Danskcolin: Friday 22 June 2018

08:00 Lois and I get up. Our youngest daughter, Sarah, who lives in Australia with Francis, her husband and their (soon ot be) 5-year-old twins, has her 41st birthday today. It is when your children are on the verge of becoming middle aged, that you realize how old you yourself have become -yikes!

09:00 I take a little look online and I see to my surprise that Tünde, my penfriend in Budapest, has sent me an email. She actually wrote another email to me last month, but unfortunately I did not receive it because of a lack of coordination between my 2 email addresses - aol and yahoo: just craziness!

Flashback to December 2017: Tünde, my penfriend in Hungary,

on a visit to the Szentendre Museum, located just outside Budapest.

With great difficulty I write her a short holding reply - my Hungarian has become very rusty and it takes me all morning to write a few lines. I promise that I will send a proper response in a few days.

It's a bit sad - I study Hungarian for an hour every Tuesday with my friend, "Magyar" Mike. The problem is that Mike's knowledge is so limited that I spend the whole hour helping him with very basic linguistic issues, and so when it comes to my own knowledge, I never make any progress, I'm going backwards, if anything, to be honest. God, what madness !!!!

12:30 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up and hop up on my exercise bike. I cycle my usual 6 miles.

15:30 I sit down in front of my laptop and look at a couple of electricity and gas price comparison websites. In the past, I used to trust my former favorite site (uswitch.com) implicitly, but I have recently come to realise that these types of websites hide the prices of the electricity and gas companies that they do not have a contract with, so in short I have become a little suspicious in my old age.

I am a member of "Which", the British consumer organization, and I notice this afternoon to my surprise that Which also runs its own electricity and gas price comparison website - and I know I can trust their site unconditionally - I have no doubts about that.

To cut a long story short, I finally decide to switch from Green Star to Enstroga, which will save me approx. £250 a year, according to the Which website - hurrah! Kaching kaching [sound of cash register - ed.] !!!!!

But when I'm done, I feel totally exhausted. The whole process has flaked me out - good grief, I'm getting old, no doubt about that.

18:00 We have dinner: cornish pasty with baked beans - yum yum! Then we spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary is on, all about the lost world of female composers. The host of the program is the charming soprano Danielle de Niese.

The BBC4 channel is broadcasting this program as part of their "women's rights" season, to celebrate the centenary of women's suffrage.

A fascinating film with Danielle as the program's glamorous host. Lois and I are on tenterhooks waiting for Daniel's off the shoulder dress to fall off, but somehow she manages to keep it on.

It is especially interesting to hear about Clara Schumann, who from childhood played the piano both at home and on stage, which at that time was ok for girls / women as long as they sat with a slightly sad or melancholy expression on their faces to prove that they were neither horny or headstrong.

The piano hid the woman's body from the audience, so apparently it was okay. Violins were not advisable: the instrument itself reminded people of a woman's curves, and the woman's body swayed too sensually as she played it. And a cello standing between the woman's legs was an absolute no-no - my god, what madness !!!!

Clara was already at 18 years of age one of Europe's greatest concert pianists. She mostly performed other people's pieces, but she had also started composing pieces herself, as was the tradition for pianists at the time.

She once said that there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creating and composing. She composed her first piano concerto at 15 years of age, a piece full of passion and strength. She had a very strict father, and her music was the only way she could express her feelings, Danielle believes.

Clara was a genius, but unfortunately she also lacked self-confidence, the kind of scenario that I always find totally fascinating.

She fell in love with one of her father's students: Robert Schumann, who later became one of the 19th century's greatest composers.

The couple got married and Robert was initially very supportive of Clara and encouraged her to develop her compositional skills. His bottom line, however, - and what he most wanted - was for her to become his "good housewife". The year before they got married, he gave her a book as a Christmas present, with "dedicated to my housewife" engraved on the cover - good grief, sheer insanity !!!!

His bottom line was, in other words: evening meal on the table, with the slippers and the newspaper ready for him by his favourite armchair ... good grief, pass the sickbag, Alice (copyright John Junor) ha ha ha !!!!

Robert's Christmas present to Clara, his fiancee: "dedicated to my hausfrau"

Good grief, pass the sickbag, Alice !!!!

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

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg står op. Vores yngste datter, Sarah, der bor i Australien sammen med Francis, sin mand og deres (snart) 5-årige tvillinger, har sin 41. fødselsdag i dag. Det er på det tidspunkt, at dine børn står på tærsklen til at blive midaldrende, at du bliver klar over, hvor gammel du selv er blevet –yikes!

09:00 Jeg kigger lidt på nettet og jeg ser til min overraskelse, at Tünde, min penneveninde i Budapest, har sendt mig en email. Hun skrev faktisk en email til mig sidste måned, men jeg desværre modtog den ikke, på grund af en mangel på samordning mellem mine 2 emailadresser – aol og yahoo.

Tilbageblik til december 2017: Tünde, min penneveninde i Ungarn,

besøgte Szentendre-museet, der ligger lige uden for Budapest.

Jeg skriver et kort svar med besvær – mit ungarsk er blevet meget rustent, og det tager mig hele formiddagen til at skrive et par stykker linjer. Jeg lover, at jeg skal skrive et ordentligt svar om et par dage.

Jeg studerer ungarsk i en time hver tirsdag sammen med min ven, ”Magyar” Mike. Problemet er, at Mikes viden er så begrænset, at jeg bruger hele time på at hjælpe ham med meget grundlæggende spørgsmål, og, når det kommer til min egen viden, skrider det ikke fremad, skrider det lidt tilbage, ærligt talt. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermidddagslur. Jeg står op og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles.

15:30 Jeg sætter mig foran min bærebare og kigger på et par el- og gas-prissammenligningssider. Før i tiden stolede jeg ubetinget på min tidligere yndlngsside, uswitch.com, men jeg har for nylig blevet klar over, at disse slags sider skjuler priserne af de el- og gasselkskaber, som sider som uswitch ikke har en kontrakt med, så kort sagt er jeg blevet lidt mistænksom i min alderdom.

Jeg er medlem af ”Which”, den britiske forbruger-organisation, og jeg opdager i eftermiddag til min overraskelse og glæde, at Which også driver en el- og gas-prissammenligningsside – og deres side kan jeg virkelig stole ubetinget på – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om.

For at gøre en lang historie kort beslutter jeg mig endelig for at skifte fra Green Energy til Enstroga, hvilket vil spare mig ca. 250£ om året, ifølge Which-websitet – hurra! Katjing katjing [lyden af kasseapparat – red.] !!!!!

Men da jeg er færdig, føler jeg helt udkørt. Den hele proces har slået mig ud – du godeste, jeg bliver gammel, ingen tvivl om det.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad: cornish pasty med baked beans – yum yum! Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om den fortabte verden af kvindelige komponister. Programmets vært er den charmerende sopran, Danielle de Niese.

BBC4-kanalen sender dette program som en del af deres ”kvinders rettigheder”-sæson, for at fejre hundredeårsdagen for kvinders valgret.

En fascinerende film med Danielle som programmets glamorøse vært. Lois og jeg er på nåle – vi venter hele tiden på, at Danielles kjole falder af, men på en eller anden måde lykker det hende at beholde den på.

Det er i sær interessant at høre om Clara Schumann, der først som barn spillede klaver både hjemme og på scenen, hvilket dengang var okay for piger/kvinder, så længe de sad med et lidt trist eller vemodigt udtryk i ansigtet, for at bevise, at de ikke var liderlig eller egensindig. Klaveret skjulte kvindens krop fra publikummet, så det tilsyneladende var okay. Violiner var ikke tilrådelige: selve instrumentet lignede en kvindes kurver, og kvindens krop svajede for sensualt. Celloen, der stod mellem kvindens benene var en absolut no-no – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Clara allerede på 18 år var en af Europas største concertpianister. Hun opførte for de meste andres musikstykker, men startede også at komponere korte stykker selv, som var traditionen dengang. Hun sagde engang, at der er intet, der overgå glæden ved at skabe, at komponere. Hun komponerede sin første klaverconcert på 15 år, et stykke, der var fuld af lidenskab og styrke. Hun havde en meget streng far, og hendes musik var den eneste måde, hun kunne udtrykke sine følelser, synes Danielle.

Hun var en geni, men hun manglede desværre selvtillid, det slags scenarium, som jeg altid finder helt fascinerende.

Hun blev forelsket i en af sin fars studenter: Robert Schumann, der selv senere blev en af det 19. århundredes største komponister.

Parret giftede sig, og Robert var i begyndelsen meget støttende overfor Clara, og opmuntrede hende til at udvikle sine kompositionelle færdigheder. Hans bundlinjen var imidlertid - det han mest ønskede - var, at hun blev til hans ”gode husmor”. året, før de giftede sig, gav han hende en bog som julegave, hvor han fik skrevet ”dedikeret til min husmor” på omslaget – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Hans bundlinjen var med andre ord... aftensmaden på bordet, og sutskoene og avisen klar til ham ved hans bedste lænestol…du godeste, ræk mig lige opkastningsposen, Alice (copyright John Junor) ha ha ha.