Danskcolin: Tuesday 15 May 2018

May 15 - my little sister Gill, who lives in Cambridge, has a birthday - she turns 60 years old today. I send her a message via whatsapp. She, her husband and her 3 daughters and partners are staying this week in a couple of rented holiday cottages near Blackpool.

Gill's 60th birthday

Flashback to August 1960: me (aged 14) and my little sister Gill (2)

on the beach at Weston-super-mare

09:00 I take a shower. Lois has back problems again today - she is in pain when she uses her right hand or arm. She has decided to postpone her shower until tomorrow.

11:00 I drive over to our dental clinic - I have a emergency appointment with Josh, our dentist.

Five days ago, I had an appointment with the Gloucester Royal Hospital's Ear-nose Neck specialist. For one month I had had an ulcer on the right side of the tongue and my doctor had referred me to the hospital specialist in case the ulcer was cancerous.

The specialist told me that the ulcer had begun to heal slowly, but she thought the process had been delayed because the side of the tongue was coming into constant contact with a sharp tooth. I remembered that, just before the ulcer had appeared, I had suspected that I had lost a piece of one of my lower teeth on my right side.

To be sure of this, she decided to give me another appointment next month. Meanwhile, she asked me to get an appointment with my dentist so that the sharp tooth could be filed down or some other treatment could take place - whatever was appropriate in the dentist's view.

This morning Josh agrees with the specialist's (preliminary) diagnosis and he files the tooth down. But he asks to see me again within 2 weeks. I also have to get an appointment with the clinic's new endodontist. Yikes - what has happened to my mouth - it was once so nice, peaceful and friendly: it never gave me any trouble. Help!!!!!

12:00 I come home and we have lunch. Afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

16:00 I get up and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. Lois goes for walk on the local football field, which sometimes helps her with her back problems.

I take a little look on my smartphone. I have access to a whatsapp chat room, used by members of Lois's church. Church members are today very excited about Trump's opening up of a US embassy in Jerusalem, acknowledging the city as the capital of Israel. Keen to celebrate this development, church members have been very active on whatsapp, to put it mildly!

[extract] good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the evening watching television. An interesting documentary film is on, produced in the 1930s, all about the night trains from London to Scotland which were used exclusively for mail shipment.

It's very nostalgic to get a glimpse of this lost world and to hear Auden's poem.

This is the night mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.

Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,

Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses…..

….Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from girl and boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or to visit relations,
And applications for situations,
And timid lovers' declarations…

…Thousands are still asleep,
Dreaming of terrifying monsters
Or of friendly tea beside the band in Cranston's or Crawford's:

Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
But shall wake soon and hope for letters,
And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

At that time there were real letters in the mail, not just junkmail, as today. And it is interesting that we only see men in the film, dozens of postal workers on the train who sort the letters during the journey, plus railway workers in the train, on the platforms and in the signal boxes etc.

The men are all short-haired and many are wearing hats, most are wearing ties, and raincoats. We only see two women, who are serving tea at the train station's cafe - my god!

Only men are seen in the film, except for the women who serve tea

in the train station cafés - good grief, what madness!

Postal workers sorting the letters on the train

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

Danish translation

Den 15. maj – min lillesøster Gill, der bor i Cambridge, har fødselsdag i dag – hun fylder 60 år i dag. Jeg sender hende en besked via whatsapp. Hun, hendes mand og hendes 3 døtre og partnere bor i denne uge i et par lejehuse i nærheden af Blackpool.

Gills 60. fødseldsdag

Tilbageblik til august 1960: mig og min lillesøster Gill

på stranden i Weston-super-mare

09:00 Jeg tager et brusebad. Lois har rygproblemer igen i dag – hun har ondt i ryggen når hun bruger sin højre hånd eller arm. Hun har besluttet at udskyde sit brusebad til i morgen.

11:00 Jeg kører over til vores tandlægeklinik – jeg har en nødaftale hos Josh, vores tandlæge.

For 5 dage siden fik jeg aftale hos Gloucester Royal hospitalets øre-næse-hals specialist. Jeg havde i en måned haft et sår på den højre side af tungen og min læge havde henvist mig til hospitalets specialist for det tilfælde, såret var kræftagtigt.

Specialisten fortalte mig, at såret var begyndt langsomt at læges, men hun mente, at processen var blevet forsinket, fordi siden af tungen kom i konstant kontakt med en skarp tand. Jeg mindedes, at jeg lige før såret havde opstod, havde jeg mistænkte, at jeg havde mistet et stykke af en af mine nedre tænder på min munds højre side.

For at bliver helt sikker, besluttede hun at give mig en anden aftale til næste måned. I mellemtiden bad hun mig om, at få en aftale hos min tandlæge, så den skarpe tand kunne blive filet ned, eller nogen anden behandling kunne finde sted – hvad som helst var passende ifølge tandlægen.

I formiddag er Josh enig med specialistens (foreløbig) diagnose og han file tanden ned. Men han beder om at se mig igen indenfor 2 uger. Jeg må også få aftale hos klinikkens nye endodontist. Yikes – hvad er der sket med min mund – den var engang så pæn, fredelig og venlig: den gav mig aldrig problemer. Hjælp!!!!!

12:00 Jeg kommer hjem og vi spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

16:00 Jeg står op og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Lois går en tur på den lokale fodboldkamp, hvilket nogle gange hjælper hende med sine rygproblemer.

Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone. Jeg har adgang til en whatsapp-chatrum, der består af medlemmer af Lois’s kirke. Kirkemedlemmerne er i dag meget begejstrede over Trumps beslutning om at flytte den amerikanske ambassade til Jerusalem, i erkendelse af byen som Israels hovedstad, For at fejre denne udvikling har kirkemedlemmer været meget aktive på whatsapp, for at sige mildt!

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

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, produceret i 1930’erne, der handler om nattoge fra London til Skotland, som udelukkende blev brugt til transport af post.

Meget nostalgisk at få et glimt af denne forsvundne verden og høre Audens digt.

Dengang var der rigtige breve i posten, ikke bare junkmail, som i dag. Og det er interessant at vi kun ser mænd i filmen, tonsvis af postarbejdere i toget, der sorterer brevene i løbet af rejsen, plus jernbanearbejdere i toget, på perronerne og i signalhuse osv. Mændene er alle korthårede, og mange bærer hatter og slips. Vi ser kun to kvinder, der serverer te i banegårdens café – du godeste!