Torsdag den 21. december 2017

07:00 Vi vågner til vores 4. dag uden centralvarme. Brrrrrrr!!!!!

09:00 Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, sender os fantastiske gode nyheder om Francis, sin mand, på whatsapp. Francis gennemgik for nylig en operation for at få fjernet sin skjoldbruskkirtel, og han har lige modtaget patologiresultaterne: det viser sig, at knuderne, som han havde på begge sider af skjoldbruskkirtlen var ikke kræftægtige, så der nu er ingen grund mere til at bekymre sig. De kan nu nyde deres jul i varmen, de har ”down under”.

Det er utrolig beroligende, og vi føler os utrolig glade for det, både først og fremmest på Francis’ vegne, men også på vores datter Sarahs vegne. Sarah er statsautoriseret revisor, og familieforsørgeren. Hun har et stressende job og også passer på parrets 4-årige tvillinger om aftenen og i weekenden. De flyttede kun for 2 år siden til Australien, og de har næsten ikke nogen støtte derovre, når det kommer til slægtninge og tætte venner osv. De er ganske isolerede følelsesmæssigt, for at sige mildt.

09:15 En travl formiddag er i vente i dag. Lois og jeg kører over til Leckhampton for at gøre lidt indkøb i de lokale butikker: julemad i Cookshop, frugt og grøntsager hos ”Roots and Fruits” grøntsaghandleren, og julegaver til Lois’s mange slægtninge i Oxford hos ”Lloyds” apoteket bag postkassen. Ingen tid til at drikke en kop kaffe i Cookshops café, som vi har for vane at gør i roligere tider – pokkers!!!!

Cookshop, ”Roots and Fruits”,

og Lloyds-apoteket, der ligger bag den lokale postkasse

Bagefter kører vi over til Bishops Cleeve, en lille by, der ligger 3 miles nord for Cheltenham, for at købe nye hjemsko til os både i TOFS. For pensionister er hjemskoene de, der hurtigst slider op ha ha ha. Jeg finder ud af, at jeg for første gang er nødt til at have størrelse 11 (EUR 46,5; US 11,5). Du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Det var min fars størrelse. Det må være, at jeg tager på i vægt omkring fødderne. En slankekur vil være nødvendig i nytåret, ingen tvivl om det. ”A moment’s treat – a lifetime on the feet”, som alle siger. Hvis du ønsker at vide, hvor store din mands fødder kommer til at være, kig på hans fars – det er budskabet.

Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

vi køber nye hjemsko i TOFS, men jeg får

lidt af et chok, når jeg får målt  fødderne– yikes!

16:00 Jeff, vores blikkenslager, ringer uforventet til os. Han har trods alt fået fat på et nyt kontrolsystem til vores centralvarmekedel, og han kan smutte ind hos os om lidt og installere den. Du godeste, sikke en overraskelse!

Er det hele en drøm? Nej. Tyv minutter senere ringer dørklokken. Lois og jeg har lyst til at kysse ham, men vi styrer os. Jeff er en rolig mand, en introvert, meget privat, og han kysser aldrig sine kunder, så vidt vi ved.

Hans første kone forlod ham, først og fremmed på grund af, at han var for tilknappet, formoder vi. Han har en ny kone nu. Mens han installerer kedlens nye kontrolsystem, snakker han lidt med Lois om, hvad han kan give sin kone som julegave – hun foreslår dvd’er, hvilket er hvad jeg faktisk har købt til hende. Sikke en lille verden vi lever i !!!!

Stakkels Jeff : meningen var, at han skulle holde op med at arbejde i går, og holde fri til efter nytåret, men det skete ikke, hvilket er meget heldigt for os.  

18:00 Det er nu varmt overalt i huset. Vi spiser aftensmad og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler om, hvordan moderne teknologi har påvirket fiktion: romæner, film, teaterstykker osv. Programmets vært er den charmerende Mark Lawson.

Mark, programmets vært, snakker lidt om mange af de berømte teaterstykker, der blev skrevet i de seneste 50 år, som for eksempel Tom Stoppards ”The Real Thing” (1983), hvor en kvinde laver den, så hun bliver inviteret til sin gifte elskers hjem, fordi hun skal tale med ham om noget, der haster: hvilket resulterer i en stor dramatisk scene, unødvendigt at sige: dette er i perioden før mobiler, tabletter, internettet osv og der var færre lejligheder for elskere til at kontakte hinanden privat.

Tom Stoppards ”The Real Thing”, skrevet i æraen,

da man brugte skrivemaskiner,

telefoner var fastnettelefoner og musik var på vinyl

Det er på mode i teaterverden at opdatere teaterstykker, når de bliver taget op igen: nederdele bliver til jeans, smokinger bliver til t-shirts osv. Men teaterscripter fra de seneste 50 år må skilles ”brutalt” i to grupper: FD eller ED (før digital og efter digital ”regeringstid”). Hvis man giver en mobil eller en tablet til en karakter i Stoppards ”The Real Thing”, dør det hele stykket øjeblikkeligt.

Mark så for nylig en iscenesættelse af Shakespeares Hamlet, hvor der var overvågningskameraer, og alle havde mobiltelefoner på sig. Men trods alt det der er alle forbavsede, da Fortinbras’ hær marcherer ind i slottet. Og Hamlet sender senere et brev fra sit skib, i stedet for at sms. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Mark diskuterer emnet med Kwame Kwei-Armah, kunstnerisk instruktør på Londons ”Young Vic”-teater. Han foreslår en mulig plot, hvor hovedfigurens liv bliver ødelagt, efter han skypede med sin onkel i Australien og onklen fortalte ham noget tragisk for eksempel. Der er noget i filosofien af teatret, at denne slags afsløring må resultere fra en personlig besøg: hovedfiguren må besøge Australien eller onklen skal besøge England.

Alt det der er kunstnerisk instruktøren Kwame Kwei-Arman enig med Mark om. Men han minder Mark om, at det om 10 års tid kan være, at selve Skype vil være gammeldags, og karakterer i teaterstykker vil snakke med et hologram af onklen i Australien. Han forudsiger, at Mark og han dengang vil være i gang med at diskutere, om dialoger mellem karakterer og hologrammer er ”ægte teater” eller ej. Og ”Beam mig op Scotty” kan være ikke så langt væk i fremtiden, som vi ofte tror. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

21:00 Lois og jeg slukker for radioen og snakker lidt om programmet. Det er gode nyheder for os, hvis instruktører bliver afskrækket fra at opdatere klassiske teaterstykker, operaer osv ved at klæde karaktererne ud i moderne påklædning. Vi er begge to meget til historie, og vi finder det lidt skuffende at se for eksempel Shakespeare-stykker i moderne påklædning, hvilket for os ødelægger størstedelen af vores glæde og interesse.

Vi købte for nogle år siden en dvd af en østrigske iscenesættelse af Purcells ”Artur”-opera, der handler om krigen mellem kong Artur og Storbritanniens keltiske folk på den ene side, og de invaderende angelsaksiske hære på den anden. Det var meget skuffende at se kong Artur og de keltiske hovedfigurer klædt ud som mænd i allierede uniformer fra den 2. verdenskrig og de angelsaksiske figurer klædt ud som nazister. Din slemme dreng, instruktør: hvem du måtte være!

Purcell’s “Kong Artur” – så skuffende at se

angelsaksiske karakterer klædte ud som nazister. Din slemme instruktør!!!!

Interessepunkt: ofrede nazisterne topløse jomfruer til gudinden Freja?

Det tror jeg ikke!!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!

English translation

07:00 We wake up to our 4th day without central heating. Brrrrrrr !!!!!

09:00 Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, sends us incredibly good news about Francis, her husband, on whatsapp. Francis recently underwent an operation to remove his thyroid gland and he has just received the pathology results: it appears that the nodules that he had on both sides of the thyroid gland were not cancerous, so there is now no need to worry any more. They can now enjoy their Christmas in that heat they have "down under".

It is incredibly reassuring and we feel incredibly happy about it, primarily on behalf of Francis, but also on behalf of our daughter Sarah. Sarah is a chartered accountant and the family breadwinner. She has a stressful job and also looks after the couple's 4-year-old twins in the evenings and at weekends. They moved to Australia only 2 years ago and they hardly have any support over there when it comes to relatives and close friends etc. They are quite isolated emotionally, to put it mildly.

09:15 A busy morning is in prospect today. Lois and I drive over to Leckhampton to do some shopping at the local shops: Christmas fare in Cookshop, fruit and vegetables at the Roots and Fruits greengrocer's, and Christmas presents for Lois's many relatives in Oxford at the Lloyds Pharmacy behind the mailbox. No time to drink a cup of coffee in Cookshop's café, which we have the habit of doing in quieter times - damn !!!!

Cookshop, "Roots and Fruits"

and the Lloyds pharmacy, located behind the local mailbox

Afterwards we drive over to Bishops Cleeve, a small town located 3 miles north of Cheltenham, to buy new slippers for both of us. For retirees, slippers are the things that wear out the quickest ha ha ha. 

I find that for the first time I have to have size 11 (EUR 46.5; US 11.5). My god, what madness! It was my father's size. It must be I'm putting on weight around the feet. 

A diet will be necessary in the New Year, no doubt about that. 

"A moment's treat - a lifetime on the feet", as everyone says. If you want to know how big your husband's feet are going to be, look at his father's – that’s the message.

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

We buy new slippers in TOFS, but I get

a bit of a shock when I get my feet measured - yikes!

16:00 Jeff, our plumber, rings us unexpectedly . He has after all got hold of a new control system for our central heating boiler, and he can swing by in a short while and install it. My god, what a surprise!

Is it all a dream? No. 

Twenty minutes later the doorbell rings. Lois and I want to kiss him, but we control ourselves.

Jeff is a quiet man, an introvert, very private, and he never kisses his customers as far as we know. His first wife left him, first and foremost because he was too buttoned up, we assume. He has a new wife now. While he is installing the boiler's new control system, he chats a little with Lois about what he can give his wife as a Christmas present - she suggests DVDs, which is what I have actually bought for her. What a small world it is we live in !!!!

Poor Jeff: the idea was that he should stop working yesterday and stay off until after the New Year, but it did not happen, which is very lucky for us.

18:00 It is now warm everywhere in the house. We have dinner and listen a little to the radio, an interesting program all about how modern technology has influenced fiction: novels, movies, plays etc. The program’s presenter is the charming Mark Lawson.

Mark, the host of the program, talks a bit about many of the famous plays written in the last 50 years, such as Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" (1983) where a woman contrives to get invited to her married lover's home because she has to talk to him about something urgent: which results in a big dramatic scene, needless to say - this is in the period before mobiles, tablets, the internet etc and there were fewer opportunities for lovers to contact each other in private.

Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing", written in the era

when you used typewriters, phones were landlines,

and music was on vinyl

It's fashionable in the theater world to update plays when they get revived: skirts turn into jeans, tuxedos turn into t-shirts, etc. But theater scripts from the last 50 years have to be divided "brutally" into two groups: BD or AD - before digital and after digital. If you give a mobile or tablet to a character in Stoppard's "The Real Thing", the whole play dies instantly.

Mark recently saw a staging of Shakespeare's Hamlet, where there were surveillance cameras, and everyone had cell phones. But in spite of all that everybody is amazed when Fortinbras' army marches into the castle. And Hamlet later sends a letter from his ship, instead of texting. Good grief, what madness !!!

Mark discusses the subject with Kwame Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director at London's Young Vic Theater. He suggests a possible plot where the main character's life is shattered after he skyped his uncle in Australia and the uncle told him something tragic for example. There is something in the philosophy of the theater that this kind of revelation must result from a personal visit: the main character has to visit Australia or the uncle has to visit England.

Artistic director Kwame Kwei-Arman agrees with Mark about all that. But he reminds Mark that in about 10 years’ time Skype itself will be old-fashioned, and characters in plays will talk to a hologram of their uncle in Australia. He predicts that Mark and he will then be discussing whether dialogues between characters and holograms are "real theater" or not. And "Beam me up Scotty" may not be so far away in the future, as we often think. Good grief, what madness!

21:00 Lois and I turn off the radio and chat a little bit about the program. It's great news for us if directors are discouraged from updating classical plays, operas, etc. by dressing their characters up in modern dress. We are both very into history and we find it a little disappointing to see, for example, Shakespeare plays in modern dress, which ruins most of our pleasure and interest.

A few years ago we bought a DVD of an Austrian staging of Purcell's "Arthur" opera, which is about the war between King Arthur and Britain's Celtic peoples on the one hand, and the invading Anglo-Saxon armies on the other.

It was very disappointing to see King Arthur and the Celtic main characters dressed as men in allied uniforms from World War II and the Anglo-Saxon characters dressed as Nazis. Naughty director! (whoever you may be!!!!!!).

Purcell’s “King Arthur” – so disappointing to see

the Anglo-Saxons dressed as Nazis. Naughty director!!!!

Point of interest: did the Nazis ever sacrifice topless virgins

to the goddess Freja? I don't think so !!!!!

22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!