Thursday, November 8, 2018

09:00 We have become rather worried about Minx, our 18 and a half year old cat, that our daughter Alison left behind with us when she, Ed and their 3 children moved to Copenhagen late in 2012.

Minx has become very thin, and she spends most of her days walking around the house, staring at the walls, and miaowing loudly and pathetically. Poor Minx !!! We are (almost) certain that she is not enjoying life any more.

Minx: A recent photo - poor Minx is sitting on "Little" Lois's lap (left)

while "Big" Lois (in the centre), Rosalind, Josie, and Isaac (our grandchildren)

and Alison (our daughter, on the right) sits chatting about this and that.

Lois and I are considering taking Minx to the vet tomorrow - it may be time to put an end to her suffering. The key question is, "Does she still enjoy living?". And it's hard to answer "yes" to that question, we have to admit.

Poor Minx !!!!

Flashback to Minx in happier times: December 2012, when Minx still found enjoyment

in eating, playing and chasing small birds in the backyard, also in being generally annoying:

for example, disturbing our son-in-law, Ed, while he was

trying to play a computer game - poor Minx !!!!

10:30 We head over to Bishops Cleeve, a small suburb of Cheltenham, to get a few things in the local Tesco supermarket, also to buy a few small toys.

Lois has decided to take part in a charity project to send simple Christmas presents to poor children worldwide. The idea is that gifts must be packed in used shoe boxes, so we need to think carefully how to include as many things as possible that will not take too much space in the box, which is a bit of a challenge, to put it mildly.

The charity project that Lois has decided to take part in

We have some things here and there in the house that are suitable for young children and that have never been used. I contribute a few notebooks and other stationery, for example. The purpose is to include in every shoe box something fun, something cuddly, something artistic and something educational.

Lois wants to add to her existing pile of Christmas presents by purchasing some extra gifts of the kind the project has recommended, so that's why we head over to Bishops Cleeve to pop into the local Tesco supermarket, where Lois comes across some things at the charity operation's list.

Afterwards, we swing by the local Badham's pharmacy and buy even more things. Finally we stop by the Lowry's cafe and have a cup of coffee and a couple of flapjacks. We come home and relax on the couch.

Lowry's Café, where we swing by to have a cup of coffee

a few of the tables in the cafe: the table on the right

 is the one where we sit this morning

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

15:30 I struggle out of bed and we relax with a cup of tea and a piece of bread with home-made plum jam.

Lois makes a start on covering even more shoe boxes with Christmas wrapping paper, to make them more festive.

Lois later in the afternoon with two of her shoe-boxes filled with Christmas presents

for poor children: one "for a boy", the other "for a girl"

The organizers of the charity project have recommended that we also include a photo of ourselves, so we choose one of our iconic koala photos dating from our first vacation in Australia, when we visited Sarah, our daughter in Perth, and her family, plus also Lois' cousin in Melbourne, and her cousin in Adelaide, and their families.

The picture of ourselves (along with an unknown koala),

which we include in the shoe-boxes

Flashback to 2016: Lois showcases her "koala-face" in the state of Victoria

Sheldon's "koala-face" from the Big Bang Theory sitcom.

But which one is the best? The jury is still out on that one.

16:00 While we are packing our shoe-boxes, we listen to the radio, an interesting program in the series "In Our Time", about Marie Antoinette, the French queen who was executed in the French Revolution. The program's presenter is the charming Melvyn Bragg.

Lois and I tend to feel sorry for Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI because they were basically morally decent people who tried to do their best in turbulent times, quite a contrast to most of the French revolutionary leaders - to put in mildly! The revolutionaries' treatment of Marie Antoinette's gentle, innocent little son, Louis-Charles, at the hands of a series of violent bullies and ruffians was particularly shocking.

And we also hear that there is nothing new in the idea of "fake news" - Marie Antoinette was accused on false grounds of various sexual "crimes", such as lesbian acts and participation in royal orgies, etc. The republican activists concerned made use of pictures and drawings, rather than political pamphlets, to propagate their false propaganda about the Queen, because of low literacy levels.

It is interesting that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders last night shared a video of the CNN reporter Jim Acosta, a video which apparently had been doctored and falsified to portray Acosta's behaviour as rather violently aggressive, rather than determined but quite polite. Marie-Antoinette was lucky that video had not been invented in 1789.

My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. An old episode of Top of the Pops is on, from August 28, 1986, which was 3 days after our 14th wedding anniversary.

The songs bring a lot of memories back because the songs were the ones that Yvonne, Dusty and I constantly heard during our business trip to Cyprus, in our rental car and in the restaurants and clubs we spent time in. Every song screams "Cyprus" at me.

Happy times !!!!

Dhekelia: one of the British Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) in Cyprus, 

where I went on a business trip in 1986

20:00 We continue to watch some television, the latest episode of Big Bang Theory's new (and final) series.

A fun episode. We see Sheldon boasting that he has managed to improve his and Amy's wedding photos on the computer.

Sheldon has actually decided not to remove Amy from the photographs, but he has added in some people - including Orville Wright, whom Sheldon admires, and Wilbur, as Orville's "plus one".

It is nevertheless a bit surprising and peculiar that the plot introduces for the first time Sheldon's best school-friend Tam from "Young Sheldon", completely out of the blue. The writers' excuse for Sheldon's not having mentioned Nam's name before, is that Sheldon allegedly broke all contacts with Nam after a quarrel, when he moved from Texas to California to go to Caltech, which all seems a bit unnatural and unlikely.

And Lois and I suspect that the British E4 channel is starting to focus more on the spin-off series, "Young Sheldon", now that Big Bang Theory is in its last season. But we'll see.

21:00 We continue to watch some television, an interesting documentary about the armistice negotiated between Britain, France and Germany in November 1918.

An interesting program, and Lois and I learned a lot of things we had no idea about before. It is often said that the armistice and the subsequent Versailles treaty caused WWII, but we suspect that whatever the Allied forces did, the result would have been the same in 1939 - Germany would have found one way or another to try again to crush its neighbours on the continent, we suspect.

It is interesting that Foch, the French negotiator, was extremely accurate in his prediction that the treaty would only buy peace for about 20 years.

It is true that the French insisted that Germany pay a heavy price for the war in the form of reparations, etc., but as Foch and Clemenceau constantly reminded the British and Americans, "Our country has been devastated - your countries have not."

22:00 We send a text message to Alison, our daughter in Haslemere, to warn her about Minx's worsening condition and to tell her we plan to take Minx to the vet tomorrow.

We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!!

Danish translation

09:00 Vi er blevet lidt bekymret over Minx, vores 18 og et halvt år gamle kat, som vores datter Alison efterlod hos os, da hun, Ed og deres 3 børn flyttede til København sidst i 2012.

Hun er blevet meget tynd, og hun bruger dagene for det meste på at vandre rundt om i huset, stirre på væggene, og at miave højlydt og patetisk. Stakkels Minx!!! Vi er (næsten) helt sikre på, at hun ikke nyde livet mere.

Minx: et nyligt foto – stakkels Minx sidder på ”Lille” Lois’ skød (til venstre),

mens ”Store” Lois (i centret), Rosalind, Josie, og Isaac (vores børnebørn)

og Alison (vores datter, til højre) sidder og snakker om dette og hint.

Lois og jeg overvejer at tage Minx med til dyrelægen i morgen – det kan være, at det er tid at sætte en stopper for sin lidelse. Nøglespørgsmålet er, ”får hun stadig nydelse af at leve?”. Og det er svært at svare ”ja” på dette spørgsmål, det må vi indrømme.

Stakkels Minx !!!!

Tilbageblik til Minx i lykkeligere tider: december 2012, da Minx stadig fandt nydelse

i at spise, i at lege og  jæge små fugle i baghaven, også i at være generelt irriterende:

for eksempel, i at forstyrre vores svigersøn, Ed, mens han var i gang

med at prøve at lege et computerspil – stakkels Minx !!!!

10:30 Vi kører over til Bishops Cleeve, en lille forstad til Cheltenham, for at købe et par ting i det lokale Tesco-supermarked, også at købe et par små legetøj.

Lois har besluttet at deltage i et velgørende julegaver projekt for at sende simple julegaver til fattige børn verden over. Idéen er at gaverne skal pakkes i brugte skokasser, så derfor behøver vi at tænke omsigtigt på, hvordan man inkludere så mange ting som muligt, som ikke vil tage for meget plads i kassen, hvilket er lidt af en udfordring, for at sige mildt.

det rengøringsprojekt, som Lois har besluttet at deltage i

Vi har nogle ting her og der i huset, der er egnede til små børn, og som aldrig er blevet brugt. Jeg bidrager med et par notesbøger og andre papirvarer, for eksempel. Formålet er at inkludere i hver skokasse noget sjovt, noget hyggeligt, noget kunstnerisk og noget undervisende.

Lois vil gerne tilføje til sin eksisterende bunke julegaver ved at købe nogle ekstra gaver af den slags, kirken har anbefalet, så derfor kører vi over til Bishops Cleeve for at smutte ind i det lokale Tesco-supermarked, hvor hun falder over nogle ting på rengøringsoperationens liste.

Bagefter kigger vi ind i det lokale Badhams-apotek og køber endnu flere ting. Til sidst smutter vi ind i Lowrys-caféen og drikker en kop kaffe og spise et par flapjacks. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af i sofaen.

Lowrys-caféen, hvor vi smutter ind for at drikke en kop kaffe

Nogle af bordene i caféen: bordet til højre er hvor vi sidder i formiddag

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

15:30 Jeg står op og vi slapper af med en kop te og et stykke brød med hjemmelavet blommemarmelade.

Lois går i gang med at dække endnu flere skokasser med juleindpakningspapir, for at gøre dem mere festlige.

Lois senere på eftermiddagen med to af sine skokasser, fyldt med julegaver

til fattige børn: den ene ”til en dreng”, den anden ”til en pige”

Velgørende julegaver projektets organisatorer har anbefalet, at vi inkludere også et foto af os selv, så vælger vi et af vores ikoniske koala-fotos daterende fra vores første ferie i Australien, da vi besøgte Sarah, vores datter i Perth, og hendes familie, også Lois’ kusine i Melbourne, og hendes fætter i Adelaide, og deres familier.

Fotoet af os selv (sammen med en ukendt koala),

som vi inkluderer i skokasserne

Tilbageblik til 2016: Lois fremviser sit ”koala-fjæs” i delstaten Victoria

Sheldons ”koala-fjæs” fra Big Bang Theory-sitcommen.

Men hvilket er det bedste? Det er juryen stadig ude om .

16:00 Samtidig med at vi pakker vores skokasser, lytter vi lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”In Our Time”, der handler om Marie Antoinette, den franske dronning, der blev halshugget i den franske revolution. Programmets vært er den charmerende Melvyn Bragg.

Lois og jeg har tendens til at forbarme sig over Marie-Antoinette og Louis XVI fordi de grundlæggende var moralsk anstændige mennesker, der prøvede at gøre deres bedste i tumultagtige tider, i sammenligning med de fleste franske revolutionære ledere – for at sige mildt! Deres behandling af Marie-Antoinettes blide og uskyldsrene søn, Louis-Charles, fra siden af en række voldsomme bøller er særligt chokerende.

Og vi hører også, at der er ikke noget nyt i idéen af ”fake news” – Marie-Antoinette blev anklaget af falske grunde for forskellige seksuelle ”forbrydelser”, for eksempel lesbiske handlinger og deltagelse i royale orgier osv. De pågældende republikanske aktivister brugte billeder, snarere end politiske pjecer, for at udsprede deres falske propaganda, på grund af den daværende analfabetisme.

Det er interessant at White House presse-sekretæren Sarah Sanders i går aftes angiveligt delte en video af CNN-reporteren Jim Acosta, der tilsyneladende var blevet manipuleret og forfalsket for at skildre Acostas opførsel som lidt voldsomt aggressiv i stedet for determineret men helt høflig. Marie-Antoinette var måske heldig i, at video ikke var blevet opfundet i 1789.

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

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser et gamle afsnit af Top of the Pops fra den 28. august 1986, 3 dag efter vores 14. bryllupsdag.

Sangene bringer en masse minder tilbage, fordi sangene var dem, Yvonne, Dusty og jeg hørte konstant under vores forretningsrejse til Cypern, i vores lejebil og i restauranterne og klubberne vi tilbragt tid på. Hver sang skriger ”Cypern” på mig.

Lykkelige tider!!!!

Dhekelia: det britiske suveræn base-område (SBA)

20:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, det seneste afsnit i Big Bang Theorys nye (og sidste) serie.

Et morsomt afsnit. Vi ser Sheldon prale af, at det har lykkedes ham at forbedre sine og Amys bryllupsfotoer på computeren.

Sheldon har faktisk besluttet ikke at fjerne Amy fra fotoerne, også han har tilføjet Orville Wright, som Sheldon beundrer, og Wilbur som Orvilles ”plus one”.

Det er imidlertid lidt overraskende og underligt, at plottet for første gang præsenterer Sheldons bedste skoleven Tam fra ”Young Sheldon”, helt ud af det blå. Forfatternes undskyldningen for det, at Sheldon ikke har omtalt Nams navn før, er at Sheldon angiveligt brød alle kontakter med Nam efter et skænderi, da han flyttede fra Texas til California for at gå på Caltech, hvillket synes lidt unaturligt og usandsynligt.

Og Lois og jeg mistænker, at den britiske E4-kanal starter at sætte større fokus på ”Young Sheldon”, nu hvor Big Bang Theory er i sin sidste sæson. Men vi får se.

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om hvåbenhvilen forhandlet mellem Storbritannien, Frankrig og Tyskland i november 1918.

Et interessant program, og Lois og jeg lærte en masse ting, vi ikke havde den fjerneste anelse om før. Man siger ofte, at den hvåbenhvile og den efterfølgende Versailles-traktat, forårsagede den 2. verdenskrig, men vi mistænker, at hvad som helst de allierede magter gjorde, ville resultatet være blevet det samme i 1939 – Tyskland ville have fundet en eller anden måde at prøve igen at kvæse sine naboer på kontinentet.

Det er interessant at Foch, den franske forhandler, havde nøjagtig ret i sin forudsigelse, at traktaten ville købe fred kun i 20 år.   

Det er sandt, at franskmændene insisterede på at Tyskland betaler en tung pris på krigen i form at reparationer osv, men som Foch og Clemenceau konstant mindede briterne og amerikanere, ”Vores land er blevet ødelagt – der er jeres lande blevet ikke.”

22:00 Vi sender en sms til Alison, vores datter i Haslemere, for at advare hende om Minx’ forværrende tilstand og fortælle hende, vi planlægger at tage Minx med til dyrelægen i morgen.

Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!!