Friday October 12 2018

08:00 Lois and I get up and go in the shower, and we can hear the wind whistling around the house and the rain drumming on the bathroom windows while we shower.

Fortunately, we have a basket filled with tropical seashells that tend to distract us from the British weather. Our daughter Sarah collected the shells when we spent a few days over 30 years ago in a hotel near the beach on Sanibel Island in the state of Florida.

flashback to November 1984: our 7-year-old daughter Sarah

collects shells on the beach at Sanibel Island, Florida

Happy days !!!!!

I recall an article I read a couple of years ago when a local married couple, Dale and Paula Watson, hit the headlines by bringing home a large collection of sea shells home after a vacation near the famous Myrtle Beach.

It's a bit hard to believe, but a simple wicker container filled with shells and and put on a toilet tank transformed the couple's suburban bathroom into a peaceful tropical oasis (source: Onion News).

"I cannot believe the difference adding those seashells made," Paula Watson told journalists. And she admitted that earlier that day she had been transported from her beige, bland bathroom to an unforgettable island paradise thousands of miles from the area where she lived. "Now, every time I walk in, I think 'Wow, where am I?' Cancún? ''

According to family sources, the extraordinary transformation took place at approximately 10:32 that morning when Watson just arranged a handful of sea shells inside a round wicker basket and suddenly looked up - and found herself in a seaside resort where all the problems in modern life just melted away.

The magical sea shells with the power to conjure up the cool tropical breeze of a cabana had been personally gathered by the couple during a recent trip to Myrtle Beach. "It's like our own little island paradise here at home," Dale Watson told representatives of the world's press, while he stood as if surrounded by palm trees and soft white sandy beaches, on the spot where there was only a bath mat and a curtain before. "I feel like eating some grilled mahimahi right now!", he told them. "This is how life ought to be," added Watson. "Time just goes by so slowly in here."

Eye witnesses agreed that you just had to look at the shells and suddenly you were transported to an enchanting garden lush with exotic flowers, fluttering hummingbirds and shirtless natives, whose brown skin glistened with sweat as they offered trays, stacked high with pineapple, mango and tender slices of pork. Guests in the family home have confirmed that visiting the tropical utopia located at the end of the hallway, 2nd door to the left (light switch over the basin), is a breathtaking experience they will never forget.

Grandmother Ilene Watson said that she could spend the rest of her life in the Watsons' carefree bathroom environment without complaining for one second. "It's so exotic," said the hypnotised 77-year-old Ilene. "Just like when Harold and I used to go travelling after the war."

Even though she was happy with the transformation, Paula Watson said, however, that she had several plans to improve the 80 square feet of their island paradise by decorating the luxurious space with vanilla scented coconut, a ceramic clown-fish statuette and sand-dollar-shaped soaps.

08:30 Lois and I discuss Paula's artistic vision while taking our shower. Our little wicker container filled with our 30 plus year old sea shells has started to look a bit rough, that's for sure. They have begun to grow old and become ugly, a bit like us, I have to say!

We decide we will look for a nice clown-fish statue next time we are in the local hardware store: such a statue combined with a new wicker basket filled with fresher sea shells could help us sell the house when the time comes: but we'll have to see.

Cleeve Supplies, at Bishops Cleeve - our local hardware store

10:00 What awful weather - it blows and rains all day and we do not feel like going out of the house. My only exercise today is to ride 3 miles on my exercise bike while I shave.

13:00 We have lunch and remember that we have forgotten to see the latest royal wedding - damn! We go to bed: it is blowing and still raining and the wind continues to drum against the bedroom windows while we are in bed. Good grief - what a day!

18:00 We have dinner, and then we spend the rest of the evening watching television. An old episode of the Top of the Pops from July 1986.

Not the best episode we've seen, to say the least. But it's nostalgic to see little Samantha Fox at the height of her powers before she became a lesbian.

21:00 We continue to watch a bit of television, an interesting documentary (2nd part of 3) all about the history of rock music in the United States.

As soon as we begin to see the program, we have the feeling that we have seen it before. But it does not matter, it's always a pleasure to see Jerry Lee Lewis, who used to dance wildly around the stage and play the piano with his feet, now sitting in his favourite armchair, laughing and tapping his pen on his armrest while talking about the old days.

When he was a teenager, his mother enrolled him in a local Bible school where the family lived in the state of Louisiana, but halfway through the course he gave up the Bible and began his wild life as pop star and teen idol. Later, he began to believe that he was playing"the devil's music" and that he would certainly be going to hell when he died: at that moment he decided to leave the world of wild music and groupies and go back to his roots. My god, poor Jerry Lee !!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg står op og går i bad, og vi kan høre vinden hvine rundt om huset og regnet tromme mod badeværelsets vinduer mens vi vasker os.

Heldigvis har vi et kurv fyldt med tropiske havskeller, der har tendens til at distrahere os fra det britiske vejr. Vores datter Sarah samlede haveskellerne op, da vi for over 30 år siden tilbragte nogle dage i et hotel i nærheden af stranden på Sanibel-ø i delstaten Florida.

Tilbageblik til november 1984: vores 7-årige datter, Sarah,

samler havskaller på stranden (Sanibel ø, Florida)

Lykkelige dage !!!!

Jeg mindes om en artikel jeg læste for et par år siden, da et lokalt ægtepar, Dale og Paula Watson, ramte overskrifterne ved at medbringe hjem en stor samling af havskaller hjem efter en ferie i nærheden af den berømte Myrtle Beach.

Det er lidt svært at tro, men en simpel kurvbeholder fyldt med skaller og og lagt på en toilettank omdannede parrets almindelige badeværelse til en fredelig tropisk oase (kilde: Onion News).

"Jeg kan ikke tro på forskellen, som det, at tilføje de der havskaller, gjorde” fortalte Paula Watson journalister. Og hun indrømmede, at hun tidligere på dagen på en eller anden måde var blevet transporteret fra sit beige, intetsigende badeværelse til et uforglemmeligt øparadis tusinder af miles fra området, hvor hun boede. "Nu, hver gang jeg går ind, tænker jeg ’Wow, hvor er jeg? Cancún? ’ ”

Ifølge familiekilder fandt den ekstraordinære transformation sted ca. kl. 10:32 om formiddagen, da Watson bare arrangerede en håndfuld havskaller inde i en rund kurvbeholder og kiggede pludselig op - og befandt sig på en badeby hvor alle problemerne i det moderne liv bare smeltede væk.

De magiske havskaller, der havde evnet til at fremtrylle den kølige, tropiske brise af en cabana, var blevet personligt samlet af parret under en nylig tur til Myrtle Beach.

"Det er ligesom vores eget lille øparadis her i hjemmet," fortalte Dale Watson repræsentanter af verdens presse, mens han stod som om omringet af palmetræer og bløde hvide sandstrande på stedet, hvor der kun var en bademåtte og et gardin før. "Jeg har lyst til at spise noget grillet mahimahi lige nu!"

"Sådan må livet være," tilføjede Watson. "Tiden går bare langsomt herinde."

Øjnevidner var enige om, at man blot skulle kigge på skellerne, og pludselig blev man transporteret væk til en fortryllende have, frodige med eksotiske blomster, flagrende kolibrier og skjørteløse indfødte, hvis brune hud gled med sved, mens de tilbød bakker, stablede højt med ananas, mango og møre skiver svinekød.

Gæster i familiens hjemmet har bekræftet at det, at besøge den tropiske utopi, som ligger for enden af entréen, 2. dør til venstre (lyskontakt over kummevasken), er en betagende oplevelse, de aldrig vil glemme.

Bedstemoren Ilene Watson, sagde, at hun kunne tilbringe resten af sit liv i det ubekymrede badeværelsesmiljø uden at klage ét sekund.

"Det er så eksotisk," sagde den hypnotiserede 77-årige Ilena. "Ligesom når Harold og jeg plejede at rejse efter krigen."

Selvom hun var tilfredse med transformationen, sagde Paula Watson imidlertid at hun havde  flere planer om at forbedre øparadisets 8 kvadratmeter ved at pynte det lyksligt rum med vanilje duftende kokoslys, en keramisk klovnfisk-statuette og clypeasteroide-formede sæber.

08:30 Lois og jeg diskuterer Paulas kunstneriske vision, mens vi tager vores brusebad. Vores lille kurvindholder fyldt med vores 30 plus årige havskaller er begyndt at se lidt ru ud, ingen tvivl om det. De er begyndt at ældes og blive grimme, lidt som os: det må jeg nok sige!

Vi beslutter vi vil lede efter en pæn klovnfisk-statuette, næste gang vi er i det lokale isenkræmmerforretning:  en sådan statuette kombineret med en ny kurvbeholder fyldt af friskere havskaller kunne hjælpe os med at sælge huset, når tiden kommer: men vi får se.

Cleeve Supplies i byen Bishops Cleeve, vores lokal isenkræmmeforretning

10:00 Sikke et møgvejr – det blæser og regner kraftigt hele dagen, og vi har ikke lyst til at komme ude af huset. Min eneste motion i dag er at cykle 3 miles  på min kondicykel, mens jeg barberer mig.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost, og mindes, at vi har glemt at se det seneste kongelige bryllup – pokkers! Vi går i seng: det blæser og regner stadig og vinden fortsætter med at tromme mod soveværelsets vinduer, mens vi ligger inde i sengen. Du godeste – sikke en dag!

18:00 Aftensmad og derefter bruger vi resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser et gamle afsnit af Top of the Pops fra juli 1986.

Ikke det bedste afsnit vi har set, for at sige mildt. Men det er nostalgisk at se lille Samantha Fox ved højden af sine kræfter, før hun blev lesbisk.

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm (2. del af 3), der handler om historien af rockmusik i USA.

Så snart vi begynder at se programmet, har vi på fornemmelsen, at vi har set det før. Men det gør ikke noget, det er altid en fornøjelse at se Jerry Lee Lewis, der plejede at danse vildt rundt på scenen og spille klaver med fødderne, sidde nu i sin yndlingslænestol, grine og banke sin kuglepen let på armlænet, mens han snakkede om de gamle dage.

Da han var teenager, indtegnede hans mor ham til en lokal bibelskole, hvor familien boede, i delstaten Lousiana, men han midtvejs gennem kurset gav biblen op og påbegyndte sit vilde liv som popstjerne og teen-idol. Senere begyndte han at tro, at han spillede ”djævlens musik”, og ville helt sikkert gå i helvede, når han døde: på det der tidspunkt forlod han verden af vild musik og groupies og gik tilbage til sine rødder. Du godeste, stakkels Jerry Lee !!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!