Saturday, April 6 2019

10:00 We drive over to Leckhampton and donate a large suitcase-full and 3 white plastic bags-full of unwanted intellectual books to the local Red Cross charity shop. Then we swing by "Roots'n'Fruits" to buy fruit, vegetables and bread. Afterwards, we pop into the adjoining CookShop and have a cup of coffee in the shop's cafe to recharge our batteries.

the Red Cross charity bookshop

"Roots And Fruits" (right) and CookShop, next door to the left

On the way home we drive into the local Sainsbury's parking lot to throw out another 3 bags of unwanted books for recycling: books that no one would be interested in, and books that are too worn to be passed on. It's all part of our current downsizing mini-project.

The whole morning gives us a massive sense of achievement, and we finally feel that it may really really be possible to downsize if we continue to make massive efforts, and keep up the momentum. Our goal is to be able to move to a smaller house without too much trouble, if the need arises, but it may be that we are deceiving ourselves - the jury is still out on that one.

Lois and I had to empty both of our deceased mothers' houses, attics and garages, in 1995 and 2011, respectively, so we know exactly what we are talking about here - yikes! It is not so much all the work that burdened us, it was more the sadness of disposing of so many touching memories - yikes (again) !!!!

I have a repetitive nightmare where I see Alison, our elder daughter, and Ed, her husband, going up the ladder to our attic and getting a massive shock when they see the terrible chaos up there. Poor Ali and Ed !!!!!!

Ali and Ed - a recent picture of them with their 3 children, at Wembley Stadium

But I must not feel too sorry for Ali. Half or more of the unwanted items in the attic were left up there by her and her sister, Sarah, when they each left home ha ha – my god !!!!!

Flashback to October 2009: my mother  sitting in her living room,

surrounded by all the things (books, photos,and memories etc) that she loved.

To the right, our younger daughter Sarah and Francis, her husband,

who are now living in Perth, Australia.

Flashback to June 2011: my mother's living room, now more or less emptied,

4 months after her death

Lois and I had to empty and clean the whole house,

 to sell it to a young family

The house now sold

13:00 Lois and I come home and have lunch. Afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and start to draw up a Danish vocabulary list which I want our U3A Danish group members to memorise before the group's next meeting on Thursday.

I also devise a small Danish vocabulary test, based on the list. The right answers to the test spell out another of stand-up comedian Tim Vine's famous one-line jokes, "I went to buy a watch. The man in the shop said 'Analogue?' I said 'No, just a watch."

Incidentally the correct answers to the vocabulary test are top secret until Thursday 3 pm, needless to say ha ha ha !!!

TimVine, our favourite stand-up comedian

16:00 Lois has spent the day doing a little genealogical research on behalf of her friend, Mari-Ann, but she has got to  a bit of an impasse with that, so she turns to my family tree instead. She tries to find out more details about my mother’s paternal grandfather, John Evans, who was a local newspaper editor in South Wales in the 1890’s.

John Evans, my mother's paternal grandfather

She comes across  a news item in the South Wales Daily News about John's Silver Wedding, with some touching details of the gifts his newspaper's staff gave him for the occasion, back in October 1889.

For some reason, I find this news story very touching, because the gifts were described with a little bit of detail, so that one can easily imagine the scene unfolding in the newspaper's office space, when the presentation was made, now so long ago., in a world full of "masters" and "men, or workmen". Good grief, what a crazy world they lived in !!!!!

The past is really brought so vividly back to life again by such stories, I think, and I can feel the tears beginning to roll down my cheeks, and I really don't know why! My god, what an idiot I am !

18:00 We have dinner, and afterwards, Lois leafs through the Sunday School lesson she will be teaching tomorrow, when her sect holds its worship services in the Tewkesbury Town Library.

In fact, she prepared this lesson for last Sunday, but the visiting preacher insisted that the children stay in the main meeting room and hear his sermon, rather than go out to the little adjoining room and hear Lois's lesson, which was a little egotistic of him, or at least that’s what I think. Good grief, pure insanity !!!!

We spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. The latest episode of Gogglebox is on.

Many of Gogglebox's "commentators" have become media stars, including our favourites, Giles and Mary (or "Nutty", as Giles calls her).

Giles Wood and Mary Killen in "Gogglebox"

Lois says Mary and Giles have recently published their own book, "Diary of Two Nobodies". They have also published Mary's list of the books she reads aloud in the car to stop Giles from falling asleep behind the wheel.

Mary's list includes "Maestra", but she says she just sums up, or skips over, the book's sex scenes, which are a bit too graphic from her point of view. My god, what madness!

Tonight we see Gogglebox's families reaccting to the news that Theresa May has asked Brussels to postpone the deadline for Brexit until April 12.

The families’ reaction is not 100% positive, to put it mildly. But it's nice to see that Giles feels sorry for the members of parliament, because there is a risk that they will miss their usual Easter break, when they normally have their portions of Welsh lamb and all that, which is quite thoughtful of him, we think.

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

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Vi kører over til Leckhampton og donerer en stor kuffert og 3 hvide plastikposer fulde af uønskede intellektuelle bøger til den lokale Røde Kors velgørenhedsbutik. Vi smutter ind i ”Roots’n’Fruits” for at købe  frugt, grøntsager og brød. Bagefter kigger vi ind i den tilstødende CookShop, og drikker en kop kaffe i butikkens café, for at genoplade vores batterier.

Røde Kors-velgørenhedsboghandlen

”Roots And Fruits” (til højre) og Cookshop

På vej hjem kører vi ind i det lokale Sainsburys-parkeringsplads for at smide endnu 3 poser af uønskede bøger ud til genbrug: bøger, som ingen ville interessere sig for, og bøger, der er for slidte til at blive videregivet. Det hele er en del af vores nuværende downsize-miniprojekt.

Det hele giver os en massiv følelse af præstation, og vi  føler omsider, at det virkelig virkelig kan være muligt at downsize, hvis vi fortsætter med at gøre en massiv indsats og holde momentummet. Vores mål er at kunne flytte til et mindre hus uden for meget besvær, hvis det bliver nødvendigt, men det kan være at vi bedrager os selv – det er juryen stadig ude om.

Lois og jeg blev nødt til at tømme begge vores afdøde mødres huse og garager, i henholdsvis 1995 og i 2011, så ved vi præcis, hvad vi taler om her – yikes! Det er ikke så meget alt det arbejde, der bebyrdede os, som tristheden af at se så og håndtere mange rørende minder – yikes (igen) !!!!

Jeg har en gentagende mareridt, hvor jeg ser Alison, vores ældste datter, og Ed, hendes mand, gå op ad stigen til vores loft og få et massivt chok, når de ser det forfærdlige kaos deroppe. Stakkels Ali og Ed !!!!!!

Ali og Ed – et nyligt billede, sammen med deres 3 børn, på Wembley-stadiet

Men jeg må ikke have for meget ondt af Ali. En halvdel eller mere af de uønskede genstander i loftet blev efterladt deroppe af hende og hendes søster, da de forlod hjemmet – omg!!!!!

Tilbageblik til oktober 2009: min mor sidder i sin stue, omgivet af alle de ting (bøger, fotoer,

 og minder osv), som hun elskede. Til højre, vores yngste datter Sarah og Francis, hendes mand,

der nu bor i Perth, Australien.

Tilbageblik til juni 2011: min mors stue, nu tømmet, 4 mdr efter hendes død

Lois og jeg tømmer og rengører hele huset, for at sælge det

Huset er lige blevet solgt

13:00 Lois og jeg kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og går i gang med at udtænke en dansk ordforrådliste, som jeg vil have vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer til at lære udenad før gruppens næste møde på torsdag.

Jeg udtænker også en lille danske ordforrådtest, baseret på listen. De rigtige svar til testen staver endnu en af standup komikeren Tim Vines berømte én-linje vittigheder, “I went to buy a watch, and the man in the shop said ‘Analogue?’ I said ‘No, just a watch.”  I øvrigt er de rigtige svar på vores danske gruppes nye ordforrådtest tophemmelige indtil torsdag kl 15, unødvendigt at sige ha ha ha!!!

TimVine, vores yndlings-standupkomiker

16:00 Lois har brugt dagen hidtil på at gøre lidt genealogiske forskning på vegne af sin veninde, Mari-Ann, men hun gået i lidt af en hårdknude, så advender hun sig til mit familietræ, og forsøger at finde kud af flere detaljer om min morfars far, John Evans, der var avisredaktør i Syd-Wales i 1890’erne.

John Evans, min mors morfar

Hun falder over en nyhedsartikel  i South Wales Daily News om Johns sølvbryllupsdag, med nogle rørende detaljer om de gaver, som hans avis’ personale forærte til ham med på andledning af hans sølvbryllupsdagen i oktober 1889.

Denne artikel fandt jeg af en eller anden grund meget rørende, på grund  af, at gaverne blev beskrevet med de vigtigste detaljer, også at man kan så sagtens forstiller sig scenen i avisens kontorplads. Fortiden bliver virkelig genoplivet af sådanne artikler, synes jeg, og jeg kan mærke hvordan tårerne de begynder at trille ned ad kinderne på mig, og jeg ved virkelig ikke hvorfor! Du godeste, hvor er jeg dog en idiot!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, og bagefter skal Lois blade igennem den søndagsskolelektion, hun skal undervise i morgen, når hendes sekt holder sine gudstjenester i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek.

Hun forberedte den faktisk til sidste søndag, men den besøgende prædiker insisterede på, at børnene bliver siddende i det hovedsagelige mødelokale og høre sin prædiken, i stedet for at gå ind det tilstøttende rum og høre Lois’ lektion, hvilket var lidt egoistisk, eller det synes jeg i det mindste. Du godeste, rent vanvid !!!!

Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser Gogglebox’ seneste afsnit.

Mange af Gogglebox’ ”commentatorer” er blevet til media-stjerner, herunder vores favoritter Giles og Mary (eller ”Nutty”, som Giles kalder hende).

Giles Wood og Mary Killen i ”Gogglebox”

Lois siger, at Mary og Giles lige har udgivet deres egen bog, ”Diary of Two Nobodies”. De har også udgivet Marys liste over de bøger, hun læser højt i bilen, for at forhindre Giles i at falde i søvn bag rettet.

Marys liste inkluderer ”Maestra”, men hun siger, hun bare opsummerer eller springer over bogens sex-scener, der er lidt for grafiske set ud fra sit synspunkt. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

I aften ser vi Gogglebox’ familier reagerer til nyheden om, at Theresa May har bedt Brussels om, at udskyde fristen for Brexit intil den 12. april.

Familiernes reaktion er ikke 100% positiv, for at sige mildt. Men det er rart at se, at Giles har ondt af underhusets medlemmer, fordi der er en risiko for, at de går glip af sine sædvanlige påskepause, når de har for vane at smide sine portioner walesiske lam og alt det der, hvilket er venligt af ham, synes vi.

Du godeste, sikke et skørt land vi lever i !!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!