Danskcolin: Sunday 27 May 2018

Our son-in-law Ed has his 43th birthday today. The family is celebrating the day with a delicious brunch at a restaurant in the heart of Copenhagen. Later in the day I see this charming photo, which our daughter Alison has put on Instagram and Facebook:

Ed celebrates his 43th birthday with a brunch in a restaurant

in the middle of Copenhagen, along with Alison (taking photo),

Isaac (7), Rosalind (9) and Josie (11)

Ed looks relaxed, as always, and Lois and I have no impression that he is worried about having been unemployed since the end of March. We assume that his former company gave him a generous golden handshake and / or he is absolutely sure that other good jobs are waiting for him! Go Ed !!!

08:00 Morning tea in bed, and afterwards a shower. Then Lois and I talk on whatsapp with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, and with her 4-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie (Jessica).

Sarah's husband, Francis, is not at home at the moment. He started a new part-time job on Monday: his working days are Monday, Wednesday and the weekend. For the rest of the week he looks after the children while Sarah is at work in her full-time job as an accountant at a landscape architecture firm in Osborne Park.

Francis's new job is as a home-seller, and this weekend he is working in one of the construction company's showhomes. The snag with the job is that it is not salaried, even though commissions for the sale of a house are generous. But unfortunately, it is the employee who first receives the potential customer's details who always gets the Commission. The result is that if a customer initially phones in or signs up online, then someone in the company's headquarters will get all the money. Good grief, what madness!

However, Sarah says that Francis has been greatly stimulated by getting involved in the job, after 5 years as a Papa Latte, as the Swedes say ("stay at home dad"). The downside is that he is not sleeping well and so Sarah also has sleep problems as a result - yikes!

10:00 Lois sits down in front of the computer and does some genealogical research. Her cousin, Peter, has asked her to send him her history of the Cox family (revolving round her late mother, Ruth, and Ruth's relatives and ancestors, etc.). Lois has found that the family has relatives in Bermuda, a cousin named Janet, who is the same age as us. However, she does not know what Janet's last name is today or where she lives. Janet's father, William Ewart Cox, moved to Bermuda after World War II when he retired from the Royal Navy.

Lois has a newspaper picture of Williams's wife (Janet's mother), taken in the 1950s (?). She was a member of the local (St. George) branch of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire.

Newspaper picture from Bermuda in the 1950s:

Lois's relative (Mrs William Ewart Cox) is 3rd from the left

While Lois is working on the computer in the dining room (which doubles as our office), I settle down in the living room and see the first 30 minutes of the latest episode of the "Bridge", the Danish-Swedish crime series that is all about crime in Copenhagen and Malmö, Sweden, two cities connected by the famous bridge. The series' star is the gorgeous Swedish actress, Sofia Helin.

Saga, the gorgeous Swedish detective has an interesting personality: aspergers / autistic, or something similar. She works mostly in the police hq in Malmö, Sweden, but at the moment she has to collaborate with Henrik (Thure Lindhardt), her Danish colleague and sex partner, in Copenhagen's police hq, where there is a hot-desking system.

But Saga is a little bit socially awkward, to put it mildly, because of her autism / aspergers, so she has her own personal Swedish desk transported from Malmo to Copenhagen so she does not have to move from desk to desk and can keep all her personal files and objects in the same place. Good grief, what madness !!! But I sympathize with her, no doubt about that.

12:00 I hurry into the kitchen and make lunch: two servings of poached eggs on toast - yum yum!

12:30 Lois sits down in front of our laptop to hear her church's worship service on the internet. She has decided not to attend personally today because of her recent back problems.

14:00 I go to bed and have a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 o'clock and design my last 3 photo books from our recent 2-month stay in Australia with Sarah and Francis. The Snapfish website is offering a 40% discount at the moment, but the discount "must" end tonight - yikes!

Lois has chosen the photos for 14 photo books, and each photo book consists of 22 photos. It is my responsibility to design the books themselves online. Today I design the 2nd, 3rd and 4th photo books that have all the photos taken either in Sarah's house or in the neighborhood and on the nearby beaches.

Here are the front covers of the 3 photobooks:

The 2nd book: the cover shows Lois in front of the local elementary school

The 3rd book: the cover shows our 4-year-old grandchildren, Lily (left) and Jessie

How cute they are! They will turn 5 years old on July 26th

The 4th book: the cover shows Lois on the balcony of Sarah and Francis' house.

The Indian Ocean can be seen in the background.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary about the Royal Air Force 617 squadron is showing.

The squadron is famous in Britain because of their mission in May 1943, when they destroyed several German dams with the help of low-flying Lancaster bombers and the squadron's new-fangled bouncing bomb, invented and designed by the researcher Barnes Wallis.

But it is less well known that the squadron's next mission, aimed at destroying an important German canal using similar low-flying tactics, turned out to be a bit of a fiasco. The conclusion is that the squadron's earlier mission against the German dams was a "lucky shot", rather than anything else.

But the Dambusters operation long ago became a part of British folk mythology. In the famous TV commercial for Carling Black Label lager (1990), a German soldier with good goalkeeping skills manages to catch all the British bouncing bombs. My god, what madness !!! See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYDBMjvqMlM.

A German soldier manages to catch all the British bouncing bombs

- good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!

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

Danish translation

Vores svigersøn Ed har sin 43. fødselsdag i dag. Familien skal fejre dagen med en lækker brunch på en restaurant midt i København. Senere på dagen ser jeg dette charmerende foto, som vores dater Alison har lagt op på Instagram og Facebook:

Ed fejrer sin 43. fødselsdag med en brunch på en restaurant

midt i København, sammen med Alison (der tager foto),

Isaac (7), Rosalind (9) og Josie (11)

Ed ser afslappet ud, som altid, og Lois og jeg har ikke noget indtryk, at han ikke mindst er bekymret over, at han i teori har været arbejdsløs siden slutningen af marts. Vi formoder, at hans tidligere selskab gav ham en generøst gyldent håndtryk og/eller han er helt sikker på, at flere gode jobs venter ham! Kom så, Ed!!!

08:00 Morgenté inde i sengen, og bagefter et brusebad. Lois og jeg står op og taler lidt på whatsapp med Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, og med hendes 4-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie (Jessica).

Sarahs mand, Francis, er ikke hjemme for tiden. Han startede et nyt deltidsjob i mandags: hans arbejdedage er mandag, onsdag, og weekenden. I resten af ugen passer han på børnene, mens Sarah er beskæftiget med sit fuldtidsjob som revisor på en landskabsarkitektfirma i forstaden Osborne Park.

Francis’ nye job er som hussælger, og i weekenden arbejder han i et af bygningsfirmas showhomes. Hagen ved jobbet er, at det ikke er lønnet, selvom kommissioner for sælg af et hus er generøse. Men desværre er det den ansatte, der først får den potentielle kundes detaljer, der modtager kommissionen. Resultatet er, at hvis en kunde først telefonerer eller tilmelder sig på nettet, så er det nogen i firmaets hovedkontor, der scorer pengene. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Sarah siger imidlertid, at Francis er blevet meget stimuleret ved at blive involveret i jobbet efter 5 år som papa latte. Ulempen ved det er, at han ikke sover godt, og Sarah har også soveproblemer som resultat – yikes!

10:00 Lois sætter sig foran computeren og gør lidt genealogisk forskning. Hendes fætter, Peter, har bedt hende om at sende ham sin historie af Cox-familien (der kredser om sin afdøde mor, Ruth, og Ruths slægtninger og forfædre osv). Hun har fandt ud af, at familien har slægtninge i Bermuda, en kusine, der hedder Janet, som er samme alderen som os. Hun ved imidlertid ikke hvordan Janet hedder i dag, eller hvor hun bor. Janets far, William Ewart Cox, flyttede til Bermuda efter den 2. verdenskrig, da han gik på pension fra den kongelige marine.

Lois har et avisbillede af Williams kone (Janets mor), taget i 1950’erne (?). Hun var medlem af den lokale (St George) filial af Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire.

Avisbillede fra Bermuda i 1950’erne:

Lois’s slægtning (Mrs William Ewart Cox) er nummer 3 fra venstre

Mens Lois arbejder på computeren i spisestuen (der fordobles som vores kontor), sætter jeg til rette i stuen og ser de første 30 minutter af den seneste afsnit af ”Broen”, den danske-svenske krimiserie, der kredser om kriminalitet i København og Malmø i Sverige, to byer forbundet af den berømte bro. Seriens stjerne er den pragtfulde svenske skuespillerinde, Sofia Helin.

Saga, den pragtfulde svenske detektiv har en interessant personlighed: aspergers / autistisk, eller noget lignende. Hun arbejder for det meste i hovedpolitistationen i Malmø, Sverige, men for tiden er hun nødt til at samarbejde med Henrik (Thure Lindhardt), sin danske kollega og sexpartner, i Københavns hovedpolitistation, hvor der er et hot-desking system.

Men Saga er socialt lidt akavet, for at sige mildt, på grund af sin autisme/aspergers, så hun får sit eget personlige svenske skrivebord transporteret fra Malmø til København, så hun ikke er nødt til at flytte fra skrivebord til skrivebord, og kan beholde alle sine personlige filer og objekter i samme sted. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Men jeg sympatiserer med hende, ingen tvivl om det.

12:00 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver frokost: to portioner af pocherede æg på toast – yum yum!

12:30 Lois sætter sig foran vores bærebare computer for at høre sin kirkes gudstjeneste på internettet. Hun har besluttet ikke at deltage personligt i dag på grund af hendes nylige rygproblemer.

14:00 Jeg går i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og går i gang med at designe vores sidste 3 fotobøger, baserede på vores nylige 2-måneders ophold i Australien hos Sarah og Francis. Snapfish-webstedet tilbyder en 40% rabat for tiden, men rabatten ”må” ende i aften – yikes!

Lois har valgt fotoerne til 14 fotobøger, og enhver fotobog består af 22 fotos. Det er mit ansvar at designe selve bøgerne på nettet. I dag designer jeg den 2., 3. og 4. fotobøger – alle fotoerne blev taget enten i Sarahs hus eller i nabolaget og på de nærliggende strande.

Her er de 3 fotobøgers omslag:

den 2. bog: omslaget fremviser Lois foran den lokale grundskole

den 3. bog: omslaget fremviser vores 4-årige børnebørn, Lily (til venstre) og Jessie

Hvor er de dog søde! De fylder 5 år den 26. juli

den 4. bog: omslaget fremviser Lois på altanen af Sarah og Francis’ hus.

Den indiske ocean kan ses i baggrunden.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om det kongelige luftvåbens 617 eskadrille.

Eskadrillen er berømt i Storbritannien for deres mission i maj 1943, da de ødelagde flere tyske dæmninger ved hjælp af lavflygende Lancaster-bombefly og eskadrillens numodens hoppende bombe, som forskeren Barnes-Wallis opfandt og designede.

Men det er mindre velkendt, at eskadrillens næste mission, der blev organiseret for at ødelægge en vigtig tyske kanal ved hjælp af lignende lavflygende taktikker, blev til lidt af en fiasko. Konklusionen er, at eskadrillens tidligere mission mod tyske dæmninger var et ”heldigt skud”, snarere end noget andet.

Men den Dambusters-operation blev for længe siden til en del af britiske folkmytologi. I den berømte TV-reklame for Carling Black Label øl (1990), det lykker en tysk soldat med gode målmandsspil-færdigheder at fange alle de britiske hoppende bomber. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Se https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYDBMjvqMlM .