Søndag den 22. oktober 2017

04:00 Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet. Jeg sender en sms på whatsapp til Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien. Jeg siger, at Lois og jeg vil være til rådighed mellem kl 10 og kl 11:30 (britisk tid), hvis hun har lejligheden til at skype eller ringe på whatsapp til os. Vi er meget ivrige efter at hjælpe hende hvis muligt – familien går igennem hårde tider, fordi de for et par dage siden måtte få aflivet Buddy, familiens hund, på grund af hans gigt og almindelig svaghed.

Vi er lidt bekymrede for hende, fordi hun ikke har et rigtigt støttenetværk derovre, bortset fra sine telefonopkald og Skypeopkald til os. De flyttede til Australien i december 2015, og hun mangler et netværk af tætte venner, staklen.

08:00 Jeg hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté. Vi står op og spiser morgenmad.

10:00 Vi forbereder os på at modtage et opkald fra Sarah, men vi ved, familien i dag har taget på udflugt til Hilary’s,  en lille havneby, og Sarah ikke var helt sikker på, præcis hvornår de skulle nå hjem. Den slags ting sker desværre næsten hver søndag – vi står til rådighed og kan ikke koncentrere os om at klare opgaver på vores gøremålsliste – pokkers!

11:15 Sarah ringer endelig til os på whatsapp. Hun lyder lidt oprevet. Francis, hendes mand, er meget nedtrykket på grund af tabet af Buddy, familiens hund. Også både Sarah og Francis er lidt bekymrede over deres 4-årige tvillingers adfærd.

Sarah er den udarbejdende mens Francis i hverdagen passer på deres 4-årige tvillinger. Sarah passer på dem om aftenen og i weekenden. Sarah siger, at tvillingerne, især Lily, har tendens til at blive uvenlig ovenfor Francis, når som helst Sarah er hjemme, og for eksempel afviser at tale med ham.

Vi fortæller hende, at disse slags problemer er meget hyppige i familier, og børn ofte opfører sig på denne måde og spille faren ud imod moren og omvendt. Det er lidt af en skam, at hun ikke har et lokalt støttenetværk af andre unge mødre, som hun kunne diskutere problemer af denne art med.

Vi fornemmer, at hun har brug for, at vi lover et eller andet i forhold til vores næste besøg hos dem, fordi hun savner vores støtte og rådgivning. Vi siger lidt modvilligt, at vi overvejer at flyve derover i marts 2018.

For mit vedkommende, selvom jeg har lyst til at se dem, ræddes jeg også ved tanken om at skulle rejse derover: den lange, dyre, udmattende flyvetur, bekymringer for vores hus og have, behovet for at finde et katte-hotel for Minx – problemerne er endeløse. Uha! Sarah har brug for vores støtte indimellem, men vi bad hende aldrig om, at flytte til Australien – det var trods alt Francis og Sarahs eget valg.

Jeg ankender, at vi før eller senere må derover, men jeg har hidtil udskudt at tænke på det hele – uha (igen) !!!!

Tilbageblik til 2016: vi tilbringer 3 måneder hos Sarah,

vores datter i Australien, og hendes familie.

11:45 Opkaldet slutter og vi siger farvel. Men jeg må indrømme, at Sarah lyder lidt mere afslappet, eller det håber vi på i hvert fald.

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter skal vi ud. Lois ønsker at deltage i sin kirkes gudstjeneste, der finder sted kl 13:30 i byen Tewkesbury. Jeg kører over til byen og sætter hende af foran biblioteket, og kører hjem.

14:00 Jeg læser endnu ca. 10 sider af ”Forbandet” af Gittemie Eriksen, den kriminovelle, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt. Jeg udfærdiger ordforrådlister til enhver side, for at spare medlemmer for at slå en masse ord op i ordbogen. Jeg er så hvarmhjertet ha ha ha!

Novellens helt, Per Janson, er landsbetjent i en normalt stille og rolig dansk landsby. Han er i gang med at undersøge en stribe (ca 12?) drab i landsbyen.

Per og Bruno, hans chef, tror at sagen er lukket, da de to hovesagelige mistænkte, Frederik og hans kusine, Freja, dræber hinanden, mens de er i færd med at have sex med hinanden.

Sådan et dobbelt, gensidigt mord synes at være lidt usandsynligt, men under sex har både mænd og kvinder faktisk tendens til at gøre en masse irriterende ting. Jeg har læst bunkevis af artikler, der handler om, for eksempel, ”10 ting kvinder gør i sengen, som mænd hader” og omvendt: for eksempel, at tale om sin  eks, eller i tilfælde af mændene, at beholde sokkerne på, osv.

Man kan forestille sig, at dette hidsige par, Frederik og hans kusine, Freja, måske begge to kunne have gjort flere ting på hadelisten, og det hele endte med at udløse denne frygtelige tragedie.

Politiet kommer imidlertid til den konklusion, at de to mistænkte besluttede, de hellere vil dø ved hinandens hånd, end blive anholdt og dømt for multiple drab.

Senere bliver de to politimænd deprimerede, da endnu en landsbyboer et par uger senere bliver myrdet, og de bliver pludselig klar over, at sagen ikke er så lukket, som de troede  – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

14:45 Jeg går i seng for at tage mig en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 16, da Lois kommer hjem. Fran, hendes veninde, sætter hende at foran huset. Vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad: stegte lam, stegte kartofler, med hjemmedyrkede gulerødder pastinak og myntesovs – nam nam!

Vi bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en forestilling af en moderne opera, ”Hamlet”. Sådanne programmer er ikke rigtigt vores nummer, men Lois hørte Hamlet for et par uger siden som en radioserie i 5 dele, og hun er derfor interesseret i at se denne opera. Også er der ikke noget andet interessant i aften i fjernsynet – uha!

Det er lidt af en skam, at moderne komponister gør noget som helst for at undgå at komponere en behagelig melodi - eller måske har de ikke tilstrækkelig talent til det – det er juryen stadig ude om (ikke!).

Der en ingen arier i denne opera, kun dialog, som sangere synger på en noget ubehagelige og uharmonisk måde. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Glyndebourne-operahusets make-up afdeling har givet alle sangerne kridthvide ansigter, så de alle ser meget meget uhyggelige ud. Denne idé er lidt af en fejl, synes vi, fordi, som er velkendt, Hamlet involverer en masse figurer, der er spøgelser. Det ville have været fornuftigere at begrænse de kridthvide ansigter til spøgelserne, synes vi. Men det springer vi over.

Det er velkendt, at der er en masse drab i Hamlet (dueller og forgiftninger osv), og nærmest hele Danmarks kongehus er død ved slutningen af handlingen – yikes!

Gensidigt drab opera-stil -

prøv det ikke hjemme, folkens!

Tilbageblik til juni: Lois, mig og Alison, vores datter i København, (til højre)

ser på uddrag fra Hamlet i Kronberg Slot i Helsingør, Danmark.

Det er lidt af et sammenfald at se så mange gensidige drab og mordforsøg i aften, og det minder mig om den danske kriminovelle, ”Forbandet”, som jeg i eftermiddags var ved at læse, hvor Frederik og Freja, hans kusine, dræber hinanden i sengen når de også er i færd med at have sex med hinanden.

Undgå at gøre disse 12 ting

og du kan overleve noget som helst i Danmark ha ha ha

22:00 Lois og jeg går i seng – vi har besluttet ikke at dræbe hinanden i nat, vi er for trætte. Det må blive en anden nat – men jeg spøger bare ha ha ha!

English translation

04:00 I get up early and take a little look online. I send a text on whatsapp to Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. I say that Lois and I will be available between 10am and 11:30am (UK time) if she has the chance to skype or call us on whatsapp. We are very eager to help her if possible - the family is going through hard times because they had to have Buddy, the family's dog, put down a few days ago, because of his arthritis and general weakness.

We are a little worried about her because she does not have a proper support network over there, apart from her phone calls and Skype calls to us. The family moved to Australia in December 2015, and she lacks a network of close friends, the poor thing.

08:00 I hop back into bed with Lois and we drink our morning tea. We get up and have breakfast.

10:00 We get ready to receive a call from Sarah, but we know that the family has been on an outing to Hilary's, a small harbour town, and Sarah was not sure exactly when they were coming home. This kind of thing unfortunately happens every Sunday - we make ourselves available and cannot concentrate on crossing tasks off on our to-do list - damn!

11:15 Sarah finally calls us on whatsapp. She sounds a little upset. Francis, her husband, is very depressed because of the loss of Buddy, the family's dog. Also both Sarah and Francis are a little worried about their 4-year-old twins' behavior.

Sarah is the bread-winner while Francis looks after their 4-year-old twins from day to day. Sarah looks after them in the evenings and at weekends. Sarah says that the twins, especially Lily, tend to become unfriendly towards Francis, any time Sarah is at home, and, for example, refuse to talk to him.

We tell her that these kinds of problems are very frequent in families, and children often behave in this way and play their father off against their mother and vice versa. It's a bit of shame that she does not have a local support network of other young mothers whom she could discuss problems of this kind with.

We sense that she needs us to promise something relating to our next visit to them because she is missing our support and advice. We say a little reluctantly that we are considering flying over in March 2018.

For my part, although I want to see them, I am also dreading the thought of having to travel over there: the long, expensive, exhausting flight, worries for our house and garden, the need to find a cats hotel for Minx - the problems are endless. Ugh!

Sarah needs our support every so often, but we never asked her to move to Australia - it was after all Francis and Sarah's own choice. I recognise that we will have to go there sooner or later, but so far I have put off thinking about it all - ugh (again) !!!!

Flashback to 2016: We spend 3 months with Sarah,

our daughter in Australia, and her little family.

11:45 The call ends and we say goodbye. But I have to admit that Sarah sounds a bit more relaxed, or so we hope at least.

12:00 We have lunch and afterwards we go out. Lois wants to attend her church's Sunday service, which takes place at 1:30pm in the town of Tewkesbury. I drive her over to the town and drop her off in front of the library and drive home.

14:00 I read another approx 10 pages of "Accursed" by Gittemie Eriksen, the crime novella which is our U3A Danish group's current project. I draw up vocabulary lists for every page, to save members looking up a lot of words in the dictionary. I'm so kind hearted ha ha ha!

The novella's hero, Per Janson, is a constable in a normally quiet and peaceful Danish village. He is investigating a string of (about 12?) killings in the village.

Per and Bruno, his boss, believe that the case is closed when the two main suspects, Frederik and his cousin, Freja, kill each other while they are having sex.

Such a double reciprocal murder seems to be a bit unlikely, but during sex both men and women actually have a tendency to do a lot of annoying things. I have read loads of articles all about, for example, "10 things women do in bed that men hate" and vice versa: for example, talking about their exes, or in the case of men, keeping their socks on, etc.

One can imagine that this hot-blooded couple, Frederick and his cousin, Freja, might both have done several things on the "hate list", and it all ended up triggering this terrible tragedy.

The police, however, come to the conclusion that the two suspects decided they would rather die at each other's hands than be arrested and convicted of multiple murders.

Later, the two policemen become depressed when a couple of weeks later another villager gets murdered and they suddenly realize that the case is not as closed as they had thought - good grief, what madness !!!!

14:45 I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 4pm when Lois comes home. Fran, her friend, drops her off in front of the house. We relax with a cup of tea on the sofa.

18:00 We have dinner: roast lamb and roast potatoes, with home-grown carrots, parsnips, and mint sauce - yum yum!

We spend the evening watching television. A performance of a modern opera, "Hamlet" is on. Such programs are not really our cup of tea, but Lois heard Hamlet a couple of weeks ago as a 5-part radio series, and she is therefore interested in watching this opera. Also, there is nothing else interesting on tv tonight - ugh!

It's a bit of a pity that modern composers will do anything to avoid writing a pleasant melody - or maybe they do not have enough talent for it - the jury is still out on that one (not!).

There are no arias in this opera, only dialogue, which the singers sing in a somewhat unpleasant and discordant way. Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!

The Glyndebourne opera house's makeup department has given all the singers chalky faces so they all look very very scary. This idea is a bit of an mistake, we think, because, as is well known, Hamlet involves a lot of characters who are ghosts anyway. It would be more sensible to limit the chalky faces to the ghosts, we think. But we are going to let that one slide.

It is well known that there are a lot of killings in Hamlet (duels and poisonings, etc.) and almost all of Denmark's royal house lie dead at the end of the action - yikes!

Reciprocal killing opera-style

- don't try this at home folks!

Flashback to June: Lois, me and Alison, our daughter in Copenhagen (right), 

watch excerpts from Hamlet in Kronberg Castle in Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark.

It's a bit of a coincidence to see so many reciprocal killings and murder attempts tonight, and it reminds me of the Danish crime novella, "Accursed", that I was reading this afternoon, in which Frederik and Freja, his cousin, kill each other in bed while they are also busy having sex with each other.

Avoid doing these 12 things

and you can survive anything in Denmark ha ha ha

22:00 Lois and I go to bed - we have decided not to kill each other tonight, we are too tired. That will have to be for another night - just joking ha ha ha!