Tuesday, November 6, 2018

08:30 I make two cups of tea and bring them up to the bedroom. Lois spent most of her night in Sarah's old double bed because of her cold, but she hopped back into our normal bed when I got up and put the kettle on for our morning cup of tea.

She has the habit of attending her sect's bible seminar program every Tuesday evening, but I suspect she will prefer to miss out on it tonight, if only to avoid infecting any of the seminar program's students (some of them being elderly) or the lecturers.

09:30 I sit down with the computer and surf the web. Election Day in the United States and a sudden spate of news stories by Adam Borowitz in the New York Times, not specially flattering to the Republican party, and making me wonder if the tide is finally turning against Trump and his followers. Let's hope so, at least!

10:00 Lois gets on with assembling various Christmas presents that she can pack into her 2 cardboard shoe-boxes. Each year she participates in a church project to send simple Christmas gifts to poor children worldwide. 

We have some things here and there in the house that are suitable for young children and have never been used. I contribute a few notebooks and other stationery, for example. 

The purpose is to include in each cardboard box something fun, something cuddly, something artistic and something educational. Lois covers the cardboard boxes with Christmas wrapping paper, to make them more festive.

one of the cardboard boxes Lois is going to fill with simple toys and

send to a poor family somewhere in the world.

I'm pleased to see that the project's organisers see nothing wrong or sexist with branding some toys "for boys" and others "for girls", which makes a refreshing change. My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Lois is so warm-hearted. If only I could be more like her!

10:15 Meanwhile I browse through some pages of Njal's saga, the old Icelandic saga, written in the 10th century or around that time. Scilla's U3A Old Norse Group is holding its regular meeting on Wednesday (tomorrow) and this saga is the group's current project.

This morning I read through a heartwarming episode in the saga. The shy and bashful Glum plucks up his courage and proposes marriage to the gorgeous, but hot-tempered brawler, Hallgerd, whose fair hair is so long she has to plug the ends of it into her girdle.

the gorgeous but hot-tempered brawler Hallgerd, 

whom the bashful Glum wants to marry

The marriage proposal scene is charming, albeit a little too sugary, I think. Glum's approaches to Hallgerd are witnessed by a bunch of people - two of Hallgerd's girlfriends, Hauskuld's brother Hrut, and Glum's brother Thorarin. All those present do not seem to be particularly unhappy about the proposal, or at least none of them throw up, which is encouraging.

11:00 Lois and I relax with a cup of coffee and discuss our own marriage proposal scene from back in 1972, it was a very private matter, so private that I suspect that even Lois itself did not realise it was happening ha ha!

Public marriage proposals can sometimes lead to trouble. I recall a story from the influential American news source, Onion News, where some 20 to 30 guests at the La Bergerie restaurant (Alexandria Va) hit the headlines some years ago after they had begun to complain of intense cramps and diarrhea, and had become violently sick after witnessing a public marriage proposal at the restaurant.

"My wife and I became very sick and we are quite certain that it was the moment when the bridegroom-to-be began to tinkle his champagne glass - that's what triggered it," said Stephen Fitzgerald, 45, who told reporters that he could only suppress his nausea for a short while until the bride-to-be started weeping and calling her mother - after which Fitzgerald had to rush to the toilet and throw up for several minutes.

"I think it might also have been the string quartet that appeared out of the blue when the guy got down on one knee, but there is no doubt that there was something in that proposal. To be honest, I'm getting a little nauseous just talking about it. "

Fitzgerald added that he would probably never return to La Bergerie, but if he did, he would certainly stay away from tables near young couples.

12:30 We have lunch and think back on old marriage proposal scenes in sitcoms such as Friends and the Big Bang Theory - the whole thing has become a bit of a cliché, to put it mildly! And especially nauseous if the studio audience starts to whoop or applaud.

But who can forget the famous iconic episode of "Spider Gang", where the sitcom's beloved pranksters, the so-called spider squad, used their heaving sacks of arachnidae to crash a lakeside proposal scene with hilarious consequences (source: Onion News) !

 

13:30 After lunch I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap.

15:30 I get up and I help Lois to put an electric blanket and a fresh sheet on Sarah's old double bed. She currently has a very bad cold - she crawled out of our bed around midnight last night and hopped into Sarah's old bed, but unfortunately, we had not remade it after our daughter Alison's recent visit here with her family. Poor Lois!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television.

An interesting documentary is on, all about likely future developments in the story of Donald Trump's presidency. The host of the program is the charming Hilary Andersson, a BBC journalist who was born in the United States, but was educated in Great Britain, including locally here at Cheltenham Ladies College and Edinburgh University.

An interesting program that draws parallels with the Nixon presidency and the Watergate scandal.

Hilary however visits some of Trump's most hard-core followers in the state of West Virginia, and it becomes clear that talk about a possible impeachment helps Trump and harms his opponents, the Democratic Party, rather than the opposite. And, of course, this is something Trump understands very well.

We get the impression that his West Virginia supporters will only drop their backing for Trump when or if they one day realise that most of his promises are just words, nothing more. He boasts that he is bringing coal mining jobs back to the state, but in fact more mines have closed than have reopened during his presidency.

FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired

There is obviously widespread distrust of the so-called Washington liberal establishment, but Lois and I still feel a bit in the dark about exactly why this distrust has arisen and what the background is. The whole thing reminds us a lot of the Brexit phenomenon in Britain, where a big gap had been created between politicians and ordinary voters, especially when it came to immigration policy.

My god, what a crazy world we live in!

20:00 We continue to watch a bit of television, a documentary film (1st part of 4) all about Welsh history. The host of the program is the charming Huw Edwards, a BBC news reader.

I have been looking forward to seeing this program because my mother was born and grew up in South Wales. And I assumed that this first episode would be particularly interesting because I am very interested in prehistory. But actually I find Huw's style a bit dull and bland for some reason. Also Lois has begun to cough and sneeze more and more as the program goes on, and we decide to turn off the television as soon as the program ends and go to bed early.

Poor Lois! I just hope she has not infected me already, but the chances are not specially good, I suspect. 

If possible, I would like to be cold-free at least for tomorrow when Scilla's U3A Old Norse Group is holding its regular meeting in the bar of the Everyman Theater. I have invested a lot of time into reading several chapters of Njal's saga and it would be a shame if I have to miss this meeting tomorrow. But we'll just have to see.

ZZZZZZZZZZ !!!!

Danish translation

08:30 Jeg laver to kopper te og bringer dem op på soveværelset. Lois tilbragte hovedparten af natten i Sarahs gamle dobbeltseng på grund af sin forkølelse, men hun hoppede tilbage i vores normale seng, da jeg stod op og satte vand over til vores morgenté.

Hun har for vane at deltage i sin sekts bibelseminarprogram hver tirsdag aften, men jeg mistænker hun vil hellere gå glip af det i aften, hvis bare for at undgå at smitte nogle af seminarprogrammets studerende (nogle af dem ældre) eller lektorer.

09:30 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og surfer på nettet. Valgdag i USA, og en pludselig strøm af nyhedshistorier skrevet af Adam Borowitz i New York Times, ikke ret smigrende hvad angår det republikanske parti, og får mig til at spekulere om, at tidevandet endelig kan være ved at vende mod Trump og hans tilhængere. Det skal vi håbe på, i det mindste!

10:00 Lois går i gang med at samle forskellige julegaver, som hun kan pakke ind i sine 2 papkasser til sko. Hvert år deltager hun i en kirkeprojekt for at sende simple julegaver til fattige børn verden over. 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 papkasse, noget sjovt, noget hyggeligt, noget kunstnerisk og noget undervisende. Lois dækker papkasserne med juleindpakningspapir, for at gøre dem mere festlige.

papkassen, som Lois skal fylde med simple legetøj og

sende til en fattig familie et eller andet sted i verden.

Jeg er glad for at kunne se, at projektets organisatorer ser ikke noget galt med at mærke nogle legetøj ”til drenge” og andre ”til piger”, hvilket gør en forfriskende forandring. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Lois er så varmhjertet. Hvis bare jeg kunne ligne hende mere!

10:15 I mellemtiden blader jeg igennem nogle sider af Njals saga, den gamle islandske saga, der blev skrevet i det 10. århundrede eller deromkring. Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde på onsdag (i morgen) og denne sage er gruppens nuværende projekt.

I formiddag læser jeg en hjertevarmende episode i sagaen. Den undselige og generte Glum tager mod til sig og frier til den pragtfulde men hidsige Hallgerd, hvis lyse hår er så langt, hun er nødt til at proppe enderne i sin hofteholder.

den pragtfulde men hidsige Hallgerd, som Glum har lyst til at gifte sig med

Frieriscenen er charmerende, om end en anelse sukkersød, synes jeg. Glums tilgang til Hallgerd bliver vidnet af en flok mennesker – to af Hallgerds veninder, Hauskulds bror Hrut, og Glums bror Thorarin. Alle de tilstedeværende synes ikke at blive særlig ulykkelige over frieriet, eller i det mindste ingen af dem brækker sig, hvilket er opmuntrende.

11:00 Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop  kaffe og diskuterer vores egen frieriscene fra tilbage i 1972, der var en helt privat sag, så privat, at jeg mistænker, selve Lois ikke var klar over, at det var sket ha ha!

Offentlige frieriscener kan nogle gange fører til ballade. Jeg mindes om en historie fra den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedskilde, Onion News, hvor 20-30 gæster på La Bergerie restauranten (Alexandria Va) for nogle år siden ramte overskrifterne, efter de begyndte at beklage sig over intense kramper og diarré, og blev voldsomt syge efter at vidne en offentlig frieri på restauranten.

"Min kone og jeg blev meget syge, og vi er helt sikre på, at det var øjeblikket, hvor den kommende brudgoms ske begyndte at klirre i sit champagneglas – det var det, der udløste det," sagde Stephen Fitzgerald, 45, der fortalte reportere, at han bare kunne undertrykke sin kvalme i et kort stykke tid, indtil det kommende brud begyndte at græde og ringede til sin mor, hvorefter han skyndte sig til toilettet for at kaste op i flere minutter.

"Jeg mener, det kunne også have været strengkvartetten, der dukkede op ud af det blå, mens fyren faldt til et knæ, men der er ingen tvivl om, at det var noget i det der frieri. Ærlig talt får jeg lidt kvalme bare af at tale om det. "

Fitzgerald tilføjede, at han sandsynligvis aldrig ville vende tilbage til La Bergerie, men hvis han gjorde det, ville han helt sikkert holde sig væk fra borde i nærheden af unge par.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og tænker tilbage på gamle frieriscener i sitcoms såsom Friends og Big Bang Theory – der hele er blevet lidt af en cliché, for at sige mildt! Og særligt kvalmende, hvis studiepublikummet begynder at huje eller applaudere.

Men hvem kan glemme den berømte ikoniske episode af ”Spider Gang”, hvor sitcommens elskede spøgefugle, dens edderkop-trup, brugte deres bølgende sække arachnidae til at komme som selvbudne gæster og trænge sig ind i en frielse ved søkanten (kilde: Onion News) med skrigende morsomme konsekvenser!

13:30 Efter frokost går jeg i seng og tager en gigantsk eftermiddagslur.

15:30 Jeg står op og jeg hjælper Lois med at lægge et elektrisk varmetæppe og et frisk lagen på Sarahs gamle dobbeltseng. Hun er for tiden meget forkølet - hun krøb ud af vores seng ved midnatstid og hoppede op i Sarahs gamle seng, men desværre havde vi ikke redet seng efter vores datter Alisons nylige besøg hos os sammen med hendes familie. Stakkels Lois!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn.

De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om sandsynlige kommende udviklinger i historien af Donald Trumps præsidentskab. Programmets vært er den charmerende Hilary Andersson, en BBC journalist, der er født i USA, men blev uddannet i Storbritannien, herunder på Cheltenham Ladies College og Edinburgh University.

Et interessant program, der drager paralleller med Nixons præsidentskab og Watergate-skandalen.

 Men Hilary besøger nogle af Trumps mest hard-core tilhængere i delstaten West Virginia, og det bliver klart, at tale om en mulig rigsretssag hjælper Trump og beskadiger hans modstandere, det demokratiske parti, snarere, end det modsatte. Og det forstår selve Trump godt, selvfølgelig.

Vi får det indtryk af, at hans tilhængere i West Virginia bare vil droppe deres støtte for Trump, når/hvis de en dag indser, at hovedparten af hans løfter bare er tale, intet mere. Han praler af, at han bringer kulminejobs tilbage til delstaten, men faktisk flere miner har lukket end har genåbnet under hans præsidentskab.

FBI-direktør James Comey, som Trump fyrede

Der er åbenbart udbredt mistillid til det såkaldte Washington liberale establishment, men Lois og jeg føler os stadig lidt i mørket om præcis hvorfor denne mistillid er opstået, og hvad baggrunden er. Det hele minder os meget om Brexit-fænomenet i Storbritannien, hvor en stor kløft var blevet skabt mellem vores politikere og almindelige valgere, i sær når det kom til indvandringspolitik.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i!

20:00 Vi fortsætter at se lidt fjernsyn, en dokumentarfilm (1. del af 4), der handler om walesiske historie. Programmets vært er den charmerende Huw Edwards, en BBC nyhedsoplæser.

Jeg har glædet mig til at se dette program, fordi min mor var født og vokset op i Syd-Wales. Og jeg formodede, at dette første afsnit ville være særligt interessant, fordi jeg er meget interesseret i forhistorie. Men faktisk finder Huws stil lidt kedelig og intetsigende af en eller anden grund. Også Lois er begyndt at hoste og nyse mere og mere, mens programmet fortsætter, og vi beslutter at slukke for fjernsynet så snart programmet slutter, og at gå tidligt i seng.

Stakkels Lois! Jeg håber bare på, at hun ikke har smittet mig allerede, men chancerne er ikke ret gode, mistænker jeg. Hvis muligt har jeg lyst til at blive forkølelse-fri i det mindste for i morgen, når Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde på baren af byens Everyman-teater. Jeg har brugt en masse tid på at læse flere kapitler af Njals saga, og det ville være lidt af en skam, hvis jeg bliver nødt til at gå glip af dette møde i morgen. Men vi får se.

Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!