Danskcolin: Thursday, July 26, 2018

08:30 Lois and I get up and go in the shower. The weather girl says that today is going to be the hottest day of the current heat wave, so we decide to keep calm and mostly just relax, and after that just sit it out ha ha.

She also says that the chances of rain will begin to rise, starting from tonight, so I decide to store away most of our garden chairs in the shed and cover the other ones up, as well as our 2 garden tables.

10:30 I sit in front of my laptop and read the next approx. 20 pages of "Svigtet", the Danish crime novella, which is our U3A Danish group's current project.

"Svigtet": our Danish group's current project

The story begins with the discovery of a year-old corpse in a chest freezer in an old outhouse on a farm far out in the Danish countryside.

The novella's heroine is Pia, a young police forensic scientist who has been in a relationship with one of the local detectives, Lars, for a couple of months. She says that sex with Lars is "okay", but she'd rather "keep her options open". Pia has generally shown signs of being a little bit slutty, to say the least. She has no inhibitions about throwing her dress off on the back seat of Lars's car, to the amusement of passing drivers who she quietly gives the finger to.

Pia Holm, police forensic scientist and the novella's heroine

On page 61 of my Kindle version, I reach the novella's first sex scene. Pia has to spend a few days away from Lars on a business trip in Copenhagen in connection with the case. She takes advantage of her absence from home to have sex with an old friend called Andreas, who she had been mates with "since the first semester" and they "knew each other better than anyone else. They were not girlfriend-boyfriend - they quickly realized that that was something they were not good at, but they hooked up whenever they got the urge", says the text.

Pia was gagging for it apparently because the previous weekend Pia and Lars had spent more time "quarrelling with each other than on action between the sheets". Good grief, what madness!

I decide that we had better just skip over the sex-scene between Pia and Andreas when we sit down in our Danish group's regular meeting to read the text and translate it into English, which is the simplest solution to the problem - yikes! We are all old crows and we do not want to talk about bodies, legs, hips, abdomens, etc, thank you very much, of course, except in a medical context, needless to say ha ha!

13:00 Lois and I have lunch and 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.

16:30 The delivery man rings at the door. He delivers my box of 36 pints of beer from the Bath Ales Brewery, which Steve, my brother-in-law, recommended. He is nice enough to carry it into the kitchen and put it down on our little green kitchen table, which is lucky - an English pint weighs approx. 1 pound 4 ounces, so we are talking about a total of 45 pounds, plus packaging materials - yikes! I decide to push the kitchen table into our little pantry, where it is cooler. Hooray! There's now a light at the end of the tunnel ha ha.

Me with my box of 36 pints of beer from the Bath Ales Brewery

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio and watching a bit of television. We hear the 4th episode of an interesting radio series all about random discoveries in the scientific world. The host of the program is the charming Adam Hart.

Who knew that jet streams were discovered accidentally after the great eruption of the Krakatao volcano in 1883? Not us - no doubt about that. After the eruption scientific institutes asked amateur researchers worldwide to send them their comments and observations on the unusual effects of this eruption, which shot lots of material and gases up into the atmosphere: effects being e.g. unusually hazy skies, spectacular sunsets, etc. The jet streams were discovered when researchers realized that the effects of the eruption were following certain routes around the earth, which was a bit of a surprise to say the least.

This was yet another interesting episode in this daily series, that started on Monday.

We heard on Tuesday that researchers discovered the first evidence of the Big Bang using technology developed to record radio waves from space, which were themselves discovered by chance in the 1930s. Good grief, what madness !!!

And we heard on Monday that researchers discovered that Viagra, which was initially being used as a possible cardiac medicine, had strange side effects, when male participants in clinical trials reported that they were getting unexpected erections. When cardiologists decided to give up the tests, they unfortunately then had trouble persuading the participants to return the pills - my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!

22:00 I take a little look online. I see that Alison, our elder daughter, has posted a couple of charming photos on Facebook, showing her youngest child, Isaac, who turned 8 years old today.

Our grandchild Isaac, who turned 8 today, life's best birthday

We go to bed - zzzzzzz !!!

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg står op og går i bad. Vejrpigen siger, at i dag kommer til at være den varmeste dag af den nuværende hedebølge, så beslutter vi i forvejen at holde fri og slappe af for det meste, og blive til det er forbi.

Hun siger også, at chancerne for regnvejr vil starte til stige, startende fra i aften, så beslutter jeg at lagre i skuret de fleste havestole og dække de andre samt vores 2 haveborde.

10:30 Jeg sætter mig foran min bærebare og læse de næste ca. 20 sider af ”Svigtet”, den danske kriminovelle, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.

”Svigtet”: vores danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Historien starter med opdagelsen af et 1-år gammelt lig i en kummefryser i et gammelt udhus på en gård, der ligger langt ude på landet.

Novellens heltinde er Pia, en ung retsmediciner, der i et par måneder har været i et forhold med en af de lokale detektiver, Lars. Hun siger, at sex med Lars er ”okay”, men hun vil hellere ”holde sine optioner åbne”. Pia har generelt vist tegn på, at være lidt løs på tråden, for at sige mildt. Hun har ikke hæmninger om at smide sin kjole på bagsædet af Lars bil, til morskab af forbipasserende bilister, som hun stille og roligt giver finger til.

Pia Holm, retsmediciner og novellens heltinde

På side 61 af min kindle-version, når jeg til novellens første sex-scene. Pia skal tilbringe nogle dage væk fra Lars, på forretningsrejse i København i forbindelsen med sagen. Hun udnytter lejligheden af sit fravær hjemmefra for at have sex med Andreas, som hun havde været venner med ”siden første semester”, og de ”kendte hinanden bedre, end nogen anden. De var ikke kærester – det havde de hurtigt indset, at de ikke duede til, men de var sammen, når de havde lyst”, står der i teksten.

Pia brændte efter den tilsyneladende, fordi Pia og Lars den sidste weekend havde brugt mere tid ”på skænderier, end på lagenøvelserne”. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Jeg beslutter, at vi må hellere bare springe over sex-scenen mellem Pia og Andreas, når vi sætter os ned i vores danske gruppes regelmæssige møde for at læse teksten op og oversætte den til engelsk, hvilket er den simpleste løsning til problemet – yikes! Vi er alle gamle krager og vi har ikke nogen lyst til at tale om kroppe, bene, hofter, underliv osv, thank you very much, selvfølgelig bortset fra i en medicinsk sammenhæng, unødvendigt at sige ha ha!

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 16 og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.

16:30 Bybudet ringer på. Han leverer min kasse med 36 pints øl fra Bath Ales-bryggeriet, som Steve, min svigerbror anbefalede. Han er sød nok til at bære den ind i køkkenet og sætte den ned på vores lille grønne køkkenbord, hvilket er heldigt – en engelsk pint vejer ca. 1 pund 4 ounces, så vi taler om sammenlagt 45 pund, plus emballagematerialer – yikes! Jeg beslutter at skubbe køkkenbordet ind i vores lille spisekammer, hvor det er køligere. Hurra! Der er lys for enden af tunnelen ha ha.

Mig med min kasse med 36 pints øl fra Bath Ales-bryggeriet

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio og se lidt fjernsyn. Vi hører det 4. afsnit af et interessant radioserie, der handler om tilfældige opdagelser i videnskabsverden. Programmets vært er den charmerende Adam Hart.

Hvem vidste, at jetstrømme blev opdaget tilfældigvis efter det store udbrud af Krakatau-vulkanen i 1883? Ikke os – ingen tvivl om det. Efter udbruddet bad videnskabelige institutter amatørforskere verden over om at sende dem deres kommentarer og observationer om de udsædvanlige effekter af udbruddet, der sendte masser af materialer og gasser ind i atmosfæren: overskyede himler, spektakulære solnedgange osv. Jetstrømmene blev opdaget, da forskere indså, at udbruddets eftervirkninger fulgte visse ruter rundt om jorden, hvilket var lidt af en overraskelse for at sige mildt.

Endnu et interessant afsnit i denne daglige serie, der startede i mandags. Vi hørte i tirsdags om, at forskere opdagede de første beviser på Big Bang ved hjælp af teknologi udviklet for at optage radiobølger fra rummet, der selve blev opdaget tilfældigvis i 1930’erne. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Og vi hørte i mandags om, at forskere opdagede at viagra, som i begyndelsen blev brugt som en mulig hjertemedicin, havde mærkelige bivirkninger, da mandlige deltagere i kliniske prøver, rapporterede, at de fik uforventede rejsninger. Da hjerteforskere besluttede at opgive prøverne, havde de desværre svært ved at overtale deltagerne til at give pillerne tilbage – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

22:00 Jeg kigger lidt på nettet. Jeg ser, at Alison, vores ældste datter, har lagt et par charmerende fotos op på Facebook, der viser sin yngste barn, Isaac, der i dag fyldte 8 år.