Thursday 8 February 2018

09:00 I clear up and vacuum in the living room because our U3A Danish group will be holding its next meeting here this afternoon at 2:30pm. Lois gets going with cleaning our two bathrooms. We sit down at eleven o'clock in the dining room and relax with a cup of coffee. We read through the next 17 pages of "Accursed", the crime novella by Gittemie Eriksen, which is the group's current project.

11:30 I take a little look online. I get a bit of a shock, I have to admit. I read in the Danish news media that Finnish members of the European Parliament have suggested that EU rules on daylight saving time be abolished - good grief!

Some of the arguments used in the debate about the abolition are that daylight saving can affect the lives of animals if there are sudden changes in the rhythm of the day.

One argument states that far more animals are being killed when they want to cross the road whenever traffic patterns are different from the day before. Another states that dairy cows get confused about the time changes and therefore produce less milk.

Many Finns think also that the argument that summer time saves power is an obsolete one, now that we have energy-saving bulbs and have got better at making energy-saving products.

There are also some arguments that revolve around health and personal factors: when the day gets longer, we sleep less. And studies show that people today sleep too little in relation to the needs of their bodies and brains.

People with severe diabetes are affected because these people have to live a very regular life with regular meals. They may have a shitty time of it for a long period after the transition from winter to daylight saving time and vice versa, say the Finns. Kindergartens and nursing homes also experience problems because of the changes in sleep rhythms.

12:00 I have a little chat with Lois about the summer time issue. We also tend to find daylight saving a bit of an annoyance.

We suspect that many Danes agree with us. To me the worst thing for the Danes is that the poor average Danish driver has the kind of windscreen parking disc that does not change the time automatically, so Danes tend to get hit by lots of parking fines when the country puts its clocks forward an hour. The scandal is, in my opinion, that, as Danish meter maids admit, the service takes on additional staff towards the end of March, so they can cash in on the big bucks.

My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

In addition, Danish cat-owners are not happy about daylight saving time. Line (who is 70 years of age - i.e. almost the same age as us - yikes, creepy!) commented: "My cat has a hard time getting used to it when we change the clocks. That's why we get woken very early in the morning every time we switch between summer and winter time, and it takes him as long as 14 days to get used to it. It's really annoying."

Line (70), Danish cat-owner, is concerned about her cat, who has difficulty getting used to it

when the Danes change between summer and winter time, and rightly so!

The issue lays the framework for a hot debate between Lois and me, but in the end it is Line's argument that we find most convincing. Cat-owners of Europe, we all have to stick together! We are a minority group - we could easily be persecuted tee hee.

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and have a short afternoon nap. I get up at 1:45 pm and prepare for our Danish group's meeting.

14:30 The meeting starts. We read pages 129-147 of "Accursed", the crime novella by Gittemie Eriksen, the group's current project. It is a bit of a record that we read as much as 19 pages in a single meeting, but group members are aware that we are approaching the climax of the novel and we are all very keen to learn the identity of the serial-killer who has murdered at least 12 people in this normally peaceful Danish village.

We are all now very fond of the novel's hero, Per Janson, the local village constable. He is not at all the typical Danish policeman - far from it. He is a bit of a lady's man, no doubt about that, and he tends to fall in love with every beautiful young woman he meets during his investigation: today his focus is on Pia Holm, the young female forensic scientist who has arrived by taxi from Copenhagen. He notices in particular "her tight black pants" and "her long hair gathered in a plait down her back". You bad boy, Per !!! Your turn now on the "naughty step" tee hee.

Pia Holm, the gorgeous Copenhagen forensic scientist, who

Per Janson, the local village constable, falls in love with - oh dear!

But Per's biggest fantasies revolve around Mia Ohm-Pedersen, the gorgeous local lawyer, who he has a mega crush on. When Mia arrives at Per's House in the middle of the night, to look at some pictures of the possible murderer, Per is initially dumbfounded by Mia's appearance: for the first time he sees her without makeup and with her hair down, and he cannot hide his infatuation.

"Have you fallen asleep?" she asks, as he looks blankly at her. "No, I'm just lost in thought. Your hair is usually up! ". She flirts a little with him at this point and runs a hand through her hair. "Yes, I decided there wasn't any time for the big routine in front of the mirror, so I just jumped into a pair of shoes and ran out the door," she replies, smiling at him.

The group's members like Per's personality, and especially his naivety. And there are almost more hot debates about who is going to be the object of his next megacrush than about the identity of the killer, which shows our little group is still in a healthy state, Lois and I think.

16:00 The meeting ends, and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea and a "Jaffa cake" on the couch.

   

It is a bit of a triumph that the group is now finally approaching the climax of our first Danish crime novella. The novella has the advantage that it is relatively short (163 pages in the Kindle edition).

Some books in foreign languages have special abridged versions, which helps. The Monty Python team actually organized a special competition or game show, where contestants had to sum up Proust's novel "In Search of Lost Time", in less than 15 seconds.

Game-show contestants had to sum up Proust's famous novel,

"In search of lost time", in under 15 seconds.

Lois and I recalled that we liked Harry Bagot's attempt, even though he did not even get close to the end of the first of the book's 7 volumes:

Harry: "Proust's novel speaks of the insolvency of lost time, the loss of innocence through experience, the restoration of extra-temporal values of time regained; ultimately, the novel is both optimistic and linked to a human religious experience that expresses the notion of intemporality . In the first volume, Swann, the family friend visits..." [gong sounds for the end of the 15 seconds]

Nice try, Harry, and better luck next time, by the way. 

Poor Harry obviously spent too long on his introduction, a classic "rookie error". The real professionals aim to spend 1 second on the introduction, and 2 seconds on each of the 7 volumes, but I'm going to let that one slide. Harry is still quite young and has time to hone his skills and perfect his approach.

18:00 We have dinner. We are exhausted, as always after a "Danish" day, where we spend the morning clearing up and cleaning, and the afternoon leading our Danish group's meeting.

We see a little television. We are too tired to watch serious documentaries this evening.

Since the New Year, the E4 Channel has been showing 2 episodes of the latest Big Bang Theory season every Thursday, starting from the first episode. These are episodes that Lois and I have already seen during October-November 2017. Just before Christmas, after the 10th episode of the season, the channel tends to pause the transmissions for some reason and then repeat these first 10 episodes in January and February .

What madness !!!

But now we are looking forward to seeing the season's remaining episodes starting from the 11th episode, in 2 weeks' time. The channel also announces that the highly anticipated new spin-off series, "Young Sheldon", is starting from episode 1 on February 22nd.

For 9-year-old Sheldon Cooper, it isn’t easy growing up in East Texas. Being a once-in-a generation mind capable of advanced mathematics and science isn’t always helpful in a land where church and football are king. And while the vulnerable, gifted and somewhat naïve young Sheldon deals with the world, his very normal family must find a way to deal with him!

Series 10 of The Big Bang Theory on E4 attracted a massive average audience of 2.4 million viewers an episode and a 9.5% share of the viewing audience – more than double the channel’s slot average. This impressive performance makes it E4’s biggest show of the year for all individuals as well as E4’s key demographic of 16-34 year olds.

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

09:00 Jeg rydder op og støvsuger i stuen, fordi vores U3A danske gruppe holder sit næste møde i eftermiddag kl 14:30 hos os. Lois går i gang med at rense vores to badeværelser. Vi sætter os klokken halv elleve i spisestuen, og slapper af med en kop kaffe. Vi læser sammen igennem de næste 17 sider af ”Forbandet”, den kriminovelle af Gittemie Eriksen, der er gruppens nuværende projekt.

11:30 Jeg kigger lidt på nettet. Jeg får lidt af et chok, det må jeg indrømme. Jeg læser i de danske nyhedsmedier, at finske medlemmer af Europa-parlamentet har forslået, at EU-reglerne om sommertid skal afskaffes – du godeste!

Nogle af de argumenter, som bliver brugt i debatten om afskaffelsen, er, at det kan påvirke dyrenes liv, hvis der pludseligt ændres på døgnets rytme.

Et argument lyder, at langt flere dyr vil blive kørt ihjel, når de vil krydse vejen, og trafikken er anderledes end dagen før. Et andet lyder, at malkekøerne vil blive forvirrede over tidsændringen og derfor leverer mindre mælk.

Mange finner mener desuden, at den strømsparende gevinst er et forældet argument, nu hvor vi har fået energisparepærer og er blevet bedre til at lave energibesparende produkter.

Der er også nogle argumenter, der kredser om sundhed og personlige faktorer: når dagen bliver længere, så sover vi mindre. Og undersøgelser viser, at mennesker i dag sover for lidt i forhold til kroppens og hjernens behov.

Personer med svær diabetes bliver berørt, fordi disse mennesker er nødt til at leve et meget regelmæssigt liv med faste måltider. De kan få det skidt i en længere periode efter efter overgangen fra vinter - til sommertid og omvendt. Vuggestuer og plejehjem oplever problemer, fordi døgn - og søvnrytmen ændres.

12:00 Jeg snakker lidt med Lois om sommertidsspørgsmålet. VI har tendens til at finde sommertid lidt af en irritation.

Vi mistænker, at mange danskere er enige med os. For mig er det det værste, at den stakkels gennemsnitlige danske bilist har  den slags parkeringsskive, der ikke ændrer tiden automatisk, så danskerne har tendens til at få parkeringsbøder, når landet stiller urene en time frem. Skandalen er, efter min mening, at danske parkeringsvagter indrømmer, at de ved slutningen af marts sætter ekstra personale ind lige der, for så kan de score kassen.

Du godeste, sikke et skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Derudover er danske katteejere ikke glade for sommertid. Lene (70 år – i næsten samme alder som os – yikes, uhyggeligt!) kommenterede: ”Min kat har meget svært ved at vende sig til, at tiden skifter. Derfor bliver vi vækket meget tidligt om morgenen, hver gang vi skifter mellem sommer- og vintertid, og det tager ham lige 14 dages tid at vænne sig til. Det er træls”.

Line (70), en dansk katteejer, er bekymret for sin kat, der har svært at vænne sig til det,

når danskerne skifter mellem sommer- og vintertid, og med rette!

Spørgsmålet lægger ramme for en hed debat mellem Lois og mig, men til sidst er det Lenes argument, som vi finder det mest overbevisende. Europas katteejere, vi må alle holde sammen! Vi er en mindretalgruppe – vi kunne sagtens gøres til syndebuk tihi. 

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 13:45 og forbereder mig på vores danske gruppes møde.

14:30 Mødet starter. Vi læser sider 129-147 af ”Forbandet”, den kriminovelle af Gittemie Eriksen, der er gruppens nuværende projekt. Der er lidt af en rekord, at vi læser så meget som 19 sider i et enkelt møde, men gruppemedlemmer er klar over, at vi nærmer os til novellens klimaks, og vi er alle meget ivrige, efter at lære identiteten af masse-morderen, der har dræbt mindst 12 personer i denne normalt fredelige danske landsby.

Vi kan nu mægtig godt lide novellens helt, den lokale landbetjent, Per Janson. Han er slet ikke den typiske danske landbetjent – langtfra. Han er lidt af en kvindebedårer, ingen tvivl om det, og han har tendens til at forelske sig i hver smuk ung kvinde, han møder i løbet af sin undersøgelse: i dag er hans fokus på Pia Holm, den unge kvindelige retsmediciner, der ankom med taxa helt fra København. Han bemærker især ”hendes tætsiddende sorte bukser”, og ”hendes lange hår... samlet i en fletning ned ad ryggen”. Din slemme dreng, Per!!! Din tur på den ”uartige trin” tihi.

Pia Holm, den pragtfulde københavnske retsmediciner, som

Per Janson, den lokale landbetjent, forelsker sig i – uha!

Men Pers største fantasier kredser om Mia Ohm-Pedersen, den pragtfulde lokale advokat, som Per har et mega crush på. Da hun ankommer til Pers hus, midt på natten, for at se på nogle billeder af den eventuelle morder, er Per i begyndelsen forbavset af Mias udseende: for første gang ser hun hende uden make-up, og med hendes hår ikke sat op, og han kan ikke skjule sin forgabelse.

”Er du faldet i søvn?”, spørger hun. ”Nej, faldt vis i staver. Dit hår plejer at være sat op!”. Hun flirter lidt med ham på dette tidspunkt, og kører en hånd gennem håret. ”Ja, jeg vurderede, at der ikke var tid til den helt store tur foran spejlet, så jeg hoppede bare i et par sko og fløj ud af døren,” smiler hun.

Gruppens medlemmer kan godt lide Pers personlighed, og især hans naivisme. Og der er næsten flere hede debater om hvem skulle være genstanden for hans næste megacrush, end om identiten af morderen, hvilket viser vores lille gruppe stadig er i en sund tilstand, synes Lois og mig.

16:00 Mødet slutter, og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te og en ”Jaffa-cake” i sofaen.

   

Det er lidt af en triumf, at gruppen nu endelig nærmer sig til klimakset af vores første danske kriminovelle. Novellen har til fordel, at det er forholdsvis kort (163 sider i Kindle-editionen).

Nogle bøger på fremmede sprog har specielle forkorte versioner, hvilket hjælper. Monty Python-holdet organiserede faktisk en specielle konkurrence eller game show, hvor deltagere skulle opsummere Prousts roman ”På sporet af den tabte tid”, i mindre end 15 sekunder.

game-shows deltagere skulle opsummere Prousts berømte roman,

”På sporet af den tabte tid” i under 15 sekunder.

Lois og jeg mindes, at vi kunne lide Harry Bagots forsøg, selvom han ikke engang nærmede sig til slutningen af det første af bogens 7 bind:

Harry: Prousts roman fortæller tilsyneladende om uopløseligheden af tabt tid, fortabelsen af uskyld gennem erfaring, genetableringen af ekstra-temporale værdier af tid genvundet, i sidste ende er novellen både optimistisk og sat i sammenhæng med en menneskelig religiøs oplevelse, der udtrykker begrebet om intemporalitet. I første bind, Swann, besøger familievennen ... 

(gongongen lyder efter 15 sekunder)

Ellers godt forsøgt, Harry, og bedre held næste gang. Stakkels Harry brugte åbenbart alt for længe på sin indledelse, en klassiske ”begynderes fejl”. De ægte professionelle sigter på at bruge 1 sekund  på indledelsen, og 2 sekunder på hvert af bogens 7 bind, men det springer jeg over. Han er stadig ganske ung, og har tid til at perfektionere sine færdigheder og tilgang.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad. Vi er udmattede, som altid efter en ”danske” dag, hvor vi bruger formiddagen på at rydde op og rense, og eftermiddagen på at lede vores danske gruppes møde.

Vi ser lidt fjernsyn. Vi er for trætte til at se på seriøse dokumentarfilm i aften.

E4-kanalen har siden nytåret vist 2 afsnit af den seneste Big Bang Theory-sæson hver torsdag, startende fra det første afsnit. Disse afsnit har Lois og jeg allerede set i oktober-november 2017. Lige før julen, efter sæsonens 10. afsnit, plejer kanalen at holde en pause i udsendelserne, af en eller anden grund, og så gentager disse første 10 afsnit i januar og februar.

Sikke et vanvid!!!

Men nu glæder vi os meget til at se sæsonens resterende afsnit startende fra den 11. afsnit om 2 ugers tid. Kanalen annoncerer også, at den meget ventede nye spin-off serie, ”Unge Sheldon”, starter fra afsnit 1 den 22. februar.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!