Monday October 8 2018

October 8, 2018 - my late mother would have turned 99 years today. She died in March 2011 at the age of 91 but the last birthday she celebrated at home was in 2009 when she reached 90. Lois and I visited her and brought round a birthday cake, and we talked on Skype with my late sister Kathy and her husband, Steve, in Pennsylvania, USA.

Flashback to 8 October 2010: My late mother turned 90.

We talked on Skype with my late sister Kathy and

her husband, Steve, in Pennsylvania, USA.

The following year, 2010, her health deteriorated, and when she turned 91 she was in Cirencester Hospital where Lois and I visited her and gave her, as our last birthday present, a picture of the street she lived on as a child: Newcastle Hill in Bridgend, Glamorgan. The picture was taken in 1910, 9 years before she was born. The picture is now hanging in our living room.

Newcastle Hill, Bridgend: The picture that Lois and I gave my late mother as our final

birthday present in 2010. The picture is hanging today in our living room

Newcastle Hill today - still totally recognisable, it seems.

The same church spire can still be seen in the distance - no surprise there!

08:00 Lois and I get up. I have a brilliant idea - I hop up on my exercise bike and cycle 3 miles whilst shaving with my electric shaver and simultaneously watching old pop videos from the 1980s on my child's dvd player, in Sarah's old room overlooking the backyard - perfect! Sarah is our 41 year old daughter who moved to Australia 3 years ago with her husband and their little twin daughters.

Later in the morning I hop back up on the bike and cycle for another 3 miles. Michael Mosley, the BBC's famous television doctor says that several rounds of exercise are as good for the health as one long session - hurrah and hail to thee, Michael. You kept us out of war, that's for sure.

10:00 It is cold and cloudy today, and Lois and I do not feel like going out of the house. Lois starts to write some letters and emails on her church's behalf : she has to thank visiting preachers for their sermons, and invite others to future worship services etc.

Meanwhile I get going with making up vocabulary lists for our U3A Danish group's next project: a crime novel by Anna Grue: "The Further You Fall".

Anna Grue

The story begins one evening with the thoughts of an unknown "murderer", who has been planning in a very careful and almost zen-buddhist way to commit his murder in 2 hours' time. He has squeezed himself into a small cleaning cabinet in the kitchen of a large office building. He is waiting for all the staff, apart from his victim (Liliana, a cleaning assistant), to go home.

When the time is right, he springs out of the closet and kills Lilliana with his little garrotte - yuck, creepy! The strange thing about the story is that the killer seems to feel sorry in advance for his victim, a cleaner whom all the other employees bully and humiliate - the author has not yet told us why - fascinating.

The killer puts his weapon back in a plastic bag and runs out of the building. He takes his blood-stained protective layer of clothes and stuffs them into the bag, with the intention of burning it all. He jumps up on his bike and cycles towards the town. Yikes - creepy (again) !!!! But a good start to the story, I think.

This project - to read "The Further You Fall", our Danish group's first full-length detective novel -  will be a bit of a challenge for the group's members: I have no doubts about that. Our previous projects have all been short stories. But sometimes I get a bit fed up with always having to give them relatively easy projects. For my part I love a good challenge - but does the rest of the group have the same attitude? That's something the jury is still out on - perhaps it will lead to mass resignations. We will see.

Sometimes I suspect the members prefer to chat about this and that, their grandchildren, their latest holidays etc, rather than studying Danish. My god, I'm such an old killjoy, that's for sure.

  

13:00 Lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap while Lois does some genealogical research online.

16:00 I get up, and we drive into the village and pop into the local post office. We ship two "Peter Rabbit" children's magazines to our 5 year old twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia. It's one of our ways to make sure they remember us when we're long dead - yikes!

Flashback to August: The twins (Lily and Jessie) with a previous edition of

their favorite British children's magazine, Peter Rabbit, with its thousands of free gifts.

My god - what madness !!!!

18:30 Dinner, and afterwards we spend the rest of the evening watching television. My choice is Al Murray's documentary, "Why does everybody hate the English ?", a question that has always puzzled me. Lois points out, however, that History is a pay-TV channel that we do not have access to - damn!

Lois' choice is a documentary about the bad environmental effects of the clothing industry's manufacturing methods, especially when it comes to cotton clothes. Today's teenagers always like to buy this week's latest low-cost ranges, wear them a couple of times and throw them away, it seems. At least nobody could blame Lois and me for that, that's something I have no doubts about. I bought a new pair of jeans last week in Barnstaple, but the last time I did that was many, many years ago.

To be honest it isn't my bag to worry about environmental issues and at the beginning of the program, I annoy Lois a little by complaining about the host of the program, Stacey Dooley's appalling accent - she travels to the Aral Sea where the local cotton industry has caused a large part of the lake to become dry sea-bed as a result of the industry's incredibly wasteful use of water. I comment that Stacey's Uzbek / Russian interpreter speaks much better English than Stacey herself.

But Stacey's arguments are actually quite powerful and I have to admit she has a point. And only pressure from consumers will make a difference.

My god, what will become of me if I am now suddenly caring about the environment? I shudder to think. Good grief, take me away, ye men in white coats, I give up, officially now.

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

Danish translation

Den 8. oktober 2018 – min afdøde mor ville have fyldt 99 år i dag. Hun døde i marts 2011 på 91 år, men den sidste fødselsdag, hun fejrede derhjemme, var i 2009, da hun fyldte 90. Lois og jeg besøgte hende og medbragte en fødselsdagskage og vi snakkede på Skype med min afdøde søster Kathy og hendes mand, Steve, i Pennsylvania, USA.

Oktober 2010: min afdøde mor fyldte 90.

Vi talte på Skype med min afdøde søster Kathy og

hendes mand, Steve, i Pennsylvania USA.

Det følgende år, 2010, forværredes hendes sundhed, og da hun fyldte 91 år, var hun i Cirencester-hospitalet, hvor Lois og jeg besøgte hende og forærede hende som vores sidste fødselsdagsgave et billede af gaden, hun boede på som barn: Newcastle Hill i Bridgend, Glamorgan. Billedet blev taget i 1910, 9 år inden hun blev født. Billedet hænger nu i vores stue.

Newcastle Hill, Bridgend: det billede, Lois og jeg forærede min afdøde mor som vores

sidste fødselsdagsgave i 2010. Billedet hænger i dag i vores stue

Newcastle Hill i dag – helt genkendeligt, lader det til !

Samme kirkespiret kan ses i det fjerne – ingen overraskelse der !

08:00 Lois og jeg står op. Jeg har en brilliant idé – jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og cykler 3 miles, mens jeg barberer mig med min elektriske barbermaskine og samtidig ser på gamle popvideoer fra 1980’erne på min bærebare barnedvdspiller i Sarahs gamle værelse med udsigt over baghaven – perfekt! Sarah er vores 41-årige datter, der for 3 år siden flyttede til Australien.

Senere på formiddagen hopper jeg op igen på kondicyklen og cykler endnu 3 miles. Michael Mosley, BBC-kanalens berømte tv-læge siger, at flere omgange motion er lige så godt for sundheden som en lang session – hurra!

10:00 Det er koldt og overskyet i dag, og Lois og jeg har ikke lyst til at komme ud af huset. Lois give sig til at skrive nogle breve og emails på vegne af sin kirke: hun skal takke besøgende prædikere for deres prædikener, og invitere andre osv til kommende gudstjenester.

I  mellemtiden går jeg i gang med at udfærdige ordforrådlister til vores U3A danske gruppes næste projekt: en kriminelroman af Anna Grue: ”Dybt at Falde”.

Anna Grue

Historien begynder en aften med en ukendt ”morder”, der har planlagt på en meget omhyggelig og næsten zenbuddhistisk måde, at begå sit mord om 2 timers tid. Han har klemt sig ind i et lille rengøringsskab i køkkenet af en stor kontorbygning. Han venter på, at alle de ansatte, bortset fra sit offer (Liliana, en rengøringsassistent), er gået hjem.

Da tidspunktet er rigtigt, springer han ud af skabet  og dræbe Lilliana med sin lille garrotte – øv, uhyggeligt! Det mærkelige ved historien er, at morderen virker at have ondt i forvejen for sit offer, en rengøringsassistent, som alle de andre ansatte mobber og ydmyger – for tiden har forfatteren ikke endnu fortalt os hvorfor – fascinerende. 

Morderen propper sit våben ned i en plastpose og løber ud af bygningen. Han tager sin blodplettede beskyttende lag tøj og propper den ned i posen, med den hensigt af at brænde det hele. Han hopper op på sin cykel og cykler ind mod byen. Yikes – uhyggeligt!!!! Men en god start på historien, synes jeg.

Dette projekt – at læse ”Dybt at Falde”, vores danske gruppens første kriminalroman i fuld længde, vil være lidt af en udfordring for gruppens medlemmer: det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om. Vores forrige projekter har været korte noveller. Men af og til bliver jeg lidt ked af, altid at skulle give dem forholdsvis nemme projekter. For mit vedkommende elsker jeg en god udfordring – men har resten af gruppen den samme holdning? Det er juryen stadig ude om – måske vil det hele føre til  masse opsigelser. Vi får se!

Nogle gange mistænker jeg, at medlemmerne hellere kan lide at snakke om dette og hint, deres børnebørn, deres seneste ferie osv, end at studere dansk. Du godeste, jeg er sådan en gammel lyseslukker, ingen tvivl om det!!!!

13:00 Frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur, mens Lois gør lidt genealogisk forskning på nettet.

16:00 Jeg står op og vi kører ind i landsbyen og smutter ind i det lokale postkontor. Vi afsender to ”Peter Rabbit” børnemagasiner til vores 5-årige børnebørn i Perth, Australien. Det er en af vores måder at sikre at de husker os på, når vi er længe døde – yikes!

tilbageblik til august: tvillingerne (Lily og Jessie) med en forrige udgave af

deres favorite britiske børnemagasin, Peter Rabbit, med dens tusindvis af gratisgaver.

Du godeste – sikke et vanvid!!!!

18:30 Aftensmad, og bagefter bruger vi resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mit valg er Al Murrays dokumentarfilm, ”Hvorfor hader alle englænderne?”, et spørgsmål, der altid har betuttet mig. Lois påpeger imidlertid at History er en betal-tv-kanal, som vi ikke har adgang til – pokkers!

Lois’ valg er en dokumentarfilm, der handler om de dårlige miljømæssige effekter af tøjindustriens fremstillingsmetoder, især når det kommer til bomuldstøj. Nutidens teenagere kan altid godt lide at købe denne uges nyeste lavpris udvalg, bære dem et par gange og smider dem væk, lader det til. Det kunne ingen i det mindste beskylde Lois og mig for, ingen tvivl om det! Jeg købte et nyt par jeans sidste uge i Barnstaple, men seneste gang var for mange, mange år siden.

Det er ærligt talt ikke mit nummer at bekymre mig over miljømæssige problemer og i begyndelsen af programmet irriterer jeg Lois lidt ved at brokke mig om programmets vært, Stacey Dooleys frygtelige accent – hun rejser til Aralsøen, hvor den lokale bomuldsindustri har forårsaget en stor del af søen til at blive til tør havbund som resultat af industriens utroligt ødsle forbrug af vand. Jeg kommenterer at Staceys usbekist/russisk fortolker taler meget bedre engelsk, end selve Stacey.

Men Staceys argumenter er faktisk ganske kraftfulde, og jeg skal indrømme, at hun har en point. Og kun pres fra forbrugere vil gøre en forskel.

Du godeste, hvad skal der blive af mig nu, hvor jeg pludselig interesserer mig for miljøet? Jeg gyser at tænke. Du godeste, tag mig væk, jer mænd i hvide kitler, jeg opgiver !!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!