Thursday, February 21 2019

08:30 Lois and I take a shower and after breakfast we walk into the village to pick up a second copy of the “Peter Rabbit” children's magazine. We have two 5-year-old twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia. We always send them two copies of the magazine so that they do not quarrel over the free gifts on the cover. We are so warmhearted ha ha ha!

We can't help but notice how sad the village is starting to look: the Kings Arms pub is still closed and the pub's parking lot is covered with cameras and aggressive signs about not parking there without paying, even though no ticket machine has yet been installed - what madness!

The local post office and the affiliated newsagent’s are not flourishing as much as before, ever since the owner decided to stop delivering newspapers. The local pharmacy is also quieter than it used to be: the local doctor’s surgery has disappeared, and the pharmacy is now facing competition from the online store Pharmacy2u.co.uk, which advertises itself almost as part of the NHS, even though it is completely private - my goodness! For some reason, the company is allowed to use the official NHS logo on its window envelopes - what madness (again) !!!!

Our village is dying - help !!!!!!

On the way home, Lois and I go for a short walk around the neighbourhood, behind the church and past the old Plough pub. It is quite warm for the time of year and a lot of flowers have sprung up in people's front gardens, which is nice.

We go for a short walk along Mill Street behind the church

11:30 We come home in a good mood once more, and Lois starts to do a little weeding in the front yard. Spring is on the way, no doubt about that!

Lois starts to do a little weeding in the front yard -

Spring is coming, no doubt about that!

12:30 We have lunch. Afterwards we talk a little on Skype with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. She wants to practice using Skype again because she has scheduled a job interview via Skype for Monday: a possible job in the Brisbane area, as accountant at some college.

She has got a bit fed up with her current job in Perth - it's too stressful, she says, especially considering that she also has two young (5-year-old) daughters. And Francis, her husband, thinks he can get more job opportunities in Queensland - his speciality is creating computer-generated images of planned new homes and other buildings. New houses in the Perth area are selected by potential buyers out of catalogues – my god, what madness !!!

Sometimes I suspect that Francis shows  a somewhat worrying lack of flexibility when it comes to job opportunities, which means more pressure on Sarah, whose job is the only source of income for the family, but I’m going to let that one slide.

14:00 I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3:30 pm and we relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on the sofa. We listen a little to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "In Our Time", a series that assembles experts in a given field and goes into depth on some controversial or complex topic. This episode is all about pheromones, and the host of the programme is, as always, the charming Melvyn Bragg.

It is primarily insects that use pheromones, to compensate for the fact that their brain power is not terrific, to put it mildly.  But there is also evidence that, for example, little rabbit pups soon after birth show an ability to detect their mothers' breast pheromones:  it is very important that rabbits find a source of milk really really quickly, because the mothers only spend a few minutes a day in the nest.

Good grief, what madness! And a little irresponsible of the mothers to go hither and thither, instead of looking after their little ones, I have to say. I wonder what the mothers find so fascinating outside the nest. My goodness, the whole world has gone crazy !!!!

mummy-rabbits apparently prefer to be out shopping or eating 

at restaurants, or going to clubs, instead of staying at home 

and taking care of their little ones – good grief, what madness !!!

I did not know that farmers use artificial pheromones for pest control. They radiate artificial female insect pheromones, so the male insects waste a lot of time looking for non-existent females, without success, and without any immediate prospects of mating, which tends to diminish the area's insect count, to put it mildly. But I feel a little sorry for those love-sick males, I have to say.

Poor males !!!!!

a typical male crop-pest, who somehow can’t quite concentrate 

on eating his daily crops because he has the funny feeling 

there is a female around somewhere. Poor, lonely crop-pest!!!!

If a queen bee disappears from the hive, the worker bees can immediately detect the lack of the queen’s pheromones. They begin by searching for the queen, but if they strike out, they decide to make a new queen by finding a larva and stuffing it with bee milk (royal jelly). Even if the queen bee has simply got trapped somewhere and the worker bees cannot touch her, they basically adopt the same approach - and "create" a new queen. My god, what madness !!!!

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

17:00 There is so much knowledge and so many facts in the world and sometimes I get a little desperate that my efforts to master them all are making such slow progress. I got an interesting email from Steve, my American brother-in-law, about Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa, who in 1928 invented a machine to slice bread, which, arguably, led to mankind's most beneficial advance since the invention of bread itself (which was about 30,000 years ago).

Rohwedder's biggest problem was finding out how to keep the bread fresh - his first solution was to use hat-pins to hold the slices together, but the hat-pins tended to fall out, which was a bit of a shame to put it mildly. Finally, he thought of getting the machine to pack the bread in wax paper after it had sliced ​​it. Simples!

And maybe not so "simples" as all that - Otto began his project in 1912 - and the whole process lasted 16 years. But hail to thee, Otto - you kept us out of war.

I am absolutely sure that I would not be happy to bite into a hat-pin while chewing on a piece of bread, no doubt about that. A few weeks ago, Lois bit into a small piece of plastic when we were having dessert at the local garden centre restaurant. The staff apologised in a slightly off-hand way, and we were not very happy with their unconcerned reaction, to put it mildly. The restaurant is no longer on our list of approved places, no doubt about that.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television and listening to the radio. The latest (11th) episode of the 12th (and last) season of the amusing sitcom the Big Bang Theory is on.

Sheldon and Amy have published their ground-breaking treatise on super-asymmetry, and Siebert, the university's ingratiating president, offers to let them come and have lunch with him in the board's executive restaurant rather than in the students' cafeteria.

It's nice to see the "boys" back after their long Christmas and New Year break. We will miss them when this final season is over, no doubt about that.

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

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg tager et brusebad og efter morgenmad går vi hen ind I landsbyen, for at hente et 2. eksemplar af Peter Rabbit-børnemagasinet. Vi har 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien. Vi afsender dem altid to eksemplarer af magasinet, så de ikke skændes over de gratisgaver på omslaget. Vi er så varmhjertede ha ha ha!

Vi kan ikke undgå at lægge mærke til hvor trist landsbyen begynder at se ud: Kings Arms-pubben er stadig lukket, og pubbens parkeringsplads er dækket med kameraer og aggressive skilte om ikke at parkere der uden at betale, på trods af, at automaten endnu ikke er blevet installeret – sikke et vanvid!

Det lokale postkontor og den samhængende bladhandlerforretning blomstrer ikke så meget som før, siden ejeren har besluttet at holde op med at levere aviser. Det lokale apotek er også mere stille, end før:  det lokale lægehus er forsvundet, og apoteket står nu overfor konkurrence fra online-forretningen Pharmacy2u.co.uk, som gør reklamer for sig selv som en del af sundhedssystemet, selvom den er helt privat – du godeste!  Af en eller anden grund er selskabet tilladt at bruge det officielle NHS-logo på dets rudekuverter – sikke et vanvid (igen) !!!!

Vores landsby er ved at dø – hjælp !!!!!!

På vej hjem går Lois og jeg en kort tur rundt omkring i nabolaget, bag ved kirken og forbi den gamle Plough-pub. Det er ganske varmt, i forhold til årstiden og mange blomster har sprunget frem i folks forhaver, hvilket er rart.

Vi går en kort tur ad Møllegade bag ved kirken

11:30 Vi kommer hjem i godt humør igen, og Lois går i gang med at luge lidt i forhaven. Foråret er på vejen, ingen tvivl om det!

Lois går i gang med at luge lidt i forhaven –

foråret er på vej, ingen tvivl om det!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost. Bagefter taler vi lidt på Skype, vores datter i Perth, Australien. Hun har lyst til at øve sig i at bruge Skype igen, fordi hun har bestemt en jobsamtale til mandag: et muligt job i Brisbane-området, som revisor på et eller andet kollegium.

Hun har blevet ked af sit nuværende job i Perth – det er alt for stressende, siger hun, især i betragtning af, at hun også har to unge (5-årige) døtre. Og Francis, hendes mand, tror, at han kan få flere jobmuligheder i Queensland – hans specialitet er at skabe computer-genererede billeder af planlagte nye huse og andre bygninger. Ny huse i Perth-området bliver valgt af potentielle købere fra kataloger – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Nogle gange mistænker Lois og jeg, at Francis udviser en lidt bekymrende mangel på fleksibilitet, når det kommer til jobmuligheder, hvilket betyder mere pres på Sarah,  hvis job er familiens eneste indtægtskilde, men det springer jeg over.

14:00 Jeg går i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30 og vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i sofaen. Vi lytter lidt til radioen, et interessant program i serien ”In Our Time”, der samler eksperter fra et givet felt for at gå i dybden med en eller anden kontroversiel eller kompleks emne. Dette afsnit handler om feromoner, og programmets vært er, som altid, den charmerende Melvyn Bragg.

Selvom det er først og fremmest insekter, der bruger feromoner, for at kompensere for, at deres hjernemagt  ikke er ret fantastisk, for at sige mildt, er der også beviser på, at for eksempel små kaninunger snart efter fødsel kan detektere deres mødres brystferomoner:  det er meget meget vigtigt at kaninunger finder en kilde på mælk, fordi mødrene kun tilbringer et par minutter om dagen i reden. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Og lidt uansvarligt af mødrene, at de går hid og did, i stedet for at passe på deres unger, det må jeg nok sige. Jeg spekulerer på, hvad mødrene finder så fascinerende udenfor reden. Du godeste, hele verden er gået gal !!!!

en kaninmor går på indkøb eller spiser på restauranter, eller går på klubber,

 i stedet for at blive hjemme og passe på sine unger - du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Jeg vidste ikke, at landmænd bruger kundige feromoner for skadedyrskontrol. De udstråler kunstige huninsektferomoner, så haninsekterne spilder en masse tid på at lede efter ikke-eksisterende hunner, uden succés, og uden udsigt til parring, hvilket har tendens til at mindske områdets insekttal, for at sige mildt. Men jeg har lidt ondt for hannerne, det må jeg nok sige. Stakkels hanner!!!!!

en typisk han-skadedyr, der ikke kan koncentrer sig af en eller anden grund.

Stakkels skadedyr !!!!!

Hvis en bidronning forsvinder fra bikuben, kan arbejderbierne med det samme detektere manglen på bidronningens feromoner. De begynder med at søge efter dronningen, og hvis dette mislykkes, beslutter de at gøre en ny dronning ved at finde en eller anden lave og proppe dem med bimælk (gelée royale). Selvom bidronningen er blevet spærret i en bur, så arbejderbierne ikke kan røre hende, gør de grundlæggende det samme – og ”skaber” en ny dronning. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

17:00 Der findes så meget viden og kendsgerninger i verden og nogle gange bliver jeg lidt desperat over, at mine anstrengelser for at mestre dem alle går så langsomt fremad. Jeg har fået en interessant email fra Steve, min  amerikanske svigerbror, der handler om Otto Frederick Rohwedder af Davenport, Iowa, der i 1928 opfandt en maskine til at skive brød, hvilket velsagtens førte til menneskehedens mest gavnlig fremgang siden selve opfindelsen af brød (for ca. 30.000 år siden).

Rohwedders største problem var, at finde frem til, hvordan han kunne holde brødet frisk – hans første løsning var at bruge hattenåle til at holde skiverne sammen, men hattenålene havde tendens til at falde ud, hvilket var lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt. Til sidste fandt han på at få maskinen til at pakke brødet ind i vokspapir efter den har skivet det. Simples!

Og måske ikke så ”simples” – Otto begyndte sit projekt i 1912 – og det hele varede 16 år. Hyl dig, Otto, du holdt os ud af krig.

Jeg er helt sikker på, at jeg ikke ville været glad for, at bide i en hattenål, mens jeg tygger på et stykke brød, ingen tvivl om det. For et par uger siden bed Lois og et lille stykke plastik, da vi spiste dessert på det lokale havecenters restaurant. Personalet beklagede på en lidt overfladiske måde, men vi var ikke helt tilfredse med deres ubekymrede reaktion, for at sige mildt. Restauranten er ikke længere på vores liste over godkendte steder, ingen tvivl om det. 

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn og lytter til radio. De viser det seneste (11.) afsnit af den 12. (og seneste) sæson af den morsomme sitcom Big Bang Theory.

Sheldon og Amy har offentliggjort deres banebrydene afhandling om super-asymmetri, og Siebert, universitets indsmigrende formand, tilbyder dem at komme og spise frokost sammen med ham i bestyrelsens luksusrestaurant i stedet for på studenternes cafeteria.

Det er rart at se “drengene” tilbage efter deres lange jule- og nytårspause. VI kommer til at savne dem, når sæsonen er slut, ingen tvivl om det.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!!