Tuesday, September 11 2018

08:30 Lois and I get up and go in the shower. After breakfast I go out into the backyard and clear up next to the hedge at the bottom of the garden, where a pile of cut branches lies on the garden pathway. 

Before the rain starts, I manage to fill the 2 large green canvas bags that the municipality distributed to all homeowners: that was back in the old days before they introduced their famous brown garden waste bins. Lois is meanwhile doing the dusting in the house.

Our deadline is now only less than 1 week away - Lois' cousin Sylvia from Melbourne is visiting us in a week's time with her new partner, Rod. We do not want Sylvia and Rod to find out that we live like pigs (and enjoy it) - we have our pride!

10:30 I get back in the house and relax with a cup of coffee on the dining table. I look out of the window and I see that the borough council has put up a warning sign right in front of our house, announcing that the road in front of our house will be closed in a few weeks' time because of this year's half-marathon.

Damn! Our local marathon runners are such bastards - they insist on running their half marathon on the town's streets and thereby disturbing thousands of local residents, instead of running at the local stadium - what madness !!!

The members of the council's highways committee are also a bunch of bastards - the marathon runners are only running down our road between 9am and 10am, but the council insists on closing the road for 7 hours - from 6am to 1pm! 

Flashback to 2017: Lois and I are in bed waiting for

the town's half marathon to come by - it starts at 9 am 

Lois and I were discussing in bed this morning exactly when we should take our planned short break in Devon - we suddenly realise that later in the month could be the perfect choice for us, enabling us to miss out on all the problems that the marathon runners and the council's highways committee are planning to cause us - hurrah!

11:00 We call the owner of the little holiday home complex in North Devon where we stayed for a week last year. We book another week in one of their houses. I transfer the money electronically - simples! 

11:30 Lois calls Frances, our neighbor, who attended a meeting yesterday morning with the borough planning manager. Frances asked for the meeting in order to discuss our local medical clinic's plans to move into a new clinic being built 5 miles away from here, and also their plans for tearing down their existing clinic here.

The doctors want to have their existing clinic demolished and to pay for the new one by having 6 new houses built on their land, right next to Frances' house (only 4 feet away) - my god, those doctors are such bastards !!

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 proposed new building - yikes!

The planning manager told Frances and another neighbour who took part in yesterday's meeting, that it is also possible to object to the plans on the grounds that the land would be used for a completely different purpose - housing instead of the medical clinic. The doctors claimed in their application to the council that the changes do not represent any loss to the village, which is clearly not true - we are losing our local medical clinic and being forced to travel 5 miles to visit the new one.

Frances also informed the borough planning manager that the doctors had had all the trees in front of the clinic cut down without permission from the council - there are some types of trees that are protected. The doctors obviously decided to get the trees cut down before the council could stop them. What bastards !!!!

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

16:00 I get up, but I cannot drink my usual glass of Bath Ales beer - damn! I drank the last beer yesterday, it appears, which is a bit of a shame - I really need a glass of beer tonight - my god!

A delivery guy brought me my plastic barrel containing 36 pints of beer from the Bath Ales Brewery a month ago (or so). But all good things come to an end, as they say.

Flashback to late July: me with my new "barrel" of 36 pints of beer

from the Bath Ales Brewery - happy days !!!!

Lois and I talk a little about what we should buy for Sylvia and Rod, our Australian visitors, in terms of alcohol. Probably it would be best if we buy just the drinks we like ourselves - Australian men in particular have a reputation for loving their beer, but we'll see. It will be just my luck if it turns out he's a teetotaller, but at least there will be a lot of bottles left over that we can drink later in the year - it's an ill wind, as they say.

Australian men's love for beer has etched itself into my memory since the 1950s and Slim Dusty's famous hit song, "The Pub With No Beer".

flashback to the 1960s: Slim Dusty gives a concert in the Australian outback

17:30 We have dinner and afterwards Lois goes out. She wants to attend her sect's bible seminar taking place this evening in Brockworth Library. She drives over to Mari-Ann and Alf's house: Alf will drive her over to Brockworth, while Mari-Ann will stay at home to look after Billy, Alf's disabled brother, who is currently staying with them.

20:00 I have a little alone time and watch a bit of television. An interesting documentary is on, "Trust Me, I'm a Doctor". The host of the program is the charming television doctor, Michael Mosley, along with some of his television doctor-friends.

An interesting program: in the program's first experiment, a group of participants was asked to study Spanish for 4 weeks. The group was tested for mental agility both before and after the 4 week experiment. The results showed that all participants' performance was significantly better after the experiment than before: and the activity improved the performance, concentration and attention of  the older participants even more than the younger ones, which is interesting. And it was not at all important how well or how badly they spoke Spanish at the end of the test, it was just the effort that counted, it appears.

the group of participants pictured after they finished their 4 weeks of Spanish

Learning a second language builds more networks in our brains and causes much more activity in the brain, compared to, for example, doing a sudoku every day. A sudoku a day is like going to the gym and using only 1 machine. Learning a 2nd language is similar to using 20 different machines in the gym. And larger experiments have also shown that language learning can postpone the onset of dementia by up to 5 years, which is encouraging. My god, old age aint for cissies, that's for sure.

This evening's program also has an interesting feature about teeth erosion. Tooth decay has become much less common in recent years than before, but tooth erosion affects 50% of all teenagers, a figure that increases to 95% for people over 75 years of age.

And this growing problem is caused by habits which we usually consider healthy, but which make the mouth more acidic. Fruit tea is particularly bad, especially if you hold it in your mouth for a while before you swallow it. Other harmful drinks include hot water with lemon, also the new trend of packing water bottles with fresh fruit - my god, what madness !!!

Researchers found that it was the frequency of drinking such "health drinks" throughout the day (for example twice a day outside meals), that was causing the damage.

Fizzy drinks, including diet versions are also harmful, plus also alcohol, fresh fruit including tomatoes and chili, also anything with vinegar in, for example pickles, ketchup and chips - good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

However, it is still important to eat fruit, for example, obviously, for other reasons. And it is much less harmful to eat these kinds of foods during a meal than between meals, it seems. And it can help if you end your meal with a source of calcium to absorb the acid: milk, cheese, or yogurt, say. You can also chew sugar-free gum to increase your saliva.

And herb tea is better than fruit tea. Plus it's better to flavour your water by using cucumber, mint or rosemary than with acidic fruits. Good grief, what madness !!!

Traditional cups of tea and coffee, also pure water, are of course no problem, which is encouraging, I have to say. Dentists have always told me that tea and coffee can stain teeth, but at least they do not damage the teeth, according to this evening's program.

22:00 Lois comes back from Brockworth. I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and wind down a little after this evening's stimulating Bible seminar so she stays up for a while watching television.

22:30 She jumps into bed with me - zzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg står op og går i bad. Efter morgenmad går jeg ud ind i baghaven og rydde op ved siden af hækken i bunden af haven, hvor en bunke klippede grene ligger på have gangen. Før regnen starter, lykkes mig at fylde de 2 store grønne kanvas sække, som kommunen fordelte til alle husejere: det var i de gamle dage,  før de introducerede deres berømte brune haveaffaldsspande. Lois går i mellemtiden i gang med at lave støvningen i huset.

Vores frist er nu kun mindre end 1 uge væk – Lois’ kusine Sylvia fra Melbourne besøger os i en uges tid sammen med sin nye partner, Rod. Vi vil ikke have at Sylvia og Rod opdager, at vi lever som svin (og nyder det) - vi har vores stolthed!

10:30 Jeg kommer tilbage ind i huset og slapper af med en kop kaffe på spisebordet. Jeg kigger ud af vinduet, og jeg ser, at kommunen har sat et advarselskilt lige foran vores hus, der proklamerer, at vejen foran huset bliver lukket fra kl 6 til kl 13 i nogle ugers tid på grund af årets halvmaraton.

Pokkers! Vores lokale maratonløbere er sådanne nogle sjufter – de insisterer på at løbe deres halvmaraton på byens gaderne og derved forstyrre tusindvis af lokale indbyggere, i stedet for løbe i det lokale stadium – sikke et vanvid!!!

Medlemmerne af kommunens vejudvalg er også en flok sjufter – maratonløberne løber ned ad vores vej kun mellem kl 9 og 10, men kommunen insisterer på, at lukke vejen fra kl 6 til kl 13 – sikke et vanvid! Vejudvalget er sådanne nogle sjufter, ingen tvivl om det!!!!

Tilbageblik til 2017: Vi bliver liggende ind i sengen og venter på

byens halv-maraton, der starter kl 9 

Lois og jeg diskuterede i sengen i morges om, præcis hvornår vi vil tage vores planlagte korte ferie i  Devon – vi bliver pludselig klar over, at nogle ugers tid ville være det perfekte valg, så vi vil kunne gå glip af ulemperne, som maratonløberne og kommunens vejudvalg planlægger at give os – hurra!

11:00 Vi ringer til ejeren af det lille feriehuskompleks i Nord-Devon, hvor vi boede i en uge sidste år.  Vi booker  endnu en uge i et af deres huse. Jeg overfører pengene elektronisk, hvilket er meget bekvemt og nemt.

11:30 Lois ringer til Frances, vores nabo, der deltog i et møde i går formiddag med kommunens planlægningschef. Frances bad om mødet for at diskutere vores lokale lægekliniks planer om at flytte ind til en ny klinik, der er i gang med at blive bygget 5 miles væk herfra,  i den ande side af Bishops Cleeve, en lille by der ligger 3 miles nord for Cheltenham.

Lægerne vil gerne få deres nuværende klinik nedrevet og betale for den nye ved at få 6 nye huse bygget på jorden, lige ved siden af Frances’ hus (kun 4 fods væk)  – du godeste, de er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger !!!

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

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

Planlægningschefen fortalte Frances og en anden nabo, der deltog i gårsdagens møde, at det er også muligt at invende planer på grund af, at jorden bliver brugt til et helt anderledes formål – boligenhed i stedet for lægeklinik. Lægerne påstod i deres ansøgning til kommunen, at forandringerne ikke danner noget tab til landsbyen, hvilket klart og tydeligt ikke er sandt – vi taber vores lokale lægeklinik, og bliver tvunget til at rejse 5 miles for at besøge den nye.

Frances informerede også kommunensplanlægningschef, at lægerne fik alle de træer foran klinikken fældet, uden at få tilladelse fra kommunen – der er nogle typer træer, der er fredede. Lægerne besluttede åbenbart at fælde træerne, før kommunen kunne forhindre dem – de er sådanne nogle sjufter – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!! 

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

16:00 Jeg står op, men jeg kan ikke drikke mit sædvanlige glas Bath Ales øl – pokkers! Jeg drak den sidste øl i går, lader det til, hvilket er lidt af en skam – jeg trænger til et glas øl i aften – du godeste!

Et bybud leverede min plastiktønde med 36 pints øl fra Bath Ales-bryggeriet for en måned siden (eller deromkring). Men alle gode ting kommer til en ende, som man siger.

Tilbageblik til sidst i juli: mig med min kasse med 36 pints øl

fra Bath Ales-bryggeriet - lykkelige dage!!!!

Lois og jeg snakker lidt om hvad vi skal købe til Sylvia og Rod, vores australske besøgere, hvad angår alkohol. Sandsynligvis vil det være bedst hvis vi køber lige hvad  vi selv kan lide – australske mænd i særdeleshed har et ry for at elske sin øl, men vi får se. Det vil være bare mit held, hvis det viser sig, han er afholdsmenneske, men i det mindste vil der være en masse flasker tilbage, som vi kan drikke senere på året – intet er så galt, at det ikke er godt for noget, som man siger.

Australske mænds kærlighed til øl har ætset sig ind i min hukommelse siden 1950’erne og Slim Dustys berømte hitsang, ”The Pub With No Beer”.

tilbageblik til 1960’erne: Slim Dusty giver en koncert

langt ude på landet i Australiens center

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal Lois ud. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek. Hun kører over til Mari-Ann og Alfs hus: Alf skal køre hende over til Brockworth, mens Mari-Ann passer på  Billy, Alfs handicappede bror, der for tiden bor hos dem.

20:00 Jeg har lidt alenetid og ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm “Stol på mig, jeg er læge”. Programmets vært er den charmerende tv-læge, Michael Mosley, sammen med nogle af hans tv-lægevenner.

Et interessant program: i programmets første eksperiment blev en gruppe deltagere bedt om at studie spansk i 4 uger. Gruppen blev testet for mental adræthed både før og efter de 4 ugers eksperiment og resultaterne viste, at alle deltageres præstation var betydeligt bedre efter eksperimentet, end før: og aktivitetet forbedrede de ældre deltageres præstation, koncentrationsevne  og opmærksomhed mere, end de yngre, hvilket er interessant. Og det var ikke vigtigt, hvor godt eller hvor dårligt de talte spansk ved slutningen af testen, det var bare indsatsen der regnede, lader det til.

den gruppe deltagere efter de har lært spansk i 4 uger

At lære et 2. sprog bygge flere netværker i vores hjerner og der er meget mere aktivitet, der foregår i hjernen, i sammenligning med for eksempel, at lave en sudoku hver dag, hvilket er ligesom at tage i motionscentret og bruge kun 1 maskin. At lære et 2. sprog ligner at bruge 20 forskellige maskiner i motionscentret. Og større eksperimenter har også vist, at sproglæring kan udskyde begyndelsen af demens med op til 5 år, hvilket er opmuntrende. Du godeste, alderdommen er ikke for tøsedrenge – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!!

Aftenens program har også et interessant indslag om tanderosion. Huller i tænderne er i nylige år blevet meget mere sjældne, end før, men tanderosion rammer imidlertid 50% af alle teenagere, stigende til 95% af alle mennesker over 75 år.

Og dette voksende problem bliver forårsaget af vaner, som vi normalt betragter som sunde, men som gøre munden mere fyld af sure. Frugtté er særligt dårlig, i sær hvis man holder den i munden i et stykke tid før man sluger den. Andre skadelige drikke inkluderer varm vand med citron, også den nye trend af at pakke vandflaske med frisk frugt – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Forskere fandt ud af, at det var hyppigheden af at drikke sådanne ”sundhedsdrikke” over hele dagen, for eksempel to gange om dagen udenfor måltider, der voldede beskadigheden.

Kulsyreholdige drikkevarer, herunder diætversioner er også skadelige, plus alkohol, frisk frugt inklusive tomater og chili, også noget med eddike, fo eksempel pickles, ketchup og chips – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Det er imidlertid vigtigt at spise frugt, for eksempel, af andre grunde. Og det er meget mindre skadeligt at spise disse slags fodevarer i løbet af et måltid, end mellem måltider, lader det til. Og det kan hjælpe, hvis man ender sit måltid med en kilde til calcium for at absorbere syret: mælk, ost, yoghurt. Man kan også tygge sukkerfri tykkegummi for at forøge sin spyt.

Og urtetéer er bedre end frugttéer. Og det er bedre at sætte smag på ens vand med at bruge agurk, mynte eller rosmarin. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Traditionelle kopper te og kaffe, også ren vand, er selvfølgelig ikke noget problem, hvilket er opmuntrende, det må jeg nok sige. Tandlægere har altid fortalt mig, at te og kaffe kan plette tænder, men i det mindste beskadiger de tænderne ikke, ifølge aftenens program.

22:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Brockworth. Jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare ned lidt efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar, så hun bliver oppe et stykke tid og ser lidt fjernsyn.

22:30 Hun hopper op i sengen til mig – zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!