Sunday, September 16 2018

10:00 We call Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, on whatsapp, to chat a little with her and with her 5-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. They are in a good mood, and Lily's speech is much better now - no doubt the result of her weekly sessions with a local speech and language therapist.

Sarah continues to be the family breadwinner with her job as an accountant. The 5-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie, start school next February.

The twins are currently spending two mornings a week (Mondays and Wednesdays) at a local kindergarten. For a few weeks recently, Sarah and Francis paid for the children to spend Monday and Wednesday afternoons in an after school club, but this seems to have stopped now. Francis tried recently to hold down a part-time job as a salesman for new homes, but that came to nothing after about 3 weeks when he resigned.

Sarah and Francis are planning to buy a 5-acre piece of land high up in the hills outside Perth and get a local construction company to build them a house up there. She and Francis are currently negotiating a loan and looking for a construction company.

10:45 Lois has to go out - she wants to attend her sect's two worship services taking place today in Tewkesbury library. She has also been asked to teach a Sunday School lesson - oh dear!

Lois says that the Sunday school superintendent has really dropped her in it this time, because in effect she is going to have to teach not just one but 3 lessons in one hour - she has to cover preparations for Moses to lead Israel's children out of Egypt towards the land of Canaan plus the story of the 12 "spies" who screwed up and advised Moses not to settle in the country (the so-called "Caxit"), plus also their subsequent 40 years in the wilderness - oh dear, poor Lois !!!

11:00 I have a little alone time and go out into the backyard. I do a bit of weeding in the vegetable garden, the patch around Lois' zucchini plants, but to be honest I'm getting fed up with weeding and clearing up in the backyard.

Lois wants the backyard not to look like a complete jungle when Sylvia, her cousin from Melbourne, and Rod, Sylvia's new partner, arrive tomorrow to stay with us for a week. But in my opinion, the garden does not really look that bad now. And I suspect the probability is that Sylvia and Rod won't even set foot in the garden, other than looking out over it from their bedroom window: I have checked the view and the backyard's worst scandals are not visible from the window, thank goodness. I think I can now breathe easy ha ha!

Nevertheless, it has been useful to have a deadline - I always work harder and better when I have a deadline to aim at, I have to say.

13:00 I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed for my afternoon nap. I start drifting off to sleep when I suddenly remember that the discrete clip-on reading light I ordered for Lois is due to be delivered sometime today, so I get dressed again and go downstairs to doze in an armchair instead.

the discrete clip-on reading lamp I've ordered for Lois, so she

can read her bedtime books without disturbing me

if she wakes up in the middle of the night - hurrah!

16:00 Lois comes back from church and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. The delivery guy brings Lois's discrete reading lamp shortly after.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening preparing a to-do list for tomorrow: all the last-minute assignments we have to take care of in preparation for Sylvia and Rod's visit. Good grief, the list is massive !!!!

Damn !!!! And I thought we were all ready !!!!!

I take a little look at my smartphone. Sylvia and Rod are currently staying with Sylvia's uncle Paul and his wife in North Wales. I take a look at Sylvia's Facebook page. The couple (or maybe only Sylvia and their hosts) have been visiting a granite quarry today on the north coast of the Llyn Peninsula. In her posts on Facebook, Sylvia never mentions the names of the places she and Rod visit. I suspect she has given up trying to cope with Welsh place names and their strange lack of vowels, and I do not blame her !!!

Uncle Paul is in the sunglasses, I think; the woman is either Paul's wife, 

or his daughter or daughter-in-law - but I'm not entirely sure

21:00 We watch a little television. The 4th part of a new classic drama series is on, based on Thackeray's famous novel, "Vanity Fair".

Yet another very enjoyable episode focusing on Becky Sharp's efforts to find riches and social status.

Olivia Cooke as Becky Sharp, in bed with Rawdon

In tonight's episode all the young military officers are travelling to Belgium - and their wives and lovers are travelling with them, which is nice! So Becky gets the chance to carry on going to bed with Rawdon while at the same time flirting with all the other men. In those days they knew how to conduct military campaigns in a civilised way, that's for sure. A bit of war in the day, but then masses of beautiful women and sumptuous balls in the evenings and nights. What madness !!!!

Napoleon has escaped his exile on the island of Elba, and only the British and Prussians can stop him. Exciting times! But after the battle at Waterloo, there was peace in Europe for half a century or more, which made a refreshing change.

Britain then had a feeling of complete omnipotence and got rid of its intelligence services. I think some people recommended the same reaction when the cold war “ended” early in the 1990s "- my goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

22:00 We go to bed - A busy day awaits us tomorrow, no doubt. ZZZZZZZZZZ !!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Vi ringer til Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, for at snakke lidt med hende og hendes 5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie. De er i godt humør, og Lily taler meget bedre nu – uden tvivl som resultatet af hendes ugentlige sessioner med en lokal tale- og sprogterapeut.

Sarah fortsætter med at være familieforsøgeren med sin arbejde som revisor. Deres 5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie, starter i skole næste februar.

Tvillingerne tilbringer for tiden to formiddager om ugen (mandag og onsdag) på en lokal børnehave.  I nogle uger for nylig betalte Sarah og Francis for, at børnene tilbragte mandag og onsdag eftermiddager i en efterskoleklub, men dette ser ud til at have stoppet nu. Francis prøvede at klare et deltidsjob som sælger af nye hjem men det blev ikke til noget efter ca. 3 uger, da han takkede af.

Sarah og Francis planlægger at købe et stykke jord på 2 hektar, højt oppe i bakkerne udenfor Perth og få et lokal byggefirma til at bygge dem et hus deroppe. Hun og Francis er for tiden i forhandlinger om at få et lån og finde et byggefirma.

10:45 Lois skal af sted – hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts to gudstjeneste, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek. Hun er også blevet bedt om, at undervise en søndagsskolelektion – du godeste!

Lois siger, at søndagsskolelederen virkelig har rodet hende ind i en masse skidt, fordi hun praktisk skal undervise ikke 1 men 3 lektioner på en time – hun skal dække forberedelser på, at Moses leder Israels børn ud af Egypt mod Kana’ans land, udover de 12 ”spioner”, der fuckede op og rådte Moses ikke til at de bosætter sig i landet (den såkaldte ”Caxit”), også deres efterfølgende 40 år i ørkenen – du godeste – stakkels Lois!!!

11:00 Jeg har lidt alenetid og går ud ind i baghaven. Jeg luger lidt i grøntsagshave, det jordstykke omkring Lois’ zucchiniplanter, men jeg begynder at blive ked af at luge og rydde op i baghaven.

Lois vil have, at baghaven ikke ser ud som en sand jungle, når Sylvia, hendes kusine fra Melbourne, og Rod, Sylvias nye partner, i morgen ankommer for at bo hos os i en uge. Men efter min mening ser haven faktisk ikke ret dårligt nu. Og jeg mistænker, at sandsynligheden er, Sylvia og Rod måske ikke gider at sætte sine ben i haven, ellers end, at kigge ud over den fra deres soveværelsesvindue: jeg har tjekket udsigten og baghavens værste skandaler er ikke synlige fra vinduet, gudskelov, og jeg kan så ånde lettet ha ha!

Det har imidlertid været nyttigt at have en frist – jeg arbejder altid hårdere og bedre, når jeg har en frist til at stile efter, det må jeg nok sige.

13:00 Jeg spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en eftermiddagslur. Jeg begynder at glide over i søvnene, da jeg mindes, at den diskrete clip-on læselampe jeg bestilte til Lois skal blive leveret i løbet af dagen, så jeg klæder mig på igen og går ned at trappe for at blunde i en lænestol.

reading light: den diskrete clip-on læselampe jeg har bestilt til Lois, så hun

kan læse sine sengetidbøger uden at forstyrre mig,

hvis hun vågner op midt om natten – hurra!

16:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra kirke og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Bybudet leverer Lois’ diskrete læselampe kort efter.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at udfærdige en gøremålsliste til i morgen: alle de sidste-øjeblik opgaver, vi må klare i forberedelse på Sylvia og Rods besøg. Du godeste, listen er massiv!!!!

Pokkers!!!!

Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone. Sylvia og Rod bor for tiden hos Sylvias onkel Paul og hans kone i Nord-Wales.  Jeg kaster et blik over Sylvias Facebook-side. Parret (eller måske kun Sylvia) har i dag besøgt et granit-stenbrud på Llyn-halvøens nordlige kyste.  I sine posts på Facebook omtaler Sylvia aldrig navne af stederne, hun og Rod besøger. Jeg mistænker, at hun har opgivet at takle walesiske stednavne, med deres underlige mangel på vokaler, og jeg bebrejder hende ikke!!!

onkel Paul i solbrillerne (?); kvinden er enten Pauls kone, eller hans

datter eller svigedatter – det er jeg ikke helt sikker på

21:00 Vi ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser den 4. del af en ny klassisk dramaserie, baseret på Thackerays berømte roman, ”Vanity Fair”.

Endnu et meget nydeligt afsnit, der sætter fokus på Becky Sharps indsats for at finde rigdom og forbedre sin sociale status.

Olivia Cooke som Becky Sharp, i seng med Rawdon

I aftenens afsnit, rejser alle de unge militære officere over til Belgien – og deres koner og kærester rejser sammen med dem, hvilket er rart! Og Becky får chancen for at fortsætte med at gå i seng med Rawdon,  samtidig med  at flirte med alle de andre mænd. Dengang vidste man, hvordan man burde lede militære felttog på en kultiveret måde – ingen tvivl om det! Lidt krig om dagen, men så masser af smukke kvinder og masser af overdådige baller om aftenen og om natten, krig om dagen. Sikke et vanvid!!!!

Napoleon har undslippet af sin forvisning på øen Elba, og bare briterne og preusserne kan stoppe ham. Spændende tider! Men efter slaget ved Waterloo var der fred i Europa i et halv-århundrede eller mere, hvilket gjorde en forfriskende forandring.

Storbritannien havde derefter en følelse af ophøjet almagt og droppede sine efterretningstjenester. Jeg tror, at nogle mennesker anbefalede den samme reaktion, da den kolde krig først i 1990’erne ”endte” – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – en travl dag venter os i morgen, ingen tvivl om det. Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!