Danskcolin: Saturday, September 1 2018

08:00 Lois and I get up and go in the shower. After breakfast Lois hurries into the kitchen and finishes off preparing the cakes and desserts she started on yesterday. This afternoon her sect is holding a get-together at Andy and Angie's way out in the countryside near the village of Eckington. Andy and Angie moved into the house only 6 weeks ago, so Angie has asked guests to bring drinks, desserts, etc. She will conjure up the meat and the rolls using a local catering company.

10:00 Meanwhile I set about downloading a medieval York mystery play because Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group is holding its regular monthly meeting on Friday, and this mystery play is the group's current project. Unfortunately, Lynda will be away on holiday and she has asked me to lead the group meeting on her behalf. Damn!

At group meetings we take turns to read approx. 20 lines and translate them into modern English, commenting on interesting words and grammar. The play was written in the city of York in the 15th century, so the language is Middle English, Northern dialect, which was significantly influenced by Danish and the other Scandinavian languages, something which I find particularly interesting.

a typical medieval York mystery play underway

on the streets of York City

I do not have time this morning to read our current play, "The Harrowing of Hell" - although the title itself sounds exciting, I must say. But this morning, I restrict myself to browsing through the wiki article.

It seems that Christians have believed that Jesus used the time between his crucifixion and his resurrection to descend into the underworld to "save all the righteous people who have died since the beginning of the world" including unborn children, also Adam, the first man, and a bunch of other people.

It's strange because on the other side of the picture, the underworld is often described as the place where the unrighteous are tortured forever, so some have wondered if the underworld has actually been divided into two sections, one a massive torture chamber, the other a kind of waiting room, not unlike the kind of waiting room you come across in large city hospitals, for example the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

12:00 We have lunch: sausages, fried eggs, potatoes and our home-grown green beans - yum yum! Afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

14:30 Lois hops into bed with me, but after about 30 minutes we have to get up and prepare for going to Andy and Angie's get-together.

Lois' sect has invited not only sect members but also a lot of people who have been in contact with the sect in the past but for one reason or another have not joined the sect. A mixed bag of relatives, partners, friends, former Sunday school students / seminar attendees, etc. But it is only a social event, the organizers say. None the less I will be very happy when it's over, so I can get my brain back in gear again, that's for sure.

The get-together will in theory be quite long - 4 hours from 3pm to 7pm. But Lois knows very well that these kind of gatherings are not my bag and she says we can arrive at 4pm and miss the first hour.

15:30 We drive over to Eckington and ring Andy and Angie's doorbell at 4pm, as agreed, but we are nevertheless the first people to show up - good grief, how crazy. And we finally bugger off at 6:30 pm, so that makes 2 and a half hours in total that we are there.

Andy and Angie

To be brief, I manage to survive the meeting, i.e. survive a lot of conversations. My problem with these events is that I am in conversation with people who are very nice for the most part, but in most cases lack a good university education. I do not think I'm a snob, but it makes conversations a bit boring if the other person does not understand cultural or historical references or jokes, I think.

I'm also always a little nervous about the possibility that someone will start talking about religion, and I will have to use all my much-vaunted intelligence to change the subject (very tactfully, needless to say) - but yikes!

But when all is said and done, 2 and a half hours is much better than 4 hours - I have to admit that. And I'm still in one piece, which is nice.

On our way home, we make a short detour to see the new clinic which our current doctors have decided to move into. It is 5 miles away from here on the other side of Bishops Cleeve. The plan was originally that the move would take place this fall, but as we drive past the construction site tonight, we can clearly see that it will take several months for the new clinic to be ready.

Those doctors are such bastards! They don't give a damn about their current patients having to travel another 5 miles further just to see them - that's for sure.

20:00 We have eaten too much at the get-together, and now feel a little out of sorts - yuck! We spend the rest of the evening watching television, firstly a couple of wrestling matches.

It is interesting that the program-makers tonight made a mistake by pitting two bad guys against two other bad guys in the two against two finals so the audience is actually forced to boo both teams, which does not work as well as the normal system of "Heroes vs. Villains", but viewed from Lois' and my point of view, it's a refreshing and amusing change.

Programmers have made the mistake of pitting

2 bad guys against 2 other bad guys - what madness!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

20:30 We continue to watch a bit of television. BBC Proms Extra is on, with Katie Derham as the program's charming hostess.

An interesting review of the week's concerts, but Lois and I again are very critical of Katie's attire - an unfortunate choice, we think. What idiot told her that this rubbish multicolored pantsuit looks good? What madness!

what madman told Katie that this awful multicolored

trouser suit would be a good choice?

21:30 We go to bed early - we are exhausted. What a day! Zzzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg står op og går i bad. Efter morgenmad skynder Lois sig ud i køkkenet og fortsætter med at forberede kagerne og desserterne, hun startede i går. I eftermiddag holder sin sekt en sammenkomst hos Andy og Angie ude på landet i nærheden af landsbyen Eckington. Andy og Angie har for kun 6 uger siden flyttet ind til huset, så Angie har bedt gæster om at medbringe drinks, desserter osv. Hun vil fremdrylle kødet og bollerne ved hjælp af et lokalt cateringfirma.

10:00 I mellemtiden går jeg i gang med at downloade et midalderligt York-mysteriespil, fordi Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe holde sin regelmæssige månedlige møde på fredag, og dette mysteriespil er gruppens nuværende projekt. Desværre vil Lynda være væk på ferie, og hun har bedt mig om at lede gruppemødet på hendes vegne. Pokkers!

På gruppemøder skiftes vi til at læse ca. 20 linjer og oversætte dem til moderne engelsk, og kommentere interessante ord og grammatik. Mysteriespillet blev skrevet i byen York i det 15. århundrede, så sproget er middelengelsk, nordlige dialekt, der i en betydelig grad var påvirket af dansk og de andre skandinavske sprog, hvilket for mit vedkommende er meget interessant.

et typisk midalderligt York-mysteriespil, der er i gang med

at blive opført på gaderne af byen York

Jeg har ikke tid i formiddag til at læse mysteriespillet, ”The Harrowing of Hell” – selvom selve titlen lyder spændende, det må jeg nok sige. Men i formiddag begrænser jeg mig til at blade igennem wiki-artiklen.

Det ser ud som om, at kristne har troet, at Jesus brugte tiden mellem sin korsfæstelse og sin opstandelse på at stige ned i underverden for at ”frelse alle de retfærdige folk, der var død siden begyndelsen af verden”, herunder for eksempel ufødte børn, også Adam, det første menneske, og en flok andre folk.

På den anden side er underverden ofte beskrevet som stedet, hvor de uretfærdige blive tortureret for evigt, så nogle har spekuleret på, om underverden faktisk er blevet delt i to områder, det ene en massiv torturkammer, det andet en slags masse ventesal, ikke ulig den slags ventesal man falder over i hospitaler – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

12:00 Vi spiser frokost: pølser, spejlæg, kartofler og hjemmedyrkede grønne bønner – yum yum! Bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

14:30 Lois hopper op i sengen til mig, men efter ca.30 minutter skal vi desværre stå op igen og forberede os på Andy og Angies sammenkomst.

Lois’ sekt har inviteret ikke bare sektens medlemmer, men også en masse mennesker, der har haft kontakt med sekten i fortiden, men som af en eller anden grund ikke har tilsluttet sig sekten. En blandet landhandling af slægtninge, partnere, venner, tidligere søndagsskoleeleveer / seminardeltagere osv. Men det er imidlertid kun en social begivenhed, siger arrangørerne. Jeg vil imidlertid være meget glad, når det er forbi, så jeg kan få min hjerne klar til brug igen, ingen tvivl om det!!!!!

Sammenkomsten bliver i teorien ganske lang – 4 timer fra kl 15 til kl 19. Lois ved godt, at disse slags sammenkomster er ikke mit nummer, og hun siger vi kan ankomme kl 16 og gå glip af den første time.

15:30 Vi kører over til Eckington og ringer kl 16 på Andy og Angies dørklokke, som aftalt, men vi er ikke desto mindre de første til at dukke op – du godeste, hvor vanvittigt! Vi stikker af kl 18:30, så 2 og en halv time i alt.

Andy og Angie

Kort sagt lykkes det mig at overleve sammenkomsten, og en masse samtaler. Mit problem med disse eventer er at jeg befinder mig i samtale med folk, der er meget sympatisk for det meste, men som i de fleste tilfælde mangler en god universitetsuddannelse. Jeg mener ikke, jeg er snobbet, men det gør samtaler lidt kedelige, hvis den anden ikke forstå kulturelle eller historiske referencer eller vittigheder, synes jeg.

Jeg er også altid lidt nervøs for det tilfælde, en eller anden gæst vil begynde at tale om religion, og jeg vil måtte bruge al min højt besungne intelligens for at skifte emnet (meget taktfuldt, unødvendigt at sige) – yikes!

Men når alt kommer til alt, er 2,5 timer meget bedre, end 4 timer – det må jeg indrømme. Og jeg er stadig i ét stykke, hvilket er rart.

På vej hjem gør vi en kort afstikker for at se den nye lægeklinik, som vores nuværende læger har besluttet at flytte ind til. Det ligger 5 miles væk herfra i den anden side af Bishops Cleeve. Planen var oprindeligt, at flyttelsen finder sted til efteråret, men da vi i aften kører forbi byggepladsen, kan vi ser tydeligt, at det skal flere måneders arbejde, før den nye klinik bliver færdig.

Vores læger er sådanne nogle sjufter! De skider det et stykke om deres nuværende patienter skal rejse endnu 5 miles for at se dem – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!

20:00 Vi har spist for meget til sammenkomsten, og føler os nu lidt utilpasse – yuck! Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, for det første et par brydekamp.

Det er interessant at programmagerne i aften har taget fejl ved at kæmpe to bad guys imod to andre bad guys i de to imod to finale, så publikummet faktisk bliver tvunget til at buhe begge hold, hvilket overhovedet ikke virker så godt som det normale system af ”helte imod skurke”, men set ud fra Lois’ og mit synspunkt er det en forfriskende og morsom forandring.

Programmermagerne har taget fejl ved at

kæmpe 2 bad guys imod 2 andre bad guys – hvor vanvittigt!

Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

20:30 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser BBC Proms Extra, med Katie Derham som programmets charmerende værtinde.

En interessant gennemgang af ugens koncerter, men Lois og jeg er igen meget kritisk over Katies påklædning – et uheldigt valg, synes vi. Hvilken idiot fortalte hende, at denne elendige flerfarvede buksedragt ser godt ud? Sikke et vanvid!