Danskcolin: Torsdag den 30. november 2017

08:30 Lois og jeg går i bad – Lois har en stor dag i dag. Hun har allerede købt ingredienserne til at lave en ægte traditionel engelsk julepudding, og i dag skal hun lave den, for første gang i ca. 10 år, på grund af udlandsrejser (for at se vores døtre) eller af andre grunde. Hun skal bruge sin mormors opskrift – Granny Cox, der var født i 1870 – yikes! Granny Cox døde i 1952, men hun lever videre takket være sin berømte pudding. Det er en slags nøgle til udødelighed, som nogle store forfattere overså, Shakespeare for eksempel.

Granny Cox’ opskrift på hendes ægte traditionelle engelske

julepudding – opskriftet blev skrevet op af Lois’ mor.

Anvisningerne er helt simple: bland alle tørrede frugter sammen. Sigt mel og krydderier. Tilsæt nyrefedt, brødkrommer og sukker. Kombiner frugt og mel. Tilsæt revet æble og gulerod. Bland alt sammen med citronsaft og skræl, æg, sort treacle og øl.

Gode nyheder for mig – julepudding julen og nytåret over, og Lois bruger kun en halvflaske mørkt øl, så jeg kan tage på druk i aften med den anden halvdel ha ha ha!

I mellemtiden, mens Lois pusler i køkkenet, går jeg i gang med at læse endnu 5 vers af ”Sir Gawain og den grønne ridder”, den 600 år gamle middel-engelske digt, der er Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppes nuværende projekt.

Jeg prøver desperat at kommer overens med digtets helt, den grønne ridder, og i sær med at acceptere, at den stakkels fyr faktisk lider af grøn hud (grunden til hans lidt nådesløse øgenavn). Men jeg synes, at han kun har sig selv at bebrejde, når det kommer til hans upassende påklædning – alle sine tøj er også grønne. Han kunne have valgt for eksempel, en pæn rød trøje med lysgrå bukser, men hver gang, han kigger ind i sin garderobe, vælger han noget grønt. Der er lidt som en slags sygdom, eller mani, synes jeg.

Den grønne ridder: hvis du er uheldig nok til at lide at ”grøn hud syndrom”, er det

fornuftigere at vælge en påklædning baseret på kontrast, snarere end et tilsvarende koncept,

synes jeg, for eksempel, en pæn rød trøje eller smarte lysgrå bukser

I dag læser jeg lidt om det såkaldte ”venlige” julespil, som den grønne ridder foreslår, efter han på nytårsdag løber uventet i kort galop ind i kong Arthurs slot i Camelot. Han beder en eller anden hofmand om at slå ham en gang med hans økse, forudsat at den grønne ridder senere kan give slaget tilbage i et år og en dags tid. Han lover, at hans fantastiske økse vil tilhøre den der takler ham.

Spillet synes af være lidt farligt (og slet ikke ”venligt”) efter min mening, men vi må ikke glemme, at handlingen udspillede sig i de dage, før ”sundhed og sikkerhed” blev til verdens nye religion, så det springer jeg også over ha ha ha.

Sir Gawain træder frem og hugger hovedet af den grønne ridder, som det første ”træk” i ”spillet”. Men jeg føler, at denne handling stiller flere spørgsmål, end det besvarer. Hvorfor overlever ridderen dette sår, der normalt er helt dødbringende. Er jeg gået glip af en eller anden vigtig detalje i historien?

Sir Gawain hugger hovedet af den grønne ridder: men ridderen

virker ikke ret bekymret over sine forfærdelige sår.

Hvad er hemmeligheden af sin koldblodighed?

13:00 Lois sætter sig i sofaen i stuen – hun er udmattet, og med rette. Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver frokost. Efter frokosten går jeg i seng i et par timer, og står op kl 16.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og smækker benene op foran fjernsyn. De viser den 4. (og sidste) del af en interessant dokumentarfilmserie om Trumps stigning til magten.

Dette 4. afsnit handler om Trumps karriere siden sidst i 1990’erne. Der er interessant at se hans interesse i sin ven Jesse Venturas valgkampagne i 1999, hvor han lærte, at det var ikke vigtigt, hvad en politiker siger, kun måden, han siger det på. Men hans kollegere plejede allerede at sige, at de vidste ikke hvad Trumps dybe tro var, hvis han faktisk havde dem.

Det er interessant at se hvilke lektioner Trump lærte

under sin ven Jesse Venturas valgkampagne i 1999.

Efter 2001, under de “Hyret eller fyret” år, ser vi, at hans politiske strategi-ideer udviklede sig videre. Men kollegaer og politiske kontakter blev mere og mere klar over hans underliggende mangel på selvtillid, og over hans dyb ønske om, at blive elsket og rost, men samtidigt over hans næsten ”kosmisk” evne til at leve i sin egen virkelighed og at processere hvad hans kritikere sagde, som noget vrøvl. Det er interessant at se, at Trump i begyndelsen faktisk roste Obama, da Obama vandt sit første præsidentvalg i 2008, men dette passer måske med, at Trump ikke har nogle dybe tro, når det kommer til politiske ideer.

Lois og jeg nyder at se Obamas tale på den årlige middag for Det Hvide Hus' journalister i april 2011, hvor Obama lavede sjov med Trump, der sad i publikummet, efter delstaten Hawaii havde publiseret Obamas fødselsattest. Han påslog, at Trump var blevet lettet, fordi Trump nu kunne fokusere på de vigtigere spørgsmål, som for eksempel, om USA fakede månelandingen eller ej ha ha ha. Aftenen må have været meget meget dybt ydmygende for Trump – måske besluttede sig der og da for at blive præsident og ydmyge pressen som sin hævn, men det er Lois og jeg ikke helt sikre på.

Obama påstod, at Trump var meget glad for, at delstaten Hawaii

havde publiseret Obamas fødselsattest, fordi Trump følte, at han

nu kunne fokusere på vigtigere spørgsmål ha ha ha

Obamas tale i 2011 må have været meget dybt ydmygende

for Trump, der sad i tavshed i publikummet.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!!

English translation

08:30 Lois and I go in the shower - Lois has a big day today. She has already bought the ingredients to make a genuine traditional English Christmas pudding, and today she has to make it, for the first time in approx. 10 years, due to foreign travel (to see our daughters) or for other reasons. She is going to use her grandmother's recipe - Granny Cox, born in 1870 - yikes! Granny Cox died in 1952, but she lives on thanks to her famous pudding. It is a kind of a key to immortality that some great writers overlooked, Shakespeare for example.

Granny Cox's recipe for her genuine traditional English

Christmas Pudding - the recipe was written down by Lois's mother.

The instructions are quite simple: mix all the dried fruits together. Sieve flour and spices. Add suet, breadcrumbs and sugar. Combine fruit and flour. Add grated apple and carrot. Mix everything with lemon juice and peel, egg, black treacle and brown ale.

Good news for me - Christmas pudding over Christmas and New Year and Lois uses only a half bottle of brown ale, so I can get busy tonight with the other half ha ha ha!

Meantime, while Lois potters about in the kitchen, I get going with reading another 5 verses of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," the 600-year-old Middle English poem that is Lynda's U3A Making of English Group's current project .

I am desperately trying to come to terms with the poem's hero, the green knight, and in particular with accepting that the poor guy is actually suffering from green skin (the reason for his slightly cruel nickname). But I think he only has himself to blame when it comes to his inappropriate attire - all his clothes are also green. He could have chosen, for example, a nice red sweater with light gray trousers, but every time he looks in his wardrobe, he chooses something green. This is a bit like a kind of sickness, or mania, I think.

The green knight: if you're unlucky enough to suffer from "green skin syndrome," it

Make sense to choose attire based on contrast, rather than a "matching" concept,

I think: for example, a nice red sweater or smart light gray trousers

Today, I read a little about the so-called "friendly" Christmas game which the green knight suggests, after he unexpectedly canters into King Arthur's castle at Camelot on New Year's Day. He asks for one of the courtiers to strike him once with his axe, provided that the green knight can later return the blow in a year and a day's time. He promises that his amazing axe will be a gift to the man who is brave enough to tackle him.

The game seems a bit dangerous (and not at all "friendly") in my opinion, but we must not forget that the action of the poem took place in the days before "health and safety" became the world's new religion, so I'm going to let that one slide ha ha ha.

Sir Gawain steps forward and chops the head off the green knight as the first "move" of the game. But I feel that this act raises more questions than it answers. Why does the knight survive this wound, which is usually 100% fatal. Have I missed out on some important detail in the story?

Sir Gawain chops the head off the green knight: but the knight

does not seem that worried about his terrible wounds.

What is the secret of his sang-froid?

13:00 Lois sits down on the couch in the living room - she is exhausted and understandably so. I hurry into the kitchen and make lunch. After lunch I go to bed for a couple of hours and get up at 4pm.

18:00 We have dinner and stick our feet up in front of the television. The 4th (and last) part of an interesting documentary series is on, all about Trump's rise to power.

This 4th episode is about Trump's career since the late 1990s. It's interesting to see his interest in his friend Jesse Ventura's election campaign in 1999, where he learned that it was not important what a politician says, only the way he says it. But his colleagues were already saying that they did not know what Trump's core beliefs were, if he actually had any.

It's interesting to see what lessons Trump learned

during his friend Jesse Ventura's election campaign in 1999.

After 2001, during the "Apprentice" years, we see that his political strategy ideas evolved further. But colleagues and political contacts became more and more aware of his underlying lack of self-confidence and his deep desire to be loved and praised, but at the same time aware of his almost "cosmic" ability to live in his own reality and to process what his critics were saying as nonsense. It's interesting to see that Trump actually praised Obama when Obama won his first presidential election in 2008, but this may be because Trump does not have any core beliefs when it comes to political ideas.

Lois and I enjoy watching Obama's speech at the annual White House correspondents' dinner in April 2011, where Obama was making fun of Trump (who was sitting in the audience) after the state of Hawaii had published Obama's birth certificate. He claimed that Trump had been relieved because Trump could now focus on the more important issues, such as whether the United States faked the moon landing. The evening must have been very deeply humiliating for Trump - maybe it was there and then that he decided to become president and humiliate the press as his revenge, but that's something Lois and I are not entirely sure about.