Tuesday, July 24, 2018

09:00 Lois and I get up and go in the shower. After breakfast, I hop up on my exercise bike and cycle 6 miles, while Lois goes for a short walk around the local football field - we want to do our exercise before it gets too hot.

11:00 In the morning and again later in the day, I get going with reading another 10 pages of "Svigtet", the Danish crime novella, which is our U3A Danish group's current project. By the end of today's "work" I have reached page 48 in the novella's Kindle version, and I have prepared vocabulary lists for each page. I'm so thoughtful ha ha.

"Svigtet" ("Let Down") : our Danish group's current project

What's all that on the cover? The jury is still out on that one ha ha

Olaf is the novella's old farmer who discovers a year-old dead body in an old freezer in a ramshackle outhouse, somewhere out on his land. Spooky!!! The police have a suspect - Richard, who has been renting an old farmhouse nearby.

The novella's heroine is Pia, a young 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 bit on the slutty side, to put it mildly. She has no inhibitions about throwing her dress off on the back seat of Lars's car, to the delight of passing motorists who she quietly gives her finger to. As soon as she arrives at the murder scene, she begins chatting up some of the younger local police officers. Good grief, what madness! And a bit unprofessional in my opinion too.

Today, I read pages 39-48, and I find out that the police investigation is in full swing. It seems that the Danish police and forensics officers have a healthy appetite. They meet up to brainstorm and "fill in the remaining holes" in the investigation before they formally arrest their suspect. They sit around a large conference table, which "as usual is groaning under the weight of several kinds of bread, jams, and cheeses of all kinds, and enough coffee to get a long-distance lorry driver safely all the way to the south of Spain."

This scene imparts a typical Danish flavour to the investigation, I think, and proves that in Denmark, detectives can still enjoy life, even when they are discussing a year-old dead body, which is nice.

Danish detectives also tend to enjoy their sex lives, which can be a bit embarrassing to read about aloud in our group. And I'm still a bit worried that the police, who have not yet got enough evidence to charge Richard, their suspect, with murder, seem to be completely confident that they can charge him with "indecent relations with a dead body" . The author has not provided details of this aspect yet, and I hope that this will not be another scene that will be very embarrassing to read out aloud in our Danish group meetings. Yikes! Come back, Sherlock, all is forgiven ha ha.

It is, however, nice to see that a new character in the detectives' team, Leif, who is in charge of the investigation at the murder site, has a good sense of humor. When Richard, the police's suspect, says he cannot remember exactly when Berit, his girlfriend, died, Leif pretends to be surprised: "What? Hadn't he written on the calendar: 'Stuffed girlfriend in freezer' ?  I like Leif's style, no doubt about that.

"Stuffed girlfriend in freezer" is also a memorable, although slightly creepy, calendar entry or diary entry, to set alongside Katy's classic "Forgot what did", as seen in Susan Coolidge's iconic novels.

12:30 We have lunch on the terrace, but we notice that the local flies and wasps have suddenly started to become more active and we waste a lot of time persuading them to go away. It's fortunate that I speak their language ha ha. But we decide to eat indoors tonight. Wasps tend to be a little annoying in August, we have noticed. We read something somewhere at some point that they have trouble finding enough natural sugar in their normal food sources. Good grief, what a crazy world we live in!

14:00 I go to bed in Sarah's old room where it is cool and take a huge afternoon nap. I wake up at 3pm and take my regular 100-word Danish vocabulary test while I'm lying in bed. I get up at 4pm and we relax with an iced coffee on the terrace.

Lois has made two cups of iced coffee for the first time, but she is still hunting online for the "perfect" recipe. The jury is still out on that one. I myself developed a taste for iced coffee when we were in Perth, Australia in March-April, visiting Sarah, our youngest daughter, and her family.

I praised icecream to the skies recently when we spent a couple of days with our other daughter, Alison, who a couple of weeks ago returned to England after 6 years of residence in Denmark. Today, Alison has posted a charming photo on "Insta". The picture shows her youngest child, Isaac, at a café in Haslemere, Surrey. Also on the café table we see Alison's iced coffee.

Our (soon to be) 8-year-old grandson, Isaac, at a cafe

in Haslemere. Our daughter Alison has ordered an iced coffee (left) - yum yum!

Flashback to April in Australia: I enjoy a huge iced coffee (left)

in glorious sunshine while I sit in the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse cafe

with our daughter Sarah and our twin grandchildren Lily and Jessie

18:00 We have dinner in the dining room to avoid the local wasps and spend the rest of the evening watching television. 

We spend the rest of the evening watching tv

An interesting documentary film is on (6th part of 6) all about Africa's major civilizations. This 6th episode is about Africa in the 19th century. The host of the program is the charming black American, Henry Louis Gates Jr.

It seems that Gates has in his approach a bit of a subtext that Africa has been unfairly ignored by the world's historians for many years. As a black American, Gates takes pride in celebrating the continent's achievements - as a schoolboy he was constantly told that Africa had no civilization before the arrival of the Europeans.

Lois and I are again amazed by Gates' historical presentation, and amazed at how little we know about African history.

We hear tonight about the discovery of diamonds and later gold in southern Africa, and the methods the Europeans used to force young African men to work on their behalf in the new mines they had had dug. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833, so it was impossible to enslave these young men, even though their working conditions were not much better, I have to say.

Somewhat of a contrast in Western Africa, where the Africans themselves for the greater part of the century were able to exploit the lucrative palm oil trade, now that slavery had been abolished by both Britain and the United States.

However, for the most part, the European powers do not get a particularly bad press with the exception of King Leopold, the Belgian king who insisted on extremely brutal methods to force the local Congolese people to work on his behalf in the various mines and for other resources, including copper and rubber.

Why this brutality, I wonder. Perhaps Leopold, king of a relatively new European state, which united two disparate peoples and two disparate languages, felt a compulsion to play the strong man in the Congo: Belgium came late to the general hunt for African colonies. But that's something the jury is still out on.

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

Danish translation

09:00 Lois og jeg står op og går i bad. Efter morgenmad hopper jeg op på min kondicykel og cykler 6 miles, mens Lois går en kort tur rundt omkring på den lokale fodboldbane – vi vil dyrker vores motion før det bliver for varmt.

11:00 I formiddag og igen senere på dagen går jeg i gang med at læse endnu 10 sider af ”Svigtet”, den danske kriminovelle, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt. Ved slutningen af dagens ”arbejde” har jeg nået til side 48 i novellens kindle-version, og jeg har udarbejdet ordforrådslister til hver side. Jeg er så betænksom ha ha.

”Svigtet”: vores danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Hvad er alt det der på omslaget? Det er juryen stadig ude om ha ha.

Olaf er novellens gamle bondemand, der opdager et 1 års gammelt lig i en gammel fryser i et faldefærdigt udhus, der ligger et eller andet sted på sin jord. Uhyggeligt!!! Politiet har en mistænkt – Richard, der har lejet en gammel stuehus i nærheden af udhuset.

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. Så snart hun ankommer til findestedet, begynder hun at falde i snak med nogle af de yngre lokale politimænd. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!  Og meget uprofessionelt efter min mening!

I dag læser jeg sider 39-48, og jeg finder ud af, at politiets efterforskning er i fuld gang. Det lader til at danske politimænd og retsmedicinere har en sund appetit. De samles for at brainstorme og ”lukke de sidste huller” i efterforskingnen, inden de formelt anholder deres mistænkte. De sætter sig rundt om et stort konferencebord, der ”bugner som sædvanligt af flere slags brød, marmelade, ost i flere afskygninger og kaffe nok til, at en langturschauffør kunne komme sikkert til Sydspanien”.

Dette scene giver en typisk dansk smag til efterforskningen, synes jeg, og beviser, at i Danmark kan kriminalfolk  ikke desto mindre nyde livet, selvom de diskuterer om et 1-år gammelt lig, hvilket er rart.

Danske kriminalfok har tendens også til at nyder deres sexliv, hvilket kan være pinligt at læse op i vores gruppe. Og jeg er også stadig lidt bekymret over, at politiet, der ikke endnu har beviser nok til at sigte Richard, deres mistænkte, for drab, men synes at være helt sikre på, at de kan sigte ham for ”usømmelig omgang med et lig”. Forfatteren har ikke givet detaljer af denne aspekt endnu, og jeg håber på, at dette ikke vil blive til endnu en scene, der kommer til at blive meget pinligt at læse op i vores danske gruppemøder. Yikes! Kom tilbage, Sherlock, alt er tilgivet ha ha.

Det er imidlertid rart at se, at en ny figur blandt kriminalfolket, Leif, der står for efterforskningen på findestedet, har et godt sans for humor. Når Richard, politiets mistænkte, siger, at han ikke kan huske præcis hvornår Berit, hans kæreste, døde, lader Leif om at være overrasket: ”Hvad? Havde han ikke skrevet i kalenderen: proppet kæresten i fryser?”. Jeg kan godt lide Leifs stil, ingen tvivl om det.

”Proppet kæresten i fryser”, er i øvrigt en mindeværdig, selvom lidt uhyggelig, kalendernotat eller dagbogsnotat,  for at sætte ved siden af Katys klassiske ”Forgot what did” i Susan Coolidges ikoniske romaner.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost på terrassen, men vi bemærker at de lokale fluer og hvepse pludselig er begyndt at blive mere aktive, og vi spilder en masse tid på at overtale dem, at gå væk. Det er heldigt, at jeg taler deres sprog ha ha. Men vi beslutter at spise indendørs i aften. Hvepse har tendens til at være lidt irriterende i august, har vi bemærket. Vi har læst noget på ét eller andet tidspunkt om, at de begynder at have svært ved at finde nok sukker i deres normale madkilder. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !

14:00 Jeg går i seng i Sarahs gamle værelse, hvor det er køligt, og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg vågner op kl 15 og tager min regelmæssige 100-ords danske ordforrådtest, mens jeg bliver liggende i sengen. Jeg står op kl 16 og vi slapper af med en iskaffe på terrassen.

Lois har for første gang lavet to kopper iskaffe, men hun er stadig på jagt online efter det ”perfekte” opskrift. Juryen er stadig ude om det. Jeg udviklede selv en smag for iskaffe, da vi i marts-april var i Perth, Australien på besøg hos Sarah, vores yngste datter og hendes familie.

Jeg roste iskaffe til skyerne, da vi for nylig tilbragte et par dage med vores anden datter, Alison, der for et par uger siden flyttede tilbage til England efter 6 års ophold i Danmark. I dag har Alison lagt et charmerende foto op på ”Insta”. Billedet viser sin yngste barn, Isaac, på en café i Haslemere, Surrey. Også på cafébordet ser vi Alisons iskaffe.

vores (snart) 8-årige barnebarn, Isaac, på en café

i Haslemere. Vores datter Alison har bestilt en iskaffe (til venstre) – yum yum!

tilbageblik til april i Australien: jeg nyder en enorme iskaffe (til venstre)

i strålende solskin, mens jeg sidder på Cape Naturaliste-fyrtårnets café

sammen med vores datter Sarah og vores tvillingebørnebørn Lily og Jessie

18:00 Vi spiser aftesmad i spisestuen for at undgå de lokale hvepse, og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. 

Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. 

De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm (6. del af 6) der handler om Afrikas store civilisationer. Dette 6. afsnit handler om Afrika i det 19. århundrede. Programmets vært er den charmerende sorte amerikaner, Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Det føles som om Gates har i sin tilgang lidt af en undertone af, at Afrika er for mange år blevet uretfærdigt ignoreret af verdens historikere. Som en sort amerikaner sætter Gates en ære i at fejre kontinentets bedrifter – som skoledreng blev han konstant fortalt, at Afrika ikke havde nogen civilisation, før ankomsten af europærerne.

Lois og jeg bliver endnu en gang forbavset over Gates historiske fremlæggelse, og forbavset over, hvor lidt vi kender til afrikansk historie.

Vi hører om opdagelsen af diamanter og senere guld i det sydlige Afrika, og måderne europæerne brugte for at tvinge unge afrikanske mænd til at arbejde på deres vegne i de nye miner,  de havde fået gravet. Slaveri blev afskaffet i det britiske imperium in 1833, så var det umuligt at slavebinde disse unge mænd, selvom deres arbejdsvilkår var ikke meget bedre – det må jeg nok sige!

Lidt af en modsætning i det vestlige Afrika, hvor selve afrikanerne for hovedparten af århundredet kunne udnytte den lukrative palmeoliehandel, nu hvor slaveri var blevet afskaffet af både Storbritannien og USA.

Men for det meste får de europæiske magter imidlertid ikke særlig dårlig presse, med undtagelsen af Kong Leopold, den belgiske konge, der insisterede på ekstremt brutale metoder for at tvinge den lokale congolesiske befolkning  på til at arbejde på hans vegne i landets forskellige miner og andre ressourcer, inklusive kobber og gummi.

Hvorfor denne brutalitet?, undrer jeg mig. Måske havde Leopold, konge af en forholdsvis ny europæiske stat, der forenede to anderledes folk og to anderledes sprog, havde en tvang til at spille stærk mand i Congo: Belgien kom sent til den generale jagt på afrikanske kolonier. Men det er juryen stadig ude om.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!