Wednesday, January 30 2019

08:30 Lois and I take a shower - unfortunately I still have a cold and I’m blowing my nose every 2 minutes, which is a little annoying to say the least. I'm in a quandary about whether to cancel tomorrow's U3A Danish group meeting, and whether I should call Lynda, and "report in sick" for her Middle English meeting on Friday. Decisions decisions!

09:00 I start cleaning up and vacuuming all over the house because Lois has invited the members of her sect to hold their weekly Bible class here tonight. The Bible classes are usually held in Tewkesbury library, but now and then they hold them in some member or other's house.

I pick up some extra chairs and move them down the stairs and into the dining room, which I thus transform into a small meeting room. We have room for a total of about 9 people, with possibly 1 or 2 others. Most members live in the Tewkesbury area, so I’m hoping that many will decide it is far too far to travel on a fairly cold winter's night.

our dining-room, transformed into a small meeting-room for tonight

I will be exiled to the living room tonight, which suits me fine - I plan to see the first episode of a new Danish drama series, which we recorded on our YouView unit on Sunday evening. On Saturday, I had pointed out to our U3A Danish group members that the movie would be on, so I expect that some of them will already have seen this 1st episode and we can discuss it tomorrow afternoon when we hold the group's regular meeting here.

11:00 Lois and I relax with a cup of coffee on the couch and discuss this evening’s bible class. Lois will have to greet the group tonight and come up with some opening remarks, and she is a little nervous about it. I advise her to start with a joke, like our old friend Jack Gorelick, Pharmex Industries CEO and keynote speaker at the recent local sales seminar "Commercializing New-Market Biopharmaceuticals".

Jack hit the local headlines recently after he broke the ice with spectacular success at the start of the seminar, setting a friendly and cordial tone for the two-day event, with a bunch of amusing remarks during his opening speech.

According to the influential US news site Onion News, Gorelick stood on the podium of conference room B at the local Hyatt Regency West Hotel, putting seminar participants at their ease and facilitating lively conversations by joking about  the confusing one-way circular driveway at the front of the hotel.

"Sorry, I'm a little late, folks, but I was driving around that darn driveway for almost an hour trying to figure out where to get off," said Gorelick, 49. "So here I am, a little dizzy, but happy to welcome you all to the UK’s sunburn capital."

The humorous remarks, which were met with audible laughter from most of the 175 pharmaceutical professionals present, caused even those queuing up at the registration table to smile in recognition of the difficult driveway that had been so problematic to navigate.

"Everyone in the meeting room could really relate to Gorelick's problem because we all drove around the driveway when we checked in," said Charles Dean, 53, director of product development for the Phoenix-based Biotek Ltd. "When you first drive onto the access road, it looks like a two-way - there is no sign or anything like that. But then it gets narrower and narrower as you approach the front door, so lots of cars have to back out."

Charles Dean, 53, Product Development Director

to the Phoenix-based Biotek Ltd

"Of course," Dean continued. "I'm sure [Gorelick] was just exaggerating when he said he was out there for an hour. But whatever the case, one thing's for sure: the ice was broken. "

As soon as the initial formalities were out of the way, Gorelick continued with the rest of his speech, radiating great confidence. Moving an index card in his hand to the back of the pile, he gestured toward a projection screen illustrating the "Three M's" of biopharmaceutical sales: Mergers, Marketplace and Making Funding Happen.

"Enough kidding around. It's time to get down to business," said Gorelick, making eye contact with several people seated throughout the room. "Who here knows the number-one killer of profits that can arise when moving products from lab to consumer? I have a free Pharmex pen light for the first person brave enough to take a guess. Come on, don't be shy! "

Gorelick, who made his speech a dialogue - not a monologue - by asking for answers from his audience, spoke for approx. 50 minutes before opening up the floor to questions.

Attendees agreed that the deftly-executed ice breaking was crucial to the success of the seminar.

"Those remarks ensured that everything got off on the right foot," said Kathie Desoto of Medix Biosystems. "Before the ice was broken, everyone was pretty stiff and keeping to themselves. But from that point on, there was great deal of interaction between seminar participants and an exchanging of ideas on how to maximise one’s profitability in a highly competitive biopharmaceutical market. I have no idea ​​what might have happened if Mr. Gorelick had just launched into the seminar without first creating a personal connection with his audience - I'm just glad we didn't have to find out! "

Kathie Desoto, Medix Biosystems

Gorelick's ice break is considered the most successful in a Hyatt Regency West seminar since October 1998, when a Kal Kan Pet Foods chief attributed threatening storm clouds to a higher power, calling on the participants to stay inside the hotel and take part in his "Expanding Your Premium-Dog-Food Consumer Base” workshop.

12:30 We eat lunch, another 2 of the CookShop luxury ready-meals we saved from the freezer, after it was accidentally turned off for 24 hours last weekend. Afterwards, I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois rushes into the kitchen and starts baking about 30 Australian “Anzac” biscuits for tonight’s Bible class.

15:00 I get up and we relax with a cup of tea and one of those "Anzac" biscuits .

Lois showcases the Australian "Anzac" biscuits

she has made specially for tonight's Bible class

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards we relax in the living room. The bible class is supposed to start at 8 pm, but the members (a total of 8-10) all show up 10-15 minutes late - no surprise there, they are all very relaxed and have no concept of time – my god, they are quite the opposite of me and Lois!

(It is also supposed to happen that the class ends at 9 pm, but members hang around and chat - the last one doesn’t bugger off till 10 pm.

Good grief, what madness !!!)

20:00 I settle into my favourite armchair and see the first episode of a new Danish drama series on Channel 4, "Ride Upon The Storm", starring the famous Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, as John, a priest with problems - to put it mildly.

As usual, I have a hard time remembering who is who - there are a lot of characters, and many of them resemble each other to a T, which is a bit of a shame, to say the least. John's wife Elizabeth looks completely different depending on the circumstances, ie whether she is doing her routine tasks during the day, or whether she has dolled herself up to look more glamorous in bed, for example, or in the bath. In the beginning, I thought that John had two women - a wife and a mistress. Good grief, total insanity!

John has two sons: it is fortunate that one is fair-haired and the other dark-haired, which helps a lot. But one of the sons (the fair-haired one) looks just like his brother's fair-haired colleague – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Fortunately, Lois's Bible class lasts much longer than expected, and I have time to see the episode twice by pressing the "fast-forward" button during the advertisements.

John is a leading priest in Denmark's Lutheran national church, and he is determined to become the new bishop in Copenhagen, but in an exciting election he ends up loser, and a female priest with more modern ideas becomes the bishop. He is a little disappointed, to say the least, and he disappears on a drunken binge for a few days.

One of his two sons is also a priest – John’s rival for the bishop job, i.e. the new female bishop, offers the son a job, but he rejects the offer - he prefers a more exciting role as a army chaplain in a war zone, it seems.

The other son is a bit of a villain. He is expelled from his university after it is discovered that large parts of his Ph.D thesis were copied out of someone else's thesis - yikes! This son also tries to seduce his colleague's Lebanese girlfriend while the man is out of town.

Sounds promising!!!!!!

21:30 I continue to watch a bit of television. An interesting documentary is on, in the series "The Twinstitute" (5th part of 6), where the identical twins Dr. Chris and Dr. Xand Van Tulleken conduct various experiments in health and fitness by involving other identical twins who have agreed to participate in the program.

This series is fascinating, no doubt about that, but Lois and I think it is more showbiz than science, more entertainment than enlightenment, but I’m going to let that one slide.

Tonight I am especially interested in an experiment about the best way to keep one's hands as free of bacteria as possible:  is it better to wash them with soap and water or to use antibacterial gel? 

It turns out that the antibacterial gel removes more of the routine bacteria than soap and water does, but the disadvantage is that the hands are then exposed to far more dangerous bacteria - yikes, scary! The conclusion is that soap and water are the better option.

The programme's bacterial expert chooses soap and water

instead of antibacterial gel, which is interesting.

22:00 The last bible class participant has left, and Lois and I go to bed - we are exhausted and I feel more coldy than ever - damn !!!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg tager et brusebad – jeg er desværre stadig forkølet, og jeg snyder næsen hver 2. minut, hvilket er lidt irriterende for at sige mildt. Jeg er i vildrede om jeg skulle aflyse morgendagens U3A danske møde, og om jeg skulle ringe til Lynda, og ”sygemelde” mig fra hendes middengelsk møde på fredag. Beslutninger beslutninger!

09:00 Jeg  går i gang med at rydde op og støvsuge overalt i huset, fordi Lois har inviteret medlemmerne af sin sekt at holde deres ugentlige bibelklasse hos os i aften. Bibleklasserne bliver normalt holdt i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek, men nu og da holder de dem i et eller andet medlems hus.

Jeg henter ekstra stole og rykker dem ned ad trappen og ind i spisestuen, som jeg således omdanner til mødelokale.  Vi har plads til sammenlagt 9 personer, med muligvis 1 eller 2 andre. De fleste medlemmer bor i Tewkesbury-området, så jeg håber på, at mange vil beslutte, det er alt for langt væk at rejse på en ganske kold vinteraften.

vores spisestue, uddannet til et lille mødelokale

Jeg vil blive udvist til stuen i aften, hvilket passer mig fint – jeg har planer om at se det første afsnit af en ny danske drama-serie, som vi søndag aften optog på vores YouView-enhed. I lørsdags påpegede jeg til vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer, at filmen bliver vist, så jeg forventer, at nogle af dem allerede vil have set dette 1. afsnit og vi kan diskutere det i morgen eftermiddag, når vi holder gruppens regelmæssige møde hos os.

11:0 Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen, og diskuterer aftenens bibelklasse. Lois vil måtte hilse gruppen i aften og kommer med de åbnende tale, og det er hun lidt nervøs over. Jeg råder hende til at starte med en joke, ligesom vores gamle ven Jack Gorelick, Pharmex Industries CEO og keynote-højttaler på det nylige salgsseminar "Commercializing New-Market Biopharmaceuticals".

Jack ramte de lokale overskrifterne for nylig, efter han brød isen med spektakulær succes i starten af seminaret, og indstillede en venlig og hjertelig tone til den to-dages begivenhed med en stribe af morsomme bemærkninger  under hans åbnende tale.

Ifølge den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedswebsted Onion News stod Gorelick på podiet i konferencelokale B på det lokale Hyatt Regency West Hotel, og beroligede seminar-deltagere og satte livlige samtalerne i gang ved at spøge med den forvirrende envejs cirkulære indkørsel på forsiden af ​​hotellet.

"Beklager, jeg er lidt sent, folkens, men jeg kørte rundt omkring den fucking indkørsel i næsten en time og forsøgte at finde ud af, hvor jeg skulle komme ud", sagde Gorelick, 49. "Så her er jeg, lidt svimmel, men glad for at byde jer alle velkommen til Storbritanniens solskoldninghovedstad."

De humoristiske bemærkninger, som blev mødt med et hørligt grin fra de fleste af de 175 farmaceutiske branchefolk, der var til stede, gjorde endda dem, der var i køen ved registreringsbordet, til at smile som en anerkendelse af den vanskelige indkørsel, der er blevet så svært at navigere.

"Alle i mødelokalet kunne virkelig relatere til Gorelicks problem, fordi vi alle kørte rundt om indkørslen, da vi checkede ind," sagde Charles Dean, 53, direktør for produktudvikling til det Phoenix-baserede Biotek Ltd. "Når du først kører på den lille adgangsvej, ligner den en tovejs - der er intet vejskilt eller sådan noget. Men så bliver den smallere og smallere, mens du nærmer dig hoveddøren, så masser af biler bliver nødt til at bakke."

Charles Dean, direktør for produktudvikling

til det Phoenix-baserede Biotek Ltd

"Selvfølgelig”, fortsatte Dean. "Jeg er sikker på, at [Gorelick] bare overdrev, da han sagde, at han var derude i en time. Men uanset hvad der er sket, er én ting helt sikkert: isen blev brudt."

Så snart de indledende formaliteter var ud af vejen fortsatte Gorelick med resten af ​​sin tale, udstrålende stor selvtillid. Ved at rykke et indekskort i hånden til bagsiden af ​​bunken bevæger han sig mod en projektionsskærm, der illustrerer de "Tre M’er” af biofarmaceutisk salg: Mergers, Marketplace og Making Funding Happen.

"Nok med alle de vittigheder. Det er på tide at komme til sagen," sagde Gorelick, der gjorde øjenkontakt med forskellige mennesker, der sad i rummet. "Hvem her kender nummer-1 dræberen af profiter, der kan opstå, når du flytter produkter fra laboratorium til forbruger? Jeg har et gratis Pharmex pen-lys til den første person, modig nok til at gætte. Kom nu, vær ikke genert!"

Gorelick, der gjorde sin tale til en dialog - ikke en monolog - ved at bede om svar fra sit publikum, talte i ca. 50 minutter før han åbnede ​​gulvet til spørgsmål.

De tilstedeværende var enige om, at den klogtt udførte isbrydning var afgørende for seminarets succes.

"Disse bemærkninger sikrede at hele talen kom godt i på det fra starten," sagde Kathie Desoto fra Medix Biosystems. "Før isen blev brudt, var alle ret afvisende og holdt sig for sig selv. Men fra det der tidspunkt var der stor interaktion mellem seminardeltagere hvad angår udvekslingen af ideer om, hvordan man maksimerer sin rentabilitet på et yderst konkurrencedygtigt biofarmaceutisk marked. Jeg har ikke den fjerneste anelse om, hvad der kunne være sket, hvis Mr. Gorelick lige blev lanceret til seminaret uden først at skabe en personlig forbindelse med sit publikum. Jeg er bare glad for, at vi ikke var nødt til at finde ud af det der! "

Kathie Desoto, Medix Biosystems

Gorelick's isbrydning betragtes som den mest succesfulde på et Hyatt Regency West-seminar siden oktober 1998, da en chef fra Kal Kan Pet Foods tilskrev truende stormskyer til en højere magt, der opfordrede deltagerne til at forblive inde i hotellet for at deltage i sin "Expanding Your Premium-Dog-Food  Consumer Base” workshop.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost, endnu 2 af de CookShop luksusfærdigretter vi reddede fra fryseren, efter den ved en fejltagelse blev slukket i 24 timer sidste weekend. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddaglur. I mellemtiden skynder Lois sig ind i køkkenet og går i gang med at bage ca 30 kiks til aftenens bibelklasse.

15:00 Jeg står op og vi slapper af med en kop te og en af de australske ”Anzac” kiks, som Lois ar lavet til aftenens bibelklassse.

Lois fremviser de australske ”Anzac” kiks, hun har lavet til aftenens bibelklasse

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter slapper vi af i stuen. Det er meningen at bibelklassen starter ved 20-tiden, men medlemmerne (sammenlagt 8-10) dukker op 10-15 minutter sent – ingen overraskelse der, de er alle meget afslappede, og har intet koncept om tid – du godeste, de er de helt modsatte af mig og Lois!

(Også det er meningen, at klassen slutter kl 21, men medlemmer hænger til og snakker efter – den sidste tager af sted kl 22.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!)

20:00 Jeg sætter mig til rette i min yndlingslænestol og ser det første afsnit af en ny dansk drama-serie på Channel 4, ”Ride Upon The Storm”, stjernespækket den berømte danske skuespiller Lars Mikkelsen, som Johannes, en præst med problemer – for at sige mildt.

Som sædvanligt har jeg svært ved at huske hvem er hvem – der er en masse karakterer, og mange af dem ligner hinanden på en prik, hvilket er lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt. Johannes kone ser helt anderledes ud afhængig af omstændighederne, dvs om hun er i gang med sine rutinemæssige opgaver i løbet af dagen, eller om hun har stadset sig op for at se mere glamorøs ud, i sengen for eksempel, eller i badet. I begyndelsen troede jeg at Johannes hvade 2 kvinder – en kone og en elskerinde. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Johannes har 2 sønner: det er heldigt, at den ene er lyshåret og den anden mørkhåret, hvilket hjælper meget. Men en af sønnerne (den lyshårede) ligner sin brors kollega – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

Heldigvis varer Lois’ bibelklasse meget længere, end forventet, og jeg har tid til at se afsnittet to gange, ved at trykke den ”fast-forward” knap under reklamerne.

Johannes er en førende præst i Danmarks  lutheranske folkekirke, og han er fast besluttet at blive den nye biskop i København, men i et spændende valg, ender han ud med at være taberen, og en kvindelig præst med mere moderne idéer bliver biskop. Han er lidt skuffet, for at sige mildt, og han forsvinder på druk i nogle dage. Du godeste, sikkke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

En af sine 2 sønner er også præst – Johannes rival, den nye kvindelige biskop, tilbyder sønnen et job, men han afviser tlbuddet – han foretrækker en mere spændende rolle, som feltpræst i en krigzone.

Den anden søn er lidt af en skurk. Han bliver bortvist fra sit universitet, efter det bliver opdaget, at store andele af sin Ph.D afhandling blev kopieret ud af nogen andens tesis -  yikes! Også denne søn prøver at forføre sin kollegas kæreste, mens manden er ude af byen.

Lyder lovende!!!!!!

21:30 Jeg fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm i serien ”The Twinstitute” (4. del af 6), hvor de enæggede tvillinger Dr. Chris og Dr. Xand Van Tulleken foretager forskellige eksperimenter i sundhed og fitness ved at involvere andre enæggede tvillinger, der har indvilliget i at deltage i programmet.

Denne serie er fascinerende, ingen tvivl om det, men Lois og jeg synes det er mere showbiz end videnskab, mere underholdning end oplysning, men det springer vi over.

I aften er jeg specielt interesseret i et eksperiment, der handler om den bedste måde at holde ens hænder så bakteriefri som muligt: er det bedre at vaske dem med sæbe og vand, eller at bruge antibakteriel gel. Det viser sig, at den antibakteriel gel fjerner mere af de rutinemæssige bakterier, end sæbe og vand, men ulempen er, at hænderne derefter bliver mer udsat for langt farlige bakterier – yikes, skræmmende! Konklusionen er, at sæbe og vand er den bedre option.

Programmets bakterie-ekspert vælger sæbe og vand

i stedet for antibakteriel gel, hvilket er interessant.

22:00 Den sidste bibelklasse-deltager er taget af sted, og Lois og jeg går i seng – vi er udmattede, og jeg føler mig mere forkølet, end nogensinde – pokkers!!!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!

Tuesday, January 29 2019

08:30 Lois and I get up. Lois' sect, which originally fixed its weekly Bible seminar for tonight in the Brockworth library, as usual, has decided to cancel it tonight, because of the weather forecast which has promised heavy snow. Unfortunately, it is Lois' responsibility to contact all the seminar participants to tell them about the cancellation, either via email or on the phone.

Meanwhile, I get started reading the first 150 lines of Chaucer's “The Reeve’s Tale”, one of his well-known Canterbury tales. Lynda's U3A Middle English group is holding its monthly meeting on Friday in the town’s Everyman theatre, and this story is the group's next project.

The story's villain, "Symkyn" (= little Simon), is a miller who lives in Trumpington near Cambridge, a village that Lois and I know well - it's only 9 minutes away by car from my sister Gill's house in Cherry Hinton.

Symkyn routinely steals wheat and corn that his customers bring him for grinding. He is also a bully, boasting that he is an expert with sword, dagger and knives. Scary!

He and his wife are extremely proud of the fact that she is the daughter of the village vicar, which is a little strange because it means she was born out of wedlock:  priests in later medieval England were not allowed to marry. Symkyn and his wife have a 20 year old daughter Malyne and a six month old son.

The story starts with Symkyn demanding too much money for his latest order, grinding grain for Soler Hall, then a Cambridge University college.

Two college students,  John and Aleyn, are furious with this latest piece of daylight robbery, and decide to take revenge on the miller. They gather an even larger amount of wheat than usual, and say that they want to watch Symkyn while he grinds it into flour: they pretend that they are interested in the process because they only have "limited knowledge of grain grinding" - ”#metoo” ha ha.

Symkyn sees through the students' story and decides to steal even more of their grain than he had planned, in order to prove that college students are not always the cleverest of people. He unharnesses their horse, and the two students don’t manage to recapture it until the evening. Meanwhile, Symkyn pockets some of the flour while the two boys are out hunting for their horse, and he gives it to his wife so she can bake him a free loaf of bread.

My goodness, what a crazy world they lived in !!! They couldn’t trust anybody in the 1300's !

But the most important thing is that I notice Symkyn has a wife and a 20-year-old daughter, Malyne. I have the feeling that the two students, John and Aleyn, will end up in bed with the two women: that kind of incident is quite standard in Chaucer's stories, no doubt about that. But we'll have to see.

Lynda, our group leader, has assigned me lines 3941-3962, so I concentrate specifically on these lines and I research the unusual or interesting words in the lines, and comment on the words derived from Old French or Old Norse.

I did not know that the English word "pert" (saucy, cheeky) originally came from the Latin word "apertus" which means "open", as in the word “aperture”, for example.

And the word "to rage” had a second, slang meaning in the 14th century, ie "to flirt":  no one dared "rage" with the miller's wife, for example, for fear that the he’d get mad with them .

Aren’t all languages ​​totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else ???

10:00 Lois has several oranges left in the pantry and she decides to make another 10-11 pounds of orange marmalade - yum yum (in advance).

12:00 We relax with a cup of coffee in the living room. Afterwards I listen to radio, an interesting programme consisting of excerpts from the Norwegian polar explorer Erling Kagge's book, "Silence".

Erling Kagge, the Norwegian polar explorer, photographed here

with BBC presenter Fearne Cotton

A fascinating excerpt from Kagge's book. People tend to think it is a wholly modern phenomenon that, for example, we stay busy, constantly checking our smartphones and preferring to be surrounded by all sorts of sounds and noise, while fleeing from silence; And we find it a little scary to be alone in our rooms with only our own quiet thoughts as company.

But it is not a distinctively modern phenomenon, it seems. In fact, back in the 17th century, Pascal was concerned about this same human reaction - not in terms of social media addiction, but in terms of the same fear of silence and solitude, and the pursuit of constant activity.

Kagge says that humanity has always been addicted to dopamine, which is triggered in the brain when we are searching for something (using Google perhaps). But now we are more addicted than ever. There is another pleasant substance, i.e. opioid, that is triggered when we have found what we are looking for and therefore feel satisfied - but dopamine is unfortunately stronger than opioid, Kagge says. That’s why we are constantly looking for something new.

What madness !!!!

When in Oslo, Kagge hates the traffic noise, and he turns up his music to drown it out. It sounds crazy, but I must admit I've done that sort of thing myself at times. But Oslo is so quiet - London must be a nightmare - no wonder he doesn't come over here very often !!!! Good grief, Kagge !!!!!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Unfortunately, I have become aware that I'm got a cold - I have a sore throat, and I have to blow my nose every 5 minutes - damn!

Meanwhile, Lois rushes into the kitchen to continue making her 10-11 pounds of marmalade.

15:45 Lois is finally finished in the kitchen. She's exhausted.

Lois shows off her 10 one-pound jars of homemade orange marmalade

- yum yum (in advance)

We relax with a cup of tea on the sofa and listen to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "Word of Mouth". The host of the program is the charming children's author Michael Rosen.

A fascinating program, consisting of an interview with John Olsson, a language researcher who collaborates with the police, for example on murder cases, where he takes texts, messages, sms’es, etc. and tries to confirm or deny the identity of the person who wrote them, by examining the style.

It is more common than people think, for example, that a murderer writes a text message, email or something similar on his victim's smartphone and pretends that it comes from the victim, for the purpose of reassuring friends, relatives, etc, and buying more time.

Olssen says that when we write something, we all have certain personal habits that we are not aware of and which reveal our identity without our knowing it - punctuation, use of spaces, formality vs informality, slang words, signs of our educational level etc. Many opportunities here for classic "rookie errors" by criminals, that the police can exploit.

A man had sex with a woman and he killed her when they’d finished. Her smartphone buzzed with a text message and he answered it. But his style was too formal - also, the woman used to type spaces just before commas, and not after them - while the man's punctuation was more conventional.

Another case involved three French people working for an airline and living in England. Two of them killed the third, and then arranged for postcards to be sent, allegedly from the dead man to his family, from various parts of the world. But Olssen realized that the victim wrote quite good French, whilst the killers showed their lack of education in every line of the postcards they wrote. My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

18:00 We have dinner, one of the CookShop ready meals we saved from our freezer after it got shut down for maybe 24 hours - yikes !!!!

We spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary is on in the series "New Lives in the Wild",  all about people who deliberately live their lives without the help of many aspects of modern technology, etc. This episode focuses on a Scot, Chris, who has spent the last 3 decades with his lovely Brazilian partner, by the side of the Amazon, in a remote region of Brazil's rain-forest. The host of the program is the charming Ben Fogle.

A constant problem is the termites, which must be cleared off the wood and removed twice a week, otherwise they will finish by eating the whole house within 6 months, says Chris. Sometimes the house is invaded by a colony of ants heading from one nest to another - and there is no choice but for the whole family to move out of the house for a few days. But when the ants have gone, the house is in very good condition because they have eaten all the cockroaches, spiders, etc.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Chris' constant problem is the termites, who

would eat the whole house within 6 months if he ignored them - yikes!

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

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg står op. Lois’ sekt, der oprindeligt bestemte sit ugentlige bibelseminar til i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek, som sædvanligt, har besluttet at  aflyse det i aften på grund af vejrudsigten, der lovede kraftig sne. Desværre er det Lois’ ansvar til at kontakte alle seminarets deltagere for at fortælle dem om aflysningen, enten via email eller i telefonen.

I mellemtiden går jeg i gang med at læse de første 150 linjer af Chaucers Riderfogedens Fortælling, en af hans kendte Canterbury-fortællinger. Lyndas U3A middelengelske gruppe holder sit månedlige møde på fredag i byens Everyman-teater, og denne fortælling er gruppens næste projekt.

Fortællingens skurk, ”Symkyn” (= lille Simon), er en møller, der bor i Trumpington nær Cambridge, en landsby, som Lois og jeg kender godt – den er kun 9 minutter væk med bil fra min søster Gills hus i Cherry Hinton.

Symkym stjæler rutinemæssigt hvede og mad, som kunder bringer ham til slibning. Symkyn er også en bølle, og praler af, at han er ekspert med et sværd, en dolk og knive. Skræmmende!

Symkyn og hans kone er yderst stolte af, at hun er datter af bypræsten, hvilket er lidt ejendommeligt fordi det betyder, at hun er født uden for ægteskab:  præster i senere middelalderlige England ikke måtte gifte sig). Parret har en 20 årig datter Malyne og en seks måneder gammel søn.

Symkyn forlanger for meget penge for sit seneste bestilling, det at slibe korn til Soler Hall, en Cambridge University college.

To studerende på colleget, John og Aleyn, er rasende over denne seneste tyveri og beslutter sig for at tage hævn på mølleren. De samler en endnu større mængde hvede end normalt, og siger, at de vil se på Symkyn, mens han sliber det i mel:  de foregiver, at de er interesserede i processen, fordi de kun har ”begrænset viden om kornslibning” – ”metoo” ha ha .

Symkyn gennemskuer de studerendes historie og beslutter om at stjæle endnu mere af deres korn end han havde planlagt, for at bevise, at collegets studerende ikke altid er de klogeste af mennesker. Han spænder deres hest fra, og det lykkes de to studerende ikke at fange den indtil aftenen. I mellemtiden stjæler Symkyn noget af melet, mens de to drenge er ude på jagt efter deres hest, og han giver det til sin kone, så hun kan bage et brød.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!! Man kan ikke stole på nogen nu til dags!

Men det vigtigste er, at jeg bemærker, Symkyn har en kone og en 20-årig datter, Malyne. Jeg har på fornemmelsen, at de to studerende, John og Aleyn, vil ende ud i sengen med det to kvinder: den slags hændelse er normal i Chaucers fortællinger, ingen tvivl om det. Men vi får se.

Lynda, vores gruppens leder, har tildelt mig linjerne 3941-3962, så derfor koncentrerer jeg mig specielt om disse linjer og jeg forsker de usædvanlige eller interessanter ord i linjerne, og kommenterer de ord, der stammer fra oldfransk, eller oldnorsk.

Jeg vidste ikke, at det engelske ord ”pert” (næsvis eller næbbet) oprindeligt stammede fra det latinske ord ”apertus”, der betyder ”åben”, som i ordet apertur, for eksempel. 

Og ordet ”to rage” (at rase) havde en 2. slang betydning i det 14. århundrede, dvs ”at flirte”: ingen turde ”rase” med møllerens kone, for eksempel, af frygt for, at mølleren bliver vred over det.

Er alle sprog ikke helt fascinerende? Hvem ville have lyst til at studere noget andet???

10:00 Lois har flere appelsiner tilbage i spisekammeret og hun beslutter at lave endnu 10-11 pund appelsinmarmelade – yum yum (på forhånd).

12:00 Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i stuen. Bagefter lytter jeg lidt til radio, et interessant program, der består af uddrag fra den norske polerudforsker Erling Kagges bog, ”Tavshed”.

Erling Kagge, den norske polarudforsker, fotograferet her

sammen med BBC-værten Fearne Cotton

Et fascinerende uddrag fra Kagges bog. Folk har tendens til at tro, det er et moderne fænomen, at vi eksempelvis tjekker vores smartphones konstant, og foretrækker at blive omgivet af lyde og larm, og vi flygter fra tavsheden; og vi finder det lidt skræmmeligt at være alene i vores værelser med kun vores egne stille tanker som selskab.

Men det er ikke en moderne fænomen, lader det til. Faktisk tilbage i 1600-tallet var Pascal bekymret over denne samme menneskelige reaktion – ikke i forhold til sociale medier, men den samme frygt for tavshed og ensomhed, og jagten efter konstant aktivitet.

Kagge siger, at menneskeheden er altid blevet forfaldne til dopamin, der bliver udløst i hjernen, når vi leder efter noget (ved hjælp af Google måske). Men nu er vi mere forfaldne, end nogensinde. Der er en anden signalstof, opioid, der udløses, når vi har fundet det, vi leder efter og føler os tilfredse – men dopamin er desværre stærkere, end opioid, siger Kagge. Derfor fortsætter vi konstant med at lede efter noget nyt.

Sikke et vanvid!!!!  

Når han er i Oslo, hader han trafiklarmen og han skruer op for sin musik for at overdøve den. Det lyder vanvittigt, men jeg har selv gjort den slags ting til tiden - det må jeg indrømme. Men i Oslo er der så stille og roligt. Hvad tænker han om London? Det kan ikke undre, at han kommer ikke ret ofte herover. Du godeste, Kagge !!!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Desværre er jeg blevet klar over, at jeg er lidt forkølet – jeg har ondt i halsen, og jeg er nødt til at snyde næsen hver 5. minut – pokkers!

I mellemtiden skynder Lois sig ind i køkkenet for at fortsætte med at lave sine 10-11 pund appelsinmarmelade.

15:45 Lois er omsider færdig i køkkenet. Hun er udmattet.

Lois fremviser sine 10 1-pund krukker hjemmelavet appelsinmarmelade

- yum yum (på forhånd)

Vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Word of Mouth”. Programmets vært er den charmerende børneforfater Michael Rosen.

Et fascinerende program, bestående af et interview med John Olsson, en sprogforsker, der samarbejder med politiet fx på drabssag, hvor han tager tekster, beskeder, sms’ser osv og prøver at bekræfte eller afkræfte, hvem der skrev dem, ved at undersøge stilen.

Det er mere almindeligt, end folk tror, for eksempel, at en gerningsmand skriver en sms eller lignende på sit offers smartphone, og foregiver, at sms’en kommer fra offeret med det formål, at berolige venner, slægtninge osv.

Olssen siger, at når vi skriver noget, har vi alle visse personlige vaner, som vi ikke er klar over, og som afslør vores identitet, uden at vi ved det – tegnsætning, tegnsætningfejl, brug af spatiummer,  formalitet vs uformalitet, slangord, tegn på uddannelsesniveauer osv.  Mange muligheder her for klassiske ”begynderes fejl”, som politiet kan benytte sig af.

En mand havde sex med en kvinde og bagefter dræbte han hende. Hendes smartphone brummede med en sms og han svarede den. Men hans stil var for formel – også, kvinden plejede at taste spatiummer lige før kommaer, og ikke efter dem – mens mandens tegnsætning var mere konventionel.

En anden sag involverede tre franskmænd der arbejdede for et flyselskab , og som opholdte sig i England. To af dem dræbte den tredje, og derefter afsendte de postkort, angiveligt fra den døde mand til hans familie, fra forskellige steder i verden. Men Olssen indså, at offret talte rimelig godt fransk, mens gerningsmændene udviste deres mangel  på uddannelse i hver linje af postkortene. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad. En af de CookShop færdigretter, vi reddede fra vores  fryser, efter den blev lukket af i måske 24 timer – yikes!!!!

Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm i serien ”New Lives in the Wild”, der handler om mennesker, der lever deres liv bevidst uden hjælp af mange aspekter af moderne teknologi osv. Dette afsnit fokuserer på en skotte, Chris, der har tilbragt de seneste 3 årtier med sin dejlige brasilienske partner, ved siden af floden Amazon, i en fjerne region af Brasils regnskove. Programmets vært er den charmerende Ben Fogle.

Et konstant problem er termitterne, der skal blive ryddet og fjernet to gange om ugen, ellers vil de spise huset færdigt indenfor 6 måneder, siger Chris. Nogle gange bliver huset invaderet af en koloni af myrer på vej fra den ene rede til en anden – og der er ikke andet valg, end at hele familien flytter ud af huset i et par dage. Men når myrer er blevet væk, er huset i meget god stand, fordi de har spiste alle de kakerlakker, edderkopper osv.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Chris’ konstant problem er termitterne, som

ville spise huset færdigt indenfor 6 måneder, hvis han ignorerede dem – yikes!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!!

Monday, January 28 2019

08:00 We get up early because Ian, our local window cleaner, is arriving at 9 am and we don't want him to see us in bed or in the bath, which would be a little embarrassing to put it mildly.

10:00 I start writing another 3 paragraphs of an email in Hungarian to Tünde, my pen pal in Budapest, when Lois calls me - she has noticed that our freezer’s red warning light is flashing. For some reason, the freezer has been switched off - damn it! We do not know how long it has been off - maybe for 24 hours. Yikes!

We try to rescue as many food items as possible - Lois boils and cooks a lot of meat and a lot of home-grown fruit. My goodness, what a disaster !!!!

We call the repair shop - they can’t send a repairman till Friday - damn !!!

Meanwhile, we must cook, roast or eat as many defrosted foods as possible. We have no choice but to drop our New Year's diet for a few days. Every cloud has a silver lining  ha ha!

For old crows like Lois and me, a freezer is an essential appliance, no doubt about that. I tell Lois about a news story I read on the influential American site, Onion News, the other day.

In an effort to provide comfort and nourishment to her spouse in her absence, local octogenarian Helen Griggs told journalists that she has begun to freeze homemade meals for her husband to enjoy after she passes away.

"I have already made four pans of lasagne and a large pile of beef stew for Arthur," said Griggs, 87, who is determined to supply her partner of 60 years with a large selection of soups and stews he can grab from the freezer, warm up and eat at his leisure after she has gone to her final resting place.

"I just want to make sure he eats well. He loves my butternut squash soup, so I made 10 quarts. I froze every meal as a single serving, which he can heat up in the microwave without too much fuss."

Griggs estimated that she had prepared enough frozen meals to last until her husband joined her, but she first wanted to make one extra meatloaf just to be on the safe side.

What a heartwarming story – and it’s comforting to know that Arthur will not have any trouble finding tv dinners next time he goes in for an evening's box-set binge session, that’s something I know for sure !!!

I imagine I will go before Lois, so no worries there. Women have two sets of X chromosomes, while men have one set of X and one set of Y:  X chromosomes are important for protecting life, and women have a backup set, whereas men do not.

The chromosome pattern of the two sexes is the same in all species, except for birds, where the situation is reversed: and male birds, with their double set of X chromosomes, live longer than the females, which is our first clue!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

12:00 Lunch - and we eat a record amount of fish fingers, which is nice. Good times a-coming ha ha! Afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm, and Lois slips out and swings by the neighbours (Bill and Mary) to chat a little with Mary, who suffers from dementia. Lois is so warm-hearted - if only I could be more like her.

16:00 I listen to the radio for a while, an interesting programme that asks the question: is humanity still evolving? The host of the programme is the charming Prof. Brian Cox.

A somewhat confusing discussion with a lot of digressions, but nevertheless there is a lot of interesting information here, which is nice.

The programme participants are not quite sure whether humanity is continuing to evolve in a genetic way – “only time will tell”, apparently (ask them again in about 10,000 years ha ha!).

Humanity does a lot of things that are not just designed for greater survival or fertility. But we have also begun to intervene in our environment in ways whereby we can increase survival opportunities through medical research.

Technological inventions can damage our ability to remember things (computers, smartphones, etc.), which at first glance is not helpful. But we can, for example, correct eyesight problems using glasses. Both weaknesses could otherwise potentially damage our ability to survive.

There is a common misconception that evolution always leads to improvements, and necessarily means progress, which is not correct - there is a random element in everything in the universe due to the influence of the unexpected.

Are we continuing to evolve genetically? It is mentioned that it was only 8,000 years ago that we developed the ability to digest milk, especially in Northern Europe. Scientists believe that the change occurred in Germany soon after people began to domesticate cows and similar animals. At first we could only digest related products such as cheese, yogurt, etc., but finally this led us on to the ability to digest milk as well.

Prevalence of "Lactose-persistence" : finally, Britain and Ireland 

are leading the world in an important skill - hurrah! 

Our next challenge - to solve the Brexit issue !!!

Generally, genetic development is very slow. Genomes from people who lived 50,000 or even 200,000 years ago are not very different from those of people today. You could cut their hair, dress them up in a nice suit, and plonk them down in the middle of this show's studio audience, and they wouldn’t  stand out from everybody else.

The main difference that has emerged over the past 200,000 years has been cultural change - the evolution of art, etc. (about 50,000 years ago), and at the same time the ability to imagine abstract concepts, which does not seem to have an obvious genetic component.

Intelligent animals that seem to initiate cultural developments are also mentioned. Female dolphins have taught each other to put sponges on their noses when they go looking for food on the seabed because the sponges protect them, and prevent them from being injured by sharp bits of rock, etc.

Male dolphins have not bothered to imitate the females in this respect. I discuss the issue with Lois, and we come to the conclusion that the male dolphins possible consider the use of sponges to be a little wimpy.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

A female dolphin who has put a sponge on her nose to go hunting

- good grief, what madness !!!

18:00 We have dinner, and then Mari-Ann swings by to take away some of our half-defrosted food. Alf's disabled brother Billy is staying with them this week, and Mari-Ann is happy to be able to grab some extra food items - Billy has a big appetite, it seems.

20:00 We spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television, but unfortunately our attention is constantly disturbed by a number of emails and text messages on two separate chat rooms run by Lois’s sect.

Lois' sect holds its regular Bible seminar every Tuesday night in Brockworth library, but the weather girl has said it is going to snow heavily in the town tomorrow night. If the seminar is cancelled, it is unfortunately Lois's responsibility to send out emails or call the seminar’s participants to inform them of the cancellation.

The preacher who is to make the preliminary remarks and lead the discussion tomorrow, is "Colin the Younger" and he wants to wait until 5:30 pm tomorrow to make the decision to cancel or not to cancel. But Lois points out that it would be very difficult for her to try to contact all the participants at the last minute - she has got to have dinner, and get herself ready, so she can leave the house at 6:15 pm.

I just hope that Colin the Younger is persuaded by Lois's arguments and agrees to make the decision earlier in the day so she has enough time to contact everyone. What madness !!!!

Colin the Younger in happier times – leading a discussion

in the current series of of the sect’s bible seminars, on the theme

"Prophecies about Jesus in the book of Isaiah"

20:30 We see a little television, but at the same time we keep an eye on my smartphone, to keep up with the debate about possible cancellation of tomorrow's bible seminar.

Monday night is TV quiz evening at our house. "Only Connect" and "University Challenge are on.

Lois and I are always happy about questions we can answer, but which all the fresh young brains strike out on, because we believe it proves that we are not yet suffering from dementia, but perhaps we are deluding ourselves - the jury is still out on that one.

In "Only Connect", both Lois and I find that we can answer questions that the "brains" do not have the faintest idea about. And later, in the University Challenge, we have the same success, which is nice.

Sometimes Lois and I find out about topics and sequences we would rather not know about, for example, the so-called "Bristol Stool Scale", which apparently describes the firmness of stools in descending order - yuck, scary! Something for Sheldon Cooper in the Big Bang Theory sitcom maybe.

Lois and I are just a pair of old crows, but sometimes this is a plus. None of the programme's 4 "brains" could guess the 4th thing in the following sequence:

what is the 4th item in this sequence?

Bob (Marley), Carol, & Ted & ......(???)

Fortunately, Lois and I are old enough to remember the movie "Bob, Carol, & Ted & Alice", which we saw in 1970 at a cinema in Oxford soon after we first hooked up - and we thought we were being very daring. But the film would be considered very tame by today's standards, no doubt about that ha ha!

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

Danish translation

08:00 Vi står tidligt op, fordi Ian, vores lokale vinduespudser, kommer kl 9 og vi vil ikke have at han ser os i sengen eller i badet, hvilket ville være lidt pinligt for at sige mildt.

10:00 Jeg går i gang med at skrive endnu 3 afsnit af en email på ungarsk til Tünde, min penveninde i Budapest, da Lois kalder til mig – hun har bemærket, at fryserens røde advarselslampe blinker. Af en eller anden grund er fryseren blevet slukket – pokkers!  Vi ved ikke, hvor længe den er blevet slukket – måske i 24 timer. Yikes!

Vi prøver at redde så mange fødevarer som muligt – Lois koger og steger en masse kød og en masse hjemmedyrket frugt. Du godeste, sikke en katastrof!!!!

Vi ringer til reparationsværkstedet – de kan først sende en reparatør på fredag – pokkers!!!

I mellemtiden må vi koge, stege eller spise så mange optøede fødevarer som muligt. Vi har ikke andet valg end at droppe vores nytårsslankekur i nogle dage. Oven over skyerne er himlen altid blå ha ha!

For gamle krager som Lois og mig er en fryser en essentiel apparat, ingen tvivl om det. Jeg fortæller Lois om en nyhedshistorie, jeg forleden læste på den indflydelsesrige amerikanske websted, Onion News.

I en indsats for at give trøst og nærende mad til sin ægtefælle i sit fravær, fortalte den lokale octogenær Helen Griggs journalister, at hun er begyndt at fryse hjemmelavede måltider for hendes mand til at nyde efter hun er afgået ved døden.

"Jeg har allerede lavet fire pander lasagne og en stor bunke oksekødspot til Arthur", siger Griggs, 87, der er fast besluttet på at forsyne partneren, hun har boet sammen med i 60 år, med et stort udvalg af supper og gryderetter, han kan tage op af fryseren, varme op og spise når det er ham belejligt, efter hun er blevet bragt til sit sidste hvilested.

"Jeg vil bare sørge for at han spiser godt. Han elsker min butternut squash suppe, så jeg lavede 10 quarts. Jeg frøs hvert måltid som en enkelt servering, som han kan varme op i mikrovnen uden for meget besvær. "

Griggs anslog, at hun havde forberedt nok frosne måltider til at vare, indtil hendes mand sluttede til hende, men ønskede først at lave en ekstra meatloaf bare for at sikkerheds skyld.

Sikke en hjertevarmende historie – det er trøstende at vide, at hr Griggs ikke vil være i bekneb for tv-måltider, næste gang han dyrker en box-set binge-session, det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!

Jeg formoder, at jeg vil afgå ved døden længe før Lois, så er der der ikke noget problem. Kvinder har to sæt X kromosomer, mens de mandlige har et sæt X og et sæt Y: X-kromosomers er vigtige for at beskytte livet, og kvinder har et backup sæt, mens mænd ikke gør.

De to køns kromosommønster er det samme i alle arter, bortset fra fuglene, hvor situationen er omvendt: og mandlige fugle, med deres dobbelt sæt X-kromosomer, lever længere, end de kvindelige, hvilket virker betydeligt.

12:00 Frokost – og vi spiser et rekordstort beløb af fiskepinder, hvilket er rart. Gode tider i vente ha ha! Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15, og Lois smutter ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt med Mary, der lider af demens. Lois er så varmhjertet – hvis bare jeg kunne ligne hende mere.

16:00 Jeg lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der stiller spørgsmålet: er menneskehed stadig i gang med at udvikle sig? Programmets vært er den charmerende Prof. Brian Cox.

En lidt forvirrende discussion med en masse sidespringer, men ikke desto mindre er der en masse interessant information, hvilket er rart.

Programmets deltagere er ikke helt sikre på, om menneskeheden fortsætter med at udvikle sig på en genetisk måde – det vil kun tiden vise (spørg dem igen om ca. 10.000 år ha ha!). Vi gør en masse ting, der ikke bare er designet for at overleve eller blive mere frugtbar. Vi er begyndt at gribe ind i miljøet på en måde, vi kan øge overlevelsesmuligheder på, ved hjælp af medicinsk forskning.

Teknologiske opfindelser kan beskadige vores evner til at huske tingene (computere, smartphones osv), hvilket på første øjekast ikke er behjælpeligt. Og vi kan for eksempel rette problemer i øjet ved hjælp af briller. Begge svagheder kunne ellers beskadige potentielt vores evne til at overleve.

Der er en almindelig misforståelse, at evolutionen altid fører til forbedringer, og nødvendigvis betyder fremskridt, hvilket ikke er korrekt – der er et tilfældigt element i alting i universet på grund af indflydelsen af det uforventede.

Fortsætter vi at udvikle os? Det blev nævnt, at vi kun 8.000 år siden udviklede evnen til at fordøje mælk, specielt i Nord-Europa. Forskere tror, at forandringen opstod i Tyskland, efter mennesker begyndte at domesticere køer og lignende dyr. I begyndelsen var det bare tilfældet, at vi kunne fordøje beslægtede produkter som ost, yoghurt osv, men endeligt førte denne praksis til, at vi også kunne  fordøje mælk.

”Lactose-persistente” andele: omsider leder Storbrittanien og Irland verdenen

i en vigtig færdighed – hurra! Vores næste udfordring – at fikse vores økonomi!!!

Genetisk udvikling er i det hele taget meget langsom. Genomer fra mennesker der levede for 50.000 eller 200.000 år siden, er ikke særlig anderledes end nutidens folk. Du kunne klippe deres hår, klæde dem på i et pænt jakkesæt og sætte dem ned midt i dette shows studiepublikum, uden at de ville skille sig ud fra resten. Den vigtigste forskel, der er opstod i de seneste 200.000 år har været kulturelle forandringer – udviklingen af kunst osv (for ca 50.000 år siden),  og samtidigt evnen til at forestille sig abstrakte koncepter, hvilket ikke virke at have en åbenbar genetisk komponent.

Intelligente dyr, der virker at indvielse kulturelle udviklinger,  bliver også nævnt. Hun-delfiner har lært at sætte svampe på næsene for at lede efter mad på havbunden, fordi svampene beskytter dem og forhindre dem i at blive såret af hårde klipper osv.

Han-delfiner har ikke gidet at imitere hunnerne. Jeg diskuterer dette spørgsmål med Lois, og vi kommer til den konklusion, at han-delfiner betragter brugen af svampe som lidt tøsedrengagtigt.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

En hun-delfin, der har sat en svamp på næsen for at gå på jagt

– du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, og derefter smutter Mari-Ann ind hos os for at tage nogle af vores halvt-optøde fødevarer væk. Alfs handicappede bror Billy opholder sig denne uge hos dem, og Mari-Ann er glad for at snuppe ekstra mad – Billy har en stor appetit, lader det til. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

20:00 Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, men desværre bliver vores opmærksomhed konstant forstyrret af en række emails og sms-er på to adskilte chatrooms.

Lois’ sekt holder sit regelmæssige bibelseminar hver tirsdag aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek, men vejrpigen har sagt, at det kommer til at sne kraftigt i byen i morgen aften. Hvis seminaret bliver aflyst, er det desværre Lois’ ansvar at afsende emails eller ringe til seminarets deltagere, for at informere dem om aflysningen.

Prædikanten, der skal gøre de indledende bemærkninger og lede diskussionen i morgen, er ”Colin, den yngre”, og han vil gerne vente til 17:30 i morgen for at tage beslutningen, om at aflyse eller ikke at aflyse. Men Lois påpeger, at det ville være meget vanskeligt for hende at prøve at kontakte alle deltagerne i sidste øjeblik – hun skal alligevel også spise aftensmad, forberede sig selv, og forlade huset kl 18:15.

Jeg håber bare, at Colin den Yngre bliver overtalt af Lois' argumenter, og aftaler at tage beslutningen tidliger på dagen, så hun har tid nok til at kontakte alle. Sikke et vanvid!!!!

Colin den Yngre i lykkeligere tider – i færd med at lede diskussionen

i sektens nuværende serie af bibelseminarer, der handler om

”Profetier om Jesus i Esaja’s bog i det kristne gamle testamente”

20:30 Vi ser lidt fjernsyn, men samtidigt skeler vi til min smartphone, for at følge med i sektens debat om morgendagens bibelseminar.

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 hjerner har problemer med, fordi vi tror det beviser, at vi ikke endnu lider af demens, men måske vildleder vi os – det er juryen stadig ude om!

I ”Only Connect” finder både Lois og jeg at vi kan besvare spørgsmål, som ”hjernerne” ikke har den fjerneste anelse om. Og senere, i University Challenge, den samme succés, hvilket er rart.

Nogle gange finder Lois og jeg ud af om emner og sekvenser, vi hellere ikke vil vide om, for eksempel, den såkaldte ”Bristol Stool Scale”, der tilsyneladende beskriver fastheden af afføring i faldende rækkefølge – yuck, uhyggeligt! Noget for Sheldon Cooper i sitcommen Big Bang Theory måske.

Lois og jeg er bare et par gamle krager, men nogle gange er dette en plus. Ingen af programmets 4 ”hjerner” kunne gætte den 4. ting i de følgende sekvens:

Heldigvis er Lois og jeg gamle nok til at kunne huske filmen ”Bob, Carol, & Ted & Alice”, som vi så i 1970 i biografen i Oxford, snart efter vi først kom sammen – og vi tænkte, at vi var meget dristige. Men filmen ville blive betragtet som meget tam i sammenligning til nutidens standarder, ingen tvivl om det ha ha!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!