Danskcolin: Saturday, August 18 2018

07:45 Lois and I get up and after breakfast we drive over to the local Sainsbury's supermarket to do the food shopping. We come back and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

I have a lot of gardening to do: it rained a little last week - the grass needs to be mown and the hedges need to be cut, but I do not feel like doing it. I need at least a couple of days to get used to being back home after an enjoyable and stimulating week with our daughter Alison and her family. I need to recharge my batteries first. Life is hard sometimes, no doubt about that.

Throughout the morning we are disturbed by the sounds coming from our local medical clinic, which is only approx. 50 yards from our house. The doctors have obviously arranged for all the lovely tall trees in their yard to be cut down. We wonder if the doctors got official permission to fell them - our neighbors, Frances and Stephen, whose house is right next to the clinic, say that the doctors have not shown particular respect for the council's rules in the past - they are such bastards!

The doctors are getting the clinic and its courtyard ready in order to sell the entire area and move their business to Bishops Cleeve, a small town located 3 miles north of Cheltenham. We were a little worried at the outset that a construction company might buy the land and build a multi-storey block of apartments where the flats would all have a view over our back yards. But Frances, our neighbor, believes the clinic lies within the village's protected area, which contains a lot of 200-year-old houses dating from the regency period: construction companies would probably be banned from building homes more than 1 storey high, she believes. Let's hope that she is right about that.

12:30 Lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 4 o'clock.

16:00 I call my sister Gill, who lives in Cambridge, who for a few months or more ago has been feeling unwell: she had an undiagnosed "event" in May, where she was taken to hospital in Blackpool, also a kind of undiagnosed "weakness" in the left side of the body. Poor Gill !!!!

She had an MRI scan done 3 weeks ago but has not received the results yet. However, she believes that there can't be anything very serious in the results, otherwise they would have been in contact with her before now. She's feeling better overall, but she gets tired more quickly than she did before. Welcome to the club, Gill!

She and Peter have canceled their planned holiday in Spain, but they are taking a few day's holiday at the end of August in a special hotel for disabled guests located near Sandringham.

Lucy, their youngest daughter, who has lived with her parents for a couple of years, plans to move to the town of Ipswich, where Gill has found her a suitable apartment. Lucy is currently training to be a lawyer and most of her assignments are near Ipswich, so the move makes sense.

18:00 We eat dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television: first a couple of wrestling matches, and then an interesting discussion program all about this week's BBC Proms concerts.

Unfortunately, the evening's wrestling matches are sadly hit by a series of accidents and we see wrestlers being carried away on stretchers, which is always a bit of a shame.

this evening's wrestling is hit by a series of accidents and injuries

The BBC Proms Extra program showcases a discussion between the host, the charming Katy Derham, and her 3 guests - all internationally renowned pianists. One of them, Lara Melda, looks like she's only about 16, and Lois and I wonder if her hands are big enough to play some of the usual piano pieces, but the jury is still out on that one.

One of Katy's guests, Lara Melda, looks too young to play

many of the more challenging piano pieces in concerts: look at her tiny hands!

We see some excerpts from yesterday's concert, where the charming Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili (crazy name, crazy gal) managed to get to the end of Grieg's piano concerto, despite her unruly hair. The conductor was the famous British actor, Wilfrid Hyde White (1903-1991) who came back from the dead especially to take part in the concert. Way to go, Wilf !

Khatia Buniatishvili (crazy name, crazy gal) managed to finish

Grieg's piano concerto, despite her unruly hair.

Wilfrid Hyde White (1903-1991) came back from the dead

especially to take part in the concert as conductor.

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

Danish translation

07:45 Lois og jeg står op og efter morgenmad kører vi over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. Vi kommer tilbage og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

Jeg har en masse havearbejde for: det regnede lidt sidste uge – græsset trænger til at slås, og hækkene trænger til at klippes, men jeg har ikke lyst til at gøre det. Jeg har brug for mindst et par dage for at vænne mig til at være herhjemme igen efter en nydelig og stimulerende uge hos vores datter Alison og hendes familie. Jeg trænger til at genoplade mine batterier først. Livet er hårdt nogle gange, ingen tvivl om det.

Hele formiddagen bliver vi forstyrret af lyden fra vores lokale lægeklinik, der kun ligger ca. 50m fra vores hus. Lægerne har åbenbart arrangeret, at alle de dejlige høje træer på deres gårdplads bliver fældet. Vi spekulerer på, om lægerne fik officiel tilladelse at fælde dem - vores naboer, Frances og Stephen, hvis hus ligger umiddelbart ved siden af klinikken, siger, at de i fortiden ikke har vist særlig respekt for kommunens reglementer – de er sådan nogle sjufter!

Lægerne forbereder klinikken og dens gårdplads for at sælge hele området, og flytte deres forretning til Bishops Cleeve, en lille by, der ligger 3 miles nord for Cheltenham. Vi var lidt bekymret i begyndelsen, at et byggefirma køber jorden og bygge en høj etageejendom, hvor lejlighederne ville have udsigt over vores baghaver. Men Frances, vores nabo, tror, at klinikken ligger indenfor landsbyens beskyttede område, der indeholder en masse 200 år gamle huse, daterende fra regency-perioden: byggefirmaer ville sandsynligvis blive forbudt at bygge huse mere end 1 etage høj, tror hun. Lad os håbe, at det har hun ret i.

12:30 Frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 16.

16:00 Jeg ringer til min søster Gill i Cambridge, der i et par måneder eller mere siden har følt sig lidt utilpas: hun havde en udiagnosticeret ”event” i maj, hvor hun blev taget til hospitalet i Blackpool, også en slags udiagnosticeret ”svaghed” i den venstre side af kroppen. Stakkels Gill !!!!

Hun fik en MRI-scan gjort for 3 uger siden men har ikke modtaget resultaterne endnu. Hun tror imidlertid, at der er ikke noget meget alvorligt i resultaterne, ellers ville de have været i kontakt før nu. Hun har det i det hele taget bedre, men hun bliver hurtigere træt, end før. Velkommen i klubben, Gill !

Hun og Peter har aflyst deres planlagte ferie i Spanien, men de tager nogle dags ferie i slutningen af august i et specielt hotel for handicappede gæster, der ligger i nærheden af Sandringham.

Lucy, deres yngste datter, der i et par år har boet hos sine forældre, planlægger at flytte til byen Ipswich, hvor Gill har fundet hende en passende lejlighed. Lucy uddanner sig for tiden til advokat, og de fleste af hendes opgaver er i nærheden af Ipswich, så flyttelsen giver mening.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn: først et par brydekampe, og derefter et interessant diskussionprogram, der handler om en ugens BBC Proms concerter.

Aftenens brydekampe bliver desværre ramt af en række ulykker og vi ser brydere blive ført væk på bårer, hvilket er lidt af en skam.

aftenens brydekampe bliver ramt af en række ulykker og sår

BBC Proms Extra-programmet fremviser en diskussion mellem værten, den charmerende Katy Derham, og hendes 3 gæster – alle internationalt bekendte pianister. En af dem, Lara Melda, ser ud som hun kun er ca. 16 år gammel, og Lois og jeg spekulerer på, om hendes hænder er store nok til at spille nogle af de sædvanlige klaverstykker, men det er juryen stadig ude om.

En af Katys gæster, Lara Melda, ser for ung til at spille

mange af koncerternes mere udfordrende stykker: kig på hendes småbitte hænder!

Vi ser nogle uddrag fra gårsdagens koncert, hvor den charmerende georgiske pianist, Khatia Buniatishvili (skørt navn, skør kvinde) nåede at spille færdigt Griegs klaverkoncert, på trods af hende uregeligt hår. Dirigenten var den berømte britiske skuespiller, Wilfrid Hyde White (1903-1991) der kom tilbage fra døden specielt for at deltage i koncerten. Kom så, Wilf !