Friday 6 July 2018

08:00 We get up and go in the shower. After breakfast, Lois goes for a walk on the local football field while I start browsing through the first approx. 10 pages of a medieval York mystery play, because Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group is holding its regular monthly meeting today, and this mystery play is the group's current project.

12:00 Lois has to go out. She has to drive over to Ryall, a small village not far from Upton-on-Severn to spend the afternoon with Veronica, a member of Lois' sect. Veronica suffers from dementia and her husband, David, unfortunately had to go to Grimsby on the east coast of England yesterday for some reason - he will be back tonight. David has arranged a schedule with various relatives, friends and church members, so Veronica is only alone for short periods during his absence.

Ryall, a small village where Lois's friends David and Veronica live

I have lunch and go to bed for a short nap. I get up at 1:30pm and take the bus into town. I swing by the Everyman Theater café, have a cup of coffee and a piece of Victoria sponge cake - yum yum!

14:15 Other members of Lynda's U3A group begin to gather so we all go up the stairs to the 2nd floor of the theater and start the group's monthly meeting. We take turns to read about 20 lines and translate them into modern English, and comment on interesting words and grammar. The mystery play was written in the city of York in the 15th century, so the language is Middle English, northern dialect, which was significantly influenced by Danish and the other Scandinavian languages - this is something I find is very interesting, because of studying Danish.

a typical medieval York mystery play underway

on the streets of York City

The dialogue in the mystery play revolves around a group of 4 Roman soldiers who have the task of taking a cross made by local carpenters, nailing Jesus to the cross and raising it all up on high, so the crowd of spectators can see it.

It is interesting that the dialogues are quite comical - the soldiers are obviously very incompetent. But so were the local carpenters as well. Soldiers 3 and 4 find out that the carpenters have pre-drilled the nail holes in the wrong places on the cross, and they are very angry about it without a doubt!

The moment when soldiers # 3 and 4 discover that the cross's pre-drilled holes

are massively awry (by 1 foot - yikes!)

Group members discuss their bad experiences with pre-drilled holes in "flatpack" (ready to assemble) furniture, and there is some speculation about whether the soldiers were actually using an IKEA product - however someone points out that IKEA was not founded until 1943 - far too late to have supplied a flatpack cross either to Roman soldiers or to medieval actors in the city of York. Also in this case the holes in the cross were 1 foot (12 inches) askew, which seems too bad - IKEA holes are usually pre-drilled either approx in the right place or not very far from the right place.

16:00 The meeting ends. I take the bus back home. Lois has not appeared yet, so I hurry into the kitchen and peel some potatoes for dinner.

18:00 Lois comes back and I make my signature dish: fish fingers, boiled potatoes and baked beans - yum yum! We eat out on the terrace.

20:00 We listen a little to the radio, an interesting program called "The Last Word". Lois and I have the habit of catching this program every week because we want to find out if anyone has died or not in the last 1-2 weeks (I have noticed that most weeks exactly 5 deaths occur). The host of the program is the charming Matthew Bannister.

Dame Gillian Lynne, the famous dancer/ballerina, and (later) choreographer, sadly died recently, at the age of 92 years (yikes!). She worked for example with Andrew Lloyd-Webber on his musicals "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera".

Gillian Lynne, the famous choreographer, who sadly died recently,

in her younger days

She was a very active child - so active that her parents suspected she suffered from a version of St Vitus Dance: they became so desperate that they eventually took her to a doctor and left her in the doctor's waiting room. After her parents left, Gillian immediately began dancing around the waiting room, even on the tables. When the parents came back to pick her up, the doctor told them there was nothing wrong with Gillian: all she needed was to dance. And he told them to get her enrolled in a dance school.

My god, what madness !!!

She switched to musical theater after she got a role in a movie where Erroll Flynn, the Australian-born American actor, was the star - and she had an affair with him (of course). She later said - who didn't have an affair with Erroll Flynn? The affair did not last very long, but the pair exchanged letters until he died (in 1959), which is rather sweet.

Apparently there is a video clip on the internet in which she is dancing on the film set, while Erroll is sitting watching her in the wings. I did some research, but unfortunately I could not find the clip - damn it!

The producer Cameron Mackintosh said that for her entire life Gillian was a very sexy and amusing woman. Her last words in public were a few nights ago, when the cast and the audience were cheering her. She apparently said, "The secret of it all is nipples, you know. Nipples!", she said. "The nipples are up!". She was sitting on stage, strapped to a golden "throne". Her husband, Peter Land, whom she married in 1980, asked her if she was okay and if there was anything she needed. "Yes, darling," she replied. I'd love a glass of wine! "

Cheers, Gillian !!!!

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

Danish translation

08:00 Vi står op og går i bad. Efter morgenmad går Lois en tur på den lokale fodboldbane, mens jeg går i gang med at blade igennem de første ca. 10 sider af et midalderligt York-mysteriespil, fordi Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe holde sin regelmæssige månedlige møde i dag, og dette mysteriespil er gruppens nuværende projekt.

12:00 Lois skal af sted. Hun skal køre over til Ryall, en lille landsby, der ligger ikke ret langt fra Upton-on-Severn for at tilbringe eftermiddagen hos Veronica, en medlem af Lois’ sekt. Veronica lider af demens, og hans mand, David, skulle desværre i går rejse til Grimsby på Englands østlige kyst af en eller anden grund – han kommer tilbage i aften. David har arrangeret en tidsplan sammen med forskellige slægtninge, venner og kirkemedlemmer, så Veronika kun er alene for korte perioder under hans fravær.

Ryall, en lille landsby, hvor Lois’ venner David og Veronica bor

Jeg spiser frokost og går i seng. Jeg står op kl 13:30 og tage med bussen ind i byen. Jeg smutter ind hos Everyman-Teatrets café, drikker en kop kaffe og spiser et stykke Victoria sukkerbrødskage – yum yum!

14:15 Andre medlemmer af Lyndas U3A gruppe begynder til at samles, så vi alle gå op ad trappen til teatrets  2. etage, og starter gruppens månedlige møde. Vi skifter til at læse ca. 20 linjer og oversætte dem til moderne engelsk, og kommentere interessante ord og grammatik. Mysteriespillet blev skrevet i byen York i det 15. århundrede, så sproget er middelengelsk, nordlige dialekt, der i en betydelig grad var påvirket af dansk og de andre skandinavske sprog, hvilket for mit vedkommende er meget interessant.

et typisk midalderligt York-mysteriespil, der er i gang med

at blive opført på gaderne af byen York

Dialogerne i mysteriespillet kredser om en gruppe 4 romerske soldater, der har opgaven at tage et kors, lavet af lokale tømrer, og nagle Jesus til korset og rejste det hele op højt, så mængden af tilskuere kan se det.

Det er interessant, at dialogerne er ganske komiske – soldaterne er åbenbart meget ukompetente. Men det var de lokale tømrer også.  Soldaterne nr 3 og 4 opdager, at tømrerne har boret neglhullerne i de forkerte steder på korset, og det er de meget vrede over, ingen tvivl om det.

øjeblikket, soldaterne nr 3 og 4 opdager, at korsets forborede huller

er massivt skævt (med 1 fods)

Gruppemedlemmer diskuterer lidt deres dårlige oplevelser med forborede huller i samlesætmøbler, og der er lidt spekulation om, om soldaterne faktisk brugte et IKEA-produkt, men en eller anden påpeger, at IKEA først blev grundlagt i 1943 – alt for sent til at have forsynet et samlesætkors til skuespillerne i byen York. Også i dette tilfælde var hullerne 1 fods (12 inches) skævt, hvilket synes for dårligt – IKEAs huller er sædvanligvis forboret enten i det rigtige sted eller ikke særlig langt fra det rigtige sted.

16:00 Mødet slutter. Jeg tager busset tilbage hjem. Lois er ikke dukket op endnu, så skynder jeg ind i køkkenet or skrælder nogle kartofler til aftensmaden.

18:00 Lois kommer tilbage og jeg laver min signaturret:  fiskepinder, kogte kartofler og baked beans – yum yum! Vi spiser ude på terrassen.

20:00 Vi lytter lidt til radio, en interessant program kaldet ”Det sidste ord”. Lois og jeg har for vane at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om nogen i de seneste 1-2 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste uger sker nøjagtig 5 dødsfald). Programmets vært er den charmerende Matthew Bannister.

Dame Gillian Lynne, den berømte ballerinaer, og (senere) koreograf, døde desværre for nylig, på 92 år (yikes!). Hun arbejdede for eksempel med Andrew Lloyd-Webber på hans musicals   ”Cats” og ”Phantom of the Opera”.

Gillian Lynne, den berømte koreograf, der desværre døde for nylig

Hun var et meget aktiv barn – så aktiv, at hendes forældre mistænkte, at hun led af en version af Sanktvejtsdans:  de blev så desperate, at de til sidst tog hende med til en læge og efterlod hende i lægens ventesal.  Efter at hendes forældre tog af sted, begyndte Gillian umiddelbart at danse rundt i ventesalen, inklusive på bordene. Da forældrene kom tilbage for at hente hende, fortalte lægen dem, at der var ikke noget galt med Gillian: alt det hun havde brug for, var at danse. Og han fortalte dem at få hende indskrevet til en danseskole.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Hun skiftede over til musikalsk teater, efter hun skaffede en rolle i en film, hvor Erroll Flynn, den australsk-fødte amerikanske skuespiller,  var stjernen – og hun havde en affære med ham (naturligvis). Hun sagde senere, hvem ikke havde en affære med Erroll Flynn? Affæren varede ikke særlig længe, men de udvekslede breve indtil han (i 1959) døde, hvilket er sødt.

Tilsyneladende findes der et videoklip på internettet, hvor hun var i gang med at danse på filmsættet, og Erroll sidder og ser på hende i kulisserne. Jeg gjorde lidt forskning, men desværre kunne jeg ikke finde det – pokkers!

Instruktøren Cameron Mackintosh, sagde, at Gillian hele livet igennem var en meget sexet og morsom kvinde.  Hendes sidste ord i offentlighed, da rollebesætningen og publikummet for nogle aftener siden råbte for hende, var ”Hemmeligheden af det hele er brystvorter. Brystvorter!”, sagde hun. ”Brystvorterne er oppe!”. Hun sad på scenen, stroppet til en gylden ”trone”. Hendes mand, Peter Land, som hun giftede sig med i 1980, spurgte hende, om hun var okay, og om der var noget, hun havde brug for. ”Ja, skat”, svarede hun. Jeg vil meget gerne have et glas vin!”

Skål, Gillian!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!