Friday, July 20, 2018

10:00 We take the bus into town. We want to swing by the bank: Lois' cannot use her current credit card - it has been rejected by online stores twice in the last week, even though the expiration date has not yet passed. My god, what madness! The bank has screwed the whole thing up, and they admit it. They promise to send her a new card by post.

Afterwards, we swing by the Boots pharmacy. Lois needs to buy a few things, including a new bottle of Simple Shampoo, which our local supermarket has stopped selling for some reason. "Simple" is the only brand that does not irritate her scalp, it seems.

12:00 We come home and have lunch. Afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap while Lois gets going with doing the ironing. I get up at 3:45pm and we eat a couple of choc-ices while listening to the radio.

We hear an interesting program called "The Last Word". Lois and I have got in the habit of hearing this program every week because we want to find out if anyone has died or not in the last 1-2 weeks (I noticed that most weeks exactly 5 deaths occur). The host of the program is the charming Julian Worricker.

Steve Ditko, an enthusiastic supporter of Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophy, who is also the cartoonist that created the Marvel superhero Spider-Man, unfortunately died recently at the age of 90.

Some of Ditko's fans are very young, something I know for sure. Lois and I recently stayed 2 months (March-April 2018) in Perth, Australia with Sarah, our youngest daughter, also Francis, Sarah's husband, and their 4 and a half year old twins, Lily and Jessie.

During our stay, I discovered that Jessie, already at 4 and a half, was fascinated by smartphones, and also by superheroes. She could already scroll up and down and "click" on links, etc. She was always asking me to do some image search or other on my phone, especially searches on various superheroes she had developed a taste for, and Spider-Man was her favorite. How cute she was about it!

My smartphone's browser still shows details of

some of the image searches Jessie asked me to do - bless her!

Lily is Jessie's twin, but she has no interest in smartphones or superheroes, which shows that twins do not necessarily resemble each other when it comes to their preferences for this and that. The differences between the two girls became visible at a very early age, something I have found so interesting to watch.

Our son-in-law Francis, with Lily (left) and Jessie

17:00 I take a little look online. I laugh at two more funny headlines dreamed up by Adam Borowitz

Two funny headlines dreamed up today by the New Yorker's Adam Borowitz

Adam's ideas are definitely in full flood at the moment, no doubt about that. But I do not think this kind of thinking impresses Trump's hard-core supporters, I'm sorry to say. "He does what he says." ... "He does what he says." While the whole world criticizes Trump, the Trump heartlands are cheering.

Lois and I look forward to seeing a new BBC documentary about Trump's supporters in the US's southern states, which the BBC2 channel will be airing in the near future. The program's host will be former Labour Party politician Ed Balls. Let's hope that he is a better TV host than he was politician ha ha.

18:00 Back to reality. We have dinner. It's starting to rain, which is lucky. We do not have to water our flower beds and vegetable garden for once.

We spend the rest of the evening watching television. We see yesterday's extraordinary BBC Proms concert, starring the 23 year old energetic music genius and youtube star, Jacob Collier - a concert that is jazz themed for the most part, with a dash of folk music.

Lois and I are very pleased that we have not missed this concert and we are absolutely sure that the audience will never forget the evening.

Jacob spends the evening zooming around the stage, grabbing one instrument after another, but he also has an orchestra behind him, plus a few close musical friends and collaborators.

Jakob runs on stage at the start of his BBC Proms concert

He is not a composer of hit songs in the traditional sense. But he is adept at creating his own jazz-themed versions of others' well-known songs. And he knows how to make the music swing, no doubt about that.

He is also adept at composing original musical "sagas", with expressive music and meaningful texts, and he has beautiful diction, which Lois appreciates in particular.

the concert finale: Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long"

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

Danish translation

10:00 Vi tager bussen ind i byen. Vi ønsker at smutte ind hos banken: Lois’ kan ikke bruge sit nuværende kreditkort – det er to gange i den seneste uge blevet afvist af online forretninger, selvom udløbsdatoen ikke er overskredet endnu. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Banken har fukket det hele op, og det indrømmer de. De lover at sende hende et nyt kort med posten.

Bagefter smutter vi ind i Boots-apoteket. Lois har brug for at købe et par ting, inklusive  en ny flaske Simple-shampoo, som vores lokale supermarked har holdt op med at sælge af en eller anden grund. ”Simple” er det eneste mærke, der ikke irriterer hendes hovedbund, lader det til.

12:00 Vi kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur, mens Lois går i gang med at lave strygningen. Jeg står op kl 15:45 og vi spiser et par chokoladeis, mens vi lytter til radio.

Vi hører et 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 Julian Worricker.

Steve Ditko, en entusiatisk tilhænger af Ayn Rands objektivisme-filosofi, og den tegner, der skabte den Marvel superhelt Spider-Man, døde desværre for nylig, på 90 år.

Nogle af Ditkos fans er meget megt unge, hvilket jeg selv ved med sikkerhed. Lois og jeg boede i 2 måneder (marts-april 2018) i Perth, Australien hos Sarah, vores yngste datter, også Francis, Sarahs mand, og deres 4,5 årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessica.

Jeg opdagede under vores ophold derovre, at Jessica, allerede på 4,5 år, var fascineret af smartphones, også superhelte. Hun kunne allerede scrolle op og ned og ”klikke” på linker osv. Hun kunne lide at bede mig om at lave en eller anden image-søgning, især på forskellige superhelte, som hun har udviklet en smag for, og Spider-Man var hendes favorit. Hvor var hun dog sød!

Min smartphones browser viser stadig detaljerne af de image-søgninger,

som den lille Jessie bad mig om at lave - hvor van hun dog sød!

Lily er Jessicas tvilling, men hun har ikke noget interesse for smartphones eller superhelte, hvilket viser, at tvillinger ikke nødvendigvis ligner hinanden, når det kommer til deres præferencer for dette og hint. Forskellerne mellem de to piger blev synlige på en meget lille alder, hvilket er interessant.

Francis, vores svigersøn, sammen med Lily (til venstre) og Jessie

17:00 Jeg kigger lidt på nettet. Jeg griner af endnu to morsomme overskrifter drømt op af Adam

to morsomme overskrifter drømt op i dag af Adam Borowitz

Adams idéer kommer nok bestemt på gled for tiden, ingen tvivl om det. Men jeg synes ikke, denne slags tankegang imponerer Trumps hard-core tilhængere, er jeg ked af at sige. "Han gør, hvad han siger." ... "Han gør, hvad han siger." Mens hele verden kritiserer Trump, jubler hans bagland.

Lois og jeg glæder os til at se en ny BBC dokumentarfilm om Trumps tilhængere i USAs sydstater, som BBC2-kanalen vil sende i den nærmeste fremtid. Programmets vært vil være den tidligere arbejdspartipolitiker Ed Balls. Lad os håbe på, at han er en bedre tv-vært, end han var politiker ha ha.

18:00 Tilbage til virkeligheden. Vi spiser aftensmad. Det er begyndt at regne, hvilket er heldigt. Vi behøver ikke at vande vores blomsterbede og grøntsagshave for engangs skyld.

Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Vi ser gårsdagens ekstraordinære BBC Proms koncert, stjernespækket den 23-årige energiske musikgeni og youtube-stjerne, Jacob Collier - en koncert der er jazz-temaet for det meste, med et let anstrøg af folkmusik.

Lois og jeg er meget glade for, at vi ikke er gået glip af denne koncert, og vi er helt sikre på, at publikummet aldrig vil glemme aftenen.

Jacob bruger aftenen på at drøne rundt omkring på scenen, og at gribe fat i det ene instrument efter det andet, men han har også et orkester bag sig, plus et par tætte musikalske venner og samarbejdere. 

Jacob løber på scenen ved starten af sin BBC Proms koncert

Han er ikke en komponist af hitsange i den traditionelle forstand. Men han er dygtig til at skabe sine egne jazz-temaede versioner af andres velkendte sange. Han ved godt, hvordan man gør musikken til at svinge, ingen tvivl om det.

Han er også dygtig til at komponere oprindelige musikalske ”sagaer”, med udtryksfuld musik og betydningsfulde tekster, og han har smuk diktion, hvilket især Lois sætter stor pris på.

koncertens finale: Lionel Ritchies ”All Night Long”

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!