08:00 Lois and I take a shower and afterwards I start
preparing the living room, because Mark, our local IT expert is coming this
morning at 9:30 am to install our new used television. Our old 20 inch TV has
become a bit unreliable recently, and our son-in-law Ed gave us his
grandmother's old 32 inch TV a few weeks ago.
09:30 Mark calls at the door and he starts installing the
new television. It will be good to have a slightly larger screen. Lois and I
suspect that programme makers nowadays assume that viewers have larger screens and
therefore in TV dramas etc they show us e.g. tiny smartphone screens with texts
that they imagine are big enough for viewers to read.
It is not at all the case that Lois and I are just ageing
and our eyesight is deteriorating - I can declare that categorically ha ha!
our little (20 ”) old television in happier
times: just after Christmas
Mark also tells us that it was actually 50 " televisions
that turned out to be the most popular purchases during the Christmas period just
gone. My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
10:30 We pay Mark (£ 50) and he leaves. We relax with a
cup of coffee.
We get a bit of a surprise when Lily and Jessie, our
5-year-old twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia suddenly call us on whatsapp.
I ask them where their parents, Sarah and Francis, are, and Lily replies that
both Sarah and Francis are upstairs on the 2nd floor at the moment.
The twins have apparently learned how to call us on
whatsapp - they probably recognised my picture on Sarah's smartphone screen – good
god, what a crazy world we live in !!! But it is very charming to be able to
talk to them out of the blue, we have to say - we miss them a lot. We were very
close to them before the family moved to Australia in December 2015. Sob sob!
Lily (leftmost) and Jessie (rightmost), our 5-year-old twin grandchildren
in Perth, Australia, seen here on the beach at Christmas 2018
They are growing up fast - no doubt about it. After the
call, the twins apparently tell Sarah that they have just spoken to "granny
and poppa" and she texts me just to confirm their story - that’s nice! And it is fortunate that
whatsapp calls are free, to put it mildly.
But this call has made mine and Lois's day, no doubt about that.
11:00 We go into the village to post some letters in the
mailbox. We pop into the local convenience store (the former Bakery Stores) to
buy a few things. We chat a little with the check-out woman. She says that the
pub across the street (Kings Arms) is now closed and you can now park for free
in the pub's parking lot, which is a bit of compensation, but we would rather
have the pub restaurant itself, we have to say.
12:00 We have lunch and Lois starts doing ironing. In the
meantime, I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I wake up after a few
hours but stay in bed. I listen a little to the radio, an interesting programme
all about the concept of papal infallibility. The host of the program is the
charming Melvyn Bragg.
Interestingly, the papal infallibility doctrine arose in
the Catholic Church after popes (especially Pope Nicholas III) gave the newly-established
Franciscan Order of monks a privileged status in the 13th-century Church.
But later, the Franciscans became a little worried that
future popes could do away with their order’s privileged status, so that they
promoted the idea of papal infallibility. With this doctrine in place they believed it would be impossible for future
popes or so-called future "pseudo-popes" to change Nicholas III's
rules - the Franciscans could always argue that Nicholas III was infallible, so
his rules were also infallible. My god, what madness !!!!
Pope Nicholas 3.
a typical Franciscan, played by BBC DJ Noel
Edmonds
But in 1517 Martin Luther appeared, which proved to
be a bit of a turning point in Christian history, to put it mildly. Luther
looked at the 3 traditional sources of authority in the church: the Pope, the
Vatican Councils, and the Bible.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Luther said the Councils were not flawless - their moral
authority had been compromised by their recent decision to condemn the great
reforming theologian Jan Hus to death at the stake.
He also said that the moral authority of the popes had
been compromised because they had allowed the rich to buy papal “indulgences”, thereby
shortening their time in purgatory and getting a fast-track ticket to heaven.
(And the church itself made a fortune out of the whole indulgences scam by the
way, but I’m going to let that one slide).
So it was Luther's conclusion that only the Bible
survived as a reliable source of authority, and he thought up his famous expression,
"Sola Scriptura" – “Only Scripture”.
When the whole of Northern Europe - Scandinavia, Germany,
England, etc. - adopted Luther's ideas in their national churches, Europe's
Catholics felt even more on the defensive so they became even more strident in
proclaiming that the Pope and his decisions were infallible. And the rest is history.
My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
3:30 pm I get up and jump up on my fitness bike. I cycle my
usual 6 miles and afterwards I do a little light weight training. I hurry
downstairs, and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch.
I remind Lois about the pheasant that our neighbour Bob
shot the other day, and she reluctantly starts to cut the bird down its front
and take the breasts out. She puts the rest in a food-waste bag to save work.
Poor pheasant !!!! But most of all poor Lois !!!
The pheasant’s breast that Lois succeeds in
cutting out of the dead bird
- all that remains of that beautiful bird. SOB SOB !!!!
(to the right, our "shrine" dedicated to
Minx, our 18 and a half-year-old cat,
who died in December – SOB SOB (again)
!!!!!)
16:30 Rose, Lois' former work colleague, calls us. She
wants us to pop into the local pharmacy and get her pills. We are happy to help
her, but it is a bit of a shame that she did not tell the pharmacist on the phone that she
was too immobile to pick them up herself, because the pharmacists would have had them delivered, we are sure, but I’m going to let that one slide. Poor Rose - but Lois and I could be
in her shoes sooner or later - yikes, scary!
We swing by the pharmacy and pick up Rose’s pills. We pop
in at Rose’s, deliver the pills and drive home – “what next?”, we ask
ourselves. Good grief!
Rose tells us that a new doctor’s surgery could be built
in the neighbourhood, which would be a good development given that the current
local surgery is closing tomorrow - the doctors have decided to move into a
brand new surgery 5 miles away this weekend.
one surgery closes
...
.... and a new one could
open, but no earlier than 2021
and probably later, even if it does happen for real
...
but hopefully before Lois and I pass away ha
ha !!
18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening
watching a bit of television. An old episode of Top of the Pops is on, from New
Year's Day 1987. The programme's host is the charming Gary Davies.
It is always a little touching in my opinion to see
people on past New Year's Eves or New Year's Days, so full of hope for the
coming year, in this case 1987.
We see the program on our massive brand new (used) 32” TV,
which is nice. Unfortunately, Lois notices that 1987's pop stars look a little
short and fat in this old programme with its narrower images. Damn! I have to
figure out how to adjust the dimensions - damn (again) !!!!
we see the programme on our brand new
(used) 32 ”TV.
unfortunately, 1987’s pop stars look a little
short and fat - damn!
I have to figure out how to adjust the picture dimensions - damn (again) !!!
flashback to 1987 and me (aged 41) -
Christmas lunch with my work colleagues: I'm
number 2 from the left
flashback to January 1987: our daughter
Sarah (9), my mother (67),
and Gloria, our 12 year old cat
January 1987: Alison (11) and Sarah (9) make
snowmen in our backyard
on the grass and on our famous picnic table,
purchased in Hechingers in Maryland in 1985
Happy times !!!!!
20:00 We continue to watch a bit of television. An
interesting documentary (part 1 of 3) is on, all about Britain's obesity crisis. The
programme host is the charming Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
The British are now Europe's fattest people - and our
11-year-olds are now fatter than their American counterparts, it seems. Hugh,
who originally became famous as a TV chef, has now reinvented himself as a
campaign leader for clearer labels on food, healthier food in schools, etc. The
whole thing reminds us of the other TV chef, Jamie Oliver, who has been leading his own
campaign for healthier food in schools.
The television chef world has become a bit crowded these
days and there may be a little less competition in the world of healthy food
campaigners. I don't like some of Hugh's ideas, which to some extent incline
towards one big nanny-state nightmare, but I approve of his campaigns for
clearer food labels. There is nothing more annoying than having to stand in an
aisle in a supermarket trying to read small font labelling and confusing, ambiguous declarations of fat content, sugar content, etc.
Kelloggs have recently announced that they will use the
clearest label system, ie the so-called "traffic light system", which
is a good news.
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
"Goodness Knows" cereal bars: they
look healthy, because of
the name and the pictures of nuts etc, but they
are actually a pure confectionery product,
manufactured by the Mars company. Good grief
- what madness !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!
Danish translation
08:00 Lois og
jeg tager et brusebad og bagefter går jeg i gang med at forberede stuen, fordi
Mark, vores lokale IT-ekspert kommer i formiddag kl 9:30 for at installere
vores nye brugte fjernsyn. Vores gamle 20 inch tv er blevet lidt upålideligt
for nylig, og vores svigersøn Ed gav os sin farmors gamle 32 inch fjernsyn for
et par uger siden.
09:30 Mark
ringer på døren og han går i gang med at installere det nye fjernsyn. Det vil
være godt at have en lidt større skærm. Lois og jeg mistænker, at programmagere
nu til dags formoder, at seerne har større skærmer og derfor i tv-dramaer osv
viser de os fx smartphoneskærmer med beskeder på, som de forestille sig, seerne
kan læse. Det er overhoved ikke tilfældet, at Lois og jeg ældes og at vores syn
forværres – det kan jeg erklære kategorisk ha ha!
vores
lille (20”) gamle tv i lykkeligere tider: lige før jul
Mark fortæller
os for øvrigt, at det faktisk var 50” fjernsyner, der viste sig at være de mest
populære køb i julen, der lige er gået.
Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
10:30 Vi
betaler Mark (50£) og han tager af sted. Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe.
Vi får lidt af
en overraskelse, da Lily og Jessie, vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth,
Australien pludselig ringer til os på whatsapp. Jeg
spørger dem, hvor deres forældre, Sarah og Francis, er, og Lily svarer, at både
Sarah og Francis er ovenpå på den 2. sal for tiden.
Tvillingerne har
tilsyneladende lært hvordan man ringer til os på whatsapp – de genkendte sandsynligvis
mit billede på Sarahs smartphoneskærm – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi
lever i !!! Men det er meget charmerende
at kunne tale med dem ud af det blå, det må vi nok sige – vi savner dem meget.
Vi var meget tætte på dem før familien flyttede til Australien i december 2015.
Hulk, hulk!
Lily (til venstre) og Jessie (til højre),
vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien, i juletiden
De vokser hurtigt – ingen
tvivl om det. Efter opkaldet fortæller tvillingerne Sarah tilsyneladende, at de
lige har snakket med ”mormor og morfar”, og hun sms’er mig for at bekræfte
deres historie, hvilket er rart! Og det er heldigt at whatsapp-opkald er
gratis, for at sige mildt.
Men dette
opkald har gjort vores dag, ingen tvivl om det.
11:00 Vi går
vi hen ind i landsbyen for at lægge nogle breve i postkassen. Vi smutter ind i
det lokale nærbutik (den tidligere Bakery Stores) for at købe et par ting. Vi
snakker lidt med check-out-kvinden. Hun siger at pubben på den anden side af
gaden (Kings Arms) er nu lukket, og man kan nu parkere gratis i pubbens
parkeringsplads, hvilket er lidt af en compensation, men vi ville hellere have
selve pub-restauranten, det må vi nok sige.
12:00 Vi
spiser frokost og Lois går i gang med at lave
strygning. I mellemtiden går
jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg vågner op efter et par
timer og bliver liggende inde i sengen. Jeg lytter lidt til radio. Et
interessant program, der handler om
begrebt om det pavelige ufejlbarhedsdogme. Programmets vært er den charmerende
Melvyn Bragg.
Det er
interessant at det pavelige ufejlbarhedsdogme opstod i den katolske kirke fordi
paven tog en beslutning som Franciskanerordenen godt kunne lide – men de var
bange for, at en kommende pave kunne droppe beslutningen. Så opfordrede de
paven til at erklære sin egen ufejlbarhed, så alle kommende paver ville måtte
holde fast ved den oprindelige beslutning – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!
Det er
interessant at det pavelige ufejlbarhedsdogme opstod i den katolske kirke efter
paver (især Pave Nikolaus 3.) gav den nye Franciskanerordenen en privilegeret
status i kirken i det 13. århundrede.
Men senere
blev Franciskanerne lidt bekymret over, at kommende paver kunne ødelægge deres
privilegede status, så de forfremmede idéen af det pavelige ufejlbarhedsdogme.
På denne måde, troede de, ville det blive umuligt for komende paver eller
såkaldte ”pseudo-paver” at skifte Nikolaus 3.s regler – franciskanerne kunne altid argumentere, at
Nikolaus 3. var ufejlbar, så hans regler også var ufejlbare. Du godeste, sikke
et vanvid!!!!
Pave
Nikolaus 3.
en
typisk franciskaner, spillet af BBC-dj-en Noel Edmonds
Men i 1517
dukkede Martin Luther op, hvilket viste sig et være lidt af et vendepunkt i
kristendoms historie, for at sige mildt. Luther kiggede på de 3 traditionelle
kilde på autoritet i kirken: selve
paven, vatikanerkoncilier og biblen.
Martin
Luther (1483-1546)
Luther sagde,
at koncilierne ikke var fejlfri – deres moralske autoritet var blevet kompromitteret
af deres nylige beslutning at dømme som kætter den store reformerende teolog Jan
Hus, og brænde ham på bålet.
Han sagde
også, at pavernes moralske autoritet var blevet kompromitteret, fordi de havde
tilladt de rige at købe pavelige afladsbreve, afkorte deres tid i Skærsilden og
skaffe en fast-track billet til himlen. (Og selve kirken scorede en formue af
det hele afladsbrev-scam for øvrigt, men
det springer jeg over!).
Så var det Luthers
konklusion, at bare biblen overlevede som kilde på autoritet, og han fandt på
sit berømte udtryk, ”sola scriptura” – bare den hellige skrift.
Da Nord-Europa
– Skandinavien, Tyskland, England osv – adopterede Luthers idéer i deres nationale
kirker, følte Europas katoliker sig at være endnu mere i defensiven så de blev
endnu mere skingre i at proklamere, at paven og hans beslutninger måtte være
ufejlbar. Og resten er historie.
Du godeste,
sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!
15:30 Jeg står
op og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles og
bagefter laver jeg lidt let vægttræning. Jeg skynder mig nedenunder og Lois og
jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
Jeg mindes Lois
om fasanen, vores nabo Bob forleden skød, og hun går modvilligt i gang med at
skære fuglen ned ad dens front og tage brysterne ud. Hun putter resten i en
pose, for at spare arbejde. Stakkels fasan!!!! Men mest af alt stakkels Lois!!!
Det
fasanbryst, som det lykkes Lois at tage ud af den døde fugl,
alt
der nu resterer af staklen. Hulk, hulk !!!!
(til
højre, vores ”helligdom” dedikeret til Minx, vores 18,5-årige kat,
som
døde i december – hulk hulk (igen) !!!!!)
16:30 Rose,
Lois’ tidligere arbejdskollega, ringer til os. Hun vil have os til at smutte
ind i det lokkale apotek og hente sine piller. Vi er glade til at kunne hjælpe
hende, men det er lidt af en skam, at hun ikke fortalte apotekeren, at hun var
for immobil til selv at hente den, fordi apotekere ville have fået den leveret,
men det springer jeg over. Stakkels Rose – Lois og jeg kunne være i hendes sted
før eller senere – yikes, skræmmende!
Vi kører forbi
apoteket og henter Roses piller. Vi smutter ind hos Rose og leverer pillerne og
kører hjem – hvad så, spørger vi os selv. Du godeste!
Rose fortæller
os , at der kunne bygges et nyt lægehus i nabolaget, hvilket ville være en god
udvikling i lyset af, at det nuværende lokale lægehus lukker i morgen – lægerne
har besluttet at flytte ind i et spritnyt lægehus 5 miles herfra i weekenden.
det ene lægehus lukker...
....og et nyt kan åbne sig, men tidligst 2021
og
sandsynligvis senere, hvis det sker for alvor...
forhåbentlig
inden Lois og jeg afgår ved døden ha ha !!
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser
et gamle afsnit af Top of the Pops fra
nytårsdag 1987. Programmets vært er den charmerende Gary Davies.
Det er altid lidt
rørende efter min mening at se folk på tidligere nytårsaftener eller nytårsdage,
så fulde af håb på det kommende år, i dette tilfælde 1987.
Vi ser
programmet på vores massive spritnye (brugte) 32” tv, hvilket er rart. Desværre
bemærker Lois at 1987s popstjerner ser lidt korte og tykke ud i dette gamle
program med dets smallere billeder. Pokkers! Jeg må finde ud af, hvordan man kan justere
dimensionerne – pokkers (igen) !!!!
vi ser programmet på vores spritnye (brugte) 32” tv.
desværre
der 1987s popstjerner lidt korte og tykke ud – pokkers!
Jeg
må finde ud af, hvordan man justerer billedets dimensioner – pokkers (igen) !!!
tilbageblik
til mig for 31 år tiden –
julefrokost
med mine arbejdskollegaer: jeg er nummer 2 fra venstre
tilbageblik
til januar 1987: vores datter Sarah (9), min mor (67),
og
Gloria, vores 12-årige kat
januar
1987: Alison (11) og Sarah laver snemænd i vores baghave
på
græsset og på vores berømte picnicbord,
som
vi købte i Hechingers-diy-forretning i Maryland i 1985
Lykkelige
tider !!!!!
20:00 Vi
fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm (1.
del af 3), der handler om Storbritanniens overvægtighedskrise. Programmets vært
er den charmerende Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Briterne er nu
Europas tykkeste folk – og vores 11-årige er nu tykkere end amerianske
11-årige, lader det til. Hugh, der oprindeligt blev kendt for at være tv-kok,
har nu genopfundet sig som kampagneleder for klare etiketter på fødevarer,
sundere mad i skoler osv. Det hele er lidt som tilfældet af tv-kokken Jamie
Oliver, der blandt andet har ledt sin egen kampagne for sundere mad i skoler.
Tv-kokverden
er blevet lidt overfyldt, og der er måske lidt mindre konkurrence i verden af
sund mad kampagner. Jeg kan ikke lide
nogle af Hughs idéer, der i vis grad hælder
til ét stort nanny-state mareridt, men jeg siger god for hans kampagner for
klarere etiketter på fødevarer. Det er ikke noget mere irriterende, end at måtte
stå i en midtergang i et supermarked og prøve at læse småfont og forvirrende
tvetydige deklarationer om fedtindhold, sukkerindhold osv.
Kellogs har for nylig
annonceret, at de omdsider vil bruge det klareste etiketsystem, dvs det
såkaldte ”trafiklys-system”, hvilket er en god nyhed.
Sikke en skør verden vi
lever i !!!!!
”Goodness Knows”
cereal bars: de ser sunde ud, på grund af
navnet, billederne
af nødder osv, men er faktisk et rent konfekturprodukt,
fremstillet af Mars-selskabet.
Du godeste – sikke et vanvid!!!!
22:00 Vi går i seng –
zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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