Thursday, September 13 2018

Today I get more exhausted than I've felt for a long time. For once, I'm doing the physical tasks and Lois for the most part some mental tasks. 

She sits herself down in the dining room, which doubles as our office, and starts working on the Sunday School lesson she will be teaching on Sunday: it's about the Children of Israel and their 40 days in the wilderness, plus the story of the 12 "spies" that Moses sent into Canaan to explore the country and report back to him on whether the country was a good place to settle in: ten said no and two said yes: a clear majority for the answer "no", which unfortunately led to the 40 years in the wilderness for the Children of Israel - a bit of a shame, but such was life in those far off days. Oh dear!

Brexit is something that's a bit like the spies' report to Moses, I think. 51 out of 100 voters say "Leave" and the country has to spend 40 years in the wilderness (Caxit) - good grief, what madness !!!!

Moses sends 12 spies into the land of Canaan to check it out –

unfortunately they come back with the wrong answer – it’s CAXIT ha ha!!!
What madness !!!!

10:00 In the meantime, I move a lot of furniture and other things out of the living room and hallway, and dump them down in the dining room because Ross is coming today to clean the carpets there. And while he works on the carpets, I work in the backyard - I finish cutting all the remaining hedges, including the high hedges between our garden and Bill's garden.

Lois and I are keen to get the house and the gardens in order before Monday, when Sylvia, Lois' cousin from Melbourne, and Rod, Sylvia's new partner, come to visit us for a week. They arrived in England about a week ago, spent a few days with Sylvia's Aunt June in Redditch and have just spent a couple of days in the Llandudno area of North Wales where they visited the local sights, including the famous mines dating from the Bronze Age, also the Great Orme Peninsula, and Conwy Castle, built by King Edward I during his conquest of Wales in the late 13th century.

We have not received any personal messages or telephone calls from Sylvia since the couple arrived in England. So it's fortunate that we can keep up to date with their progress thanks to Facebook - Sylvia is a massive fan of Facebook, and usually posts up to 20 posts a day on her Facebook page, mostly video clips of cute animals , or "pithy sayings" she has "liked" on the web - good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Sylvia and Rod in the Llandudno area this week

14:00 Alison, our daughter in Haslemere, Surrey, calls us. She has decided unfortunately that she cannot come and visit us on Sunday the 23rd and meet Sylvia and Rod here - her family's life is very complicated at the moment. They moved back to England about 2 months ago after 6 years of residence in Denmark, but Ed, her husband, has not found a new job yet. He flies back to Copenhagen for a few days on the 24th, so he will be busy preparing for the trip. 

Also, one of their children, Rosalind (10), will be preparing for a school trip to France - she has to turn up very early at the school on the Monday, at 5am , to board the school bus that will take her and her classmates to the ferry. Five o'clock in the morning - my god, what madness!

Alison and Ed have said very little to us about Ed's efforts to find a new job, which is understandable. But he has flown to Denmark several times since the family moved back to England. And we know he had a job interview on the phone a few days ago. Lois and I have put two and two together, and we suspect he is after some job or other over there - but we are not entirely sure.

It would be a bit of a shame for their 3 children, who all started in their new English schools last week, but work is work and Ed has to go where the jobs are. He is a qualified lawyer and worked for 6 years in an international corporation's legal department in Copenhagen between 2012 and 2018, so he is very familiar with the financial and legal environment over there - and the children could, if necessary, resume their schooling at one of the two international schools in the city, where they have lots of friends of course.

20:00 The carpet in the living room is still a bit damp, but we nevertheless decide to spend the evening in there watching a little television. We are exhausted.

A tv reality show is on, "First Dates Hotel", where 3 pairs of potential lovers get to know each other ar a hotel in central Italy.

We see two young couples and an older couple.

As regards the two young couples, the first pair's date is a disaster (with the woman going back to her hotel room shouting, "Where's my f****** prosecco?!"), while the other pair's prospects look more promising.

But there are no doubts about the older couple (both widowed, 72 and 75 years old, respectively): as soon as their date at the hotel restaurant is over, they are in bed and doing it (not shown, needless to say ha ha).

Lois and I discuss the contrast with the 2 young couples, and we come to the conclusion that at our age people just can't spare the time to wait around and not just get on with it - good grief, old age ain't for cissies - that's something we have no doubts about!

The older couple on "First Dates": at our age we have to just get on and do it - yikes!

21:00 We go to bed early - zzzzzzzz !!!

Danish translation

I dag bliver jeg mere udmattet, end jeg har føltet mig i lang tid. For en gangs skyld er der mig, der gør de fysiske opgaver og Lois for det meste mentale opgaver. Hun sætter sig i spisestuen, der fordobles som vores kontor, og arbejder på den søndagsskolelektion,  hun skal undervise på søndag: den handler om Israels Børn og deres 40 dage i ørkenen, plus historien af de 12 ”spioner”, som Moses sendte ind til Kana’an for at udforske landet og rapportere tilbage til ham om, om landet var et godt sted at bosætte sig i: ti sagde nej, og to sagde ja : et klart flertal for svaret ”nej”, hvilket desværre førte til de 40 år i ørkenen – lidt af en skam, men sådan var livet i de der fjerne dage.

Brexit er lidt som spionernes rapport til Moses, mener jeg. 51 ud af 100 valgere siger ”Forlad” og landet skal tilbringe 40 år i ørkenen – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Moses sender 12 spioner ind til landet Kana’an for at tjekke det ud.

Desværre kommer de tilbage med det forkerte svar – så det er ”Caxit ” ha ha!

10:00 I mellemtiden rykker jeg en masse møbler og andre ting ud af stuen og entréen, og sætter dem ned i spisestuen, fordi Ross kommer i dag for at rense gulvtæpper derinde. Og mens han arbejder på gulvtæpperne, arbejder jeg i baghaven – jeg klipper alle de restende hække, inklusive de høje hække mellem vores have og Bills have.

Vi er meget frisk på at få huset og haverne i orden før mandag, da Sylvia, Lois’ kusine fra Melbourne, og Rod, Sylvias nye partner, kommer på besøg hos os i en uge. De ankom til England for ca. en uge siden, tilbragte et par dage hos Sylvias Tante June i Redditch, og har lige tilbragt et par dage i Llandudno-området i Nord-Wales, hvor de besøgte de lokale seværdigheder, inklusive de berømte miner, der daterer fra bronzealderen, også Great Orme-halvøen, og Conwy Castle, bygget af kong Edward I under hans erobringen af Wales sidst i det 13. århundrede.

Vi har ikke fået nogle personlige beskeder eller telefonopkald fra Sylvia siden parret ankom til England. Det er heldigt, at vi kan holde os ajour med deres fremskridt, tækket være Facebook – Sylvia er en massiv fan af Facebook, og plejer at lægge op til 20 posts om dag op på sin Facebook-side, for det meste videoklip af søde dyre, eller ”bevingende ord” hun har ”liket” på nettet – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Sylvia og Rod i Llandudno-området denne uge

14:00 Alison, vores datter i Haslemere, Surrey, ringer til os. Hun har besluttet, hun desværre ikke kan besøge os søndag den 23. og møde Sylvia og Rod her – hendes families liv er meget kompliceret for tiden. De flyttede tilbage til England for ca. 2 måneder siden efter 6 års ophold i Danmark, men Ed, hendes mand, har ikke fundet et nyt job endnu. Han flyver tilbage til København i nogle dage den 24., så han vil være travlt med at forberede sig på rejsen. Også et af deres børn, Rosalind (10), vil være i gang med at forberede sig på en skoletur til Frankrig – hun skal møde tidligt mandag den 24. kl 5 på skolen for at gå ombord skolebussen, der skal tage hende og hendes klassekammerater til færgen. Kl 5 - du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Alison og Ed har sagt meget lille til os om Eds indsatser for at finde et nyt job, hvilket er forståeligt. Men han har fløjet flere gange til Danmark siden familien flyttede tilbage til England. Og vi ved, at han havde en jobsamtale i telefon for et par dage siden. Lois og jeg har lagt to og to sammen, og vi mistænker, at han er på jagt efter et eller andet job derovre – men det er vi ikke helt sikre på.

Det ville være lidt af en skam for deres 3 børn, der alle startede i deres nye engelske skoler sidste uge, men arbejde er arbejde, og Ed må gå, hvor jobbene er. Han er en kvalificeret advokat, og arbejdede i 6 år i et internationalt selskabs juridiske afdeling i København mellem 2012 og 2018, så derfor kender han godt det financielle og juridiske miljø derovre – og børnene kunne, hvis nødvendigt, genoptage deres skolegang på en af de to internationale skoler i byen.

20:00 Gulvtæppet i stuen er stadig lidt fugtigt, men vi beslutter ikke desto mindre at tilbringe aftenen derinde og ser lidt fjernsyn. Vi er udmattede.

De viser et tv-reality show, ”First Dates Hotel”, hvor 3 par, potentielle kærestepar,  lærer hinanden at kende i et hotel nogle steder i ”centrale Italien”.

To unge par og et ældre par. Hvad angår de to unge par, det ene er en katastrofe (kvinden går tilbage til sit hotelværelse råbende, "Hvor er min fucking prosecco?!"), det anden ser meget mere lovende ud.

Men der er ingen tvivler om det ældre par (to enker, henholdsvis 72 og 75 år gamle) : så snart deres date på hotellets restaurant er forbi er de i seng i færd med at gå til den (ikke vist, unødvendigt at sige ha ha). Lois og jeg diskuterer kontrasten med de 2 unge par, og vi kommer til den konklusion, at man på vores alder ikke kan afse tid til at vente og ikke at komme i gang – du godeste, alderdommen er ikke for tøsedrenge – det er vi helt sikre på!

Det ældre par på "First Dates": i vores alder skal vi bare gå til den !

21:00 Vi går tidligt i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!