04:00 Jeg står
op kl 4 som sædvanligt, selvom klokken er kun 3 ifølge mit kropsur. Det er hvad
jeg kalder disciplin ha ha ha. Jeg kigger lidt på nettet.
For 4 uger siden
bestilte jeg en Calvin Klein sweater på nettet: det pågældene selskab sælger
forskellige typer tøj. I de følgende 2-3 uger så jeg konstant reklamer for den
samme sweater, når jeg loggede ind for at tjekke min mails osv. Det var meget
venligt af selskabet at gøre det, i betragtning af, jeg godt kunne have lyst til
at købe en anden af samme type og farve.
Nu denne uge finder
jeg, at jeg ser konstant en reklame, fremstillet af samme selskabet, denne gang
for lingeri, en reklame, der fremviser tre kvinder, der synes at stirre på mig,
og hvad mere er, lidt foragteligt, mistænker jeg.
Men jeg kan
ikke brokke mig. Det hele er min skyld, må jeg indrømme. Jeg læste for nylig på
nettet om en anden lokal mand, der ifølge theonion.com anerkendte til lokale
journalister, at han skulle acceptere konsekvenserne af hans handlinger, også
at han ikke havde andre at bebrejde, end sig selv for de målrettede pool legetøjsreklamer,
der regelmæssigt var dukket op i hans browservindue over de to sidste uger.
en lokal man ser irriterende bannerreklamer, hver gang han logger ind
”Disse
bannerannoncer er utroligt irriterende og invasive, men jeg må indrømme, at jeg
er den, der for et par weekender siden kiggede på et par oppustelige
indrerør," sagde han.
Manden
begyndte for første gang at se de svømning-relaterede bannerannoncer, efter han
sidste måned ubesværet bladede igennem udvalget af flydende ride-on legetøj på
en poolforsyninger butiks websted. "Ærligt sagt, jeg kan ikke sige, at jeg
på en eller anden måde ikke havde bedt om at se billeder af poolnudler og
selvlysende strandbolde hver gang jeg logger ind online. Det er min egen skyld,
ærligt talt, og jeg skal bare klare det der. "
Jeg forstår
præcis, hvad manden prøver at sige, og jeg kan ikke brokke mig. Pokkers! Men
disse selskaber tænker kun på vores bedste interesser, kan jeg ikke nægte.
08:00 Jeg
hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté. Vi går i bad
og står op. Vi kan desværre ikke i dag blive liggende inde i sengen, fordi vi
bad Sarah, vores datter i Australien, om at ringe til os i dag mellem kl 10 og
10:30 (british tid) på whatsapp eller skype.
Jeg har fortalt hende, at Lois gerne vil deltage i sin kirkes 2
gudstjenester i dag, og vi må af sted senest kl 10. Lois vil være bag rettet,
med mig i den forreste passagersæde, for at give hende selvtillid. Det er
hendes første gang i flere måneder – hun har ikke kunnet køre bil på grund af
grå stær, men nu har hun haft sin øjenoperation og hun afprøver sine nye
briller.
10: 20 Sarah
ringer til os på whatsapp. Da jeg fortæller hende, at Alison, vores datter i
Danmark, har planer om at flytte næste påske tilbage til England sammen med sin
familie, kan jeg formode, at der går panik i Sarah – hun er meget bange for, at
Lois og jeg ønsker at udskyde vores besøg til Australien, som vi provisorisk
har bestemt til marts.
Du godeste!
Sarah glæder sig meget meget meget til at se os i foråret i Australien – ingen
tvivl om det. Vi vil i hvert fald ikke kunne udskyde vores besøg. Vi formoder,
at Sarah føler sig meget isoleret derovre og hun har en masse problemer – hun
har et stressende job, og når hun om aftenen kommer hjem, skal hun passe på
Lily og Jessie, mens Francis, Sarahs mand, slapper af. Sympati er ikke
Francis’s force, synes vi. Han foretrækker at modtage sympati, end at give den.
Men Lois og
jeg vil ikke købe flybilletterne med det samme. Francis skal tage en anden
biopsi om et par uger. Han er blevet diagnosticeret med knuder i
skjoldbruskkirtel, men det er ikke klar, om knuderne er godartede, eller ej.
Lois og jeg har på fornemmelsen, at det er muligt, familien vil beslutte at
flytte tilbage til England, hvis det viser sig, at han har kræft, fordi
familien har så lidt støtte derovre. Men vi håber på det bedste selvfølgelig.
10:50 Vi kører
til Tewkesbury – Lois er bag retten, og hun synes at have ingen problemer med
at køre bil på trods af, at dette er hendes første store rejse i snart ca 9
måneder. Hun står af foran kirken, og jeg kører tilbage til Cheltenham.
Jeg har lidt
alenetid. Jeg fortsætter med at luge lidt i grøntsagshaven, og bagefter kommer
jeg tilbage ind i huset for at spise frokost.
Jeg skrev i
min blog for et par dage siden, at jeg føler, Lois er jeg er dømt til at dø i
dette enorme hus, fordi det nu er blevet for svært at downsize. Jeg har
besluttet at bekæmpe denne ”skæbne” og
ikke at acceptere den for øjeblikket.
Jeg beslutter,
at jeg behøver at gøre noget symbolsk, for at vise mit tilsagn om at begynde
kampen. Jeg finder ca. 50 bøger, som jeg senere på ugen vil tage med til den
lokale Røde Kors genbrugsbutik for at donere dem. Jeg har besluttet at droppe
ønsket om at opbevare bøger bare af nostalgiske grunde – yikes! Jeg mener det
alvorligt nu!!!!
Hagen ved
dette projekt er, at jeg i de 11 år, der er gået siden vi gik på pension, ikke
har nået at overtale Lois til at gøre noget lignende, og jeg vurderer, at 90%
af vores bøger nu er Lois’s. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!! Men jeg har besluttet, at Lois’s ulyst til at
blive fri for nogle af sine bøger, ikke er en undskyldning for, at jeg ikke
bliver fri for så mange af mine bøger som jeg kan.
Mit næste
projekt vil kredse om min ”garderobe”. Jeg har stadig skjorter for eksempel,
der allerede var slidte, da jeg plejede at have dem på på arbejde – og jeg gik
på pension for nu 11 år siden!!!
13:00 Jeg går i seng for at
tage mig en kort eftermiddagslur. Som jeg ligger og dagdrømmer, hører jeg min
smartphone lyde ”ding” flere gange.
På min smartphone
har jeg adgang til et whatsapp-chatrum, der består af medlemmer af Lois’s
kirke. Jeg har bemærket, at mange af dem bliver meget begejstrede over
usædvanlige naturlige fænomener (såsom orkaner, jordskælv, røde sole osv),
fordi de tror, at sådanne fænomener er tegn på, at vi bor i ”de sidste dage” og
at Jesu genkomst er overhængende, selvom Lois er mere skeptisk, synes jeg. Det må
være lidt demotiverende måske at forvente for ofte enden på verden og at blive
skuffet derover atter og atter.
Den ene sms’er:
”Betydningsfulde ting foregår i verden og i Spanien for tiden! Folk skal rejse
sig mod folk (Matthæus 24:7) .... jernet ikke blander sig med leret (Daniel
2:43) ...lad den svage sige, jeg er stærk (Joel 3:10). Der går ikke længe, før
vi skal stå ansigt til ansigt med Herren!”
Jeg mistænker, at et af
problemerne kirken har, når det kommer til at konvertere nye medlemmer, er, at
deres ”sprog” og ”ordforråd” er blevet så helt anderledes, end de normale. Men det
springer jeg over!
14:30 Jeg kører over til
Tewkesbury. Lois kommer ud af kirken og vi kører hjem, med Lois bag rettet
igen. Ingen problemer igen. Hun viser en masse selvtillid på trods af manglen
på nylig erfaring bag rettet, og, ligesom i fortiden, kører hun bil på en meget
mere aggressiv måde, end mig. Sikke en kvinde!!!
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad
og ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm (1. del af 8), der
handler om afgørende tidspunkter i historien af det antikke Roma. Dette første
afsnit sætter fokus på krigen mellem Roma og Karthago. Programmets vært er den
charmerende Bettany Hughes.
Ganske interessant, men jeg
kunne have undværet de mange voldelige rekonstructionsscener – det må jeg nok
sige!
Men jeg må også indrømme,
at tv er blevet meget meget bedre til at skabe troværdige rekonstructionsscener
af store slag, selvom de sandsynligvis kun ansætter omkring 10-20 skuespillere.
Teknikken er at vise closeups af ca 6 mænd, klædt ud som romerske eller
karthagoiske soldater, der er i gang med at dræbe hinanden, med det hele skudt
i en blød, ”romantisk” (hahaha) oplysning. Samtidigt hører vi lyden af
tusindvis af folk, der råber konstant – sandynligvis en optagelse fra en
fodboldkamp eller lignende.
Et typisk stor slag mellem Roma og Karthago: vi ser closeups af ca. 6 mænd
i gang med at dræbe hinanden, i blød, "romantisk" oplysning,
med lyde af en fodboldkamp i baggrunden - sikke et vanvid!!!!
22:00 Vi går i seng –
zzzzzz!!!!
English translation
04:00 I get up at 4am as usual, although the time is only
3 a.m. according to my body clock. That's what I call discipline ha ha ha. I
take a little look online.
Four weeks ago I ordered a Calvin Klein sweater online:
the company in question sells various types of clothes. In the following 2-3
weeks, I constantly saw advertisments for the same sweater when I logged in to
check my mails, etc. It was very kind of company to do that, considering that I
might want to buy another one, of the same type and color.
Now this week, I find I am constantly looking at an
advertisement from the same company, this time for lingerie, an advertisement
that shows three women who seem to be staring at me and what's more, a little
contemptuously, I suspect.
But I can’t complain. The whole thing is my fault, I have
to admit. I read recently about another local man who according to theonion.com
acknowledged to local reporters that he had to accept the consequences of his
actions, also that he had nobody to blame other than himself for the targeted
pool toy ads that have regularly appeared in his browser window over the last
two weeks.
A local man sees annoying banner ads every time he logs in
"These banner ads are incredibly annoying and
invasive, but I have to admit that I'm the one who looked at a pair of
inflatable inner tubes a couple of weeks ago," he said.
The man started seeing the swimming-related banner ads
for the first time after aimlessly browsing through the selection of floating
ride-on toys on a pool shop store website last month. "Honestly, I cannot
say that I more or less did not ask to see pictures of pool noodles and
luminous beach balls every time I log in online. It's my fault, honestly, and
I'll just have to deal with it."
I understand exactly what the man is trying to say and I
cannot complain myself either. Damn! But these companies are only thinking of
our best interests, I cannot deny that.
08:00 I hop back into bed with Lois and we drink our
morning tea. We go in the shower and get up. Unfortunately, we cannot stay in
bed today because we asked Sarah, our daughter in Australia, to call us today
between 10am and 10.30 am (British time) on whatsapp or skype. I have told Sarah that Lois wants to attend her church's 2 services today and we have to leave by
10 a.m. at the latest.
Lois is going to be behind the wheel, with me in the front passenger
seat to give her confidence. It's her first time for several months - she has
not been able to drive a car because of cataracts, but now she has had her eye
surgery and she's trying out her new glasses.
10:20 Sarah calls us on whatsapp. When I tell her that
Alison, our daughter in Denmark, plans to move back to England with her family
next Easter, I can sense that Sarah is panicking - she is very much afraid that
Lois and I want to postpone our visit to Australia, which we have provisionally
fixed for March.
My Goodness! Sarah is very much looking forward to seeing
us in Australia in the spring - no doubt about that. There's no way we will be
able to postpone our visit. We sense that Sarah feels very isolated over there
and she has a lot of problems - she has a stressful job and when she comes home
in the evening, she has to look after Lily and Jessie, while Francis, Sarah's
husband takes things easy. Sympathy is not Francis's strong point, we think. He
prefers to receive sympathy rather than to give it.
But Lois and I do not want to buy the airline tickets
right away. Francis has to take another biopsy in a couple of weeks. He has
been diagnosed with nodules on the thyroid gland but it is not clear whether
the nodes are benign or not. Lois and I have the feeling that it is possible
that the family will decide to move back to England if it turns out that he has
cancer, because the family has so little support over there. But we hope for the
best of course.
10:50 We drive to Tewkesbury - Lois is behind the wheel
and she seems to have no trouble driving a car, despite the fact that this is
her first big trip for almost 9 months. She gets out in front of the church,
and I drive back to Cheltenham.
I have a little alone time. I continue to do a little
weeding in the vegetable garden, and afterwards I come back into the house to
have lunch.
I wrote in my blog a few days ago that I feel Lois and I are doomed
to die in this huge house because it's now become too hard to downsize. I have today decided to fight this "destiny" and not to accept it for the moment.
I decide that I need to do something symbolic to show my
commitment to starting the struggle. I find about 50 books that I can take to
the local Red Cross recycling store later this week as donations. I have
decided to abandon the desire to keep books only for nostalgic reasons - yikes! I
mean business now !!!!
The snag with this project is that in the 11 years since
we retired, I have not persuaded Lois to do something similar, and I estimate
that 90% of our books are now Lois's. Good grief, what madness !!!! But I've
decided that Lois's reluctance to get rid of any of her books, is not an excuse
for me not to get rid of as many of my books as I can.
My next project will centre on my "wardrobe". I
still have shirts for example, that already looked worn out when I used to have
them on at work - and I retired 11 years ago now !!!
13:00 I go to bed to take a short afternoon nap. As I lie there
daydreaming, I hear my smartphone go "ding" several times.
On my smartphone, I have access to a whatsapp chat room, made up of
members of Lois's church. I have noticed that many of the members get very excited
about unusual natural phenomena (such as hurricanes, earthquakes, red suns,
etc.) because they think such phenomena are indications that we are living in
"the last days" and that Jesus' return is imminent, although Lois is
more sceptical, I think. It must be a little demotivating to expect the end of
the world too often and to be disappointed over and over again.
One member texts, “Momentous things are going on in the world and in
Spain at the moment! Nation shall rise against nation (Matthew 24:7) … iron and
clay that does not mix (Daniel 2:43) … let the weak say that I am strong (Joel
3:10) ….etc etc. It won’t be long before we see our Lord face to face!”
I suspect that one of the problems the church has when it
comes to converting new members is that their "language" and
"vocabulary" have become so completely different from the normal
ones. But I'm going to let that one slide!
14:30 I drive over to Tewkesbury. Lois comes out of the
church and we drive home, with Lois behind the wheel again. No problems again.
She shows bags of self-confidence despite her lack of recent experience behind
the wheel, and, just like in the past, she drives the car in a much more aggressive
way than I do. What a woman !!!
18:00 We have dinner and watch television. An interesting
documentary is on (1st part of 8) that deals with crucial moments in the
history of ancient Rome. This first episode focuses on the war between Rome and
Carthage. The host of the program is the charming Bettany Hughes.
Quite interesting, but I could have done without the many
violent reconstruction scenes, I've got to say!
But I also have to admit that television has become much
much better at creating credible reconstruction scenes of big battles, although
they probably only employ about 10-20 actors. The technique is to show close-ups
of about 6 men dressed as Roman or Carthaginian soldiers who are busy killing
each other, with the whole thing shot in a soft "romantic" (hahaha)
lighting. At the same time, we hear the sound of thousands of people shouting
non-stop - probably a recording from a football match or the like.
A typical big battle between Rome and Carthage: we see close-ups of approx. 6 men
busy killing each other, filmed in soft, "romantic" lighting,
with the sounds of a football match in the background - what madness !!!!
22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzz!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment