Tuesday 6 February 2018

08:00 Lois walks around the corner to the local clinic - she has an appointment with our doctor to discuss the problems with her digestive system that she has had since Christmas. The doctor says there is no cause for concern and she has no plans to stick a camera down Lois's throat, thank goodness. Imagine the violent gag reflex - yikes !!!!

Instead of the camera, the doctor has prescribed several of the tablets that seem to help.

09:30 Lois and I are trying to fix our schedule for Sunday and Monday. We have agreed with Gill, my sister in Cambridge, to have lunch with her and Lucy, her youngest daughter, at a charming pub, The Plough, in the village of Great Haseley near Oxford where (by the way) Lois lived for the first 2 -3 years of her life. Lois and I had lunch there on Lois' 68th birthday in June 2014.

Great Haseley is 11 miles southeast of the city of Oxford

Flashback to June 2014, Lois' 68th birthday:

We visited the houses where she lived for the first 2-3 years of her life,

and had lunch at the local pub, The Plough

Flashback to 1948: 2-year-old Lois sits on a couple of hay bales

in a field near her old house. How cute she looks!!!

We plan to stay overnight (Sunday evening to Monday) at Hawkwell House Hotel in Iffley, a small suburb of Oxford, and have lunch on Monday with our friends Jen and Bill in Kennington. We also hope to visit Lois' niece Sharon and her nephew Ian, either Sunday evening or Monday morning, but we have not heard back yet from Sharon and Ian.

10:00 We head over to Leckhampton and swing by the CookShop to buy some low fat ready meals for evenings when we are too tired to cook (because of preparations for our trip to Australia to see our daughter Sarah and her family in Perth).

Usually we have the habit of going out for lunch at a restaurant on Valentine's Day, but this will not be possible this year because of Scilla's U3A Old Norse meeting, which I have promised to attend. We therefore plan to eat at home with a couple of CookShop ready meals and a bottle of wine. 

This week it's okay and healthy to drink a glass of wine for dinner, I read, according to TV doctor Michael Mosley. Last week it was a big no-no - my god, what madness !!!!

a glass of wine for dinner - is it healthy or unhealthy?

I'm absolutely sure they do not know at all - I have no doubts about that!

What madness !!!!!

12:00 Lunch and afterwards a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 o'clock and ride 6 miles (10km) on my exercise bike.

17:00 We have dinner a bit earlier than usual. Afterwards, Lois has to go out. She wants to attend her church's seminar taking place this evening in Brockworth library. It's snowing a bit, but the weather girl says the snow will be stopping in the next 60 minutes or so.

18:00 It has stopped snowing. Lois drives over to Mari-Ann and Alf's house, and they will drive her over to Brockworth. All 3 of them will be attending tonight's seminar, which is all about the minor prophets, tonight Amos, to be precise as I see from the church chat room:

the evening's seminar and the expected topics

19:00 I have a bit of alone time and listen to the radio, an interesting program about how we name new diseases, often before we understand them and their sources, and almost always before we can cure them. We nevertheless have a need to choose some name or other immediately, so we can discuss them and investigate them and protect ourselves from them.

It is always nice to blame another country for a disease. After a big war on the continent in the good old days, when thousands of soldiers were moving around from country to country, there was a huge outbreak of syphilis - surprise, surprise! The French called it "the Italian disease", the Italians called it "the French disease", the Dutch "the Spanish disease". The Turks' name was "the Christian disease", the Russian name was "the Polish disease", etc. ha ha ha.

Recent examples stem more from ignorance or coincidence than from xenophobia: MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) got its name because it was first reported in Saudi Arabia (in 2012), nothing more than that.

Borreliosa, which in English is called Lyme Disease, was first reported in Lyme, a small town in the state of Connecticut. Apparently many people mistakenly believe that the disease has some connection with lime the fruit.

Rubella, known in England as German Measles, were first diagnosed in 1814 by German physicians, but it is not German, needless to say.

The word influenza, originally Italian, resulted from an outbreak of the disease in 1743 on the continent. The word originated from the concept of "influence": you were infected because of celestial (ie astrological) influences / factors. Good grief, what madness!

The so-called Spanish flu at the end of the First World War probably started in the United States, but it was the Spaniards who first reported it: the news of the outbreak was censored in all the countries taking part in the war. Spain was neutral, so the Spanish authorities did not censor the news about the disease, but the result was that the Spaniards were blamed.

Sometimes the disease's name was derived from the so-called cure for it, for example, scrofula was called "The King's Evil" in the olden days, because people thought that you would be cured only if the king touched you - yikes!

I do not think I would have liked to have been touched by a king in the old days unless it was my only chance. I would have been afraid of catching something else, probably something worse ha ha ha!

Flashback to the good old days: the king (Henry VIII) cures a bunch of scrofula-sufferers

In modern times, a disease's name has sometimes come from the doctor or doctors who discover a cure. The problem is that nowadays medical research is generally a team effort. It was fortunate that Creuzfeldt and Jakob did not have to invite a third researcher to take part in their research: otherwise the disease's name (Creuzfeldt-Jakob's disease) would have become too long to be really useful. My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

22:00 Lois comes back. I go to bed, but Lois needs to wind down after tonight's stimulating Bible seminar about Amos and the minor prophets. Poor Lois !!!!! She starts watching a little television. She does not wake me up when she hops into bed with me an hour later.

Danish translation

08:00 Lois går rundt om hjørnet til den lokale lægeklinik – hun har en aftale hos vores læge for at diskutere problemerne med sit fordøjelsessystem, som hun har haft siden jul. Lægen siger, der ikke er grund til bekymring, og hun har ikke nogle planer om at stykke et kamera ned i Lois’ hals, gudskelov. Forstil dig den voldsomme brækrefleks – yikes!!!!

I stedet for kameraet har lægen ordineret flere af tabletterne, der virker at hjælpe.

09:30 Lois og jeg prøver at ordne vores tidsplan til søndag og mandag. Vi har aftalt med Gill, min søster i Cambridge, at spise frokost søndag med hende og Lucy, sin yngste datter, på en charmerende pub, The Plough, i landsbyen Great Haseley nær Oxford, hvor (for øvrigt) Lois boede i de første 2-3 år af sit liv. Vi spiste frokost der på Lois’ 68. fødselsdag i juni 2014.

 Great Haseley er 11 miles sydøst for byen Oxford

Tilbageblik til juni 2014, Lois’ 68. fødselsdag:

vi besøger husene, hvor hun boede i de første 2-3 år af sit liv,

og spiser frokost på den lokale pub, The Plough

Tilbageblik til 1948: 2-årige Lois sidder på et par høballer

på en mærk i nærheden af sit hus.

Hvor så hun dog sød ud !!!!!

Vi planlægger at overnatte derefter (søndag aften til mandag) på Hawkwell House Hotel i Iffley, en lille forstad til Oxford, og spise frokost på mandag hos vores venner Jen og Bill i Kennington. Vi håber også at besøge Lois’ niece Sharon og sin nevø Ian, enten søndag aften eller mandag formiddag, men vi har ikke hørt endnu fra Sharon og Ian.

10:00 Vi kører over til Leckhampton og smutter ind i CookShop for at købe nogle fedtfattige færdigretter, til aftnener, hvor vi er for trætte til at lave mad på grund af forberedelser på vores rejse til Australien for at se vores datter Sarah og hendes familie i Perth.

Sædvanligvis har vi for vane at gå ud og spise frokost på en restaurant på valentinsdag, men dette vil ikke være muligt i år på grund af Scillas U3A oldnorske møde, som jeg har lovet at deltage i.  Så derfor planlægger vi at spise herhjemme med et par CookShop færdigretter og en flaske vin. Denne uge er det helt okay og sundt at drikke et glas vin til aftensmad, læser jeg. Sidste uge var det en stor no-no – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Et glas vin til aftensmad –

er det sundt eller usundt?

Jeg er helt sikker på, at de slet ikke ved

– det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om!

Sikke et vanvid!!!!!

12:00 Frokost og bagefter en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og cykler 6 miles (10km) på min kondicykel.

17:00 Vi spiser aftensmad lidt tidligere, end normalt. Bagefter skal Lois af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin kirkes bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek. Det sner lidt for tiden, men vejrpigen siger, sneen vil stoppe om de næste 60 minutter eller deromkring.

18:00 Det er holdt op med at sne. Lois kører over til Mari-Ann og Alfs hus, og de skal køre hende over til Brockworth. De skal deltage alle 3 i aftenens seminar, der handler om de mindre profeter, i aften Amos, for at være præcis, som jeg ser fra kirkens chatrum:

aftenens seminar og de forventede emner

19:00 Jeg har lidt alenetid, og lytter lidt til radio, en interessant program, der handler om, hvordan vi nævner nye sygdomme, ofte før vi forstår dem og deres kilder, og næsten altid før vi kan læge dem. Vi behøver imidlertid straks at vælge et eller andet navn, så vi kan diskutere dem og undersøge dem, og beskytte os mod dem.

Det er altid rart at kunne bebrejde et andet land for en sygdom. Efter en stor krig i gamle dage på kontinentet, da tusindvis af soldater flyttede rundt fra land til land, var der et stort udbrud af syfilis – overraskelse, overraskelse! Franskmændene kaldte den ”den italienske sygdom”, italienerne kaldte den ”den franske sygdom”, hollanderne ”den spanske sygdom”. Tyrkiernes navn var ”den kristne sygdom”, russernes navn var "den polske sygdom” osv ha ha ha.

Nyligere eksempler stammer mere fra uviden eller tilfældighed, end fra xenofobi: MERS (mellemøsten respiratorisk syndrom) fik sit navn på grund af, at det først (i 2012) blev rapporteret i Saudi-Arabien, intet mere, end det.

Borreliose, der på engelsk hedder Lyme Disease, blev først rapporteret i Lyme, en lille by i delstaten Connecticut. Mange folk tror fejlagtigt tilsyneladende, at sygdommen har en eller anden forbindelse med limefrugt.

Røde hunde, der på engelsk hedder German Measles, blev først diagnosticeret i 1814 af tyske lægere.

Ordet influenza, oprindeligt italiensk, resulterede fra et udbrud af sygdommen i 1743 på kontinentet. Ordet stammede fra konceptet om ”inflydelse”: du blev smittet på grund af himmelske (dvs astrologiske) inflydelser/faktorer. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Den såkaldte spanske influenza ved slutningen af den 1. verdenskrig, startede sandsynligvis i USA, men det var spanierne, der først rapporterede den: nyhederne om udbruddet blev censureret i alle de lande, der deltog i  krigen. Spanien var neutral, så de spanske myndigheder censurerede ikke nyhederne om sygdommen, men resultatet var, at spanierne bar skylden.

Nogle gange stammede sygdommens navn fra den såkaldte kur mod den, for eksempel, scrofulose blev i gamle dage kaldet ”The King’s Evil”, fordi man troede, at man kun ville blive læget, hvis kongen rørte dig – yikes!

Jeg synes ikke, jeg ville have lyst til at være blevet rørt af en konge i gamle dage, medmindre det var min eneste chance. Jeg ville være blevet bange for at blive smittet af noget andet, sandsynligvis noget værre ha ha ha!

Tilbageblik til de gamle dage; kongen (Henrik VIII) læger en flok af

scrofulose-patienter

I moderne tider har en sygdoms navn stammet nogle gange fra den læge eller de lægerne, der opdager en kur. Problemet er, at nu til dags medicinske forskning er generelt en hold-insats. Det var heldig, at Creuzfeldt og Jakob ikke var nødt til at invitere en tredje forsker til at deltage i deres forskning: ellers ville sygdommens navn (Creuzfeldt-Jakobs sygdom) ville være blevet for langt til at blive nyttigt. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

22:00 Lois kommer tilbage. Jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at geare ned efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar om Amos og de mindre profeter. Stakkels Lois !!!!! Hun går i gang med at se lidt fjernsyn. Hun vækker mig ikke, da hun en time senere hopper op i sengen til mig.