09:00 Jeg går
ud foran huset og skraber bilens forrude og sideruder fri for is, og vi kører
over til Bishops Cleeve, en lille landsby 3 miles nord for Cheltenham, for at
købe ind - vi kigger ind i tre butikker: de lokale deli, grøntsagsforretning og
Tesco-supermarked.
Jeg får lidt
af chok, da jeg smutter ind hos den lokale isenkræmmer for at købe 5 nye pærer
til den nymodens loftlysmontering i vores badeværelse. Jeg opdager desværre, at
nymodens ting hurtigt bliver til gammeldags – butikkens ejer fortæller mig, at
disse slags pærer ikke længere
fremstilles. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!
Vores nymodens
loftlysmonteringer blev installeret af Anthony, vores daværende blikkenslager,
da han fjernede vores gamle badekar og bygget en spritny brusekabine i stedet
for. Grrr!!!! Anthony fortalte os, han havde installeret en ”tilstand af kunst”
badeværelse, for kun 3,5 år siden (!!!!), og nu er pærerne ikke længere
fremstilles!!! Sikke en skør verden vi
lever i !!!!!
Tilbageblik
til januar 2014: jeg svæver truende over vores gamle badekar.
Dette er det sidste
kendte foto af badekaret, kort inden det blev fjernet af Anthony
kun
9 dage senere er det gamle badekar blevet fjernet.
Anthony
satte det senere på fortovet foran huset, så en eller anden
forbipasserende
sigøjner kunne hente det – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!
Lois i vores badeværelse.
Det er 3
dage senere – badekaret er blevet væk, og en
lykkelig
sigøjner bruger det!
11:00 Vi kører
hjem igen. Desværre er der nogle mellemstore trafikpropper på vejen – en
2-dages væddeløbsbanefestival started i går – pokkers!
12:30 Sarah,
vores datter i Perth, Australien, sender os en sms på whatsapp. Francis, hendes
mand, gennemgik en operation i går – lægerne i det lokale hospital fjernede
hele hans skjoldbruskkirtel, for at undersøge knuderne på begge sider, og
afgøre, om de er kræftagtige eller ej. Sarah siger, at Francis er nu hjemme
igen, og de håber på, at de får patologiresultaterne næste uge. Forhåbenligt
vil knuderne vise sig at være godartede, og familien kan nyde deres jul uden
videre bekymringer. Lois og jeg føler os lidt som om familiens krise
overskygger os også.
12:45 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og hopper op på min kondicykel for første
gang i 3 uger. Jeg cykler 6 miles (10km) – jeg vil gerne bliver raskere, men
det kræver viljestyrke: det er den største ulempe ha ha ha!
15:30 Lois
smutter ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary), for at snakke lidt med dem. Mary lider
af mild demens, og det er hårdt arbejde at snakke med hende, men Lois er så
varmhjertet. Hvis bare jeg lignede hende mere.
Jeg har lidt
alenetid og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler om Carl
Sagan (1934-1996), den berømte tv-astrofysiker, forfatteren og værten af den
berømte ”Cosmos: a personal voyage” dokumentumfilmserie, der først blev sendt i
1970’erne.
Jeg så faktisk
ikke Carls ”Cosmos”-serien i 1970’erne, men jeg så den lidt senere, først i
1980’erne på PBS-kanalen, da vi mellem 1982 og 1985 boede i USA.
Jeg har altid
været interesseret i sprog og akkenter, og jeg var slået af Carls udtalen af
det engelske ord ”Cosmos”, som er anderledes i USA, end i England. I USA
udtales den anden (sidste) stavelse med en lang vokal, så det rimer med ordet
”gross”. Da jeg hørte dette, kom jeg til den konklusion, at denne udtale
resulterede fra de lange århundreder af tæt kontakt mellem de engelsktalende
amerikaner og de mange spansktalende folk, der bor syd for dem: dvs på grund af
indflydelsen af mange spanske ord som for eksempel muchachos, gringos osv. Men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på.
Jeg mindes, at denne serie imponerede mig meget. Dagens radio-tilbageblik
på Sagans liv ender med hans rørende kommentarer til et billede af ”jorden,
som et lysblåt punkt på et foto taget
fra 3, 7 milliarder miles væk”, et image, der sætter os alle på plads.
"Se igen på den punkt. Det er her. Det er hjemme. Det er os. På det
elsker alle, alle, du kender, alle, du nogensinde har hørt om, ethvert
menneske, som nogensinde var, levede deres liv. Sammensætningen af vores
glæde og lidelse, tusindvis af tillidsfulde religioner, ideologier og
økonomiske doktriner, hver jæger og forager, enhver helt og kujon, alle skabere
og civilisatorens ødelæggere, enhver konge og bonde, hvert ungt par i
kærlighed, enhver mor og far, håbagtigt barn, opfinder og opdagelsesrejsende,
hver eneste moralsk lærer, enhver korrupt politiker, hver
"superstjerne", hver "øverste leder", levede hver eneste saint
og synder i vor arts historie, på en mote af støv suspenderet i en
solstråle.”
17:00 Lois
kommer tilbage igen. Hun er lidt bekymret over, at hun har hørt, at hjem i byen
Tewkesbury har været uden vandforsyning, siden en lokal hovedvandledning blev
sprængt i går. Hun er bekymret fordi medlemmer af Lois’ kirke plejer at samles
hver søndag i byens bibliotek for at holde deres to gudstjenester, og hun er
bange for, der ikke vil være vand i vandhanerne og toiletterne.
Hun beder mig
om at stille et spørgsmål på kirkemedlemmers whatsapp-gruppe, og spørge om det
nuværende situation, hvad angår bibliotekets vandforsyning. Det er typisk af
gruppens medlemmer, at de ikke har nævnt vandforsyningssituation, men har været
i gang med en noget esoterisk debat om, om engle kan synde eller ej. Du godeste
– sikke et vanvid!
Det er typisk
af Lois, at hun først tænker på praktiske problemer, og hendes vigtige
spørgsmål afbryder medlemmernes esoteriske debat om engle, gudskelov! Sådan en
kvinde jeg giftede mig med!!!
Kirkemedlemmernes
debat om engle og synd, som Lois afbryder
med
noget mere praktisk ha ha ha – hendes kommentarer er i rød.
(navne
udeladt – red.)
Så derfor
lader det til, at kirkemedlemmerne før i morgen ikke vil være helt sikre på, om
biblioteket kan bruges, eller ej. Lois er meget glad for, at hun bragt spørgsmålet
på bane, ingen tvivl om det!!!! Spørgsmålet om engle og synd kan vente til
senere ha ha ha!!!!
18:00 Vi spiser
aftensmad og ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser en ”langsom tv” film, der handler om
to sami kvinder, der krydser det nordlige Norge med 2 slæder trukket af rensdyr,
200 miles nord for den arktiske cirkel. Temperaturen er -6F (-21C) – brrrrrrrr!!!!
Lois og jeg
har aldrig forsøgt os med at se langsom-tv-programmer før, så vi slukker for
lyset og putter os ind til hinanden i sofaen. Programmet er meget roligt og betryggende,
og det er rart at høre rensdyrenes hove træde rytmisk over sneen.
af og til flasher programmagerne sjove
fakta
om samifolket op på skærmen, hvilket er mildt underholdende
Desværre begynder
jeg efter en halv time at føle mig søvnig, så jeg går op på soveværelset og
lægger mig på sengen – mens jeg er ude af stuen, misser jeg programmets
hovedattraktion (Lois fortæller mig senere, da jeg står op): nordlyset, som jeg
har aldrig set før. Pokkers, bare mit held! Men heldigvis har vi optaget
programmet på vores YouView-enhed, så kan jeg se det en anden dag.
21:00 Vi fortsætter
med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant drama, baseret på en
sandfærdig historie fra det 18. århundrede, ”Den skandaløse Lady W”.
Historien
handler om et ægtepar, Lord og Lady Worsley. Lord Worsley er MP og medlem af regeringen,
men han er også lidt af en voyeur. Han opfordrer sin kone mod hendes vilje til
at have affærer med andre mænd, så han kan kigge på dem – du godeste, sikke et
vanvid!
Til sidst
forelsker hun sig i en af disse mændene, kaptajn George Bisset, og de løber væk
sammen. Lord Worsley reagerer ikke ved at bede om en skilsmisse, men ved at sagsøge
Bisset for 20.000£. Hvis juryen giver Lord Worsley medhold, vil Bisset sidde i en
debitors fængsel til sine dages ende, og Worsley vil få sin hævn – stakkels Bisset!!!!
Det er
interessant at se hvor meget det juridiske system dengang var forudindtaget mod
kvinder, og juryens medlemmer var selvfølgelig alle mænd – kvinder var ikke
tilladte dengang i juryboksen.
Men Lady
Worsley er en egensindig kvinde – ingen tvivl om det! Og hun planlægger at
afsløre sin mands voyeuristiske tilbøjelser i vidneboksen.
Det er meget
rart at se den pragtfulde Natalie Dormer spiller hovedrollen som Lady Worsley.
Hun er af dels norsk dels walesisk afstramning.
den pragtfulde Natalie Dormer spiller Lady Worsley
22:00 Jeg
kigger lidt på min smartphone under
reklamepausen. Jeg ser, at vores datter Alisons mand, Ed, har tage 2 af deres 3
børn i biografen i København i aftes for at se den nye Star Wars-film.
Ed i aftes sammen med
Josie (11) og Isaac (7) i en biograf i København.
22:15 Tv-dramaet
fortsætter, men det er vores sengetid. Vi vil se resten af dramaet i morgen
måske. Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!
English
translation
09:00 I walk out in front of the house and scrape the car's windscreen and side-windows free of ice and we head over to Bishops Cleeve, a
small village 3 miles north of Cheltenham, to do the shopping - we go in
three stores: the local deli, greengrocers and Tesco supermarket.
I get a bit of shock when I swing by the local hardware
store to buy 5 new bulbs for the new-fangled ceiling mountings in our bathroom.
Unfortunately I discover that new-fangled things quickly become old fashioned these days -
the shop owner tells me that these kinds of bulbs are no longer manufactured.
My god, what madness !!!!
Our newfangled ceiling lights were installed by Anthony,
our then plumber, when he removed our old bathtub and built a brand new shower
cabinet instead. Grrr !!!! Anthony told us he had installed a "state of
the art" bathroom, just 3 and a half years ago (!!!!), and now the bulbs
are no longer manufactured !!! What
a crazy world we live in !!!!!
Flashback to January 2014: I hover/hoover menacingly over our old bathtub.
This is the last known photo of the bath,
shortly before it was removed by Anthony
Only 9 days later and the old bathtub has
been removed.
Anthony later put it down on the sidewalk in
front of the house, so some
passing gypsy could pick it up - good grief,
what madness !!!!
Lois in our bathroom.
It is 3 days later - the bath has gone away and
some
happy gypsy is now using it!
11:00 We drive home again. Unfortunately, there are a few
medium-sized traffic jams on the road - a 2-day racing event started yesterday
- damn!
12:30 Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, sends us a
text on whatsapp. Francis, her husband, underwent an operation yesterday - the
doctors in the local hospital removed his entire thyroid gland to examine the
nodules on both sides and determine whether they were cancerous or not. Sarah
says Francis is now home again and they are hoping they get the pathology
results next week. Hopefully, the nodules will prove to be benign and the
family can enjoy their Christmas without further worries. Lois and I feel a
little bit like the family's crisis is overshadowing us as well.
12:45 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a
gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3pm and jump up on my exercise bike for the
first time in 3 weeks. I cycle 6 miles (10km) - I want to be more fit, but that
requires willpower: that's the biggest drawback ha ha ha!
15:30 Lois swings by the neighbors (Bill and Mary), to
have a little chat with them. Mary suffers from mild dementia, and it's hard
work talking to her, but Lois is so warm-hearted. If only I could be more like
her.
I have a little alone time and listen to the radio, an
interesting program about Carl Sagan (1934-1996), the famous television
astrophysicist, the author and host of the famous "Cosmos: a personal
voyage" documentary series that was first aired in the 1970s.
I did not actually see Carl's "Cosmos"
series in the 1970s, but I saw it a little later, in the early 1980s on the PBS
channel, when we were living in the US between 1982 and 1985.
I have always been interested in languages and accents,
and I was struck by Carl's pronunciation of the English word
"Cosmos", which is different in the US than in England. In the US,
the second (and last) syllable is pronounced with a long vowel, so it rhymes with
the word "gross". When I heard this, I came to the conclusion that
this pronunciation resulted from the long centuries of close contact between
English-speaking Americans and the many Spanish-speaking people who live to the
south of them: ie because of the influence of many Spanish words such as
muchachos, gringos etc. But that's something I'm not entirely sure about.
I remember that this series impressed me a lot. Today's
radio-lookback at Sagan's life ends with his touching comments on a picture of
"the earth, as a light blue dot on a photograph taken from 3.7 billion
miles away", an image that puts us all in our place.
“Consider again that dot [Earth]. That's here.
That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone
you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The
aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions,
ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and
coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant,
every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor
and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every
"superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner
in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a
sunbeam.”
17:00 Lois comes back again. She is a little worried
about the fact that she has heard that homes in Tewkesbury have been without
water supply since a local watermain burst yesterday. She is worried because
members of Lois' church usually meet every Sunday in the town's library to hold
their two services, and she is afraid there will be no water in the taps and
toilets.
She asks me to post a question on the church members'
whatsapp group and ask about the current situation regarding the library's
water supply. It is typical of the group members that they have not mentioned
the water supply situation today, but have been engaged in a somewhat esoteric
debate about whether angels can sin or not. Good grief - what madness!
It is typical of Lois that she thinks about
practical problems first, and her important question interrupts the members' esoteric
debate about angels, thank God! What a woman I married !!!
The church members' debate about angels and
sin, which Lois interrupts
with something more practical ha ha ha - her
comments are in red.
(names
omitted - Ed.)
So it seems that church members will not be completely
sure whether the library can be used or not, until tomorrow. Lois is very happy
that she put the question out there, no doubt about that !!!! The issue of
angels and sin can wait till a bit later ha ha ha !!!!
18:00 We eat dinner and watch television. They show a
"slow tv" film all about two Sami women crossing northern Norway with
2 sleds drawn by reindeer 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The temperature
is -6F (-21C) - brrrrrrr !!!!
Lois and I have never tried to watch slow TV programs
before, so we turn off the lights and snuggle up on the couch. The program is a
lot of fun and comforting, and it is nice to hear the reindeer's hooves
treading rhythmically over the snow.
now and then the programme-makers
flash up fun facts
about the Sami people onto the screen,
which is mildly entertaining
Unfortunately, after half an hour I feel sleepy, so I go
up to the bedroom and lie down on the bed - while I'm out of the living room, I
miss the program's main attraction (Lois tells me later when I get up): the
northern lights, which I have never seen before. Damn, just my luck! But
fortunately, we've recorded the program on our YouView device, so I can see it
another day.
21:00 We continue to watch a bit of television. An
interesting drama is on, based on a true story from the 18th century, "The
Scandalous Lady W".
The story is about a married couple, Lord and Lady
Worsley. Lord Worsley is an MP and member of the government, but he is also a
bit of a voyeur. He encourages his wife against her will to have affairs with
other men so he can watch them - my god, what madness!
Eventually, she falls in love with one of these men,
Captain George Bisset, and they run away together. Lord Worsley does not react
by asking for a divorce, but instead he sues Bisset for £20,000. If the jury
finds for Lord Worsley, Bisset will sit in a debtor's prison for the rest of
his life, and Worsley will get his revenge - poor Bisset !!!!
It is interesting to see how much the legal system at
that time was biased against women, and the jury members were of course all men
- women were not allowed in the jury box at that time.
But Lady Worsley is a strong-minded woman - no doubt
about that! And she plans to reveal her husband's voyeuristic tendencies in the
witness box.
It's very nice to see the gorgeous Natalie Dormer playing
the lead role as Lady Worsley. She is of part Norwegian and part Welsh
extraction.
The gorgeous Natalie Dormer plays
Lady Worsley
22:00 I take a quick look at my smartphone during the
commercial break. I see that our daughter Alison's husband, Ed, has taken 2 of
their 3 children to the cinema in Copenhagen tonight to see the new Star Wars
movie.
Ed tonight together with Josie (11) and
Isaac (7) in a cinema in Copenhagen.
22:15 The tv drama continues, but it's our bedtime. We
will see the rest of the drama tomorrow maybe. We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!
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