Sunday 7 January 2018

10:00 Lois has problems with her digestive system, mostly heartburn, so she decides not to go to church today. We will also forget about our brand new "impossible" jigsaw puzzle today so she does not have to bend over the table and cramp her tummy-muscles.

We go for a walk instead, and take a look at the awful new residential neighborhood, about 500 modern houses, which two major construction companies, Bloor and Bovis, have been ruining the landscape with, just where the lovely old farm, Starvehall Farm, used to stand - sob sob !!!

Many houses have already been built and now have cars outside in the driveways, etc. We miss the old farm deeply, but we try to feel glad about the fact that there are now many young families living happily there.

Flashback to February 2016: we go for a walk through the former

Starvehall Farm, the old fields where horses once grazed, which today has been covered

with terrible modern houses, many of them 3-storey - sob sob!

13:30 I go to bed and take a giant afternoon nap. Lois in the meantime sits down in front of the computer and takes part in her church's Sunday service, which is broadcast online.

15:00 Steve, my American brother in law, has sent me an email referring to a shocking piece of news: the Big Bang Theory, which is Lois' and my favorite sitcom, is likely to end after the show's next (12th) season. The spin-off series, Young Sheldon, has been shown in the United States, and the E4 channel has promised to air it here, but it has not started yet.

15:00 I get up and talk to Gill, my sister in Cambridge. She is 60 years old in May and she, Peter (her husband), and their 3 daughters (and their partners) have decided to celebrate the birthday at a holiday cottage in Lancashire.

It's hard to believe that my "little sister" is almost 60 years old. But at the same time, if you are 72, then 60 seems quite young, so it's all just relative. But yikes, time flies, no doubt about that !!!!

Flashback to the summer of 1960: Gill (at 2 years of age) with me

on the beach in the seaside resort  of Weston super-mare,

and with Kathy, my late sister, in the backyard of our

house in Redland, a small suburb of Bristol.

16:00 We have a little chat on Skype with Alison, our daughter in Copenhagen, also with Ed, Alison's husband, and their 3 children, Josie (11), Rosalind (9), and Isaac (7). Ed's job in Copenhagen ends at the end of March, but he has not yet found a new job - his next one could be anywhere in the world, so Lois and I feel a bit insecure at the moment. We hope that the family moves back to England, but we feel that they are more likely to move to another foreign country.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. A special Christmas episode of "Victoria" is on, all about Victoria's life as a young queen (played by the gorgeous Jenna Coleman), and about her marriage to Albert, the German prince.

I did not realize that it was the decision of the German Prince Albert to put a Christmas tree in the castle (a long established practice in the German-speaking countries), which popularized the custom in the English-speaking world around the middle of the 19th century .

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's

Christmas tree, depicted in London Illustrated News

A similar illustration in Godey's Lady's Book,

an American ladies' magazine

Victoria and the royal servants in the castle are initially sceptical when Albert explains the custom.

"Martin Luther was walking through the woods at night. He looked up and saw the winter stars that sparkled through the branches. He thought, "I want to take a tree and I will place the tree inside my house. On that I will place candles. That way, my children can look at this tree and imagine the stars above Bethlehem on the night of Christ's birth. And this year, Victoria, our children will do the same.” 

"I hope they know how lucky they are to have such a devoted father!", said Victoria.

Jenna Coleman as Victoria - how gorgeous she is!

But the staff are harder to convince. Albert's proposals are not well received "below stairs" among the staff, the kitchens and the servants' quarters, no doubt about that !!!

...but "below stairs" the servants are grumbling, as usual !!!!

21:00 Lois and I chat a little about servants. We have noticed that they often have a more negative attitude towards life, compared to their employers, which is a bit of a shame, but that's life!

Alison, our daughter in Denmark, has employed one au pair or another since she, Ed and their 3 children moved to Copenhagen 5 years ago.

Lois and I chat a little about social divisions in Victorian society, and our respective family trees. My paternal grandmother was the child of an unmarried housemaid and one of the sons of the family, but she was adopted by the family so the story had a happy ending.

Lois has many women in her mother's family tree who were servants in big houses in the 19th century, and later: her uncle Reg was a gardener in a large house in the Cotswold Hills back in the 1930s.

Employing servants allows the ordinary person to spend more time on cultivating hobbies, but it can also be a captivating hobby in itself.

I remember reading many years ago an article on the influential American news website, Onion Local News, about Susan Tager, an area woman with a brand new hobby that she wanted to tell the site's readers about.

"If you had asked me three years ago, if I would ever have a gardener, I would probably have thought you were out of your mind," Susan told local reporters.

"Well, I loved the idea of lush green and fresh vegetables, but in my head it simply did not seem worth finding the time and effort to deal with a gardener every day from spring to autumn: too much trouble. Nothing seemed more tiring than to work out what my gardener should plant and where I would order him to plant it - all the countless problems of getting someone to take care of the garden seemed overwhelming. Not to mention anything about the hours and hours I would have to spend under the deck umbrella observing his every move and making sure every detail was exactly as I wanted it. All of that just screamed out "thanks but no thanks! "

"But my mother and sister and my servants kept insisting that I had to get outside and be more active. "Well now, Susan," they said. "Look at you! You hardly have the energy to get out of bed after breakfast every morning!" They kept telling me how rewarding it was to have a gardener, what miracles an outdoor hobby would do to refresh my sensitive constitution. So I finally gave in and decided to give gardenering a shot. And you know what? They were right! And now I can't imagine life without a gardener, any more than I could without stables, or my wine buyer, or my kitchen staff!

"I recommend starting slowly. Initially I only got the gardener to come once a week. It was difficult at first: gardeners speak a quite different language than we do, so you have to communicate through pointing and using short commands like with a dog - but when I got out in the sun and fresh air, I really began to enjoy myself. In less than a month I found myself looking forward to little Paulo's arrival more and more. Now it's a rare day that I do not get him to come over and do some gardening everyday, even if just for a few hours because of the heavy rain. "

21:30 It is sadly rare nowadays to meet women with Susan’s way of immersing oneself in a healthy new hobby, we think.  I remind Lois about Susan's viewpoint about "gardeners as a hobby" and about the fact that we once employed a gardener the last time we stayed in Australia with our daughter Sarah and her family, but with the unfortunate result that we could not watch him and thereby enjoy our garden to the max. By the time we arrived home, the garden had already begun to turn into a real jungle again,  damn it!

22:00 We go to bed. I read 9 pages of my bedtime book, "The Quantum Astrologers Handbook", before I drift off to sleep - zzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Lois har problemer med sit fordøjelsessystem, først og fremmest halsbrand, så derfor beslutter hun ikke at gå i kirke i dag. Vi vil også glemme alt om vores spritnye ”umulige” puslespil i dag, så hun ikke er nødt til at bøje sig ned over bordet, og dermed spænde mavemusklerne.

Vi går en tur i stedet for, og vi kigger på det forfærdelige nye villakvarter, ca 500 moderne huse, som to store byggefirmaer, Bloor og Bovis, er blevet i gang med at skæmme landskabet med, hvor den dejlige gamle gård, Starvehall Farm, engang lå – hulk hulk!!!

Mange huse er allerede blevet bygget og er nu  med biler udenfor i indkørslerne osv. Vi savner den gamle gård dybt, men vi prøver at føle os glade for, at der er mange unge familier, der bor lykkeligt derinde.

Tilbageblik til februar 2016: vi går en tur gennem den tidligere

Starvehall Farm, de gamle marker, hvor heste engang græssede, som i dag er blevet dækket

med forfærdelige moderne huse, mange af dem 3-etages – hulk, hulk!

13:30 Jeg går i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Lois sætter sig i mellemtiden foran computeren og deltager i sin kirkes gudstjeneste, der sendes på nettet.

15:00 Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror, har sendt mig en email, der henviser til en chokerende nyhed: Big Bang Theory, der er Lois’ og min yndlingssitcom, sandsynligvis vil ophøre efter showets næste (12.) sæson. Spin-offserien, Young Sheldon, er blevet vist i USA, og E4-kanalen har lovet at sende den her, men den er ikke startet endnu.

15:00 Jeg står op og snakker lidt med Gill, min søster i Cambridge. Hun fylder 60 år i maj, og hun, Peter (hendes mand), og deres 3 døtre (og deres partnere) har besluttet at fejre fødselsdagen på et feriehus i grevskabet Lancashire.

Det er svært at tro, at min ”lillesøster” snart er 60 år gammel. Men samtidig, hvis man selv er 72 år, virker 60 at være ganske ung, så det hele kun er relativt. Men yikes, tiden flyver af sted, ingen tvivl om det!!!!

Tilbageblik til sommeren 1960: Gill (på 2 år) med mig på stranden i badebyen

Weston-super-mare, og med Kathy, min afdøde søster, i baghaven af vores

hus i Redland, en lille forstad til Bristol.

16:00 Vi snakker lidt på Skype med Alison, vores datter i København, også med Ed, Alisons mand, og deres 3 børn, Josie (11), Rosalind (9), og Isaac (7). Eds job i København ophører ved slutning af marts, men han har ikke fået et nyt job endnu – hans næste job kunne være hvor som helst i verden, så Lois og jeg føler os lidt usikre for tiden. Vi håber på, at familien flytter tilbage til England, men vi fornemmer, at det er sandsynligere, at de flytter til et andet fremmed land.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser et specielt juleafsnit af ”Victoria”, der handler om Victorias liv som ung dronning (spillet af den pragtfulde Jenna Coleman), og om hendes ægteskab med Albert, den tyske prins.

Jeg var ikke klar over, at det var den tyske Prins Alberts beslutning at sætte et juletræ op i slottet (en længe etableret praksis i de tysktalende lande), som omkring midten af det 19. århundrede populariserede vanen i det engelsk-talende verden.

 

Dronning Victoria og Prins Alberts

juletræ, skildret i London Illustrated News

En lignende illustration i Godey’s Lady’s Book,

et amerikansk magasin for damer

Victoria og det kongelige tjenestefolk i slottet er i begyndelsen skeptiske, da Albert forklarer praksisen.

"Martin Luther gik om natten gennem skoven. Han kiggede op og så de vinterrige stjerner, der strålede igennem grenene. Og han tænkte:" Jeg vil tage et træ, og jeg vil placere træet inde i mit hus. På den vil jeg placere stearinlys. På den måde kan mine børn se på dette træ og forestille stjernerne over Bethlehem. På Kristi fødsels nat. Og i år, Victoria, vil vores børn gøre det samme. "

"Jeg håber, de ved, hvor heldige de er at have sådan en hengiven far!", sagde Victoria.

Jenna Coleman – hvor er hun dog lækker, lige til at spise!

Men tjenestefolket er sværere at overbevise. Alberts forslag bliver ikke godt modtaget ned i kælderen blandt tjenerpersonalet, i køkkenerne og i tjenestefolkets boliger, ingen tvivl om det!!!

...men tjenestefolk brokker sig, som sædvanligt!!!!

21:00 Lois og jeg snakker lidt om tjenestefolk. Vi har bemærket, at de ofte har en mere negativ holdning overfor livet, i sammenligning med deres arbejdsgivere, hvilket er lidt af en skam, men sådan er livet!

Alison, vores datter i Danmark, har ansat en eller anden au pair, siden hun, Ed og deres 3 børn for 5 år siden flyttede til København.

Lois og jeg snakker lidt om sociale afdelinger i det viktorianske samfund, og vores henholdsvise familietræer. Min farmor var barnet af en ugift tjenestepige og en af familiens sønner, men hun blev adopteret af familien, så historien havde en lykkelig slutning.

Lois har mange kvinder i sin mors familietræ, der var tjenere i store huse i det 19. århundrede, og nyligere: hendes onkel Reg var gartner i et stort hus i Cotswold-bakkerne tilbage i 1930’erne.

Det, at ansatte tjenestefolk, tillader den almindelige person at bruge mere tid på at dyrke hobbys, men det kan også være en fængslende hobby i sig selv.

Jeg mindes, at jeg for mange år siden læste en artikel på det indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedswebsted, Onion News, der handlede om Susan Tager, en lokal kvinde med en spritny hobby, hun ville fortælle webstedets læsere om.

”Hvis du havde spurgt mig for tre år siden, om jeg nogensinde skulle have en gartner, ville jeg nok have troet, du var fra afstanden”, fortalte Susan lokale journalister. ”

”Jo, jeg elskede ideen om frodigt grønt og friske grøntsager, men i mit hoved virkede det simpelthen ikke det værd, at finde tiden og lægge en stor indsats i at håndtere en gartner hver dag fra forår til efterår: alt for meget besvær. Intet syntes mere trættende end at skulle finde ud af, hvad min gartner skulle plante og hvor jeg skulle beordrer ham at plante den - alle de utallige problemer om at få nogen til at tage sig af haven, syntes overvældende bare. For ikke at sige noget om de timer og timer, jeg måtte bruge under dækparaplen på at iagttage hans hver eneste bevægelse, og at sørge for, at hver eneste detalje var præcis som jeg ønskede mig det. Alt det der skreg bare – Tak men nej tak!”

”Men min mor og søster og tjenerne fortsatte med at insistere på, at jeg var nødt til at komme udenfor og være mere aktiv. "Nå Susan," sagde de. "Se på dig! Du har næppe energi til at komme ud af sengen efter morgenmaden hver morgen!" De blev ved med at fortælle mig, hvor belønnende det var at have en gartner, hvad mirakler en udendørs hobby ville gøre for at forfriskne min følsomme konstitution. Så jeg gav endelig op og besluttede at give havearbejdere et skud.Og ved du hvad? De havde ret! Og nu kan jeg ikke forestille mig livet uden en gartner mere end jeg kunne uden stalde, vinkøberen eller min køkkenpersonale!

” Jeg anbefaler at starte langsomt. I begyndelsen fik jeg gartneren kun til at komme en gang om ugen. Det var svært i starten: gartnere taler forresten et helt andet sprog end vi gør, så du skal kommunikere gennem at pege og ved hjælp af korte kommandoer, ligesom en hund - men når jeg kom derud i solen og frisk luft, begyndte jeg virkelig at hygge mig. På mindre end en måned fandt jeg at jeg så frem til lille Paulos ankomst mere og mere. Nu er det en sjælden dag, at jeg ikke får ham til at komme over for at lave noget havearbejde hver dag, selvom kun i et par timer på grund af den kraftige regn.”

21:30 Det er desværre sjældent i dag at møde kvinder med Susans vane af at fordybe sig i en sund, ny hobby, synes vi. Jeg minder Lois om Susans synspunkt om ”gartnere som hobby”, og om, at vi kun en gang ansatte en gartner, sidste gang vi boede i Australien hos vores datter Sarah og hendes familie, med resultatet, at vi ikke kunne iagttage ham og nyde så vores have til max. Da vi ankom hjem, var haven allerede begyndt at blive til en sand jungle igen – pokkers!

22:00 Vi går i seng. Jeg læser 9 sider af mine sengetidbog, ”The Quantum Astrologers Handbook”, før jeg glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzzz!!!!!