Tuesday October 9 2018

08:30 Lois and I get up and go in the shower. Lois uses the morning to do even more administrative tasks on behalf of her church while I go out into the garden and mow a couple of lawns. I decide to leave the other 4 lawns until tomorrow.

Lois has said she will again be attending her church's weekly seminar, which takes place every Tuesday evening in the library. But she has back pain again so the plan is that I drive her over to our friends Alf and Mari-Anne's house, and either Alf or Mari-Ann will drive her over to the library.

This morning, Mari-Ann sends Lois a message - a few months ago Helena, Alf's sister in Birmingham, won a national competition apparently where the price was a new car and a "certain" amount of money. My goodness! This is the first time we've heard about this surprising news, and Lois and I haven't the slightest idea why it's all been so hush-hush - maybe there was a significant amount of money involved, but that's something we're not completely sure about.

Helena has been invited to take part in two national television shows, the first going out live on Thursday morning, and the second a program to be filmed tomorrow (Wednesday) and aired at Christmas. Good grief, what madness! Helena is a little nervous about it all and has asked Mari-Ann to accompany her - Mari-Ann has to travel tonight to Birmingham by train to meet Helena. An ITV car is to pick them up and take them to the ITV studios in London.

My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!! But Lois and I decide we will definitely watch the first program on Thursday morning, Lorraine Kelly's morning show, a daily show in which a number of guests - both celebrities and ordinary people - discuss various topics with charming Lorraine. We will see.

typical scenes from Lorraine's morning show

13:00 Lunch and afterwards we go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap.

16:00 We get up. Gill, my 60-year old sister in Cambridge, a retired teacher, calls me. She has not felt good for many months, but now she has more energy than before, thank God. A recent MRI scan showed that she did not have any serious neurological problems: her doctor believes that all her recent problems were caused by the shingles she suffered from last year.

She has a severely handicapped husband, Peter, also a disabled daughter, Lucy, and in addition she has a tendency to take on too many tasks - that's something she admits. But she is now confining herself to just one private pupil, the son of a girlfriend, whom she is continuing to coach once a week in English and English literature.

She is apparently also writing the story of her childhood in the city of Bristol from 1960 to 1968, which she spent with me and our 2 deceased siblings, Kathy and Steve. She says she is writing the story first and foremost for the benefit of her 3 daughters, Zoe, Lucy and Maria. She asks me to digitize, or get digitized, all the family photos I have dating from those years. As oldest sibling, I have our collection of photo albums in my possession. I promise her that I will check them all out and see how many photos we're talking about here.

Flashback to the early1960s: Kathy and Gill

Me and Gill

Steve

17:00 Lois and I have dinner a bit earlier than usual and afterwards we go out. I drive Lois over to Alf and Mari-Ann's house. Alf will drive Lois over to Brockworth, where they will both attend their church's weekly Bible seminar. I come home and relax with a cup of coffee.

20:00 I have a little alone time and spend the evening watching television. I decide to see a few episodes of an interesting documentary series, "Trust me, I'm a doctor", some episodes I unfortunately missed out on - the host of the program is the charming Michael Mosley.

There are nowadays frequent campaigns aimed at persuading people to stop drinking alcohol for a month, such as the "Dry January" campaign. Michael's team invites a group of participants to abstain from alcohol for a month and tests them at the end of the month: all participants showed lower blood pressure and had lost 5-7 pounds, the most important thing being that they felt much better in themselves. They also slept better at night, and they concentrated better. Liver fat was also significantly reduced, and also the participants' so-called cancer markers.

It is also interesting that after the end of the experiment, the light drinkers resumed their drinking habits at the same level as before, but the heavy drinkers subsequently reduced their alcohol volumes by 70% (on average).

It's all very annoying, I have to say! It just proves the truth of the lyrics of Westworld's famous song from the 1980s: "Seems like everything good is bad, and everything bad is good". Damn!

The worst thing is that these kinds of programs prove that it's very healthy to be a thoroughly social being, outgoing, joining groups, having a lot of friends, singing, dancing etc. What madness !!!!

Westworld: "Everything good is bad!"  Damn!

22:00 Lois comes back. Alf drops her off in front of the house. I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and wind down a little after the evening's stimulating Bible seminar, and she decides to watch some television: the latest doings in the Big Brother House, a series that Channel 5 has finally decided to stop after the current season.

23:00 She finally hops into bed with me again - zzzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg står op og går i bad. Lois bruger formiddagen på at klare endnu flere administrative opgaver på vegne af sin kirke, mens jeg går ud i haven og slå et par græsplæner. Jeg beslutter at overlade de andre 4 græsplæner til i morgen.

Lois har aftalt at deltage i sin kirkes ugentlige bibelseminar, der finder sted hver tirsdag aften i biblioteket. Hun har igen ondt i ryggen, så planen er at jeg kører hende over til vores venner Alf og Mari-Anns hus, og enten Alf eller Mari-Ann skal køre hende over til biblioteket.

I formiddag sender Mari-Ann Lois en besked – for nogle måneder siden vandt Helena, Alfs søster i Birmingham, en national konkurrence tilsyneladende, hvor prisen var en ny bil og en vis sum penge. Du godeste! Dette er første gang vi har hørt om denne overraskende nyhed, og Lois og jeg har ikke den fjerneste anelse hvorfor det hele har været så tys-tys – måske var det en betydeligt stor sum penge, men det er vi ikke helt sikre på.

Helena er blevet inviteret at deltage i to nationale tv-programmer, det første direkte live på torsdag morgen, og det andet et program, der skal filmes i morgen (onsdag), og sendes ved juletid. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Helena er lidt nervøs over det hele, og har bedt Mari-Ann om at ledsage hende – Mari-Ann skal rejse i aften til Birmingham med tog, for at mødes med Helena. En ITV-bil skal hente dem og tage dem til ITV-studiet i London.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!! Men Lois og jeg beslutter helt sikkert at se det første program på torsdag morgen, Lorraine Kellys morgenshow, hvor en række gæster – både kendisser og almindelige folk - diskuterer forskellige emner med den charmerende Lorraine. Vi får se.

typiske scener fra Lorraines morgenshow

13:00 Frokost og bagefter går vi i seng for at tage os en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

16:00 Vi står op. Gill, min 60-årige søster i Cambridge, en pensioneret lærerinde, ringer til mig. Hun har i mange måneder følt sig lidt dårligt tilpas, men nu har lidt mere energi, end før, gudskelov. En nylig MRI-scan viste, at hun ikke har nogle alvorlige neurologiske problemer: hendes læge mener at alle hendes nylige problemer blev forårsaget af den helvedesild, som hun led af sidste år.

Hun har en alvorligt handicappet mand, Peter, også en handicappet datter, Lucy, og hun har oven i købet tendens til at indtage for mange opgaver – det indrømmer hun. Men hun begrænser sig nu til at kun en privat elev, sønnen af en veninde, som hun fortsætter med at manuducere engang om ugen i engelsk og engelsk litteratur.

Hun er i gang med at skrive historien af sin barndom i byen Bristol fra 1960 til 1968, sammen med mig og vores 2 afdøde søskende, Kathy og Steve. Hun siger, at hun skriver historien først og fremmest til fordelf for sine 3 døtre, Zoe, Lucy og Maria. Hun beder mig om at digitalisere, eller få digitaliseret alle de familiefotos jeg har, der daterer fra de der år. Som ældste søskende har jeg vores samling af fotoalbummer i min besiddelse. Jeg lover hende, at jeg vil tjekke dem alle ud og ser hvor mange fotos det drejer sig om.

Kathy and Gill

me and Gill

Steve

17:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad lidt tidligere, end normalt, og derefter skal vi ud. Jeg kører Lois over til Alf og Mari-Anns hus. Alf skal køre Lois over til Brockworth, hvor de begge to deltage i deres kirkes ugentlige bibelseminar. Jeg kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe.

20:00 Jeg har lidt alenetid og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Jeg beslutter at se et par afsnit af en interessant dokumentarfilmserie, ”Stol på mig, jeg er læger”, nogle afsnit som jeg desværre er gået glip af – programmets vært er den charmerende Michael Mosley.

Der er nu til dags hyppige kampagner med formålet af at overtale folk til at holde op med at drikke alkohol i en måned, for eksempel ”Dry January”-kampagnen. Michaels hold inviterer en gruppe deltagere at afholde sig fra alkohol i en måned og tester dem ved slutningen af måneden: alle deltagere viste lavere blodtryk og havde tabt 5-7 pund, og det vigtigste var, at de følte sig meget bedre i sig selv. De sov bedre også om natten, og de koncentrerede sig bedre. Leverfedt blev også betydeligt reduceret, også deltagernes såkaldte kræftmarkører.

Det er også interessant, at de letdrikkere efter endt eksperiment genoptog deres drikkevaner på det samme niveau som før, men de stordrikkere derefter reducerede deres alkoholmængder med 70% (i gennemsnit).

Det hele er meget irriterende – det må jeg nok sige! Det beviser bare sandheden af teksten af rockgruppen Westworlds berømte sang ”Seems like everything good is bad and everything bad is good”. Pokkers!

Det værste er, at disse slags programmer beviser, at det er meget sundt at være et grundlæggende social væsen, at være udadvendt, at melde sig ind i grupper, har en masse venner, singe, danse osv. Sikke et vanvid!!!!

22:00 Lois kommer tilbage. Alf sætter hende af foran huset. Jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at slapper af og geare lidt ned efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar, og hun beslutter at se lidt fjernsyn: de seneste gøren og laden i den Big Brother hus, en serie, som Channel 5 har besluttet endelig at stoppe efter den nuværende sæson.

23:00 Hun hopper endeligt op i sengen til mig – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!