Danskcolin: Tuesday, November 27, 2018

08:30 Lois and I take a shower and after breakfast we head over to the Overton Park Medical Centre to check it out and pick up two application forms and the clinic's information pamphlets.

Overton Park Medical Centre

The doctors in our current medical centre, which is just 100 yards from our house, have unfortunately announced that within the next 2-3 months they are all going to move into a newly built medical centre located 5 miles away from here, on the other side of Bishops Cleeve, a small village 3 miles north of Cheltenham. My god, they are such bastards, those doctors - that's for sure !!!

If possible, Lois and I would now like to register elsewhere, at a nearer clinic, or at least a clinic you can get to by public transport, in the event that we find we can no longer drive a car. Yikes - scary !!!!!

11:00 Afterwards we drive over to another medical centre, the so-called "Stoke Road" clinic, located just 2 miles from our house on this side of Bishops Cleeve. We swing by reception and pick up another 2 application forms and an information brochure. We plan to read the information about both surgeries and make a decision within the next 2 weeks, if possible.

Stoke Road Medical Centre

As regards public transport, we can take a bus to the Overton Park Medical Centre from a bus stop just opposite our house. It takes about 20 minutes and buses run every 12 minutes. Going by car is a bit difficult because you have to face the traffic in the town centre.

We can also take a bus to Stoke Road Medical Centre, but the buses run only one an hour. On the other hand, it's less difficult to get there by car because there is no need to drive through the town.

Good grief, decisions decisions !!!

What we really want is a doctor who is ready to think outside the box, like Dr Alan Thal, who hit the headlines earlier this year after giving unconventional advice to local man Matt Richards.

Local internist Dr. Alan Thal, noting that he typically advises anyone under 120 over 80 to go apeshit, recently told patient Matt Richards that his blood pressure was pretty normal, so he should really f****** let it rip (Source: Onion News).

"Well, Mr Richards, you're at 118 over 74. That means, do whatever the hell you want. Get wasted, start a smoking habit - who gives a shit, just f****** go nuts," said Thal and added that he'd like to keep an eye on it, but meanwhile Richards is going to want to eat as much delicious, salty food as he wants, and really cut loose.

"Blood pressure is measured in terms of systolic and diastolic numbers, and since both of yours are fine, you can stop wasting time exercising and do some real crazy shit. Remember, you are 51 and not getting any younger, so I strongly suggest going balls-to-the-wall sooner rather than later. "

At press time, Richard had died due to hypertension 20 minutes after leaving the doctor's office.

Poor fellow! But it's nice to see examples of doctors thinking outside the box, even if it means some mistakes are made from time to time.

And there should always be room for a few crazy mavericks in the medical profession, at least that's what I think!

12:00 Lois and I come home and warm ourselves with a cup of coffee on the couch. We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

15:00 I get up. Lois swings by the neighbours (Bill and Mary) to have a little chat with Mary, who suffers from dementia. Lois is so warm-hearted - I just wish I were more like her !!!!

I go out to the garage to tidy up a bit as an further stage in "Project Downsize". The garage is storing a lot of car tools, do-it-yourself equipment and children's equipment which our daughter Sarah left behind with us when she and Francis and their (now) 5-year-old twins moved to Australia.

Lois and I hope that our other neighbour, Bob, or members of his enormous family will decide to take some of this equipment away. But in the middle of all the potentially useful equipment there are also a lot of crap items, which no one in a million years would want. I collect some of these unusable items and stuff them into a big black sack. The council's waste truck is coming round early tomorrow, so this is a good opportunity to get some useless equipment removed.

our garage – what a total nightmare!

17:00 Lois comes back after two hours of chatting, mostly with Mary, so it's been hard work for Lois. Bill was engaged in paperwork, but he found time to lend Lois a recently published book on the history of Cheltenham, by two writers, one of whom is one of my former colleagues, which is nice. It was published in 2012, but my colleague was already doing the research when we worked together in the 1990s.

It's nice to be able to look at photos of the town in the past, and compare them with the town of today, for example, this photo of the town's opera house (now the Everyman Theatre: two of the U3A groups I belong to hold their meetings in the theatre's bar).

The town's opera house in the 19th century

Today's Everyman Theatre

17:30 I get started browsing through a few pages of Njal's saga, written in Old Norse in Iceland in the 13th century or so.

It has become clear that Njal, the eponymous hero of the saga, has 4 sons living at home, all unmarried, and that Njal is very anxious to persuade them to marry, so that he can have some peace and quiet with his lovely self-assertive wife Bergthora in their house, which is not huge, to put it mildly.

Njal with his assertive wife Bergthora

The poor couple's house is sadly heaving with grown up sons and their wives

and the couple don't get any alone time, which is a bit of a shame, to say the least

A very modern problem - I have to say! Our youngest daughter Sarah married for the first time in 2001, but she came back and lived with us for a few years after the marriage broke up. And she lived with us again in 2015 when she and Francis, her second husband, and their 2 little twins were preparing to move to Australia.

Njal has only limited success with his plan to persuade his sons to marry. His 2 eldest sons, Skarphedinn and Grim get married, but unfortunately they both stay living with their parents, and their new wives move in as well with all the rest of the family, so the house becomes even more crowded than ever. My god, what madness !!!

Grim, Njal's second-old son, was very well aware that it was far cheaper to live with his parents - I have no doubts about that. He was a bit of a money-grubber, to put it mildly. He managed to marry Astrid, a wealthy widow, but they were too tight with money to move out of poor Njal's little house - good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Poor Njal !!!!!

Astrid, the lovely rich young widow, whom Njal's son Grim marries

18:30 We have dinner and watch television. The most recent episode of "First Dates" is on.

This show is Lois's and my favourite dating show, where participants go on a date and eat at a special restaurant with a potential partner that the TV channel has chosen for them.

Thus the program to some extent has a serious purpose, ie to find possible compatible partners for the participants. It's a lot better than the version that takes place in a hotel in Italy where participants spend the days sitting around the hotel's swimming pool in next to nothing and then go to bed with their potential new partners as soon as the date is over.

And it's much much better than the show's "celebrity version", where we see the B list and reality show celebrities only participating for the purposes of publicity and staying in the public eye.

Tonight 3 of the 4 dates go very well and there are prospects for further dates in the future. Only the lesbian date (Kristina and Nicola) is a failure and spectacularly so. You know a date is not going well if one of the parties, in this case Nicola, rushes to the toilet to make an urgent call to her mother - yikes!

Yikes, and poor Kristina, who in the meantime is sitting and waiting expectantly at the table, busy sprucing up her appearance and playing with her hair.

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

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg tager et brusebad og efter morgenmad kører vi over til Overton Park-lægehuset for at tjekke den ud og hente to ansøgningsformularer og klinikkens informationspjecer.

Overton Park-lægehuset

Lægerne i vores nuværende lægehus, der bare ligger 100m fra vores hus, har annonceret at de alle indenfor de næste 2-3 måneder skal flytte ind til en nybyggede lægehus, der ligger 5 miles væk herfra, i den anden side af Bishops Cleeve, en lille landsby 3 miles nord for Cheltenham. Du godeste, de er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger – ingen tvivl om det!!!

Hvis muligt vil Lois og jeg gerne indskrive os på en nærmere klinik, eller i det mindste en klinik, man kan køre til med offentlig transport, i det til fælde af, at vi finder, vi ikke længere kan køre bil. Yikes- skræmmende !!!!!

11:00 Bagefter kører vi over til et andet lægehus, den såkaldte ”Stoke Road”-klinik, der ligger bare 2 miles fra vores hus på denne side af Bishops Cleeve. Vi smutter ind hos receptionen og henter endnu 2 ansøgningsformularer og en informationspjece. Vi planlægger at læse informationerne om begge 2 lægehuse og tager en beslutning indenfor de næste 2 uger, hvis muligt.

Stoke Road-lægehuset

Hvad angår offentlig transport, kan vi tage med bus til Overton Park-lægehuset fra et busstoppested lige overfor vores hus. Det tager ca. 20 minutter og busser kører hver 12. minutter. At tage med bil er lidt vanskeligt, fordi man må stå overfor traffiken i bymidten.

Vi kan også tage med bus til Stoke Road-lægehuset, men busserne kører kun hver 60 minutter. Men på den anden side det er mindre vanskeligt at tage der med bil, fordi der ikke er brug for at køre gennem byen.

Du godeste, beslutninger beslutninger!!!

Hvad vi virkelig virkelig vil have, er en læge, der er klar til at tænke udenfor boksen, ligesom Dr Alan Thal, der ramte overskrifterne tidligere på året efter at han gav nogen ukonventionelt råd til den lokal mand Matt Richards.

Den lokale internist Dr. Alan Thal, som bemærkede, at han typisk rådgiver nogen under 120 over 80 til at gå apeshit, fortalte patienten Matt Richards for nylig, at hans blodtryk målte ret normalt, så han burde virkelig fucking give los.

"Nå, hr. Richards, du er på 118 over 74. Det betyder, gør hvad i helvede du har lyst til. Drik dig fuld, start en rygning vane - hvem giver en skid for det, gå bare amok, "sagde Thal og tilføjede, at han gerne vil holde øje med det, men i mellemtiden skal Richards ønske at spise så meget lækker , saltagtig mad som han har lyst til og proppe sig som en vanvittig.

"Blodtrykket måles i forhold til systoliske og diastoliske tal, og eftersom begge er fine, kan du stoppe med at spilde tid på at træne og gøre noget vanvittigt lort. Husk, du er 51 og ikke kommer til at blive yngre, så foreslår jeg kraftigt at du gå går helt amok hurtigere end senere. "

På pressetid var Richards død som følge af hypertension 20 minutter efter at have forladt lægens kontor.

Staklen! Men det er rart at se eksempler på, at læger tænker udenfor boksen, selvom det betyder at nogle fejl bliver taget fra tid til anden, synes jeg. Og der skulle altid være plads til enegængere i den medicale profession, synes jeg.

12:00 Vi kommer hjem og varmer os med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

15:00 Jeg står op. Lois smutter ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt med Mary, der lider af demens. Lois er så varmhjertet – bare jeg lignede hende mere!!!!

Jeg går ud i garagen for at ordne lidt som en yderligere fase i ”Projekt Downsize”. Garagen indeholder en masse bilredskaber, gør-det-selv-redskaber og børneudstyr, som vores datter Sarah efterlod hos os, da hun og Francis og deres (nu) 5-årige tvillinger flyttede til Australien.

Lois og jeg håber på, at vores anden nabo, Bob, eller medlemmer af sine enorme familie, vil beslutte at tage noget af dette udstyr med væk. Men i midten af alt det eventuelt nyttige udstyr er der også en masse lort, som ingen i en million år ville have. Jeg samler nogle af disse ubruelige genstande og propper dem ind i en stor sort sæk. Kommunens affaldslastbil kommer i morgen tidligt, så er dette en god lejlighed til at få nogle ubrugelige udstyr fjernet.

vores garage: sikke et totalt mareridt !!!!

17:00 Lois kommer tilbage efter to timers snik-snak, for det meste bare med Mary, så det har været hårdt arbejde for Lois. Bill var beskæftiget med papirarbejde, men han fandt tid til at låne Lois en nyligt udgivet bog om historien af Cheltenham, af to forfattere, hvoraf en er en af mine tidligere arbejdskollegaer, hvilket er rart. Det blev udgivet i 2012, men hun var allerede var i gang med at gøre forskningen, da vi arbejdedee sammen i 1990’erne.

Det er rart at kunne kigge på fotoer af byen i fortiden, og sammenligne dem med nutidens by, for eksempel, dette foto af byens operahus (nu Everyman-teatret: to af de U3A grupper, jeg hører til, holder deres møder på teatrets bar).

Byens operahus i 1800-tallet

Nutidens Everyman- teater

17:30 Jeg går i gang med at blade igennem nogle sider af Njals saga, der blev skrevet på oldnordisk i Island i det 13. århundrede eller deromkring.

Det er blevet klart, at Njal, sagaens eponymiske helt, har 4 sønner, alle ugift, og Njal er forhippet på at overtale dem til at gifte sig, så han kan have lidt fred og ro sammen med sin dejlige selvhævdende kone Bergthora, i deres hus, der ikke er enorme, for at sige mildt.

Njal med sin selvhævdende kone Bergthora

Det stakkels pars hus er desværre propfyldt af voksne sønner og deres koner

og de har ikke noget alenetid, hvilket er lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt

Et meget moderne problem – det må jeg nok sige! Vores yngste datter Sarah giftede sig for første gang i 2001, men hun kom tilbage og boede hos os i et par år efter ægteskabet gik i stykker. Og hun boede hos os igen i 2015, da hun og Francis, sin 2. mand, og deres 2 små tvillinger forberedede sig på at flytte til Australien.

Njal har kun begrænset succes med sin plan om, at overtale sine sønner til at gifte sig. Hans 2 ældste sønner, Skarphedinn og Grim giftede sig, men desværre blev de boende hos deres forældre, og deres nye koner flyttede ind med alle resten af familien, så huset blev mere propfyldt, end nogensinde. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Grim, Njals næstældste søn, vidste meget godt, det var langt billigere at bo med sine forældre – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om. Han var lidt af en pengepuger, for at sige mildt. Det lykkedes ham at gifte sig med Astrid, en rig enke, men de var imidlertid for nærige med penge til at flytte ud af stakkels Njals lille hus – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Stakkels Njal !!!!!

Astrid, den dejlige rige unge enke, som Njals søn Grim gifter sig med

18:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit af ”First Dates”.

Dette show er Lois’ og min yndlings-datingshow, hvor deltagere går ud på en date og spiser på en special restaurant med en potentiel partner, som tv-kanalen har valgt til dem.

Programmet har i en vis grad et seriøst formål, dvs at finde mulige kompatible livspartnere til deltagerne. Det er meget bedre, end versionen, der spiller sig ud i et hotel i Italien, hvor deltagere bruger dagene på at sidde omkring hotellets swimmingpool i næsten ingenting, og går i seng med deres potentielle partnere, så snart aftenen er forbi.

Og det er meget meget bedre, end showets ”kendis-version”, hvor vi ser B-liste og reality show-kendisser deltager med det formål at få publicitet og at forblive i det offentlige øje.

I aften går 3 af de 4 dates meget godt, og der er udsigt til yderligere dates i fremtiden. Kun den lesbiske date (Kristina og Nicola) mislykkes og spektakulært. Man ved godt, at date går ikke ret godt, hvis den ene kvinde, Nicola, smutter på toilettet for hurtigst muligt at ringe til sin mor – yikes!