Monday 29 January 2018

10:00 We drive Minx, Alison's cat, over to the veterinary clinic at the entrance to the local racecourse, to get her claws clipped again. Alison left Minx with us when her little family moved to Denmark 5 years ago.

Minx's claws grow very quickly and tend to get trapped in Lois's sweaters or dresses when she sits on Lois's lap.

11:00 We come home. I get going with reading more sentences in Chapter 4 of Njáls saga, an Icelandic saga, written approx. 1280 AD. The saga's story plays out in Rangárvellir in southern Iceland approx. 950-1015 AD, and this chapter is about 2 brothers, Höskuldr and Hrut.

Hrut, a shy young man, has with difficulty managed to get engaged to Unnar, a nice Icelandic girl, and the wedding has been fixed for 2 weeks after midsummer. Then suddenly an unforeseen problem arises - Hrut's brother Eyvind dies unexpectedly in Norway, and Eyvind has bequeathed all his worldly goods to Hrut. The problem is that Hrut's enemies in Norway are trying to make a grab for the legacy.

Hrut, a shy young Icelander, chooses Unnar

from a bunch of Icelandic girls to be his future wife.

The result is that Hrut must sail to Norway to claim his inheritance, leaving Unnar, his fiancee, in Iceland, and thus postponing the wedding. I managed to read a little further yesterday, and I found out that when Hrut arrives in Norway, he becomes Queen Gunnhild's sex-slave for two weeks - yikes, poor Hrut !!!!

when Hrut arrives in Norway, he becomes

Queen Gunnhild's sex-slave for 2 weeks - poor Hrut !!!!

It is a little worrying that Hrut, an Icelander, had enemies in Norway for some reason. Lois and I have visited Norway twice, in 1970 (Hardangerfjord) after we first hooked up, and in 1972 (Sognefjord) when we traveled over there on our honeymoon. However we do not have any Norwegian enemies as far as I know. In 45 years, we haven't even received any hate mail, although I'm still expecting it on a daily basis ha ha ha.

Flashback to September: me standing in front of our guest-house

Lois and I vacationed in Norway after we first hooked up.

Happy days !!!!!

12:30 We eat lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 2:30pm and drive over to the local dental clinic. I have an appointment with Josh, at 3:15pm, not for treatment but for a review of my top back teeth on the right hand side - there are 3 that have a problem - yikes! Josh investigates them, but he is not entirely sure whether treatment is advisable or not. He will get me an appointment with a local endodontist, ie a dentist who specializes in problems inside the teeth - yikes (again) !!!!! It does not sound very good, I have to admit.

I have never seen an endodontist, and frankly I'm a little scared of them. They are a little too outspoken in my opinion - they are always the first to comment on articles on The Onion,'s influential news website, and sometimes I wish they would not hurry to publicise their opinions quite so readily, especially the loud-mouthed Carmen Kahn and Dick McQuarrie: they are the worst ones, no doubt about that !!!!

16:00 I come home and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. We chat about how much local cash we need to take on the journey next time we travel to Australia to see our daughter Sarah and her family. I do some research - last time we actually took 550 Australian dollars (300 pounds) and 300 UAE-dirhams (about 60 pounds), which is the currency in the United Arab Emirates. Last time we stayed overnight in Dubai, but next time we will only see the inside of the airport's transit hall. The whole journey is going to be one long, total nightmare, we have no doubts about that - oh dear!

Lois met Barbara, her former pedicurist, the other day on the street. She said she had recently moved into a house in the village, on the Burgage. She offered to paint Lois' toes before we fly off to Australia.

Barbara, Lois’s former pedicurist

Tomorrow we will be in town. Our bank has issued me a new contactless credit card and I'm a little suspicious about whether they are as safe as the old cards, so I want to ask them to issue me an old-fashioned instead. And Lois has to slip into Specsavers Optics to get her new glasses adjusted. Busy, busy, busy! However did we find the time to go to work ha ha ha.

18:00 We have dinner and stick our feet up in front of the television. There are a lot of interesting programs on the BBC2 channel this evening and we recall the term "televisual feast", one of our favourite quotations from an episode of the old sitcom Fawlty Towers. The quote stems from a dialogue between the hotel owner, Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) and an annoying guest, Mr. Hutchinson (Bernard Cribbins) who wants to book the BBC2 channel on the hotel's lounge TV so he can watch a documentary about the Blackfoot Indians in the 1860s.

The BBC2 channel offers a real "televisual feast" tonight (in our opinion), but everyone to their own taste and what cures a smith kills a tailor as the Danes say.

tonight's "televisual feast" from the BBC2 channel

Only Connect is on. We like this quiz. We usually try to answer the questions before the 8 "brains" do, as always, to prove that we are not yet suffering from dementia.

Our chance to shine comes with a question where the 6 "brains" are asked to complete this sequence of 4 expressions: "light" (1st clue), "gleaming" (2nd clue), "fight" (3rd clue).

The question defeats all 6 "brains", but Lois and I recognize the 3 words as the last words in the first 4 lines of the American national anthem:

Oh say, can you see by the dawn's early light

What we proudly so hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.

Dementia, where is thy sting, dementia, where is thy victory?

22:00 We go happily to bed. We read about 10 pages of our respective bedtime books, "Side Effects May Vary" and "The Quantum Astrologers Handbook" before we drift off to sleep - zzzzzzzz !!!!! - zzzzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Vi kører Minx, Alisons kat over til dyrlægeklinikken ved indgangen til den lokale væddeløbsbane, for at få hendes kløer klippet igen. Alison efterlod Minx hos os, da hendes lille familie for 5 år siden flyttede til Danmark.

Minx’ kløer vokser rigtig hurtigt og har tendens til at blive viklet ind i Lois’s sweatere eller kjoler, når hun sætter sig på Lois’s skød. Vi kommer hjem.

11:00 Jeg går i gang med at læse flere sætninger i kapitel 4 af Njáls saga, en islændingesaga, skrevet ca. 1280. Sagas historie foregår i Rangárvellir på det sydlige Island ca. år 950-1015, og denne kapitel handler om 2 brødre, Höskuldr og Hrut.

Hrut, en genert ung mand, er med besvær blevet forlovet med Unnar, en pæn islandsk pige, og bryllupet er blevet bestemt til 2 uger efter midsommer. Så pludselig opstår et uforudset problem – Hruts bror, Eyvind, dør uforventet i Norge, og Eyvind har testamenteret al sit jordiske gods til Hrut. Problemet er, at Hruts fjender i Norge prøver at nappe arven.

Hrut, en genert ung islænding, vælger Unnar

fra en flok af islandske piger som sin kommende kone.

Resultatet er, at Hrut må sejle til Norge for at fordre sin arv, efterlade Unnar, sin forlovede, i Island, og udskyde brylluppet. Jeg læste lidt videre i går, og jeg fandt ud af, at når Hrut ankommer til Norge, bliver han dronning Gunnhilds sex-slave i to uger – yikes, stakkels Hrut!!!!

da Hrut ankommer til Norge, bliver han

dronning Gunnhilds sex-slave i 2 uger – stakkels Hrut!!!!

Det er lidt bekymrende, at Hrut, der er islænding, havde fjender i Norge, af en eller anden grund. Lois og jeg har besøgt Norge to gange, i 1970 (Hardangerfjord), efter vi først fandt sammen, og i 1972 (Sognefjord), da vi rejste derover på bryllupsrejse. Men vi har ikke nogle norske fjender, så vidt jeg ved. I 45 år har vi engang ikke modtaget noget hademail, selvom jeg stadig forventer det til daglig. 

Tilbageblik til september 1970: Lois og jeg

holder ferie i Norge efter vi først fandt sammen

- lykkelige dage !!!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 14:30 og kører over til den lokale tandlægeklinik. Jeg har en aftale kl 15:15 hos Josh, ikke for at gennemgå behandling, men for at få undersøgt de øverste bagtænder på højre side – der er 3, der har et problem -  yikes! Josh undersøger dem, men han er ikke helt sikker på, om behandlingen er tilrådelig, eller ej. Han vil få mig en aftale hos en lokale endodontist, dvs en tandlæge, der har specialiseret sig i problemer inde tanden – yikes (igen) !!!!! Det lyder ikke ret godt, det må jeg indrømme.

Jeg har aldrig set en endodontist, og ærligt talt er jeg lidt bange for dem. De er lidt for frimodige efter min mening – de er altid de første til at kommentere artikler på The Onion, den indflydelsesrige nyhedswebsted, og nogle gange ønsker jeg, at de ikke ville skynde sig så ivrigt at publisere deres meninger, især de højrøstede Carmen Kahn og Dick McQuarrie: de er de værste, ingen tvivl om det!!!!

16:00 Jeg kommer hjem og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Vi snakker om hvor meget lokal kontant vi behøver at tage med på rejse, den næste gang vi rejser til Australien for at se vores datter Sarah og hendes familie. Jeg gør lidt forskning – sidste gang tog vi faktisk 550 australske dollars (ca. 300£) og 300 uae-dirhams (ca. 60£), som er valutaen i de Forenede Arabiske Emirater. Sidste gang overnattede vi i Dubai, men næste gang vil vi kun se indret af lufthavnens transithalle. Hele rejsen kommer til at blive ét langt, totalt mareridt, det har vi ikke nogen tvivl om – uha!

Lois mødte Barbara, sin tidligere fodplejer, forleden på gaden. Hun sagde, hun for nylig var flyttet ind i et hus i landsbyen på Borgergade. Hun tilbød at male Lois’ tæer, før vi flyver af sted til Australien.

Barbara, Lois’ tidligere fodplejer

I morgen skal vi i byen. Vores bank har udstedt mig et nyt kontaktløst kreditkort, og jeg er lidt mistænksom over, om de er så sikre som de gamle kort, så ønsker jeg at bede dem om at udstede mig et gammel-stil i stedet for. Og Lois skal smutte ind i Specsavers Optik, for at få sine nye brille justeret. Travlt, travlt, travlt! Hvordan for fanden fandt vi tiden til at gå på arbejde ha ha ha.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og smækker benene op foran fjernsynet. Der er en masse interessante programmer på BBC2-kanalen i aften, og vi mindes om udtrykket ”televisual feast”, fra en af vores citationer fra et afsnit af den gamle sitcom Fawlty Towers. Citationen stammer  fra en dialog mellem hotellets ejer, Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), og en irriterende kunde, hr Hutchinson (Bernard Cribbins), der vil gerne booke BBC2-kanalen på hotellets lounge-tv, så han kan se en dokumentarfilm om de sortfod indianer i 1860’erne.

BBC2-kanalen tilbyder en rigtig “televisual feast” i aften (efter vores mening), men alle har deres smag, og hvad der kurerer en smed slår en skrædder ihjel, som danskerne siger.

aftenens ”televisual feast” fra BBC2-kanalen

De viser Only Connect. Vi kan godt lide denne quiz. Vi plejer at prøve at besvare spørgsmålene, før de 8 ”hjerner” gør det, som altid, for at bevise, at vi ikke endnu lider af demens.

Min chance for at udmærke mig kommer med et spørgsmål, hvor de 6 ”hjerner” blive bedt om at fuldende denne sekvens af 4 udtryk: ”light” (1. spor), ”gleaming” (2. spor), ”fight” (3. spor).  

Spørgsmålet besejrer alle 6 ”hjerner”, men Lois og jeg genkender de 3 ord, som de sidste ord i de første 4 linjer af den amerikanske nationale hymne:

Oh say, can you see by the dawn’s early light

What we proudly so hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.

Demens, hvor er din sejr, demens, hvor er din brod?

22:00 Vi går lykkeligt i seng. Vi læser ca 10 sider af vores henholdsvise sengetidbøger, ”Side Effects May Vary” og ”The Quantum Astrologers Handbook”, før vi glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzzz!!!!! – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!