Wednesday, September 5 2018

As far as we know, Sylvia, Lois' cousin from Melbourne, has now arrived in England with her partner, Rod. The couple are coming to stay with us later on, for 1 week starting from September 17, giving Lois and me a deadline for getting the house and the garden in order.

We are absolutely sure Sylvia is no longer at home in Melbourne because her usual daily stream of Facebook posts has suddenly stopped. She said she would not be bringing her cell phone with her because of the cost of calls abroad and she did not want to buy a UK SIM card for some reason. But Rod put a post up on Facebook yesterday - the couple were in the Emirates lounge at Melbourne airport at 3am (local time) having something to eat before going through customs. Yikes - that's what even I call "early"  !!!!

We start the morning with a little gardening: I start cutting back the backyard's most disastrous shrub, the one that has the abominable branches stretching almost up to the sky - good grief, it's become a real scandal, that's for sure. In the meantime, Lois gets going with a little weeding in the flower beds.

11:00 We get back in the house and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch. I sit down with the computer and prepare a Danish vocabulary test which I want our U3A Danish group members to take tomorrow afternoon when the group's next meeting will be taking place here.

The correct answers to the test spell out the sentence, "Work is all right, but don't forget to live", which seems to be an old Danish proverb... although Jeanette, the only genuine Danish member of the group, always says she has never heard of any of the proverbs I use, which is a bit strange.

By the way, the correct answers to our Danish group's latest vocabulary test are top secret until Thursday 3pm, needless to say ha ha ha !!!

12:30 Lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 3pm because we have to drive Minx, our daughter Alison's cat, to the veterinary clinic next to the local racecourse. Alison left Minx with us in late 2012 when she, Ed and their 3 children moved to Copenhagen, where Ed was starting a new job.

Minx is a bit of an old lady now at 18 years of age. Alison's family recently moved back to England, but they cannot take Minx back because they now have a Danish dog (Sika), plus two coal-black Danish alley-cats that Alison took pity on last year. And Minx does not speak Danish, needless to say (or English).

We have an appointment with Julie at 3.30 pm, one of the clinic's veterinary team, the one who speaks with a charming French accent.

Julie, one of the clinic's veterinary team, the one who speaks with

a charming French accent

We ask Julie to cut Minx's claws, which now grow very quickly and tend to get caught in Lois's sweaters or dresses when Minx is sitting on Lois's lap. Julie also gives Minx her annual injection against fleas, and a large bottle of the painkillers we give Minx every night because of her arthritis.

My god, who is now the more old and infirm - is it Minx or is it us? The jury is still out on that one.

We ask Julie about Minx's teeth. We feed her now only with soft cat food, pâté for the most part, and she just licks it - she cannot chew any more. Julie says that work on Minx's teeth would cost between £250 and £400, and would entail an operation and anaesthetic, which could also be a little dangerous. Lois and I talk a little about this after we come home and we decide to forget about dental work - it's true that Minx is continuing to lose weight, but this is partly because her muscles are decaying. Welcome to the club, Minx !!!

Poor Minx !!! And poor us, though unfortunately we have not lost any weght or got back into shape, as we would like to have - damn!

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards Lois goes out. She wants to attend her sect's regular Bible class taking place tonight in the County Library at Tewkesbury.

I watch a bit of television, an interesting documentary about the Pankhurst family: they were the family that led the struggle for women's rights, a campaign that started in the 1850s - it eventually became successful when two laws on women's right to vote were adopted in 1917 and 1928.

An interesting program. I did not know that the word suffragette was conjured up in the 19th century by the popular right-wing newspaper, Daily Mail. They used the diminutive suffix "-ette" to patronise the female activists of the day, and imply that they were just "fragile little women".

The new word nevertheless took the fancy of the Pankhurst family - the mother Emmeline and the two sisters Christabel and Sylvia, - and the movement adopted the "suffragette" label with enthusiasm. The word sounded a bit French, and Emmeline in particular was very fond of France and French culture.

The Pankurst family: Emmeline's mother to the left and the two sisters,

Christabel, and Sylvia (right)

The two sisters, Christabel and Sylvia, were completely different personalities from each other. Sylvia was left-oriented, and she ended up moving in with a Spanish anarchist and the couple had a baby.

On the other hand, Sylvia's sister Christabel was very rightwing-oriented despite her opinions about women's rights, and she was an enthusiastic supporter of the war against Germany in 1914: in her speeches she called for universal military service for men and the detention of all German citizens in United Kingdom. After the war, she moved to California in 1921 and became an evangelist and member of the Plymouth brothers: she became a writer and wrote books about the Second Coming, etc.

Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

21:00 I carry on watching a bit of television. There isn't anything very interesting to watch, so for about half an hour I see a bit of the Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" starring Roger Moore, just to kill time while I wait for Lois to come back from the bible class.

At random I see the sequence where Bond travels to Bangkok and arrives at the estate of one of the big villains, Hai Fat. Bond chats a while to the naked Thai woman (Françoise Terry) who announces herself as "Chew Mee" ("Sounds tempting" says Bond).

“Chew Mee” and “Sounds tempting”

Chew Mee is swimming in Hai Fat's swimming pool: she turns out to be yet another Bond girl whom the German voice actress Nikki Van der Zyl, recorded the voice for.

In addition to being a successful voice-actress, Nikki was also a grunt-actress: she recorded all Raquel Welch's grunting in the film One Million Years BC. What a dazzling career she had before she trained to be a lawyer! She must be 83 years old now, which is a little scary.

Nikki Van der Zyl, German voice-actress and grunt-actress

Shortly after the Chew Mee sequence, we see Bond showing Hai Fat his so-called "third nipple" - he is pretending to be the's the movie's second big villain, Scaramanga. I do hope I don't get nightmares about this tonight, that's for sure. I expect the third nipple was something conjured up by “Q”, but I don’t remember exactly. What madness!

22:00 Lois has not turned up yet so I give up and go to bed. She comes back home at 10:15 pm and hops into bed with me. Zzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!!

Danish translation

Så vidt vi ved, er Sylvia, Lois’ kusine fra Melbourne, nu ankommet til England sammen med sin partner, Rod. Parret vil bo hos os i en uge startende fra den 17. september, hvilket giver Lois og mig en frist for at få huset og haven i orden.

Vi er helt sikre på, at Sylvia ikke længere er derhjemme i Melbourne, fordi hendes sædvanlige daglige linde strøm Facebook-poster pludselig er stoppet. Hun sagde, hun ikke ville medbringer sin mobil på grund af kosten af opkald i udlandet, og hun ikke har lyst til at købe en britisk SIM-kort af en eller anden grund. Og Rod lagde en post op på Facebook i går – parret var i Emirates-loungen på Melbourne lufthavn kl 3 (lokal tid) i gang med at spise noget før deres toldeftersyn. Yikes – det er hvad jeg kalder for ”tidligt” – yikes (igen) !!!!

Vi starter formiddagen med lidt havearbejde:  jeg begynder med at klippe tilbage baghavens mest katastrofale busk, den der har modbydelige grene der stritter næsten til himlen – du godeste, en sand skandale uden tvivl. Lois går i mellemtiden i gang med at luge lidt i blomsterbedene.

11:00 Vi kommer tilbage ind i huset og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Jeg sætter mig med computeren og Jeg går i gang med at udarbejde en danske ordforrådtest, som jeg vil have vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer til at tage i morgen eftermiddag, når gruppens næste møde finder sted hos os.

De rigtige svar staver sætningen, ”Arbejde er godt, men husk at leve”, hvilket synes at være et gammelt dansk ordsprog. Men Jeanette, gruppens eneste ægte danske medlem, siger altid, hun aldrig har hørt om ordsprogene jeg bruger, hvilket er lidt underligt.

I øvrigt er de rigtige svar på vores danske gruppes nye ordforrådtest tophemmelige indtil torsdag kl 15, unødvendigt at sige ha ha ha!!!

12:30 Frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15, fordi vi skal køre Minx, vores datter Alisons kat, over til dyrlægeklinikken, der ligger ved siden af den lokale væddeløbsbane. Alison efterlod Minx hos os sidst i 2012, da hun, Ed og deres 3 børn flyttede til København, hvor Ed startede et nyt job.

Minx er en gammel dame nu på 18 år. Alisons familie flyttede for nylig tilbage til England, men de kan ikke tage Minx tilbage, fordi de nu har en dansk hund (Sika) og to kulsorte danske gadekatte, som Alison forbarmede sig over sidste år. Og Minx taler ikke dansk, unødvendigt at sige.

Vi har aftale med Julie kl 15:30, en af klinikkens dyrlægehold, der taler med en charmerende fransk accent.

Julie, en af klinikkens dyrlægehold, der taler med

en charmerende fransk accent

Vi beder Julie om at klippe Minx’ kløer, der vokser rigtig hurtigt og har tendens til at blive viklet ind i Lois’s sweatere eller kjoler, når hun sætter sig på Lois’s skød. Julie  også giver Minx sin årlige indsprøjtning mod lopper, og en stor flaske smertestillende midler, som vi giver Minx hver aften på grund af hendes gigt.

Du godeste, hvem er blevet mere gammel og svag – Minx eller os? Det er juryen stadig ude om.

Vi spørger Julie om Minx’ tænder. Vi fodre hende nu bare med blød kattemad, postej for det meste, og hun slikker den bare – hun kan ikke tygge mere. Julie siger, at arbejde på Minx’ tænder ville koste mellem 250 og 400£, og ville medføre en operation og bedøvelsesmiddel, hvilket også kunne være lidt farligt. Lois og jeg snakker lidt om det efter vi kommer hjem og beslutter at glemme om tandarbejde – det er sandt at Minx fortsætter med at tabe lidt vægt, men delvis på grund af, at hendes muskler bliver svagere. Velkommen i klubben, Minx!!!

Stakkels Minx!!!   Og stakkels os, selvom vi desværre hidtil ikke har tabt os eller kommet i form, som vi gerne ville – pokkers!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal Lois ud. Hun vil deltage i sin sekts regelmæssige bibelklasse, der finder sted i aften i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek.

Jeg ser lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om Pankhurst-familien, der ledte kampen for kvinders rettigheder, der startede i 1850’erne og blev til sidst succesfuld, da to love om kvinders ret til at stemme blev vedtaget i 1917 og 1928.

Et interessant program. Jeg vidste ikke, at ordet suffragette blev fremtryllet i det 19. århundrede af den populære højreorienterede avis, Daily Mail. De brugte det diminutive suffiks –ette, for at nedsable de daværende kvindelige aktivister, og antyde, at de bare var ”skrøbelige spinkle kvinder”.

Det nye ord faldt ikke desto mindre i Pankhurst-familiens smag – moren Emmeline og de to søstre Christabel og Sylvia, og bevægelsen adopterede ”suffragette”- etiketten med entusiasme.  Ordet lød lidt fransk og Emmeline var dengang meget vild med France og fransk kultur.

Pankurst-familien: moren Emmeline til venstre og de to søstre,

Christabel, og Sylvia (til højre)

De to søstre, Christabel og Sylvia, var helt anderledes personligheder fra hinanden. Sylvia var venstre-orienteret, og til sidst flyttede sammen med en spansk anarkist og parret havde en baby.

På den anden side var Sylvias søster Christabel meget højre-orienteret på trods af sine meninger om kvinders rettigheder, og var en entusiastisk tilhænger af krigen mod Tyskland i 1914: i sine taler krævede hun universel værnepligt for mænd, og interneringen af alle tyske statsborgere i Storbritannien. Efter krigen flyttede hun til California  i 1921 og blev til en evangelist  og medlem af Plymouth-brødrene: hun blev forfatterinde og skrev bøger om Jesu genkomst osv.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

21:00 Jeg fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. Der er ikke ret meget interessant at kigge på, så derfor ser jeg bare en halv time af Bond-filmen ”Mand med den gyldne pistol” stjernespækket Roger Moore, simpelthen for at dræbe tid ihjel, mens jeg venter på, at Lois kommer tilbage fra kirken.

Tilfældigvis ser jeg sekvensen, hvor Bond rejser til Bangkok og ankommer til den store skurk, Hai Fats ejendom: han snakker lidt med den nøgne thailandske kvinde (Françoise Terry), der annoncerer sig som  ”Chew Mee” – [”Lyder fristende” siger Bond] , der svømmer i Hai Fats svømmepøl.

”Chew Mee” og ”Lyder fristende”

Endnu en Bond-pige, som den tyske stemme-skuespillerinde Nikki Van der Zyl optog stemmen til. Derudover at være en succesfuld stemme-skuespillerinde var Nikki også en grynt-skuespillerinde: hun optog gryntene på Raquel Welch’ vegne i Kæmpeøglernes kamp. Sikke en blændende karriere hun havde, før hun læste til advokat! Hun er i dag 83 år gamle, hvilket er lidt skræmmende.

Nikki Van der Zyl, den tyske stemmeskuespillerinde og grynt-spillerinde

Kort efter Chew Mee sekvensen ser vi desværre Bond vise Hai Fat  sin såkaldte ”tredje brystvorte” – han lader som om, han er filmens anden store skurk, Scaramanga. Jeg håber på, jeg ikke får mareridt i nat, det ved jeg med sikkerhed. Jeg formoder, at den 3. brystvorte var noget, som ”Q” fremtryllede, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på. Sikke et vanvid!!!!

22:00 Lois er ikke endnu dykket op så jeg går i seng. Hun kommer tilbage kl 22:15 og hopper op i seng til mig. Zzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!