Saturday, November 10, 2018

09:00 Lois is picked up by Mari-Ann and Alf, and all 3 of them drive off, with Alf's brother Billy, to Birmingham. They have a few tasks on their to-do list: they have to visit their sect's headquarters to buy some religious books and pamphlets (and Lois is particularly keen to find out if they have any books of her father's that she hasn't got already).

They are also going to visit the sect's nursing home to talk to old friends, and also hear a jazz concert in the nursing home, given by 3 young sect members: a pianist, a trumpeter and a double-bass player.

The nursing home in Birmingham, 

which Lois and her friends are visiting today

I therefore have about 9 hours of alone time here at home today, which is almost unprecedented. I'm insanely jealous of them when it comes to the jazz concert, but I'm very glad to be able to miss out on all the rest of the stuff they're doing - yikes!

10:00 - 18:00 I have this massive block of alone time, but when Lois comes back home at 6 pm, I feel I have not really used it specially well, to put it mildly - damn!

I sit at the dining table and organise my U3A Old Norse group papers in a new binder, but I forget to do a lot of tasks on my to-do list, including vacuuming and ironing my shirts, etc. Damn (again) !

It rains heavily on and off today, plus it's my first day in the house without Minx, our 18 and a half-year-old cat, whom yesterday we had to have put down at the vet's. And it's very hard to get used to the concept that she is not here somewhere or other in the house, I have to say.

11:00 Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, sends me a text on whatsapp. She has received the flowers, Lois and I ordered for her from Interflora. She has not been very well this week - a pneumonia problem or the like. The family doctor saw her on Friday night and prescribed antibiotics. And she says the flowers have really cheered her up, which is nice to hear. Poor Sarah!

Sarah sends us a picture of the flowers we ordered for her from Interflora

I know Lois has planned to have a proper meal (3 courses) at midday in a Birmingham restaurant, along with Mari-Ann and Alf, and she won't want to eat very much at home here tonight, so I cook my signature dish: fish fingers, boiled potatoes and peas, and afterwards I go to bed and take my usual afternoon nap.

Sherborne's Pasta di Piazza restaurant where Lois will be eating

15:00 I get up and watch a bit of television, some of the programs we've recorded on our YouView TV device, but have not had the chance to see yet. An interesting documentary film is on (5th part of 5) all about "the human universe." The host of the program is the charming physicist, Brian Cox. 

In this type of program the presenters are fortunate in that they get the chance to travel around the world. Brian first visits a cave in northern Spain, where a child created an image of his/her hand on the wall of a cave about 40,000 years ago - the child could have been a homo sapiens or neanderthal: that's something the jury is still out on.

A child created an image of his/her hand on a cave wall

in northern Spain about 40,000 years ago

Afterwards, Brian visits the island of Svalbard in northern Norway. The island was first discovered and populated in approx. the year 1590. There are no sunsets here between April and August, and Brian comments that it is a shame that Galileo, Copernicus and Bruno were never able to visit Svalbard, because the status of the earth as so-called centre of the universe would soon have been shown to be ridiculous, that's for sure!

Brian "on top of the world", on Svalbard island in northern Norway

For me, one of the most amazing things Brian talks about in the program is his predictions about the future, predictions which can be made just based on Newton's laws: that in 4 billion years, the galaxy Andromeda will start colliding with our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and will launch a billion year long firework display. My god, that's something I would love to see, I have to admit, although perhaps a billion years is a bit long - I might just slip out before the end ha ha.

And in about 5 billion years' time, the sun will unfortunately end its days, as a red giant. Poor sun !!!

We are lucky that we are alive right now, I think, because we live at a time when we can get a good understanding of the universe's beginnings and the future of the universe, and we can know so many things that the child who lived in a Spanish cave about 40,000 years ago did not know. We are also lucky that the earth's idiots have not yet destroyed the world, which is a bit of a bonus!

16:00 I carry on watching a bit of television, an interesting documentary all about women who routinely achieve multiple orgasms.

Unfortunately, the program is very repetitive (a bit like the orgasms themselves ha ha), and takes a long time to tell us not very much. But it is interesting that the women who can achieve multiple orgasms are much more likely to be religious Europe-wide than the general population are, which is a little surprising to say the least; the majority (78%) of these women were found to have had a religious upbringing.

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

17:00 Another interesting documentary is on, all about the 9 months we spend in the uterus, and the ways that these months affect our likelihood of suffering from certain diseases later on in our lives.

Another interesting program. Prof. Barker's research started in the 1990s with a study of babies born in the county of Hertfordshire. He discovered that people's later health, physical and mental condition, and their lifespan to quite an extent depended on their weight when they were born. And when he repeated the same survey in other countries, he discovered that he got the same results.

Barker discovered that there was a connection between birth weight 

and later health, and long or short life span - yikes! Scary!

His conclusion is that the mother's nutrition is much more important in determining the child's future health than, for example, the child's genes are. So, that's why it is first and foremost people with a low birth weight who should be encouraged to try and adopt a healthy lifestyle and have a healthy diet. For children who had a larger birth weight, a healthy lifestyle may not be so important, it appears, which is good news for me as I was 8lbs 8oz.

And not only is 7 lbs better than 6 lbs, but 8 lbs is better than 7 lbs, 9 lbs is better than 8 lbs etc etc.

It is interesting that Prof. Barker and other researchers were able also to use historical data to widen their studies, for example, by looking at the health records of children born after a pregnancy which was affected by food shortages, etc., for example, Dutch children who were born at the end of World War II, when the German authorities severely restricted the food available to the Dutch population.

Research continues, but it is interesting that the mother's nutrition could provide answers about our propensity to various diseases, answers which genetic research has so far not seemed to be able to provide.

18:00 Lois comes back from Birmingham. I hurry into the kitchen and make two servings of poached eggs and haslet on toast - yum yum!

We spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary film is on, 2nd part of 3, consisting of interviews made over the past 20 years with surviving soldiers, nurses, women armaments workers, etc., who took part in World War I, including interviews with girlfriends and wives who were sitting at home back in Britain and anxiously waiting for news about their loved ones.

Another very touching episode. It is interesting to see how clear and graphic these former soldiers' memories were about their experiences, considering that some of them were now over 100 years old when the interviews were made. We get the impression that they must have told their partly scary, partly harrowing, partly touching anecdotes thousands of times during their long lives.

I did not know that the British used military tanks in 1916 for the first time at the Battle of the Somme, thus managing to overrun the German lines and advance 6 miles. The Germans were astonished at the sight of the tanks, it seems, and many fled or surrendered on the spot. But 6 miles is a not so great a result after losing so many thousands of men over a matter of a few months.

Again, it's the sentimental anecdotes that touch me the most. The schoolgirl called Maud, and her school teacher, Mr. Brown, an amateur concert singer who sang the opening lines of the famous Victorian song "Come Into The Garden Maud" every time he called on her in class. Later he was drafted into the army, and she eventually heard with extreme sadness that he had been killed, but she never forgot him.

Mr Brown would have been just another statistic if Maud had not shared this charming anecdote with this BBC program, bringing him back to life for a few minutes.

Another soldier, Jock, who had a part of one leg amputated, was well looked after by a Nurse Sutherland, who constantly comforted him with soft words of encouragement. Jock fell in love with her, I suspect. After the war, when he asked her if they could meet up in London, he got a letter saying that unfortunately she was dead. But he never forgot her, and he still misses her, the poor soul!

For some reason, this anecdote touches me the most - I do not know why. The fact that she was such a pretty young woman perhaps - or maybe because I have become such a softie in my old age ha ha ha!

I'm such a girl ha ha ha !!!

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

Danish translation

09:00 Lois bliver hentet af Mari-Ann og Alf, og de kører alle 3, samen med Alfs bror Billy, til Birmingham. De har nogle opgaver på deres gøresmåsliste: de skal besøge deres sekts hovedkontor, for at købe nogle religiøse bøger og pjecer (og Lois er i sær frisk på at finde ud af, om de har nogle bøger af sin far, som hun ikke har allerede).

De skal også besøge sektens plejehjem for at snakke med gamle venner, og høre også en jazz-concert i plejehjemmet, givet af 3 unge sektmedlemmer: en pianist, en trompeter og en kontrabassist.

Plejehjemmet i Birmingham, som Lois og hendes venner besøger i dag

Jeg har derfor ca 9 timers alenetid i dag, hvilket er næsten uden fortilfælde. Jeg er sindsygt jaloux på dem, når det kommer til jazzkoncertet, men jeg er meget glad for, at kunne gå glip af resten – yikes!

10:00 – 18:00 Jeg har en massiv blok af alene tid, men da Lois kl 18 kommer tilbage, føler jeg, at jeg ikke har brugt den ret godt, for at sige mildt – yikes!

Jeg sætter mig ved spisebordet og organiserer mine U3A oldnordiske gruppe papirer i et nyt chartek, men jeg glemmer at gøre en masse opgaver på min gøremålsliste, inklusive at støvsuge og at stryge mine skjorter osv. Pokkers!

Det regner kraftigt af og til, og det er min første dag i huset uden Minx, vores 18,5-årige kat, som vi i går desværre blev nødt til at få aflivet hos dyrelægen. Det er svært at vænne mig til konceptet, at hun ikke er her et eller andet sted i huset – det må jeg nok sige.

11:00 Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, sender mig en sms på whatsapp. Hun har modtaget de blomster, Lois og jeg bestilte til hende fra Interflora. Hun har haft det ikke ret godt denne uge -  et lungebetændelseproblem eller lignende. Familiens læge så hende fredag aften og ordinerede antibiotika. Hun siger, at blomsterne virkelig har opmuntret hende, hvilket er rart at høre. Stakkels Sarah!

Sarah sender os et billede af de blomster, vi bestilte hende fra Interflora

Jeg ved, at Lois har planlagt at spise en rigtig middag (3 retter) midt på dagen på en restaurant i Birmingham, sammen med Mari-Ann og Alf, og vil ikke have lyst til at spise ret meget herhjemme i aften, så laver jeg min signaturret: fiskepinder, kogte kartofler og ærter, og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager min sædvanlige eftermiddagslur.

Den restaurant i Birmingham, hvor Lois skal spise i dag

15:00 Jeg står op og ser lidt fjernsyn, nogle af de programmerne vi har optaget på vores YouView-tv-enhed, men ikke har haft chancen for at se endnu. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm (5. del af 5), der handler om ”det menneskelige univers”. Programmets vært er den charmerende fysiker, Brian Cox.

I denne type af program er værterne heldige i, at de får chancen til at rejse verden over. Brian besøger først en hule i det nordlige Spanien, hvor et barn skabte et image af sin hånd på hulevæggen for ca. 40.000 år siden – barnet kunne hav været homo sapiens eller neandertaler: det er juryen er stadig ude om.

et barn skabte et image af sin hånd på en hulevæg

i det nordlige Spanien for ca. 40.000 år siden

Bagefter besøger Brian øen Svalbard i det nordlige Norge. øen blev først opdaget og befolket i ca. 1590. Der er ingen solnedgange her mellem april og august, og Brian kommenterer, at det er lidt af en skam, at Galileo, Copernicus og Bruno aldrig kunne besøge Svalbard, fordi jordens status som ”universets såkaldte center” hurtigt ville være blevet vist at være latterligt, ingen tvivl om det!

Brian ”på toppen af verden”, på Svalbard i det nordlige Norge

For mit vedkommende er en mest fantastiske ting Brian taler om i programmet sine forudsigelser om fremtiden, som kan blive forudsagt bare baseret på Newtons love: at om 4 milliarder års tid vil galaksen Andromeda begynde at kollidere med vores egen galakse, Mælkevejen, og starter en milliard år langt fyreværkerishow. Du godeste, det ville jeg elske at kunne se – det må jeg indrømme.

Og om 5 milliarder års tid vil solen desværre ende sine dage som en rød gigant. Stakkels sol !!!

Vi er heldige i, at vi lever lige nu, synes jeg, fordi vi lever i en periode, hvor vi kan få en god forstand på universets begyndelser og universets fremtid, og vide så mange tinge, det barn der boede i en spanske hule for ca. 40.000 år siden ikke vidste. Vi er også heldige i, at verdens idioter ikke endnu har nået at eksplodere og ødelægge den, hvilket er lidt af en bonus!

16:00 Jeg fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om de kvinder, der rutinemæssigt opnår multiple orgasmer.

Programmet er desværre fuldt af gentagelser (lidt som selve orgasmerne ha ha), tager en lang tid til at fortælle os ikke ret meget. Men det er interessant, at de kvinder der kan opnå multiple orgasmer er meget mere tilbøjelige til at være religiøse Europa over, end det almindelige befolkning, hvilket er lidt overraskende, for at sige mildt, og hovedparten (78%) af kvinderne havde en religiøs opdragelse.

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

17:00 De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om de 9 måneder vi tilbringer i livmoderen, og de måder, de måneder påvirker vores sandsynlighed at lide af visse sygdomme senere på vores liv.

Endnu et interessant program. Prof. Barkers forskning startede i 1990’erne med en undersøgelse af babyer, der blev født i grevskabet Hertfordshire. Han opdagede, at menneskernes senere sundhed, fysisk og psykisk tilstand, og deres levetid,  i en vis grad afhang  af deres vægt, da de blev født. Og da han gentog samme undersøgelse i andre lande, opdager han, at han fik samme resultater.

Barker opdagede at der var en forbindelse mellem fødselsvægt 

og senere sundhed og lang/kort levetid – yikes! Skræmmende!

Hans konklusionen er, at morens ernæring er meget mere vigtig for at determinere barnets kommende sundhed, end for eksempel, barnets gener. Så derfor er det først og fremmest folk med en lav fødselsvægt, der må prøve at have en sund livsstil og en sund kost. For børn, der havde en større fødselsvægt, er en sund livsstil ikke så vigtig, lader det til.

Og ikke bare, at 7 pund er bedre end 6 pund, men også 8 pund er bedre, end 7 pund osv osv.

Det er interessant, at prof. Barker og andre forskere kunne benytte historiske data for at udvide sine undersøgelser, for eksempel, ved at kigge på rekorderne af børn, der blev født efter en graviditet påvirket af fødevaremangler osv. For eksempel hollandske børn, der blev født mod slutningen af den 2. verdenskrig, da de tyske myndigheder begrænsede meget alvorligt, maden, der var til rådighed for den hollandske befolkning.

Forskningen fortsætter, men det er interessant, at morens ernæring kunne give svar om vores tilbøjelighed til forskellige sygdomme, som vores gener hidtil ikke har givet.

18:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Birmingham. Jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet og laver to portioner pochede æge og haslet på toast – yum yum!

Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, 2. del af 3, der består af interviews lavet over de seneste 20 år med overlevende soldater, sygeplejersker, våbenfabrikkernes kvindelige medarbejdere osv, der deltog i den 1. verdenskrig, også interviews med kærester og koner, der sad hjemme tilbage i Storbritannien og ventede ængsteligt på nyheder om sine elskede.

Endnu et meget rørende afsnit. Det er interessant at se hvor klare og grafiske disse tidligere soldaters minder var om deres oplevelser, i betragtning af, at nogle af dem var over 100 år gamle, da interviewerne blev lavet. Vi får det indtryk af, at de må have fortalt deres dels skræmmende dels sindsoprivende dels rørende anekdoter tusindvis af gange i løbet af deres lange liv.

Jeg vidste ikke at briterne brugte militær tanks i 1916 for første gang under slaget ved floden Somme, og dermed lykkedes det dem til at ødelægge de tyske linjer, og avancere 6 miles. Tyskerne blev forbavset over synet af tanksene, lader det til, og mange opgav sig med det samme. Men 6 miles er en ikke så stort resultat efter at have tabet så mange tusindvis af mænd i løbet af nogle måneder.

Igen er det de sentimentale anekdoter, der rører mig det meste. Den skolepige ved navn Maud, og hendes skolelærer, hr Brown, en amatør koncertsanger, der sang de åbnende linjer af den kendte viktorianske sang ”Come Into The Garden Maud” hver gang han kaldte på hende i klassen. Senere blev han indkaldt til hæren, og hun hørte endelig med meget tristhed, at han var blevet dræbt, men hun glemte ham aldrig.

Hr Brown ville have været bare endnu en statistik, hvis Maud ikke havde delte denne charmerende anekdote med dette BBC-program, da hun bragte ham tilbage til livet i et par minutter.

En anden soldat, Jock, der fik én del af ét ben amputeret, blev godt passet af en køn sygeplejerske, Nurse Sutherland, der konstant trøstede ham med bløde ord af opmuntring.  Jock blev lidt forelsket i hende, mistænker jeg. Efter endt krigen, da han bad hende om at de mødes  i London, modtog et brev, hvor der stod, at hun desværre var død. Men han glemte hende aldrig, og han savner hende stadig, staklen!

Af en eller anden grund rører dette anekdote mig mest – jeg ved ikke hvorfor. Det, at hun var en så køn ung kvinde – måske fordi jeg er blevet så blødsøden i min alderdom ha ha ha!

Jeg er sådan en pige ha ha ha!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!