Sunday, April 14 2019

08:30 Lois has back pain today - she did not sleep very well last night and crawled out of bed in the middle of the night to jump into our spare double bed - the one in our grown-up daughter Sarah's old room. She can then put the light on and read, without disturbing me.

We go in the shower - it sometimes helps her to take a shower and let the water run down her back.

Lois has decided not to atend her sect’s 2 church services taking place today in Tewkesbury  library. The library chairs are not very comfortable – and it is also sometimes painful for her to drive - poor Lois !!!!!

It will be nice to have her company today around the house, even if it also means that I do not get so many opportunities to cross tasks off on my to-do list - I have to say. Although that is my fault, not Lois's.  Also, I won't now be able to watch any of the numerous TV shows I've recorded that she doesn't want to see, which is a bit of a shame, to put it mildly.

10:00 After breakfast, we talk a little bit on whatsapp with our younger daughter Sarah, now living in Perth, Australia, and with her 5-year-old twin daughters, Lily and Jessie. The twins are very excited, having taken part in an Easter egg hunt organised by Sarah's workplace in Kings Park, the city's largest park, which overlooks the harbour.

We watch the twins as they play, jump, run and generally romp about in an energetic and lively way around the living room. How nice to be young and full of energy - yikes! 

Again we are amazed at how much more advanced their use of English is now, even though there is really no sign yet of an Australian accent, I have to say. Lois and I suspect that many of their classmates are actually the children of British immigrants: Perth, and especially the city's northern suburbs, are a bit of a magnet for Brits. It is a bit like the Earls Court suburb of London used to be, but in reverse ha ha!

Sarah and Francis's 5-year old twins, Lily and Jessie

When Lois and I last visited the family (March-April 2018), the twin's speaking abilities were much more limited, and they were both receiving speech therapy from time to time. We suspect that this was partly due to the fact that on weekdays they were being brought up by their father.

"Latte papas", as the Swedes call them, often have less tendency to talk to their young children, or read them stories, etc.: their priority is for the child to be as "low-maintenance" as possible, which is a bit of a shame.

Now, however,  the twins are expressing themselves incredibly well, and they are not afraid to say what they think about this and that. When Sarah tells us today that she and Francis are considering going on a camping trip next weekend (Easter), the twins don't hesitate to tell Sarah, and us, that they hate the long drives in the car that Francis himself naturally loves. Good grief, they’re growing up fast, no doubt about that !!!!

Sarah herself is very busy at the moment at her workplace (she is an accountant) because she is in the process of finishing off,  or documenting, all of her current projects for her current employer, the state's leading landscape architecture firm, in preparation for moving to her new job at a nationwide company that supplies and installs solar energy appliances for homes and businesses. She is a little stressed-out and is looking forward to taking advantage of the 4-day Easter weekend in 4 days’ time.

Our daughter Sarah

11:00 I start reading more pages from the crime novel "The Further You Fall", by Anna Grue, which is our U3A Danish group's current project. I print out every additional page I read, and I include  a vocabulary list of all the difficult words (and many of the easier words too - I'm so considerate ha ha ha - also, I know that our group members are all old crows like Lois and me, and have very bad memories ha ha ha !!!!).

I read a couple of low-key pages, where Dan, the book's hero, who is destined to become Denmark's best amateur fictional detective (even though he is not yet aware of this), has a little alone time and goes for a walk over the hills with his elderly dog, Luffe, and on the way home he meditates about his love for his company car, an Audi of some kind.

It sounds like Dan is the opposite of me, to put it mildly. I'm more of a cat person than a dog person - and I don't tend to fantasise about swish cars. I'm no petrol head – that’s for sure. But it takes all kinds of people to fill the world up, as the Danes say.

Marianne, Dan's wife thinks differently – she says a car is just something to transport people from point A to point B, and preferably without requiring too many days in the repair shop.

Lois comments that this is the traditional female point of view. And I have to admit to Lois that Marianne's point of view is also my point of view. Damn - I'm on the women's team again!

I have to try to become more macho – that’s for sure!

"The Further You Fall" - the original Danish version of Anna Grue's crime novel

The front page of the Italian version of Anna Grue's book, which showcases

the book's hero, Dan, along with his elderly dog, Luffe. 

The Italian version looks much less sexy than the original Danish version, I have to say. It looks like a children's book in my opinion, something in the style of Britain's famous "Ladybird" series for young children,  or an Enid Blyton adventure story - the Famous Five series perhaps.

Anna Grue, the Danish author who wrote "Deeply Falling" is without a doubt a dog-person, to judge from this picture that I came across on the web.

Author Anna Grue and dog

I also happened to read this morning on the web, that Denmark's TV2 channel is planning to film a new crime series that will revolve around Dan Sommerdahl as the main character, and the story will play out in the beautiful harbour town of Helsingør, which was also the focal point of Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

So, hopefully, we will sooner or later see the series on British television, which will be nice. The series will be filmed in Helsingør because of the city's idyllic and historical identity, according to the article.

Flashback to June 2017: we visit Elsinore Castle with our elder daughter Alison,

and watch a troupe of English actors perform scenes from Hamlet

Alison and I, a little out of breath, to put it mildly, after a "quick" dash

up the 145 steps leading up to the castle's roof and gun tower

- my goodness, I'm getting old, no doubt about that !!!!

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois sits down with the computer and participates in her sect’s communion service  online. She sits there with a piece of bread and a glass of port wine, and joins in with the hymns, which I find very touching for some reason.

15:00  I get up. The service is over and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. Afterwards I hop up on my exercise bike and ride 6 miles (10 km).

18:00 We have dinner: roast pork and crackling with apple sauce, roast potatoes, green beans and cauliflower - yum yum!

20:00 We spend the rest of the evening watching television, an interesting documentary about Janet Baker, the famous English classical singer (first contralto and later mezzo-soprano), now 87 years old or thereabouts.

A fascinating program. It is strange that she and her elder brother, who both had incredibly beautiful voices, grew up with parents who were not at all interested in music or "culture". But she says that an important part of her ability to sing with so much feeling came from her brother's tragic death when he was 14 and she was 10 - a death that her parents never even talked to her about. And her brother's death  (she was very close to him)  led her to decide not to have children of her own.

Janet had the ability to sing with an "almost unbearable passion", say many of the programme's contributors.

She was particularly popular in the United States, after her New York debut in 1966, and she says tonight how much she appreciated the warmth of the American audiences.

We hear tonight from many of Janet's celebrity fans, including Andre Previn, who unfortunately died recently, interviewed at his home.

During Previn's interview, Lois and I get a glimpse of his cat in the background, who “enters stage left” and slips  into Previn's kitchen probably to look for food, or something similar.

Previns cat an unexpected scene-stealer

Lois and I are both cat-people, so we always notice the cats, whether they are in the background or the foreground, I have to say. Not all interviews have them, of course.

We talk a little about cats in general, and speculate on whether Previn's cat ever met Schrödinger's cat. We come to the conclusion that such a meeting was unlikely: Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and lived in Vienna (sometimes with his cat, depending on the exact circumstances), while Previn lived in New York. And there may have been an age difference as well, but we're not sure - the jury is still out on that one.

What a pity – the two cats might have had a lot in common. A missed opportunity there, perhaps.

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

Danish translation

08:30 Lois har ondt i ryggen i dag – hun sov ikke særlig godt i nat, og krøb ud af sengen midt i natten for at hoppe op i vores reserve-dobbeltseng – den, der står i vores voksne datter Sarahs gamle værelse.

Vi går i bad – det hjælper hende nogle gange at tage et brusebad og lade vandet løbe ned ad sin ryg.

Lois har besluttet ikke at deltage i sin sekts 2 gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek. Bibliotekets stole er ikke særlig komfortable – også er det nogle gange smertefuldt at køre i bil – stakkels Lois !!!!!

Det vil være rart at have hendes selskab i dag rundt omkring i huset, selvom det også betyder, jeg ikke vil have så mange muligheder for at strege opgaver på min gøremålsliste – det må jeg nok sige, selvom det der er min skyld, ikke Lois’ skyld. Også vil jeg ikke kunne se nogle af de mange tv-programmer jeg har optaget, som hun ikke har lyst til at se, hvillket er lidt af en skam for at sige mildt.

10:00 Efter morgenmad taler vi lidt på whatsapp med vores ynste datter Sarah, der nu bor i Perth, Australien, og med hendes 5-årige tvillingedøtre, Lily og Jessie. Tvillingerne er meget spændte efter have deltaget i et påskeægjagt organiseret af Sarahs arbejdsplads, der fandt sted i Kings Park, byens største park, der har udsigt over havnen. 

Vi ser på tvillingerne, som de leger, hopper, løber og generelt bevæger sig på en energisk og livlig måde rundt omkring i stuen. Hvor rart at være unge og fulde af energi – yikes! Igen er vi forbløffede, hvor meget mere avanceret deres brug af engelsk er, selvom der endnu egentlig ikke er tegn på en australsk accent, det må jeg nok sige – Lois og jeg mistænker, at mange af deres klassekammerater er børnene af britiske indvandringer: Perth og i sær byens nordlige forstæder er lidt af en magnet for briter. Det er lidt som Earls Court- forstaden til London engang var, men omvendt ha ha ha!

Da Lois og jeg sidst besøgte familien (marts-april 2018) var tvillingernes evne til at tale langt mere begrænset, og de havde begge fra tid til anden modtaget taleterapi . Vi mistænker, at dette delvis var på grund af, at de i hverdagen var blevet opdraget af deres far.  ”Latte papaer”, som svenskerne kalder dem, har mindre tendens til at tale med deres små børn, læse dem fortællinger osv: deres prioritet er, at barnet bliver så ”lav-vedligholdelse” som muligt, hvilket er lidt af en skam.

Nu udtrykker de sig utrolig godt, og de er ikke bange for at fortælle, hvad de mener om dette og hint. Da Sarah siger til os i dag, at hun og Francis overvejer at gå på en campingtur næste weekend (påske), tøver tvillingerne ikke med at fortælle Sarah og os, at de hader de lange kørsler i bilen, som Francis selvfølgelig elsker. Du godeste, de vokser hurtigt op, ingen tvivl om det !!!!

Selve Sarah har meget travlt for tiden på sit arbejde (hun er revisor), fordi hun er i gang med at slutte eller dokumenterer alle sine nuværende projekter på delstatens førende landskabsarkitekturfirma, i forberedelse på, at flytte til sit nye job på en landsdækkende firma der forsyner og installere solenergi-apparater til boliger og firmaer. Hun er lidt stresset og glæder sig til at benytte sig af den 4-dages påskeweekend om 4 dages tid.

11:00 Jeg går i gang med at læse endnu flere sider fra krimiromanen ”Dybt at falde”, af Anna Grue, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt. Jeg udprinter hver ekstra side, jeg læser, og vedhæfter en ordforrådliste over alle de svære ord (og mange af de nemmere ord også – jeg er så hensynsfuld  ha ha ha – også jeg ved godt, at vores gruppemedlemmer,  der alle er gamle krager ligesom Lois og jeg, har meget dårlige hukommelser ha ha ha !!!!

Jeg læser et par stilfærdige sider, hvor Dan, bogens helt, hvis skæbne er i løbet af novellen at blive til Danmarks bedste amatør detektiv (selvom han endnu ikke er klar over det her), har lidt alenetid og går tur med sin ældre hund, Luffe, over bakkerne, og på vej hjem udtrykker hans kærlighed til sin firmabil, en Audi af en eller anden type. Det lyder som om Dan er det modsatte af mig, for at sige mildt. Jeg er mere af et kattemenneske, end et hundemenneske – og jeg kan ikke lide at fantasere om blærede biler. Jeg er ikke noget benzinhoved – det ved jeg med sikkerhed.

Men det kræver alle slags mennesker at fylde verden op, som jeg plejer at sige.

Marianne, Dans kone, mener anderledes – at en bil bare er noget, der skal transportere én fra punkt A til punkt B, og helst uden at kræve for mange værkstedbesøg. Lois kommenterer, at det der er det traditionelle kvindelige synspunkt.

Jeg må indrømme Lois, at Mariannes synspunkt også er mit synspunkt.  Pokkers – jeg er på kvindernes hold igen!

Jeg må prøve at blive mere macho – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!

”Dybt af falde” – den oprindelige danske version af Anna Grus krimiroman

Forsiden af den italienske version af Anna Grues bog fremviser

bogens helt, Dan, sammen med sin ældre hund, Luffe, men er meget mindre sexet

end den oprindelige danske version, det må jeg nok sige.

Den italienske version ligner en børnebog efter min mening,

noget i stil med Storbritanniens berømte ”Ladybird” serie måske.

Anna Grue, den danske forfatterinde, der skrev ”Dybt at falde” er uden tvivl et hunde-menneske, ud af dømme fra dette billede, som jeg stødte på på nettet.

Jeg læste tilfældigvis også i morges på nettet, at Danmarks TV2-kanal planlægger at filme en ny krimiserie, der skal kredse om Dan Sommerdahl som hovedfigur, og historien skal spille sig ud i den smukke havneby Helsingør, også  omdrejningspunktet for Shakespeares ”Hamlet”. Så derfor forhåbentlig vil vi komme før eller senere til at se serien på britisk tv, hvilket vil være rart. Serien skal filmes i Helsingør på grund af byens idylliske og historiske identitet, ifølge artiklen.

Tilbageblik til juni 2017: vi besøger Helsingør slot, sammen med vores ældste datter Alison,

og ser en engelsk skuespiltrup opføre scener fra Hamlet

Alison og jeg, lidt forpustede, for at sige mildt,  efter en ”rask” tur op ad

de 145 trappetrin, der fører op til slottets tag og kanontårn

- du godeste, jeg bliver gammel, ingen tvivl om det !!!!

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden sætter Lois sig med computeren og deltager i sin sekts nadver på nettet. Hun sidder med et stykke brød og et glas portvin og stemmer i med salmerne, hvilket jeg finder meget rørende af en eller anden grund.

15:00 Jeg står op. Gudstjenesten er slut og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Bagefter hopper jeg op på min kondicykel og cykler 6 miles (10 km).

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad: stegte svinekød og flæskesvær med æble-sauce, stegte kartofler, grønne bønner og blomkål – yum yum !

20:00 Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om Janet Baker, den berømte engelske klassiske sanger (først contralto og senere mezzo-soprano), nu 87 år gammel eller deromkring.

Et fascinerende program.  Det er mærkeligt, at hun og hendes storbror, som begge havde utroligt smukke stemmer, voksede op med forældre, der slet ikke interesserede sig for musik eller ”kultur”. Men hun siger, at en vigtig del af hendes evne til at synge med så meget følelse stammede fra sin brors tragiske død, da han var 14 og hun var 10 – en død, som hendes forældre aldrig engang talte med hende om. Og hans brors død – hun var meget tæt på ham – førte hende til at beslutte ikke at få sine egne børn.

Janet havde evnen til at synge med en ”næsten ubærlig lidenskab”, siger mange af programmets deltagere.

Hun var specielt populær i USA, efter sin New York debut i 1966, og hun satte stor pris på det amerikanske publikums varme.

Vi hører i aften fra mange af Janets mange kendisfans, herunder Andre Previn, der desværre døde for nylig, interviewet i sit hjem. I løbet af Previns interview får Lois og jeg et glimt af hans kat i baggrunden, der indtræder på ”scenen” fra højre side og småløber ind i Previns køkken for at lede efter mad, eller lignende.

Previns kat stjæler scenen uforventet

Lois og jeg er begge kattemennsker, så vi altid bemærker kattene, uanset de er i baggrunden eller forgrunden, det må jeg nok sige.

Vi snakker lidt om katte generelt, og spekulerer lidt på, om Previns kat nogensinde mødte Schrödingers kat. Vi kommer til den konklusion, at sådant et møde var usandsynligt: Schrödinger var en østrigst fysiker, og boede i Wien (nogle gange med sin kat, afhængigt af de præcise omstændigheder), mens Previn boede i New York.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!