Danskcolin: Thursday, April 11 2019

05:00 I get up early and take a little look online. Ocean Reef Primary School, which our 5-year-old twin grandchildren in Australia go to, has been having a special early celebration of Anzac Day today (Perth time), to commemorate the participation of Australian armed forces in previous wars: two world wars and other wars (in Vietnam, for example).

Pictures on the web show the scene where the primary school pupils were sitting cross-legged on the playground today watching the ceremony. It is strange to think that they will grow up over there, and live their whole lives over there, for long after Lois and I are off the scene. Already, they can’t really remember England any more. Sob sob !!!

Our 5-year-old twin grandchildren's primary school holding

an early celebration of Anzac Day this morning (Perth time).

I can't imagine what the twins thought of it - they have never seen a ceremony like that before - that’s for sure. We don’t have anything like that in British primary schools.

08:00 I bring two cups of tea up to the bedroom, and Lois and I lie in bed and drink the tea. Then we go in the shower.

10:00 I start cleaning up and vacuuming the whole house, because our U3A Danish group is holding its regular meeting here today at 2:30 pm. I manoeuvre extra chairs into the living room. Finally, Lois and I leaf through the next 5-6 pages of Anna Grue’s crime novel "The Further You Fall", which is the group's current project.

“The Further You Fall”, by Anna Grue

– our U3A Danish group’s current project

13; 00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 2 pm and get ready for our group meeting.

14:30 The group members call at the door and we study Danish for an hour and a half. We take turns to read a paragraph or two out loud in Danish, and then translate into English, and then discuss.

An entertaining 5 pages, where amongst other things the author describes the advertising agency where the murder has taken place. And she takes the opportunity to criticise open plan office layouts in general.

I comment that the author must obviously have had personal experiences of such office layouts (and not liked them, to put it mildly!!!!!).

a typical open plan office - yuk!

She describes the advertising agency in question as a vast, architect-designed "open plan office landscape spreading out, and ending in a series of glass-partitioned meeting rooms and one private office. The private office belonged to Sebastian Kurt, the company's owner and CEO.” “Top managers firmly believe,” she writes, “that office landscapes are an excellent invention for employees, while they themselves want four walls around them and a door you can close. If you want to be employed in a modern company, you have to learn to stick your hands over your ears if you want to concentrate. ”

I totally agree with that - I had to endure an open-plan office for the last 2 years of my working life before I retired. Top managers like office landscapes - they are much cheaper to build, having far fewer walls and doors. They say the idea offers more opportunities to network and develop close relationships with other teams, but the most important consequence is actually that you can't concentrate, and employee productivity falls sharply because of the constant noise.

Good grief, the whole world’s gone mad !!!!

16:00 The meeting ends and group members leave. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on the couch. We are exhausted, as usual after a "Danish" day - physical work in the morning, mental work in the afternoon.

But after each group meeting, Lois has developed a habit of reading further pages on in our crime novel - the meeting seems to give her a great appetite to find out what’s going to happen next, which is nice to see. And I know she will finish reading the current chapter before going to bed. Go Lois !!!!

I myself have been reduced to a bit of a zombie, to put it mildly. For me, staying awake till 10 pm will be the best I can hope for – yikes, I’m really getting old.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television. After a mysterious one week break, E4 is showing the latest episode of the 12th (and final) season of the Big Bang Theory sitcom. After tonight there will be only 7 episodes left - yikes, sob sob !!!!

A fun episode. Amy entices Sheldon into a bookstore to look at children's books and make him think about starting a family. But Sheldon's attention is diverted by books about various interesting (but harmless ha ha) social experiments that parents can carry out on their children.

But Lois and I are not completely sure that Sheldon is a natural family man, to put it mildly.

Is Sheldon a natural family man? Lois and I have our doubts

to put it mildly.

20:30 We continue to watch a bit of television, an interesting documentary in the series "Australia with Julia Bradbury", based on various journeys Julia takes in Australia. This episode deals with the state of Victoria and its famous "Great Ocean Road" coast road, built by unemployed Australian soldiers who had just returned from World War I.

She sees the famous rock formation, "The Twelve Apostles" - very nostalgic for Lois and me, because we saw this rock formation with Sylvia, Lois' cousin in Melbourne, when we visited her in 2016.

flashback to april 2016: Lois and I visit the "twelve apostles" rock formation

along with Sylvia, Lois' cousin in Melbourne

And it is very nice tonight to see for the first time Julia's "koala-face":

included for comparison - Sheldon's version of the "koala face" in "Big Bang Theory"

tv-presenter Simon Reeve's koala-face

and Lois's version (April 2016) - still definitely the best in my opinion

Happy times !!!!!!

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

Danish translation

Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet. Den folkeskole, vores 5-evige tvillingebørne i Australien går i, hldt en speciel fejring af Anzacdag i dag, for at mindes om den australske bevæbnede styrkers deltagelse i forrige krige: to verdenskrige og andre krige (i Vietnam for eksempel).

Billeder på nettet viser Lois og meg den scene, hvor folkeskolens elever sad med benene over kors på legepladsen og kiggede på ceremoniet. Der er underligt at tænke, at de kommer til at vokse op derovre og leve deres hele liv derovre. Allerede husker de ikke England mere. Hulk, hulk !!!

Vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørns folkeskole fejrede Anzac Dag i morges (Perth tid).

Jeg kan ikke forestille mig, hvad tvillingerne tænkte på den – de har aldrig set

sådant et ceremoni før – det ved jeg med sikkerhed

08:00 Jeg bringer to kopper te op på soveværelset, og Lois og jeg ligger inde i sengen og drikker téen. Vi går i bad.

10:00 Jeg går i gang med at rydde op og støvsuge hele huset, fordi vores U3A danske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde i dag kl 14:30 hos os. Jeg bakser ekstra stole med ind i stuen. Endelig blader Lois og jeg igennem de næste 5-6 sider af Anna Grues krimiroman ”Dybt at falde”, som er gruppens nuværende projekt.

“Dybt at fakde", af Anna Grue – vores U3A danske gruppes

nuværende projekt

13;00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 14 og forbereder mig på vores gruppemøde.

14:30 Gruppemedlemmerne ringer på døren, og vi studerer dansk i halvanden time. En underholdende 5 sider, hvor forfatteren blandt andet kritiserer kontorlandskaber i arbejdspladsen. Jeg kommenterer, at forfatteren åbenbart havde selv oplevet personligt ulemperne ved åbne kontorlandskaber.

et typisk åbent kontorlandskab – yuk !

Hun beskriver et rejsebureau, hvor et arkitekttegnet ”kontorlandskab bredte sig, men i en række glasafskærmede rum ned mod vandet var der mødelokaler og et enkelt kontor. Det tilhørte Sebastian Kurt, firmaets ejer og administrerende direktør. Topchefer hard et med at synes, at kontorlandskaber er en fremragende opfindelse til medarbejderne, mens de selv gerne vil have fire vægge omkring sig og en dør, der kan lukkes. Vil man være ansat i en moderne virksomhed, må man værsgo lære at lukke ørerne og koncentrere sig.”

Det mening er jeg helt enig om – jeg måtte udholde et kontorlandskab i de sidste 2 år af mit arbejdsliv før jeg gik på pension. Topchefer kan godt lide kontorlandskaber – de er meget billigere at bygge med færre vægge og døre. De siger, at idéen giver mere muligheder for at netværke og udvikle tætte forhold til andre hold, men det vigtigste er, at man ikke kan koncentrere sig og medarbejderers produktivitet falder stærkt på grund af den konstante støj.

Du godeste, hele verden er gået galt !!!!

16:00 Mødet slutter, og gruppemedlemmer skal af sted. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i sofaen. Vi er udmattede, som sædvanligt efter en ”dansk” dag – fysisk arbejde om formiddagen, mentalt arbejde om eftermiddagen.

Men efter hvert gruppemøde har Lois det med at læse videre i vores krimiroman – mødet synes at give hende en stor appetit på at finde ud af, hvad der dernæst kommer til at ske, hvilket er rart. Jeg ved godt, hun vil læse færdigt den nuværende kapitel, før vi går i seng. Kom så, Lois !!!!

Jeg er selv blevet reduceret til lidt af en zombie, for at sige mildt. For mig vil dét, at forblive vågen il kl 22, være det bedste jeg kan håbe på – yikes!!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser, efter en uges pause, det seneste afsnit af de 12. (og allersidste) sæson af Big Bang Theory-sitcommen. Efter i aften vil der være kun 7 afsnit tilbage – yikes!!!!

Et morsomt afsnit. Amy lokker Sheldon ind i en boghandel for at kigge på børnebøger og få ham til at overveje at starte en familie. Men Sheldons opmærksomhed bliver bortledt af bøger, der handler om forskellige interessante (harmløse) sociale eksperimenter, som forældre kan udføre med deres børn.

Men Lois og jeg er ikke særlig sikker på, at Sheldon er en naturlig familiefar, for at sige mildt.

20:30 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm i serien ”Australia with Julia Bradbury”, der handler om forskellige rejser, Julia tager i Australien. Dette afsnit handler om delstaten Victoria og den berømte kystvej ”Great Ocean Road”, der blev bygget af arbejdsløse australske soldater, der lige var kommet hjem igen efter den 1. verdenskrig.

Hun ser den berømte klippeformation ,”De tolv apostle” – meget nostalgisk for Lois og mig, fordi vi så denne klippeformation sammen med Sylvia, Lois’ kusine i Melbourne, da vi besøgte hende i 2016.