Monday, April 15 2019

For the second consecutive night, Lois has had trouble sleeping, and she crept out of the bedroom in the middle of the night and hopped into the bed in Sarah's old room, so she didn't have to toss and turn  and disturb me, which is typically considerate of her, I have to say.

08:30 I hop into bed with her and we drink our morning tea. After breakfast I start to do a bit  of weeding in the so-called "north-west" vegetable garden, where our largest rhubarb plant grows. Our policy for the time being is not to do gardening for more than 1 hour max a day, so we do not suffer too much from painful legs, backs or joints - yikes! But we're just  two old crows, after all.

Lois has made a to-do list of gardening tasks, and assigned them all: some to "C" (me) and the rest to herself (L).

Lois's to-do list of gardening tasks,

written on the bottom of one of my old Danish vocabulary lists

I don't really know anything about the more specialised gardening tasks, so I've been restricted to mowing  the grass and pulling weeds out and pruning this and that, which suits me fine, I have to say.

I pull up weeds into our so-called "north-west" vegetable patch,

and now it’s almost weed-free  - hurrah!

11:00 I come back into the house and start reading the next 2 pages of "The Further You Fall", Anna Grue’s crime novel, which is our U3A Danish group's current project. Afterwards I prepare a vocabulary list for both pages. It is my goal to read 2 pages a day, and in addition list all the more difficult words at the bottom of each page.

"The Further You Fall" - the crime novel by Anna Grue,

that is our U3A Danish group's current project

Anna Grue, the novel's author

Our (temporarily depressed) hero, advertising man Dan Sommerdahl, is talking to his friend Fleming, a detective inspector in the local police, about a murder that has taken place in the advertising agency where Dan works (when he is not on sick leave ha ha!) : one of the agency's cleaners, Lilliana, has been “garrotted” one evening while she was doing her work in the agency's kitchen.

Inspector Fleming’s problem is that he has found out that the delightfully named cleaning company "Skrubbe-kompagni", which sends cleaners to the agency, say they have never heard of Lilliana. So the police do not even know her last name or age - all they know is that the autopsy has shown that Lilliana has given birth "vaginally" at some point in the last 6-12 months.

My god, what madness !!!

Immediately, I begin to wonder if she was an illegal immigrant, or something similar. But why would anyone want to murder someone like that?

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

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm, and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch.

We talk a little about our elder daughter Alison's upcoming visit (Friday midday till Sunday night). Alison recently sent me a message saying that all 5 of them (Alison, Ed and their 3 children) now sleep on two pillows each - my god! Lois suspects that we do not have as many as 10 spare pillows to give them, and she has suggested that tomorrow we should drive over to the Dunelm store to buy a few extra ones.

I tell her I’ll  just to go up to the attic again, to check if we have other pillows up there. I find a few pillows and a couple of duvets too and bring them down the ladder, so Lois can examine them later in the evening.

the  pillows and bedding that I've lugged down the loft ladder

I comment that if some of them are too worn or too stained to be used, we should throw them away rather than take them back up the ladder to the attic. And the council’s fortnightly waste collection is happening on Wednesday, which is handy.

[Later in the day, Lois looks through the collection of bedding etc, and discovers that there is actually only one decent pillow in there, so she says we will just have to go to the Dunelm store tomorrow to buy at least two new ones - damn!]

In the meantime, Lois pulls some more weeds out in the flower beds – my goodness, what a woman !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. We are both tired and have aching joints from all that gardening - damn! But we discover when we see the evening's two TV quizzes that, mentally, we are both still quick-witted and on the ball, to say the least.

Lois and I are always very happy that sometimes we can answer questions that the participating "brains" in the quizzes strike out on, and we give ourselves one point each time this happens. It does not count if one of the "brains" also answers the question correctly.

We both keep a tally of our little triumphs, and tonight we both score 4 points. I note down my little triumphs on a piece of paper, as always. "Little things please little minds", as my mother used to say.

In "Only Connect" I can see the connection between the four following things, while the 6 "brains" just stare blankly at them:

The connection in fact is four English words that describe temperaments allegedly influenced by the planets, ie "saturnine, mercurial, jovial, martial". 

"Simples" !!!!

Score: Colin 1 Brains 0

In "University Challenge":

(a) Which US-born inventor developed the punch card system used in the 1890 American census? [correct answer: Herman Hollerith]

(b) A history-and-chemistry question about the start date of Britain's participation in 2 world wars and chemical symbols:

[correct answer: August and September => As = arsenic - "simples" (again) !!!!

(c) Film director Sofia Coppola's film "Marie Antoinette" (2006) was based on a biography written by which British historian and novelist?

[correct answer: Antonia Fraser]

Score at the end of the two quizzes: Colin 4 Brains 0

Lois also beat the 4 brains 4-0, but on four different questions, which I forgot to make a note of - typical me, and how egotistical - but I'm going to let that one slide, which is big of me ha ha ha !!!!!

22:00 We are now convinced that we are not yet suffering from dementia, but perhaps we are deluding ourselves – that’s one question we are not entirely sure about. The jury still out on that one. Oh dear !!!!

ZZZZZZZZZZ !!!!!

Danish translation

For 2. nat i træk har Lois haft svært ved at søve, og hun krøb ud af soveværelset midt om natten og hoppede opi sengen i Sarahs gamle værelse, så hun ikke skulle kaste og vende og forstyrre mig, hvilket er typisk hensynsfuldt af hende, det må jeg nok sige.

08:30 Jeg hopper op i sengen til hende og vi drikker vores morgenté. Efter morgenmad går jeg i gang med at luge lidt i den såkaldte ”nord-vestlige” grøntsagshave, hvor vores største rabarberplante gror. Vores politik for tiden er ikke lave havearbejde i mere, end 1 time max om dagen, så vi ikke lider for meget af smertefulde ben eller led – yikes! Men vi er bare to gamle krager, når alt kommer til alt.

Lois har udfærdiget en gøremålsliste over haveopgaver, og tildelt os opgaverne:  nogle til  ’C’ (mig) og resten til sig selv (L).

Lois’ gøremålsliste over haveopgaver,

skrevet i bunden af én af mine gamle danske ordforrådlister

Jeg kender ikke noget til de mere specialiserede haveopgaver, så jeg er begrænset til at slå græsset, og at trække ukrudt ud, og beskære dette og hint, hvilket passer mig fint - det må jeg nok sige.

jeg går i gang med at trække ukrudt ud i vores såkaldte

”nordvestlige” grøntsagshave – nu næsten udkrudtfri - hurra!

11:00 Jeg kommer tilbage ind i huset og går i gang med at læse de næste 2 sider af ”Dybt at falde”, Anna Grues krimiroman, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt. Bagefter udfærdiger jeg en ordforrådliste til begge sider. Det er mit mål at læse 2 sider om dagen, og derudover liste alle de sværere ord i bunden af hver side.

Vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Anna Grue, krimiromanens forfatter

Vores (midlertidigt deprimerede) helt, reklamemanden Dan Sommerdahl, snakker med sin ven Fleming, en kriminalkommissær i det lokale politi, om et drab, der har fundet sted i det reklamebureau, hvor Dan arbejder (når han ikke er sygemeldt ha ha ha!):  en af bureauets rengøringsassistenter, Lilliana, er blevet garrotteret en aften, da hun var i gang med sit arbejde  i bureauets køkken.

Problemet er, at det selskab ”Skrubbekompagni”, der er ansvarligt for at sende rengøringsassistenter til bureauet, har ikke hørt om Lilliana. Så politiet kender engang ikke hendes efternavn eller alder – alt de ved er, at hun har født ”vaginalt” på ét eller andet tidspunkt for omkring 6-12 måneder siden.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! 

Med det samme begynder jeg at spekulere på, om hun måske var en ulovlig indvandrer, eller noget lignende. Men hvorfor ville nogen dræbe sådan én? Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

12:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.

Vi snakker lidt om vores ældste datter Alisons kommende besøg (fredag til søndag aften). Alison har for nylig sendt mig en besked, hvor hun siger, at de alle 5 (Alison, Ed og deres 3 børn) nu har det med at sove på to hovedpuder. Lois mistænker, at vi ikke har så mange som 10 hovedpuder, og hun har forslået at vi i morgen kører over il det Dunelm stormaagasinet for at købe nogle ekstra.

Jeg siger, jeg bare vil gå op ad loftstigeren endnu en gang, for at tjekke om vi har andre hovedpuder deroppe. Jeg finder et stykke hovedpuder og et par dyner også og bringe dem ned ad stigen, så Lois kan undersøge dem senere på aftenen.

de bunkevis af hovedpuder og sengetøj, jeg har båret ned ad  loftstigen

Hvis nogle af dem er for slidte eller for plettet til at blive brugt, kan vi smide dem væk snarere, en tage dem tilbage op ad stigen til loftet. Og kommunens indsamling af affald forventes på onsdag, hvilket er belejligt.

[Senere på dagen kigger Lois igennem samlingen af sengetøj osv, og opdager, at der faktisk er kun én hæderlig hovedpude derinde, så hun siger, vi i morgen skal til Dunelm-stormagasinet  for at købe to nye – pokkers!]

I mellemtiden går Lois i gang med at trække ukrudt ud i blomsterbedene – du godeste, sikke en kvinde!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Vi er begge to trætte og har ondt i ledene af alt det der havearbejde – pokkers! Men vi opdager, når vi ser aftenens to tv-quizzer, at mentalt er vi stadig kvikke og oppe på dupperne, for at sige mildt.

Lois og jeg er altid meget glade for, at nogle gange kunne besvare spørgsmål, som gør alle de deltagende ”hjerner” i quizzerne perplekse, og vi giver os selv ét point, hver gang dette sker.  Det tæller ikke, hvis en eller anden ”hjerne” også besvarer spørgsmål korrekt.

Vi har begge tal på vores små triumfer, og i aften scorer vi begge to 4 points. Jeg noterer mine små triumfer på et papir, som altid. ”Little things please little minds”, som min mor havde det med at sige.

I ”Only Connect” kan jeg se forbindelsen mellem de 4 følgende ting, mens de 6 ”hjerner” stirrer blankt på dem:

Forbindelsen er faktisk, 4 engelske ord der beskriver temperamenter angiveligt påvirket af planeterne, dvs ”saturnine, mercurial, jovial, martial”. ”Simples” !!!!

Score: Colin 1 Hjernerne 0

I ”University Challenge”

(a)    Hvilken US-født opfinder udviklede det hulkortsystem brugt i den amerikanske folketælling i 1890 ?  [korrekte svar: Herman Hollerith]

(b)    Et historisk-kemisk spørgsmål der handler om startdatoen for Storbritanniens deltagelse i 2 verdenskrige, og kemiske symboler:

[korrekte svar:  august og september => As = arsen – ”simples” (igen) !!!!

(c)    Filminstruktøren Sofia Coppolas film ”Marie Antoinette” (2006) var baseret på en biograf skrevet af hvilken britisk historiker og romanforfatter?

[korrekte svar: Antonia Fraser]

Score ved slutningen af de to quizzer: Colin 4 Hjernerne 0

22:00 Vi er blevet overbevist, at vi endnu ikke lider af demens, men måske vildleder vi os – det der er ét spørgsmål, vi ikke er helt sikre på. Juryen stadig ude om det.

Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!