Danskcolin: Monday, September 10 2018

09:00 I get a text from Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. She has been in the habit of calling us on whatsapp every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, but we did not hear anything yesterday. She texts me this morning to explain why she did not call - she and Francis, her husband, were busy both Saturday and Sunday with meetings to discuss their attempts to borrow money for the purchase of some property or other in the Perth area. They also had to travel quite a distance to attend the meetings, and they were both very tired afterwards.

The family plans to buy a small house high up on the hills overlooking Perth, a house that Francis, Sarah's husband, can gradually enlarge using his own DIY skills, while Sarah continues to be the family breadwinner with her accountancy work. Their 5-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie, start school next February.

I wish them luck with getting a loan, but Sarah says they are not that hopeful about it - oh dear!

Flashback to March-April 2018: our visit to the Perth area of Western Australia

to spend time with Sarah, Francis, Lily and Jessica

09:30 Our neighbor, Frances, pops round. She and Stephen are angry about our local medical clinic's plans to get 6 new houses built, right next to her and Stephen's house, after the doctors have moved to their new clinic being built 5 miles away on the other side of Bishops Cleeve.

Frances and Stephen have an appointment this morning with the borough's planning manager. The couple are considering raising an official objection to the medical clinic's plans on the grounds that the new houses will reduce the amount of daylight coming through windows on the east side of their house. Frances is popping in here this morning to see how much daylight comes through our windows, so she can make a comparison.

It seems nobody has an absolute right to a view, but everyone has an absolute right to the same amount of daylight that they have had in the past as long as the stated amount of daylight has existed for at least 20 years - my god! How complicated!

The medical clinic's plans to have 6 new houses built, as published
in their planning application: Francis and Stephen's house is on the left
- just 4 feet away from the new building - yikes!

Everybody also has the right to some degree of privacy in the backyards, etc., but this is open to interpretation - if none of your neighbors has had a view of your backyard for at least 20 years, none of them in theory can get a view now by installing a new window, for example - as long as the borough's planning committee (and the various appeal committees) agree that your objection is reasonable. Yikes!

Will Frances and Stephen now have to quit their nude sunbathing?

Fortunately, none of the 6 new houses will have a view of my and Lois's backyard, so we can breathe a sigh of relief and carry on as we do now ha ha!

10:30 Frances has to leave. Lois and I go up to the bedrooms and change the bedding on our own double bed and also on Sarah's old double bed, which Sylvia, Lois' cousin from Melbourne, and her new partner Rod will be sleeping in, for a week starting September 17th.

11:00 I go out into the backyard and mow the two lawns located immediately behind the house. I decide to leave the remaining 3 lawns till later in the day.

12:30 We 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 and a piece of cake on the sofa.

16:30 I go back out into the backyard again and mow the 3 remaining lawns. The weather girl says it's going to rain on and off during the next 5 days, so the job is kind of urgent now.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio, an interesting program about the approx. 30 legal brothels in the state of Nevada. Such businesses have been legal for almost 50 years, as long as they are out in the country and not in the state's major cities. The program's presenter is the charming Lucy Ash.

Local businessman Dennis Hof owns many of the state's legal brothels, and he is also a supporter of Donald Trump. The Hof has ambitions to be elected to public office in November as a Republican, and in the long run to become the governor of the state. But local Christian and feminist groups are threatening to have his brothels shut down.

His campaign slogan ("Make Nevada Nevada again") echoes Trump's "Make America Great Again". But it seems that the local Christians do not support Dennis in the same way that the country's evangelical Christians seem to support Trump: a strange alliance that many English people find hard to understand, in view of the President's obvious moral deficiencies, to put it mildly!

Many evangelical Christians support Trump,

something which is a little hard to understand, to put it mildly !!!

Lucy Ash, the program's charming host, talks with some of the Hof's prostitutes: for example, "Air Force Amy", one of her brothel's older sex workers: she says her knees have begun to show signs of strain, now that she is in her 50s. But she loves her work and promises she will continue with the job for another 20 years or more, from a wheelchair if necessary - good grief, what madness!

"Alice Little", an ex-jockey and only 4 foot 8 in height, is the shortest prostitute in the state, but also the highest paid: her annual earnings will be over a million dollars this year.

However Lois and I suspect Amy and Alice are not typical representatives of the state's sex workers, and that there is a less glamorous side that the Hof does not want us to hear about.

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

8 pm We call the holiday home in North Devon where we stayed for a week last September, and we book another week there. We suspect we will really need a short break after Sylvia and Rod's visit next week.

Flashback to September 2017: we have a week's stay in a holiday home

high up on the hills overlooking Lynmouth, Devon: happy days!

The gate and the path down to the sea behind the holiday home complex

the coastal path near Lynmouth

the harbour

Lead us to you, dear holiday home – we’re gagging for it !!!!!

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

Danish translation

09:00 Jeg får en sms fra Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien. Hun er kommet i vane med at ringe til os på whatsapp hver søndag formiddag ved 10-tiden, men vi hørte ikke noget i går. Hun sms mig i formiddag for at forklare, hvorfor hun ikke ringede – hun og Francis, hendes mand, havde travlt både lørdag og søndag med møder om deres ønske om at låne penge for at købe en eller anden ejendom i Perth-området. De skulle rejse lidt for at deltage i møderne, og de var begge meget trætte derefter.

Familien planlægger at købe en lille hus højt oppe på bakkerne med udsigt over Perth, et hus som Francis, Sarahs mand, kan gradvist udbygge ved hjælp af sine egne DIY-færdigheder, mens Sarah fortsætter med at være familieforsøgeren med sin arbejde som revisor. Deres 5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie, starter i skole næste februar.

Jeg ønsker dem tillyke med at få et lån, men Sarah siger, de er ikke ret håbefulde omkring det – du godeste!

Tilbageblik til mars-april 2018: Lois og jeg på besøg

hos Sarah, Francis, Lily og Jessica i Perth-området, delstaten Western Australia

09:30 Vores nabo, Frances, smutter ind hos os. Hun og Stephen er sur over vores lokale lægeklinikkens planer om at får 6 nye huse bygget ved siden af deres hus, efter lægerne er flyttet ind til deres nye klinik, der er igang med at blive bygger 5 miles væk i den anden side af landsbyen Bishops Cleeve.

Frances og Stephen har en aftale i formiddag med kommunens planlægningschef. De overvejer at indvende officielt lægeklinikkens planer, på grund af, at de nye huse vil reducere beløbet af dagslys, der kommer ind gennem vinduer på den østlige side af deres hus. Frances smutter ind hos os i formiddag, for at se hvor meget dagslys kommer ind gennem vores vinduer, så hun kan sammenligne de to huse.

Det lader til, at ingen har en absolute ret til en udsigt, men alle har en absolut ret til samme beløb daglys, som de har haft før i tiden, så længe dette beløb dagslys har eksisteret i mindst 20 år – du godeste! Hvor kompliceret!

lægeklinikkens planer om at få 6 nye huse bygget, ifølge deres ansøgning

Francis og Stephens hus ligger til venstre – bare 4 fods væk – yikes!

Man har også en ret til en vis grad af uforstyrrethed i baghaverne osv, men dette står åbent til fortolkning – hvis ingen af din naboer har haft udsigt over din baghave i mindst 20 år, må ingen af dem i teorien ikke få en udsigt nu ved at installere et nyt vindue – så længe kommunens planlægningsudvalg (og de forskellige appelsudvalg) er enig om, at din misbilligelse er rimelig.

Yikes!

Vil Frances og Stephen måtte holde op med deres nøgne solbadning ha ha?

Heldigvis vil ingen af de 6 nye huse have udsigt over min og Lois’ baghave, så vi kan ånde lettet op og fortsætte alt hvad vi gør nu ha ha!

10:30 Francis skal af sted. Lois og jeg går op på soveværelser og skifter sengetøj på vores egne dobbeltseng og også på Sarahs gamle dobbeltseng, Sylvia, Lois’ kusine fra Melbourne, og hendes nye partner Rod skal sove i i en uges tid startende den 17. september.

11:00 Jeg går ud i baghaven og slå de to græsplæner der ligger umiddelbart bag huset. Jeg beslutter at overlade de resterende 3 græsplæner til senere på dagen.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 16 og vi slapper af med en kop te og et stykke kage i sofaen.

16:30 Jeg går ud ind i baghaven igen og slår de 3 resterende græsplæner. Vejrpigen siger, det kommer til at regne af og til under de næste 5 dage, og derfor er opgaven lidt presserende.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler om de ca 30 lovlige bordeller i delstaten Nevada. Sådanne forretninger har været lovlige i næsten 50 år, så længe de er ude på landet og ikke i delstatens store byer. Programmets vært er den charmerende Lucy Ash.

Lokal forretningsmanden Dennis Hof ejer mange af delstatens lovlige bordeller, og han er også en tilhænger af Donald Trump. Dennis har ambitioner om at blive valgt til offentligt embede i november og i det lange løb blive delstatens guvernør. Men lokale kristne og feministiske grupper truer ham med at få sine lovlige bordeller lukket ned.

Hans kampagne-slogan ( ”Make Nevada Nevada Again”) ekkoer Trumps ”Make America Great Again”. Men det lader til, at de lokale kristne ikke støtter Dennis på den samme måde som landets evangeliske kristne støtter Trump: en underlige alliance, som englændere finder svært ved at forstå, i betragting af præsidentens åbenbare moralske skavanker, for at sige mildt!

Mange evangeliske kristne støtter Trump,

hvilket er lidt svært at forstå, for at sige mildt!!!

Lucy Ash, programmets charmerende vært, taler med nogle af Hofs prostituerede: for eksempel ”Air Force Amy”, en af hendes bordels ældre sexarbejdere: hun siger, at knæene er begyndt at vise tegn på forstrækning, nu hvor hun er i 50’erne: hun elsker sit arbejde og lover, hun vil fortsætte med jobbet i endnu 20 år eller mere, fra en kørestol hvis nødvendigt - du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

”Alice Little”, en eks-jockey, er på 4 fods 8, er delstatens laveste prostituerede, men også den højest betalte: hendes årlige fortjeneste bliver i år til over en million dollars.

Men Lois og jeg mistænker, at Amy og Alice ikke er typiske repræsentanter af delstatens sexarbejdere, og at der en mindre glamorøs side, som Hof ikke vil have os til at høre om.

Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

20:00 Vi ringer til det feriehus-kompleks i Nord-Devon, hvor vi sidste september boede i en uge, for at booke endnu en uge derned. Vi mistænker, vi vil trænge for en kort pause efter Syvia og Rods besøg næste uge.