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!!!!!!