09:00 Lois and I take a shower and after breakfast I
prepare for my "Hungarian lesson" with my friend "Magyar"
Mike, which starts at 10 am. I devise a Hungarian vocabulary test, based on
Lesson 9 in our current textbook, which I will invite him to take at the
beginning of the lesson. He will do the same for me.
10:00 Mike calls at the door and we study Hungarian for
an hour. We exchange vocabulary tests and read lesson 10 in our textbook.
It is obvious that Mike has been ageing quickly day by
day over the past 12 months, no doubt about that, and he has forgotten some very
basic Hungarian words, for example, the numbers, the number "5" for
example (yikes!) – my god, what madness! But I think he is determined to get
back to his previous level, if at all possible, which is encouraging. And all
in all, his performance today is much better than in our last lesson (February
26).
Flashback to March 1994: "Magyar"
Mike (on the right) and me in happier times,
showcasing our second-hand "excellent
worker" medals from the Communist era
Mike has become a bit of a nervous driver, to put it mildly,
and he hasn’t yet got used to the new
used car he bought last December. On the way from Nailsworth to Cheltenham this
morning he noticed that another warning light had lit up on his dashboard.
Good grief, what madness !!! What is the problem with
Mike's warning lights???!!! It seems like every other day one or other light is
lit up, for no apparent reason. On his way to Cheltenham this morning, he swung by the service
station where he bought the car four months ago and asked the mechanic to
investigate the problem, but without success. They have asked him to drive the
car in there later in the week so they can investigate the problem more
thoroughly. Poor Mike !!!!
11:00 Mike has to go, and I jump up on my exercise bike.
I cycle 6 miles (10 km).
12:15 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards we go to bed
for an hour. Then I get up so that Lois can take a massive afternoon nap
without my disturbing her - she didn't sleep very well last night, and tonight
she has to take part in her sect’s weekly Bible seminar, so it's important that
she isn’t short of energy.
15:00 I watch a little television - the 8th episode of
the Danish television series, "Ride Upon The Storm", starring the
famous Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen as Johannes, an archdeacon with problems -
to put it mildly. First of all, an alcohol dependency and a tendency to have affairs.
Johannes, a priest with an alcohol dependency,
as well as a lot of other issues - yikes!
Johannes is a leading "provost" or archdeacon
in the Danish Lutheran national church. The series revolves around Johannes's
personality as a very dominant figure, both within the churches he is
responsible for, and also within his own family. He dominates everything, and he
tends to go into a violent rage whenever he doesn't get his way.
He loves his wife (Elisabeth) and their 2 sons (Christian
and August), but at the same time as loving them, he also dominates and stifles
them all. So all three members of his family, Elisabeth, Christian and August - they're all
afraid of him, love him and hate him, all at the same time.
Johannes has alienated all 3 of them to a greater or lesser
extent. His wife Elizabeth has taken a Norwegian lesbian lover, the beautiful violinist
Liv. Elisabeth and Liv have decided to move in with each other.
Elisabeth (left) on a recent camping trip with her
Norwegian
lesbian lover, Liv, a beautiful violinist
One of the sons, Christian, has converted to Buddhism, and has released a
bestseller about his spiritual rebirth, describing his childhood and his
difficult and often violent relationship with his father. Christian's Lebanese literary agent,
Amira, has advertised the book by putting a lot of emphasis on Christian's
difficult relationship with his father, because Johannes, Christian's father,
is a well-known figure in Copenhagen society.
The other son, August, a priest in another parish, has resigned from being a parish priest and has become a street pastor - he tries to help young people overcome their problems
with alcohol, drugs, etc.
In this 18th episode there are a lot of new problems for
the family. Johannes uses the occasion of his wife Elisabeth's birthday to make a
great effort to achieve a degree of reconciliation within his family, but without success.
Johannes’s wife, Elisabeth, and lover, Liv, move in with
each other in a rental house in the countryside. And Johannes makes it clear to
his Buddhist son Christian that he now hates him irrevocably, because of the bestseller he has
written, and that there will never under any circumstances be any reconciliation between them. Yikes!
Elisabeth (left), Johannes’ wife, moves in with
Liv, the beautiful Norwegian violinist,
in a rental house, in the countryside.
Christian, Johannes‘s son, has written a
book that is very critical of
his father. And Christian's literary agent wants
to exploit these aspects of the book
to spark interest in the media and help sell
the book
Meanwhile, the second son, August, the street pastor, has
got involved with two brothers, illegal immigrants from the Middle East, whom
the police are searching for because of a connection with terrorists. One
of the brothers, the elder one, is arrested by the police, but the younger one,
Hakim, a teenager, is seriously ill. At the end of the episode August has let
Hakim move into his apartment, so that Emilie, August's wife, a doctor, can treat
him - which Emilie is not particularly happy about, to put it mildly.
August has become a street pastor helping young people on the streets
to overcome their problems with alcohol,
drugs, etc. He also becomes
involved with 2 illegal immigrants from the
Middle East, on the run from the police - yikes!
My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
16:00 Lois comes downstairs and we relax with a cup of
tea on the couch.
17:30 We have dinner a little earlier than usual. She's
scheduled to attend her sect’s weekly Bible seminar, taking place tonight in Brockworth library. She has asked me to drive her
to her friends Mari-Ann and Alf's house, so she can ride with them to Brockworth.
Even though she recently regained her confidence about driving a car in
daylight, she would still rather not drive in the dark.
During the meal, however, she realises that she does not have
enough energy to attend this evening's seminar, and she calls Mari-Ann to tell
her. Poor Lois !!!! I also now have to change my plans for the evening. When
Lois is out of the house, it's a good chance for me to see the TV shows she
doesn't like, but now that will have to wait for another day. I’m not good with last-minute
plan changes: it disturbs my equilibrium - if only I were more flexible!
20:00 We see a little television, an interesting
documentary, "Me, My Selfie and I, with Ryan Gander", a
thought-provoking but also somewhat scary programme that is not just about
selfies, but the whole digital world that we have been obsessed with. Gander is
a handicapped artist, very down to earth, thoughtful and sensitive, and his thesis is that the digital
world is robbing us of our humanity.
He starts by showing us people taking selfies, which is rather
striking, to put it mildly. Thanks to the culture of smartphones, he says, we live
in an infinitely repetitive present tense.
We also meet a young woman in search of a boyfriend or
partner. She uses most digital platforms where there are dating sites, but she
has also registered with an online service called Vita, which has written her on-line
profile on her behalf. Vita also replies to emails the woman gets from her potential lovers,
again writing on her behalf.
The very professional-sounding profile they have written for
her (based on information she provided them with) is as follows:
"A vivid red
sundress, perfectly chilled champagne flute, golf clubs in tow, that's my idea
of a perfect afternoon, what's yours? Very active, upbeat and energetic, with
maybe 1, 2 or 10, but definitely not 11 interests. Plus I love a good laugh. I
would say more, but the rest of the details are highly classified. Special
clearance required. "
We also meet Zoltan Istvan, who has a chip implanted
under the skin of his hand, which he uses to open the front door, start the car,
etc, just to save time and effort. He isn’t disabled.
He's a so-called "trans-humanist" and is
looking forward to being able to replace his less effective or withering body
parts in the future with electronic body parts as soon as they become
available.
Gander, the programme's charming host, does not really agree
with Zoltan, however, despite the fact that he himself is severely handicapped and
spends his entire day in a wheelchair. He wants to keep his humanity!
We also meet a director of Alcor, a business that freezes
dead bodies at $ 200,000 a time. Yikes – scary!
At the end of the programme, Gander reminds us that the
self-portraits of our digital life may seem frivolous now, but they will
survive all of us: the technological giants will ensure it. If you don't tell
them to end your online life, they won't.
22:00 Yikes - scary and unsettling, and not the best programme to go to
bed on ! Tomorrow I must go off-grid and become human again ha ha ha ha!
We quickly drift off to sleep, thank goodness.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!
Danish
translation
09:00 Lois og
jeg tager et brusebad og efter morgenmad forbereder jeg mig på min ”ungarske
time” med min ven ”Magyar” Mike, der starter kl 10. Jeg udtænker en ungarsk
ordforrådtest, baseret på Lektion 9 i vores nuværende lærebog, som jeg vil
invitere ham til at tage i starten af timen. Han vil gøre det samme for mig.
10:00 Mike
ringer på døren og vi studerer ungarsk i en time. Vi udveksler ordforrådtest og
læser lektion 10 i vores lærebog.
Det er
åbenbart, at Mike har ældes hurtigt dag for dag i de seneste 12 måneder, ingen
tvivl om det, og han har glemt nogle grundlæggende ungarske ord, for eksempel, tallene,
tallet ”5” for eksempel (yikes!) - du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Men jeg synes,
han er fast besluttet på at vende tilbage til sit foregående niveau, hvis
muligt, hvilket er opmuntrende. I det helet tager er hans præstation i dag
meget bedre en vores seneste time (den 26. februar).
Tilbageblik
til marts 1994: ”Magyar” Mike (til højre) og mig i lykkeligere tider, i gang
med
at fremvise vores brugte”udmærket
arbejder”-medaljer fra den kommunistiske æra
Han er blevet
til lidt af en nervøs chauffør, for at sige mildt, og han er ikke vænnet sig
endnu til den nye brugte bil, han købte sidste december. På vej fra Nailsworth
til Cheltenham i morges bemærkede han, at
endnu en advarselslampe var tændt på instrumentbrættet.
Du godeste,
sikke et vanvid!!! Hvad er problemet med
Mikes advarselslamper – hver anden dag er den ene eller den anden tændt, af
ingen åbenbar grund. På vej til Cheltenham kørte han forbi den servicestation,
hvor han for 4 måneder siden købte bilen, og bad mekanikeren om at undersøge
problemet med uden succés. De har bedt ham om at køre bilen derind senere på
ugen, så de kan undersøge problemet mere grundigt. Stakkels Mike!!!!
11:00 Mike
skal hjem, og jeg hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler 6 miles (10 km).
12:15 Lois og
jeg spiser frokost og bagefter går vi i seng i en time. Så står jeg op, så Lois
kan tage en massiv eftermiddagslur uden at jeg forstyrrer hende – hun sov ikke
ret godt i nat, og i aften skal hun deltage i sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar,
så er det vigtigt, at hun ikke mangler energi.
15:00 Jeg ser
lidt fjernsyn – de viser den 8. afsnit af den danske tv-serie, ”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!
Johannes er en
førende ”provst” eller ærkediakon i Danmarks
lutheranske folkekirke. Serien kredser om
Johannes personlighed, som en meget dominerende figur, både i de kirker, han er
ansvarlig for, og i sin egen familie. Han dominerer alting, og han har tendens
til at have et raserianfald, når han ikke får sin vilje.
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.
Johannes har
fremmedgjort dem alle 3 i større eller mindre grad. Hans kone Elizabeth har
taget en norsk elskerinde, den dejlig violinist Liv. Elizabeth og Liv har
besluttet at flytte ind med hinanden.
Elisabeth på campingtur med sin norske elskerinde, Liv, en dejlig violinist
Christian har
konverteret til buddhisme, og har udgivet en bestseller, der handler om sin
åndelige genfødsel, hvori han har beskrivet sin barndom og sit vanskelige og
ofte voldelige forhold til sin far. Hans litterære agent, Amira, har reklameret
for bogen ved af sætte stor fokus på Christians vanskelig forhold til hans far,
fordi Johannes, Christians far, er en velkendt figur i det københavnske
samfund.
August, en
præst i et andet sogn, har siget op og blevet til gadepræst – han prøver at hjælpe unge mennesker om at overkomme deres
problemer med alkohol, stoffer osv.
I dette 18.
afsnit er der en masse nye problemer for familien. Johannes på anledning af sin
kone Elisabeths fødseldag, gør en stor indsats for at opnå en grad forsoning i
familien, med uden succés.
Johannes kone,
Elisabeth, flytter ind med hinanden i et lejehus ude på landet. Og Johannes gør
det klart for sin buddhistiske søn Christian, at han hader ham på grund af den bestseller,
han har skrevet, og at der aldrig vil være nogen forsoning med ham. Yikes!
Elisabeth, Johannes kone, flytter ind med Liv, den dejlige norske violinist,
i
et lejehus, ude på landet.
Christian, Johannes søn, har skrevet en bog, der er meget kritisk af
sin
far.Og Christians litterære agent, vil gerne udnytte disse aspekter af bogen
for
at interessere medierne og hjælpe med at sælge bogen
I mellemtiden
er den anden søn, August, den gadepræst, blevet involveret med to brødre,
ulovlige indvandrere fra Mellemøsten, som politiet efterlyser på grund af deres
forbindelser med terrorister. En af brødrene, den ældre bliver anholdt af
politiet, men den yngre, Hakim, en teenager, er alvorligt syg. I slutningen af
afsnittet, har August ladt Hakim flytte ind i sin lejlighed, så Emilie, Augusts
kone, der er læge, kan behandler ham – hvilket Emilie er ikke ret glad for, for
at sige mildt.
August er blevet
en gadepræst, der hjælper unge mennesker på gaderne
med at overkomme
deres problemer med alkool, stoffer osv.Også bliver han
involveret med ulovlige
indvandrer fra Mellemøsten, på fri fod fra politiet – yikes!
Du godeste,
sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!
16:00 Lois
kommer nedenunder og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
17:30 Vi
spiser aftensmad, lidt tidligere, end normalt. Hun har planlagt at deltage i
sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths
bibliotek. Hun har bedt mig om at køre hende over til sine venner Mari-Ann og
Alfs hus, så hun kan køre sammen med dem til Brockworth. Selvom hun for nylig
genvundet sin selvtillid, hvad angår dét, at køre bil i dagslys, vil hun stadig
hellere ikke køre i mørke.
I løbet af
måltiden imidlertid indser hun, at hun ikke har nok energi til at deltage i
aftenens seminar, og hun ringer til Mari-Ann for at fortælle hende. Stakkels
Lois!!!! Jeg også er nu nødt til at
forandre mine planer om aftenen. Når Lois er ude af huset, er det en god chance
for, at jeg ser de tv-programmer, hun ikke kan lide, men det må nu blive en
anden dag. Jeg begår mig ikke godt i planforandringer i sidste øjeblik: det
forstyrrer min ligevægt – hvis bare jeg var mere fleksibel!
20:00 Vi ser
lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, ”Me, My Selfie and I, with Ryan
Gander”, et tankevækkende men også lidt skræmmende program, der handler ikke
bare om selfies, men hele digitale verden, som vi er blevet besat af. Gander er
en handicappet kunstner, meget jordnær, og hans tesis er, at den digitale
verden berøver os vores menneskelighed.
Han starter
med at vise os mennesker i gang med at tage selfies, hvilket er lidt slående,
for at sige mildt. Takket være smartphones kultur, siger han, lever vi i en
uendeligt repetitiv præsens.
Vi møder en
ung kvinde på jagt efter en kæreste eller partner. Hun bruger de fleste
digitale platformer, hvor der er dating-sites, men hun er også blevet
registreret på en online tjeneste, Vita, der har skrivet hendes online profil
på hendes vegne, og som også svarer til emails fra potentielle kærester på
hendes vegne.
Den meget
professionel-lydende profil, de har skrevet på hendes vegne (baseret på
information, hun har forsynet dem med), er som følger:
”A vivid red sundress, perfectly chilled champagne flute,
golf clubs in tow, that’s my idea of a perfect afternoon, what’s yours? I’m
very active, upbeat and energetic, with maybe 1, 2 or 10, but definitely not 11
interests. Plus I love a good laugh. I would say more, but the rest of the
details are highly classified. Special clearance required.”
Vi møder også
Zoltan Istvan, der har en chip implanteret under huden af hånden, som han
bruger til at åbne hoveddøren, starte bilen osv. Han er en såkaldt ”transhumanist”
og glæder sig til at kunne i fremtiden udskifte sin ueffektive eller visnende kropsdele
med elektroniske kropsdele, så snart de bliver til rådighed.
Det er Gander,
programmets charmerende vært, ikke enig med ham i, på trods af, at han er alvorligt handicappet og tilbringer
hele dagen i en kørestol.
Vi møder også
en directør af Alcor, en forretning, der fryser døde kroppe på 200.000$ ad
gangen.
I slutningen
af programmet minder Gander os om, at selvportrætterne af vores digitale liv
kan virke useriøst nu, men de vil overleve os alle: det vil de teknologiske giganter sikre. Hvis
man ikke fortæller dem at ende ens online tilværelse, vil det ikke.
22:00 Yikes –
skræmmende, og ikke det bedste program til at gå i seng på! I morgen skal jeg
off-grid og bliver menneskelig igen ha ha ha ha!
Men vi glider
hurtigt over i søvnen, gudskelov. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!
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