The weather girl said yesterday that it would rain today,
but every time I glance at my smartphone the chances of rain seem to get a bit less.
Damn!
We are currently saving as much as possible of our
waste water, in the kitchen, in the utility room and in the bathroom, where we
have put our 3 big buckets. We use the water we collect in order to help top up one of
our 3 water-butts, the one standing on the terrace. We have also temporarily
turned off the pump that increases the water pressure in the shower.
10:00 I jump up on my exercise bike and cycle my usual 6
miles. I want to do it before it gets too hot.
I ask Lois to take a short Danish vocabulary test that I
have devised. I'm a difficult man to be married to - no doubt about that. I
want to find out which of the new Danish words she can still remember of the ones we came across on Wednesday during our
regular U3A Danish group meeting , and which she has
forgotten.
She takes the test and I utilize her results to make a new list of
the hardest words, which I will now send to all group members. I'm so demanding
ha ha. But Lois is a good guinea pig - I offer to write her a reference, but
she rejects the offer. I suppose she has got more important things on her plate
right now.
12:30 We have lunch. It is very nice to be able to have a
glass of Bath Ales beer with the meal. Afterwards I go to bed and take a huge
afternoon nap. I get up at 4pm and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch.
16:00 We listen to the radio for a bit: 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 over the past 1-2 weeks (I have noticed that most weeks exactly 5 deaths
occur ). The host of the program is the charming Julian Worricker.
Adrian Cronauer died recently unfortunately. He was the
military DJ in Vietnam whose story was depicted in a popular movie starring Robin
Williams, "Good Morning Vietnam". I saw this movie on VHS early in
the 1980s, but my reaction was less than overwhelming: I must say. I presumed
that the humor was a bit too American for me.
Adrian Cronauer, who unfortunately died
recently
This afternoon we hear a short biography of Cronauer, but
both Lois and I feel that we still do not understand the background to his
fame. We think that "The Last Word" programme has let us down here
for once.
In an interview, Cronauer confirmed that the film was a
very accurate depiction of his career as a military dj, except for a few minor
points: it was true that he was a military dj in Vietnam and that he taught
English there in his spare time, but untrue that he taught his students to swear or to use
New York street slang. And he did not become a part-time teacher just to meet a
certain beautiful Vietnamese girl, at least not to meet only one. So pretty
accurate apparently ha ha.
17:00 I take a little look online. Steve, my American
brother in law, has reminded me that there will be a spectacular lunar eclipse
tonight. He says that the eclipse will be visible worldwide, except in the
United States. He blames Trump for that: but is this strictly fair? I'm not
entirely sure. Unfortunately, the weather girl has said it will be cloudy here
tonight. Damn!
18:00 We eat dinner with another glass of Bath Ales beer
- life has got good suddenly.
We spend the evening watching television. An
interesting documentary is on, all about the Dutch ship Batavia, which got
shipwrecked on the west coast of Australia 400 years ago on its way to what is
now the city of Jakarta. The accident was probably the first time ever that
Europeans set foot on Australian soil.
The story is quite extraordinary. If an author had
depicted the saga in a novel, critics would have rubbished it as much too
unbelievable.
Briefly, the ship was part of a convoy which was
transporting stone monuments, money, jewels, and passengers from Holland to
Jakarta (then called Batavia). Cornelisz, the ship's third in command, hatched
a plot to sail away from the rest of the convoy, wreck the ship on the cliffs
on the western coast of Australia, kill most of the crew and passengers, keep
all the money and become a pirate. Ha! Living the dream! And he almost got away
with it!
Cornelisz was a Dutch pharmacist with a problematic past.
His pharmacy business in Haarlem, Holland, had gone bankrupt, and he had got
involved with a group of local libertines who were into orgies of sex and violence.
He has been compared to Charles Manson - yikes!
Lois and I are very interested in the story because we
saw the remains of the lost ship and the ship's freight and passengers when we
visited the Fremantle Shipwreck Museum 2 years ago, during our first visit to our
younger daughter Sarah and her family in Perth.
Flashback to June 2016: remains of the 17th century Dutch ship Batavia,
including
skeletons and a reproduction of a giant stone arch,
which the ship was
transporting to Jakarta.
Lois is sitting on the museum’s famous red “comfy
sofa”
After our harrowing museum visit, Lois and I
try to recover our sanity
in a small cafe on the seafront: fish and chips Aussie style - yum yum!
But watch out for the seagulls: they are
aggressive round there, no doubt about that.
The Shipwreck Museum can be seen behind me.
22:00 We go to bed. We look out of the
window for a few seconds , but decide that we do not have the slightest chance of seeing the eclipse.
It is very cloudy, as expected. Just our luck!
Danish translation
Vejrpigen
sagde i går, at det ville komme til at regne i dag, men hver gang jeg skeler
til min smartphone, bliver chancerne for regnvejr lidt mindre. Pokkers!
For tiden
sparer vi så meget som muligt af vores spildevand, både i køkkenet, i
bryggerset og i badeværelset, hvor vi har stillet vores 3 store spande. Vi
bruger vandet vi samler for at hjælpe med at fylde op den ene af vores 3
vandstønder, den, der står på terrassen. Vi har også midlertidigt slukket for
den pump, der øger vandtrykket i brusebadet.
10:00 Jeg
hopper op på min kondicykel og cykler
mine sædvanlige 6 miles. Jeg har lyst til at gøre det, før det bliver for
varmt.
Jeg beder Lois
om at tage en kort dansk ordforrådtest, jeg har udfærdiget. Jeg er en vanskelig
mand at blive giftet med – ingen tvivl om det! Jeg har lyst til at finde ud af,
hvilke af de nye danske ord, vi i onsdags mødte i vores U3A danske gruppes
regelmæssige møde, hun stadig kan huske, og hvilke hun har glemt. Hun tager
testen og jeg udnytter hendes resultater for at udfærdige en ny liste over de
sværeste ord, som jeg vil udsende til alle gruppemedlemmerne. Jeg er så
krævende ha ha. Men Lois er en god forsøgskanin – jeg tilbyder at skrive hende
en reference, men hun afviser tilbuddet. Jeg formoder, hun lige nu har
vigtigere ting for.
12:30 Vi
spiser frokost. Det er meget rart at kunne have et glas Bath Ales øl til maden.
Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op
kl 16 og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
16:00 Vi
lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program kaldet ”Det sidste
ord”. Lois og jeg er kommet i
vane med 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.
Adrian
Cronauer døde for nylig desværre. Han var den militære dj i Vietnam, hvis
historie blev skildret i en populær film stjernespækket Robin Williams, med
titlen ”Good Morning Vietnam”. Jeg så denne film på vhs først i 1980’erne, men
min reaktion var mindre, end overvældende: det må jeg nok sige. Jeg formodede,
at humoren var dengang lidt for amerikansk for mig.
Adrian
Cronauer, der desværre døde for nylig
Vi hører i
eftermiddag en kort biografi af Cronauer, men både Lois og jeg føler, at vi
stadig ikke forstår baggrunden for hans berømmelse. Vi mener, at ”Det sidste
ord” for engangs skyld har svigtet os her.
I et interview
bekræftede Cronauer, at filmen udgjorde en meget akkurat skildring af sin
karriere som militær dj, bortset fra et par mindre punkter: det var sandt, at
han var en militær dj i Vietnam, og at han i sin fritid underviste engelsk, men
han lærte ikke sine elever at bande eller at bruge New York gadeslang. Og han
blev ikke til deltidslærer for at kunne møde en vis smuk vietnamiske pige, i
det mindste ikke for at møde bare én. Så ganske akkurat tilsyneladende
ha ha.
17:00 Jeg
kigger lidt på nettet. Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror, har mindet mig om, at
der vil være en spektakulær måneformørkelse i aften. Han siger, at formørkelsen
vil være synlig verden over, bortset fra i USA. Det bebrejder han Trump for:
men er dette strengt taget retfærdigt? Det er jeg ikke helt sikker på. Desværre
har vejrpigen sagt, at det vil være overskyet her i aften. Pokkers!
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad, med endnu et glas Bath Ales øl – livet er blevet godt
pludselig. Vi bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant
dokumentarfilm, der handler om det hollandske skib Batavia, der forliste på
Australiens vestlige kyst for 400 år siden på vej til den nuværende by Jakarta.
Ulykken var sandsynligvis den første gang nogensinde, europæere satte ben på
australske jord.
Historien er ganske ekstraordinær. Hvis en forfatter havde beskrevet sagaen i en roman,
ville kritikere have nedsablet den som meget for utrolig.
Kort sagt, skibet
var en del af en konvoj, der var i gang med at transportere stenmonumenter,
penge, juveler, passagere fra Holland til Jakarta (kaldet dengang Batavia). Cornelisz,
skibets tredje i kommando, organiserede en sammensværgelse for at at sejle væk
fra resten af konvojen, ødelægge skibet på klippene på Australiens vestlige kyst,
dræbe de fleste af besætningen og passagererne, bevare alle pengene og blive en
pirat. Ha! At leve drømmen! Og han slippede næsten af sted med det!
Cornelisz var
en hollandske apoteker med en problematisk fortid. Sin apoteksforretning i
Haarlem, Holland, var gået konkurs, og han var blevet involveret med en gruppe libertiner,
der var til orgier af sex og vold. Han er blevet sammen lignet med Charles
Manson – yikes!
Lois og jeg er
meget interesserede i historien, fordi vi så resterne af det forliste skib, og
af skibets fragt og passagere, da vi besøgte byen Fremantles Shipwreck Museum
for 2 år siden, under et besøg hos vores yngste datter Sarah og hendes familie
i Perth.
Tilbageblik til juni 2016:
resterne af den hollandske skib Batavia, inklusive skeletter og en reproduktionen
af
en gigantisk stenbue, som skibet transporterede til Jakarta.
Lois
sidder på museets berømte røde ”comfy sofa”
Efter
vores sindoprevende museumbesøg slapper Lois og jeg af i en lille café
på
strandpromenaden: fish and chips australsk stil – yum yum!
Men
pas på mågerne: de er aggressive deromkring, ingen tvivl om det.
Museet ses i baggrunden bag mig.
22:00 Vi går i
seng. Vi kigger et par sekynder ud af vinduet, men beslutter, at vi ikke har
den fjerneste chance for at se måneformørkelsen. Det er meget for overskyet,
som forventet. Bare vores held!
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