Thursday, July 12, 2018

09:00 We get up. I get going with tidying up in the house and vacuuming all over, because our U3A Danish group is holding its regular meeting here this afternoon at 2:30pm.

11:00 We relax with a cup of coffee on the terrace. Afterwards we start browsing through the first 14 pages of the Danish crime novella, "Let Down", which is the group's current project.

11:30 I get a message on Facebook / Messenger. Lois' cousin, Sylvia, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, wants to visit us in September with Rod, her new partner: the couple have been together for approx. 1 year, we think.

Sylvia visited England a few years ago, along with her then husband, Joe, a Maltese poet. Maltese poets are a bit of a rarity in the world, I have to say. And there are even fewer now that Joe unfortunately died recently.

Sylvia and Joe spent their visit primarily in the Birmingham area, where Sylvia has a bunch of relatives from the Cox family. I recall that at that time Lois traveled to Birmingham with her relatives Iris, Brian and Ruth, and spent a day with Sylvia and other relatives.

Lois and I spent a week with Sylvia in Melbourne in 2016 on our way to Perth where our youngest daughter, Sarah, now lives. At that time Sylvia was a widow and single. But of course, she did not tell us that she was actually lonely and looing for luuuuuuhv ha ha!

flashback to April 2016: me and Sylvia

Lois and Sylvia

Lois' koala face

Sheldon's koala face: but which is better?

When Sylvia hooked up with Rod (they met on the web), and they did not marry, Sylvia disfellowshipped herself out of the sect she and Lois belong to.

Lois and I do not object to Sylvia and Rod sharing a bed when they stay with us. We are just glad that she has finally found happiness. But we wonder if Sylvia will have trouble with some of her other relatives who are also members of the sect. But that's something the jury is still out on. We will see !!!!

12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 1:45pm and prepare for the our Danish group's meeting.

14:30 Group members ring at the door and we study Danish for 90 minutes.

It is a bit annoying that we come across some typographical errors in the text of our novella. When farmer Olaf opens the lid of an old freezer in one of his outbuildings, the text says that the lid released "an overpowering tank" instead of "an overpowering stink", which is a little annoying, to put it mildly! The corrected text, however, makes more sense, we have to admit !!!

Farmer Olaf

The old freezer (minus the corpse which Olaf discovered in it) !!!!

Additionally, for example, the Danish word "presenning" (tarpaulin) was twice spelt wrong as "pressening". My god, what madness !!! The language is hard enough, without having to cope with typographical errors !!!

We fix our next meeting for Wednesday, July 25th instead of the 26th, which would have been our normal date. Joy is going to a funeral on the 25th, so we cannot meet that Thursday.

16:15 The members leave, and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the terrace. We are exhausted, as usual after a "Danish" day, where we spend the morning tidying up and cleaning, and the afternoon leading our group's meeting. My god, we are getting old, no doubt about that!

18:00 We have dinner on the terrace. Afterwards, we want to relax for the rest of the evening, but unfortunately we must first swing by our neighbors' back yard and water their huge vegetable garden, not to mention their many flower beds - damn!

Stephen and Francis are currently on vacation in the Czech Republic and we have promised to take care of their garden in their absence. It would have been nice if there had been a little wet weather this week, but we have been out of luck there - damn it! Finally we come home again and water our own vegetable garden and flower beds.

20:00 We can finally relax and we snuggle up on the sofa. We spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television, an interesting "fly on the wall" documentary (3rd part of 3), all about 6 months in the life of the United States Embassy in London.

Like Trump, Robert Johnson, the new ambassador and one of Trump's friends, was heir to a fortune (the massive Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company). He became first a successful businessman and later found himself in the political world.

It sounds like a good idea to have businessmen in public office - one imagines they will be good at making decisions and eliminating waste etc. The disadvantage is that they are used to having unlimited authority in their business and show impatience with their staff, unless they happen to be just yes men and nothing more.

Johnson turns out to be, at least superficially, polite and reasonable to his staff and his contacts outside the embassy. But Lois and I noticed that he has Trump's impatience - and he tends not to listen to what others are telling him. He asks questions without waiting for the answers. He interrupts them constantly. My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

21:00 We continue to watch a bit of television. An interesting documentary is on, all about John Curry, the late figure-skater.

I myself am not the world's biggest fan of ice skating - I have to admit. But Lois wants to see this documentary, and I'm glad we decide to see the program.

I always find it fascinating to see people showing some massive talent at an early age, especially when they face various obstacles, as John did with his father: his father was a wholly conventional man, head of a small engineering company in Birmingham, and he said no when John expressed his wish to take ballet lessons. But skating was apparently "okay", because it was a sport - my god, what madness !!!!

A touching documentary film, though maybe a little too long at 90 minutes - yikes! A little sad to look on as John's career and health (mental and physical) began to go into a downswing during his dance troupe's tour in Scandinavia. He went sick in Copenhagen, the tour's first stop, and his last performance ever was in Bergen, Norway: two cities that Lois and I know well.

Poor John !!!!!

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

Danish translation

09:00 Vi står op. Jeg går i gang med at rydde op i huset og støvsuge overalt, fordi vores U3A danske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde i eftermiddag kl 14:30 hos os.

11:00 Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe på terrassen. Bagefter går vi i gang med at blade igennem de første 14 sider af den danske kriminovelle, “Svigtet”, der er gruppens nuværende projekt.

11:30 Jeg får en besked på Facebook/Messenger. Lois’ kusine, Sylvia, der bor i Melbourne, Australien, ønsker at besøge os i september sammen med Rod, sin nye partner: parret har været sammen i ca. 1 år, tror vi.

Sylvia besøgte sidst England for nogle år siden, sammen med sin daværende mand, Joe, en maltesisk digter. Maltesiske digtere er lidt af en sjældenhed i verden, det må jeg nok sige. Og der er endnu færre nu, hvor Joe desværre døde for nylig.

Sylvia og Joe tilbragte deres besøg først og fremmest i Birmingham- området, hvor Sylvia har en flok slægtninge fra Cox-familien. Jeg mindes om, at Lois dengang rejste op til Birmingham med sine slægtninge Iris, Brian og Ruth, og tilbragte en dag hos Sylvia og andre slægtninge.

Lois og jeg tilbragte en uge hos Sylvia i Melbourne i 2016, på vej til Perth, hvor vores yngste datter, Sarah, bor. Dengang var Sylvia enke, og single. Men selvfølgelig fortalte hun os ikke, at hun faktisk var ensom og på jagt efter kææærligheden ha ha!

tilbageblik til april 2016: mig og Sylvia

Lois og Sylvia

Lois’ koala-ansigt

Sheldons koala-ansigt: men hvilket er bedre?

Da Sylvia fandt sammen med Rod (de mødte hinanden på nettet), og de giftede sig ikke, lukkede Sylvia  sig selv ud af fællesskabet med den sekt, hun og Lois hører til.

Lois og jeg indvender ikke, at Sylvia og Rod deler seng, når de bor hos os. Vi er glade for, at hun endelig har fundet lykke. Men vi spekulerer på, om Sylvia vil have problemer med nogle af sine andre slægtninge, der også er medlemmer af sekten. Men det er juryen stadig ude om. Vi får se !!!!

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 13:45 og forbereder mig på vores danske gruppes møde.

14:30 Gruppens medlemmer ringer på og vi studerer dansk i 90 minutter. Det er lidt irriterende, at vi falder over nogle typografiske fejl i teksten. Da bondemanden Olaf åbner låget til en gammel fryser i ét af hendes udhuse, står der i teksten, at låget lukkede ”en svimlende tank” ud, i stedet for ”en svimlende stank”, hvilket er lidt irriterende, for at sige mildt! Den rettede tekst giver imidlertid mere mening, det må vi indrømme!!!

Bondemanden Olaf

Den gamle fryser (minus det lig, som Olaf opdagede) !!!!

Derudover eksempelvis blev det danske ord ”presenningen” to gange stavet forkert som ”presseningen”. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Sproget er svært nok, uden at skulle hamle op med typografiske fejl oven i købet!!!

Vi bestemmer vores næste møde til onsdag den 25. juli i stedet for den 26., hvilket ville have været vores normale dato. Joy skal til en begravelse den 25., så derfor kan vi ikke møde den torsdag.    

16:15 Medlemmer skal af sted, og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te på terrassen. Vi er udmattede, som sædvanligt efter en ”dansk” dag, hvor vi bruger formiddagen på at rydde op og gøre rent, og eftermiddagen med at lede vores gruppemøde. Du godeste, vi bliver gamle, ingen tvivl om det!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad på terrassen. Bagefter har vi lyst til at slappe af resten af aftenen, men desværre skal vi først smutte ind hos vores naboers baghave, og vande deres enorme grøntsagshave, for ikke at nævne deres mange blomsterbede – pokkers! Stephen og Francis er for tiden på ferie i Tjekkiet og vi har lovet at passe på deres have i deres fravær. Det ville have været rart, hvis der havde været lidt regnvejr i denne uge, men vi har været uheldige – pokkers! Til sidst kommer vi hjem igen og vander vores egen grøntsagshave og blomsterbede.

20:00 Vi kan endelig slapper af og vi putter os ind til hinanden på sofaen. Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant ”flue på væggen” dokumentarfilm (3. del af 3), der handler om et halvt år i livet af den amerikanske ambassade i London.

Ligesom Trump var Robert Johnson, den nye ambassadør, en arving til en formue (det massive Johnson & Johnson farmaceutiske selskab) . Han blev først en meget succesfuld forretningsmand, og senere befandt sig i den politiske verden.

Det lyder som en god idé at have forretningsmænd i offentlig embede – man formoder, at de vil være dygtige til at træffe beslutninger og eliminere spild osv. Ulempen er, at de er vant til at have ubegrænset autoritet indenfor deres forretninger og at udvise utålmodighed overfor personale, medmindre de bare er ja-mænd og intet mere.

Johnson  viser sig, i det mindste overfladisk talt, høflig og rimelig overfor sit personale og sine kontakter udenfor ambassaden. Men Lois og jeg bemærker, at han har Trumps utålmodighed – og han har tendens til ikke at lytte til, hvad andre fortæller ham. Han stiller spørgsmål, uden at ville vente på svarene. Han afbryder dem konstant.  Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om John Curry, den afdøde kunstskøjteløber.

Jeg selv er ikke verdens største fan af kunstskøjteløb – det må jeg indrømme. Men Lois har lyst til at se denne dokumentarfilm, og jeg er glad for, at vi beslutter at se programmet.

Jeg finder det altid fascinerende at se mennesker, der viser en eller anden massiv talent på en tidlig alder, især når de står overfor forskellige forhindringer, som John gjorde overfor sin far: hans far var en helt konventionel mand, chef for et lille ingeniørfirma i Birmingham, og han sagde nej, da John udtrykte sin ønske om at tage balletlektioner. Men skøjteløb var tilsyneladende ”okay”, på grund af, at det var en sport – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

En rørende dokumentarfilm, selvom måske lidt for lang på 90 minutter – yikes! Lidt triste også at se på, da Johns karriere og sundhed (psykiske og fysiske) begyndte at løbe ind i en nedtur under hans dansetrups turné i Skandinavien. Han sygemeldt i København, turnéens første stop, og hans siste forestilling nogensinde var i Bergen, Norge: to byer som Lois og jeg kender godt.

Stakkels John !!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!