Friday, November 30 2018

08:30 Lois and I get up and after breakfast we take the bus into town to register at a new medical centre on Overton Park Road. We take our application forms, health questionnaires, and proof of our address. The whole thing takes only 1 hour from start to finish, i.e from the time we hop on the bus just opposite our house until when we arrive back, again by bus.

This does not mean that we will necessarily take the bus next time we visit the doctors, but it is useful to know that we have a plan B if for any reason we cannot go by car.

Unfortunately, we need to change doctors because our current medical centre is going to shut down within the next 2-3 months: The clinic's doctors are planning to move into a new centre located 5 miles away on the other side of the town of Bishops Cleeve, which is a bit of a shame. My god, they are such bastards, those doctors !!!!

12:00 We relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa. Afterwards, I listen a little to the radio, an interesting program in a series dealing with business issues. The host of the program is the charming Jonty Bloom.

An interesting program - I did not know that so-called Irish coffee was invented in Shannon airport. Shannon became an important international airport in the 1940s, because at that time passenger aircraft could not fly from the United States to London, Paris, etc. without refuelling. In fact it was Charles Lindbergh himself, the famous flyer, who chose Shannon as the ideal place for a refuelling stop.

Air travel was so wearing at that time that passengers often needed a strong drink to recharge their batteries before resuming their journey. One day, a group of passengers arrived back at Shannon airport after the pilot had had to return due to bad weather over the Atlantic Ocean. After several hours in the air, the passengers needed something strong, and the airport bar-manager, Joe Sheridan served them coffee, but adding whisky and floating a little cream on top. 

One of the passengers said, "This coffee is really delicious - is it Brazilian?", to which Joe replied, "No, it's Irish coffee." And that's how the name was invented - my god, what madness !!!!

a traditional Irish coffee

As technology improved, airliners were able to fly directly from the United States to Europe, and Shannon airport decreased in popularity. The Irish government responded by creating a liberal tax and duty system in the town - and the idea of ​​making it a free port arose, with the result that the local economy began to flourish again. The idea was copied in many countries, especially in China, which is a bit of a surprise, to put it mildly.

Some experts have suggested that Teesside in north-east England should become a similar kind of free port, but others say that the idea actually works best in countries that are more undeveloped than Britain. Ireland was at the time a country that mostly lived off its agriculture.

And free ports tend just to shift industry and prosperity from one part of the country to another, rather than creating general new prosperity. So the jury is still out on that one.

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards Lois has to go out. She walks round the corner to the local library to help the staff manage the weekly Baby Bounce and Rhyme session for young children and their mothers, plus the occasional "papa latte" (stay-at-home dad), or grandfather and grandmother.

15:30 Lois comes back from the library and I get up. We relax with a cup of tea in the sofa. She says that this week's Baby Bounce session was very lively, with one set of twins and one set of triplets - good grief, what madness - the neighbourhood's parents must have gone a little bit crazy in the last 2 to 3 years, that's for sure !!!

16:00 We listen a little to the radio, an interesting program entitled "The Last Word". Lois and I have got in the habit of hearing this program every week because we want to find out if anyone over the past 1-2 weeks has died or not (I've noticed that most weeks exactly 5 deaths occur, although sometimes only 4, as today).

Baroness Trumpington, who died this week

Baroness Trumpington, the former conservative minister, sadly died the other day. Her original name was Jean Barker. Her parents were very rich, but her mother lost everything in the crash of 1929. Not a total disaster, however. The family had to move into a smaller house, but they were nevertheless "still allowed to have a butler" - good grief, sheer madness!

As a young woman, she worked for a period in Lloyd-Georges's house in Sussex, where the former prime minister and notorious skirt-chaser from time to time insisted on taking out a tape measure and measuring various parts of her body, the dirty bugger !!!!

I feel I have a faint connection with the Baroness because she worked at Bletchley Park during WWII, where her job was to decrypt secret German messages. The office was then packed with young women with a lively sense of humour - and they often turned up in strange get-ups, for example one day they all arrived for work early wearing tea-cosies on their heads.

The profession is actually known for the eccentricity of its practitioners: one of my former colleagues always wore a hat on her head in the office because she said she could feel a draught which she said used to come out of the ceiling - my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Later in life, the Baroness lived in Cambridge, and when she got her title, she chose to be called  "BaronessTrumpington", the name of a small village near Cambridge, a village she and her husband loved. And she said it was a much better potential title than one she could have had, based on another of her favourite villages in the area, ie "Baroness Six Mile Bottom".

Map illustrating the distance between Trumpington 

and Six Mile Bottom (about 10 miles)

She became a health minister for a period of time, but it is well known that, though asked to do so, she refused to give up smoking.

She appeared on a radio show when she was in her 90's and became angry when she found out that, in order to take part in the program, she had to sign a paper confirming she was not pregnant. She later joked that she had actually given up cigarettes on her birthday, "when I turned about 102". She was then asked what she now did after sex, and she replied, "smoke a cigar". My god, what a woman !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards we watch some television and listen to the radio. An old episode of Top of the Pops is on, from October 1986.

It's very nostalgic to see The Bangles singing live their hit "Walk Like an Egyptian" because it was one of the first singles our elder daughter Alison bought (at age 11).

Alison had just begun high school, 1 year after we moved back to England after 3 years residence in the United States. She had to get used to wearing uniforms on school days: in the US she and Sarah did not have to wear school uniforms, so this was a relatively new experience for them.

Flashback to September 1986: Alison (left) and Sarah

in their school uniforms - happy days!

By chance this fall, Alison herself and her 3 children moved back to England after nearly 6 years of residence in Denmark, another country where students do not go to school in uniforms. Back in August Ed had to teach them all how to tie their school ties.

Ed teaches our 3 grandchildren, Josie, Rosalind and Isaac

how to tie a school tie - yikes - this is serious !!!!

I feel I have quite a close connection with Josie because I sense that she is the most socially awkward of the three children.

I have started feeling nervous tonight because tomorrow I have to attend a get-together, a Christmas party at Gupshill Manor, Tewkesbury, organised by Lois' sect - yikes! But I have to try to stay zen and keep close to Lois all the time, and maybe I will survive it all. But that's something the jury is still out on.

21:00 We turn off the TV and listen a little to the radio: the 2nd episode of the 4th season of a fun radio series, "The Cold Swedish Winter".

"The Cold Swedish Winter": the main characters in the series

The series is about an English stand-up comedian, Geoff, who is partners with a lovely Swedish woman, Linda (Andersson). The couple move to northern Sweden and buy a house in the countryside, close to Linda's scary parents, her negative father, Sten, and her horny mother, Gunilla. Geoff has had a lot of trouble getting used to Sweden's "social-democratic" society.

Linda, Geoff's lovely Swedish partner

Gunilla, Linas horny mother

The script is surprisingly amusing, not "lol" but in a nice, gentle way, and we learn a lot about Swedish society. I'm inclined to think that the program reflects the reality of the Swedish experience because the English author of the series, Danny Robins, is basically writing about his own life - he too has a Swedish partner and lives over there.

The Swedish characters in the series seem quite scary and they speak a bit like I would imagine big black bears would speak if nature had given them voices.

In this second season, Geoff is now through with his role as "Papa Latte" (stay-at-home dad) because his and Linda's little son John is now old enough to go to kindergarten. Geoff gets a part-time job at the local tourist office, where his horny mother-in-law Gunilla also works. 

His task is to try to sell the town to potential British tourists, which is very difficult given that the British cannot pronounce the town's name, and also from the fact that the town's main attraction is its mosquito museum. He thinks up the slogan, "Yxsjo - delightfully unpronounceable".

But Geoff has problems with his Swedish workplace - they have a manager, but all decisions are taken in a democratic way after long meetings - and there has to be unanimity before anything happens. And it's just as likely that the boss serves the coffee to his staff, than the other way round  - my god, what madness !!!! [That's enough madness - Ed]

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

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg står op og efter morgenmad tager vi bussin ind i byen for at indskrive os på en ny lægehus, på Overton Parkvej. VI tager med vores ansøgningsformularer, sundhedsspørgeskemaer, og beviser på vores adres. Det hele tager kun 1 time fra dengang vi hopper op på bussen lige overfor vores hus indtil dengang, vi kommer tilbage, igen med bussen.

Det betyder ikke, at vi nødvendigvis vil tage med bussen næste gang, vi besøger lægerne, men det er nyttigt at vide, at vi har en plan B, hvis vi af en eller anden grund ikke kan tage med bil.

Vi er desværre nødt til at skifte læger, fordi vores nuværende lægehus skal lukke ned indenfor de næste 2-3 måneder:  klinikkens læger planlægger at flytte ind i et nyt lægehus, der ligger 5 miles væk i den anden side af byen Bishops Cleeve, hvilket er lidt af en skam. Du godeste, de er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger!!!!

12:00 Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Bagefter lytter jeg lidt til radio, et interessant program, i en serie, der handler om forretningsspørgsmål. Programmets vært er den charmerende  Jonty Bloom.

Et interessant program – jeg vidste ikke, at den såkaldte irske kaffe blev opfundet i Shannon lufthavn. Shannon blev en vigtig international lufthavn i 1940’erne, fordi passagerfly dengang ikke kunne flyve fra USA til London, Paris osv uden at blive tanket op igen på vej. Det var faktisk Charles Lindberg, den berømte flyver, der valgte Shannon som det ideelle sted.

Flyveture var så vanskelige dengang, at passagere ofte trængte til en stærk drik for at genoplade deres batterier, før de genoptog deres rejsen. En dag, en gruppe passagere ankom tilbage til lufthavnen efter piloten skulle vende tilbage til Shannon på grund af møgvejr over Atlanterhavet. Efter flere timer i luften trængte passagerne til noget stærk og lufthavnbars manager, Joe Sheridan serverede kaffe for dem, men han tilføjede whiskey og lidt fløde på toppen. En af passagerne sagde, ”Denne kaffe er meget lækker – er den brasiliansk? Joe svarede, ”Nej, den er irsk kaffe”. Og det er den måde, navnet blev opfundet – du godeste, sikke et vanvid !!!!

en traditionel irsk kaffe

Da teknoligien forbedredes, kunne fly flyve direkte fra USA til Europa, og Shannon lufthavn aftog i popularitet. Den irske regering reagerede ved at skabe en liberal skatte- og afgiftssystem i byen – og idéen af at gøre den til en fri havn opstod, med resultatet af, at den lokale økonomi begyndte at blomstre igen. Idéen blev kopieret i mange lande, specielt i Kina, hvilket er lidt af en overraskelse for at sige mildt.

Nogle eksperter har forslået, at Teeside i det nordøstlige England skal blive til en lignende slags fri havn, men andre siger, at idéen virker bedst i lande, der er mere uudviklede, end Storbritannien. Irland var for de meste en land der levede af sin landbrug.

Og fri havne har tendens bare til at flytte industri og velstand fra den ene del af landet til en anden, snarere, end at skabe ny velstand. Så juryen er stadig ude om det.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter skal Lois ud. Hun går hen rundt om hjørnet til det lokale bibliotek for at hjælpe personalet med at styre den ugentlige Baby Bounce and Rhyme-sessionen for små børn og deres mødre, også den lejlighedsvise "pappa latte", bedstefar og bedstemor.

15:30 Lois kommer tilbage fra biblioteket og jeg står op. Vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Hun siger, at ugens Baby Bounce-sessionen var meget livlig, med 1 sæt tvillinger og 1 sæt trillinger – du godeste, sikke et vanvid – nabolagets forældre må været gået galde, det ved vi med sikkerhed !!!

16:00 Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program med titlen ”Det sidste ord”. Lois og jeg er kommet i vane med at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om nogen i de seneste 1-2 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste uger sker nøjagtig 5 dødsfald).

Baroness Trumpington, der for nogle dage siden døde, på 96 år

Baronesse Trumpington, den tidligere konservative minister, døde desværre for nylig. Hendes oprindelige navn var Jean Barker. Hendes forældre var meget rige, men hendes mor mistede alt i krakket i 1929. Ikke en total katastrofe imidlertid. Familien skulle flytte ind i et mindre hus, men ”de blev ikke desto mindre stadig tilladt at have en butler” – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Som ung kvinde arbejdede hun i en periode i Lloyd-Georges hus i grevskabet Sussex, hvor den tidligere statsminister, en kendte skørtejæger, fra tid til anden insisterede på at tage et måleband og måle alle hende forskellige kropsdele – the dirty bugger!!!! 

Jeg føler, at jeg har en fjerne forbindelse med hende, fordi hun under den 2. verdenskrig arbejdede i Bletchley Park, hvor hendes job var at dechifrere hemmelige tyske beskeder. Kontoret var dengang propfyldt med unge kvinder med en godt sans for humor – og de dukkede hyppigt op i underlige antræk, for eksempel en dag mødtes de alle tidligt med tehætter på hovedet.

Professionen er kendt for ekcentriciteten af sine praktikere:  en af mine tidligere arbejdskollegaer bar altid en hat på hovedet i kontoret, fordi hun sagde, hun kunne føle en trækvind, som hun sagde kom ud af loften – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

Senere i livet, boede Baronessen Trumpington i Cambridge, og da hun blev en baronesse, valgte hun titlen ”Trumpington”, navnet af en lille landsby nær Cambridge, en landsby hun og hendes mand elskede. Og hun sagde, at det var et bedre titel, end en, der kunne være blevet baseret på en anden af sine yndlingslandsbyer i området, dvs ”Baroness Six Mile Bottom”.

afstanden mellem Trumpington og  Six Mile Bottom (ca. 10 miles)

Hun blev sundhedsminister i en periode, men det er velkendt, at hun ikke desto mindre nægtede at holde up med at ryge.

Hun optrådte på et radioprogram da hun var i 90’erne, og blev vred, da hun fandt ud af, at hun, for at deltage i programmet, var nødt til at underskrive en papir for at bekræfte, hun ikke var gravid. Hun spøgte senere med, at hun faktisk havde holdt op med cigaretter, da hun fyldte ”omkring 102”. Hun blev så spurgt, hvad hun nu plejede at lave efter sex, og hun svarede, ”ryger en cigar”. Du godeste, sikke en kvinde!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, og bagefter ser vi lidt fjernsyn og lytter til radio. De viser et gamle afsnit af Top of the Pops fra oktober 1986.

Det er meget nostalgisk at se The Bangles synge live deres hit ”Walk Like an Egyptian”, fordi det var en af de første singler vores ældste datter Alison købte (på 11 år).

Alison var dengang lige begyndt i højskole, 1 år efter vi flyttede tilbage til England efter 3 års ophold i USA. Hun var nødt til at vænne sig til at gå i uniformer på skoledage: i USA var hun og Sarah ikke nødt at gå i skole i uniform, så dette var en forholdsvis ny oplevelse.

Tilbageblik til 1986: Alison (til venstre) og Sarah

i deres skoleuniformer – lykkelige dage!

Tilfældigvis i denne efterår flyttede Alison og hendes 3 børn tilbage til England efter næsten 6 års ophold i Danmark, endnu et andet land, hvor elever ikke går i skole i uniformer. Ed var nødt tilbage i august til at lære dem alle hvordan man binder sit skoleslips.

Ed lærer vores 3 børnebørn, Josie, Rosalind og Isaac

hvordan man skal binde et skoleslips – yikes – dette er alvorligt!!!!

Jeg føler jeg har en specielt tæt forbindelse med Josie, fordi jeg mærker, at hun er de mest socialt akavet af de tre børn.

Jeg er begyndt at føle mig lidt nervøst i aften, fordi jeg bliver nødt til at deltage i morgen i en sammenkomst, en julefrokost på Gupshill Manor, Tewkesbury, organiseret af Lois’ sekt – yikes! Men jeg må prøve at blive zen og holde mig hele tiden tæt på Lois, og måske vil jeg overlever det hele. Men det er juryen stadig ude om.

21:00 Vi slukker for fjernsynet og lytter lidt til radio: det 2. afsnit af den 4. sæson af en morsom radio-serien, ”Den kolde svenske vinter”.

”Den kolde svenske vinter”: seriens hovedfigurer

Serien handler om en engelsk standup komiker, Geoff, der er partnere med en dejlig svensk kvinde, Linda (Andersson). Parret flytter til det nordlige Sverige og købe et hus ude på landet, helt tæt på Lindas skræmmende forældre, hendes negative far, Sten, og hendes liderlige mor, Gunilla. Geoff har haft en masse problemer med at vænne sig til det svenske ”socialdemokratiske” samfund.

Linda, Geoffs dejlige svenske partner

Gunilla, Linas liderlige mor

Scriptet er overraskende morsomt, ikke ”lol” men på en dejlig, blid måde, og vi lærer meget om det svenske samfund. Jeg hælder til at tro, at programmet afspejler virkeligheden af den svenske oplevelse, fordi seriens engelske forfatter, Danny Robins, skriver grundlæggende om sit eget liv – han er selv partnere med en svensk kvinde og bor derovre.

Seriens svenske figurer virker ganske skræmmende og de taler lidt på den måde, jeg ville forestille mig store gråbjørne ville tale, hvis naturen havde givet dem menneskelige stemmer.

I denne 2. sæson er Geoff omsiden færdig med sin rolle som ”pappa latte”, fordi hans og Lindas lille søn John nu er gammel nok til at gå i børnehave. Han får en deltidsjob i det lokale turistbureau, hvor hans svigermor Gunilla også arbejder. Hans opgave er at prøve at sælge byen til potentielle britiske turister, hvilket er meget svært i betragtning af, at briter ikke kan udtale byens navn, også at byens største attraktion er sit mygmuseum. Han finder på sloganet, ”Yxsjo – delightfully unpronounceable”.

Men Geoff har problemer med sin svenske arbejdsplads – de har en manager, men alle beslutninger bliver tage på en demokratisk måde efter lange møder – og der er nødt til at være uenighed, før noget sker. Og det er lige så sandsynligt at chefen serverer kaffen for sit personale, som omvendt – du godeste, sikke et vanvid !!!!  

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!