Danskcolin: Sunday, July 15, 2018

08:30 We get up and have breakfast. Lois dresses for church - she wants to attend her sect's two church services today.

10:30 Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, calls us on whatsapp and we talk to her and her (soon to be) 5-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. The children are already excited about their birthday and birthday party on July 26 (or thereabouts). How cute they are!

Our son-in-law Francis and our twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessie,

last Sunday in the John Forrest National Park just outside Perth, Australia

Unfortunately, Sarah has problems with her internet connection and we have to give up on the call. We'll try again next Sunday.

10:45 Lois has to leave. She drives over to Tewkesbury to attend her two church services.

I have a little alone time and I get going on writing an email in Hungarian to Tünde, my friend in Budapest. It takes me a lot of time - I am having difficulty constructing Hungarian sentences, and when I try to think of a Hungarian word, the Danish word always comes to mind first.

My Hungarian has become very rusty and it takes me all morning to write 3 paragraphs, which is a little ridiculous, but thewhole thing keeps me in a bit of practice, thank goodness. I spice the text up with my favorite expressions: eg "Milyen örültség!" (= What madness!), "yikes" (= yikes), etc.

I study Hungarian for an hour every Tuesday with my friend, "Magyar" Mike. The problem is that Mike's knowledge is so limited that I spend the whole hour helping him with very basic questions, and when it comes to my own knowledge, it's not making any progress, it is going backwards a bit, to be honest. My god, what madness ha ha !!!!

Tünde, my friend in Budapest, sitting on a Hungarian police motorcycle

- yikes, scary!

12:30 I'm done writing my Hungarian email. My god, I have a million tasks on my to-do list, but I can now scratch only one from the list. How ridiculous !!!!

13:00 I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 3.30 pm and iron my shirts and underwear. Busy, busy, busy!

15:30 Lois comes back from Tewkesbury. She is a little cross that all the church members, without her knowledge, have now been officially invited to the get-together she is holding here tomorrow night.

The get-together was originally arranged so that the participants in the sect's weekly seminar could gather at the end of the seminar's "spring semester" to have a cup of tea and a piece of cake etc. And Lois offered to hold the meeting here at our house.

But unfortunately, two of Lois' close friends, Mari-Ann and Alf, intervened and changed the plans: now there is going to have to be a full buffet dinner and they have invited all the members of the church to attend and not just the seminar participants. Good grief, and all without Lois' knowledge - what madness !!!

16:00 Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the terrace. We talk a little about Minx, Alison's cat, whom Alison, our elder daughter, left behind with us 6 years ago when her little family moved to Denmark. The family moved back to England 2 weeks ago, but unfortunately they cannot take Minx back because they now have a dog and 2 Danish street cats that they "adopted" whilst living in Denmark.

Minx is now a bit of an old lady - she is 18 years old. Lois and I are currently a little worried about her health - she has hardly eaten anything in the last few days, and she looks a bit listless and confused. It may be that she just has a bad stomach, nothing more, but we'll see. Poor Minx !!!!

18:00 We have dinner on the terrace and spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary film is on (3rd part of 3) all about Russia. The host of the program is the charming Simon Reeve.

An interesting journey through western Russia, from the Crimea via Moscow to Saint Petersburg.

The Crimea is not really Russian, although most inhabitants seem to be mostly satisfied with their new status as part of Russia. The downside is that the conditions in the peninsula seem to have regressed by several decades - many inhabitants think that after 20 years of experience of the modern world as part of Ukraine, their current life now resembles the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Good grief, poor them !!!!!

I must admit that I had not realized the extent to which Putin has created a Russia that resembles the country as it was in Tsarist times.

In October 2017 it was the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, but the country did not really celebrate the occasion, although Russian museums loaned some exhibits to a museum in Amsterdam, where they were holding a special exhibition about the event.

And I also did not realize how much Putin has promoted and supported the Russian Orthodox Church, and the country's so-called "traditional values", I must say.

We see a kind of martial arts / wrestling club in St. Petersburg. Of course, there are these kinds of clubs around the world, but the difference here is that the members are all "very religious". For my part they look like a bunch of thugs, but they are obviously in fact all deep thinkers ha ha!

The club's coach says that God gives the club members the talent and he develops it. His thugs are all very religious. Nothing can be accomplished without faith, he says - he tackles his entire program by prayer, and with a priest's blessing.

Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!! Pass the sickbag, Alice !!!!

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

Danish translation

08:30 Vi står op og spiser morgenmad. Lois går i gang med at klæde sig ud til kirken – hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts 2 gudstjenester i dag.

10:30 Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, ringer til os på whatsapp og vi snakker lidt med hende og hendes (snart) 5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie. Børnene bliver allerede begejstret over deres fødselsdag og fødselsdagsfest den 26. juli (eller deromkring). Hvor er de dog søde!

Vores svigersøn Francis og vores tvillingebørnebørn, Lily og Jessie,

sidste søndag i John Forrest National Park, der ligger lidt uden for Perth, Australien

Desværre har Sarah problemer med sin internetforbindelse og vi skal opgive kaldet. Vi skal prøve igen næste søndag.

10:45 Lois skal af sted. Hun kører over til Tewkesbury for at deltage i sin sekts to gudstjenester.

Jeg har lidt alenetid, og jeg går i gang med at skrive en email på ungarsk til Tünde, min veninde i Budapest. Det tager mig en masse tid – jeg har nu svært ved at konstruere ungarske sætninger, og da jeg prøver at finde på et ungarsk ord, kommer det danske ord kommer i tankerne.

Mit ungarsk er blevet meget rustent, og det tager mig hele formiddagen til at skrive 3 afsnit, hvilket er lidt latterligt, men det hele holder mig lidt i øvelse, gudskelov. Jeg krydrer teksten med mine yndlingsudtryk: eksempelvis ”Milyen örültség!” (= sikke et vanvid), „yikes” (=yikes) osv.

Jeg studerer ungarsk i en time hver tirsdag sammen med min ven, ”Magyar” Mike. Problemet er, at Mikes viden er så begrænset, at jeg bruger hele time på at hjælpe ham med meget grundlæggende spørgsmål, og, når det kommer til min egen viden, skrider det ikke fremad, skrider det lidt tilbage, ærligt talt. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Tünde, min veninde i Budapest, siddende på en ungarsk politimotorcykel

– yikes, skræmmende!

12:30 Jeg er færdig med at skrive min ungarske email. Du godeste, jeg har en million opgaver på min gøremålsliste, men jeg kan nu strege kun én fra listen. Hvor latterligt!!!!

13:00 Jeg spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30 og går i gang med at stryge mine skjorter og undertøj. Travlt, travlt, travlt!

15:30 Lois kommer tilbage fra Tewkesbury. Hun er lidt sur over, at alle de kirkemedlemmer, uden Lois’ viden, er nu blevet officielt inviteret til den sammenkomst, hun holder i morgen aften hos os.

Sammenkomsten var oprindeligt arrangeret, så deltagerne i sektens ugentlige bibelseminar kunne samles ved slutningen af seminarets ”forårssemester”, for at drikke en kop te sammen og spise et stykke kage osv. Og Lois tilbød at holde sammenkomsten hos os.

Men desværre har to af Lois’ tætte venner, Mari-Ann og Alf, grebet ind og ændret planerne: nu skal der være en fuld buffetmiddag, og de har inviteret alle kirkens medlemmer til at deltage, og ikke bare seminarets deltagere. Du godeste, og det hele uden Lois’ viden – sikke et vanvid!!!

16:00 Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te på terrassen. Vi snakker lidt om Minx, Alisons kat, som Alison, vores ældste datter, efterlod hos os for 6 år siden, da familien flyttede til Danmark. Familien flyttede for 2 uger siden tilbage til England, men desværre kan de ikke tage Minx tilbage, fordi de nu har en hund og 2 danske gadekatte, som de ”adopterede”, mens de boede i Danmark.

Minx er nu lidt af en gammel dame – hun er 18 år gammel. Lois og jeg er for tiden lidt bekymret over hendes helbred – hun har næsten ikke spist noget de seneste få dage, og hun ser lidt gidelig og forvirret ud. Det kan være, at hun bare har en dårlig mave, intet mere, men vi får se. Stakkels Minx!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad på terrassen og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm (3. del af 3), der handler om Rusland. Programmets vært er den charmerende Simon Reeve.

En interessant rejse gennem det vestlige Rusland, fra Krim via Moskva til Sankt Petersborg.

Krim er ikke virkeligt russisk, selvom de fleste indbyggere synes at være for det meste tilfredse med deres nye status som en del af Rusland. Ulempen er, at vilkårene i halvøen virker at vende tilbage med flere årtier – mange indbyggere synes, at efter 20 års oplevelse af det moderne verden som en del af Ukraine, ligner deres nuværende liv nu Sovjetunionen i 1970’erne. Du godeste, stakkels dem !!!!!

Jeg må indrømme, at jeg ikke havde indset, i hvor stor grad Putin har skabt et Rusland, der ligner landet, som det var i zaristiske tider.

I oktober 2017 var det den russiske revolutions 100-årsdag, men landet fejrede ikke rigtigt anledningen, selvom russiske museer lånede nogle udstillingsgenstander til et museum i Amsterdam, hvor der holdtes en speciel udstilling om begivenheden.

Og jeg indså heller ikke, hvor meget Putin har fremmet og støttet den russisk-ortodokse kirke, og landets såkaldte ”traditionelle værdier” – det må jeg nok sige.

Vi ser en slags kampsportsklub / brydning-klub i Sankt Petersborg. Selvfølgelig findes de slags klubber verden over, men forskellen her er, at medlemmerne alle er ”meget religiøse”. For mit vedkommende ser de ud som en flok bøller, men de er åbenbart i virkeligheden alle dybe tænkere ha ha!

Klubbens træner siger, at Gud giver klubmedlemmerne talenten, og han udvikler den. Hans bøller er alle meget religiøse. Intet kan udrettes uden tro, siger han – han takler sit hele program ved hjælp af bøn, og med en præsts velsignelse.