Saturday, March 30 2019

10:00 Lois starts preparing the Sunday School lesson she'll have to teach tomorrow: the story of Jesus healing the blind man. Her sect's Sunday school lessons take place at the same time as the day's first of two worship services, starting from 11.30 am. There is a rota, and tomorrow it is her turn to be the teacher.

the start of Lois' s Sunday School Lesson Notes for tomorrow

She finds some teaching materials online and prints them out. And then she prepares the rest of her comments on the story.

Meanwhile, I settle down in the living room and see the remainder (i.e. the remaining 40%) of the 9th episode of "Ride Upon the Storm", starring the famous Danish actor, Lars Mikkelsen, as Johannes, a Lutheran  archdeacon with problems - to put it mildly. Most of all, an alcohol dependency and a tendency to have affairs with his female church workers.

 Johannes, a Lutheran archdeacon with an alcohol dependency,

as well as a lot of other issues - yikes!

Johannes loves his wife (Elisabeth) and her 2 sons (Christian and August), but at the same time as loving them, he dominates and crushes them all the time. Elisabeth, Christian and August are all afraid of him. But they love him and also hate him, and both at the same time.

This last 40% of this 9th episode revolves around the two sons, Christian and August.

Christian's ex-girlfriend Nanna turns up out of the blue. Christian tells her that he has now become a different and more spiritual man since his conversion to Buddhism while on holiday in Nepal, and that he is now celibate.

Unfortunately, Nanna is an attractive young woman, and the couple are soon having sex again, and Nanna decides to spend the night. Loud thumps as some of Christian’s heartfelt New Year's resolutions come crashing to the ground, ha ha ha!

Is there perhaps something about a professedly celibate young man that makes some women consider it a challenge? Because Christian's lovely Lebanese literary agent, Amira, also has a massive mega-crush on him and has been trying to get into his bed for weeks.

Unfortunately Amira turns up at Christian's apartment early one morning, to find that he is out.

And she happens to meet his scantily clad ex, Nanna, making breakfast. Embarrassing!

Unfortunately Amira turns up at Christian's apartment early one morning, 

only to find that he is out. And she meets his ex, the scantily clad  Nanna, 

making breakfast. Awkward !!!!

Meanwhile, the second son, August, a Lutheran “street pastor”, has been suffering from repeated scary flashbacks, after serving as a army chaplain in an Arab war zone. He shot and killed an innocent Arab mother over there by mistake, when under the impression that she was a terrorist just about to throw a bomb at his unit.

August keeps seeing the mother’s face, constantly popping up in his mind, like a ghost. He gets the idea that if he helps Hakim, a young Arab teenage boy, an illegal immigrant living on the streets in August's "street parish", and saves him from being sent back to the Middle East, that the dead mother will decide to stop haunting him.

To start with, all goes well with the plan: August manages to get the authorities to reconsider Hakim's case, and for a while the dead mother's ghost stops appearing to him. However next time August hops into bed with his wife, Emilie, and Emilie turns over to embrace him, it's not Emilie but the dead mother's face which August sees  - yikes, scary !!!!

Emilie, August's wife, turns over to embrace him ...

 

 but it's the dead Arab mother's face that he sees  - yikes, scary !!!! 

And a bit of a mood-killer I suspect !!!!

Johannes's family is a family with serious problems - no doubt about that !!!!!

12:00 I jump up on my exercise bike and I ride 8 miles (13 km), a little further than usual.

13:00 We have lunch, and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3:30 pm. In the meantime Lois swings by the neighbours (Bill and Mary) to chat to Mary, who suffers from dementia.

I sit down with the computer. I design my mother's day card for Lois and wrap her mother's day gift. The card is harpsichord-themed, because last night we went to a harpsichord concert in an art gallery in the middle of town - I always like to choose something topical for my cards’ themes.

Front page of the harpsichord -themed Mother's Day card  I have designed for Lois

By the way that “Baroque around the clock” joke is strictly copyright. It took me a long  time to think of it, so I don’t want anybody else stealing the idea!

It only seems to be Mother's Day here in the UK.  Even Australia observes the international version (in May?). Why are we in the UK always out of step with the rest of the world????

16:30. I take a little look online at my go-to local news site, Onion News. I get a bit of a shock - I have to admit. A local Canada goose who did not want to be named  is currently considering migrating home a few weeks earlier than usual this year to avoid the crowds.

A local Canada goose who did not want to be named has cited concerns over historically high seasonal traffic and the resulting potential flight delays, as his reason for considering whether to migrate home two to three weeks earlier than usual, to avoid the crowds, avian sources confirmed Friday.

"My friends think I'm a bit neurotic, but I just want a quiet, stress-free homecoming," said the 8-year-old waterfowl, who complained about having been forced to share a pond with "like, 500 tired and stressed-out geese" during his migratory flight to Scotland last mating season.

"If I get a decent head start, I won't have to deal with the big flocks and all that endless damn honking."

“Last year, the stopover sites were so crowded that no one could find a decent place to shit before the flock had to take back off again - everyone had to take a dump in the air and when you’re the last guy in the big V, well, that’s just no way to live. "

But the goose's travel plans could be complicated by the fact that he would be “monumentally” bored  after arriving early in Scotland and being forced to spend idle days with his parents, as he admitted later to journalists.

The official Google Maps-recommended route 

for the goose to follow when he migrates

I sympathise with that anonymous goose, and I hope his amended schedule goes to plan without any hitches.

Fortunately, as a couple of retirees Lois and I are lucky, in that we can generally choose to travel during the quiet and peaceful hours between peak times. Plus, we don't always have 100's of other travellers tagging along with us wherever we go, which is nice too.

The downside of all this, however, is that when it becomes absolutely necessary to travel during the rush hour, the whole business suddenly becomes quite scary, to put it mildly - just like for example last Monday, when I had to drive Lois to the St Paul's ear clinic for a 9 a.m. appointment, so she could get her left ear "vacuumed" by the clinic's specialists. What a nightmare that was – the traffic was murder! Later in the day I had to pour myself a strong gin and tonic, just to calm down – yikes!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television - a fun program, "Goggle Box", where various regular sets of TV viewers watch some of the week's programmes and comment on them from their sofas and armchairs etc.

We see Uri Geller trying to hypnotise Theresa May in an attempt to stop Brexit. Some of the Goggle Box’s TV viewers are quite interested in seeing whether he can succeed or not. But others are more sceptical.

Some other viewers are a little annoyed when Theresa May expresses her frustration at the slow progress of the Brexit-negotiations, while saying also that she knows MPs in the House of Commons also feel frustrated. Goggle Box commentators, however,  think she should show more sympathy for the country's frustrated population, and rightly so !!!!

The American constitution tackles these kinds of situations much better than ours, I think. If Congress doesn't do what he wants, Trump can just come up with an executive order or directive, and ignore their opinions. Alternatively, he can declare a state of emergency, and hey presto, job done!

I ask Lois if the queen has the same superpowers as Trump. Lois often says that George Washington was an updated version of King George III, elected by the people, rather than just inheriting the job from his father or from other relatives.

But Lois is not sure whether the Queen has these Trump-powers or not. So the jury is still out on that one.

21:30 We go to bed - a little earlier than usual. It’ll be a busy day tomorrow - we have to put the clocks forward one hour; Lois will need to look over the Sunday School lesson she has to teach, before driving to Tewkesbury, where her sect holds its 2 Sunday worship services; plus another concert to go to in the afternoon; not a mention a conversation on whatsapp about 9 am, one hour earlier  than usual, with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia – they don’t have summer and winter time over there. So busy, busy, busy!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Lois går i gang med at forberede den søndagsskolelektion,  hun skal undervise i morgen: historien om at Jesus helbreder den blinde mand. Hendes sekts søndagsskolelektioner finder sted samtidig med dagens første af 2 gudstjenester, startende fra kl 11.30 . Der er en turnus, og i morgen er det hendes tur at være lærer.

starten på Lois’ søndagsskolelektionnoter

Hun finder nogle undervisningsmaterialer på nettet og printer dem ud. Og hun forbereder så resten af hendes kommentarer til historien.

I mellemtiden, sætter jeg til rette i stuen og ser resten (det resterende 40%) af det 9.  afsnit af ”Ride Upon the Storm”, stjernespækket den berømte danske skuespiller Lars Mikkelsen, som Johannes, en provst med problemer – for at sige mildt. Først og fremmest en alkoholafhængighed, og en tendens til at have affære.

Johannes, en præst med en alkoholafhængighed,

samt en masse andre problemer – yikes!

Han elsker sin kone (Elisabeth) og sine 2 sønner (Christian og August), men samtidig med, at han elsker dem, dominerer han og kvaser dem alle. Elisabeth, Christian og August er bange for ham, elsker ham og hader ham, alt på samme tid.

Dette sidste 40% af afsnittet kredser om de to sønner. Christians eks-kæreste Nanna dukker op ud af det blå. Christian fortæller hende, at han nu er blevet en anderledes og mere åndelig mand, siden hans konvertering til buddhismen på ferie i Nepal, og er nu cølibat.

Desværre er Nanna en attraktiv ung kvinde, og parret er snart i gang med at have sex. Høje lyde af nogle nyårsbeslutninger, der ramler til jorden dér  ha ha ha!

Er der måske noget ved en tilsyneladende cølibat ung mand, der får kvinder til at betragte ham som en udfording ? Fordi Christians libanesiske litterære agent, Amira, også har en massiv megacrush på ham, og har i flere uger forsøgt at gå i seng med ham. Desværre dukker Amira op til Christians lejlighed, mens han er ude, og hun møder en letklædt Nanna i gang med at lave morgenmad. Pinligt!

desværre dukker Amira op tidligt om morgenen til Christians lejlighed,

mens han er ude, og støder på en letklædt Nanna i gang med at lave morgenmad. Pinligt!

I mellemtiden har den anden søn, August, en lutheransk gadepræst, lidt af gentagende skræmmende tilbageblik efter han tjente som feltpræst i en arabisk krigzone. Han skød og drabte en uskyldig arabisk familiemor derovre ved en fejltagelse, da han var under det indtryk af, at hun var en terrorist, der skulle lige at kaste en bombe mod hans enhed.

Han fortsætter at se moderen, der konstant dukker op i sine tanker, ligesom et spøgelse. Han får idéen, at hvis han hjælper Hakim, en ung arabisk teenagedreng, en ulovlig indvandrer, der bor på gaderne i Augusts ”gade-sogn”, med at slippe for at blive sendt tilbage til mellemøsten, vil moderen holde op med at hjemsøge ham.

I begyndelsen går alt godt med planen:  det lykkes August at få myndighederne til at overveje Hakims sag igen, og i et stykke tid dukker den døde moderens spøgelse ikke op til ham.  Men næste gang August hopper op i sengen til sin kone, Emilie, og Emilie vender sig om for at omfavne ham, er det den døde moderens ansigt som August ser lige dér foran sig – yikes, skræmmende!!!!

 Emilie, Augusts kone, vender sig om for at omfavne ham...

....men det er ikke Emilies ansigt, men ansigtet af den arabiske mor,

som August dræbte i krigzonen, der viser sig foran ham lige der i dobbeltsengen 

– yikes, skræmmende!!!! Og lidt af en stemning-killer måske !!!!

Johannes familie er en familie med alvorlige problemer – ingen tvivl om det !!!!!

12:00 Jeg hopper op på min kondicykel og jeg cykler 8 miles (13 km), lidt længere, end normalt.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost, og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30. Lois smutter ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt med Mary, der lider af demens.

I mellemtiden  sætter jeg mig ned med computeren. Jeg designer mit morsdagskort til Lois og pakker hendes morsdagsgave ind. Kortet er cembalo-tematiseret, fordi vi i går aftes hørte en cembalo-koncert i et kunstgaleri midt i byen – jeg kan altid lide at vælge noget topisk som mine korts temaer.

Forsiden af det cembalo-tematiserede morsdagskort, jeg har designet til Lois

16:30 . Jeg kigger lidt på nettet og mit go-to lokale nyhedswebsted, Onion News. Jeg får lidt af et chok – det må jeg indrømme. En lokal Canadagås, der ikke ønskede at blive nænvt, overvejer tilladende at migrere hjem i år et par uger tidligere, end normalt, for at undgå flokkene.

En lokal Canadagås, der ikke ønskede at blive nævnet, har talt om sine bekymringer over historisk høj sæsonmæssig trafik og de deraf følgende potentielle flyforsinkelser, og har indrømmet, at han overvejede at migrere hjem to til tre uger tidligere, end normalt, for at undgå de største flokke, bekræftede fugleagtige kilder i fredags.

"Mine venner synes, jeg er lidt neurotisk, men jeg vil bare have et stille, stressfrit hjemkomst," sagde den 8-årige vandfugle, der beklagede sine oplevelser med at dele en dam med "ligesom 500 trætte og udstressede gæs "under sin returflyvning til Skotland sidste parringssæson.

"Hvis jeg får en hæderlig start, bliver jeg ikke nødt til at tumle med de største flokke og alt det endeløse skrigeri.”

Sidste år var stopover-stederne så overfyldte, at ingen kunne finde et anstændigt sted at skide, før alle skulle gå på vingerne igen - alle måtte smide skidt i luften, og når du er den sidste fyr i den store V, nå , det er bare ingen måde at leve på. "

Men gåsens rejseplaner kunne blive kompliceret af dét, at han måtte erkende, at han ville kede sig ”gudsjammeligt”  efter at være ankommet tidligt i Skotland og blevet tvunget til at tilbringe røvsyge dage hos sine forældre.

den forslåede rute, gåsen skal følge, når han migrerer, ifølge Google Maps

Jeg sympatiserer med den der anonyme gås. Som pensionister kan Lois og jeg generelt vælge at rejse eller kør i bil i de stille og roliger timer mellem myldretiderne. Ulempen ved det er, at når det bliver absolut nødvendigt at færdes under myldretiden bliver det hele pludselig ganske skræmmende, for at sige mildt – ligesom for eksempel i mandags, da jeg måtte kører Lois over til St Pauls-øreklinikken så hun kl 9 kunne få sit venstre øre ”støvsuget” af klinikkens specialist.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, et morsomt program, ”Goggle Box”, hvor forskellige tv-seerne ser på nogle af ugens programmer og kommenterer dem i deres sofaer og lænestole osv.

Vi ser Uri Geller i gang med at prøve at hypnotisere Theresa May i et forsøg på, at stoppe Brexit. Programmets tv-seer interesserer sig meget for at se, om han har succés eller ej. Men nogle er skeptiske.

Nogle andre er lidt irriteret, da Theresa May udtrykker sin frustration over den langsomme fremskridt at forhandlinger, men siger, at Underhusets medlemmer også føler sig frusteret. Goggle Box-showets kommentatorer synes, hun skulle vise mere sympati for landets frusterede befolkning, og med rette – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!!

Den amerikanske forfatning takler disse slags situationer meget bedre, end vores, synes jeg. Hvis Kongressen gør ikke dét, han ønsker, kan Trump bare komme med et dekret eller direktiv, og ignorere deres meninger. Ellers kan han erklære et nødstilfælde, og vupti, job done!

Jeg spørger Lois, om dronningen har de samme superkræfter, som Trump. Lois siger ofte, at George Washington var en opdateret version af kong George 3., der blev valgt af folket, i stedet for bare at arve jobbet fra sin far eller andre slægtninge.

Men Lois er ikke helt sikker på, dronningen har disse kræfter, eller ej. Så er juryen stadig ude om det der.

21:30 Vi går I seng – lidt tidligere, end normalt. En stor dag i morgen – vi stiller urene frem en time; Lois bliver nødt til at blade igennem for 2. gang den søndagsskolelektion, hun skal undervise, før hun kører til byen Tewkesbury, hvor hendes sekt holder sine 2 gudstjenester; endnu en koncert om eftermiddagen; en samtale på whatsapp en time tidligere, end normalt, med Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien. Travlt, travlt, travlt!

Zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!