Danskcolin: Friday, March 22 2019

A difficult day. Lois and I spend the morning preparing to travel to our daughter Alison's house in Haslemere tomorrow (Saturday) with an early start (8 am): suitcases packed and ready, clothes chosen and laid in piles on a bed in one of our 2 ”guest rooms” (our 2 grown-up daughters’ old bedrooms).

Our 8-year-old grandson, Isaac, is taking part in a performance of the musical "Bugsy Malone" on Sunday in a theatre in Haslemere, Surrey, and Lois and I have been looking forward to seeing it.

But in the evening, Lois begins to feel rough, with a lot of aches and pains, and a general discomfort in the body (flu, maybe, or a bad cold in the offing?). The poor thing !!!!!

At 10 pm I send Alison a message on whatsapp to warn her. But even if we decide to go tomorrow and travel as planned, the "early start" will not be possible, which means that we will not be able to avoid a lot of traffic jams on the way over there. Damn! So all in all, I think it would be better to cancel, but we'll see.

It was in any case only scheduled as a quick visit, because Lois has an appointment on Tuesday at the local St Paul's Ear Clinic: one of the clinic's specialists is to carry out a mini-intervention to clear a blockage in her left ear. She needs this treatment every two years, or so.

After the operation, it will be nice to be able to sit on Lois’s left hand side on the couch and talk to her without shouting, and without getting hold of her head and twisting it backwards and to the right - I do not like to do that because I get a momentary feeling of screwing her head right off her body, which ironically is one of Lois's favourite holds on me, during our regular wrestling matches. But I jest ha ha ha ha!

I hope that Lois does not have the flu. During the afternoon we were both freezing our socks off on top of a hill just outside the town of Churchdown. The wind was very cold. We had been invited to a funeral ceremony for Michael, the husband of one of Lois's friends, Ursula. We had arrived too early and we had no choice but to walk round and round the churchyard to keep warm, while waiting for the ceremony to begin.

We freeze in the cold wind, while waiting in the churchyard

for the funeral ceremony to begin - Lois (left) seen here with our friend, Gillian.

putting on their “funeral-faces" ha ha ha

the church is on top of a hill, and the views of the Severn Valley are impressive

to put it mildly: Gillian points out various landmarks in the distance,

including my former workplace and the racecourse

The ceremony was a civil one, at the graveside. Brrrr !!!!! After the ceremony there was a wake at a local pub.

The Old Elm Inn, a local Churchdown pub

The wake was an interesting experience because Michael's son and daughter both gave speeches about their father's life and personality.

Up till now, Lois and I had only known Michael through his wife Ursula's very negative comments about him - and we had the impression that he was some kind of monster.

Ursula is a very quiet and unassuming woman, a member of the sect Lois belongs to, but her husband, Michael, an atheist, disapproved of Ursula's interest in religion, and did not allow Ursula to invite her friends from the sect to the house, and that kind of thing.

We hardly knew anything about Michael's life and his astonishing range of interests and experiences, interests in engineering, including experiences fixing things in Vietnam during the war, travelling around the world, sports, trains, planes, his many experiences in the Navy, his experiences as a football referee, and as a football steward at Wembley Stadium in London, etc. A great joker, a larger than life character, in short. His son and daughter loved him dearly - no doubt about that.

I suppose Michael didn't like Ursula's church friends because he couldn't laugh and have fun with them - they were too straight-laced maybe. But it could also be that he was the kind of husband who insisted on controlling his wife and deciding what she was interested in and not interested in.

A bit of both, and other factors too, I expect. Nothing in life is black and white, that’s for sure !!!

We'll see tomorrow if Lois is well enough to travel to Haslemere or not.

In contrast to the above, today we got a photo of our 5-year-old twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia, with their classmates, learning all about robots and how to control them with touch-screen technology.

What a contrast to the world Lois and I knew when we too were 5 years old: in 1951 - yikes!

Our 5-year-old twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessie,

with their classmates in Perth, Australia.

learning about robots and touch-screen controls - yikes, scary !!!!

Flashback to me as a 5 year old or thereabouts,

with my 3-year-old sister Kathy

in the fields over by the White Cliffs of Dover -
looks like it was another cold day, like today was

me wth little Jacquie Rees, the neighbour kid, starting to read little books

in my new school uniform

Happy days!!!!

Danish translation

En vanskelig dag. Lois og jeg bruger formiddagen på at forberede os på at rejse til vores datter Alisons hus i morgen (lørdag) med en tidlig start (kl 8): kufferter pakkede og færdige, tøj valgt i bunker på en seng i et af vores 2 ”gæsteværelser” (vores 2 voksne døtres gamle værelser). Vores 8-årige barnebarn, Isaac, deltager i en forestilling af musicalen ”Bugsy Malone” på søndag i et teater i Haslemere, Surrey,og Lois og jeg har glædt os til at se den.

Men om aftenen begynder Lois at føle sig dårligt tilpas med smerter og en general ubehag i kroppen (influenza, måske, eller en ond forkølelse i opsejling?). Staklen !!!!!

Kl 22 om aftenen sender jeg Alison en besked på whatsapp for at advare hende. Men selvom vi beslutter i morgen at tage af sted og rejse som planlagt, vil den ”tidlig start” ikke være muligt, hvilket betyder, at vi ikke vil kunne undgå en masse trafikpropper på vej derover. Pokkers! Så alt i alt, synes jeg, det ville være bedre at aflyse, men vi får se.

Det var alligevel kun planlagt som et lynbesøg, fordi Lois har en aftale på tirsdag hos den lokale St Pauls-øreklinik: en af klinikkens specialist skal gennemføre en mini-operation for at rydde en blokering i hendes venstre øret. Hun har brug for denne operation hvert 2. år, eller deromkring.

Efter operationen, vil det være rart at kunne sidde på hendes venstre hånd i sofaen og snakke med hende uden at råbe, og uden at få greb i hendes hoved og vride det bagover og mod højre – det kan jeg ikke lide at gøre, fordi jeg et øjeblik har følelsen af at skrue hovedet direkte af hendes krop, hvilket ironisk er en af Lois’ yndlingsteknikker under vores regelmæssige brydekampe. Men jeg spøger kun ha ha ha!

Jeg håber på, at Lois ikke har influenza. I løbet af eftermidddagen frøs vi begge to på toppen af en bakke lige udenfor byen Churchdown. Vinden var meget kold. Vi var blevet inviteret til et begravelsesceremoni til Michael, ægtemanden af en af Lois’s veninder, Ursula. Vi var ankommet for tidligt og vi havde ikke andet valg end at gå en tur gentagende gange rundt omkring i kirkegården, mens vi ventede på, at ceremoniet begynder.

Vi fryser mens vi venter i kirkegården på, at begravelsesceremoniet begynder –

Lois og vores ven, GillianLois og vores ven, Gillian

kirken er på toppen af en bakke, og udsigter over Severn-dalen er imponerende

for at sige mildt: Gillian påpeger forskellige vartegn i det fjerne,

inklusive min tidligere arbejdsplads og hestevæddeløbsbanen

Ceremoniet var et civilt, ved siden af graven. Brrrr!!!!! Efter ceremoniet var der en gravøl på en lokal pub.

The Old Elm Inn, en lokal pub i Churchdown

Gravøllet var en interessant oplevelse, fordi Michaels søn og datter holdt tale begge to om deres fars liv og personlighed.

Før i tiden kendte vi Michael kun gennem hans kone Ursulas meget negative kommentarer om ham – og vi havde fået det indtryk, at han var et slags monster. Ursula er en meget stilfærdig kvinde, et medlem af den sekt, Lois tilhører, men hendes mand, Michael, en ateist, misbilligede Ursulas interesse for religion, og tillod Ursula ikke at invitere hendes venner fra sektet til huset, og den slags.

Vi kendte næsten ikke noget til Michaels liv og hans forbløffende vifte af interesser, herunder interesser for ingeniørarbejde, herunder i Vietnam under krigen, rejser verden over, sport, tog, fly, hans mange oplevelser i marinen, hans oplevelser som fodbolddommer, og fodboldsteward på Wembley-stadiet i London osv. En stor spøgefugl, en større end liv karakter, kort sagt. Hans søn og datter elskede ham højt – ingen tvivl om det.

Jeg formoder, at han ikke kunne lide Ursulas kirkevenner, fordi han ikke kunne grine og få det sjovt med dem – de var for stramme i betrækket måske. Men også kan det være, at han var den slags ægtemand, der insistere på at kontrollere sin kone og afgøre det hun interesserede sig for, og ikke interesserede hun sig for.

Livet er ikke bare sort og hvidt, det ved vi med sikkerhed!!!

Vi får se i morgen, om Lois har det godt nok til at rejse til Haslemere, eller ej.

I modsætning til det overståede, fik vi i dag et foto af vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien, sammen med deres klassekammerater, i gang med at lære om robotter. Sikke en modsætning også til den verden Lois og jeg kendte, da vi også var 5: dvs 1951 – yikes!