Wednesday, February 13 2019

08:30 Tomorrow at 2:30 pm our U3A Danish group will be gathering here, so after breakfast I start clearing up and vacuuming all over the house, except for the living room itself, where we hold the meeting. I’ll leave that till tomorrow morning.

10:30 I start reading some pages of my current bedtime book, "TheLanguages of Scandinavia -  Seven Sisters of the North" by Ruth H. Sanders, Miami University of Ohio.

Ruth H. Sanders, author of the book

I start on an interesting  chapter about the Hanseatic League.

In the 13th century, the Hanseatic League was kind-of an early version of the European Economic Community, except that the League's headquarters were in Lübeck, in today's Germany, not in Brussels, and the federal language was not French, but Low German.

flashback to the summer of 1992: Lois in the parking lot in Lübeck - how young she looks!!

we were on a German holiday visiting Lübeck, our last family holiday 

as a family of 4. Alison was then 17 and Sarah was 15 years old.

Low German was a language spoken in northern Germany that had evolved from the old Saxon language. Low German has many similarities with Anglo-Saxon and thus also with modern Dutch, English and Lowland Scots.

The League brought modern commercial practices to the Nordic region, and Scandinavia embraced it wholeheartedly, it seems. At its peak, the League consisted of more than 70 cities, mostly located on the shores of the North Sea and the East Sea, including London and Kings Lynn in England.

some of the Hanseatic League cities

Kings Lynn is a town that has bad vibes for me - Lois and I spent a nightmare weekend in the town in October 2014 on our way to a holiday cottage near the seaside town of Cromer in Norfolk. We actually spent most of the weekend in our hotel room: Lois had an upset stomach and never left the room, only crawling out of bed to go to the toilet - my goodness, what a nightmare!

In the afternoon I crept out of the hotel room to look around the town so Lois could sleep in peace and quiet. I recall walking around the waterfront and seeing the old customs house that dates from the time of the Hanseatic League.

The bed in the hotel room in Kings Lynn,

where Lois and I spent our "nightmare weekend"

In the afternoon I looked round Kings Lynn’s waterfront area,

so Lois could sleep in peace and quiet in the hotel room

The old customs house, with the statue of George Vancouver

standing outside in front of the house. Vancouver is famous for exploring and mapping

North America's western coast during his short life (he died at only 40 years of age)

I do not know why we did not study more about the Hanseatic League at high school, but  I’m going to let that one slide. Perhaps it was not as important for England as for the other countries, but I'm not totally sure about that. I know that in the late 16th century (1597-8) Queen Elizabeth 1 expelled the Leagues’s representatives from the country, in an early form of Brexit ha ha ha!

The League  also influenced the Scandinavian languages, because Low-German-speaking communities were established in e.g. Stockholm, Uppsala and other Swedish and Danish port cities, and the language the League used for all commercial dealings over the whole of the Nordic region was the Low-German language.

The Hanseatic cities, not only in Sweden and Denmark, but around the Baltic, became bilingual zones. Some residential neighbourhoods in Stockholm became German enclaves and Germans dominated the city's government. Stockholm's first mayor (c. 1268) was a German. And the Swedish words for mayor (borgmästare) is of German origin.

Many Low German words were absorbed into the Swedish and Danish languages ​​during this period: for example, there are now two words in Danish that mean a man's wife or female spouse: "kone", the original Nordic word, and "hustru" which was borrowed from Low German.

By contrast, the normal Swedish word for a female spouse is now "fru" (a German word), and the old Nordic word "kona" gradually degenerated until it came to mean "whore" – my god, what a crazy world we live in in !!!!

Traditionally, women have rarely been got a fair deal out of language change, no doubt about that.

Isn’t the history of languages totally fascinating! Who would want to study anything else ???? !!!!

12:00 I sit down with the computer and do some research. I didn't know that there is a board game themed on the Hanseatic League - something that Lois and I can while away the long English winter nights with, maybe. I will have to ask her and test the waters ha ha!

typical Hansa enthusiasts in the middle of a game: I can read the expressions

on their faces like a book. They are all thinking to themselves, "why the hell

did we start playing this bloody board game.”

Some board games can trigger trains of thoughts such as, "Is there life on Mars" (copyright David Bowie), and they are not always a good foundation for couple bonding or group bonding, I have to say.

A local man, Patrick Flavell, recently hit the headlines by being a little too slapdash and careless when he was packing the cards, pieces, banknotes, etc. away in the board game box after a long session with his roommates.

Witnesses told reporters that local bastard Patrick Flavell folded up a Monopoly board the other day, just to throw a mixed bag of cards and pieces into the game box, without so much as a thought for future players.

"Man, I can't remember the last time I sat and played this," said the mindless slob as he gathered the other players' multi-coloured banknotes and glibly threw the pieces in the box making it inevitable that the next group of players would have to start from scratch with sorting the banknotes out again.

"With all the technology we have now, it's easy to forget how much fun it can be to play an old-fashioned board game."

Reports indicate that hours later, the inconsiderate doofus - who had also brushed a bunch of muffin crumbs into the box with a number of unused hotels - discovered that he had the top hat piece in his pants pocket.

Patrick is a regular customer at our local pub, the Royal Oak. He is notorious for inviting friends and relatives to play one of the many board games he brings to the pub, but we have noticed that he usually makes an excuse and goes to the toilet while others take the board out of the box and sort out the pieces and banknotes etc. From mine and Lois's standpoint, board games with Patrick are “not our bag" and we are always going to avoid him like the plague, that’s for sure - the bastard!

12:00 We have lunch. Afterwards, we sit in the living room with a cup of tea - our eldest daughter Alison, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey, has said she plans to call us at 1 pm.

13:00 Alison calls us. We are hoping to see the family on the weekend. Her husband, Ed, has started a 2-month temporary job in the Liverpool area: Ellesmere Port, to be precise. He has been unemployed since the family moved back to England last year after a 6-year stay in Denmark. He has accepted this offer of a temporary 2-month job, but he is still looking for a permanent job. He plans to stay in his AirBNB apartment in the Chester area on weekdays and spend the weekends at home in Haslemere.

He says the job is in the oil industry and quite boring, to put it mildly: he knows nothing about the oil industry, but he says at least the salary is good, which is nice.

Ed's father has just undergone a successful operation at his local hospital in Bournemouth. The problem was some kind of aneurysm. My goodness, life is dangerous for older people. Most elderly  people Lois and I know have had serious problems recently, except for us. Yikes !!!

I am afraid that God is planning to hit us with something very mega-catastrophic sooner or later. Yikes !!! But exactly when will our luck run out - tomorrow maybe, or tonight ????

14:00 Lois has to leave. She promised her friend, Mari-Ann, to keep her company this afternoon. Mari-Ann is looking after her brother-in-law Billy this week - Billy is disabled and spends the day in a wheelchair. He has only limited conversational skills, so it is very boring from Mari-Ann's point of view. Lois has agreed to keep her company and talk to her and Billy. She's so warm-hearted - if only I could be more like her.

She drives over to Mari-Ann's house:  she has decided to wear her old glasses to drive the car until she can get a second appointment at Specsavers Opticians, so she can complain about the new glasses, which she says have  a nauseating effect on her - yikes!

14:30 I have a little alone time and I start designing and printing my Valentine's Day card for Lois. As a rule, I try to choose a topical theme for the card, but this year I lack inspiration for some reason. I think our life recently has been a bit routine: perfectly fine but not very exciting, I have to say. In contrast in  February 2018, we were preparing to fly to Australia for two months. But we can't do that every year, for both financial and physical reasons – yikes, just imagine it.

I start with the theme based on the Hanseatic League, which I foolishly suppose will be a bit of a refreshing change from my usual rubbish jokes. But for some reason I can't get the Hanseatic League to sound romantic, and although the card starts off by being Hansa-themed it ends up simply about the joys of spring, which is a bit of a cliché, but I've done my best.

I can't be brilliant every year - sorry, I'm only human. Sue me - ha ha ha! But sadly the front of the card still showcases a typical merchant from a Hansa League, which I am sure will be a bit of a mystery from Lois' vantage point.

15:30 I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap - zzzzzzz !!!! I get up at 4:15 pm and Lois comes back from Mari-Ann's house. We relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on the sofa.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. A reality tv documentary is on (part 1 of a new series) about the lives of farmers working on isolated farms in remote regions of Britain.

This programme is Lois's choice - farming is not my bag, I have to admit. I find it incredibly dull. But I enjoy learning about the lifestyle of the two charming young sisters, Aimee and Kirsty, who, after their father's sad death,  now own and run an isolated farm on the southernmost tip of the Shetland Islands.

When the days begin to get longer, local residents hold a traditional festival dating back to the Viking Age to celebrate the arrival of the longer, lighter days. How touching that people stick to these old traditions after more than 1,000 years have passed, I have to say.

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

Danish translation

08:30 I morgen kl 14:30 samles vores U3A danske gruppe hos os, så efter morgenmad går jeg i gang med at rydde op og støvsuge overalt i huset, bortset fra selve stuen, hvor vi holder mødet. Den overlader jeg til imorgen formiddag.

10:30 Jeg går i gang med at læse nogle sider af min nuværende sengetidbog, ”Skandinaviens sprog – nordens syv søstre” af Ruth H. Sanders, Miami University af Ohio, en kapitel, der handler om Hanseforbundet.

I det 13. århundrede var Hanseforbundet ligesom en tidlig version af den europæiske økonomiske fællesskab, bortset fra, at forbundets hovedkvarter var i Lübeck, i nutidens Tyskland, ikke i Brussels, og forbundets sprog var ikke fransk, men plattysk (eller middelplattysk).

tilbageblik til sommeren 1992: Lois på parkeringspladsen -

vi besøger Lübeck, vores sidste familieferie som familie på 4.

Alison var 17 og Sarah var 15 år gamle.

Plattysk er et sprog, som man talte i Nord-Tyskland og  som havde udviklet sig fra det gamle saksiske sprog. Derfor har plattysk mange ligheder med angelsaksisk og altså også med moderne nederlands, engelsk og Lowland scots.  

Ruth H. Sanders, bogens forfatter

Forbundet eksporterede moderne kommercielle praksiser til norden, og Skandinavien omfavnede det helhjertet, lader det til. På dets højdepunkt bestod forbundet af flere end 70 byer, der for det meste lå på kysterne af Nordsøen og Østsøen, inklusive London og Kings Lynn i England.

Hanseforbundets byer

Kings Lynn er en by, har dårlige vibes for mit vedkommende – Lois og jeg tilbragte et mareridt-weekend i byen i oktober 2014 på vej til et feriehus i nærheden af havneby Cromer. Vi tilbragte faktisk det meste af weekenden i vores hotelværelse: Lois havde en dårlig mave og aldrig forlod værelset, og kravlede ud af sengen bare for at gå på toilettet – du godeste, sikke et mareridt!

Om eftermiddagen krøb jeg ud af værelse for at se mig lidt om i byen, så hun kunne ligge og sove lidt i fred og ro. Jeg minder om, at jeg vandrede rundt på havnefronten og så det gamle toldkontor, der daterer fra tiden af Hanseforbundet.

Sengen i hotelværelset i byen Kings Lynn,

hvor Lois og jeg tilbragte vores ”mareridt-weekend”

 Om eftermiddagen ser jeg mig om i byen Kings Lynns havnefront-område,

så Lois kan ligge og sove i fred og ro i hotelværelset

Det gamle toldkontor, med statuen af George Vancouver,

der står ude foran huset. Vancouver er berømt for at udforske og kortlægge

Nord-Amerikas vestlige kyst i løbet af sit korte liv (han døde på kun 40 år)

Jeg ved ikke, hvorfor vi ikke studerede om Hanseforbundet på højskole,  men det springer jeg over. Måske var det ikke så vigtigt for England som for andre lande, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på. Jeg ved at dronning Elizabeth 1. af England sidst i det 16. århundrede (1597-8) bortviste forbundets repræsentanter fra landet , i en tidlig form for Brexit ha ha ha!

Forbundet påvirknede de skandinavske sprog også, fordi tysktalende kolonier blev grundlagt i Stockholm, Uppsala og andre svenske havnebyer, og dets sprog til alle kommercielle forhandlinger og lignende var hele norden over plattysk.

Hansabyerne, ikke bare i Sverige og Danmark, men rundt omkring Østsøen, blev tosprogede zoner. Nogle villakvarter i Stockholm blev til tyske enklaver og tyskere dominerede byens regering. Stockholms første borgmester (ca. 1268) var en tysker. Selve svenske ord for borgmester (borgmästare) er af tysk oprindelse.

Mange plattyske ord blev i denne periode absorberet i det svenske og danske sprog: for eksempel der er nu til dags to ord på dansk, der betyder en mands kvindelig ægtefælle: ”kone”, den oprindelige nordiske ord, og ”hustru”, der stammer fra plattysk.

Tværtimod er den normale svenske ord for en kvindelig ægtefælle nu ”fru” (et tysk ord), og det gamle nordiske ord ”kona” degenerede gradvist, indtil det kom til at betyde ”hore” -  du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Traditionelt  har kvinder har sjældent fået en fair behandling af sprogforandringer, ingen tvivl om det.

Er sproghistorie ikke totalt fascinerende! Hvem ville have lyst til at studere noget andet????!!!!

12:00 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og gør lidt forskning. Jeg vidste ikke, at der findes et brætspil, der handler om Hansaforbundet – noget, som Lois og jeg kan fordrive de lange engelske vinteraftener med, måske. Jeg vil spørge hende og teste vandene ha ha!

typiske Hansa-enthusiaster i færd med et spil: jeg kan læse udtrykket

i deres ansigt som en bog. De tænker alle for sig selv, ”hvorfor i helvede

begyndte vi at spille dette fucking brætspil !!!!”

Nogle brætspil kan føre til tanker såsom, ”Er der liv på Mars” (copyright Dsvid Bowie), og de er ikke altid et godt grundlag til parbinding eller gruppebinding, det må jeg nok sige!

En lokal mand, Patrick Flavell, ramte overskriftene for nylig ved at være lidt for skødesløs og hensynsløs, da han pakkede kortene, brikkerne, pengesedler osv væk i brætspilboksen efter en lang session med sine stuekammerater.

Vidnere fortalte journalister, at den lokale sjuft Patrick Flavell forleden klappede et Monopoly-bræt sammen for at smide  et blandet landhandel af kort og brikker ind i spilkassen, uden så meget som en tanke for fremtidige spillere.

"Mand, jeg kan ikke huske den sidste gang jeg satte mig og spillede dette", sagde den tankeløse slob, da han samlede de andre spilleres flerfarvede pengesedler og smidigt kastede bunkerne i kassen og gjorde det uundgåeligt, at den næste gruppe spillere ville være nødt til begynde fra bunden med at sortere sedlerne igen.

"Med al den teknologi, vi har nu, er det let at glemme, hvor sjovt det kan være at spille et gammeldags brætspil."

Rapporter tyder på, at timer senere, den ubetænksomme doofus - der havde fejet et spor af muffinsmuler ind i kassen sammen med en række ubrugte hoteller -  opdagede, at han havde højhat-brikken i bukselommen.

Patrick er en regelmæssig kunde på vores lokale pub, Royal Oak. Han er notorisk for at invitere vennerne og slægtninge til at være med til at spille et af de mange brætspil, han medbringer til pubben , men vi har lagt mærke til, at han plejer at undskylde sig og gå på toilettet, mens andre tager brættet ud af kassen og sortere brikkerne og sedlerne osv. For mit og Lois’ vedkommende, er brætspil med Patrick ikke ”vores ting” og vi skyer ham som pesten, det ved vi med sikkerhed!!!

12:00 Vi spiser frokost. Bagefter sætter vi os i stuen med en kop te – vores ældste datter Alison, der bor i Haslemere, Surrey, har sagt, hun planlægger at ringe til os kl 13.

13:00 Alison ringer til os. Vi håber på at se familien i weekenden. Hendes mand, Ed, har begyndt en 2-måneders midlertidigt job i Liverpool-området: Ellesmere Port, for at være præcis. Han har været arbejdsløs siden familien sidste år flyttede tilbage til England efter 6 års ophold i Danmark. Han har accepteret dette tilbud af et midlertidigt 2-måneders job, men han er stadig på jagt efter et permanent job. Han planlægger at bo i sin AirBNB lejlighed i Chester-området i hverdagene, og tilbringe weekenderne derhjemme i Haslemere.

Han siger, at jobbet er i oliebranchen og ganske kedeligt, for at sige mildt: han ved ingenting om oliebranchen, men han siger, lønnen er god, hvilket er rart.

Eds far har lige undergået en succesfuld operation på sit lokale sygehus i Bournemouth. Problemet var en eller anden slags aneurisme. Du godeste, livet er farligt for ældre mennesker! De fleste ældre mennesker Lois og jeg kender har haft alvorlige problemer for nylig, bortset fra os. Yikes!!!

Jeg frygter, at Gud planlægger at ramme os med noget synderlig mega-katastrofalt før eller senere. Yikes!!! Men præcis hvornår vil vi løber tør for held – i morgen måske, eller i nat????

14:00 Lois skal af sted. Hun har lovet sin veninde, Mari-Ann, at holde hende med selskab i eftermiddag. Hun passer på hendes svigerbror Billy denne uge – Billy er handicappet, og tilbringer dagen i en kørestol. Han har kun begrænsede samtalefærdigheder, så er det meget kedeligt fra Mari-Anns synspunkt. Lois har aftalt at holde hende med selskab og snakke med hende og med Billy. Hun er så varmhjertet – hvis bare jeg kunne ligne hende mere!

Hun kører over til Mari-Anns hus: hun har besluttet at bære sin gamle briller til at køre bil for tiden, indtil hun kan få en 2. aftale hos Specsavers Optik, så hun kan brokke sig over de nye briller, som hun siger, har lidt af en kvalmende påvirkning på hende – yikes!

14:30 Jeg har lidt alenetid og jeg går i gang med at designe og udprinte mit valentinsdagskort til Lois. Generelt vælger jeg et topisk tema til kortet, men dette år mangler jeg inspiration af en eller anden grund. Jeg synes, at vores samliv er blevet lidt rutinemæssigt: helt lykkeligt men ikke særlig spændende, det må jeg nok sige. I februar 2018 forberedede vi os på at flyve til Australien i to måneder. Men det kan vi ikke hvert år, af både financielle og fysiske grunde – yikes!

Jeg starter med temaet af Hansaforbundet, hvilket jeg dumt formoder vil være lidt af en forfriskende forandring fra mine sædvanlige elendige vittigheder. Men af en eller anden grund kan jeg ikke få Hansaforbundet til at lyde romantisk, og kortet, der starter med at være Hansaforbund-tematiseret ender ud med simpelthen at handle om glædene af foråret, hvilket er lidt af en kliché, men jeg har gjort mit bedste.

Jeg kan ikke være brilliant hvert år – beklager, jeg er bare menneskelig ha ha ha! Kortets forside fremviser stadig en typisk købmand fra en Hansaforbundby, hvilket jeg er helt sikker på vil være lidt at et mysterium fra Lois’ udsigtspunkt!

15:30 Jeg går i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur – zzzzzzz!!!! Jeg står op kl 16:15 og Lois kommer tilbage fra Mari-Anns hus. Vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i sofaen.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en reality-dokumentarfilm (1. del i serien), der handler om livet af landmænd, der arbejder på isolerede gårde i fjerne regioner af Storbritannien.

Dette program er Lois’ valg – landbrug er ikke min ting, det må jeg indrømme. Men jeg nyder at se livstilen af to unge søstre, Aimee og Kirsty, der efter deres fars trist død, ejer en isoleret gård på den mest sydlige spids af Shetlandsøerne.

Når dagene begynder at blive længere, holder de lokale indbyggere en traditionel fest, der daterer tilbage til vikingetiden, for at fejre ankomsten af de længere, lysere dage. Hvor rørende, at folk klæber til disse gamle traditioner efter mere end 1.000 år er gået, det må jeg nok sige.

f9/a/b

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!