Monday 6 May 2019

09:00 I start the week by listening to a little radio, an interesting programme in the series "Start the Week" (good title), which this week is all about three of the greatest English writers: Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens.

I was eager to hear this program because Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group has Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" as its current project.

An interesting discussion between a Chaucer expert (Marion Turner), a Shakespeare expert (Emma Smith) and a Dickens expert (Juliet John).

Oxford academic  Prof. Marion Turner talks about her new book,

"Chaucer - a European Life"

Chaucer was involved in many areas of public life, including the political as well as the cultural, in a period that was very important in the history of English politics.  Parliament was developing the right to impeach members of the executive. And it was growing parliamentary power that eventually led to the deposing of Richard II in 1399. Watch out, Donald ha ha!

Flashback to 1399: Parliament  deposes Richard II.

The concept of Speaker of the House was also being established, with the aim of having a single figure who could speak on behalf of the House of Commons in conflicts with the House of Lords, which gave ordinary people’s representatives  more influence on the country's political issues.

Chaucer was a member of parliament in the 1380’s, in a period characterized by a number of influential parliaments, for example, the so-called "Good Parliament" (1376) and the so-called "Merciless Parliament" (1388), amongst others.

The experts in the studio today say they think it’s a bit of a shame that we do not give today's parliaments names, but they shy away from assigning a name to our current parliament. The "Stupid Parliament" gets my vote, no doubt about that !!!!

10:00 I go up to the attic  and drag three suitcases down the loft ladder. Two small suitcases for Lois and me, and a big one in which we can pack the board games, puzzles and children's books that our oldest daughter has asked us to bring when we visit them this week. Meanwhile, Lois goes out into the backyard and plants two rows of potatoes.

11:00 We relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa. Afterwards we drive over to the local petrol station to fill up and check the tyre pressures etc. Our own tyre pump unfortunately broke down earlier today - damn!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and go out into the backyard. I mow the three remaining lawns that I failed to mow on Saturday. Afterwards I come back into the house and pack my things in a suitcase.

I take a little look at my smartphone and I see Morten Ingemann's latest cartoon strip. I get a bit of a shock, to put it mildly.

the Danish artist, Morten Ingemann, my favourite cartoonist

Ingemann is my favorite cartoonist - no doubt about that. He is particularly interested in ugly, overweight, middle-aged or elderly people, the kind of people that most cartoonists  rarely pay attention to.

In this morning's strip, we see two ugly old men – neighbours of each other,  talking over the garden fence. One has his chainsaw in his hand, and he asks his neighbour if he can store his saw in his neighbour's garage.

The neighbour says it's ok, but the reader can see that he seems confused and puzzled. He asks the first man why. But there is actually a logical explanation that Ingemann now reveals to us.

The man actually wants to store his chainsaw in his neighbour's garage because he "prefers to have all his tools together".

It is good to know that there is a logical explanation for most requests we make of each other, even those that at first glance seem a bit bizarre, I have to say!

18:00 We have dinner and watch a little television, an interesting documentary film about the port city of Hamburg's tourist attractions. The programme's presenter is the charming Richard Ayoade, together with guest-presenter, comedian Bob Mortimer.

Richard shows Bob the port, which Lois and I visited in 1992 with our 2 daughters Alison (then 17) and Sarah (15) when they were still in high-school and studying German. Happy days !!!

The two presenters pop into a typical local bar and order a famous local "signature dish", labskaus. Lois and I did not know that this dish was originally created from long-life ingredients specifically so that it could be taken aboard ships to feed sailors during long voyages.

And besides, if you were suffering from scurvy, you tended to lose a lot of your teeth, so what most sailors in the 17th century yearned  to eat was something soft.

We also did not know that Liverpool's local version of the dish, "lobscouse", was the origin of the word "Scouser" which means someone born and raised in Liverpool. The French call us Brits "les rosbifs" and we call them "the frogs" - I suppose it all basically stems from a kind of affectionate  gentle mockery between the nations, which is nice.

Flashback to 1992: Lois Alison and Sarah relax on the

Harwich-Hamburg car ferry - happy times !!!!!

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

Danish translation

09:00 Jeg starter ugen med at lytte lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Start the Week” (god titel), der denne uge handler om tre af de største engelske forfattere: Chaucer, Shakespeare og Dickens.

Jeg var ivrig efter at høre dette program, fordi Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe har Chaucers ”Canterbury-fortællinger” som sit nuværende projekt.

En interessant diskussion mellem en Chaucer-ekspert (Marion Turner), en Shakespeare-ekspert (Emma Smith) og en Dickens-ekspert (Juliet John).

Oxford-akademikeren Prof, Marion Turner taler om sin nye bog,

”Chaucer – a European Life”

Chaucer var involveret i mange dele af det offentlige liv, inklusive politikken, i løbet af en periode, der var meget vigtig i historien af engelsk politik:  parlamentet var i gang med at udvikle retten til at anklage medlemmer af den udøvende magt.  Det var væsentligt parlaments stigende magt, der førte til afsættelsen af kong Richard 2. i 1399. Pas på, Donald ha ha!

Tilbageblik til 1399:  parlamentets afsættelse af Richard 2.

Begrebet om ”Lederen af Underhuset” var også i færd med at blive etableret, med det formål af have en enkelt figur, der kunne tale på Underhusets vegne i konflikter med Overhuset, og på denne måde give almindelige mennesker mere indflydelse i landets politiske debatter. 

Chaucer var et parlamentsmedlem i 1380’erne, en periode karakteriset af en række af indflydelsesrige parlamenter, for eksempel, det såkaldte ”gode parlament” (1376) og den såkaldte ”nådesløse parlament” (1388).

Eksperterne i studiet mener, at det er lidt af en skam, at vi ikke giver nutidens parlamenter øgenavne, men de kvier sig ved at navne vores nuværende:  det ”dumme parlament”  får min stemme, ingen tvivl om det!!!!

10:00 Jeg går op til loftet og slæbe tre kufferter ned ad loftstigen. To små kufferter for Lois og mig, og en stor hvori  vi kan pakke de brætspil, puslespil og børnebøger,  som  vores ældste datter har bedt os om at medbringe, når vi denne uge besøger dem. I mellemtiden  går Lois ud i baghaven og planter to rækker kartofler.

11:00 Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Bagefter kører vi over til det lokale tankstation for at fylde op og tjekke dæktrykket osv. Vores egen dækpumpe gik desværre i stykker tidligere på dagen – pokkers!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermidddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og går ud i baghaven. Jeg slår de tre resterende græsplæner, det mislykkedes mig at slå i lørdags. Bagefter kommer jeg tilbage ind i huset og pakke mine ting i en kuffert.

Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone og jeg ser Morten Ingemanns seneste tegneserie. Jeg får lidt af et chok, for at sige mildt.

Danske Morten Ingemann, min yndlingstegner

Danske Ingemann er min yndlingstegner  – ingen tvivl om det! Han interesserer sig især for grimme, overvægtige, midaldrende eller ældre folk, de slags mennesker, som de fleste tegnere sjældent giver opmærksomhed til.

I formiddagens tegnestribe imidlertid ser vi to ældre, grimme mænd – naboer, der snakker over havehegnet. Den ene har sin motorsav i hånden, og han spørger sin nabo, om han kan gemme sin sav i sin nabos garage. 

Naboen siger, det der er ok, men han er åbenbart forvirret og betuttet, og han spørger den første mand hvorfor. Men der er faktisk en helt logisk forklaring, som Ingemann afslører os.

Manden har faktisk lyst til at gemme sin motorsav i sin nabos garage, fordi han ”foretrækker at have alt sit værktøj samlet”.

Det er godt at vide, at der er en logisk forklaring til de fleste fænomener, der ved første øjekast synes lidt bizarre, det må jeg nok sige!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og ser lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm der handler om havnebyen Hamburgs turistmagneter og seværdigheder. Programmets vært er den charmerende Richard Ayoade, og komikeren Bob Mortimer.

Richard viser Bob havnen, som Lois og jeg besøgte i 1992 sammen med vores 2 døtre Alison (dengang 17) og Sarah (15), da de stadig var på højskole, og studerede tysk. Lykkelige dage!!!

De to værter smutter ind i en typisk lokal bar og bestiller en berømt lokal  ”signaturret”, labskaus. Lois og jeg vidste ikke, at denne ret oprindeligt blev skabt ud af langvarige ingredienter, så den kunne blive tage om bord på skib for at fodre sømænd under lange sørejser.

Derudover, hvis man led af skørbug, havde man tendens til at miste en masse tænder, så dét, de fleste sømænd i 1600-tallet mest havde lyst til at spise, var noget, der var blødt.

Vi vidste heller ikke, at havnebyen Liverpools lokale version af retten, ”Lobscouse”, er oprindelsen af ordet ”Scouser”, der betyder en, der var født og vokset op i Liverpool. Franskmændene kalder os briter ”les rosbifs” og vi kalder dem ”the frogs” – jeg formoder, det grundlæggende er en form for kærlig og venlig kritik og blid latterliggørelse mellem nationerne, hvilket er rart.

Tilbageblik til 1992: Lois, Alison og Sarah slapper af

på Harwich-Hamburg færgen - lykkelige tider!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!