Monday, November 12, 2018

09:00 We get up and after breakfast we start on our latest project: the first phase of "project downsize". We collect all the unwanted electrical appliances we can find in the house and I stuff them all in our car boot, including appliances found under our daughters Alison and Sarah's old beds - they're both now in their 40s with families, and Sarah lives in Australia now. We are absolutely sure that they will not ask for any of these things back ha ha.

We will have to take all these appliances over to Stoke Orchard Recycling Centre later this week, hopefully.

We collect all the unwanted electrical appliances we can find in the house

and put them in our entrance hall so that I can easily pack them into the car boot.

I am absolutely sure that there are just as many again unwanted appliances in the attic and in the garage, but that must wait for another day. Slow and steady wins the race ha ha.

Lois also starts sorting some of the hundreds of children's books we have in the house.

Lois starts sorting our hundreds of children's books

Also we happen to find, under Sarah's old bed, part of a set of crockery, which we think is an unused wedding gift from Sarah's first marriage - the rest of the set is probably in the attic, we suspect. It seems a bit of a shame not to use it, especially considering that the set Lois and I are currently using is my late mother's, and is starting to look a little worn and scratched (like ourselves), we have to admit. Good times a-coming !!!

part of a set of unused crockery, which we find under

Sarah's old bed - hurrah! Good times are a-coming !!!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 3:30 pm and hop on my exercise bike. I cycle my usual 6 miles.

Meanwhile, Lois swings by the neighbours, Bill and Mary, to have a little chat with Mary, who suffers from mild dementia. Lois is so warm-hearted - if only I could be more like her!

16:30 I read a few pages from Njal's saga, which was written in the 11th century in Iceland. Scilla's U3A Old Norse Group is holding its next meeting in 9 days' time, and this saga is the group's current project.

Unna, a nice Icelandic woman is short of cash after her divorce from Hrut because he managed to get away without giving her any alimony (by challenging her elderly father to a duel – not a valid procedure nowadays  I suspect!).

Unna has decided to go and see Hrut, her ex, disguised as a man with a big hat pulled down over her face and wearing a big raincoat and other items of male clothing, to try and "gip" some money off him.

But is this plan going to work? I suspect I would recognise Lois if she visited me disguised as a man, but we have never tested that out in earnest - perhaps we should? So anyway the jury is still out on that one.

Unna, as her ex, Hrut, remembers her

Unna now disguised as a man

Later in the chapters, I get a bit of a shock - I have to admit! I read a shocking report about the people in the Øfjord area (Eyjafjörður) in northern Iceland, and also, about the people in the Reykjadalur area of northeastern Iceland, for example. People in Reykjadalur are described as thieves and scoundrels (“illmenni” or in English “ill, i.e. evil, men”), while people in the Øfjord area are described simply as perverts - my god, what madness!

Saga excerpt: shocking details about people in certain areas of Iceland: thieves,

scoundrels, perverts etc. Yikes! What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

No details are given about the perversions that became popular in the 11th century in the Øfjord area, so the information is a bit imprecise, to put it mildly. But it's a piece of information that Lois and I will have to bear in mind if we are ever going to travel in the area - a trip to Iceland is currently at the top of my bucket list.

17:30 Lois comes back after two hours of chit-chat. But she believes that Mary's dementia has worsened, and that what Mary says does not make much sense now. In the past Bill had the habit of leaving the two "girls" alone and pottering about in the kitchen or sitting down with his computer, but today he stayed sitting with the "girls" and talked a lot of the time himself - Lois suspects Mary needs his help now even to manage a simple conversation - poor Mary !!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. Monday evening is TV quiz night, as usual, and Lois and I have got in the habit of jousting with the young "brains" in the programs to prove to ourselves that we still have "all our marbles". Old age ain't for sissies - that's for sure !!!!

To cut a long story short we do pretty well, I think. It is important to be able to answer questions that these young brains strike out on, and there are some examples of this tonight, thank god, including ....

What is the connection between the 4 things? Fortunately, for the majority of my working life, I worked with binary numbers. "Room 5" corresponds to "Room 101" (from Orwells '1984'); "Give it 4%" corresponds to "Give it 100%" etc, etc.

"Up to eleven", also phrased as "these go to eleven", is an idiom from popular culture, coined in the 1984 movie This Is Spinal Tap, where guitarist Nigel Tufnel proudly demonstrates an amplifier whose volume knob is marked from zero to eleven, instead of the usual zero to ten.

21:00 I hurry into the kitchen to write my shopping list for tomorrow. We have decided to drive over to Bishops Cleeve to do food shopping and then visit the Stoke Orchard Recycling Centre to dump all the unwanted electrical appliances we have found here and there in the house today.

The shopping list I write tonight - these simple items are things I don't

anticipate any problems with thank goodness

We have a system when we go food shopping: Lois gets fruits, vegetables, meat and the like while I get the cans, the bottles, the packets, plus the bread - all the simple things that not even an idiot can muddle up.

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

Danish translation

09:00 Vi står op og efter morgenmad går vi i gang med vores seneste projekt: den første fase af projekt-downsize. Vi samler alle de uønskede elektriske apparater vi kan finde i huset og jeg propper dem alle i vores bils bagagerummet, inklusive apparater vi finder under vores døtre Alison og Sarahs gamle senge – de er begge to nu i deres 40’erne, og Sarah bor nu i Australien. Vi er helt sikre på, at de ikke vil bede om dem nu ha ha.

Vi skal tage alle disse apparater  over til Stoke Orchard-genbrugscenter senere på ugen forhåbentligt.

Vi samler alle de uønskede elektriske apparter vi kan finde i huset

og lægger dem i entréen, så jeg sagtens kan pakker dem i bilens bagagerum.

Jeg er helt sikker på, at der er lige så mange uønskede apparater i loftet og i garagen, men det må blive for en anden dag. Langsom og stødt vinder løbet ha ha.

Også Lois går i gang med at sortere nogle af de hundredvis af børnebøger vi har i huset.

Lois starter at sortere vores hundredvis af børnebøger

Og vi finder tilfældigvis under Sarahs gamle seng en del af et sæt porcelæn, som vi tror er en ubrugt bryllupsgave fra Sarahs første ægteskab – resten af sættet er sandsynligvis i loftet, mistænker vi. Det virker lidt af en skam ikke at bruge dem, i sær i betragtning af, at sættet Lois og jeg bruger for tiden er min afdøde mors, og begynde at se lidt slidt og ridset, det må vi indrømme.  Gode tider i vente !!!

en del af et sæt af ubrugt porcelæn, som vi finder 

under Sarahs gamle seng – hurra! Gode tider i vente !!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30 og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles.

I mellemtiden smutter Lois ind hos naboerne, Bill og Mary, for at snakke lidt med Mary, der lider af mild demens. Lois er så varmhjertet – hvis bare jeg kunne ligne hende mere!

16:30 Jeg går gang med at læse et par side af Njals saga, der blev skrevet i det 11. århundrede i Island. Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder sit næste møde om 9 dages tid og denne saga er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Unna, en pæn islandsk kvinde er i bekneb for skillinger efter sin skilsmisse fra Hrut, fordi han slippede for at give hende underholdtsbidrag. Hun har besluttet at gå og se Hrut, sin eks, forklædt som en mand, med en stor hat trukket ned over ansigtet, og iført en stor regnfrakke og andre mandlige tøj.  Men kommer denne plan til at virke? Jeg mistænker,  jeg ville genkende Lois, hvis han besøgte mig forklædt som en mand, men vi har aldrig afprøvet det for alvor, så det er juryen stadig ude om.

Unna, som Hrut, hendes eks, husker hende

Unna, nu forklædt som en mand

Senere i kapitlen får jeg lidt af et chok – det må jeg indrømme! Jeg læser en chokerende beretning om folk i Øfjord-området (Eyjafjörður)  i det nordlige Island, derudover folk i Reykjadalur-området i det nordøstlige Island for eksempel. Folk i Reykjadalur er beskrevet som tyve og andre kriminelle (”illmenni”), mens folk i Øfjord-området er beskrevet som perverse – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

 chokerende detaljer om folk i visse områder af Island: tyve,

kriminelle, perverse osv. Yikes!  Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

Ingen detaljer bliver givet om perversioner, der blev populære i det 11. århundrede i Øfjord-området, så er oplysningen lidt upræcis, for at sige mildt.  Men en oplysning  Lois og jeg må huske på, hvis vi nogensinde kommer til at rejse i området – en tur til Island er for tiden på toppen af min bucket-liste.

17:30 Lois kommer tilbage efter to timers snik-snak. Men hun tror, at Marys demens har forværret, og hvad hun siger, giver ikke nogen mening nu. Før i tiden havde Bill for vane at forlade de to ”piger” alene, og pusle i køkkenet eller sætte sig med computeren, men i dag blev han siddende med ”pigerne” og snakkede selv meget – Lois mistænker, at Mary har brug for hans hjælp nu selv for at klare en samtale – stakkels Mary !!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mandag aften er tv-quiz-aften, som sædvanligt, og Lois og jeg er kommet i vane med at dyste mod de unge ”hjerner” i programmerne for at beviser til os selv, at vi endnu er ved vores fulde fem. Alderdom er ikke for slapsvanse – det ved vi med sikkerhed!!!!

Kort sagt, vi gør os temmelig godt, synes jeg. Det er vigtigt at kunne svare på spørgsmål, disse unge hjerner bliver perplekse over, og der er nogle eksempler på dette i aften, gudskelov, inklusive....

Hvad er forbindelsen mellem de 4 ting? Det er heldigt, at jeg for hovedparten  af mit arbejdsliv arbejdede med binære tal. ”Room 5” tilsvarer til ”Room 101” (fra Orwells ’1984’); ”Give it 4%” tilsvarer til ”Give it 100%” osv osv.

21:00 Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet for at skrive min indkøbsliste til i morgen. Vi har besluttet at køre over til Bishops Cleeve for at gå madindkøb, og derefter at besøge Stoke Orchard-genbrugscentret for at kassere alle de uønskede elektriske apparater, vi har i dag fundet her og der i huset.

Indkøbslisten, jeg skriver i aften – og de simple ting kan jeg ikke

forudse nogle problemer med, gudskelov

Vi har et system, når vi går madindkøb: Lois får frugter, grøntsager, kød og lignende, mens jeg får dåserne, flaskerne, pakkerne, også brød – alle de simple ting, selv en idiot ikke kan blande sammen.  

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!