Saturday, August 11, 2018

08:00 Lois and I get up and after breakfast we walk into the village. We swing by the Bakery Stores, the local convenience store and buy a few things. We do not need a big food shop for once because we are visiting our elder daughter Alison and her family in Haslemere next week.

We come home with the shopping and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

10:00 Lois starts making 7 pounds of plum jam (greengage to be exact) - yum yum.

I sit down in front of my laptop, and read another 10 pages of my new Danish crime novel, "The Further You Fall", which I have taken delivery of from saxo.com in e-book form. Currently, I am considering the book as a potential candidate for our U3A Danish group's next project.

"The Further You Fall", a Danish crime novel, that could perhaps be

our U3A Danish group's next project

The story begins one evening with an unknown "killer" who has planned in a very careful and almost zen buddhist way to commit his murder in exactly 2 hours' time. He has squeezed himself into a small cleaning closet in the kitchen of a large office building. He is waiting for all the staff, except his victim (Liliana, a cleaner), to go home.

When the time is right, he jumps out of the closet and kills Lilliana with his little garrotte - yuck, scary! The strange thing about the story is that the killer seems to feel sorry in advance for his victim, a cleaner whom all the other employees bully and humiliate - the author has not yet told us why. Fascinating.

The killer puts his garrotte in a plastic bag and runs out of the building. He takes his bloodstained layer of protective clothing and stuffs it into the bag, with the intention of burning it all. Then he jumps on his bike and cycles towards the town. Yikes - creepy !!!! But a good start to the story, I think.

The author then switches to a description of the small provincial town, Christianssund (I suppose it is fictional but I am not completely sure), the harbour town where the murder takes place, and then introduces us to the novel's hero, Dan Sommerdahl, and his wife, Marianne, a doctor. I have read that Dan is the hero in a longish series of crime novels by Anna Grue. Dan is a copywriter in a local advertising agency, Kurt & Ko, and is apparently much better than the local police at solving all the local crimes.

It turns out that Dan has recently suffered a breakdown and is currently clinically depressed - his career in the advertising agency, superficially a dazzling success, has gone wrong and he is not satisfied with his job any more. Poor Dan !!!

He has a friend in the local police department - Flemming Torp, the local detective inspector. I have learned from years of experience that it is absolutely essential for amateur detectives to have a friend in the local police force, otherwise they wouldn't be able to get involved quite so easily.

But Dan has another connection with Marianne's creepy "death by garrotte" - the murder actually took place right there in Dan's advertising bureau, and the victim - cleaner Marianne - is known to him.

The world of the crime novel is a crowded market - no doubt about that. And it's very hard for crime authors to find a new twist that will make their amateur or professional detective heroes stand out from the crowd and be out of the ordinary.

I am currently not sure if it will work if the amateur detective, the focus of this book, i.e. Dan, is clinically depressed - it is undoubtedly a new twist! Depression certainly worked for Marvin, the depressed and paranoid android in Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

Marvin, the depressed, paranoid android, in

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 3.30pm and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. Lois suddenly becomes aware that she has a bad back, probably as a result of all the jam making - damn! But the pain is not as bad as last time, and we're hoping she will feel better after a good night's sleep.

17:30 I hurry into the kitchen and prepare the evening meal for once, so Lois can rest a little: my so-called "signature dish" - fish fingers, boiled potatoes and a cocktail of vegetables: cabbage, cauliflower and home-grown green beans - yum yum!

19:00 Lois is feeling a little better now as regards her back. We spend the evening listening a little to the radio, like an old married couple (which is fair enough in the circumstances ha ha).

We hear an interesting program, "The Last Word". Lois and I have got in the habit of hearing this program every week because we want to find out if anyone has died or not over the past 1-2 weeks (I have noticed that most weeks exactly 5 deaths occur ).

Tony Bullimore died recently, unfortunately. In the 1960s he started and operated a multi-racial nightclub in the city of Bristol to alleviate ethnic tensions in the city. A bunch of mega stars appeared at the club, including Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Ben E. King and Tina Turner.

Relatively late in life Tony took up sailing as a hobby, and, surprising but true, participated in 1996 in the Vendée Globes 'Round the World Solo Yacht Race', where sailors travelled the globe non stop and without any assistance.

Bullimore's boat sadly capsized in the Southern Ocean about 1,300 miles from the Australian coast and in winds of up to 100 mph. The majority of press and media reports assumed that the 57-year-old sailor had drowned. But, in fact, Bullimore was still alive, managing to survive in an air pocket in the upturned boat in complete darkness, even though he had lost all his food supply except for a chocolate bar. The Royal Australian Navy launched a rescue mission for Bullimore, and he was rescued by an Australian Seahawk helicopter from the frigate HMAS Adelaide.

I've never forgotten the ever-bubbly Bullimore's description of life in his air pocket in a hull full of sea-water that was sloshing around him: it was like I was inside a washing machine, he said. 

Good analogy, Tony!

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

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg står op og efter morgenmad går vi hen i landsbyen. Vi smutter ind i Bakery Stores, den lokale nærbutik og køber et par ting. Vi har ikke brug for et stort madindkøb for en gangs skyld, fordi vi næste uge besøger vores ældste datter Alison og hendes familie i Haslemere. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

10:00 Lois går i gang med at lave 7 pund blommemarmelade (reineclaude for at være præcis) – yum yum.

Jeg sætter mig foran min bærebare, og læser endnu 10 sider af min nye danske krimiroman, ”Dybt at Falde”, som jeg har modtaget fra saxo.com i form af en e-bog. For tiden betragter jeg bogen som en mulig kandidat til vores U3A danske gruppes næste projekt.

”Dybt at Fælde”, en dansk krimiroman, der muligvis kunne være

vores U3A danske gruppes næste projekt

Historien begynder en aften med en ukendt ”morder”, der har planlagt på en meget omhyggelig og næsten zenbuddhistisk måde, at begå sit mord om 2 timers tid. Han har klemt sig ind i et lille rengøringsskab i køkkenet af en stor kontorbygning. Han venter på, at alle de ansatte, bortset fra sit offer (Liliana, en rengøringsassistent), er gået hjem.

Da tidspunktet er rigtigt, springer han ud af skabet  og dræbe Lilliana med sin lille garrotte – øv, uhyggeligt! Det mærkelige ved historien er, at morderen virker at have ondt i forvejen for sit offer, en rengøringsassistent, som alle de andre ansatte mobber og ydmyger – for tiden har forfatteren ikke endnu fortalt os hvorfor – fascinerende.  

Morderen propper sit våben ned i en plastpose og løber ud af bygningen. Han tager sin blodplettede beskyttende lag tøj og propper den ned i posen, med den hensigt af at brænde det hele. Han hopper op på sin cykel og cykler ind mod byen. Yikes – uhyggeligt!!!! Men en god start på historien, synes jeg.

Forfatteren skifter så til en beskrivelse af den lille provinsby, Christianssund (jeg formoder, at den er fiktiv, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på), den havneby, hvor mordet finder sted, og præsenterer romanens helt for os, Dan Sommerdahl, og hendes kone, Marianne, en læge. Jeg har læst, at Dan er helt i en ganske lang serie af krimiromaner af Anna Grue. Dan er tekstforfatter i et lokalt reklamebureau, Kurt & Ko, og tilsyneladende er dygtigere, end det lokale politi, til at løse forbrydelser.

Det viser sig, at Dan for nylig har haft lidt af et sammenbrug, og er for tiden klinisk deprimeret – hans karriere i reklamebureauet, tilsyneladende en blændende succes, er gået galt og han er ikke tilfreds med sin stilling mere. Stakkels Dan!!!

Han har en ven i den lokale politiafdeling – Flemming Torp, den lokale kriminalkommisær. Jeg har lært fra årevis af erfaringer, at det er absolut essentielt for amatørdetektiver at have en ven i det lokale politi.

Men Dan har endnu en forbindelse med Mariannes uhyggelige ”død ved garotte” – mordet fandt sted i Dans reklamebureau, og ofret – rengøringsassistenten Marianne – er bekendt med ham.

Krimiverden er et overfuldt marked – ingen tvivl om det. Og det må være meget svært for krimiforfattere at finde et nyt twist, der vil få deres amatør- eller professionelle detektiver til at skille sig ud fra mængden og være underlige.

Jeg er for tiden ikke helt sikker på, om det hele vil virke, hvis amatørdetektiven, der er bogens fokus, er klinisk deprimeret – det er uden tvivl et nyt twist! Depression virkede helt sikkert for Marvin, den deprimerede og paranoide android i Douglas Adams’ ” Blafferens galakseguide”.

Marvin, den deprimerede, paranoid android, i

”Blafferens galakseguide”

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30 og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Lois bliver pludselig klar over, hun har lidt ondt i ryggen, sandsynligvis som resultat af al den der marmeladelavning – pokkers!  Men smerterne er ikke så dårlige som sidste gang, og vi håber på, at hun vil have det bedre efter en god nats søvn.

17:30 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og går i gang med at forberede aftenens måltid for en gangs skyld, så Lois kan hvile sig lidt: min såkaldte ”signaturret” – fiskepinder, kogte kartofler og en cocktail af grøntsager: kål, blomkål og hjemmedyrkede grønne bønner – yum yum!

19:00 Lois har det lidt bedre, hvad angår ryggen. Vi bruger aftenen på at lytte lidt til radio, som et gammelt ægtepar (hvilket er fair nok i omstandighederne ha ha).

Vi hører et interessant program, ”Den sidste ord”. Lois og jeg er kommet i vane med at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om nogen i de seneste 1-2 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste uger sker nøjagtig 5 dødsfald).

Tony Bullimore døde desværre for nylig. I 1960’erne startede han og drev en multietnisk natklub i byen Bristol for at lette etniske spændinger i byen. En flok af megastjerner optrådte i klubben, herunder  Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Ben E. King and Tina Turner.

Forholdsvis sent på livet tog han sejling op som hobby, og overraskende men sandt, deltog i 1996 i den Vendée Globes ”Jorden rundt - solo – havkapsejlads”, hvor der sejledes non stop og uden assistance.

Bullimores båd  kuldsejlede desværre i det sydlige Ocean omkring 1.300 miles væk fra den australske kyst og i vind på op til 100 mph. Flertallet af presse- og medierapporter antog, at den 57-årige sømand havde druknet. Men Bullimore var faktisk stadig i live  og det lykkedes ham at overleve i en luftlomme i den opadvendte båd i bælgravende mørke, selvom han havde mistet sin fødevareforsyning, bortset fra en chokoladestang. Royal Australian Navy lancerede en redningsmission for Bullimore, og han blev reddet af en australsk Seahawk-helikopter fra fregatten HMAS Adelaide.

Jeg har aldrig glemt den altid sprudlende Bullimores beskrivelse af livet i sin luftlomme i en båd, der var propfyldt af vand skvulpende rundt omkring ham: det var ligesom jeg var inde i en vaskemaskine. God analogi, Tony!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!