10:00 Lois and I talk a little on
whatsapp with Sarah, our younger daughter, who lives in Perth, Australia, and
with her 5-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. She says Francis, her husband, is
interested in buying a piece of land on the Fairway Estate, Yanchep, next to a
golf course, where he can have a house built which he himself has designed on
the computer.
I'm not saying anything to Sarah
about this, but I’m hoping that Francis
doesn't intend to ask Lois and me for money to help him buy that piece of land
and build a house - because since his family moved to Perth in December 2015 we have
spent all our money on regular flights to Australia to see them ha ha ha!
Sarah only has 2 more working
days at her current job. Today is a public holiday over there, as it is with us
- Easter Monday. Next Thursday is also a public holiday over there - Anzac Day:
a day dedicated to the memory of members of the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps (ANZAC).
She is taking a day off on
Friday, and the new job starts on Monday. But she is going to be very busy on Tuesday and Wednesday completing
various projects and documenting her work for her successor, no doubt about that.
Poor Sarah !!!!
10:45 I sit down with the
computer and browse through various Danish news sites, and I notice an
interesting news item from Australia (on ekstrabladet.dk).
My Danish is not as good as it
once was, but I think it says in the headline that a 21-year-old Australian "bikini babe" (Kristina Mendonca) recently sneaked in on an elderly man's
photoshoot, which he had been intending to post on his Instagram profile.
As another elderly man with the
tiniest hint of a "spare tyre", I can sympathise a lot with the man's
obvious disappointment - the same thing has happened with some of my photo-shoots,
I have to say – it’s become a bit of an occupational hazard for us “silver
foxes” trying their luck in the modelling business.
My goodness, what a crazy world
we live in !!!!!
11:00 We go out in the backyard
to do a little weeding. Twelve square
feet of earth is now weed-free in our so-called south-east vegetable garden, and
Lois has done some weeding behind our largest rhubarb plant in the so-called north-west
vegetable garden.
a 12 square foot plot, now 100% free of
weeds - hurrah!
The soil behind our largest rhubarb
plant is now also free of weeds – hurrah (again)!
The rhubarb plant now has space to enlarge
itself further
(but only if it decides it wants to!)
12:00 We come back in the house.
I get started on reading more pages of "The Further You Fall", Anna
Grue’s crime novel, which is our U3A Danish group's current project.
A murder has been committed in
the advertising agency where our hero, Dan Sommerdahl, works as an advertising
man. In the pages I read through today, Dan is talking a little to his best friend, Fleming, a detective
inspector in the local police, about the personalities of the agency's various staff,
so Fleming can perhaps get a few clues about who the murderer might be.
Dan Sommerdahl, Denmark's only bald,
three-handed amateur detective
I can't help but notice how
sexist Dan and Fleming's conversation is whenever they talk about the agency's female staff.
Dan talks about the feud and the "bitchery" between the receptionist,
Pernille, and the company secretary, Elisabeth. And all the women in the
company have apparently taken sides in this mega-feud, some are with Pernille
and others are on Elisabeth’s side. And Dan calls the company’s women employees
the “hen coop” or “chicken yard”, which is asking for trouble, I suspect.
"On the surface they are all
kissy-kissy and lovey-dovey with one another, like bosom-girlfriends, but in private they say disgusting things about each other
.... they act like a bunch of teenagers on a school field trip camp",
says Dan.
And Dan then describes Pernille,
the receptionist, with her long black hair, "professional" makeup and high heels.
"This summer, her skirts were so short that she could have used lipstick
at both ends," he adds. And he says. "Pernille
spends 75% of her working hours checking out dating sites and buying shoes on
e-bay."
My god, what madness !!! It’s fortunate
that the author of this crime novel is herself a woman, Anna Grue, so she can
probably get away with writing about women this way, otherwise the author would
have been in a whole bunch of trouble, that’s something I have no doubts
about!
Plus, Anna can presumably also say in her defence
that she’s describing a typical conversation between two sexist men and is doing
so just to satirise these kinds of attitudes. But that’s something I’m not 100%
sure about – the jury is still out on that one.
12:30 We have lunch and
afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 4 pm and Lois
and I relax with a cup of tea and a piece of Easter cake on the sofa.
18:00 We have dinner on the
terrace: grilled sausages, potatoes, peas, mushrooms - yum yum!
Lois with a grill pan packed with
sausages - yum yum!
We spend the rest of the evening
watching a bit of television. Monday night is TV quiz night at our house, and
Lois and I are always happy when we find we can answer occasional questions
that defeat the participating "brains", I have to say.
But tonight, our performance is a
bit rubbish, to put it mildly. We can come up with a number of correct answers,
but almost nothing that the participating "brains" cannot answer too,
which is a little disappointing.
Damn!
It is true that we are in the
very last rounds of both quizzes, so the questions are probably harder, and the participating teams are the best ones left in the competitions, and it is also true that Lois and I are very tired after
an enjoyable but exhausting weekend with our daughter Alison and her family.
who visited us for a few days and went home last night.
Sorry, that was a bit of a
digression. Back now to tonight’s quiz!
I think the following is my only
success all evening, a question that’s a bit of a gift for “old crows” like me,
but a puzzle for the youngsters on the show:
22:00 Hurrah! We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!
Danish translation
10:00 Lois og jeg taler lidt på whatsapp med Sarah, vores yngre datter,
der bor i Perth, Australien, og med hendes 5-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie.
Hun siger, at Francis, hendes mand, er interesseret i at købe et stykke jord i
Fairway Estate, Yanchep, ved siden af en golfbane, hvor han kan få bygget et
hus, han selv har designet på computeren.
Jeg siger ikke noget til Sarah om det, men jeg håber på, Francis ikke
har til hensigt at bede Lois og mig om penge, for at hjælpe ham med at købe det
stykke jord og få bygget et hus – siden familien flyttede til Perth i december
2015 har vi brugt alle vores penge på jævne flybilletter til Australien ha ha
ha!
Sarah
har kun 2 arbejdsdag mere på sit nuværende job. I dag er en helligdag derovre,
som hos os – påskemandag. Næste torsdag er også en helligdag derovre –
Anzacdag: en mærkedag til minde om de medlemmer af Australian and
New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).
Hun tager en fridag på fredag, og det
nye job starter på mandag. Men hun vil have travlt på tirsdag og onsdag med at
gøre forskellige projekter færdige og dokumentere sit arbejde for sin efterfølger,
ingen tvivl om det. Stakkkels Sarah!!!!
10:45 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og
blader igennem forskellige danske nyhedswebsteder, og jeg lægger mærke til en
interessant nyhed fra Australien (ekstrabladet.dk).
Mit dansk er ikke så godt som det engang
var, men jeg tror, at det står i overskriften, at en 21-årig australsk
bikini-babe (Kristina Mendonca) sneg sig med en ældre mands photoshoot, som han
havde til hensigt at lægge ud på sin Instagram-profil. Som en anden ældre mand
med en antydning af en lillebitte ”bilring”, kan jeg sympatisere meget med
mandens åbenbare skuffelse – det er sket det samme med mine photoshoots mange
gange, det må jeg nok sige.
Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!
11:00 Vi går ud i baghaven for at luge lidt. Jeg gør 12 kvadratfødder
fri for ukrudt i den såkaldte sydøstlige grøntsagshave, og Lois luger bag vores
største rabarberplante i den såkaldte nordvestlige grøntsaghave.
et 12
kvadratfødder jordstykke, nu fri for ukrudt – hurra!
det
jordstykke bag vores største rabarberplante nu også fri for ukrudt – hurra!
Rabarberplanten
har nu plads til at udfolde sig videre, hvis hen har lyst dertil
12:00 Vi kommer tilbage ind i huset. Jeg går i gang med at læse endnu
flere sider af ”Dybt at falde”, Anna Grues krimiroman, der er vores U3A danske
gruppes nuværende projekt.
Et mord er blevet begået i det reklamebureau, hvor vores helt, Dan
Sommerdahl, arbejder som reklamemand. I disse sider taler han lidt med sin
bedste ven, Fleming, en kriminalkommisær i det lokale politi, om bureauets
personale, så Fleming kan få en anelse om hvem gerningsmanden kan være.
Dan Sommerdahl,
Danmarks eneste skaldede, trehåndede amatørdetektiv
Jeg kan ikke undgå at bemærke imidlertid, hvor sexistisk deres samtale,
når de snakker om bureauets kvindelige medarbejdere. Dan taler om fejden og
”bitcheriet” mellem receptionisten, Pernille, og direktionssekretær, Elisabeth.
Og begge kvinder har indgået en række alliancer med nogle af de andre kvinder i
huset for at hjælpe dem om at forfølge fejden.
”På overfladen er de alle sammen på knus og fnis og virker som veninder,
men mellem lignerne får de sagt så modbydelige ting om hinanden.... de opfører
sig som en flok teenagere på lejrskole”, siger Dan.
Og Dan beskriver så Pernille, receptionisten, med sit lange sorte hår,
prof makeup og høje hæle. ”I sommer var hendes skørter så korte, at hun burde
have brugt læbestif i begge ender”, tilføjer han. Og ”hun bruger 75% af
arbejdstiden på at tjekke datinghjemmesider og købe sko på e-bay.”
Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Det er heldigt, at krimiromanens
forfatter er selv kvinde, Anna Grues, så hun formentlig kan slippe af sted med
at skrive om kvinder på dette måde, ellers ville forfatteren have rodet sig ind
i noget, der har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om! Og hun kan sige også i sit forsvar,
at hun beskriver en typisk samtale mellem to sexistiske mænd, og har til
hensigt at satirisere disse slags attituder.
12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står p kl 16 og vi slapper af med en kop te og
et styke påskekage i sofaen.
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad på terrassen: grillede pølser, kartofler, ærter, chamignons –
yum yum!
Lois med
grillpanden propfyldt med pølser – yum yum!
Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mandag aften er
tv-quizaften hos os, og Lois og jeg er altid glade for, at kunne besvare
lejlighedsvise spørgsmål, som sætter de deltagende ”hjerner” til vægs, det må
jeg nok sige.
Men i aften er vores præstation lidt elendig, for at sige mildt. Vi kan
komme med en række korrekte svar, men næsten intet, som de deltagende ”hjerne”
ikke kan besvare, hvilket er lidt skuffende for at sige mildt.
Pokkers!
Det er sandt, at vi er i de allersidste omgange af begge quizzer, så de
deltagende hold er de bedste, og det er også sandt, at Lois og jeg er meget
trætte efter en fornøjelig men udmattende weekend med vores datter Alison og
hendes familie, der besøgte os i et par dage og tog hjem i går aftes.
Jeg tror, at det følgende var mit eneste succes fra hele aftenen, lidt
af en ren foræringer for gamle krager som mig:
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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