Wednesday, February 6 2019

Today is February 6 - and the earliest memory I have, that I can date, is February 6, 1952, when the news came through that the old king (George VI) had died: I was only 6 years old, but I remember that the radio played sad music all day instead of the usual programmes. 

That was so long ago - almost a lifetime:  scary !!!!

Flashback to September 1951: me in my new school uniform

me, with my little sister, Kathy (left), and the neighbour kid Jackie

Happy times !!!!!

Coincidentally, Lily and Jessie, our twin children in Perth, Australia, started their local primary school this week. Later in the day, Francis, our son-in-law, posts  a charming photo of them up on Facebook in their new school uniforms.

Lily and Jessie, our 5-year-old twin grandchildren in Australia,

who started at the local primary school this week, seen her in their new school uniforms.

How cute they look, and how grown up !!!!!

07:45 Scilla calls me. She has decided to cancel this afternoon’s meeting of her U3A Old Norse group, which had been scheduled for 2 pm in the town’s Everyman Theatre. She has stomach problems, she says. Poor Scilla !!!

In some ways this is a bit of a shame from my viewpoint. Over the past 2 weeks, I have managed to read 5 chapters of Njal’s saga, which is the group's current project, and I have been looking forward to reading and discussing them today with Scilla and the group's other members.

On the other hand, however, I am rather glad that I don’t have to go into town today. I've had a cold for a few days, and I'm not 100% yet, maybe just 75%, but I am getting there, no doubt about that. On the whole, however, it will be nice to be able to stay here at home again today.

09:00 Our Hotpoint engineer calls me. Lois and I had expected him to visit us today to repair our freezer. But he says the parts and accessories he needs have not yet been delivered. He has therefore had to cancel this morning's appointment with us and says he will call us again when the parts arrive. Damn! We were looking forward to having our freezer back to normal again, but now we are going to have to wait several more days - damn (again) !!!!

It's a little weird. Lois and I are both retired, so we do not have many crosses on the calendar for any given day. Today, there are only 2 crosses: the Hotpoint engineer, and Scilla's U3A Old Norse group meeting. But now both "appointments" have been cancelled – my god, what madness !!!!

10:30 I think about jumping up on my fitness bike, but on second thoughts I come to the conclusion that I am not yet ready to do any vigorous exercise. Maybe tomorrow.

I see a little television, the second part of the Danish drama series that I recorded on our YouView unit on Sunday, "Ride Upon The Storm", starring the famous Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, as Johannes, a priest with problems - to put it mildly. First and foremost, an alcohol dependency.

Johannes is a leading priest in the Danish Lutheran folk church, and he has set his heart on becoming the new bishop in Copenhagen, but in an exciting election in the 1st episode, he comes out the loser, and a female priest with more modern ideas , Monika, becomes the bishop. Johannes is a little disappointed, to put it mildly, and he vanishes on a drunken binge for a few days.

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

Monika, the new bishop, begins to throw her weight about  even before her consecration, which John is not very happy about, to say the least. She sends a letter to all the parishes in her diocese, demanding  that they try to make savings. "Grrrrr!", John thinks (probably – to judge from the expression on John's face - but I can only speculate on that ha ha ha).

John is invited to attend Monika's consecration, but when she gives him the sacrament, he has a sudden vision of her as a devil snarling at him. Yikes - scary !!!!

Monika, the new bishop, seems to be snarling at her former rival, Johannes,

while giving him the sacrament. Good grief, is the new bishop the devil in disguise?

If so, there will be trouble brewing in the local diocese, no doubt about that !!!

Or is Johannes imagining it all – is he just drunk as usual????

Johannes has two sons, one good and one naughty. The good son, August, is a chaplain in a war zone somewhere in the Middle East. His unit goes on a dangerous mission, so he blesses them in advance. The soldiers also ask him to bless the unit’s vehicles to be on the safe side, but he refuses to do so because that’s just superstitious, he says. During the mission, one of the unit's vehicles is blown up by an IED, so August is no longer particularly so popular with the men – good grief, poor August !!!!!

The naughty son, Christian, has massive problems. He was expelled from his university for cheating in his Ph.D. –thesis (plagiarism). His business partner, Mark, has barred him from the two men's consortium, and now Christian has had sex with Mark's lovely Lebanese girlfriend, Amira.

Johannes's "naughty" son, Christian, goes to bed

with his consortium colleague Mark's lovely Lebanese girlfriend, Amira.

My god, what madness !!!!

Yes, my god, what madness! I predict some massive issues ahead for the family, no doubt about that !!!!!

And is Monika, the new bishop, really the devil in disguise? If so, do the national church in Copenhagen is going to be experiencing a bunch of problems, no doubt about that !!!!!

Unfortunately, I have no time to see the episode’s last 15 minutes because Lois calls me for lunch.

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois goes around the corner to her former work-colleague Rose’s house - she sticks a letter through Rose's letterbox to explain that she is ill and cannot visit her or call her at the moment.

On the way to Rose’s house, Lois rings at our neighbour Frances’s door. Frances brings her up to date with the latest news about the former doctor’s surgery adjacent to Frances's property.

The doctors have moved into their new medical centre, 5 miles away from here on the other side of the town of Bishops Cleeve, which we already knew. But the council’s planning officer has not given them permission yet to have those 6 new houses built where the old medical centre still stands. The planning officer has asked the doctors to submit new plans, which they have not yet done.

They are such bastards, those doctors !!!!!

Flashback to January: the local doctors close the old surgery

and move into a new one, 5 miles away from here

The doctors' original plans to tear down the old surgery

and have 6 new houses built on the land.

My goodness - they are such bastards, those doctors !!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. A nostalgic old movie is showing on the Talking Pictures TV channel, a film revolving around the pop music programme "Six Five Special", which was broadcast for many years in the 1950’s. Me and my sister Kathy used to see it every Saturday night. Also Lois watched in in her home. The movie dates from 1958 - happy times !!!!!

Very nostalgic, though most of the artists in the program have long been forgotten, apart perhaps from Petula Clark and Lonnie Donegan. And it is very nostalgic to also see the typical 1950’s teenagers in the show's audience moving to the music, and snapping their little fingers etc.

Petula Clark (1932-)

RussHamilton (1932-2008)

Lonnie Donegan (1931-2002)

Flashback to 1958: my brother Steve (6) and my sister Kathy (11)

me at 12 years of age, with my newborn sister Gill.

My brother Steve is looking over my shoulder

20:30 We continue to watch a bit of television. An interesting documentary is on,  in the series "The Twinstitute" (6th of 6), where the identical twins Dr. Chris and Dr. Xand Van Tulleken conduct various experiments in health and fitness by involving other pairs of identical twins who have agreed to participate in the program.

This series is fascinating, no doubt about it, but Lois and I think it is more showbiz than science, more entertainment than enlightenment, but I’m going to let that one slide.

Tonight we are especially interested in an experiment about the best way to learn a foreign language. And whether the activity helps the brain’s cognitive functions or not.

It turns out that both methods were reasonably successful:  learning with a language teacher was a bit better, and those twins scored 161/200 in the final exam, while the twins who taught themselves using apps etc scored 131/200, which is not especially bad, I have to say.

But the most striking result came in the test that measured the cognitive functions of their brains. At the end of the experiment, all the participants scored twice as well as they did in a similar test that they took just before the experiment.

My goodness! According to the programme, it may be that this degree of improvement in the brain could buy participants up to 4 years’ delay in the onset of dementia, as they get older, which is nice.

Another interesting result coming out of the program:  people eat more if the environment is very brightly lit. Two groups of twins participated in an experiment where one group ate a buffet lunch for 30 minutes in a conventionally well-lit environment - the kind of environment one finds in the average fast food restaurant, while the other group ate under subdued lighting. It turns out that the group in the well-lit environment consumed, on average, 300 calories more than the group with the dim lighting.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!! I suppose if Lois and I dim down the lighting in our dining room and do not replace the bulbs as they burn out one by one, we will feel less hungry when eating one of our low fat ready meals.

It is worth a try anyway – that’s something we know for sure !!! And after the bulbs have all given out, maybe we could try candle light. But that’s something we’re not completely sure about - the jury is still out on that one.

David Gates' song "If" - could it be adapted

with "lights" and "walk", instead of "stars" and "fly" maybe ??

But it could be that the original version is still better 

– we’ll have to see, on that one

22:00 We go to bed - separate beds again for safety’s sake . ZZZZZZZZZZ !!!!!

Danish translation

I dag er den 6 februar – og det tidligste minde, jeg har, som jeg kan datere, er den 6. februar 1952, da den gamle konge (Georg 6.) døde: jeg var kun 6 år gammel, men jeg kan huske at radioen spillede triste musik hele dagen i stedet for de sædvanlige programmer.  Det var så længe siden – nærmest en levetid: skræmmende!!!!  

Tilbageblik til september 1951: mig i min nye skoleuniform

mig, sammen med min lillesøster, Kathy (til venstre), og nabobarnet Jackie

Lykkelige tider!!!!!

Tilfældigvis startede Lily og Jessie, vores tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien, i deres lokale folkeskole denne uge. Senere på dagen, lagde Francis, vores svigersøn, det charmerende foto af dem op på Facebook.

Lily og Jessie, vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Australien,

der startede i den lokale folkeskole denne uge, i deres skoleuniformer.

Hvor ser de dog søde ud !!!!!

07:45 Scilla ringer til mig. Hun har besluttet at aflyse eftermiddagens møde af sin U3A oldnordiske gruppe, der havde været bestemt til kl 14 i byens Everyman-teater. Hun har maveproblemer, siger hun. Stakkels Scilla!!!

På nogle måder er dette lidt af en skam for mit vedkommende. I de seneste 2 uger har det lykkedes mig at læse 5 kapitler af Njals saga, som er gruppens nuværende projekt, og jeg har glædet mig meget til at læse og diskutere dem sammen med Scilla og gruppens andre medlemmer. 

Men på den anden side er jeg lidt glad for, at jeg skal ikke ind i byen i formiddag. Jeg har været forkølet i nogle dage, og jeg er ikke oppe på 100% endnu, måske kun 75%, men jeg når derhen, ingen tvivl om det. I det hele taget vil det være imidlertid rart at kunne forblive herhjemme igen i dag.

09:00 Vores Hotpoint-ingeniør ringer til mig. Lois og jeg forventede, at han skulle besøge os i dag for at reparere vores fryser. Men han siger, at delene og tilbehør, han har brug for, endnu ikke er blevet afleveret. Han aflyser derfor formiddagens aftale hos os, og siger, han vil ringer til os igen, når delene ankommer. Pokkers! Vi havde glædet os til at have vores fryser tilbage til det normale igen, men nu skal vi vente flere dage – pokkers (igen) !!!!

Det er lidt underligt. Lois og jeg er begge pensionerede, så derfor har vi ikke særligt mange krydser på kalenderen til en given dag. I dag er der kun 2 krydser: Hotpoint-ingeniøren, og Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppemøde. Men nu er begge ”aftaler” blevet aflyst – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

10:30 Jeg overvejer at hoppe op på min kondicykel, men på nærmere eftertanke kommer jeg til den konklusion, at jeg endnu ikke er klar til at få frisk motion. I morgen måske.

Jeg ser lidt fjernsyn, det 2. afsnit af den danske dramaserie, jeg optog på vores YouView-enhed i søndags, ”Ride Upon The Storm”, stjernespækket den berømte danske skuespiller Lars Mikkelsen, som Johannes, en præst med problemer – for at sige mildt. Først og fremmest en alkoholafhængighed.

Johannes er en førende præst i Danmarks  lutheranske folkekirke, og han er fast besluttet at blive den nye biskop i København, men i et spændende valg i det 1. afsnit, ender han ud med at være taberen, og en kvindelig præst med mere moderne idéer, Monika, bliver biskop. Han er lidt skuffet, for at sige mildt, og han forsvinder på druk i nogle dage.

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

Monika, den nye biskop, begynder at spille stærk ”mand”, selv inden sin indvielse, hvilket Johannes er ikke ret glad for, for at sige mildt. Hun sender et brev til alle sogne i sin bispedømme, hvor hun kræver, at de prøver at gennemføre besparelser. ”Grrrrr!”, tænker Johannes  (sandsynligvis – ud af dømme fra udtrykket i Johannes ansigt -  men det kan jeg bare spekulere på ha ha ha).

Johannes bliver inviteret til at deltage i Monikas indvielse,men da hun giver ham nadveren, har han en pludselig vision af hende som en djævl, der snerrer ad ham. Yikes – skræmmende!!!!

Monika, den nye biskop, virker at  snerrer på sin tidligere rival, Johannes,

mens hun giver ham nadveren. Du godeste, er den nye biskop dvævlen i forklædning?

Hvis ja, er der optræk til ballade i den lokale bispedømme, ingen tvivl om det!!!

Johannes har 2 sønner, en artig og en uartig. Den artige søn, August, er en feltpræst i en krigzone et eller andet sted i Mellemøsten. Hans enhed tager af sted på en farlig mission, så derfor velsigner ham dem i forvejen. Soldaterne beder ham om også at velsigne enhedens køretøjer, men det nægter han at gøre på grund af, at det bare er overtroisk, siger han. Under missionen bliver et af enhedens køretøj eksploderet af en IED, så August ikke længere er særlig populær blandt mændene – du godeste, stakkels August!!!!!

Den uartige søn, Christian, har massive problemer. Han blev bortvist fra sit universitet for at snyde i sin Ph.D. –afhandling. Hans bedsteven, Mark, har ekskluderet ham fra de to mænds forretningskonsortium, og nu har Christian haft sex med Marks dejlige libanesiske kæreste, Amira.

Johannes ”uartige” søn, Christian, går i seng

med sin konsortiumskollega Marks dejlige libanesiske kæreste, Amira.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid. Jeg forudser nogle massive problemer forude for familien, ingen tvivl om det!!!!!

Er Monika, den nye biskop, virkelig djævlen i forklædning? Hvis ja, kommer folkekirken i København til at opleve en masse problemer, ingen tvivl om det!!!!!

Desværre har jeg ikke tid til at se afsnittets sidste 15 minutter, fordi Lois kalder mig til frokost.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden går Lois rundt om hjørnet til sin tidligere arbejdskollega Roses hus – hun stikker et brev gennem Roses brevsprække, for at forklare, at hun er syg, og ikke kan besøge hende eller ringe til hende for tiden.

På vej til Roses hus, ringer hun på vores nabo Frances dør. Frances bringer hende ajour med de seneste nyheder om det tidligere lægehus, der støder op til Frances’ ejendom.

Lægerne flyttede ind i deres nye lægehus, der ligger 5 miles væk herfra i den anden side af byen Bishops Cleeve, hvilket vi allerede vidste. Men kommunens planlægningsembedsmand har ikke givet dem tilladelse endnu til at få 6 nye huse bygget, hvor det gamle lægehus stadig står. Embedsmænd har bedt lægerne om at fremlægge nye planer, hvilket de ikke endnu har gjort.

De er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger!!!!!

Tilbageblik til januar: lægerne lukker det gamle lægehus,

og flytter ind i et nye 5 miles væk herfra

Lægernes planer om at reve det gamle lægehus ned

og få 6 nye huse bygget på jorden

Du godeste – de er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger !!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en nostalgisk film på Talking Pictures TV-kanalen, der kredser om den popmusikprogram ”Six Five Special”, der blev sendt i mange år i 1950’erne. Jeg og min søster Kathy plejede at se det hver lørdag aften. Også Lois i sit hjem. Filmen daterer fra 1958 – lykkelige tider!!!!!

Meget nostalgisk, selvom de fleste artister i programmet er for længe siden blevet glemt, måske bortset fra Petula Clark og Lonnie Donegan. Og det er meget nostalgisk også at se de typiske teenagere i showets publikum bevæge sig til musikken, og knipse med fingrene osv.

Petula Clark (1932- )

RussHamilton (1932-2008)

Lonnie Donegan (1931-2002)

Tilbageblik til 1958: min bror Steve (6) og min søster Kathy (11)

mig på 12 år, med min nyfødte søster Gill.

Min bror Steve kigger over min skulder

20:30 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. . De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm i serien ”The Twinstitute” (6. del af 6), hvor de enæggede tvillinger Dr. Chris og Dr. Xand Van Tulleken foretager forskellige eksperimenter i sundhed og fitness ved at involvere andre enæggede tvillinger, der har indvilliget i at deltage i programmet.

Denne serie er fascinerende, ingen tvivl om det, men Lois og jeg synes det er mere showbiz end videnskab, mere underholdning end oplysning, men det springer vi over.

I aften er jeg specielt interesseret i et eksperiment, der handler om den bedste måde at lære et fremmedsprog, i dette 30-timers eksperiment er det valgte sprog svensk:  med en personlig lærer, eller ved at lære sigselv ved hjælp af apps og computerprogrammer osv. Og hjælper processen med hjernens kognitive funktioner, eller ej.

Det viser sig, at begge metoder var rimelig succesfulde: dét, at lære med en sproglærer var lidt bedre, og disse tvillinger scorede 161/200 i den sidste examen, mens de tvillinger, der brugte apps, scorede 131/200, hvilket ikke er særlig dårligt, det må jeg nok sige.

Men den mest slående result var i den test, der målte deres hjerners kognitive funktioner.  Alle de deltager scorede to gange så meget som i en lignende test, som de tog lige før eksperimentet.

Du godeste! Det kan være at denne grad af forbedring i hjernen kunne købe deltagerne op til 4 års forsinkelse i starten af demens, når de bliver ældre, hvilket er rart.

En anden interessant resultat, der kommer ud af programmet:  folk spiser mere, hvis miljøet er meget belyset. To grupper tvillinger deltog i et eksperiment, hvor den ene gruppe spiste en buffetfrokost i 30 minutter i et konventionelt godt belyset miljø – det slags miljø, man finder i den gennemsnitlige fastfood-restauranter, mens den anden gruppe spiste under dæmpet belysning. Det viser sig, at gruppen i det belysede miljø spiste 300 kalorier mere, end gruppen med den dæmpede belysning.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!! Jeg formoder, at hvis Lois og jeg dæmper belysningen i spisestuen, og ikke erstatter de pærer, når de brænder ud en efter en, vil vi føle os mindre sultne, når vi spiser en af vores fedtfattige færdigretter.

Det er alligevel et forsøg værd – det ved vi med sikkerhed!!! Og derefter stearinlyse måske. men det er vi ikke helt sikre på – juryen er stadig ude om det.

David Gates’ sang ”If” – kunne den blive adapteret

med ”lights” and ”walk”, i stedet for ”stars” og ”fly” måske ??

Men det kan være, at den oprindelige version er bedre – men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på

22:00 Vi går i seng – adskilte senge igen for en sikkerheds skyld. Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!