Thursday, August 23 2018

09:00 Lois and I get up and after breakfast I start calling Plusnet's help desk - we have a strange problem with our YouView TV device, which Plusnet, our ISP, supplied to us: there is no problem with recording TV shows, but when we record radio programs, we cannot hear the program - no sound comes from the device for some reason.

I have been suspecting that the problem is with the device, because some of the times (but not every time) that we have the problem, a YouView error code appears on the screen.

I call them. Plusnet is a company based in the county of Yorkshire, and all their helpdesk staff speak with a Yorkshire accent, which is charming: and if your call is in a queue, you'll always hear music from singers who came from the county: eg Jarvis Cocker, Joe Cocker, ABC etc - a cute idea in my opinion.

I believe however that the company is no longer allowed to talk about the origins of their employees because it could be interpreted as racist - good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Unfortunately, however, the helpdesk employee cannot solve my problem this morning. He says the device is working perfectly: the error code is apparently a bit of a red herring, which is a little annoying. He says the problem lies with connections between the device and the television. Damn!

After I hang up, I find that the man is partly right. But the problem actually lies in the connection between the television and the power source, which seems strange.

I talk a little to Lois about the problem and we recall that the TV is now many years old and maybe it's time to buy a new one. We do not like the modern big screens because they tend to dominate the entire living room, but maybe we could buy a small bedroom tv, instead of a new living room, maybe with a slightly larger screen than the current one. We have noticed that programme makers nowadays tend to assume that viewers have big screens: Lois and I have more or more trouble reading messages on screen. Or is the problem with our eyes ??? We are not entirely sure - the jury is still out on that one.

What a waste of a morning - good grief! Half a day has gone, quite an interesting one, but a lot of household chores have once again been left done. What madness !!!!

12:30 Lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Lois, in the meantime, goes into the backyard and picks plums from our fruit trees at the bottom of the garden. She plans to make plum chutney, also a few fruit-crumble desserts: yum yum!

15:30 I get up. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch and discuss her sect's next get-together taking place on September 1, at the house of Andy, the local church's secretary and chief preacher.

This upcoming event (ie the get-together) is starting to cast a bit of a shadow over me - I have to participate in it because Lois needs my support. The church has given her the responsibility of inviting guests, welcoming them etc, and the whole get-together will be quite long - 4 hours plus - yikes! Small talk is not my forte, no doubt about that -  scary.

Lois and I talk a little about the event. We believe that Andy has made a mistake by holding the get-together at his house - he and Angie have only just, 3 weeks ago, moved into their new house near the village of Eckington, way out in the country. We take a look at Google and we see that the area where Andy has bought a house still looks like a construction site. Many of the guests are elderly and there is a risk that they might fall over or meet other types of accidents.

Andy and Angie, his wife, have asked guests to bring their own garden chairs, desserts, drinks etc: Again this is inappropriate for elderly guests in our opinion. Good grief, what total insanity !!!

The "construction site" where Andy has invited 40 guests to a party / barbecue.

Many of the invitees are actually quite elderly. Good grief, what total madness !!!

17:00 I take a little look online and I see that our elder daughter, Alison, together with Ed and their 3 children, are flying today to Copenhagen to spend a few days with some of the friends they got to know during their 6 year stay in Denmark. The family finally moved back to England about 6 weeks ago, but the whole family are greatly missing their Danish friends and their expat friends in the Danish capital.

18:00 We have dinner, including one of Lois' fruit crumble desserts: yum yum! We spend the rest of the evening watching television.

We see an old episode of Big Bang Theory's 11th Season, a fun episode about the "boys' " flirtation with the bitcoin phenomenon. Lois and I want to be up to date with the status of the main characters before the sitcom's new season starts in the fall. We missed some episodes in the 11th season due to our absence in March / April in Australia.

Steve, my American brother in law, has sent me an email with news about the 12th season - CBS has apparently decided that the 12th season will be the last.

21:00 We continue to watch a bit of television. An interesting documentary is on, all about "healthy eating". The host of the program is the charming Fiona Phillips.

We were tempted to see this program because of its trailer, where the host asked the question: is a traditional bacon and egg breakfast the healthiest choice? We hoped that the answer would be yes. What idiots we are!

It turns out that fried eggs are reasonably healthy because the egg does not absorb the fat. And they are much healthier than scrambled eggs, which usually contain butter and milk, which doubles the fat content.

And it's ok to eat bacon occasionally as long as you grill it.

The program also confirms that a breakfast containing a large protein element means that you don't get hungry for a longer time. If you eat a breakfast consisting of cereal, or of fruit + yoghurt, this tends to tempt you to snack before lunchtime.

So, all in all, good news for people who like a cooked breakfast.

Lois and I are very pleased that the program confirms the benefits of drinking a lot of milk, especially for older people. Fresh milk prevents the body from dehydrating for a longer time, and is much better for this purpose than either water or fruit juice. The fat in milk is harmless and is a good source of iodine and B12 vitamins, both of which are important for older people. Hooray!

Other points from the program: it's important not to boil vegetables, which destroys their vitamin C content, and also that vitamin pills are basically useless.

22:00 We go to bed - we read about 10 pages of our respective bedtime books before we drift off to sleep - zzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

09:00 Lois og jeg står op og efter morgenmad går jeg i gang med at ringe til Plusnets helpdesk – vi har et mærkeligt problem med vores YouView tv-enhed, som Plusnet, vores internetudbydere, tilførte os: der er ikke noget problem med at optage tv-programmer, men når vi optager radioprogrammer, kan vi ikke høre programmet – ingen lyd kommer fra enheden af en eller anden grund.

Jeg har formodet, at problemet er med enheden, fordi der nogle gange (men ikke hver gang) vi har problemet, står en fejlkode på skærmen.

Jeg ringer til dem. Plusnet er et selskab, der har til huse i grevskabet Yorkshire, og alle deres helpdesk-medarbejdere taler med en Yorkshire accent, hvilket er charmerende: og hvis ens opkald står i kø, hører man altid musikken af sangere, der kom fra grevskabet: fx Jarvis Cocker, Joe Cocker, ABC osv – en sød idé efter min mening.

Jeg tror, selskabet ikke længere er tilladt at tale om oprindelserne af deres medarbejdere på grund af, at det kunne blive fortolket som racistisk – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Desværre kan helpdeskmedarbejderen imidlertid ikke løse mit problem i formiddag. Han siger, at enheden fungerer perfekt: fejlkoden er tilsyneladende lidt af et falsk spor, hvilket er lidt irriterende. Han siger at problemet ligger med forbindelser mellem enheden og fjernsynet.  Pokkers!

Efter jeg ringer af, opdager jeg, at det har manden har delvis ret i. Men problemet er faktisk i forbindelsen mellem fjernsynet og stikkontakten, hvilket synes mærkeligt.

Jeg snakker lidt med Lois om problemet, og vi mindes om, at fjernsynet nu er mange år gammelt og måske er det nu tid til at købe et nyt. Vi kan ikke lide de moderne storskærmer, fordi de har tendens til at dominere hele stuen, men vi kunne måske købe en lille soveværelse-tv, i stedet for en ny stuetv, måske med en lidt større skærm, end det nuværende. Vi har bemærket, at program-magere nu til dags har tendens til at antage, at seerne har storskærmer: Lois og jeg har sværere og sværere med at læse beskeder på skærmen. Eller er problemet med vores øjne??? Det er vi ikke helt sikre på – det er juryen stadig ude om.

Sikke et spild af en formiddag – du godeste! En hel formiddag er gået, meget interessant, men en massse huslige opgaver er igen blevet ladt ugjorte. Sikke et vanvid !!!!

12:30 Frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermidagslur. Lois går imellemtiden ud ind i baghaven og plukker blommer fra vores frugttræer i bunder af haven. Hun planlægger at lave blomme-chutney, også et par frugt-crumble desserter: yum yum!

15:30 Jeg står op. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen og diskuterer hendes sekts næste sammenkomst, der finder sted den. 1. september, hos Andy, den lokale kirkes sekretær og hovedsagelige prædiker.

Denne kommende event (dvs sammenkomsten) begynder at kaste lidt af en skygge over mig – jeg bliver nødt til at deltage i den, fordi Lois har brug for min støtte. Kirken har givet hende ansvaret at invitere gæsterne, byder dem velkommen osv, og hele sammenkomsten vil være ganske lang– 4 timer plus – yikes! Småsnak er ikke min force, ingen tvivl om det – yikes, skræmmende!

Lois og jeg snakker lidt om sammenkomsten. Vi mener, at Andy har taget fejl ved at holde festen hos sig – han og Angie er for kun 3 uger siden flyttet ind i deres nye hus i nærheden af landsbyen Eckington, der ligger langt ude på landet. Vi kigger på Google og vi ser, at området, hvor Andy har købt et hus, stadig ligner et byggeplads. Mange af gæsterne er ældre og der er en risiko, at de falder over eller møder andre slags ulykker.

Andy og Angie, hans kone, har bedt gæster om at medbringe sine egne havestole, også desserter, drinks osv: igen er dette upassende for ældre gæster efter vores mening. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

”Byggepladsen”, hvor Andy har inviteret 40 gæster til en fest/barbecue.

Mange af gæsterne er faktisk  ældre. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

17:00 Jeg kigger lidt på  nettet, og jeg ser, at vores ældste datter, Alison, og hendes familie, flyver i dag til København for at tilbringe nogle dage hos nogle af vennerne, de lærte at kende under deres 6-års ophold i Danmark. Familien flyttede tilbage til England for ca. 6 uger siden, men hele familien savner meget deres danske venner og expat-venner i den danske hovedstad.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, inklusive en af Lois’ frugt crumble desserter: yum yum! Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn.

Vi ser et gamle afsnit af Big Bang Theorys 11. sæson,et morsomt afsnit, der handler om ”drengenes” flirteri med bitcoin-fænomenet. Lois og jeg vil være helt ajour med hovedfigurernes status, før sitcommens nye sæson starter i efteråret. Vi gik glip af nogle afsnit i den 11. sæson på grund af vores fravær i marts/april i Australien.

Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror, har sendt mig en email med nyheder om sitcommens 12. sæson – CBS tv-kanalen har tilsyneladende besluttet at den 12. sæson vil være den sidste.

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om at ”spise sundt”. Programmets vært er den charmerende Fiona Phillips.

Vi var fristet til at se dette program på grund af dets trailer, hvor værten stillede spørgsmålet: er en traditionel bacon og æg morgenmad det sundeste valg? Vi håbede på, at svaret ville være ja. Hvor er vi dog idioter!

Det viser sig, at spejlæg er rimeligt sunde, fordi ægget ikke opsluger fedtet. Og de er meget sundere, end røræg, som normalt indeholder smør og fordobler fedt-indholdet.

Og det er ok at spise bacon af og til, så længe man griller den.

Programmet bekræfter også, at en morgenmad, der indeholder et stort protein-element, betyder at man ikke har sulten i længere tid. Hvis du spiser en morgenmad, der består af cerealier eller af frugt + yoghurt har tendens til at friste dig til at snacke før frokosttid.

Så i det hele taget ganske gode nyheder for folk, der kan lide en kogt morgenmad.

Lois og jeg er meget glade for, at programmet bekræfter fordelene ved at drikke en masse mælk, i sær for ældre mennesker. Frisk mælk forhindrer kroppen i længere tid i at dehydrere, og er meget bedre til dette formål, end enten vand eller frugtjuice. Fedtet i mælk er harmløst, og er en god kilde til jod og B12-vitaminer, hvilke begge er vigtige for ældre mennesker. Hurra!

Andre points fra programmet: det er vigtigt ikke at koge grøntsager, hvilket ødelægger deres vitamin-C-inhold, og også at vitamin-piller grundlæggende er totalt unyttige.

22:00 Vi går i seng – vi læser ca 10 sider af vores henholdsvise sengetidbøger, før vi glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzzzz!!!!