Friday 11 May 2018

May 11th - today, Steve, my late little brother would have had his 66th birthday.

Steve, my late little brother, in happier times -

almost 50 years ago in the backyard of our home in the city of Oxford

09:15 Lois and I drive into the village. We ship a package to our 2 grandchildren in Australia (2 "Peter Rabbit" children's magazines) and another package to Josie (11 years), one of our 3 grandchildren in Denmark (a book of piano pieces). We then pop into Waghornes, the local butcher shop, to buy meat and cheese, and then into the local SimplyFresh supermarket to buy vegetables, breakfast cereals and a bottle of wine.

Alison, our oldest daughter, has lived in Copenhagen for 5 years, together with Ed, her husband, and their 3 children. Ed's job finished at the end of March, and he is looking for a new one. His next job could be anywhere in the world, but his attempts at finding a new job are all hush-hush. Even Lois and myself are unfortunately not in the loop - good grief!

10:30 We drive over to Pets At Home, a pets supermarket. We are thinking about what to buy for Minx, Alison's cat, whom she left with us when the family moved to Denmark 5 years ago. Even if the family moves back to England (the most likely result), they will not be keen to take Minx back. Since moving to Denmark, they have acquired a dog and two kittens - what madness !!!!!

Minx is now 18 years old and she is aging fast, like us. She almost never washes herself and we think she is having a hard time chewing meat.

We buy a new cat brush and some cans of luxury cat food in the form of paté or terrine. There is something a little comical about being an old couple with various problems trying to find solutions for a cat that has similar issues (back problems, arthritis, forgetfulness etc etc .... - yikes !!!!)

11:30 We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch. Then I go into the backyard and do a little weeding in the vegetable garden. Lois gets started planting out a number of potted plants on the terrace and at the front door - plants we bought a few days ago.

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

16:00 I get up and listen to radio, an interesting program, "The Last Word". Lois and I have the habit of listening to this program every week because we want to find out if anyone has died or not in the last 1-2 weeks (I notice that in most weeks exactly 5 deaths occur). The host of the program is the charming Matthew Bannister.

Professor Peter Waddington has unfortunately died, an academic who specialized in the police, and especially the best methods for keeping order, for example during demonstrations, riots, etc.

As a young man, he was a policeman himself. He was strictly too tall (6 foot 6) to be a policeman, but he was accepted because he was good at rugby, and the local police rugby team needed a good strong forward. I personally did not have the slightest idea that an upper limit existed when it came to the height of policemen. What a crazy world we live in !!!

After being promoted, he found out that all the desks in the local police station were too low, so he asked for a pile of bricks to be placed under his desk's legs. Good grief, what madness!

He is famous for finding a special method of controlling riots called "kettling" in English - I have no idea why: "cattling" would be a better image in my opinion.

"Kettling" (similar to coralling cattle) is a police tactic to control large, violent crowds during demonstrations or protests. It consists of the formation of large groups of police officers, who then confine mobs of violent protesters to within a limited area. The tactic give protesters the choice of leaving the area under police control - or of being contained and getting bored without access to food, water and toilet facilities, for the duration of any period determined by the police.

A brilliant idea in my opinion. Violent protesters are often extroverts with a low boredom threshold and I suspect that their reaction would have been to piss off home and play violent video games on their computers instead. Boredom is a much better control tactic than fear - no doubt about that !!!!

16:30 I have received an interesting email from Steve, my brother in law in the United States. It is a little disappointing to read that "The Flat Earth Society" 's Annual Conference, which recently took place in Sydney, Australia, was a bit of a failure - there were only 2 participants.

The only 2 participants at the Flat Earth Society's

annual conference in Sydney, Australia.

Very disappointing given that 500 members participated in last year's conference in the state of North Carolina in November 2017. The movement also recently organized a successful conference in Birmingham, England, and plan to hold another conference in Edmonton, Alberta in 2019.

Perhaps Australian society is not intellectual enough to accept the society's ideas. Unfortunately, the Australians often have a rather philistine reputation (not justified in my opinion).

Lois and I recently spent 2 months in Perth, Australia, where you see many beautiful sunsets over the Indian Ocean. Our youngest daughter Sarah lives over there together with Francis, her husband, and their 4-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie.

Sarah and Francis have told the twins that the sun sets for the one purpose of saying hello to their grandparents (me and lois) on the other side of the world. However, during our stay, Lily and Jessie argued that this long journey by the sun was now unnecessary since Lois and I were temporarily living in Perth. Lois and I replied that it was better for the sun to keep to its normal routine so that it does not get confused in the future.

But the jury is still out on this debate - should the sun always keep to its normal routine or not? I must send a letter to "The Flat Earth Society" and ask for their advice.

Flashback to April - Lois and Lily on the beach

(left to right) Lois, Sarah, Lily and Jessie.

In the background we see a game of beach cricket

17:00 I sit down in front of the computer and devise 20 questions in Hungarian and send them via email to my old friend, "Magyar" Mike.

Mike and I have been studying Hungarian for over 20 years. We have the habit of meeting here every Tuesday morning to study the language and talk about our grandchildren, etc. But Mike lives in Nailsworth near the town of Stroud, and at present there is a massive road works project taking place on the road from Stroud to Cheltenham / Gloucester so we have decided to communicate only via email for the next 2 weeks.

18:30 Lois and I have dinner and spend the evening watching television, an interesting documentary about the village of Imber on Salisbury Plain in southern England. The host of the program is the charming Michael Portillo, who was coincidentally Margaret Thatcher's Defense Minister in the 1980s.

An interesting story, though unfortunately Michael, in fact, does not really have enough material for a 1-hour program - 30 minutes max maybe, but TV companies have a rule that documentary films must last for 1 hour or more.

But in the end it's without doubt shocking that the inhabitants of the village were not offered compensation for having to move out of their homes.

22:00 We go to bed feeling very indignant over the fate of the residents. Zzzzzzzzz - Grrrrr - Zzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

Den 11. maj: i dag ville Steve, min afdøde lillebror har haft sin 66. fødselsdag.

Steve, min afdøde lillebror, i lykkeligere tider –

for næsten 50 år siden i baghaven af vores hjem i byen Oxford

09:15 Lois og jeg kører ind i landsbyen. Vi afsender en pakke til vores 2 børnebørn i Australien (2 ”Peter Rabbit” børnemagasiner) og en anden pakke til Josie (11 år), en af vores 3 børnebørn i Danmark (en bog klaverstykker). Vi smutter så ind i Waghornes, den lokale slagterforretning, for at købe kød og ost, og det lokale SimplyFresh supermarked for at købe grøntsager, morgenmadsprodukter og en flaske vin.

Alison, vores ældste datter, har i 5 år boet i København, sammen med Ed, sin mand, og deres 3 børn. Eds job endte ved slutning af marts, og han er i gang med at søge et nyt. Hans næste job kan være hvor som helst i verden, men hans forsøg på at finde et nyt job er alle tys-tys. Selve Lois og mig er desværre ikke i loopen – du godeste!

10:30 Vi kører over til Pets At Home, et pattedyresupermarked. Vi tænker på Minx, Alisons kat, som Alison efterlod hos os, da familien for 5 år siden flyttede til Danmark.  Selv hvis familien flytter tilbage til England (den mest sandsynlige resultat), vil de ikke være frisk på at modtage Minx tilbage. Siden de flyttede til Danmark, har de erhvervet en hund og to kattekillinger – sikke et vanvid!!!!!

Minx er nu 18 år, og hun er i gang med at ældes hurtigt, ligesom os. Hun vasker sig næsten aldrig, og vi tror, hun har svært med at tygge kød.

Vi køber en ny katborste og nogle dåser luksuskattemad i form af postej eller terrine. Der er noget lidt komisk at være et gammelt ægtepar med forskellige problemer, der prøver at finde løsninger for en kat, der har lignende problemer (rygproblemer, gigt, glemsomhed osv osv.... – yikes !!!!)

11:30 Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Derefter går jeg ud i baghaven og luger lidt i grøntsagshaven. Lois går i gang med at udplante en række potteplanter på terrassen og foran hoveddøren - planter, vi købte for et par dage siden.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

16:00 Jeg står op og vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, ”Det sidste ord”. Lois og jeg har for vane at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om nogen i de seneste 1-2 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste uger sker nøjagtig 5 dødsfald). Programmets vært er den charmerende Matthew Bannister.

Professor Peter Waddington døde desværre, en lektor, der specialiserede sig i politiet, og især de bedste metoder for at holde ro og god orden, for eksempel under demonstrationer, optøjer osv.

Som ung mand var han selv en politimand. Han var strengt taget for høj (6 fods 6) til at være politimand, men han blev accepteret på grund af, at han var dygtig til rugby, og det lokale politi rugby hold havde dengang  brug for en god stærk angrebsspiller. Jeg havde personligt ikke den fjerneste anelse om, at en øvregrænse har eksisteret , når det kommer til højden af politimænd. Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Efter han blev forfremmet, fandt han ud af, at alle de skriveborde i den lokale politistation var for lav, så han bad om, at en bunke mursten bliver placeret under hans skrivebords ben. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Han er berømt for, at han fandt på en særlig metode for at kontrollere optøjer, som hedder ”kettling” på engelsk – jeg har ikke den fjerneste anelse hvorfor: ”cattling” ville være en bedre image under min mening.

”Kettling” (som ligner indhegning til kvæg) er en polititaktik for at kontrollere store, voldsomme folkemængder under demonstrationer eller protester. Det består af dannelsen af store grupper af politibetjente, der så går i gang med at binde flokke af voldsomme demonstranter inden for et begrænset område. Taktikken giver protestere valget af at forlade området under politiets kontrol - eller bliver bundet og kede sig uden adgang til mad, vand og toiletfaciliteter i en vilkårlig periode bestemt af politiet.

En brilliant idé under min mening. Voldsomme protestere er ofte ekstroverte med en lav kedsomhedstærskel og jeg mistænker, at deres reaktion ville have været at stikke af hjem og spille voldsomme videospil i stedet for. Kedsomhed er en meget bedre kontroltaktik, end frygt – ingen tvivl om det!!!!

16:30 Jeg har fået et interessant email fra Steve, min svigerbror i USA. Det er lidt skuffende at læse, at ”Selskabet for den flade jord”s årlige konference, der for nylig fandt sted i Sydney, Australien, var lidt af en fiasko – der var kun 2 deltagere, lader det til.

de eneste 2 deltagere på Selskabet for den flade jord’s

årlige konference i Sydney, Australien.

Meget skuffende i betragtning af, at 500 medlemmer deltog i sidste års konference i delstaten North Carolina i november 2017. Bevægelsen organiserede for nylig også en succesfuld konference i Birmingham, England, og planlægge at holde en anden konference i Edmonton, Alberta i 2019.

Måske er det australske samfund ikke intellektuelt nok til at acceptere selskabets idéer. Australierne har desværre ofte en lidt filistrøs omdomme (ikke begrundet efter min mening).

Lois og jeg tilbragte for nylig 2 måneder i Perth, Australien, hvor man ser mange smukke solnedgange over den Indiske Ocean. Vores yngste datter Sarah bor derover sammen med Francis, sin mand, og deres 4-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie.

Sarah og Francis har fortalt tvillingerne, at solen går ned med det formål at sige hej til deres bedsteforældre (mig og Lois) på den anden side af verden. Men under vores ophold argumenterede Lily og Jessie, at solens lange rejse dengang var unødvendig i betragtning af, at Lois og jeg midlertidigt boede i Perth. Lois og jeg svarede, at det var bedre for solen at holde til sin normale rutine, så den ikke bliver forvirret i fremtiden.

Men juryen er stadig ude om denne debat – skulle solen altid holde til sin rutine eller ej? Jeg må sende et brev til ”Selskabet for den flade jord”, og bede om deres råd.

tilbageblik til april – Lois og Lily på stranden

(fra venstre til højre) Lois, Sarah, Lily og Jessie.

I baggrunden ser vi en kamp strandcricket

17:00 Jeg sætter mig foran computeren og udfærdige 20 spørgsmål på ungarsk, og sender dem via email til min gamle ven, ”Magyar” Mike.

Mike og jeg har studeret ungarsk sammen i over 20 år. Vi har for vane at mødes her hver tirsdag formiddag for at studere sproget og snakke om vores børnebørn osv. Men Mike bor i Nailsworth i nærheden af byen Stroud, og for tiden er der et massiv vejarbejdeprojekt, der finder sted på vejen fra Stroud til Cheltenham/Gloucester, så vi har besluttet at kommunikere kun via email i de næste 2 uger.

18:30 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om landsbyen Imber på Salisbury Plain i det sydlige England. Programmets vært er den charmerende Michael Portillo, der tilfældigvis var Margaret Thatchers forsvarsminister i 1980’erne.

En interessant historie, selvom Michael desværre i virkeligheden har  ikke nok materiale til en 1-times program – 30 minutter max måske, men tv-selskaber har en regel, at dokumentarfilm må vare 1 time eller mere.

Men, når alt kommer til alt, er det uden tvivl helt chokerende, at landsbyens beboere ikke blev tilbudt kompensation for at skulle flytte fra deres hjemme.

22:00 Vi går i seng følende os meget indignerede over beboernes skæbne. Zzzzzzzzz – grrrrr – zzzzzz!!!!