08:00 We get up and tidy up the house. I vacuum
everywhere, because our U3A Danish group is holding its regular meeting here this
afternoon at 2:30 pm . Busy, busy, busy!
11:00 We take a short break and relax with a cup of
coffee on the couch.
12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a
short afternoon nap. I get up at 1:45pm and prepare for our Danish group's
meeting.
14:30 Members ring at the door and we all study Danish for
one and a half hours. At the end of the meeting we have finished reading our current Danish crime novella, "Line": it won a short story competition
organized by the Danish crime website, krimifan.dk. The novella is about a
suspicious suicide that occurred just outside the famous abandoned church which stands just outside Skagen, on the North Jutland coast. But was it
actually murder rather than suicide?
Before today's meeting, I had kept back the last 2 pages
of the novella to create a suspenseful atmosphere. Would the novella's hero,
Jacob, the deceased man's son, escape the clutches of the church's creepy
janitor who has already killed his father?
Towards the end of the meeting, I hand out the last 2
pages of the novel to the members, and we read out, and translate into English,
the novella's climax.
Clearly the members have enjoyed the story, though they
are perhaps a little disappointed by the ending: evil triumphs unfortunately -
the creepy church janitor follows up his murder of Jacob's father (not to
mention the killing of dozens of young girls) with the murder of Jacob
himself - yikes! What a crazy world we live in !!!!
There is a small handful of careers and professions that
seem to attract creepy people, where one is almost sure that the person concerned will
turn out to be the murderer. Butlers are the most obvious example, especially
in England, but creepy church janitors have to take a respectable second place
in the competition, I think.
The abandoned church at Skagen, where a creepy
church janitor runs amok.
15:45 Just before the end of the meeting, I tell the
members that I have already chosen the group's next project: "Stories of
the night" by Peter Høeg. For the first time, we are going to be reading a
novella written by a "proper" author, not an amateur, or a contest
winner, or an author who self-publishes his works online, etc.
Nobody says they do not want to continue as a group
member, which is a bit of a relief - I have to admit.
Even though our daughter Alison is moving back to England
after nearly 6 years of residence in Denmark, I have decided to continue
studying the Danish language. I'm too old, at age 72, to start learning a new
language. Also Danish is a very interesting language because it had a major
influence on English - thousands of Danish immigrants settled in eastern
England during the Viking Age, and it was the dialect of the East Midlands
which developed into standard English (because the East Midlands area included London) - that's why
English is sometimes classified as a Scandinavian language.
dialect map: the medieval dialects of the
English language.
16:00 The meeting ends, but members stay sitting and
talking to us and to each other for another half hour, which is very
encouraging - it shows they feel at home here, which is nice.
18:00 We have dinner and afterwards Lois has to leave.
She wants to attend her sect's monthly business meeting taking place tonight in
Tewkesbury library.
I have a little alone time and go out into the backyard
to water the flower beds and vegetable garden.
20:00 I watch a bit of TV. An interesting documentary is
on in the "World's Most Extraordinary Homes" series. The program's
hosts are the charming Piers Taylor and Caroline Quentin. This episode is about
unusual houses in Israel.
This kind of program is guaranteed to make Lois and me
laugh. The houses have the same relationship to real life as so-called
"gastroporn" has to everyday cooking.
The architecture of the houses is very beautiful and
original, but the houses themselves are mostly not "homes" in our
opinion. Huge rooms, where the walls and owners' elegant furniture all tend to
be pure white.
When the program's hosts, Caroline and Piers, look around
the houses, the owners are always out of the house - it's never explained why.
Apart from the fact that there is furniture in the houses, there are no other
signs that anybody lives there.
And it's almost impossible to imagine the houses
with people living in them - it's a shame that the program does not show us the
houses in everyday situations: people, children, mess, kitchens with dirty
plates and pots on worktops, living rooms littered with clothes, toys, books,
etc.
It's almost impossible to imagine these homes in
everyday situations
with people, children, mess, dirty dishes and pots,
clothes, toys, books ....
And I would also like to see the houses when cleaning is
going on: huge rooms, high ceilings (sometimes 3 floors high in the hallway for
example). They must need an army of cleaners, no doubt about that.
Good god, I am such a philistine (expression particularly
appropriate, considering that tonight we are in Israel, ha ha ha).
22:00 Lois comes home from her church's business meeting.
We chat a little - the meeting was mostly about a get-together to take place on
Saturday afternoon. The sect's members have organized the get-together at a
hotel in Tewkesbury, and have invited about 40 non-members (friends, relatives,
partners, former Sunday school students or seminar participants who haven't signed up, etc.).
Gupshill Manor, Tewkesbury
I have already started feeling nervous about Saturday.
The get-together will last about 5 hours in total, although there is no
compulsion for guests to stay there for the whole 5 hours. Unfortunately, Lois
is one of the organizers - she has to stay for 5 hours, and so I will also have
to stay for 5 hours to support her and drive her home afterwards. Yikes! A bit
of a nightmare for me, the whole thing.
Initially, the hotel will serve appetizers, or something
similar, and later there will be afternoon tea, cakes, etc. (or something
similar). And no alcohol of course.
Five hours is a long time and means a lot of chit-chat
and I will have to talk to a lot of people I do not want to talk to - no doubt
about that. Yikes (again) !!!
Not at all my bag, the whole thing. I remember Sheldon's
immortal words in the Big Bang Theory when he was invited to his close friends
Howard and Bernadette's wedding, "I'm going to say no - it doesn't sound
like the kind of thing I would enjoy." But of course he was not allowed to
turn down the invitation - poor Sheldon !!!! And poor me !!!!!!
But Lois clearly needs my support, poor Lois, and I’ll do
my best. I won’t let her down.
22:15 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!
Danish
translation
08:00 Vi står
op og rydder lidt op i huset. Jeg støvsuger overalt, fordi vores U3A danske
gruppe holder sin regelmæssige møde i eftermiddag kl 14:30 hos os. Travlt,
travlt, travlt!
11:00 Vi tager
en kort pause og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.
12:00 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg
står op kl 13:45 og forbereder mig på vores danske gruppes møde.
14:30
Medlemmer ringer på døren og vi studerer dansk i en og en halv time. Ved slutningen
af mødet bliver vi færdige med at læse vores danske kriminovelle, ”Line”, der
vandt en novelleskrivnings-konkurrence organiseret af det danske krimi-websted,
krimifan.dk . Novellen handler om et mistænksomt selvmord, der skete udenfor
den berømte tilsandede kirke, der står lidt udenfor Skagen, på Nordjyllands
kyst. Men var det faktisk mord snarere, end selvmord?
Før dagens
møde havde jeg tilbageholdt novellens 2 sidste sider for at skabe en
suspensefuld stemning. Ville novellens
helt, Jakob, den afdødes søn, slippe ud af kløerne på den kirkes uhyggelige
kirkepasser, der har allerede dræbt faren?
Mod mødets
slutning uddeler jeg novellens sidste 2 sider til medlemmerne, og vi læser op,
og oversætte til engelsk, novellens klimaks.
Det er klart,
at medlemmerne har nydt novellen, selvom de måske bliver lidt skuffet af
slutningen: det onde triumfer desværre – den uhyggelige kirkepasser følger op
sit mord af Jakobs far (for ikke at nævne dræbet af hundredvis af unge piger)
med mordet af selve Jakob – yikes! Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
Der er en
lille håndfuld af karrierer og professioiner, som virker at tiltrække
uhyggelige mennesker, hvor man er næsten sikker på, at den pågældende person
vil vise sig at være gerningsmanden. Hushovmestre er det mest oplagte eksempel,
især i England, men uhyggelige kirkepassere må tage en respektabel andenplads i
konkurrencen, synes jeg.
den
tilsandede kirke, Skagen, hvor en uhyggelig kirkepasser går amok.
15:45 Lige
inden slutningen af mødet fortæller jeg medlemmerne, at jeg allerede har valgt
gruppens næste projekt: ”Fortælliger om natten” af Peter Høeg. For første gang
vil vi læse en novelle skrevet af en ”ordentlig” forfatter, ikke en amatør,
eller en konkurrencevinder, eller en selvstændig forfatter, der udgiver sine
værker på nettet osv.
Ingen siger,
de ikke har lyst til at fortsætte som gruppemedlem, hvilket er lidt af en
lettelse – det må jeg indrømme!
Selvom vores
datter Alison er ved at flytte tilbage til England efter næsten 6 års ophold i Danmark, har jeg besluttet mig for at fortsætte med at
studere det danske sprog. Jeg er for gammel, på 72 år, til at begynde at lære
et nyt sprog. Også dansk er et meget interessant sprog, fordi det havde sikke
en stor indflydelse på det engelske sprog – tusindvis af danske indvandrer
bosatte sig i det østlige England under vikingetiden, og det var det østlige
Englands dialekt, der udviklede sig til standardengelsk (området indeholdt
London) – derfor bliver engelsk somme tider klassificeret som et skandinavsk
sprog.
de midalderlige dialekter af det engelske sprog.
16:00 Mødet
slutter, men medlemmer bliver siddende og snakkende med os og med hinanden i en
halv time, hvilket er meget opmuntrende – det viser, de føler sig hjemme her,
hvilket er rart.
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal Lois af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin
sekts forretningsmøde, der finder sted i aften i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek.
Jeg har lidt
alenetid og går ud i baghaven for at vande blomsterbedene og grøntsagshaven.
20:00 Jeg ser
lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm i serien ”Verdens mest ekstraordinære
hjem”. Programmets værter er de charmerende Piers Taylor og Caroline Quentin.
Dette afsnit handler om usædvanlige huse i Israel.
Dette slags
program er garanteret at få Lois og mig til at grine. Husene har det samme
forhold til det virkelige liv, som den såkaldte ”gastroporno” har til hverdagens
normale madlavning.
Husenes
arkitektur er meget smuk og oprindelig, men selve husene er for det meste ikke
”hjem” efter vores mening. Enorme rummer, hvor væggene og ejernes elegante
møbler har tendens til at være rent hvide.
Når
programmets værter, Caroline og Piers, kigger rundt omkring i husene uder
programmet, er beboerne altid ude af huset – det bliver aldrig forklaret
hvorfor. Bortset fra, at der er møbler i husene, er der ingen andre tegn på, at nogen bor derinde. Og det er næsten umuligt at forestille sig
husene med mennesker boende derinde – det er lidt af en skam, at programmet
ikke viser os huset i hverdagssituationer:
mennesker, børn, rod, køkkener med beskidte tallerkener og gryder på
bordplader, stuer, der flyder med tøj, legetøj, bøger osv.
det er næsten umuligt at forestille sig disse hjem i hverdagssituationer
med
mennesker, børn, rod, beskidte tallerkener og gryder, tøj, legetøj, bøger....
Og jeg vil
gerne se husene, når rengøring er i gang: enorme rummer, høj lofter (nogle
gange 3 etager høje i entreen for eksempel. De må have brug for en hær af rengøringsassistenter,
ingen tvivl om det.
Du godeste,
jeg er sikke en filister (udtryk i sær passende, i betragtningen af, at vi i
aften er i Israel ha ha ha).
22:00 Lois
kommer hjem fra sin sekts forretningsmøde. Vi snakker lidt – aftenens møde handlede
for det meste om en sammenkomst, der skal finde plads på lørdag eftermiddag.
Sektens medlemmer har organiseret sammenkomsten på et hotel i byen Tewkesbury,
og de har inviteret ca 40 mennesker, der ikke er medlemmer (venner, slægtninge,
partnere, eks-søndagsskkoleelever, seminardeltagere osv).
Jeg er allerede
begyndt at føle mig lidt nervøs over lørdag. Sammenkomsten vil vare ca. 5 timer
i alt, selvom der ikke er tvang for gæsterne til at blive der hele 5 timer. Desværre er Lois en af sammenkomstens
organisatorer – hun skal blive hele 5 timer, og dermed skal jeg også blive hele
5 timer for at støtte hende og køre hende hjem efter. Yikes! Lidt af et
mareridt for mig, det hele.
I begyndelsen
vil hotellet servere appetitvækkere, eller noget lignende, og senere vil der
være eftermiddagste, kager osv (eller noget lignende). Og ingen alkohol selvfølgelig.
Fem timer er
lang tid og betyder en masse snik-snak, og jeg bliver nødt til at snakke med en
masse folk, jeg ikke har lyst til at snakke med – ingen tvivl om det. Yikes
(igen) !!!
Overhovedet
ikke mit nummer, det hele. Jeg mindes Sheldons udødelige ord i Big Bang Theory,
da han blev inviteret til sine tætte venner Howard og Bernadettes bryllup, ”jeg
skal sige nej – det lyder ikke som den slags ting, jeg ville nyde”.
Selvfølgelig han blev ikke tilladt at afvise invitationen - stakkels Sheldon!!!! Og stakkels mig !!!!!!
Men Lois har
klart og tydeligt brug for min støtte, staklen, og vil gøre mit bedste og ikke
svigte hende!!!!
22:15 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzz!!!!
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