Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Tirsdag den 21. november 2017

10:00 Min ven, ”Magyar” Mike kommer og vi lærer ungarsk i en time. Vi tager vores nye ”Assimil” lærebog frem og læser en mærkelig lektion (den 19.), der handler om familien Veres, der er i gang med at flytte ind til en ny lejlighed, men deres flyttedag er helt mærkelig, synes vi: det ligner ingen flyttedag, vi nogensinde har hørt om før.

Familiens børn er ivrige efter at hjælpe med at ordne den nye lejlighed, men deres ”hjælp” påvirker dagen hovedsageligt i en negativ retning, en oplevelse, som de fleste forældre vil genkende. Men det mærkeligste er, hvad mor og far Veres gør med deres klaver, som de rykker ud af badeværelset og stiller bag komfuret. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!


Den ungarske familie Veres, og deres mærkelige flyttedag
- du godeste, sikke et vanvid !!!!

Assimil, der udgav lærebogen, var et fransk selskab, grundlagt i 1929 af en mand, der hed Alphonse Chérel, hvilket lyder meget fransk, ingen tvivl om det. Fransk humor er helt anderledes fra vores, og jeg har svært ved at forstå bogens illustrationer. Men jeg trøster mig selv ved at kigge på den som et to i et kursus – hovedfag i ungarsk og bifag i fransk humor, hvilket lyder meget sjovt.

Familien Veres’ flyttedag: det hele bliver gjort til en billig penge
- ingen tvivl om det!!!

15:00 Lois og jeg snakker lidt om Minx, vores datter Alisons kat. Alison efterlod Minx hos os for 5 år siden, da hendes familie flyttede til Danmark. Minx er 17 år gammel, og for nylig har hun opført sig lidt som et 90-årig menneske, der lider af demens, dvs, hun startede at gå ud af huset mindre ofte, og et par gange fangede vi hende prøve at tisse i stuen eller skide i køkkenet. Hun stoppede med at vaske sig ret meget, og begyndte at bruge hovedparten af dagen på at sove enten på Lois’ skød eller i sofaen.

Med andre ord begyndte Minx at opføre sig mere og mere som mig, bortset fra, at jeg stadig havde for vane at gå på toilettet i det konventionelle sted, gudskelov. Også, jeg fortsatte med at vaske mig og går i bad, så måske  faktisk ved nærmere eftertanke klarede jeg mig lidt bedre, end Minx.

Men sidste uge fik vi en operation foretaget på Minx’ mund og tænder på det lokale dyrlægeklinik. Og det er overraskende, hvor meget hendes opførsel har forbedret siden da. Hun går oftere ud af huset, hun leger med et stykke krøllet papir på et langt stykke snor, hun er begyndt at vaske sig igen.



en 17-årig men forynget Minx leger med et krøllet stykke papir
på enden af et stykke snor, som Lois fremstillede til hende.
Hvorfor kan Lois ikke gøre det samme til mig?

Jeg har mange gange prøvet at overtale Lois til at organisere lege til mig, som for eksempel at dingle stykker papir på en lang snor foran mit ansigt, når jeg sidder og ser på fjernsynet, i et forsøg på at genoplive mig om aftenen – jeg har lovet hende, at jeg ville blive til en anderledes mand, mere livlig, mere sjov – som i Mae Wests berømte citat – ”det er ikke mændene i dit liv, der tæller. Det er livet i dine mænd.” Også, når hun brokker sig over, at jeg ikke ofte kommer ud af huset, minder jeg hende om en anden West-citat: én mand i huset er værd to på gaden..

Men hidtil har Lois desværre ikke bidt på krogen. Jeg har besluttet at fortsætte med bare at forfølge min kampagne endnu en uge, og derefter vil det være ”tilbage til tegnebrættet”.

Mae West – sikke en kvinde! For nylig fandt jeg ud af, at hun skrev alle sine egne vittigheder og tvetydigheder, og jeg beundrer hende endnu mere som resultat, det må jeg nok sige. Hendes sidste nogensinde citat på film var en gentagelse af Paul Reveres ”Briterne kommer”, men i sammenhæng med en soveværelsescene. Hun sagde også (i en anden anledning meget meget tidligere), at hun havde en svaghed til udenrigsaffære, så hun udviste konsistens, uden tvivl om det!  

Du godeste, sikke en vanvittig kvinde!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio og ser lidt fjernsyn.

Vi hører et interessant radio-program, der handler om Lord Roseberys koalitonsregering (liberale og irske nationalister) i 1890’erne og sammenligninger med Theresa Mays nuværende koalitionsregering (konservative og nordirske unionister). Programmets vært er den charmerende Jonathan Freedland.




Ligesom Theresa May var Lord Rosebery en kompromisvalg som statsminister, og han måtte lede et parti, der var delt i fraktioner.

Rosebery blev konstant truet af oprørske parlamentsmedlemmer i sit parti, og endelig takkede han af, hvilket førte til et valg og en konservativ regering i de næste 10 år. Stakkels Rosebery !!!!

May har imidlertid en række fordele i sammenligning med Rosebery. Ingen i hendes parti har lyst til at deltage i den nærmeste fremtid i endnu et generalvalg, og resultatet af Brexit-afstemningen, uanset hvor dumt det var, har i det mindste forenet det konservative parti med et ønske om at føre den forfærdelige Brexit-proces igennem til enden.

Det hjælper også, synes jeg, at Corbyn er sådan en fantastisk bussemand, og har tendens til at tilskynde den nærmeste mulige enhed i alle sine modstandere. Det er dit bidrag til vores lands fremtid, Jeremy, og det jeg skal i hvert fald takke dig for ha ha ha!

Brexit-beslutningen skete, da Lois og jeg var i udlandet i Australien, på et 3-måneders besøg hos vores datter, Sarah, og hendes familie. Jeg håber bare på, at intet katastrofalt sker, mens vi besøger hende igen i marts-april. Du godeste! Vi vil snart blive bange for, at forlade landet. Yikes!!!!!

Rosebery var også forfatteren af nogle berømte citater, for eksempel: Der er to suveræne fornøjelser i livet. Den ene er ideel, den anden virkelige. Det ideelle er, når en mand modtager statsministerens officielle segle og symboler fra dronningen. Den rigtige fornøjelse kommer, når han rækker dem tilbage.

Hans citater om fornøjelse var ikke så frække som Mae Wests, men så han havde en masse bekymringer. Stakkels Rosebery (igen) !!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!

English translation

10:00 My friend, "Magyar" Mike comes and we learn Hungarian for an hour. We take our new "Assimil" textbook out and read a peculiar lesson (no.19) all about the Veres family, who are moving into a new apartment, but their moving day is quite bizarre, we think: it looks like no moving day we have ever heard of before.

The children of the family are eager to help put the new apartment in order, but their "help" sets the day off in a negative direction, an experience that most parents will recognize. But the strangest thing is what Mom and Dad Veres do with their piano - they move it out of the bathroom and set it down behind the stove. My god, what madness !!!

The Hungarian Family Veres, and their bizarre moving day
- my god, what madness !!!!

Assimil, who published the textbook, were a French company, founded in 1929 by a man named Alphonse Chérel, which sounds very French, no doubt about that. French humor is completely different from ours and I find it difficult to understand the book's illustrations. But I comfort myself by looking at it as a two-in-one course - majoring in Hungarian and minoring in French humor, which sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

The Family Veres's Moving Day: all being done on the cheap
- no doubt about that !!!

15:00 Lois and I talk a little about Minx, our daughter Alison's cat. Alison left Minx with us 5 years ago when her family moved to Denmark. Minx is 17 years old and recently she has been behaving a bit like a 90-year-old man suffering from dementia, ie she started to leave the house less often and a few times we caught her trying to pee in the living room or crap in the kitchen. She stopped washing herself very much and began spending most of the day sleeping either on Lois' lap or on the couch.

In other words, Minx began to behave more and more like me, except that I still had a habit of going to the toilet in the conventional place, thank god. Also, I continued to wash myself and go in the shower, so maybe, on reflection, I was doing a little better than Minx.

But last week we had an operation carried out on Minx 'mouth and teeth at the local veterinary clinic. And it is surprising how much her behavior has improved since then. She goes out of the house more often, she plays with a piece of crumpled up paper on the end of a long string, and she has started washing herself again.



a 17-year-old but rejuvenated Minx plays with a crumpled piece of paper
at the end of a piece of string that Lois made for her.
Why can't Lois do the same thing for me?

I have repeatedly tried to persuade Lois to organize games for me, such as dangling pieces of paper on a long string in front of my face when I am sitting watching television, in an attempt to liven me up in the evening - I have promised her that I would become a different man, more lively, more fun - as in Mae West's famous quote - "It's not the men in your life that matter. It's the life in your men”. Also, when she complains that I do not get out of the house very often, I remind her of another West quote: a man in the house is worth two in the street.

But unfortunately Lois has so far not taken the bait. I have decided to continue pursuing my campaign for one week only, and after that it will be "back to the drawing board".

Mae West - what a woman! Recently, I found out that she wrote all her jokes and double-meanings, and I admire her all the more as a result, I have to say. Her last ever quote in a movie was a repeat of Paul Revere's 'The British are coming', but in the context of a bedroom scene. She also said (on another occasion many many years earlier) that she had a weakness for foreign affairs, so she showed consistency there, no doubt about that!

Good grief, what a crazy woman!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio and watching a little television.

We hear an interesting radio program all about Lord Rosebery's coalition government (Liberals and Irish nationalists) in the 1890s and comparisons with Theresa May's current coalition government (Conservatives and Ulster Unionists). The host of the program is the charming Jonathan Freedland.



Like May, Lord Rosebery was a compromise choice as prime minister, and he had to lead a party that was split into factions.

Rosebery was constantly threatened by rebel parliamentarians in his party, and finally he resigned, which led to a election and a conservative government for the next 10 years. Poor Rosebery !!!!

May, however, has a number of advantages over Rosebery. Nobody in her party wants to have to take part in another general election in the near future, and the outcome of the Brexit poll, no matter how stupid it was, has at least united the conservative party with a desire to take the terrible Brexit process through to its end.

It also helps, I think, that Corbyn is such a fantastic bogeyman and tends to encourage the closest possible unity in all his opponents. It's your contribution to the future of our country, Jeremy, and I thank you for that at least ha ha ha!

The Brexit decision happened when Lois and I were abroad in Australia on a 3-month visit to our daughter, Sarah, and her family. I just hope that nothing catastrophic will happen while we are visiting her again in March-April. My goodness! We will soon be afraid to leave the country. Yikes !!!!!

Rosebery was also the author of some famous quotes, for example: "There are two supreme pleasures in life. One is ideal, the other real. The ideal is when a man receives the Prime Minister's official seals and symbols from the queen. The real pleasure comes when he hands them back."

His quotes on pleasure were not as saucy as Mae West's, but then he had a lot on his mind. Poor Rosebery (again) !!!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!!


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