Sunday, July 8, 2018
09:00 We drive over to our eldest daughter Alison's house
in Haslemere, Surrey. I've got out of the habit of doing long drives in the
car. It only takes about 2 hours, but I find it a bit of a challenge. I am
getting old, no doubt about that. We make only one stop on the way: Reading
Services, to pop to the toilet and grab a cup of coffee.
This is our first visit to a motorway services area for 5
years and we get a bit of a shock, I must say. Unfortunately, the services
company has stopped its own restaurant: there are only concessions now - Costa,
BurgerKing etc, and they all have long queues where customers wait while
waitresses faff about making and serving complicated coffee orders - good
grief, what madness !! I give up and decide to drink my bottle of water in the
car - damn it!
12:00 We arrive at Alison's house and have lunch with
Alison, Ed, her husband, and their 3 children, Josie (11), Rosalind (10) and
Isaac (7).
Our 3 grandchildren welcome us at the door
15:00 We drive to our hotel, and Lois and I check in and
we take our suitcase up to our room. Afterwards, we have a cup of tea in a
nearby cafe together with Alison's family, and then all 7 of us go for a short
walk in the area of Devil's Punchbowl "crater", a deep valley, which
was actually created by soil erosion over many millennia.
We go for a short walk
around the edge of the Devil's Punchbowl,
a giant crater, created by millennia of soil
erosion
We all go back to Alison and Ed's house and relax with
the family and get to know their 2 Danish street cats.
Lois and I get to know the family's 2 Danish
street cats.
The family arrived back to England from Copenhagen a week
ago and they have been very busy unpacking their moving boxes, arranging
furniture and belongings, etc.
After dinner, Lois and I drive back to our hotel.
Monday, July 9, 2018
We spend the day with Alison and her family. In the
morning, Ed goes to Basingstoke for a little chat with his career counselor,
whom his former company assigned to him after they let him go at the end of
March.
Ed is not rushing to find a new job. He is primarily
focused on finding "the right job". His previous job was at a fairly
high level, where vacancies are quite rare. Ed's career counselors have assured
him that it's better to wait a few months for the right job to come up at the right level,
rather than taking a job at a lower level, and then working his way up.
Lois and I suspect he got a very generous amount of
compensation because the family does not seem to be short of cash, to say
the least!
10:30 Ed has to leave. The younger 2 children, Rosalind
(10) and Isaac (7) are in school today.
Lois and I, Alison, and Josie (11) talk a little on
whatsapp with our younger daughter Sarah, her husband, Francis, and their (soon
to be) 5-year-old twins in Perth, Australia.
Afterwards we drive Alison and Josie into the town of
Haslemere. All 4 of us have not seen the town for almost 6 years, so it's very
interesting to see the changes: new stores, shops that have disappeared, etc.
We swing by Barrista café and have a cup of coffee. This
is the cafe where Alison and the other local young mothers used to meet many
years ago, all with their huge modern baby buggies. There are no young mothers
in there today - it seems that someone else's cafe somewhere else must be the
fashionable place nowadays. Times change, no doubt about that.
We swing by the Barrista café and have a cup
of coffee.
We take a little look round the town. Many shops have
large painted statues of hares in front of their doors. This kind of custom is
fashionable at the moment - many small English towns choose some animal or
other as their town's "symbol" - the phenomenon attracts tourists, I
have no doubts about that. They are very photogenic.
We take a little look round the
town. Many stores are new
since the last time we were in town (almost
5 years ago)
Ed comes back from Basingstoke and we all have lunch.
15:00 We drive in two cars to the school to pick up
Rosalind and Isaac. Afterwards we drive to a local garden center. Ali and Ed
want to buy a lot of new plants to brighten up the garden, and create a little
interest there in a garden which is currently quite bland and without
distinctive character, after the family's 6-year absence in Denmark.
Lois and Isaac standing in front of a Morgan
vintage car
in the garden center's parking lot
17:00 All 7 of us drive back to Alison and Ed's house and
have dinner. Afterwards, we show them our photos from our recent vacation in
Perth, Australia with our younger daughter Sarah and her young family.
21:00 Lois and I drive back to our hotel and collapse
into bed after 11 hours of chatting. It's a bit of a shock in comparison to our
usual days where we, like the 2 old crows we are, spend mostly quiet and
peaceful days alone in the huge house that we bought in 1986, when our 2
daughters were small, Alison 10 years old and Sarah just 8. Yikes - we are getting old, no doubt about that
!!!!!
But it has been so nice to be able to visit Alison's
family now they are back in England and so we do not need to board a plane to see
them. They are a lovely family.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
9:00 pm Lois and I check out of our hotel and drive back
to Cheltenham. We have to go back to take care of Minx, Alison's former cat,
whom she left with us when the family moved to Copenhagen in November 2012. Our
neighbors, Stephen and Frances, were looking after Minx until last night, but
this morning they fly to the Czech Republic for a week's vacation with Frances'
old penfriend.
12:00 We come home and have lunch. Afterwards we go to
bed and take a huge afternoon nap.
18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening
watching television. A scary documentary film (No. 3 in the series), all about
Trump and the American press, especially the New York Times, which the
president is not on good terms with, to put it mildly!
A fascinating 3rd episode covering, among other things,
the violence in Charlottesville with Trump's reaction, and Mueller's work as a special investigator,
looking into connections between Trump's election campaign and Russia.
It's very nice to see and hear decent and intelligent
people (the newspaper reporters) telling the truth about Trump: the fact that
he is completely comfortable with telling lies, making up stories, hurling
abuse like a schoolboy against his political opponents and against the press
etc. Of course, we already know all this well enough, but it is nice to hear it
being confirmed by the newspaper's journalists.
Many of these events are well-known, but in some ways the
most shocking and scary scene appears in the middle of the program, when we see
Trump speaking to his supporters in Phoenix, Arizona. He abuses the
journalists sitting at the back of the hall, and incites the audience to shout
at them and threaten them. The result is that the journalists leave the hall.
Journalists are threatened by Trump's
followers and leave the hall
Trump is an ignorant, uncultured man who knows nothing
about history, so he probably does not know how once democratic societies in
the 1920s and 1930s, such as Germany, Italy, Japan, got into a downward slide
and ended up becoming dictatorships through similar campaigns of intimidation. Yuck!
Pass the
sickbag, Alice !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!!!
Danish
translation
Søndag den
8 juli 2018
09:00 Vi kører
over til vores ældste datter Alisons hus i Haslemere, Surrey. Jeg er kommet ud
af vane med at køre lange kørsler i bilen. Det tager kun ca. 2 timer, men jeg
finder det hele lidt af en udfordring. Jeg bliver gammel, ingen tvivl om det.
Vi gør holdt kun engang undervejs: Reading -rastepladsen, for at smutte på
toilettet og snuppe en kop kaffe.
Dette er vores første besøg
på en motorvejsrasteplads i 5 år og vi får lidt ef en chok, det må jeg nok
sige. Desværre har rastepladsen stoppet
sin egen restaurant: der er kun koncessioner – Costa, BurgerKing osv, og de har
alle lange køer, hvor kunderne venter, mens servitricer beskæftiger sig med at
lave og servere komplicerede kaffeordre – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!! Jeg
opgiver og beslutter at drikke min flaske vand i bilen – pokkers!
12:00 Vi
ankommer til Alisons hus og spiser frokost sammen med Alison, Ed, hendes mand,
og deres 3 børn, Josie (11), Rosalind (10) og Isaac (7).
Vores
3 børnebørn byder os velkommen ved døren
15:00 Vi kører
til vores hotel, og Lois og jeg tjekker ind og tager vores kuffert med op til
vores værelse. Bagefter drikker vi en kop te i en nærliggende café sammen med
Alisons familie, og så gør vi alle 7 en kort tur i området omkring Devil’s
Punchbowl-”krateret”, en dyb dal, der faktisk blev skabt af jorderosion over
årtusinder.
vi går en kort tur omkring kanten af Devil’s Punchbowl,
et
kæmpe-krater, skabt af årtusinders jorderosion
Vi kommer alle
tilbage til Alison og Eds hus og slapper af med familien og lærer deres 2
danske gadekatte at kende.
Lois
og jeg lærer familiens 2 danske gadekatte at kende.
Familien ankom
tilbage til England fra København for en uge siden, og de har haft meget travlt
med at pakke deres flyttepakker op, arrangere møbler og ejendele osv.
Efter
aftensmad kører Lois og jeg tilbage til vores hotel.
Mandag den
9 juli 2018
Vi tilbringer
dagen med Alison og hendes familie. Om formiddagen skal Ed til Basingstoke for
at snakke lidt med sin karriererådgiver, som hans tidligere selskab anviste
ham, efter de afskedigede ham ved slutningen af marts måned.
Ed skynder sig
ikke at finde et nyt job. Han er først og fremmest fokuseret på at finde det
”rigtige job”. Hans tidligere job var på et temmelig højt niveau, hvor ledige
stillenger er ganske sjældne. Eds karriererådgivere har forsikret ham, at det
er bedre at vente nogle måneder på, at det rigtige job på det rigtige niveau
dukker sig, snarere end, at eksempelvis tage et job på et lavere niveau og så
arbejde sig op til det rigtige niveau.
Lois og jeg
mistænker, han fik et meget generøst erstatningsbeløb, fordi familien ikke
synes at være i bekneb for skillinger, for at sige mildt!
10:30 Ed skal
af sted. De yngre 2 børn, Rosalind (10) og Isaac (7) er på skolen.
Lois og jeg, Alison,
og Josie (11) taler lidt på whatsapp med vores yngste datter Sarah, hendes
mand, Francis, og hendes (snart) 5-årige tvillinger i Perth, Australien.
Bagefter kører
vi Alison og Josie ind i byen Haslemere. Vi har alle 4 ikke set byen i næsten 6
år, så er det meget interessant at se forandringerne: nye butikker, butikker, der er forsvandt osv.
Vi smutter ind
hos Barrista-caféen og drikker en kop kaffe. Denne er caféen, hvor Alison og de
andre lokale unge mødre plejede at mødes for mange år siden, alle med deres
enorme moderne barnevogne. Der er ingen unge mødre derinde i dag – det lader
til at en eller anden café andetsteds må være det moderigtige sted nu til dags.
Tider ændre sig, ingen tvivl om det.
Vi
smutter ind hos Barrista-caféen og drikker en kop kaffe.
Vi ser os lidt
om i byen. Mange butikker har store malede hare-statuer foran deres døre. Denne
slags vane er moderigtig for tiden – mange små engelske byer vælger en eller
anden dyr som byens ”symbol” – fænomenet
tiltrækker turister, det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om. De er meget
fotogene.
Vi ser os lidt om i byen. Mange butikker er nye,
siden
vi sidst var i byen (for næsten 5 år siden)
Ed kommer
tilbage fra Basingstoke og vi spiser alle 5 frokost.
15:00 Vi kører
i to biler til skolen for at hente Rosalind og Isaac. Bagefter kører vi til en
lokal havecenter. Ali og Ed vil gerne købe en masse nye planter for at lyse
lidt op og skabe lidt interesse i deres have, som for tiden er ganske
intetsigende og uden særpræg efter familiens 6-års fravær i Danmark.
Lois
og Isaac står foran en Morgan veteranbil
i havecentrets parkeringsplads
17:00 Vi kører
alle 7 tilbage til Alison og Eds hus og spiser aftensmad. Bagefter viser vi dem
vores fotos fra vores nylige ferie i Perth, Australien hos vores yngste datter
Sarah og hendes unge familie.
21:00 Lois og
jeg kører tilbage til vores hotel og kollapser i sengen efter 11 timers
snik-snak. Det er lidt af et chok i sammenligning til vores sædvanlige dage,
hvor vi som 2 gamle krager tilbringer for det meste stille og rolige dage alene
i vores enorme hus, som vi købte i 1986, da vores 2 døtre, Alison var 10 år og
Sarah var 8. Yikes – vi bliver gamle, ingen tvivl om det!!!!!
Men det har
været så rart at kunne besøge dem nu, hvor de er tilbage i England, og vi ikke
har brug for at gå ombord på et fly for at se dem. De er en dejlig familie.
Tirsdag den
10 juli 2018
09:00 Lois og
jeg tjekker ud af vores hotel og kører tilbage til Cheltenham. Vi må tilbage
for at passe på Minx, Alisons tidligere kat, som hun efterlod hos os, da
familien i november 2012 flyttede til København. Vores naboer, Stephen og
Frances, passede på Minx indtil i går aftes, men i formiddag flyver de til
Tjekkiet for en uges ferie hos Frances’ gamle penneven.
12:00 Vi
kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går vi i seng og tager en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur.
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. En
skræmmende dokumentarfilm (nr 3 i serien), der handler om Trump og den
amerikanske presse, især New York Times, som præsidenten er uvenner med, for at
sige mildt!
Et
fascinerende 3. afsnit, der dækker blandt andet vold i Charlottesville og
Muellers arbejde, som specielle undersøger, for at efterforske forbindelser
mellem Trumps valgkampagne og Rusland.
Det er meget
rart at se og høre anstændige og intellligente mennesker (avisens journalister)
fortælle sandheden om Trump: det, at han er helt komfortabel med at lyve,
opdigte historier, gøre ubegrundede beskyldninger, slynge skældsord ligesom en
skoledreng mod sine politiske modstandere og mod pressen osv. Selvfølgelig ved
vi dette godt nok allerede, men det er rart at høre det blive bekræftet af
avisens journalister.
Mange af disse
begivenheder er velkendte, men på nogle
måder det mest chokerende og skræmmende scene viser sig midt i programmet, da
vi ser Trump holde tale til sine tilhængere i Phoenix , Arizona. Han revser journalisterne, der sidder i bunden af
salen, og ophidser publikummet til at skælde dem ud og true dem. Resultatet er,
at journalisterne forlader salen.
Journalisterne
bliver truet af Trumps tilhængere og forlader salen
Trump er en
uuddannet, ukultiveret mand, der ikke ved noget om historie, så han formentlig
ikke ved, hvordan tidligere demokratiske samfund i 1920’erne og 1930’erne som
for eksempel Tyskland, Italien, Japan, kom ud i en glidebane, og endte med at
blive til diktaturer gennem lignende intimideringskampagner. Øv!
Ræk mig lige opkastningsposen, Alice !!!!
22:00 Vi går I seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment