07:15 Jeg
skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op i
soveværelset og kryber tilbage under dynen til Lois. Vi drikker téen og står
op.
Lois skal ud
kl 9 – hun skal mødes med Mari-Ann, sin veninde, på krematoriums kapel:
ligbrænding af Stephen, et medlem af deres kirke, er bestemt til i formiddag kl
10. Lois skal til fods hen til kapellet, og efter tjenesten skal Mari-Ann køre
hende over til Boathouse Restaurant ve siden af floden i Tewkesbury, hvor familien
har bestillet en buffet til deltagerne.
09:00 Jeg har
lidt alenetid, men jeg vil ikke lave noget for anstrengende ha ha ha! Vi har nu
op til i går modtaget sammenlagt ca 40 julekort, og postbudet leverer i
formiddag endnu 5, så nu bliver det til næsten 50. Jeg går i gang med at hænge
dem op på de stykker snor, der har hængt under stuens billedlisten, siden vores
døtre var 9-11 år, da vi i januar 1986 flyttede ind i huset.
et
hjørne af vores stue, en typiske ”ældre menneskes” stue,
med
overdreven mængde af ornamenter, billeder, fotos, bøger osv.
Nu
med julekort højt oppe på væggene oven i købet ha ha ha!
Lois og jeg
snakkede lidt forleden om, at vi modtager meget mindre julekort, end for 10-20
år siden, men vi beslutter endeligt, at der for det meste skyldes fraværet af
julekort fra arbejdskollegaer, også fra Lois’ fælleskirkemedlemmer: kirken i
Cheltenham er lukket, og medlemmerne af kirken i Tewkesbury ikke har for vane
at udveksle julekort. Vi har i hvert fald læst i aviserne for nylig, at færre folk generelt sender julekort nu til dags.
10:30 Jeg
sætter mig foran computeren og kigger lidt på nettet. Jeg læser en interessant
artikel om julen 1919 på et nyhedswebsted baseret i Gentofte, den lille forstad
til København, hvor vores datter Alison bor sammen med Ed, sin mand, og deres 3
børn.
Det er
interessant at se et billede af et lille barn kiggende på et juletræ i sit hjem
i Gentofte i 1919, året min mor blev født. Jeg bliver slået af, hvor sjældent
man ser billeder af juletræer og juleornamenter fra vores forældres barndom:
åbenlyst fordi det dengang var kun professionelle fotografer, der ejede
blitzlamper og al det nødvendige udstyr.
tilbageblik til jul 1919: et lille barn
kigger
på sin families juletræ i Gentofte
Det er lidt af
en skam, at vi ikke kan se billeder af vores egne forældre som børn i
juletiden. Mange julevaner har ændret sig i de seneste 150 år, men juletræet er
stadig den hovedlige fokus for de fleste familier. Træet er en af de få ting,
der betyder det samme for nutidens børn, som for børn fra for længe siden.
12:30 Lois
kommer tilbage. Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver frokost. Efter måltiden
går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15.
16:00 Vi
lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler om tv-programmer i
juletiden i Storbritannien. Programmets vært er den charmerende Laurie Taylor.
Britisk tv i
juletiden kan karakteriseres som domineret af specielle juleudgaver af
rutinemæssige shows og serier, sitcoms, men også ”alvorlige dramaserier”,
herunder periodedramaserier som for eksempel Downton Abbey. Lois og jeg voksede
op med denne tradition, der daterer fra vores barndom i 1950’erne, og vi syntes
det var universelt. Men Laurie Taylor og hans panel af eksperter siger, at
denne vane er begrænset til Storbritannien.
17:30 Lois har
desværre lidt af halsbrand i dag, og hun beder mig om at lave aftensmad. Mine
kulinariske færdigheder er ganske begrænsede, men jeg gør mit bedste: fiskepinner,
kogte kartofler og bagte bønner i tomatsovs nam nam!
Vi har ikke
hørt noget fra Jeff, vores blikkenslager, så jeg formoder, vi skal klare os uden
centralvarme indtil nytåret og videre – pokkers!
Og vi har hørt
ikke noget fra Sarah, vores datter i Australien, hvis mand, Francis, for nylig
gennemgik en operation for at få fjernet sin skjoldbruskkirtel. Familien håber
på, at de i denne uge kan få resultaterne af den patologiske undersøgelse, som
de lokale lægere har været i gang med, for at afgøre, om knuderne er
kræftægtige eller ej.
Jeg har på
fornemmelsen, at uvisheden om Francis’ sundhed tynger Lois ned og forstyrre sit
fordøjelsessystem, og vi begge vil blive meget lettet, hvis vi kan høre nogle
gode nyheder før jul.
18:30 Vi
spiser aftensmad og ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser den 3. del af en interessant
reality-dokumentarserie, der fokuserer på 4 kendisser fra 1970’erne, og deres
oplevelser i udlandet. De rejser til forskellige lande i verden, for at afgøre,
hvilket land er det bedste for at være et ældre menneske i.
Det bedste
aspekt af denne serie er selve kendisserne fra 1970’erne, der griner meget sammen,
og er meget morsomme: (1) Sheila Ferguson forsanger af den kvindelige gruppe
Three Degrees, (2) Rustie Lee, en tidligere morgentv-værtinde, (3) Paul
Nicholas, skuespiller og popsynger, og (4) Dennis Taylor, snookermester.
Islændingene
har en af verdens højeste levealdre. De kan godt lide at få motion, og de
spiser mere fisk, end alle andre folk i verden. Islændingene plejer desværre
også at sige, at godt kammeratskab er nøglen til et længere liv, og
kammeratskab er ikke mit nummer, det må jeg indrømme. Pokkers!
Det viser sig, at Islændinge kan godt lide at lave alting i store grupper, hvad enten det drejer sig om at bade i varme springvand, få motion eller synge i et kor.
ældre mennesker i Island kan godt lide
at
lave alting i store gruppe. Du godeste – sikke et mareridt!!!!
Jeg ved at
islandsk DNA har en stor keltisk komponent på grund af alle de vikinger, der afhentede
keltiske kvinder på vej fra Norge til Island og der er interessant at Island har
en stærk tradition af mandlige kor,
ligesom i Wales.
der er en stærk tradition af mandlige kor,
ligesom
i det sydlige Wales.
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!
English translation
07:15 I hurry into the kitchen and make two cups of tea.
I take them up into the bedroom and crawl back under the covers with Lois. We
drink the tea and get up.
Lois has to go out at 9 am - she is going to meet up with
Mari-Ann, her friend, at the crematorium chapel: the funeral for Stephen, a
member of their church, is scheduled for this morning at 10am. Lois is going on
foot to the chapel and after the service Mari-Ann will drive her over to the Boathouse Restaurant by the river in Tewkesbury, where the family has arranged buffet snacks.
09:00 I have a little alone time, but I do not want to do
anything strenuous ha ha ha! Up to yesterday we have received a total of over
40 Christmas cards, and the postman delivers another 5 this morning, so now
it's almost 50. I get started hanging them up on the pieces of string that have
hung under our living room picture rail since our daughters were 9-11 years old
and we had just moved into the house in 1986.
a corner of our living room, a typical
" elderly person's " living room,
with excessive amounts of ornaments,
pictures, photos, books, etc.
Now with Christmas cards high up on the
walls into the bargain ha ha ha!
Lois and I were talking a little the other day about the
fact that we receive far fewer Christmas cards than 10-20 years ago, but we
decide in the end that it is mostly due to the absence of Christmas cards from
work colleagues, also from Lois's fellow church members: the church in
Cheltenham has closed, and the members of the church in Tewkesbury don't have a
habit of exchanging Christmas cards. We have anyway read in the newspapers
recently that fewer people generally send Christmas cards nowadays.
10:30 I sit down in front of the computer and take a
little look online. I read an interesting article about Christmas in 1919 on a
news site based in Gentofte, the small suburb of Copenhagen where our daughter
Alison lives with Ed, her husband, and their 3 children.
It is interesting to see a picture of a little child
looking at a Christmas tree in her home in Gentofte in 1919, the year my mother
was born. I'm struck by how rarely you see pictures of Christmas trees and
Christmas decorations from our parents' childhood: obviously because it was
then only professional photographers who owned flashbulbs and all the
necessary equipment.
flashback to Christmas 1919:
a little child
looking at her family's Christmas tree in
Gentofte
It's a bit of a shame that we cannot see pictures of our
own parents as children in the Christmas season. Many Christmas customs have
changed over the last 150 years, but the Christmas tree is still the main focus
for most families. The tree is one of the few things that means the same for today's
children as it did for children from a long time ago.
12:30 Lois comes back. I hurry into the kitchen and make
lunch. After the meal I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up
at 3pm.
16:00 We listen a bit to the radio, an interesting program
all about television shows at Christmas time in the UK. The host of the program
is the charming Laurie Taylor.
British television in the Christmas season can be
characterized as dominated by special Christmas editions of regular shows and
series, like sitcoms, but also "serious drama series", including
period drama series such as Downton Abbey. Lois and I grew up with this
tradition dating from our childhood in the 1950s, and we thought it was
universal. But Laurie Taylor and his panel of experts say that this Christmas
tradition is unique to Britain.
17:30 Unfortunately, Lois has a bit of heartburn today
and she asks me to make dinner. My culinary skills are quite limited, but I do
my best: fishfingers, mash potato and baked beans in tomato sauce yummy!
We have not heard anything from Jeff, our plumber, so I
suppose we will have to do without central heating until the New Year and
beyond - damn!
And we have not heard anything from Sarah, our daughter
in Australia, whose husband, Francis, recently underwent surgery to remove his
thyroid gland. The family hope that they will be able to get the results of the
pathology investigation that the local doctors have been doing this week to
determine whether or not the nodules are cancerous.
I have the feeling that the uncertainty about Francis's
health is preying on Lois's mind and interfering with her digestive system, and
we will both be greatly relieved if we can hear some good news before
Christmas.
18:30 We have dinner and watch a bit of television. The
third part of an interesting reality documentary series is on, focusing on 4
celebrities from the 1970s and their experiences abroad. They are travelling to
different countries in the world, to try to determine which country is best place to
be an older person in.
The best aspect of this series is the 1970's celebrities
themselves who laugh a lot together and are very amusing: (1) Sheila Ferguson
singer of the female group Three Degrees, (2) Rustie Lee, a former morning tv
presenter, ( 3) Paul Nicholas, actor and pop singer, and (4) Dennis Taylor,
snooker champion.
The Icelanders have one of the world's highest life
expectancies. They like to do exercise, and they eat more fish than all the
other people in the world. Unfortunately, the Icelanders also say that good
companionship is the key to a longer life, and companionship is sadly not my cup of
tea, I have to admit. Damn!
It turns out that Icelanders like to do everything in
large groups, whether bathing in hot fountains, exercising or singing in a
choir.
Older people in Iceland like
to do everything in large groups. My god -
what a nightmare !!!!
I know that Icelandic DNA has a large celtic component
because of all the Vikings who picked up Celtic women on their way from Norway
to Iceland, and it is interesting that Iceland has a strong tradition of male
voice choirs, just like in Wales.
there is a strong tradition of male
voice choirs,
just like in South Wales.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!
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