Danskcolin: Mandag den 30. oktober 2017

10:00 Det er ganske koldt i dag – efter efterårets hidtil koldeste nat, går vi ud i baghaven for at rydde op, luge lidt og fortsætte med at lægge haven i sengen for vinteren. Jeg skærer de lange græsser tilbage rundt omkring vores æbletræer, også vedbenden, der er løbt over hegnet i bunden af haven og begyndt at vikle sig rundt om ét af vores 3 blommetræs grene – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

vi fortsætter med at lægge haven i sengen for vinteren

Hun har sin røde hue på, den, vi købte for et par måneder siden i Lynton.

11:30 Vi kommer tilbage ind i huset for at varme os op med en kop kaffe.

Lois foretæller mig om en af sine veninder, der også er medlem af sin kirke. Jeg har selv også snakket med kvinden et par gange. Hun bor sammen med sin midaldrende søn, der hele livet har haft svært med at få et job, eller blive i et job på grund af milde psykiske problemer, mangel på selvtillid, eller lignende – det er ikke helt klart. Men kvinden har lyst til at flytte ind i et meget lille hus og bo der alene.

Hun har overtalt sønnen mod hans vilje til at sove på gaden i aften, så hans søster kan melde ham til kommunen for at være hjemløs. Så er kommunen i teorien forpligtet til at finde ham et sted at bo.

Hård kærlighed? Hun er en kristen selvfølgelig, og hun virker sød, men inderst inde er hun en meget skrap type – ingen tvivl om det. Hun har fortalt Lois om sin skilsmisse, for mange år siden, efter hendes mand begyndte at ignorere hende, holdende sig til sit eget værelset, og til sidst startende en affære med en anden kvinde. Lois siger, at hendes veninde var den uskyldige part, men selvfølgelig har Lois kun hørt sin venindes side af historien. Hvem ved, hvad manden skulle udholde, før han reagerede på denne måde?

Men vi håber begge to på, at i nat ikke vil være så koldt for sønnens skyld – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

12:00 Jeg går i gang med at læse de næste ca. 100 linjer af William Langlands ”Piers Plowman”, et middelengelsk digt som Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe har gjort til sit seneste projekt.

Et andet eksempel på ”hård kærlighed” her. Piers ejede et stykke jord, der faktisk lå ikke ret langt herfra, i Malvern-området, og han ansatte en flok lokale mænd til at hjælpe ham med at pløje, så og høste osv. En dag smuttede han ind i den lokale pub, og fandt nogle af sine ansatte i færd med at drikke øl på frokosttid, og han fyrede dem på stedet, for at lære dem, at ”sådan noget som en gratis frokost findes ikke”, hvilket han sagde, var en nyttig lektie for fortiden.

Min teori er, at Piers’ ansatte følte sig måske ikke værdsatte af Piers og hans ledelseshold, og havde brug for at tage en pause for at diskutere problemet med nogle af deres medarbejdere. Det er ofte de mest ineffektive ansatte, der føler sig de mest undervurderede. Dette er en flerårligt problem, der selv i nutiden har en virkning på mange forretninger, som dette nylige artikel i theonion.com gør klart. Et problem uden nogen åbenbare løsning, synes jeg!

problem: vores mest ineffektive arbejdere føler sig de mest

undervurderede – et problem hidtil uden løsning:

vi trænger til mere forskning her – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om!

13:00 Frokost, og bagefter en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Vi skruer vores elektriske varmetæppe op til max – hurra!

18:00 Aftensmad og bagefter smækker vi benene op foran fjernsynet. Vi ser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om dronning Elizabeths bryllup, der skete den 20. november 1947, dvs for 70 år siden.

Det er Lois’s valg at se dette program, men jeg finder det ganske interessant, det må jeg indrømme. Jeg kan se, at det var en fantastisk lejlighed for folk, endelig til at kunne hygge sig med noget spektakulært efter 2,5 års nøjsomhed, stramninger og vanvittig madrationering under efterkrigstidens regering af Clement Atlee.

Jeg formoder ikke, at min egen mor var så interereseret i brylluppet, som hun ville have været under anderledes omstændigheder. Hun var dengang meget gravid: og Kathy, min afdøde lillesøster, blev faktisk født 9 dage efter brylluppet, og han vejede væsentlig over 11 pund. Jeg er het sikker på, at hun må have været med mindst et par uger forsinket – du godeste! Stakkels mor!!!!

Det, der mest interesser mig, er det kongelige pars fantastiske bryllupskage, der var 9 fod høj, og vejede 500 pund – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Man havde brug for en høj trinstige for at skære den – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !!!!! Jeg forventer, at en af tjenestefolket faktisk skar den, men det ville have været morsommere at se selve kongelige par på to adskilte trinstiger gøre det. Eller måske på en enkel trinstige, med dronningen på Philips skuldre. Sjovt, men måske lidt for farligt, skal vi sige.

en rekonstruktion af den oprindelige 9 fods, 500 pund bryllupskage.

Du godeste – sikke et vanvid!!!

Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!

English translation

10:00 It's pretty cold today - after the coldest night of the fall, we go out into the backyard to clean up, do a little weeding and carry on putting the garden to bed for the winter. I cut the long grasses back around our apple trees, also the ivy that has spread up over the fence at the bottom of the garden and begun to wrap itself around the branches of one of our plum trees - good grief, what madness !!!

We carry on putting the garden to bed for the winter

She has her red woolly hat on, the one we bought a couple of months ago in Lynton.

11:30 We come back into the house to warm ourselves up with a cup of coffee.

Lois tells me about one of her female friends, who is also a member of her church. I have myself talked to the woman a couple of times. She lives with her middle-aged son who has had trouble getting a job or holding down a job because of mild psychological problems, lack of self-confidence, or the like - it is not completely clear. But the woman wants to move into a very small house and to live on her own.

She has persuaded the son against his will to sleep on the street tonight so his sister can report him to the council for being homeless. Then the council in theory is obliged to find him somewhere to live.

Tough love? She is a Christian of course and she seems nice, but deep inside she is a very tough character - no doubt about that. She has told Lois about her divorce, many years ago, after her husband began ignoring her, sticking to her own room, and finally starting an affair with another woman. Lois says her friend was the innocent party, but of course Lois has only heard her friend's side of history. Who knows what the man had to put up with before he reacted in this way?

But we both hope that tonight will not be so cold for the son's sake - my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

12:00 I start to read the next approx. 100 lines of William Langland's "Piers Plowman", a medieval poem which Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group has chosen as its latest project.

Another example of "tough love" here. Piers owned a piece of land that was actually not far from here in the Malvern area, and he employed a bunch of local men to help him plow, sow, reap and so forth. One day he popped into the local pub, and found some of his employees drinking beer at lunchtime and he fired them on the spot, in order to teach them that "there's no such thing a free lunch", which he said was a useful lesson for the future.

My theory is that Piers' employees may have felt unappreciated by Piers and his management team and needed to take a break to discuss the problem with some of their co-workers. It is often the most ineffective employees who feel the most undervalued. This is a perennial issue that even today has an effect on many businesses, as this recent article in theonion.com makes clear. A problem without any obvious solution, I think!

Problem: Our most ineffective workers often feel the most undervalued - a problem so far without a solution: we need more research here - I have no doubts about that!

13:00 Lunch, and afterwards a gigantic afternoon nap. We crank our electric blanket up to max hurray!

18:00 Dinner, and afterwards we stick our feet up in front of the television. We see an interesting documentary about Queen Elizabeth's wedding, which took place in November 1947, ie 70 years ago.

It's Lois's choice to see this program, but I find it quite interesting, I have to admit. I can see that it was a great opportunity for people finally to be able to enjoy something spectacular after 2 and a half years of austerity and insane food rationing under the post-war government of Clement Atlee.

I do not suppose my own mother was as interested in the wedding as she would have been under different circumstances. She was very pregnant at that time: and Kathy, my late younger sister, was actually born 9 days after the Queen's wedding, and she weighed significantly over 11 pounds. I'm sure she must have been overdue by at least a couple of weeks - good grief! Poor mom!!!!

What interests me most is the royal couple's amazing wedding cake that was 9 feet tall and weighed 500 pounds - my god, what madness !!! They needed a tall step-ladder to cut it - I have no doubts on that score !!!!! I expect that one of the servants actually cut it, but it would have been more amusing to see the royal couple themselves on two separate ladders doing it. Or maybe on a single ladder, with the queen on Philips shoulders. Fun, but maybe a little too dangerous, let's say.