Tuesday, January 15 2019

10:00 My friend, "Magyar" Mike calls the door and we study Hungarian together for an hour, starting with the 2 vocabulary tests we have prepared for each other. For some months I have been unsure whether Mike is now finding the language too difficult - I have half expected he would sooner or later say he has decided to give it up. So it was a good sign when he recently suggested that we exchange Hungarian vocabulary tests at the beginning of each meeting.

At the same time, our Hungarian lessons have become a bit boring from my point of view – Mike’s level of ability is quite low nowadays and I have to make every effort not to fall asleep, which is not a particularly good sign to say the least. And there's no point in trying to tell jokes or come up with what I think are funny remarks - I'm absolutely sure Mike won't react to them now. Yikes !!!! Mike is a shadow of his former self, that’s for sure !!!!!

"Magyar" Mike in happier times, in 2017 in Prague, before his recent decline,

together with Stephen (his grandson) and "Magyar" Mary, his wife

11:00 Mike has to leave. Lois and I walk into the village. We swing by the local post office and send off two "Peter Rabbit" children's magazines to Lily and Jessie, our 5-year-old twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia. Afterwards we pop into the village's convenience store to buy a few things. We come home along the village's main street.

the Peter Rabbit children's magazine we are sending to Lily and Jessie,

our 5-year-old twin children in Perth, Australia.

It is impossible not to be aware that the future of the village is not looking good. While standing at the counter in the post office, we overhear a conversation about what will happen if the newsagent’s elderly owner decides to sell the business - and it's not really clear whether she will be able to find a buyer. If the newsagency closes, the future of the business's post office franchise will be in doubt. There are rumours that the local convenience store, the former Bakery Stores, could take it over. But nobody is quite sure about that - the jury is still out on that one.

On the other side of the main street, we see the former Kings Arms pub, which closed the other day and is for sale. It is not entirely clear whether a new owner will run it as a pub, or whether the pub's large car park will be built over by new houses or blocks of flats, or the like. Lois and I think a new owner would definitely not be allowed to tear down the actual pub: such an old building is bound to be protected from demolition, we have no doubts about that, but it could be converted into apartments perhaps. Yikes (again) !!!!

The village's Kings Arms pub, closed and for sale

On our way home, we pass the former doctors surgery, which closed on Monday. Local residents are disgusted that doctors, who have moved into a new surgery 5 miles away from here, never wrote letters to their patients to inform them of the surgery’s closure. Lois and I have seen some people even today turning up at the closed medical centre, not aware that the doctors have all buggered off. They are such bastards, those doctors. Lois and I have already registered with another medical centre in the middle of town.

12:00 We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa. I talk a little with Lois about our seemingly "dying village". The whole story reminds us spookily of another village, not far from here, that was recently closed completely (source: Onion News, the influential US news site).

According to the site's reporters, officials announced that Britain's ongoing financial crisis would necessitate the closure of a mysterious seaside resort run by the British government since 1967.

"In view of the current economic downturn, it is unwise to keep this secret site open longer," said a man identified as only as "Number Two". That seaside resort is actually a bucolic village whose sole purpose seemed to be the recovery of wanted information from former intelligence agents.

"Plus, the cost of maintaining human chess boards, outdated penny-farthing bicycles, and our state-of-the-art escapee retrieval sphere has proved too much.We would have closed this whole place down years ago had it not been for one particularly uncooperative resident”

”The cost of maintaining human chess boards in the village

became too much”, according to officials – my god, what madness !!!!

The man refused to respond directly to any questions about the village, but instead hid behind a number of surrealistic images and oblique references, before closing the press conference with a quiet and ominous "Be seeing you".

Lois and I recall that our village's own human chessmen were laid off by the council many years ago, and several of them have had difficulty adjusting to a life without chess boards. And now there is no local medical centre here where they can receive therapy, which is a bit of a shame to say the least.

A local unemployed chess piece receives therapy at our local medical centre,

which is now unfortunately closed – sob sob !!!

12:30 We have  lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and jump up on my fitness bike. I cycle my usual 6 miles and afterwards do a little light weight training. Meanwhile, Lois goes for a walk around the local football field.

17:30 We have dinner a little earlier than usual, and afterwards we have to go out. Lois wants to participate in her sect’s first bible seminar of the new semester. It is taking place tonight in Brockworth library. She has back problems at the moment, and she has asked me to drive her over to her friends' house. I drop her off in front of Mari-Ann and Alf's - they will drive her over to Brockworth, where all 3 of them will attend the seminar.

20:00 I have a little alone time and watch a little television. The latest episode of a sitcom, "Two Doors Down," is on, all about a group of families living on the same street in the city of Glasgow. Most episodes revolve around a middle-aged couple, Colin and Cathy.

In this evening's amusing episode, Colin's best friend has died and the funeral is just over. At the beginning of the episode, we see Colin, Cathy and their friends sitting and relaxing in the living room after the ceremony.

Colin himself however  is apparently still very upset, and Cathy tries to cheer up him and all the guests by making the funeral wake more of a party or dance party, but she has only limited success. And she raises some eyebrows with her revealing dress and high heels, which some of the group think are not suitable for a funeral, but I’m going to let that one slide .

All the guests, including Cathy, are a little worried that

Colin is so upset, and not his normal self.

However, guests are impressed when they see that Colin has received 3 condolence cards on behalf of his late friend. And it is very touching that two of the 3 cards were sent by two of Scotland's best known betting shop chains, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes.

Colin finally cheers up after a long hug in the kitchen with young Gordon and Michelle, and an even longer hug with just Michelle. My god, what madness !!!!

21:30 Lois comes back and we listen a little to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "Inside Health". The host of the programme is the charming Dr. Mark Porter.

An fascinating programme. Lois and I often say that radio programmes are far more satisfying than television documentaries. There are no gimmicks and no wasted time, and hosts like Mark Porter come straight to the point, which is nice.

Dr. Mark Porter comes straight to the point again, which is nice.

If you exercise, you may not necessarily be losing weight, because you are losing fat but increasing your muscle mass. You can however lose up to 25% of the dangerous visceral fat that increases your risk of contracting dangerous diseases such as type 2 diabetes and which surround your internal organs. So you are clearly improving your health although not necessarily losing weight. Weight is important, but it is not the only important thing. However, you may find that  your waist circumference is smaller and your clothes may fit better.

And if you lose weight with the help of some kind of calorie restriction, it may not be as healthy for you as combining diet with exercise. Weight loss is generally beneficial if you are too heavy, but if you lose weight just by limiting the amount of food you eat, 25-33% of the weight you actually lose is muscle. For every 10 pounds of weight you lose, you probably lose 7 pounds of fat and 3 pounds of muscle. But if you also exercise, then more of the weight that you lose is fat. So, some sort of combination regime is a good idea.

If you just exercise, you have to do a massive amount of exercise in order to lose weight. A 30-minute brisk walk or run burns only 200-400 calories. So, therefore, to lose weight, you have to be on a diet too.

If you do a fitness session, then over the next 24 hours you will not burn many more calories, but you will burn a greater proportion of calories from fat. To lose weight, we need to burn more fat calories than we consume. So therefore, fitness sessions can result in fat loss, without necessarily resulting in weight loss.

And studies indicate that we tend to burn visceral fat first. Therefore, the first fat you lose is giving you the greatest benefit.

Muscles are important for older people! As we age and our muscles begin to shrink, this process is called sarcopenia. Our knowledge of muscles and their importance is mostly quite recent - in the past, the focus of science has been on other aspects of body health.

After we turn 50, then every year we lose about 1% of our muscle mass. If you have osteoarthritis, it is really important to maintain muscle strength around that joint - this seems to protect the joint and help with our pain levels and our ability to cope with the problem generally. And muscle loss can be reversed with the right exercises. So, the situation is not hopeless, to say the least, which is nice.

If we worry that we are getting weaker, resistance exercise is key, to be included in our regular routine, maybe 3 times a week. Many middle-aged people focus on cardiovascular fitness - we have been told for decades that it is healthy to run, cycle, swim, use step machines, etc. All that can help your muscles but it does not build strength throughout the system. The heart is an important muscle, but it is not the only one!

22:30 A lot of things for Lois and me to think about there.

We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Min ven, “Magyar” Mike ringer på døren og vi studerer ungarsk sammen i en time, startende med de 2 ordforrådstest, vi har udarbejdet til hinanden. Jeg har i nogle måneder været usikker på, om Mike nu finder sproget for svært – jeg har halvt forventer, han ville før eller senere, sige, han har besluttet at opgiver det. Så derfor var det et godt tegn, da han for nylig foreslog at vi udveksler ungarske ordforrådtest i begyndelsen af hvert møde.

Samtidig er vores ungarske timer imidlertid lidt kedelige, for mit vedkommende – hans evneniveau er ganske lavt nu til dags, og jeg skal hvert uge gøre mig umage ikke at falde i søvn, hvilket ikke er et særlig godt tegn, for at sige mildt. Og der er ikke nogen point i, at jeg prøver at fortælle vittigheder eller kommer med, hvad jeg synes er morsomme bemærkninger – jeg er helt sikker på, at han ikke kommer til at reagere til dem. Yikes!!!! Mike er en skygge af tidligere tiders storhed, det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!!!

”Magyar” Mike i lykkeligere tider, i 2017 i Praga, inden sin nylige tilbagegang,

sammen med Stephen (sit barnebarn) og ”Magyar” Mary, sin kone

11:00 Mike skal af sted. Lois og jeg går hen ind i landsbyen. Vi smutter ind i det lokale postkontor for at afsende to ”Peter Rabbit” børnemagasiner til Lily og Jessie, vores 5-årige børnebørn i Perth, Australien. Bagefter kigger vi ind i landsbyens nærbutik for at købet at par ting. VI kommer hjem langs landsbyens hovedgade.

det Peter Rabbit børnemagasin, vi afsender til Lily og Jessie,

vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien.

Det er umuligt ikke at være klar over, at landsbyens fremtid ser ikke god ud. Mens vi står ved disken i postkontoret, overhører vi en samtale om hvad der vil ske, hvis den tilknyttede bladhandlerforretningens ældre ejer beslutter at sælge den – og det er ikke helt klart om hun vil kunne finde en køber. Hvis bladhandlerforretningen lukker ned, vil fremtiden af forretningens postkontor-franchise være i tvivl. Der er rygter om, at den lokale  nærbutik, den tidligere Bakery Stores, kunne overtage den. Men det er vi ikke helt sikre på – juryen er stadig ude om det.

På den anden side af hovedgaden ser vi den tidligere Kings Arms-pub, der forleden lukkede og er til salg. Det er ikke helt klart om en ny ejer vil drejer den som en pub, eller om pubbens ganske store parkeringsplads vil blive dækket af nybyggede huse eller en etageejendom eller lignende.  Lois og jeg tror, en ny ejer ikke vil blive tilladt at rive selve pubben ned: det er sikkert at såden en gammel bygning vil blive værnet, det har vi ingen tvivl om, men den kunne blive omdannet til lejligheder måske. Yikes (igen) !!!!

Landsbyens Kings Arms-pub, der lukkede og er til salg

På vej hjem går vi forbi det tidligere lægehus, der lukkede i mandags. Lokale indbyggere væmmes over, at lægerne, der er flyttet ind i et spritnyt lægehus 5 miles væk herfra, aldrig skrev breve til deres patienter for at informere dem om lukningen af lægehuset. Lois og jeg har set nogle mennesker i dag dukker op til det lukkede lægehus, ikke klar over, at lægerne var stukket af. De er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger. Lois og jeg har allerede registreret os hos et andet lægehus midt i byen.

12:00 Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Jeg snakker lidt med Lois om vores tilsyneladende ”hendøende landsby”. Den hele saga minder os uhyggeligt om en anden landsby, ikke ret langt herfra, de for nylig blev lukket (kilde: Onion News, den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedswebsted).

Ifølge webstedets journalister, meddelte embedsmænd, at Storbrittaniens igangværende finanskrise ville nødvendiggøre lukningen af en mystisk badeby, som den britiske regering havde drevet siden 1967.

"I lyset af den nuværende økonomiske nedtur er det uklogt at holde denne hemmelige lokalitet åbent længere", sagde en mand kun identificeret som ”nummer to”.  Den pågældende badeby viste sig at være en bukoliske landsby, hvis eneste formål syntes at være eftersøgningen af ønskelige oplysninger fra tidligere intelligensagenter .

"Plus, omkostningerne ved at vedligeholde menneskelige skakbrætter, forældede penny-farthing cykler og vores toptrimmede  flygtningegenerorbringsfære viste sig for meget. Vi ville have lukket hele dette sted for mange år siden, hvis det ikke havde været for en særlig usamarbejdsvillige beboer." 

”omkostninger ved at vedligeholde menneskelige skakbrætter

viste sig for meget” – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Manden nægtede at svare direkte på nogle spørgsmål som helst om landsbyen, men i stedet brugte surrealistiske billeder og skrå henvisninger, før han afsluttede pressekonferencen med et stille og ondskabsfuldt "vi ses".

Lois og jeg mindes om, at vores landsbys egne menneskelige skakbrikker blev afskediget af kommunen for mange år siden, og mange af dem har haft svært med at justere sig til et liv uden skakbrætter. Og nu har de ikke noget lokale lægehus, hvor de kan modtage terapi, hvilket er lidt af en skam for at sige mildt.

En lokal arbejdsløs skakbrik modtager terapi på vores lokale lægehus,

der nu desværre er lukket – hulk hulk !!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermidddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles og bagefter laver lidt let vægttræning. I mellemtiden går Lois en tur rundt omkring på den lokale fodboldbane.

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad, lidt tidligere, end normalt, og bagefter skal vi ud. Lois har lyst til at deltage i sin sekts første bibelseminar af den nye semester. Det finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek. Hun har rygproblemer for tiden, og hun har bedt mig om at kører hende derover. Jeg sætter hende af foran Mari-Ann og Alfs hus – de skal køre hende over til Brockworth, hvor de alle tre skal deltage i seminaret.

20:00 Jeg har lidt alenetid og ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit af en sitcom, ”Two Doors Down”, der handler om nogle familier der bor på samme gade i byen Glasgow. De fleste afsnit kredser om et midaldrende ægtepar, Colin og Cathy.

I aftenens morsomme afsnit er Colins bedste ven død og begravelsen er nu overstået. I begyndelsen af episoden ser vi Colin, Cathy og deres venner sidde og slappe af i stuen efter ceremoniet.

Men selve Colin er åbenbart meget oprevet og Cathy prøver at opmuntre ham og alle gæsterne ved at gøre vågenatten til mere af en fest eller dansefest, men med kun begrænset succes. Og hun rejser nogle øjenbryn med sin afslørende kjole og høje hæle, som nogle synes, ikke er egnede til en begravelse, men det springer jeg over.

Alle gæsterne, herunder Cathy, er lidt bekymret over, at Colin virker så oprevet,

og ikke sit normale selv.

Gæsterne bliver imidlertid imponeret, da de ser, at Colin har modtaget 3 kondolencekort på vegne af sin afdøde ven. Og det er meget rørende, at to af de 3 kort blev sendt af to af Skotlands mest kendte væddemålbutikkæder, Paddy Power og Ladbrokes.

Colin opmuntrer sig omsider efter et langt kram i køkkenet med den ynge Gordon og Michelle, og en endnu længere kram med Michelle. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

21:30 Lois kommer tilbage og vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Inside Health”. Programmets vært er den charmerende dr Mark Porter.

Et interessant program. Lois og jeg siger ofte, at radioprogrammer er langt mere tilfredsstillende, end tv-dokumentarfilm. Der er ikke nogle gimmicks og ikke nogen spildt tid, og værter som Mark Porter kommer lige til sagen, hvilket er rart.

dr Mark Porter komme lige til sagen igen, hvilket er rart.

Hvis du dyrker motion, kan det være, at du ikke tabe vægt, fordi du taber fedt men øger dine muskler. Du kan tabe op til 25% af det farlige viscerale fedt, der øger dine risikoer for at pådrage sig farlige sygdomme såsom type 2 diabetes, og som omgiver dine indvendige organer, så du helt klart forbedrer din sundhed, uden nødvendigt at tabe vægt. Vægt er vigtig, men den er ikke den eneste vigtige ting. Det kan imidlertid være at din taljeomkreds blive mindre, og dit tøj passer bedre.

Og hvis du taber vægt ved hælp af en eller anden slags kaloribegrænsning, kan det være at dette ikke er så sundt, som at kombinere slankekur med motion. Vægttab er generelt gavnligt hvis du er for tung. Hvis du taber vægt bare ved at begrænse den beløb af mad du spiser, så er 25-33% af vægten du taber faktisk muskel. Ud af hver 10 pund vægt du taber, taber du sandsynligvis 7 pund fedt og 3 pund muskel. Men hvis du også dyrker motion, så er mere af væten du taber er fedt. Så derfor er noget slags kombinationsregime en god idé.

Hvis du bare dyrker motion, skal du lave en masse motion for at tabe vægt. En 30-minutters rask gåtur eller en løbetur forbrænde kun 200-400 kalorier. Så derfor for at tabe vægt, er du nødt til at være på slankekur også.

Hvis du laver en fitness sesssion, vil du over de efterfølgende 24 timer ikke forbrænde mange flere kalorier, men du vil forbrænde en større andel af kalorier fra fedt. For at tabe vægt behøver vi at forbrænde flere fedtkalorier, end vi forbruger. Så derfor kan fitness sessioner resulterer i fedtab, uden nødvendigvis resultere i vægttab.

Og undersøgelser antager, at vi har tendens til at forbrænde visceralt fedt først. Derfor er det første fedt du taber giver dig den største fordel.

Muskler er vigtige for ældre mennesker! Når vi ældes og vores muskler begynder at krymper, kaldes denne proces sarkopenie.  Vores viden om muskler og deres vigtighed er for det meste ganske nylig – i fortiden er videnskabs fokus blevet sat på andre aspekter af kroppens sundhed.

Efter vi fylder 50 år, taber vi hvert år 1% af vores muskelmasse. Hvis du har slidgigt, er det virkelig vigtigt at vedligehold muskelstyrke  omkring det pågældende led – dette synes at beskytte ledet og hjælpe med vores smerteniveauer og vores evne til at klare os generelt med problemet. Og muskeltab kan blive reverseret med de rigtige øvelser. Så er situation ikke håbeløs, for at sige mildt, hvilket er rart.

Hvis vi bekymrer over at vi bliver svagere, er nøglen modstandmotion, inkluderet i vores regelmæssige rutine, måske 3 gange om ugen. Mange midaldrende menneser sætter fokus på kardiovaskulær fitness – vi er blevet fortalt i årtier, at det er sundt at løbe, cykle, svømme, bruge stepmaskiner osv. Alt det der kan hjælpe dine muskler, men det bygger ikke styrke gennem hele systemet. Hjertet er en vigtig muskel, men det er ikke den eneste!

22:30 En masse ting for Lois og mig at tænke på der.

Vi går i seng  - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!