal
bermudansk avis, udgivet i december 1965. Vi ser Janet, som medlem af Døtrene
af det britiske imperium, deltager i foreningens officielle bal. Du godeste,
sikke et held! Janet er nummer 3 fra venstre.
Tilbageblik
til december 1965: Lois’s grandtante, Janet, en datter
af
det britiske imperium, er nummer tre fra venstre
Bare vi kan kontakte Janets datter, Janet den yngre, der er på samme alder
som os. Jeg forudser en stribe gratis ferier i Bermuda – det er der ikke nogen
tvivl om !!!!
11:00 Vi taler lidt på whatsapp med Sarah, vores datter i Perth,
Australien, med Francis, hendes mand, og deres 4-årige tvillinger, Lily og
Jessica. Familien har i dag været på udflugt til bakkerne øst for byen, og har
lige tilbragt et par timer på en historisk hyggelig engelsk-stil pub,
Parkerville Tavern.
Parkerville Taven, lidt uden for byen Perth, Australien
Sarah siger, at familien planlægger at flytte til et større hus i et
anderledes område, før Lois og jeg besøger dem (næste år?). Men det er ikke
klart, hvorfor de ikke længere er tilfredse med at bo i deres nuværende hus i forstaden
Leederville.
Men Lois og jeg er ikke helt sikre på, at vi har råd til at besøge dem i
2018. Vi formoder, at de føler sig lidt ensomme derovre, og vi vil hellere ikke skuffe dem. Jeg kan
imidlertid forestille mig, at pengene vi har sparet for at betale for
operationer i alderdommen, kommer til at blive brugt på flyveture på Business
Class for at se vores to døtre – yikes!!!!
12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur.
14:30 Jeg står op. Lois og jeg sætter os til rette i sofaen og forbereder
os på at se finalen om
Europamesterskabet i fodbold for kvinder i Enschede, i det østlige Holland. De deltagende hold er hjemmeholdet fra Holland, og så Danmark. Vi var forleden skuffede over, at den hollandske
hold eliminerede det engelske hold i én af de to semifinaler, så vi hepper på
Danmark i dag – hurra!
Da denne blog går i trykket, er
scoren Holland 2 Danmark 1. Efter min mening er kampens top babe hidtil Hollands
spændende nummer 5 skjorte, Kika Van Es.
Kika
Van Es – Hollands spændende nummer 5 skjorte
English translation
16:30 Lois and I have had heavy
colds for almost a week, but we feel that we are starting to win the battle.
The light at the end of the tunnel is slowly but surely coming our way.
Lois sits herself down in front
of the computer in the dining room to do a little work on her pop-up shop
rota-sheet.
"Health and safety"
requires that there always be 2 people working together in the church's pop-up
shop. She has to find one person to cover next Thursday morning and two people
to cover next Saturday morning - otherwise unfortunately, the shop will have to
stay shut for those time-slots.
Lois in her shiny new pop-up shop t-shirt
Unfortunately, no one has
volunteered to cover these vacant slots, despite the email she sent to all
church members last night. Frankly, local church members should be a little
ashamed of the fact that it's mostly people from other towns that do the work in the
shop, especially when it comes to weekends. My goodness! And poor Lois!!!!!
18:00 We have dinner and stick
our feet up in front of the television. We snuggle up on the couch and hardly
move for the rest of the evening - we see a string of old episodes of Big Bang
Theory and a movie that I recorded the other day on our YouView device,
"Man Up".
I mostly do not care for rom-com
movies, but I have to admit that I enjoy the first hour of this 90 minute long
film - the dialogue and the situations are very funny.
I do not recognise the face of
the actress in the female lead role - Lake Bell, and I immediately classify her
as a kind of "English Sandy Bullock". It is only later that I read in
the Radio Times magazine that she is an American. Her English accent is
amazing, and I read that even the film crew thought she was English - good grief,
what madness!
It's a bit of a shame that in its
last 30 minutes the movie degenerates into a traditional Hollywood-style happy
ending where Simon Pegg and Lake Bell eventually get together after a wild car
chase across London. There is even a scene where a bunch of onlookers stand
and applaud and cheer when the couple finally get together, kiss and hug each
other, which is the rom-com world's worst ever cliché, no doubt about that!
The romcom world's worst ever cliché: a bunch of bystanders
who cheer when the couple finally get
together - ugh!
21:00 We listen a bit to the
radio, "Saturday Review", an interesting programme where 3-4 critics
review current books, movies, theatre productions or similar. The host of the
programme is the charming Tom Sutcliffe.
The programme's participants talk
about a new Danish film, "Land of Mine". Lois and I did not know that
the Nazis once believed that the Allies would land in Denmark in 1944, rather
than in Normandy. They therefore laid thousands of mines along the Danish
coast. After the end of the war, the British Army forced 4,000 young German
soldiers to remove these mines and nearly half of the soldiers were injured or
killed in the process. The plan was in any case contrary to the Geneva
Convention, but of course, somebody (be they Germans, Danes or English) had to
remove them.
It sounds like it's a very
intelligent and atmospheric film that combines the beauty of the long Danish
beaches with the horrors of the war's aftermath - no clichés here! But we are
not entirely sure that Lois and I would like to see this film. Lois has a criterion
for these kinds of decisions: is it a movie a couple would want to watch on
their first date, or not. And this film, unfortunately, does not pass that test
- that's something we are quite sure about!
A new Danish film about young
German prisoners of war,
forced by the British into removing German mines
laid along the Danish coast
21:15 The programme's critics
then discuss Bernard MacLaverty's new novel, "Midwinter Break", which is all
about an older married couple from Northern Ireland / Scotland who take a mini-break to Amsterdam and end up considering a potential maxi-break in their
marriage - oh dear! However, the author says that it is not actually about an
older couple but about two young people who became old and vaguely out of step
with each other.
The couple have different
priorities. Gerry is an alcoholic who, in one way or another, still manages to
function. Stella is interested in researching religious communities that are just for
single women. Good grief, what madness!
This programme's critics think Gerry and Stella are like many older couples: they are close to each other through habit,
like a comedy duo: Gerry as the comedian, Stella as the "straight man". But they are also not so close in other ways.
Their respective raisons d'etre
have gone away: for Stella, her daughter has grown up and moved to Canada, and
for Gerry, his working life is over (which is just like Lois and me, with our
daughters in Denmark and Australia). They are left with just themselves and
each other's idiosyncrasies. Their unspoken question is, "Is this all
there is?", A question whose answer is probably "yes" !!!!!
The couple hold a daily
"ailment hour" discussing the day's physical pains and symptoms, and detailing whatever has fallen off each other's bodies in the last 24 hours.
However, the couple seem
reasonably loving to each other, thank goodness !!! And they both have charming-annoying habits. When Gerry enters their hotel room and puts the key card in
the holder to make the electricity work, he says "Let there be
light", every single time.
22:00 We go to bed - separate
beds and rooms again because of our colds - zzzzzzz !!!!!
04:00 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
get up and have breakfast.
10:00 I get going with preparing
a Danish vocabulary test that I want our U3A Danish group members to take on
Thursday when the next meeting of the group takes place at our house. The
correct answers spell out the sentence, "It is so typically Danish to ask what
is typically Danish" (copyright Elsa Gress, the Danish author). 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 !!!
10:30 Lois has a breakthrough in
family tree research. For years, she has been completely unclear about what
happened to her great uncle Mark, a gardener and Don Juan who had relationships
with several women throughout his life. She has now found out that he and his
last partner Caroline died in the seaside town of Weymouth, Mark in 1958 aged
89, and Caroline in 1961.
She also found out that the
couple's son, William, a baker, moved to the British colony of Bermuda in 1948,
together with his wife / partner, Janet, and their 2 daughters, Margaret and
Janet Jr. William was a cook in the Royal Navy in the 1930s and during World
War II and left the Navy in 1948. She even found a picture of Janet in a local
Bermuda newspaper, published in December 1965. We see Janet as a member of the
Daughters of the British Empire attending the association's official ball. Good
grief, what a piece of luck! Janet is number 3 from the left.
Flashback to December 1965: Lois's great
aunt, Janet, a daughter
of the British Empire is number three from
the left
If only we can contact Janet's
daughter, Janet Jr, who is the same age as us. I foresee a string of free
vacations in Bermuda - I have no doubts about that !!!!
11:00 We talk a bit on whatsapp with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, with Francis, her
husband, and with their 4-year-old twins, Lily and Jessica. Today, the family has
been on a trip to the hills east of the city and has just spent a couple of
hours in a historic, cosy English-style pub, the Parkerville Tavern.
The Parkerville Tavern, a pub just outside the city of Perth
Sarah says the family plans to
move to a larger house in a different area before Lois and I visit them (next
year?). But it is not clear why they are no longer content to live in their
current house in the suburb of Leederville.
Lois and I are nevertheless not completely
sure that we can afford to visit them in 2018. We assume they are feeling a little
lonely over there and we would rather not disappoint them. However, I can
imagine that the money we have saved up to pay for operations in our old age is now probably all
going to be used on business class flights to see our two daughters - yikes
!!!!
12:30 We eat lunch and afterwards
I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap.
14:30 I get up. Lois and I settle
down on the couch and get ourselves ready to watch the final of the European women's soccer
championship in Enschede, in eastern Holland. The participating teams are the
home team from Holland, and Denmark. We were disappointed that the Dutch team
eliminated the English team in one of the two semifinals the other day, so we
are rooting for Denmark today - hurrah!
At this blog’s press-time, the
score is Holland 2 Denmark 1. In my opinion, babe of the match so far is
Holland's exciting number 5 shirt, Kika Van Es.
Kika Van Es - Holland's exciting number 5
shirt
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