Wednesday, February 27 2019

08:00 Lois and I stay lying in bed and we drink our morning tea. We think of my late sister Kathy, whom we miss so much, and also of her husband, Steve. Kathy died sadly on February 27, 2013, exactly 6 years ago today.

my earliest photos of myself and Kathy, my little sister (March 1948) -

photos that were apparently taken by a professional photographer

08:30 We get up, and after breakfast Lois has to go out. She has an appointment with the local ladies’  hairdresser, Billy Shears, at 9:30 am, and afterwards she plans to drop in on Rose, her former work colleague, who had a birthday last Thursday, to ask her if the day went well.

Meanwhile, I start to read lines 4240-4324 of Chaucer's "Reeve’s Tale", one of his well-known Canterbury tales.

The story is about two Cambridge students who spend the night at Symkyn’s house – Symkyn is a local miller who lives and works in the nearby village of Trumpington. The two students, John and Aleyn, succeed in cheating the miller by having sex with his wife and with his daughter, while the miller himself is lying in bed asleep (and snoring) after a drunken evening. 

The students in this way take their revenge on the miller for having cheated their college so often in the past, stealing flour from them to bake bread for his own family.

The two students manage to have sex with the miller's wife and his daughter,

while the miller himself (left) lies in bed asleep (Elisabeth Frink -1970)

Consumer groups do not generally recommend this kind of "direct action" against fraudulent traders as far as I know, but the two students must have felt very satisfied with their campaign of revenge, to put it mildly!

Lynda's U3A Middle-English group is holding its monthly meeting on Friday in the town’s Everyman Theatre, and this tale of Chaucer’s  is the group's current project. Now that I have been able to read these extra 85 lines of the story, I am now fully prepared for Friday's group meeting.

My only concern is that Chaucer’s works, although sometimes tricky, soon become quite easy to read, especially when you have become used to the style, and I’m not sure it will be sufficiently challenging for Lynda’s little group.

Extract from the Reeve’s tale –

too easy now, and not challenging enough, perhaps?

10:00 Lois has not turned up yet. I have a little more alone time, so I listen to radio, an interesting programme in the series, "Inside Health". The host of the programme is the charming Dr. Mark Porter.

Scientists have discovered that older people suffer a lot from the many bad effects of staying in hospital, and the whole process tends to age them quickly: loss of muscle function, cognitive decline, depression, lack of sleep, collapse of their support network outside the hospital – you name it. My goodness, what a nightmare!

Dr. Porter, the programme’s host, visited Warwick Hospital, where incidentally our granddaughter, Jessie, was admitted for a week shortly before the family moved to Australia in December 2015.

In the programme, we hear that hospital staff always try to examine their elderly, frail patients immediately after their arrival, and discharge them as soon as it is safe to do so;  and during their stay in the hospital they try as much as possible to discourage them from spending the day in bed. They dress their elderly patients early in the morning and encourage them to remain as active as possible throughout the day, and also to get as much exercise and therapy as possible.

While presenter Mark was at the hospital, a Wasps rugby team was also visiting the hospital's elderly patients and joining in while the patients received physio-therapy, which was nice.

Wasps Rugby Team (men)

Wasps Rugby Team (women)

The second feature in this programme is about the bad effects of alcohol abuse, that seem to be more intense when it comes to poorer people than to richer people.

The statistics seem to show, however, that poor people and rich people drink on average similar amounts of alcohol, but the programme's researchers believe that these statistics are not helpful when it comes to understanding the problem. Some poor people tend to binge-drink, and this phenomenon leads to a misleading impression. Whilst other poor people drink no alcohol at all because it is too expensive.

Other complicating factors are as follows: dependence on alcohol often leads to poverty, or to unemployment first and poverty shortly afterwards. Some people drink no alcohol because they are already sick. Poorer people have greater tendency also to be overweight, inactive, and to have a poor diet. And younger, vulnerable people in poor areas are more likely to die early anyway, from suicide, mental health problems, accidents, violence, etc. And yes, lastly, poor people are always less likely to seek treatment.

My god, how complicated life is!

12:00 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and we relax with a cup of tea on the sofa.

We listen a little bit more to the radio, an interesting programme (part 1 of 2) all about Islamic cultures and their past sensuality, especially contrasting it with the current puritanism of Islam. The programme's host is the charming journalist and author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who is herself a Muslim: she was born in Uganda but moved to Britain in 1972, aged 23, when Idi Amin was in power over there.

Yasmin recalls her childhood and youth in Uganda, where Muslim women were religious and pious, but at the same time also enjoyed life, and enjoyed sex: they wore bright colourful clothes, eye-liner and lipstick, exotic perfumes, listened to Indian film music, hung sensual pictures on their walls etc etc.

journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

For centuries, the Muslim world had been a world of self-expression, tolerance, curiosity and sensuality, in comparison to the Western world, which was at that time hidebound by puritanical laws and habits, and a religion based on a sense of guilt - yikes, the West vs. Islam, a clash which was the exact opposite of what it is today ha ha ha!

In the West, we tend to forget that the Muslim world was for centuries a centre of mathematics and science, the place where the world's first hospitals and universities were built, also a world that was incredibly rich, compared to the West.

The historian Tom Holland and the programme's Muslim experts compare western Christianity's ideas of original sin with Islam, where in the Koran there is no counterpart to this idea. Muslim women always had the right to seek sexual pleasure within the framework of their marriage, and this was considered a good thing. The Prophet once advised a woman to divorce her husband because she said he was ugly and no good in bed, which is a bit of a surprise, to put it mildly.

The classic "Thousand and One Nights" contains many saucystories that we rarely hear about: for example, a tale in which three sisters meet a porter who was in love with them. The sisters promise to cook for him as long as he thinks of three new names for their vaginas – my god, a bit daring to say the least!

In the Middle Ages, the Islamic countries and China were the richest regions in the world, and from then on for many centuries European travellers were totally fascinated by them, whilst on the other hand Western religious leaders condemned them and railed against them because of their perceived sensuality.

In the 1570’s, William Harborne became England's first ambassador to Istanbul, and he found the experience dazzling, to say the least: the Turkish culture was internationalist and polyglot in a way that England was not. A craze for so-called “Saracen” plays started in the 1590's and Elizabethan dramatists filled their plays with Turkish harems and other aspects of Muslim culture, not to mention Shakespeare's Othello, etc.

The craze spread everywhere in Europe. A little later, for example, we have Mozart's famous "Rondo alla turqua", and his opera, "Abduction from the Seraglio". In the 18th and 19th centuries, many western travellers to the Middle East were again dazzled by the wealth and sensuality of the area, and found a personal liberation from western restrictions: Byron, for example, also Lady Mary Montague, Lady Hester Stanhope and others.

For centuries, the Muslim countries were the world's richest and most powerful, but the first signs of a significant shift came with Napoleon's campaign in Egypt (1798-1801), followed by 150 years of rising western domination, when for the first time many Western ways became fashionable in the Middle East: western clothes, French words, tables and chairs, knives and forks, western music, novel writing, and more.

Of course, the second major shift came in 1979 with Ayatollah Khomeini's Iranian Revolution, which kicked off the Arab world’s darkest days: the grey puritanism of a world controlled by joyless men and the absolute repression of women and women's rights, Yasmin says.

When it comes to feminism, it's a bit of a shame, says Yasmin, that this puritanical revolution ironically started in Iran because women in Iran in particular had enjoyed unprecedented freedom going back to the 1920's when, for example, women's magazines were full of cultural expression, with articles on access to job market, contraceptives, etc. American TV shows and American fashions became very popular among Iranian women after World War II, and as rising oil industry income spread across the country and among all classes, Iranian women became increasingly interested in sensuality, beauty treatments, plastic surgery etc, and many other topics and ideas that Ayatollah Khomeini would probably have disapproved of - yikes!

An interesting programme and Lois and I learned a massive amount to put it mildly. We look forward to hearing the second part of Yasmin's presentation next week.

17:30 We have dinner a little earlier  than usual, because Lois wants to participate in her sect’s local business meeting, set for tonight at 7:30 pm in Tewkesbury library. But later we get a text message on whatsapp, where it says that the meeting has been cancelled, so we actually spend the evening watching television.

A reality documentary is on (part 3 of the third season of the series), all about the lives of farmers working on isolated farms in remote regions of Britain.

This evening's footage was shot exactly 1 year ago, at the end of February 2018, in a period characterised by massive snowy weather coming from the direction of the North Sea, a phenomenon that the press called "the Beast from the East".

Lois and I remember the "Beast from the East" very well because we were preparing to fly from Birmingham Airport to Perth, Australia to spend 2 months with our daughter Sarah and her family. We travelled to Birmingham dressed in winter coats, scarves, hats etc and arrived in Perth where the temperature was approx. 95F / 35C. My god, what madness !!!

I recall that during our first free weekend over there we stopped by a small convenience store just outside the town of Lancelin, where the shopkeeper asked us if we came "from the mother country", which I thought was incredibly touching for some reason. He had heard of the "Beast from the East". Many Australians are very well informed about the news from the UK, I have to say.

Flashback to March 2018: Sarah and Lois looking out to  sea

 in the Lancelin area, Western Australia

the small convenience store where the shopkeeper asked us if

we came from “the mother country", which was incredibly touching in my opinion

22:00 We go to bed - I read about  5 pages of my bedtime book before I fall asleep - zzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg bliver liggende i sengen og drikker vores morgenté. Vi tænker på min afdøde søster Kathy, som vi savner så meget, og tænker også på hendes mand, Steve. Kathy døde desværre den 27. februar 2013, for nøjagtig 6 år siden.

mine tidligste fotoer af mig selv og Kathy, min lille søster (1948) –

fotoer, der tilsyneladende blev taget af en professionel fotograf

08:30 Vi står op og efter morgenmad skal Lois af sted. Hun har aftale hos den lokale damefrisør, Billy Shears, kl 9:30, og bagefter planlægger hun at smutte ind hos Rose, sin tidligere arbejdskollega, der havde fødselsdag sidste torsdag, for at spørge hende, om dagen gik godt.

I mellemtiden går jeg i gang med at læse linjerne 4240-4324 af Chaucers ”Riderfogedens Fortælling”, en af hans kendte Canterbury-fortællinger.

Fortællingen handler om 2 studerende, der tilbringer natten hos Symkyn, en lokal møller, der bor og arbejder  den nærliggende landsby Trumpington. Det lykkes de to studerende, John og Aleyn at snyde mølleren ved at have sex med hans kone og med hans datter, mens selve mølleren ligger og sover (og snorker) i sin seng. De studerende tager således hævn på mølleren for at have snydt deres kollegium så ofte i fortiden, ved at stjæle mel af dem for at bage sit eget brød.

Det lykkes de to studerende at have sex med møllerens kone og hans datter,

mens selve mølleren (til venstre) ligger og sover i sin seng (Elisabeth Frink -1970)

Forbrugergrupper anbefaler ikke denne slags ”direkte aktion” mod svigagtige producenter, så vidt jeg ved, men de to studerende må have følt sig meget tilfredsstillede af deres hævnkampagne, for at sige mildt.

Lyndas U3A middelengelske gruppe holder sit månedlige møde på fredag i byens Everyman-teater, og denne fortælling er gruppens nuværende projekt. Nu, hvor jeg er færig med at læse disse ekstra 85 linjer af fortælingen, er jeg blevet fuldt forberedt på fredags gruppemøde.

10:00 Lois er ikke dukket op endnu. Jeg har lidt mere alenetid, og jeg lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien, ”Inside Health”. Programmets vært er den charmerende dr. Mark Porter.

Forskere har opdaget, at ældre mennesker lider meget af de mange dårlige virkninger af at opholde sig i hospitalet, og det hele proces har tendens til at ælde dem hurtigt: tab af muskelfunktion, cognitiv tilbagegang, depression, mangel på søvn, sammenbrud af deres støttenetværk udenfor hospitalet. Du godeste, sikke et mareridt!

Porter, programmets vært, besøgte Warwick Hospital, hvor vores barnebarn, Jessie, blev indlagt i en uge kort før familien flyttede til Australien i december 2015.

I programmet hører vi, at hospitalets personale prøver at undersøge deres ældre, svage patienter umiddelbart efter deres ankomst, og udskrive dem så snart det er sikkert at gøre det, og under deres ophold på hospitalet at forhindre  dem i at tilbringe dagen i sengen så meget som muligt. De har for vane at klæde deres ældre patienter på tidligt om morgenen og opfordrer dem til at blive så aktive som muligt i løbet af dagen, også til at få så meget motion og terapi som muligt.

Mens Porter var i hospitalet, var et Wasps rugby-hold også i gang med at besøge hospitalets ældre patienter og var med, mens patienterne fik fysioterapi, hvilket var rart.

Wasps Rugby Team (men)

Wasps Rugby Team (women)

Programmets 2. indslag handlede om de dårlige virkninger af alkohol, der synes at være mere intense når det kommer til fattigere mennesker, end rigere mennesker.

Statistikken virker at vise, imidlertid, at fattige mennesker og rige mennesker drikker i gennemsnit  lignende beløb alkohol, men programmets forskere tror, at denne statistik ikke er behjælpelig, når det kommer til at forstå problemet. Nogle fattige mennesker har tendens til at binge-drikke, og dette fænomen fører til et misvisende indtryk . Andre fattige mennesker drikker ingen alkohol, fordi det er for dyrt.

Andre komplicerende faktorer er som følger:  selve afhængiheden af alkohol fører ofte til fattigdom, eller til arbejdsløshed først og fattigdom kort efter. Nogle mennesker drikker ingen alkohol på grund af, at de allerede er syge. Fattigere mennesker har større tendens til at blive overvægtige, inaktive, og at have en dårlig kost. Og yngre, udsatte mennesker i fattige områder er mere tilbøjelige til at dø tidligt fra selvmord, psykiske problemer, ulykker, vold osv.  Og fattige mennesker er mindre tilbøjelige til at søge behandling.

Du godeste, hvor kompliceret livet er!

11:00 Programmet har mindet mig om, hvor vigtigt det er at blive aktiv – yikes! Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og cykler 6 miles. Bagefter dyrker jeg lidt let vægttræning. Mens jeg er i gang med at cykle, Lois kommer tilbage og går ud igen i forhaven for at luge lidt.

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermidddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.

Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program (1. del af 2), der handler om islamiske kulturer og deres tidligere sanselighed, især i sammenligning med dets nuværende puritanisme. Programmets vært er den charmerende journalist og forfatter Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, der selv er muslimsk: hun var født i Uganda men flyttede til Storbritannien i 1972, på 23 år, da Idi Amin var ved magt derovre.

Yasmin mindes om sin barndom og ungdom i Uganda, hvor muslimske kvinder var religiøse og fromme, men også nød livet, og nød sex: de bar lyse kulørte tøj, eye-liner og læbestift, eksotiske parfumer, lyttede til indisk filmmusik, hang sanselige billeder på væggene.

journalisten Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Den muslimske verden havde i århundreder været en verden præget af selvudtryk, tolerans, nysgerrighed og sanselighed, i sammenligning til den vestlige verden, der dengang var begrænset af puritaniske love og vaner, og en religion baseret på en sans af skyld – yikes, det modsatte af nutiden ha ha ha!

I vesten har vi tendens til at glemme, at den muslimske verden i flere århundreder et arnested for matematik og videnskab, hvor verdens første hospitaler og universitater blev bygget, også en verden der var utrolig rig, i sammenligning med vesten.

Historikeren Tom Holland og programmets muslimske eksperter sammenligner den vestlige kristendoms idéer af oprindelig synd, med Islam, hvor der i koranen  ikke er nogen pendant til denne idé. Kvinder havde retten til at søge seksuel nydelse indenfor deres ægteskabs rammer. Profeten rådede en kvinde til at lade sig skille fra sin mand, efter hun fortalte, han var grim og ikke god i seng.

Den klassiske ”Tusind og én Nat” indeholder mange frække fortællinger, som vi sjældent hører om: for eksempel, en fortælling hvor tre søstre møder en porter, som elskede en af dem. Søstrene lover at lave mad til ham, så længe han finder på 3 nye navne for deres vaginaer – du godeste, lidt dristigt for at sige mildt!

I midalderen var den islamiske lande og Kina verdens rigeste regioner, og fra da af og i flere århundreder var europæiske rejsende helt fascinerede af dem, samtidigt med, at vestlige religiøse ledere tordnede mod dem for deres påståede sanselighed.

I 1570-erne blev William Harborne  Englands første ambassadør i Istanbul, og han fandt oplevelsen helt blændende, for at sige mildt: den turkiske kultur var internationalistisk og polyglot på en måde, England ikke var. En dille for såkaldte saraceniske teaterstykker startede i 1590’s og elizabethanske dramatikere fyldte deres stykker med turkiske haremmer og andre aspekter af muslimske kultur, for ikke at nævne Shakespeares Othello osv.

Dillen blev udspredt Europa over. Lidt senere har vi for eksempel Mozarts berømte ”Rondo alla turqua”, og hans opera, ”Bortførelsen fra Seraillet”. I det 18. og 19. århundrede blev mange vestlige rejsende til mellemosten igen blændet af områdets rigdom og sanseligehed og fandt en personlige befrielse fra vestlige begrænsninger: Byron for eksempel, også Lady Mary Montague, Lady Hester Stanhope.

I århundreder var de muslimske lande verdens rigeste og mest magtfulde, men de første tegn på et betydeligt skift var Napoleons felttog i Egypt (1798-1801), som blev fulgt af 150 år af stignende vestlige domination, da mange vestlige vaner for første gang blev moderigtige i Mellemosten: tøj, franske ord, borde og stole, kniver og gafler, vestlige musik, romanskrivning.  

Selvfølgelig kom den 2. betydelige skift i 1979 med Ayatollah Khomeinis iranske revolution, som startede den arabiske verdens mørkeste tider:  den grå puritanisme af en verden kontrolleret af glædesløse mænd og den absolute undertrykkelse af kvinder og kvinders rettigheder, siger Yasmin,

Det er lidt af en skam, siger Yasmin, at denne puritanske revolution startede i Iran, fordi især kvinder i Iran havde nydt en frihed uden fortilfælde startende fra 1920’erne, da kvindemagasiner for eksempel var fuld af kulturalisk udtryk, med artikler om adgang til jobmarkedet, prævention osv. Amerikanske tv-programmer og amerikanske moder bleve meget populære blandt iranske kvinder efter den 2. verdenskrig, og som stignende indkomst fra oliebranchen bredte sig landet over og blandt alle klasser, blev iranske kvinder mere og mere interesserede i sanselighed, skønhedsbehandlinger, plastikkirurgi osv, og mange andre emner og idéer som Ayatollah Khomeinie sandsynligvis misbilligede – yikes!

Et interessant program og Lois og jeg lærte en massiv beløb, for at sige mildt. Vi glæder os til at høre den 2. del af Yasmins fremlæggelse næste uge.

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad, lidt tidligere, end normalt, fordi Lois ønsker at deltage i sin sekts lokale forretningsmøde, bestemt til i aften kl 19:30 i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek. Men senere får vi en sms på whatsapp, hvor der står, at mødet er blevet aflyst, så faktisk bruger vi aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn.

De viser en reality-dokumentarfilm (3. del i seriens 3. sæson), der handler om livet af landmænd, der arbejder på isolerede gårde i fjerne regioner af Storbritannien.

Aftens filmsekvenser blev skudt for nøjagtig 1 år siden, i slutningen af februar 2018, under en periode karakteriseret af massivt snovejr kommende fra retning af Nordsøen, et fænomen, som pressen kaldte ”the Beast from the East”.

Lois husker godt ”Beast from the East”, fordi vi var i gang med at forberede os på at flyve fra Birmingham lufthavn til Perth, Australien for at tilbringe 2 måneder hos vores datter Sarah og hendes familie.  Vi rejste til Birmingham iklædte i vinterfrakker, halstørklæde, hatter osv, og ankom til Perth, hvor temperaturen var ca. 95F / 35C. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Jeg mindes om, at vi under vores 1. fri weekend derovre kørte forbi en lille nærbutik lidt udenfor byen Lancelin, hvor butikejeren spurgte os om vi kom ”fra moderlandet”, hvilket jeg syntes var utroligt rørende af en eller anden grund. Han havde hørt om ”Beast fromt the East”. Mange australiere er meget velinformerede om nyhederne fra Storbritannien, det må jeg nok sige.

Tilbageblik til marts 2018: Sarah og Lois i Lancelin-området, Western Australia

den lille nærbutik, hvor butikejeren spurgte os, om

vi kom fra ”moderlandet”, hvilket var utrolig rørende efter min mening

22:00 Vi går i seng – jeg læser ca. 5 sider af min sengetidbog, før jeg glider over i søvn – zzzzzzzzz!!!!

Tuesday, February 26 2019

08:00 Lois and I go in the shower and after breakfast I start preparing for my weekly "Hungarian hour" with my friend, "Magyar" Mike. I devise a Hungarian vocabulary test, based on Lesson 8 in our current textbook, which I will “invite” him to take. He will do the same for me.

10:00 Mike rings at the door and we study Hungarian for an hour. We exchange vocabulary tests and read lesson 9 in our textbook. Mike has been ageing fast day by day over the past 12 months, no doubt about that, and he has forgotten some basic Hungarian words, for example, the numbers, the number "5" for example (yikes!) – my god, what madness! But I think he is determined to get back to his previous level, if at all possible, which is encouraging.

Flashback to June 2014: "Magyar" Mike (left) in happier times -

seen here with Lois, and with his wife, "Magyar" Mary (right).

He has become a bit of a nervous driver, to put it mildly, and he hasn’t yet got used to the new used car he bought last December. I don't want to be tactless, but I offer to occasionally visit him every Tuesday morning, instead of him visiting me, or else we could meet up at some café for example, say, midway between Nailsworth and Cheltenham.

He rejects my offer (politely), but I'm glad I have made it clear that I would be willing to compromise if he wanted that. Perhaps Mike thinks he'll be on a slippery slope as soon as he begins to cut down on driving, a viewpoint I can sympathise with.

11:00 Mike has to leave, and Lois and I go for a short walk on the local football field. It is quite warm again today, although the weather girl is saying that temperatures will start to drop gradually after tomorrow.

We go for a short walk on the local football field

12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 2:30 pm.

I start reading lines 4114-4239 of Chaucer's "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 tale is the group's current project. Tomorrow I will have to read another 85 lines of the story, and after that I will be fully prepared for Friday's group meeting.

The story's bad guy, "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's house in Cherry Hinton.

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

He and his wife are extremely proud of the fact that she is the daughter of the local 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. The couple have a 20 year old daughter Malyne and a six month old son.

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

Two college students, John and Aleyn, are furious about this latest rip-off by Symkin, and decide to take revenge on the miller. They gather together 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, to prove that college students are not always the cleverest of people. He secretly unharnesses their horse, and the two students go chasing after it but are away all day, not managing to catch it until evening. Meanwhile, Symkyn steals some of their wheat and gives it to his wife, so she can bake him a free loaf of bread.

My goodness, what a crazy world they lived in !!! You couldn't trust anyone in those days!

But the most important thing to notice is that Symkyn has a wife and a 20-year-old daughter, Malyne. And when the two students return to Symkyn and it's too late for them to go home, I suppose Chaucer's readers would have already guessed that the two students, John and Aleyn, would end up in bed with the two women : that kind of incident is quite normal in Chaucer's stories, no doubt about that. Also, the two students have a grudge against Symkyn, because he has cheated them again - and what better way to take revenge on the miller than to have sex with his wife and daughter.

Symkyn plus his wife plus the two students, have a little too much to drink during the evening, to put it mildly. When the miller and his wife are asleep (and snoring) in their bed, Aleyne hops into bed with Symkyn's sleeping daughter, the 20-year-old Malyne.

John feels a bit out of things and lonely in his own bed, so later, when the miller's wife pops to the toilet, John decides to trick her into getting back into bed with him instead of with her husband.  John moves the baby's cradle from the foot of the couple's double bed to the foot of his own bed, to confuse the wife when she comes back from the toilet.

16:00 Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch and we discuss Chaucer's story.

All in all, the wife seems to have sex with John by mistake - she thinks she's having sex with her husband. While the daughter seems to have sex with Aleyne willingly  and to be enjoying it all - even though Chaucer writes that before she could see the Aleyne in the dark, it was already "too late to cry out" - Aleyne was already doing it, according to the poet. Lois says that for that reason there are grounds to characterise the act as a rape, and I agree with her. But we suppose that this is a modern point of view.

We also think the wife should have noticed that the man in bed with her was not her husband, especially considering that John was maybe about. 20 years younger than old Symkyn, but we’re going to let that one slide. We suppose that the wife was very drunk, according to Chaucer’s story.

It is interesting that the so-called "cradle-trick" was a bit of a cliché in the Middle Ages, that is to say, fooling a woman by moving a cradle from the foot of one bed to the foot of another bed, so that she hops  into the wrong bed, an idea which seems a little strange to modern eyes. But Chaucer's readers would have suspected exactly what was going to happen as soon as the cradle was moved, no doubt about that.

the “moving the cradle trick”, with the idea of getting the woman 

to hop into the wrong bed was a bit of a cliché in the Middle Ages, 

which seems a little strange to modern eyes

16:30 I recall a recent report I saw on my go-to news site, Onion News. The article emphasised that Chaucer can be problematic for modern readers, especially when it comes to teachers or lecturers who become too enthusiastic and immerse themselves too much in it all. A warning for all of us here not to get too "into it"!

Students at a local high-school recently hit the headlines when they told local journalists how pleased they were that a standardised curriculum had been introduced, which would mean that they could in future escape role-playing practice, or specially invited guest speakers, or other "surprises" that their free-spirited English teacher might have planned for them.

"I'm just relieved that Mr. [Aaron] Honey just has to prepare us for the test and can't do anything like reciting an original poem out loud and afterwards calling on us to express ourselves through poetry too," said 16-year-old Peter Macpherson, adding that if it were not for nationally established performance standards, his teacher would probably feel free to engage in all kinds of creative activities, such as arranging a class trip to a colonial farmhouse during their reading of The Scarlet Letter, or coming into class dressed as Mark Twain.

"Thank goodness we all have to take a single, nationwide exam at the end of the year, so there is no way he will be able to waste class time with inspirational speeches that encourage us to excel as unique individuals."

The students confirmed that they were happy to rote-learn as many facts as necessary rather than listen to Mr Honing speaking in Middle English for their entire Chaucer unit.

How sensible! And something to recall when we hear people criticising today's youth, no doubt about that! The kids are all right!

17:00 Lois and I have dinner a little earlier than usual and after that, we have to go out. Lois wants to  attend her sect’s weekly Bible seminar, taking place tonight in Brockworth library. She hasn't gotten used to her new glasses yet, so she asks me to drive her to Mari-Ann's house, where Fran will pick her up and drive her over to Brockworth. Fran will also attend the seminar. This semester's seminars are all about "The gospel in Isaiah".

a recent session of the sect's weekly Bible seminars: 

Fran is No. 3 from the left

18:00  I drive home. I have some alone time, but I have to be ready to drive over to Mari-Ann's house at about 9:30 pm to pick up Lois and bring her home again.

I see a little television, the 5th episode of the Danish drama series, "Ride upon the Storm", starring the famous Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, as Johannes, a provost with problems - to put it mildly. First and foremost, an extreme alcohol dependency.

Johannes is a leading provost in the Danish Lutheran folk church. He is married to Elisabeth, but he also has a mistress, Ursula, who is one of the parish sextons. In the first episode of the series we saw Johannes and Ursula having sex in Ursula's shed in the churchyard, where she keeps her shovels and other equipment. We simultaneously hear spooky background music while the couple are going to it as if John has been possessed by the devil - yikes!

Johannes, the provost, having sex with one of his parish sextons

inside the churchyard shed where she keeps her spades and other equipment

In the fourth episode, Elisabeth discovers that Johannes and Ursula are having regular sex - Ursula has given John a small gift, with the word "kisses" on the packaging and a small note inside, "Looking forward to Thursday". Elisabeth discovers the package in one of Johannes’s jacket pockets. She confronts Johannes with the package and insists that Johannes gets Ursula moved to another parish, insisting also  that Johannes is going to have to sleep in his study room in the future - she will never sleep with him again, she says.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth has invited her Norwegian friend, Liv, a young violinist, to stay with the family over Christmas and New Year. The violinist believes in a lot of "alternative" medicines and ancient, naturalistic drugs - and the two women come into the habit of crouching down in the backyard to pee together and fertilize the soil.

In this fifth episode, Elisabeth discovers that Ursula, Johannes’s mistress, is still working in the parish, and she threatens to leave Johannes if he does not fire Ursula within the next 7 days.

Johannes’s wife, Elisabeth, discovers that the young Ursula, Johannes’s mistress,

is still working in the parish, which she is not very happy about to put it mildly!

Elisabeth threatens to leave Johannes

if he does not fire Ursula within the next 7 days

Unfortunately, the parish’s financial adviser has doubts about whether John can fire Ursula just because Johannes’s wife wants him to.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth herself becomes more and more friendly towards her Norwegian friend, Liv, the violinist. They both get drunk after an orchestral exercise, and they end up kissing.

All in all, an exciting episode. My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

21:30 Lois calls me. I drive over to Mari-Ann's house and pick her up. We come home - I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and wind down before going to bed - the evening's seminar was very stimulating, she says. She stays up and sees a little television. She doesn't wake me when she jumps into bed at 11 o'clock. Zzzzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg går i bad og efter morgenmad går jeg I gang med at forberede mig på min ugentlige “ungarsktime” med min ven, ”Magyar” Mike. Jeg udtænker en ungarsk ordforrådtest, baseret på Lektion 8 i vores nuværende lærebog, som jeg vil invitere ham til at tage. Han vil gøre det samme for  mig.

10:00 Mike ringer på døren og vi studerer ungarsk i en time. Vi udveksler ordforrådtest og læser lektion 9 i vores lærebog. Mike har ældes hurtigt dag for dag i de seneste 12 måneder, ingen tvivl om det, og han har glemt nogle grundlæggende ungarske ord, for eksempel, tallene, tallet ”5” for eksempel (yikes!) - du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Men jeg synes, han er fast besluttet på at vende tilbage til sit foregående niveau, hvis muligt, hvilket er opmuntrende.

Tilbageblik til juni 2014: ”Magyar” Mike (til venstre) i lykkeligere tider –

sammen med Lois, og sin kone, ”Magyar” Mary.

Han er blevet til lidt af en nervøs chauffør, for at sige mildt, og han er ikke vænnet sig endnu til den nye brugte bil, han købte sidste december. Jeg har ikke lyst til at være taktløs, så derfor tilbyder jeg , at jeg nu og da kunne besøge ham hver tirsdag formiddag, i stedet for, at han besøger mig, ellers vi kunne mødes på en eller anden café for eksempel midtvejs mellem Nailsworth og Cheltenham.

Han afslår mit tilbud (høfligt), men jeg er glad for, at jeg gjorde det klart, at jeg ville være villig til at kompromittere, hvis han gerne ville det. Måske tror Mike, at han vil være ude på en skråplan, så snart han begynder at skære ned på at køre bil, hvilket jeg kan sympatisere med.

11:00 Mike skal af sted, og Lois og jeg går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane. Det er ganske varmt igen i dag, selvom vejrpigen siger, temperaturer begynder at synke gradvist efter i morgen.

Vi går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 14:30.

Jeg går i gang med at læse linjer 4114-4239 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 nuværende projekt. I morgen er jeg nødt til at læse endnu 85 linjer af fortælingen, og så vil jeg være fuldt forberedt på fredags gruppemøde.

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. Og da de to studerende kommer tilbage hos Symkyn, og det er for sent for dem til at rejse hjem, formoder jeg at Chaucers læsere allerede ville have gættet, at de to studerende, John og Aleyn, ville ende ud i sengen med det to kvinder: den slags hændelse er normal i Chaucers fortællinger, ingen tvivl om det. Også de to studerende bærer nag til Symkin på grund af, at han har snydet dem – og hvilken bedre måde kunne der være at tage hævn på mølleren, end at have sex med hans kone og hans datter.

Symkyn, hans kone, og de to studerende får lidt for meget at drikke i løbet af aftenen, for at sige mildt. Da mølleren og hans kone ligger og sover (og snorker) i deres seng, hopper Aleyne op i sengen til datteren. Senere, da møllerens kone smutter på toilettet, beslutter John at narre hende til at hoppe op i sengen til ham, i stedet for hendes mand. John rykker babyens vugge fra foden af parrets dobbeltseng til foden af sin egen seng, for at forvirre konen, når hun kommer tilbage fra toilettet.

16:00 Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen, og vi diskuterer Chaucers fortælling.

Alt i alt, lader det til at konen har sex med John ved en fejltagelse – hun tror, at hun har i færd med at have sex med sin mand. Mens datteren virker at have sex med Aleyne med god vilje og nyde det hele – selvom Chaucer skriver, at før hun kunne se Aleyne, var det allerede ”for sent til at råbe” – Aleyne var allerede i gang med at gøre det, ifølge digteren. Lois siger, at derfor er der grund til at karaktisere akten som voldtægt, og det er jeg enig med hende i. Men vi formoder, dette er en moderne synspunkt.

Vi synes også, at konen skulle have bemærket, at manden i sengen ikke var hendes mand, især i betragtning af, at John var måske ca. 20 år yngre end ham, men det springer vi over! Vi formoder, at konen var meget beruset.

Det er interessant, at det såkaldte ”vugge-fup” var lidt af en kliché i middelalderen, dvs dét, at fuppe en kvinde med at rykker en vugge fra foden af den ene seng til foden af en anden seng, så kvinden hopper op i den forkerte seng, hvilket synes lidt mærkeligt i moderne øjne. Men Chaucers læsere ville have mistænkt nøjagtigt, hvad der ville ske så snart vuggen blev rykket, ingen tvivl om det.

vugge-fuppet, med det formål af at få kvinden til at hoppe op i den forkerte seng

var lidt af en kliché i middelalderen, hvilket synes lidt mærkeligt i moderne øjne

16:30 Jeg mindes om en nylige artikel, jeg læste på min go-to nyhedswebsted, Onion News. Artiklen understreger, at Chaucer kan være problematisk for moderne læsere, især når det kommer til lærere eller lektore, der bliver for entusiastiske og fordyber sig for meget i det hele.

Studenter på en lokale højskole ramte overskrifterne for nylig, da de fortalte lokale journalister, hvor glade de var for, at en standardiseret læseplan var blevet indført, hvilket ville betyde, at de fremover kunne undvige muligheder for rollespiløvelser eller for specielt inviterede gæsttalere: og for andre ”overraskelser”, som deres ekcentriske engelsklærer kunne have planlagt for dem.

"Jeg er bare lettet over, at Mr. [Aaron] Honing bare er nødt til at forberede os på testen og ikke kan gøre noget som at recitere et originalt digt højt og bagefter opfordre os til at udtrykke os selv gennem poesi også", sagde den 16-årige Peter Macpherson og tilføjede, at hvis det ikke var nationalt etablerede præstationsnormer, ville hans lærer sandsynligvis føle sig fri til at engagere sig i alle former for kreative aktiviteter, såsom at arrangere en klassetur til et kolonialt stuehus under deres læsning af The Scarlet Letter eller komme ind i klasse klædt som Mark Twain.

"Gudskelov, vi skal alle tager en enkelt, landdækkende eksamen i slutningen af året, så der er ingen måde, han vil spilde klassetiden med inspirerende taler, der opfordrer os til at udmærke os som unikke individer."

Eleverne bekræftede at de var glade for at lære udenad på remse så mange fakta som nødvendigt snarere end at lytte til hr. Honing tale i middelengelsk for hele deres chaucer-læseplan.

Hvor fornuftigt! Og noget man kan mindes om, når vi hører mennesker kritisere nutidens ungdom, ingen tvivl om det! The kids are all right!

17:00 Vi spiser frokost, lidt tidligere, end normalt, og derefter skal vi ud. Lois vil deltage i sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek. Hun har ikke vænnet sig endnu til sine ny briller, så hun beder mig om at køre hende over til Mari-Anns hus, hvor Fran vil afhente hende og køre hende over til Brockworth. Fran vil også deltage i seminaret.  Denne semesters seminarer handler om ”Evangelium i Esajas’ bog”.

en nylig session af sektens ugentlige bibelseminarer: Fran er nr.2 fra venstre

18:00 Jeg kører hjem. Jeg har lidt alenetid, men jeg må holde mig klar til at køre over til Mari-Anns hus kl 21:30 for at afhente Lois og køre hende hjem igen.

Jeg ser lidt fjernsyn, den 5. afsnit af af den danske dramaserie, ”Ride upon the Storm”, stjernespækket den berømte danske skuespiller Lars Mikkelsen, som Johannes, en provst med problemer – for at sige mildt. Først og fremmest en alkoholafhængighed.

Johannes er en førende provst i Danmarks  lutheranske folkekirke. Han er giftet med Elisabeth, men han har også en elskerinde, Ursula, der er en af provstiets gravere. I seriens første afsnit så vi Johannes og Ursula have sex i Ursulas skur i kirkegården, hvor hun opbevarer sine spader og andet udstyr. Vi hører samtidigt uhyggelig baggrundmusik, mens parret går til den, som om Johannes er blevet besat af dvævelen – yikes!

Provsten Johannes har sex med en af provstiets gravere

inde i skuret i kirkegården, hvor hun opbevarer sine spader og andet udstyr

I det 4. afsnit opdager Elisabeth, at Johannes og Ursula har regelmæssig sex – Ursula har foræret Johannes en lille gave, med ordet ”kys” på emballagen og en lille seddel derinde, ”glæder mig til torsdag”.  Elisabeth opdager pakken i en af Johannes jakkelommer.  Hun konfrontere Johannes med pakken og insisterer på, at Johannes får Ursula flyttet til et andet provsti, og at Johannes fremover sover i sin studerekammer – hun vil aldrig sove med ham igen, siger hun.

I mellemtiden har Elisabeth inviteret sin norske veninde, Liv, en ung violinist, til at bo hos familien julen og nytåret over. Violinisten tror på en masse ”alternative” mediciner og ældgamle, naturalistiske lægemidler – og de to kvinder kommer i vane med at sidde på hug i baghaven for at tisse sammen og gøde jorden.

I dette 5. afsnit opdager Elisabeth, at Ursula, Johannes’ elskerinde, arbejder stadig i provstiet, og hun truer Johannes med at forlade ham, hvis han ikke fyrer hende indenfor de næste 7 dage.

Johannes’ kone, Elisabeth, opdager at den unge Ursula, Johannes’ elskerinde,

stadig arbejde for provstiet, og det er hun ikke ret glad for, for at sige mildt!

Elisabeth truer Johannes med at forlade ham

hvis han ikke fyrer Ursula indenfor de næste 7 dage

Desværre har provstiets financielle rådgiver tvivler om, om Johannes kan fyre Ursula bare på grund af, Johannes’ kone vil det.

I mellemtiden bliver selve Elisabeth mere og mere venlig overfor sin norske veninde, Liv, violisten. De bliver begge to fulde efter en orkesterøvelse, og de ender med at kysse med hinanden.

Alt i alt et spændende afsnit. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

21:30 Lois ringer til mig. Jeg kører over til Mari-Anns hus og afhenter hende. Vi kommer hjem – jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare ned før hun går i seng – aftenens seminar var meget stimulerende, lader det til. Hun bliver oppe og ser lidt fjernsyn. Hun vækker mig ikke, da hun kl 23 hopper op i sengen til mig. Zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!