Monday, February 18 2019

09:45 After breakfast, Lois and I travel back to Cheltenham after a 3-day stay with our daughter Alison and her family in Haslemere, Surrey. The journey today is much more successful than Friday's journey from Cheltenham, when I forgot to fill up the car with petrol and had to drive for 10 minutes on the M4 motorway with the gasoline warning light on - yikes scary! And a possible sign of the onset of dementia, which is even more frightening.

We make only one stop on the way home:-  Membury Services on the county border between Berkshire and Wiltshire, just to go to the toilet and drink a cup of coffee.

Membury Services on the M4

Today I’m concentrating better -  next month I will turn 73 years old, and I want to continue to be able to handle longer motorway journeys without difficulty. It is in some ways fortunate that we have a daughter who lives over 100 miles away from us (114 miles), otherwise I would probably just confine myself to driving in town, with occasional trips to holiday cottages in the nearby counties of Somerset and Devon. It is probably good for my mental health to be forced now and then to venture out of my comfort zone.

My go-to news site, Onion News, recently released some helpful tips for getting unsafe elderly drivers to stop driving, tips that I have passed on to Alison, our elder daughter just to be on the safe side.

Of course, there were far too many tips in the video to include them all here, but there were some very useful ideas, no doubt about that!

Tip # 1: Be prepared to have a difficult conversation with your elderly loved ones...

...and afterwards an endless series of other unconnected conversations

Tip # 2: Test the elderly person's physical abilities by forcing them to wrestle you for the keys

Tip # 3: Offer to drive them around the neighbourhood and to the supermarket once in a while,

"unless you’ve forgotten your dear grandparents,

now that you have all those fun young friends in the big city ”

Good grief, what madness! But I have learned at least one important tip from the Onion news site's interesting video presentation on the subject: the importance of continuing to cultivate my hand grip exercises in the event that I am forced to wrestle with some relative or friend for possession of my car keys. Hand grip exercises can also help reduce blood pressure so it's all good news.

12:45 We arrive home - but there’s no cat to greet us, sob sob! Sadly, Minx died last December at the age of almost 19 years.

I get a text message from Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. The family has been unwell and suffering from bronchitis for a few days, but now it looks like better times are on the way, thank goodness. Only Francis, Sarah's husband, is still sick now.

Their 5-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie started in primary school at the beginning of the month. Their teacher has posted some charming pictures of the class on the ClassDoJo website.

an important day in the lives of our twin grandchildren and their new classmates -

their first day at school. And how cute they look in their new school uniforms !!!

13:15 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois swings by the neighbours (Bill and Mary) to talk to Mary and tell her the latest news about Alison's family in Haslemere.

Mary suffers from dementia and Lois likes to help out by having little chats with Mary and keeping her up to date with our family's activities. And while Lois is there, Bill can relax and have a break from looking after Mary. Lois is so warm-hearted - if only I could be more like her !!!

17:00 Lois comes back from next door and we have dinner. Afterwards we spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. Monday night is TV quiz night at our house.  "Only Connect" and "University Challenge” are on.

Lois and I are always happy about any questions that we can answer, but which all the fresh young brains strike out on,  because we believe it proves we are not yet suffering from dementia.

Tonight sadly, we are exhausted after the weekend, all the chit-chat, and the journey home earlier in the day, and we do not shine, to put it mildly. My God!

21:30 We continue to watch a bit of television. We see the second part of the interesting documentary series "The Secret Lives of Slim People", all about people who eat a lot of often unhealthy food every day, and do not exercise, but who somehow manage to remain annoyingly skinny. The host of the program is the charming Sabrina Grant.

The program is only approx. 20 minutes long (if you press the fast-forward button during the advertisements), which is nice. Every week, the program looks at 2 people, each of whom exhibits different characteristics and has completely different routines from the other featured person:

(1) Karl (36) spend the day visiting customers to install car alarms and security systems: he eats a lot of fast food and does not get any exercise at all. He is 5 feet 10 tall, with waist size 28 inches, and he weighs 9 stone 13 (139 pounds / 63kg).

Karl

(2) Gaby (35), a landscape architect, loves burgers, and gorges on a lot of food in the evenings, although dinner is primarily made up of a wide variety of vegetables. She doesn't get any exercise at all. She is 5 feet 7 tall, has dress size 8 (UK), and weighs 8 stone 5 (117 pounds / 53 kg).

Gaby

Sabina Grant’s researchers analyse Karl and Gaby's routines.

It turns out that Karl eats exactly the same food every day at the same times, and he prefers to eat early rather than late. And his stomach and his intestine know exactly what kind of food they are going to have to deal with, and when.

The programme's researchers talk about so-called "chrono-nutrition", which means trying to fit one’s mealtimes to one’s body clock, and which is an ideal way of losing weight, many experts believe. And it is also true that we burn calories more efficiently in the morning than we do later in the day. It is also better not to eat dinner too late in the evening - Karl eats every day at 6:30 pm.

On the other hand, Gaby eats an extraordinary variety of vegetables it seems, also a lot of vinegar, soy, fermented vegetables and the like, also nuts and seeds, thanks to Gaby's husband who is very into cooking. An Irish laboratory analysed the content of Gaby’s intestines, and concluded that they had never seen such a wide range of microbes in the intestines of anyone they have ever tested from Western Europe – good grief, what madness !!!

The Irish researchers believe that some of this extraordinary range of microbes is likely to be helping Gaby control her weight, but they aren't quite sure yet exactly which microbes are responsible for the weight loss: more research is needed, apparently. but it’s certainly also true that eating a lot of  vegetables tends to fill you up quickly, which is also bound to help with weight loss.

After the program, Lois and I discuss Karl's routine. Like Karl, we like to eat early in the evening, mostly at 6 pm. I also get up early, to put it mildly, but I don’t eat breakfast till 4-5 hours later - maybe it would be better if I ate breakfast earlier so I match my mealtimes better to my body clock. But we are not quite sure about that - the jury is still out on that one. We will have to see.

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

Danish translation

09:45 Efter morgenmad kører Lois og jeg tilbage til Cheltenham efter 3 dages ophold hos vores datter Alison og hendes familie i Haslemere, Surrey. Rejsen var meget mere succésfuld end fredags rejsen fra Cheltenham, da jeg glemte at fylde bilen op med benzin og måtte køre i 10 minutter på M4-motorvejen med benzinadvarselslampe tændt – yikes skræmmende! Og en mulig tegn på begyndelsen af demens, hvilket er endnu mere skræmmende.

Vi gør kun én stop på vejen hjem: Membury-rastepladsen på grevskabgrænsen mellem Berkshire og Wiltshire for at gå på toilettet og drikker en kop kaffe.

Membury-rastepladsen på M4-motorvejen

I dag koncentrerer jeg mig mere: næste måned fylder jeg 73 år, og jeg ønsker at fortsætte med at være i stand til at klare længere rejser på motorvejen uden besvær. Det er på nogle måder heldigt, at vi har en datter der bor over 100 miles væk fra os, ellers ville jeg sandsynligvis nøjes med at begrænse mig til at køre bil i byen, med lejlighedsvise rejser til feriehuse i de nærliggende grevskaber Somerset og Devon. Det er sandsynligvis godt for min psykisk sundhed at blive tvunget nu og da til at komme ud af min komfortzone.

Min go-to nyhedswebsted, Onion News, offentliggjorde for nylig nogle nyttige tips for at få usikre ældre chauffører til at holde op med at køre bil, tips som jeg har videregivet til Alison, vores ældste datter for en sikkerheds skyld.

Der var selvfølgelig alt for mange tips til at inkludere dem alle her, men nogle meget nyttige idéer, ingen tvivl om det!

Tip #1: Vær parat til at have en vanskelig samtale med dine ældre kære,

og bagefter en endeløs række af andre uforbundede samtaler

Tip #2: Test  de ældres fysiske evner ved at tvinge dem til at brødes og kæmpe for nøglerne

Tip #3: tilbyd at køre dem rundt i nabolaget og til supermarkedet fra tid til anden,

”medmindre du har glemt dine kære bedsteforældre,

nu hvor du har alle de der sjove unge venner i storbyen”

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Men jeg har lært i det mindste én vigtig tip fra Onion-nyhedswebstedets interessant video-fremlæggelse om emnet: vigtigheden af at fortsætte med at dyrke mine håndgreb øvelser for det tilfælde at, at jeg bliver tvunget til at brydes og kæmpe med en eller anden slægtning eller ven for besiddelsen af bilnøglerne. Håndgrebøvelser kan også hjælpe med at reducere blodtryk så det er alt gode nyheder.

12:45 Vi kommer hjem – men ingen kat hilser os, hulk hulk! Minx døde desværre på næsten 19 år sidste december.

Jeg har fået en sms fra Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien. Familien har været dårligt tilpas og har ledt af bronkitis i nogle dage, men nu er der udsigt til bedre tider gudskelov. Kun Francis, Sarahs mand, er stadig syg nu.

Deres 5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie startede i folkeskole i begyndelsen af måneden. Deres lærerinde har lagt nogle charmerende billeder af klassen op på ClassDoJo-webstedet.

en vigtig dag i livet af vores tvillingbørnebørn og deres nye klassekammerater –

deres første dag i skole. Og hvor ser de dog søde ud i deres nye skoleuniformer!!!

13:15 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden smutter Lois ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt med Mary og fortælle hende vores seneste nyheder om Alisons familie i Haslemere.

Mary lider af demens og Lois kan godt lide at hjælpe til ved at snakke lidt med Mary og holde hende ajour med vores families gøren og laden. Og mens Lois er der kan Bill slappe af og få lidt af en pause fra at passe på Mary. Lois er så varmhjertet – hvis bare jeg kunne ligne hende mere!!!

17:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra nabohuset og vi spiser aftensmad. Bagefter bruger vi resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mandag aften er tv-quiz-aften hos os. De viser ”Only Connect” og ”University Challenge.

Lois og jeg er altid glad for de spørgsmål, som vi kan besvare, men som alle de friske unge hjerner har problemer med, fordi vi tror det beviser, at vi ikke endnu lider af demens.

I aften er vi desværre udmattede efter weekenden, en masse snik-snak, og rejsen hjem tidligere på dagen, og vi brillerer ikke, for at sige mildt. Du godeste!

21:30 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det 2. afsnit af den interessant dokumentarfilmserie ”The Secret Lives of Slim People”, der handler om de mennesker, der hver dag spiser en masse, ofte usund mad, og ikke dyrker motion, men som på en eller anden måde når at forblive irriterende magre. Programmets vært er den charmerende Sabrina Grant.

Programmet er kun ca. 20 minutters langt (hvis man trykker på fast-forward-knappen under reklamerne), hvilket er rart. Hver uge kigger programmet på kun 2 unge mennesker, der hver udviser anderledes egenskaber, og har helt anderledes rutiner,  end hinanden:

(1)    Karl (36) bruger dagen på at besøge kunder for at installere bilalarmer og sikkerhedssystemer: han spiser en masse fastfood og får slet ikke nogen motion.  Han er 5 fods 10 høj, med taljestørrelse 28 tommer, og han vejer 9 sten 13 (139 pund / 63kg).

(2)   Gaby (35), der er landskabsarkitekt, elsker burgere, og mæsker sig i masse af mad om aftenen, selvom aftensmaden består først og frememst af en bred vifte af grøntsager. Hun får slet ikke nogen motion. Hun er 5 fods 7 høj, har kjolestørrelse 8 (UK), og vejer 8 sten 5 (117 pund / 53 kg) .

Gaby

Sabina Grants forskere analyserer Karls og Gabys rutiner.

Det viser sig, at Karl spiser nøjagtig samme maden hver dag på de samme tidspunkter, og han foretrækker at spise tidligt, end sent. Hans mave og hans tarm ved præcis hvad slags mad de skal klare, og hvornår.

Programmets forskere taler her om den såkaldte ”chronoernæring”, der prøver at passe måltider til kropsuret, og som er en ideel måde at tabe vægt på, tror mange eksperter. Og det er også sandt, at vi forbrænder kalorier mere effektivt om morgenen, end senere på dagen. Det er også bedre ikke at spise aftensmad for sent på aftenen – Karl spiser hver dag kl 18:30.

Tværtimod spiser Gaby en ekstraordinær vifte af grøntsager lader det til, også en masse eddike, soja, fermenterede grøntsager og lignende, også nødder og frø, takket være Gabys mand, der går højt op i madlavning. Et irsk laboratorium  analyserede indholedet af hendes tarm, og konkluderede, at de aldrig har set så bred en vifte af bakterier i tarmen af en, der bor i Vest-Europa – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

De irske forskere tror, at nogle af denne ekstraordinære vifte af mikrober sandsynligvis hjælper Gaby med at kontrollere sin vægt, men de er ikke helt sikre på endnu, præcis hvilke de mikrober er, der kan være ansvarlige: mere forskning er nødvendig, lader det til.

Efter endt programmet diskuterer Lois og jeg lidt Karls rutine. Ligesom Karl, kan vi godt lide at spise tidligt om aftenen, for det meste kl 18. Jeg står også tidligt op, for at sige mildt, men jeg spiser først morgenmad 4-5 timer senere – måske ville det være bedre at spise morgenmad tidligere, så jeg passer mine måltider bedre med min kropsur. Men det er vi ikke helt sikker på – juryen er stadig ude om det. Vi får se.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!