Mike is also planning to bring us his Christmas presents
tomorrow so Lois and I also have to see about getting together our Christmas gifts to him and his wife,
"Magyar" Mary.
We drive along Hales Rd to Leckhampton, and we confirm
that roadworks in the area are now over, and then we swing by Fruits'n'Roots,
the local greengrocer’s, to buy "Magyar" Mary a potted plant. Afterwards we pop into
CookShop and buy 4 ready meals for 2, in case we feel we don’t want to cook any particular
evening – my god how lazy we have become - yikes !!!
After we buy the meals, we feel to need to recharge our
batteries and we have a cup of americano
in the CookShop's "Daily Bean" cafe.
We recharge our batteries in
CookShop's "Daily Bean" cafe
Ready-meals are a bit of a tradition in our area. I read
an interesting article the other day, written by a local man with his finger on
the pulse, Jeff Partlow, who gave his own "recipe" for curing what is most wrong
with Britain at this moment in time (source: Onion News), and frozen ready meals
play a major role in Jeff's policies, but only as a solution, not the cause, of the problem, which is a bit of a surprise.
“Here’s what needs to
happen, " Partlow told local journalists. "The fanatics from the other party who you see on television—the ones
spouting their insane ideas about what our country should stand for and where
it should be headed—they need to come out of their little bubbles and see the
damage they’ve caused.
"Because they just don’t
get it. They need to try being a 46-year-old sales manager, standing 5 feet, 10
inches tall, who has gone through a recent divorce from Cheryl Simmons-Partlow,
routinely eating frozen meals from the nearby Save-A-Lot, having a strained
relationship with his father with whom he's never been able to have a
conversation with about anything of emotional consequence, and being the owner of a
2009 Chevy Impala. Then maybe they would understand a thing or two about the
real state of our country."
I recall that Lois and I talked a bit about Partlow's
opinions when we initially saw his article online. He is a sincere man, no
doubt about that, but we've got the distinct impression that people tend to avoid him
when they see him in the local pubs, perhaps due to a general lack of empathy,
but that’s something we're not completely sure about. The jury is still out on
that one.
11:30 We come home. We have lunch and afterwards I go to
bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 2:30 pm.
Meanwhile, Lois swings by the neighbours (Bill and Mary)
to talk a little with Mary who suffers from dementia, also to discuss with Bill
our local doctors' plans to demolish their current surgery and have 6 new houses built on the land. Both Stephen
and Frances, and ourselves, have sent an online protest letter to the municipal
planning officer, and Lois will show Bill the text of both letters (ie Stephen's
letter and my letter), hoping that Bill also will protest against the doctors' plans, but all in all it’s up to Bill to decide whether to submit a protest
letter himself or not.
16:00 Lois has not appeared yet, so I listen a little to
the radio, an interesting program called Desert Island Discs, a repeat of an
episode that was first aired in the early 1990s. The host of the program is the
charming Sue Lawley.
The idea of the current series is to revisit episodes from the past that featured one or other celebrity who died in 2018. Today’s episode is dedicated to Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist who died a few months ago.
The idea of the current series is to revisit episodes from the past that featured one or other celebrity who died in 2018. Today’s episode is dedicated to Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist who died a few months ago.
The idea for the series is that each week a celebrity is asked to
imagine that he or she has been stranded on a desert island. During the
program, he is asked to talk about his life and/or career and to choose the 8
"gramophone records" [sic] he would like to have on hand to entertain
himself with in his lonely life. A simple idea, but a very long-running series, perhaps
the world's longest-running, but I'm not entirely sure about that.
Stephen discovered for the first time that he was
seriously ill when he fell down the stairs at his Oxford college, but his
doctor just recommended him to cut down on his weekly beer consumption – my god,
what madness !!! It's true, however, that he was an enthusiastic beer drinker - he is willing
to admit that.
He wrote a popular book about physics "The Discovery of Time", at a time in his life when he was short
of cash, but he discovered that he enjoyed the book-writing experience anyway.
The book was a sensation and was in best-seller lists for years. Our daughter
Sarah bought the book while she was still living with us, and it still stands
on the bookshelf in her old room. But it's hard to determine if she read it or not.
From time to time, I say to myself that I have to try to
read it, maybe after I finish my current bedtime book, which incidentally is
Henry James's "The Europeans", but I'm not entirely sure about that -
the jury is still out on that one. I know that Bernard Levin, the famous
English commentator and theatre critic, gave up on the book after he reached
page 29 - I must dig the book out some day and find out what's on page 29, that’s
for sure!
Hawking talks a bit about black holes. He was not the man
who discovered black holes, but he was the one who discovered that black holes
emit a radiation, now called "Hawking radiation" and that they are (very slowly!) evaporating as a result.
He points out that sci-fi authors have predicted many
strange phenomena in space which were later discovered by scientists to be true,
but none of them ever suspected that there were such things as black holes.
Look-alike
Stephen's 8 "gramophone records" [sic] turn out
to be all classical pieces, with the exception of an Edith Piaf and also the Beatles
song Please Please Me, which reminds me that he was the same generation as Lois
and me, although maybe 2-3 years older. For some reason, I expected him to
choose a Freddie and the Dreamers song, simply because Stephen and Freddie
(Garrity) look so alike: I wonder if they are perhaps related?
Garrity
Hawking
My god, what a crazy universe we live in !!!!!
17:00 Lois comes back. She is exhausted - she has been
talking to Mary for two and a half hours. She says Bill has asked her to come
back again on Saturday afternoon and talk to Mary while he goes to the local
team's football match. My god - Lois is so warmhearted, no doubt about that. I
offer to pop in there myself on Saturday, immediately after taking my usual afternoon nap, maybe at 4 pm
or so. I feel obliged to contribute with my limited conversational skills. Lois
and I have to help each other out if we're going to be entertaining Mary a lot. Yikes !!!!
18:00 We have dinner. Afterwards, Lois sits down at the
dining table to pack her Christmas presents to "Magyar" Mary and and
also to pack up the Christmas presents we will be sending to Lily and Jessie, our 5
year old twin grandchildren in Australia.
In the meantime, I settle down in the living room and
watch television. Monday evening is TV quiz evening at our house.
"Only Connect" and "University Challenge are on.
Lois and I are always happy about the questions that we
can answer, but which all the fresh young minds strike out on, because we
think it proves we are not yet suffering from dementia.
Tonight I have to do without Lois's help, but my
performance is still reasonable, even though I say so myself. Sometimes our
specialist knowledge based on our daughter Alison’s 6 year residence in
Copenhagen comes in useful.
It's a little weird, but "University Challenge"
always seems to contain a question about Denmark. I suspect that one of the
program's question-setters may have some connection with the country.
In "Only Connect" I guess the fourth thing in the
following sequence. The correct answer is "Queen Elizabeth II." The
sequence represents the heads of state who opened the successive Olympic Games
in 2000, 2004, 2008 and (2012).
It is interesting that both of the above two questions relate to sports, an subject for which I mostly do not understand even the most basic
concepts. Go Colin !!!!!
21:00 Lois has finished wrapping up her Christmas
presents, so we snuggle up on the couch and watch an interesting documentary
(2nd part of 3), all about children in the first 2 years of their lives.
A fascinating program, and it's a bit of a revelation to
me how much babies absorb from the world around them, developing complex thoughts
and ideas inside their heads, largely before they can formulate or express
those concepts in words.
Three of the experiments of the show stand out from the
rest, to my mind. All three are about answering the question: at what age do we
master the 3 most basic concepts we need to interact with others? It turns out
that these abilities are mostly developed between the ages of 18 and 24 months.
(1) To develop a sense of “self". It turns out that
most children master this concept before they reach 2 years. In an experiment,
a part of the child's face was smeared by a researcher with something red
(perhaps under its eyes or the like). Afterwards, the researcher gave the child
a mirror. The children who have developed a sense of self immediately touch
their own face in the area smeared and feel their own skin.
(2) To develop a sense that others have different
thoughts and feelings from one’s own. The researcher shows the child 2 bowls,
one filled with chips (which the typical child likes) and the other filled with
broccoli (which the typical child does not like). The researcher demonstrates
to the child that she (the researcher) loves broccoli but hates chips. The
child is finally invited to offer the researcher either the chips or the broccoli.
Once the child has developed this sense about other people's feelings, it will tend to give the researcher a piece
of broccoli, which it can see the researcher likes, rather than a handful of
chips.
(3) To develop a sense of empathy, to understand what
someone else is thinking or feeling, and being able to put oneself in the other
person's situation. The researcher shows the child a lifelike baby doll that
seems to sound very upset - the doll is making crying sounds. Children with the
ability to have empathy become upset themselves, and in some cases they try to get
their own mother to help or comfort the doll.
Isn’t a child's early development totally fascinating?
Who would want to study anything else?
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzzz !!!!
Danish
translation
09:00 Lois og
jeg står op og efter morgenmad kører vi over til Leckhampton. Min ven ”Magyar”
Mike har bedt os om at tjekke, at alt
det vejarbejde på Mikes rute fra Nailsworth til Cheltenham er slut nu – han er
blevet lidt af en nervøs chauffør ærligt talt, og han vil ikke komme i morgen
for at deltage i vores ugentlige ”ungarsk time”, hvis han mistænker, han bliver
nødt til at stå over for trafikpropper på vej fra sit hjem – du godeste, sikke
et vanvid!!!!
Mike
planlægger også at bringe os sine julegaver i morgen, så Lois og jeg også må se
at samle vores julegaver til ham og hans kone, ”Magyar” Mary.
Vi kører langs
Halesvej til Leckhampton, og vi bekræfter, at vejarbeidet i området nu er slut,
og så kigger vi ind i Fruits’n’Roots, den lokale grøntsaghandler, for at købe
Mary en potteplante. Bagefter smutter vi ind i CookShop og købe 4 færdigretter til
2 personer for det tilfælde af, at vi ikke har lyst til at lave mad eller anden aften – du godeste, hvor dovne vi
er blevet – yikes!!!
Efter vi køber
færdigretterne, er vi nødt til at genoplade vores batterier og vi drikker en
kop americano i CookShops ”Daily Bean”- café.
vi genoplader vores batterier i CookShops ”Daily Bean”-café
Færdigretter
er lidt af en tradition i vores område. Jeg læste forleden en interessant
artikel, skrevet af en lokal mand med fingeren på pulsen, der gave sit eget
”opskrift” for at læge det, der på dette tidspunkt er mest galt med Storbritannien
(kilde: Onion News), og frosne færdigretter spiller en stor rolle i hans
politikker.
”Her er det,
der skal ske: fanatikerne fra det andet parti, som du ser på fjernsynet - dem
der spytter deres vanvittige ideer om, hvad vores land skal gå ind for, og hvilken
retning landet skulle tage - de er nødt til at komme ud af deres små bobler og
se de skader de har påført vores land.
Fordi de bare
ikke fatter det. De er nødt til at forsøge at være en 46-årig salgschef, at stå
5 fod, 10 inches høj, at have gennemgået
en nylig skilsmisse fra Cheryl Simmons-Partlow, rutinemæssigt at spise frosne
måltider fra den nærliggende Save-A-Lot, at have en anspændt forhold til deres
far, med hvem de aldrig har haft mulighed for at få en samtale om noget af
følelsesmæssig konsekvens, og at være ejer af en 2009 Chevy Impala. Så måske
ville de forstå en eller to ting om det virkelige land.”
Jeg mindes om,
at Lois og jeg snakkede lidt om Partlows meninger, da vi oprindeligt så hans
artikel online. Han er en retfærdig mand, ingen tvivl om det, men vi har fået
det indtryk, at folk har tendens til at unddrage sig ham, når de ser ham på de
lokale pubber, måske på en almindelig mangel på empati, men det er vi ikke helt
sikre på. Juryen er stadig ude om det.
11:30 Vi
kommer hjem. Vi spiser frokost, og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 14:30.
I mellemtiden
smutter Lois ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt med Mary, der
lider af demens, også at diskutere med Bill vores lokale lægernes planer om at
nedrive deres nuværende lægehus, og få 6 nye huse bygget på jorden. Både
Stephen og Frances, og vi selv, har sendt en online protestbrev til kommunens
planlægningsembedsmand og Lois viser Bill teksten af
begge breve (dvs Stephens brev og mit brev), i håbet om, at Bill også vil
protestere mod lægernes planer, men det i det hele taget tilkommer det Bill at
beslutte at indsende et protestbrev eller ej.
16:00 Lois er
ikke dukket op endnu, så lytter jeg lidt til radio, et interessant program, der
hedder ”Desert Island Discs”, en genudsendelse af et afsnit, der først blev
sendt først i 1990’erne. Programmets vært er den charmerende Sue Lawley. Idéen ved den nuværende serie er at genudsende afsnit fra
fortiden, der kredsede om berømtheder, som døde i 2018. I aftens afsnit er
dedikeret til Stephen Hawking, den berømte fysiker, der døde for nogle måneder
siden.
Serien går ud
på, at en berømthed bliver bedt om at forestille sig, at han/hun er blevet strandet
på en øde ø. I løbet af programmet bliver han bedt om at tale om sit liv
og/eller karriere, og at vælge de 8 ”grammofonplader”, han helst vil have ved
hånden, for at underholde sig i sit ensomme tilværelse. En simpel idé, men en meget langvarig serie,
måske verdens mest langvarige, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på.
Han opdagede
for første gang at han var alvorligt syg, da han faldt ned ad trappen i sin
Oxford-kollega, men hans læge anbefalede ham bare at skære ned på sit ugentlige
ølforbrug – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Han var imidlertid en entusiastisk
øldrikker, det er han villig til at indrømme!
Han skrev en
populær bog om fysik, da han var i bekneb for skillinger, men han opdagede, at
han nød oplevelsen. Bogen voldede en sensation og var i best-seller lister i
årevis. Vores datter Sarah købte bogen, mens hun stadig boede hos os, og den står stadig på bogreolen i sit gamle
værelse. Det er svært at afgøre, om hun læste den eller ej. Fra tid til anden
siger jeg til mig selv, at jeg må prøve at læse den, måske efter jeg er færdig
med min nuværende sengetidbog: Henry James’ ”The Europeans”, men det er jeg
ikke helt sikker på – juryen er stadig ude om det. Jeg ved at Bernard Levin,
den berømte engelske kommentator og teateranmelder, opgav bogen, da han nåede
til side 29 – jeg må grave bogen frem en eller anden dag og finder ud af, hvad
der står på side 29, det ved jeg med sikkerhed!
Hawking
snakker lidt om sorte huller. Det var ikke ham, der opdagede sorte huller, men
det var ham, der opdagede, at sorte huller udsender stråling, kaldet ”Hawking
stråling”.
Han påpeger,
at scifi-forfattere har forudset mange underlige fænomener i rummet, der senere
blev opdaget af forskere, men de aldrig et øjeblik mistænkte, at der var
sådanne nogle ting som sorte huller.
Lookalike
Stephens 8 ”grammafonplader” viser sig at være alle
klassiske stykker, med undtagelsen af Beatles-sangen Please Please Me, hvilkert
minder mig om, at han var samme generationen som Lois og mig, selvom måske 2-3
år ældre. Af en eller anden grund forventede jeg ham at vælge en Freddie and
the Dreamers sang, simpelthen på grund af, at Stephen og Freddie (Garrity) ligner
hinanden såmeget: jeg spekulerer på, om der måske er
beslægtet med hinanden?
Garrity
Hawking
Du godeste,
sikke et skør univers vi lever i !!!!!
17:00 Lois
kommer tilbage. Hun er udmattet – hun har snakket med Mary i to og en halv
time. Hun siger, at Bill har bedt hende om at komme igen på lørdag eftermiddag
og snakke med Mary, mens han går til det lokale holds fodboldkamp. Du godeste –
Lois er så varmhjertet, ingen tvivl om det. Jeg tilbyder selv at smutte ind hos
dem, efter jeg har taget min sædvanlige eftermiddagslur, måske kl 16 eller
deromkring. Jeg føler mig forpligtet til at bidrage med mine begrænsede samtalefærdigheder.
Lois og jeg må hjælpes ad med at underholde Mary. Yikes!!!!
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad. Bagefter går Lois i gang på spisebordet med at pakke
sine julegaver til ”Magyar” Mary og ind, og også de julegaver, vi vil sende til
Lily og Jessie, vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Australien.
I mellemtiden
sætter jeg mig til rette i stuen og ser lidt fjernsyn. Mandag aften er
tv-quiz-aften hos os. De viser ”Only Connect” og ”University Challenge.
Lois og jeg er
altid glad for de spørgsmål, som vi kan besvare, men som alle de friske unge
hjerne har problemer med, fordi vi tror det beviser, at vi ikke endnu lider af
demens.
I aften skal
jeg klare mig uden Lois’ hjælp, men min præstation er stadig rimelig, selvom jeg selv siger det.
Nogle gange hjælper vores specialistiske viden, der stammer fra vores datter
Alisons 6-års ophold i København.
Det er lidt
underligt, men ”University Challenge” virker altid at indeholde et spørgsmål om
Danmark. Jeg mistænker, at en af programmets spørgsmålstillere må have en eller
anden forbindelse med landet.
I ”Only
Connect” gætter jeg det fjerde ting i den her sekvens. Det rigtige svar er
”Dronning Elizabeth II.”. Sekvensen repræsenterer de statsoverhoveder, der
åbnede successive OL i 2000, 2004, 2008 og 2012.
Det er
interessant, at begge de to overstående spørgsmål er forbundet med sport, et
emne hvoraf jeg for det meste ikke
forstår selve de grundlæggende koncepter. Kom så Colin (igen) !!!!!
21:00 Lois er
færdig med at pakke sine julegaver ind og vi putter os ind til hinanden i
sofaen og ser en interessant dokumentarfilm (2. del af 3), handler om børn i
deres første 2 år af livet.
Et
fascinerende program, og det er lidt af en åbenbaring for mig, hvor meget
babyer absorberer verdenen omkring sig og udvikler komplekse tanker og idéer
inde i sine hoveder, i stor grad før de kan formulere eller udtrykke de
pågældende koncepter med ord.
Tre af showets
eksperimenter skiller sig ud fra resten for mit vedkommende. Alle tre handler
om at svare på spørgsmålet: i hvilken alder mestrer vi de 3 mest grundlæggende
koncepter vi har brug for, for at interagere med andre? Det viser sig, at disse
evner for det meste bliver udviklet i alderen 18 - 24 måneder.
(1)
At
udvikle en sans for ”ens selv”. Det viser sig, at de fleste børn mestrer dette
koncept før de fylder 2 år. I et
eksperiment, en del af børnernes ansigtet blev smurt af en forsker med noget
rødt (måske under øjnene eller lignende). Bagefter gav forskeren barnet et
spejl. De børne, der har udviklet en sans af sig selv, rører umiddelbart ved
sit egen ansigt i det pågældende område.
(2)
At
udvikle en forstand på, at andre har anderledes tanker og følelser, end sine
egne. Forskeren viser barnet 2 skåle, den ene fyldt med chips (som det typiske
barn godt kan lide) og den anden fyldt med broccoli (som det typiske barn ikke
kan lide). Forskeren demonstrerer til barnet, at hun (forskeren) elsker
broccoli men hater chips. Barnet bliver til sidst inviteret til at byde
forskeren eller chips eller broccoli. Når barnet har udviklet denne forstand,
giver han/hun altid forskeren et stykke broccoli.
(3)
At
udvikle en sans for empati, at kunne forstå det, nogen anden tænker eller
føler, og kunne sætte sig i den andens sted. Forskeren viser barnet en livagtig
babydukke, der virker at lyde meget oprevet – dukken gør grædende lyde. Børne
med evnen til at have empati bliver selv oprevet, og i nogle tilfælde prøver de
at få deres egen mor til at hjælpe eller trøste dukken.
Er børns
tidlige udvikling ikke helt fascinerende? Hvem ville ønske at studere noget andet?
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!
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