Friday 15 June 2018

09:00 Lois and I drive over to the local Sainsbury's supermarket. On our way we pop into Waghornes, the local butcher's shop to buy meat, bread and cheese. We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

12:00 The postman delivers a postcard from Scilla, a member of our U3A Danish group, who has recently not been very well. In addition to being a member of our U3A Danish group, she is also the head of the local U3A Old Norse group. In late April, while Lois and I were in Australia, Scilla was hospitalized due to kidney problems and general weakness. She is currently staying with Tom, her son, in the town of Frome, Somerset.

It has now been 4 months since Scilla's U3A Old Norse Group's last meeting, and I am missing all the sex and violence - not just during the group’s meetings but also in the sagas that the group was reading ha ha ha.

I called Scilla on Monday to ask about her health. She said she was a little better since I last called her a couple of weeks earlier, but she still tended to get dizzy and could not move about very easily. She said she did not expect to be able to return to her apartment in Cheltenham for at least 2 months.

I decided to send her a copy of "Line", the Danish crime novella, which is our U3A Danish group's current project. I was hoping that the novella would help Scilla keep her brain ticking over during her recovery period.

Judging from the postcard that the postman has delivered today, Scilla now seems to be a little better than she was on Monday. She says she has begun driving again and she hopes to be able to drive over to the seaside town of Brighton soon to stay for a while with her other son.

I'm looking forward to seeing if Scilla is soon able to resume her leadership of our local U3A Old Norse group.

It is very very important that small groups of enthusiasts continue to keep alive the study of the old Nordic religion, I'm in no doubt about that.

I remember that no-one had so much influence on air traffic in 2010 as the horrible Icelandic mountain ogress Grýla, who launched a plume of ash 30,000 feet up into the sky from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in the spring, closing airports across Europe and costing hundreds of millions of dollars to the world economy (report, Onion News).

Flashback to 2010 and the volcanic eruption 
caused by mountain ogress Gryla (top right, inset)

At the time, air traffic controllers did not have the faintest idea what to do to resolve the crisis and they were forced to call in enthusiastic academics and experts on Nordic religion to help them.

The outbreak was originally attributed to Huldufólk elves, believed to be angry with mortal folk over the desecration of their mountain homes during the winter of 2009. Although gifts of sweets to the elves seemed to produce small holes in the ash making it possible to reopen airspace for a short while, the cloud did not disappear completely for the most part. It was only after millions of travelers had already spent days stranded at airports that embarrassed officials eventually admitted that some or other different creature must somehow be responsible.

After ruling out the 300-foot Lagarfljót worm, excited academics and investigators concluded that only Grýla - best known for coming out of her cave at Christmas time in search of naughty children to throw in a sack - had the necessary power to create an outbreak of Eyjafjallajokull's strength. By this time, however, many foodstuffs sent by air had already begun to spoil and a number of world leaders had already had to miss the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczyński.

After having frustrated tired travelers with numerous ineffective attempts to pacify Grýla, Icelandic officials finally carved a fear-rune on an oak plate and threw it at her feet. An obvious banishment-spell, which critics throughout the world said the government should have cast a lot earlier. Flights were then resumed within a few hours.

In the aftermath of Eyjafjallajökull's eruption, officials said they would continue to monitor Grýla, and, as a precaution, all 13 of her hideous children.

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

Gryla's 13 children - a recent picture (2013)

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 2:45pm and we drive into the village and pop into the local post office. We ship a package containing children's books and "My Little Pony" ponies (the modern kind that aren’t dangerous ha ha!), to our twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia.

15:30 We come home. I relax with a cup of tea in the couch while Lois pops next door to the neighbors (Bill and Mary) for a chat and a cup of tea with them. Mary suffers from mild dementia, and it's hard work talking to her, but Lois is so warm-hearted. If only I was more like her!

16:30 Lois comes home. I jump up my exercise bike and cycle my usual 6 miles.

18:00 We are very tired again. We have dinner: two teriyaki ready meals, that we bought the other day from CookShop in Leckhampton.

20:00 We spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television, a documentary film (part 1 of 4) about the development of the UK canal system in the late 18th century, and early in the19th.

I have to admit that this subject is not really to my taste, but Lois is very interested in it because some of her ancestors worked on the canals, or traveled frequently by canal between Oxford and Birmingham.

It is anyway certainly clear how fast Britain's rapid industrial development was during this short period of time. The development of industrial production, using the new machines, was meteoric. The only problem was the state of the country's roads, which were almost no better than in the middle ages, so it was almost impossible to transport the new factories' products in an efficient way. Good grief, what madness !!!!

Building long canals was the solution, but only until the development of the railways made the shiny new canals suddenly unnecessary within only about 30 years. But that's progress. Sorry, canal companies!!!!!

In the early days of the railways there was sharp and bitter competition with the canal companies. A railway company wanted to build a bridge over one of the new canals, and it hired hundreds of workers to build the bridge - they chose a Sunday to work for secrecy's sake, because the legal situation was not yet clear.

On the following weekend, however, the canal company in question had the shiny new bridge torn down, so the railway company had to get a court injunction to prevent the canal company from tearing down any more bridges - good grief, how crazy !!!!

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

Danish translation

09:00 Lois og jeg kører over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarkedet. På vej smutter vi ind i Waghornes, den lokale slagterforretning for at købe kød, brød og ost. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

12:00 Postbudet leverer en postkort fra Scilla, en medlem af vorers U3A danske gruppe, der for nylig ikke har haft det ret godt. Udover at være medlem af vores U3A danske gruppe, er hun også leder af den lokale U3A oldnorske gruppe. Sidst i april, mens Lois og jeg var i Australien, blev hun indlagt på  hospitalet på grund af nyreproblemer og almindelig svaghed. Hun bor for tiden hos Tom, sin søn, i byen Frome, Somerset.

Det er nu gået 4 måneder siden Scillas U3A Oldnorske gruppes sidste møde, og jeg savner alt det der sex og vold – ikke bare under møderne, men også i sagaerne, som gruppen var i gang med at læse ha ha ha.

Jeg ringede til Scilla i mandags for at spørge om hendes helbred. Hun sagde, at hun havde det lidt bedre, siden jeg sidst ringede til hende, et par uger tidligere, men hun havde stadig tendens til at blive svimmel, og dermed kunne ikke bevæge sig meget let. Hun sagde, hun forventede ikke at kunne komme tilbage til sin lejlighed i Cheltenham  i mindst 2 måneder.

Jeg besluttede at sende hende en kopi af ”Line”, den danske kriminovelle, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.  Jeg håbede på, at novellen ville hjælpe Scilla med at holde hjernen tikkende over, under sin bedringsperiode.

Set ud fra det postkort, som postbudet har leveret i dag, virker Scilla at have det lidt bedre, end i mandags. Hun siger, hun er begyndt at køre bil igen, og hun håber at kunne køre over til havnebyen Brighton for at bo i et stykke tid hos sin anden søn.

Jeg begynder at glæde mig til at se, om Scilla snart gentage sin ledelse af sin U3A oldnorske gruppe. 

Det er meget meget MEGET vigtigt, at små grupper af entusiaster fortsætter at holde liv i studiet af den gamle nordiske religion, ingen tvivl om det.

Jeg mindes, at ingen havde så meget indflydelse på flytrafik i 2010 som den forfærdelige islandske bjergtroldkone Grýla, der i foråret lancerede en aske på 30.000 fod i himlen fra vulkanen Eyjafjallajökull, og lukkede lufthavne over hele Europa og koster verdensøkonomien hundredvis af millioner af dollars (rapport, Onion News).

Tilbageblik til 2010: Gryla (øverst til højre, indsat) 

og årets største vulkanudbrud

Flyvekontrolmyndighederne havde på dette tidspunkt ikke den fjerneste anelse om, hvad de skulle gøre for at løse krisen, og de blev tvunget til at tilkalde begejstrede akademiker og eksperter om nordiske religion for at hjælpe dem.

Udbruddet blev oprindeligt henført til Huldufólks elve, der troede at være vred på dødelige folk for vanhelligelsen af deres bjergboliger i løbet af vinteren 2009. Mens søde gaver til elverne syntes at frembringe små huller i asken, der gjorde det muligt at genåbne luftrummet i et kort stykke tid, forsvandt skyen desværre ikke fuldstændigt for det meste. Det var først, efter at millioner af rejsende allerede havde brugt dage strandede i lufthavne, at generede embedsmænd til sidst indrømmede, at en anden skabning sandsynligvis var ansvarlig.

Efter at have udelukket den 300 fods Lagarfljóts orm konkluderede de begejstrede akademiker og efterforskere, at kun Grýla - best kendt for at komme ud fra hendes hule ved juletiden på jagt efter uartige børn til at smide i en sække - havde den nødvendige kraft til at skabe en udbrud af Eyjafjallajökulls styrke. På dette tidspunkt imidlertid var mange fødevarer, der blev sendt med fly, allerede begyndt at fordærve, og en række verdensledere var allerede gået glip af begravelsen af den polske præsident Lech Kaczyński.

Og efter at have frustreret trætte rejsende med talrige ineffektive forsøg på at pacificere Grýla, skarede islandske embedsmænd endelig en frygt-rune på en egeplade og kastede den ved hendes fødder. En åbenlys forvisning- fortryllelse, som kritikere over hele verden sagde, at regeringen burde have kastet meget tidligere. Flyveture blev genoptaget inden for få timer.

I efterslæten af Eyjafjallajökulls udbrud sagde embedsmændene at de ville fortsætte med at overvåge Grýla og som en sikkerhedsforanstaltning alle 13 af hendes skræmmende børn.

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

Grylas 13 børn: et nyligt billede (2013)

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 14:45 og vi kører ind i landsbyen for at smutte ind i det lokale postkontor. Vi afsender en pakke, der indeholder børnebøger og ”My Little Pony” lege-ponyer (den moderne type, der ikke er farlige ha ha!),  til vores tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien.

15:30 Vi kommer hjem. Jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen, mens Lois smutter ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt og drikker en kop te med dem.  Mary lider af mild demens, og det er hårdt arbejde at snakke med hende, men Lois er så varmhjertet. Hvis bare jeg lignede hende mere!

16:30 Lois kommer hjem. Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles.

18:00 Vi er meget trætte igen. Vi spiser aftensmad: to teriyaki  færdigretter, vi forleden købte fra CookShop i Leckhampton.

20:00 Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en dokumentarfilm (1. del af 4) om udviklingen af Storbritanniens kanalsystem sidst i det 18. århundrede, og først i det 19.

Jeg må indrømme, at dette emne ikke virkelig er til min smag, men Lois interesserer sig meget for det på grund af nogle af hendes forfædre arbejdede på kanalerne, eller rejsede hyppigt med kanal mellem Oxford og Birmingham-området.

Det er i hvert fald helt sikkert at se igen, hvor hurtig Storbritanniens rivende industrielle udvikling  var gennem denne korte periode. Udviklingen af industriel fremstillelse, ved hjælp af de nye maskiner, var meteorisk. Det eneste problem var tilstanden af landets veje, der næsten ikke var bedre, end i midalderen, så det var næsten umuligt at transporte de nye fabrikkers produkter på en effektiv måde. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Det, at bygge lange kanaler, var løsningen, men kun indtil udviklingen af jernbanerne gjorde de spritnye kanaler unødvendige indenfor kun ca 30 år. Men det der er fremskridt. Undskyld, kanalselskaber!!!!!

I jernbanernes tidlige dage var der skarp og bitter konkurrence med kanalselskaberne. Et jernbaneselkab ønskede at bygge en bro over en af de nye kanaler, og det hyrede hundredvis af arbejdere for at bygge broen – de valgte en søndag for at klare arbejdet for hemmeligheds skyld, fordi den juridiske situation dengang ikke endnu var helt klar.

I den følgende weekend, fik det pågældende kanalselskab broen revet ned, så jernbaneselskabet blev nødt til at få en domstolsbeslutning for at forhindre kanalselskabet i at rive nogle flere broer ned – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!