Danskcolin: Wednesday, December 5 2018

08:30 Lois or I get up, and after breakfast, she walks around the corner to the local lady's hairdresser business, Billy Shears. She comes back 45 minutes later and we relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

10:30 I leaf through chapters 24-28 of Njal's saga, because Scilla's U3A Old Norse group is holding its regular meeting this afternoon in the town's Everyman theatre, and Njal's saga is the group's current project.

I feel a change in the air and we are now moving in the saga from sex to violence. The early chapters of the story were all about Hrut's steamy affair with the Norwegian queen mother Gunnhilda, and about his disastrous marriage to Unna, plus the subsequent divorce and litigation.

Now all the raping is over, and we have a bit of pillage in prospect - the Icelander Gunnar sails away with his Norwegian friend Kolskegg, and we begin to hear about a few long-forgotten place names: for example Bjarmarland (historians think that it was on the southern coast of the White Sea somewhere between Norway and Russia), also Garðariki, an old name for Russia.

I advise those Russians to lock up their daughters, just to be on the safe side - yikes!

11:30 Busy busy busy! From now until Christmas - these are the days of the mile-long to-do-lists - yikes (again)!

I sit down with the computer and write my annual Christmas newsletter. The newsletter concentrates on (1) our vacation in March-April to stay with our daughter Sarah and her family in Perth, Australia; (2) Our daughter Alison and her family's return to England during the summer after their nearly 6 years of residence in Denmark; and (3) the visit of Lois's cousin Sylvia from Melbourne, and the visit of my cousin Susan from Denver, Colorado.

I choose six photos to illustrate our year:

Flashback to March: Lois with Sarah's 4 and a half-year-old twins Lily and Jessie

April - me at a beach cafe in the Margaret River region along with

Francis, Sarah, and the twins

August: me in a café in Haslemere with Alison

and her 3 children, Josie (11), Rosalind (10) and Isaac (8)

August: our son-in-law Ed's master class in how to tie a school tie

October: Lois (right) with her cousin Sylvia from Melbourne

Me along with my cousin John, and my cousin Susan from Colorado USA,

in front of John's house in Witney, Oxfordshire

I keep the text of the newsletter fairly short - I do not myself much like newsletters that are too long or too boastful.

The hardest thing about producing this year's newsletter is to choose 6 photos, to illustrate the main events of the year.

After that, I print out 2 Christmas card address lists, one for Lois and the other for me. We try to share out the people we send Christmas cards to, as fairly as possible.

Lois has far more friends than me - no surprise there. But it is me who has most relatives - I have them coming out of my ears, to put it mildly: it's my Welsh grandfather to blame here, for having 9 children, and giving me a whole big bunch of cousins.

Our 2018 Christmas newsletter is a record of our year in brief. We do not know what awaits us in the future, which is lucky considering my and Lois' age (72). We are currently in the relatively quiet and peaceful period that started in 2011, where our 4 parents are all dead and no longer need our care. And we ourselves do not need care yet - but this period will not last forever, no doubt about that - yikes!

These are the days of our lives

They've flown in the swiftness of time

Those are the days of our lives

The bad things in life were so few

(copyright queen ha ha)

Most years not much happens in our lives, I have to admit, which may be a good thing. Lois and I have both had quite a quiet life for the most part. I think of the title of Milan Kundera's classic novel, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", which was my bedside book earlier this year. But the title is the best part of the book in my view - it's a stroke of genius.

I have travelled a little in my lifetime - Europe, the United States, Japan, Australia and I have not been involved in any wars, thank god. You marry, you have children and your children have children. You die, but the world carries on and manages quite well enough without you, thank you very much! But we have helped mankind to last a little longer at least - this is our great triumph ha ha!

If only I had not thrown our old newsletters away, but that's life. The earliest I can find on my computer dates from 2010 - a lot of things can change in 8 years. It was my mother's last Christmas (of course we did not know that at the time) and it was before both of our dear daughters moved abroad. At that time I had 3 siblings - now I only have 1 (sob, sob!).

our 2010 Christmas newsletter

2010 - that was the Christmas I tore a muscle in my calf, and I sent Lois a Christmas card which was a bit of a gigantic excuse for the fact that she had to do all of the physical work we had on our plates.

Happy days !!!!!

12:15 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 1:15 pm and take the bus into town. I get off in front of the M & S department store and walk on to the Everyman Theatre. Scilla is already at the counter. She offers to buy me a coffee and we have a little chat.

14:00 Kath and Margaret arrive and all 4 of us go up the stairs to the bar and start our group meeting. We actually cover 6 whole chapters starting from nr. 24 - at the end of the meeting, my head is spinning - we have made so much progress. I feel exhausted.

The theatre's winter pantomime (Aladdin) is being performed there at the theatre too, this afternoon, and from time to time we see little children, accompanied by their mothers or by school teachers, trooping through the bar to the toilets.

Scilla tells us that when she was a school teacher in the 1970s, she "lost" 2 pupils during a school trip to London, and it was on a day when there was an IRA bomb threat in the area. The pupils concerned turned up later in the day at their parents' house in Guildford, so there was a happy ending. But I wonder if this was the reason why Scilla suddenly stopped teaching in schools. There are a few mysteries and hints of scandal in her past, not to mention her "messy" divorce, no doubt about it, but she is not much into talking about the old days - which is quite understandable under the circumstances, to put it mildly !! !!

16:15 The meeting ends and I walk around the corner to the bank and take out a bit of cash. Christmas is an expensive time, that's for sure. I take the bus home again and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea and a piece of bread and homemade apricot jam - yum yum!

18:30 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary is on, "Digging for Britain" (2nd part of 4), an annual series that gives an overview of what the country's archaeologists have uncovered over the past year. This episode is about excavations in southern and south western England. The host of the program is the charming Alice Roberts.

An interesting overview of a number of the most prominent archaeological excavations of the year. For me, the most interesting feature is about the Romano-British town of Silchester, which lay close to today's town of Reading.

Silchester was originally a major British town, but when the Romans arrived in England in 43 AD, they transformed it into a town like a typical equivalent in Italy.

The most important thing about Silchester is that the city was completely abandoned when the Romans left 400 years later, and no new towns were built over it, so it was wonderfully preserved underground. One can compare the Roman city of Gloucester, now buried under a massive modern city, and much harder to research.

Perhaps the location of the town of Silchester was just no longer as convenient in the 6th century as it was back in the Iron Age and the population had perhaps mostly disappeared already anyway, but I'm not entirely sure about that. The jury is still out on that one.

The town's inhabitants were still British for the most part, living with a minority Roman immigrant population, but the Romans gave the whole town the benefits of a nice bathhouse, for example, which archaeologists now for the first time have been able to assign a date to.

Archaeologists discovered earlier this year that one of the bath-houses stemmed from the reign of the Emperor Nero - it is interesting that the bathhouse was therefore built effectively within the first 20 years of the Roman occupation - so really early on. It was obviously regarded as a priority.

Up to now archaeologists have mostly been uncovering signs of the local women's use of the bathhouse, as can be seen from the kind of objects found - a lot of personal belongings, including a lot of rings that the women may have dropped and lost while bathing . There is something very touching about rediscovering personal belongings, and it makes me feel a very intimate connection with their female owners, I think.

Isn't archaeology totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else?

Flashback to June 2005 or thereabouts: Lois and me

visiting Silchester's Roman amphitheatre, now so quiet and peaceful amid the trees

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

Danish translation

08:30 Lois of jeg står op og efter morgenmad, går hun hen rundt om hjørnet til den lokale damefrisørforretning, Billy Shears. Hun kommer tilbage 45 minutter senere, og vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

10:30 Jeg går i gang med at blade igennem kapiter 24-28 af Njals saga, fordi Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde i eftermiddag i byens Everyman-teater, og Njals saga er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Jeg mærker en skift i luften og vi rykker nu i sagaen fra sex til vold – sagaens tidlige kapitler handlede om islandingen Hruts dampende affære med den norske kongemor, Gunnhilda, og hans katastrofale ægteskab med Unna og den efterfølgende skilsmisse og proces.

Nu har vi lidt plyndring i vente – islandingen Gunnar sejler af sted med sin norske ven Kolskegg, og vi begynder at høre om nogle for længe glemte stednavne: for eksempel Bjarmarland (historiker tror, at det lå på Hvidesøens sydlige kyst et eller andet sted mellem Norge og Rusland ), også Garðariki, et gammelt navn for Rusland. Jeg råder russerne til at låse deres døtre ind, bare for en sikkerheds skyld - yikes!

11:30 Fra nu indtil jul – disse er dagene af de mile-lange gøremålslister – yikes (igen)!

Jeg sætter mig med computeren og skriver mit årlige julenyhedsbrev. Nyhedsbrevet kredser om (1) vores ferie i marts-april hos vores datter Sarah og hendes familie i Perth, Australien; (2) vores datter Alison og hendes families tilbagekomst til England om sommeren efter næste 6 års ophold i Danmark; og (3) besøget af Lois’ kusine Sylvia fra Melbourne, og besøget af min kusine Susan fra Denver, Colorado.

Jeg vælger seks fotoer for at illustrere vores år:

tilbageblik til marts: Lois med Sarahs 4,5-årige tvillinger Lily og Jessie

april - mig på en strandcafé i Margaret River-regionen sammen med

Francis, Sarah, og tvillingerne

august: jeg sidder i en café i Haslemere sammen med Alison

og hendes 3 børn, Josie (11), Rosalind (10) og Isaac (8)

august: vores svigersøn Eds mesterklasse i hvordan man binder et skoleslips

Lois (til højre) med sin kusine Sylvia fra Melbourne

Mig sammen med min fætter John, og min kusine Susan fra Colorado USA

foran Johns hus i Witney, Oxfordshire

Jeg holder teksten rimelig kort – for mit vedkommende kan jeg ikke lide nyhedsbreve, der er for lange og for pralende. Det sværste ved at producere nyhedsbrevet er at vælge 6 fotos, for at skildre årets vigtigste begivenheder.

Jeg udprinter 2 addreslister, den ene for Lois, og den anden til mig. Vi prøver at hjælpes ad med at fordele så retfærdigt som muligt de personer, vi sender julekort til.

Lois har langt flere venner, end mig – ingen overraskelse der. Men det er mig, der har de fleste slægtninger – jeg har dem til op over begge ører, for at sige mildt: det er min walesiske morfars skyld, for at få 9 børn.

Vores 2018-julenyhedsbrev er en rekord af vores år, kort sagt. Vi ved ikke, hvad venter os i fortiden, hvilket er heldigt i betragtning af min og Lois’ alder (72). Vi er for tiden i den forholdsvis stille og rolige periode, der startede i 2011, hvor vores 4 forældre alle er døde, og ikke længere har brug for vores pleje. Og vi selv har ikke brug for pleje endnu – men denne periode vil ikke vare for evig, ingen tvivl om det – yikes (igen)!

These are the days of our lives
They've flown in the swiftness of time

Those are the days of our lives
The bad things in life were so few

(copyright Queen ha ha)

De flest år sker der ikke ret meget i vores liv – det må jeg indrømme, hvilket måske er en god ting. Lois og jeg har begge to haft ganske rolige liv for det meste. Jeg tænker på titlen af Milan Kunderas klassiske roman, "Tilværelsens ulidelige ledhed”, der var min sengetidbog tidligere på året. Titlen er bogens bedste del efter min mening – den er fantastisk!

Jeg har rejst lidt – Europa, USA, Japan, Australien og jeg er ikke blevet involveret i nogle krige, gudskelov. Man gifter sig, får børn, og børnene få børn. Man dør, og verden fortsætter og den klarer sig meget godt uden os, thank you very much! Men vi har hjulpet menneskeheden med at vare lidt længere i det mindste – dette er vores store triumf ha ha!

Hvis bare jeg ikke havde smedt vores gamle nyhedsbreve væk, men sådan er livet. Det tidligste jeg kan finde på computeren daterer fra 2010 – en masse ting kan ændre sig i 8 år. Det var min mors - sidste jul (selvfølgelig det vidste vi ikke), og det var før begge vores kære døtre flyttede til udlandet. Jeg havde dengang 3 søskende – nu har jeg kun 1 (hulk, hulk!).

vores 2010-julenyhedsbrev

Det var året jeg rev en muskel i læggen og jeg sendte Lois en julekort, der udgjorde lidt af en gigantisk undskyldning, fordi hun blev tvunget til at gøre alt det fysiske arbejde, vi havde for.

Lykkelige dage !!!!!

12:15 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 13:15 og tager bussen ind i byen. Jeg står af foran M&S-stormagasinet og går videre til Everyman-teatret. Scilla står allerede ved disken. Hun tilbyder at købe mig en kaffe og vi snakker lidt.

14:00 Kath og Margaret ankommer og vi går alle 4 op ad trappen til baren og starter vores gruppemøde. Vi dækker faktisk 6 kapitler, startende fra nr.24 - ved slutningen af mødet spinder mit hoved - vi har gjort så meget fremskridt. Jeg føler mig udmattet.

Teatrets vinterpantomime (Aladdin) opføres i eftermiddag, og engang imellem ser vi små børn blive ledsaget af deres mødre eller skolelærere gennem baren mod toilettet.

Scilla fortæller os, at da hun var skolelærer i 1970’erne, ”mistede” hun 2 elever under en skoleudflugt til London, og det var på en dag, hvor der havde været en IRA bomb-trussel i området. De pågældende elever dukkede op senere på dagen til deres forældres hus i Guildford, så der var en lykkelig slutning. Men jeg spekulerer på, om dette var grunden til, at Scilla pludselig holdt op med at undervise i skoler. Hun har nogle mysterier i sin fortid, for ikke at nævne sin "komplicerede" skilsmisse, ingen tvivl om det, men hun er ikke ret frisk på at tale om de gamle dage – hvilket er helt forståeligt under omstændighederne, for at sige mildt!!!!

16:15 Mødet slutter og jeg går hen rundt om hjørnet til banken og hæver flere kontanter. Juletiden er en dyr periode, ingen tvivl om det! Jeg tager bussen hjem igen og vi slapper af med en kop te og et stykke brød med hjemmelavet abricosmarmelade – yum yum!

18:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm ”Digging for Britain” (2. del af 4), en årlig serie, der giver en oversigt af hvad landets arkæologer har afdækket i løbet af det seneste år. Dette afsnit handler om udgravninger i det sydlige og syd-vestlige England. Programmets vært er den charmerende Alice Roberts.

Et interessant oversigt af en række af årets mest fremherskende arkæologiske udgravninger. For mit vedkommende er det mest interessante indslag handler om den romerske-britiske by Silchester, der lå i nærheden af nutidens Reading.

Byen var oprindeligt en større britiske by, men da romerne ankom til England i 43 e.Kr, omdannede de byen til en by i stil med typiske byer i Italien.

Det vigtigste ved Silchester er, at byen blev fuldstændigt forladt, da romerne tog af sked 400 år senere, og ingen nye byer blev bygget i samme området, så den er vidunderligt bevaret under jorden. Man kan sammenligne den romerske by Gloucester, der nu er begravet under en massiv moderne storby, og meget sværere at forske.

Måske blev byen Silchesters beliggenhed ikke så bekvem i det 6. århundrede som den var i jernalderen og befolkningeni hvert fald var for det meste forsvundet, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på. Juryen er stadig ude om det.

Byens indbyggere var stadig briter for det meste, men romerne gav dem fordelene af et pænt badehus, for eksempel, som arkæologer for første gang har kunnet anvise en dato.

Arkæologerne afdækkede for nylig en af badehusets sliser, der stammer fra kajseren Neros regeringstid – det er interessant at badehuset derfor blev bygget indenfor de første 20 år af den romerske okkupation.

De har hidtil for det meste afdækket tegn på de lokale kvinders brug af badehuset, hvilket de slags genstande, som blev fundet, viser tydeligt – en masse personlige ejendele, herunder en masse ringer, som kvinderne må have tabt og mistet, mens de badede sig. Der er noget meget rørende med ringer som personlige ejendele, og giver os en meget intim forbindelse med deres kvindelige ejere, synes jeg.