Danskcolin: Tuesday 28 May 2019

08:00 Lois and I get up and take a shower. After breakfast I start clearing up and I vacuum the ground floor - living room, dining room and hallway - because my friend, "Magyar" Mike is coming this morning at 10 am for our regular "Hungarian hour". I'm going to leave the vacuuming of the 1st floor for later in the day.

10:00 Mike calls at the door and we study Hungarian for an hour. Mike has aged a lot over the past 12 months, no doubt about that. He looks like a bent little old man, he moves very very slowly and speaks with quavering voice - my goodness! And he has more and more difficulty remembering Hungarian vocabulary and grammar, although to be fair, it is a difficult language, that’s for sure.

flashback to 1994: Mike in happier times,

with our friend, Ibolya, in the small town of Kaposvár in southern Hungary

Me in Kaposvár, Hungary, 1994

Mike also says he has decided to give up his unpaid job as editor of the Cotswold Wardens’ 6-monthly newsletter. He has started to find the job more tiring than he did before.

The "Cotswold Wardens" are a group of volunteers who help maintain footpaths, stiles, etc. and lead guided walks, high up on the Cotswold hills and down in the valleys. Mike gave up playing an active physical role in the organisation long ago, but his presentational skills and knowledge of printing techniques have come in handy with the preparation of the organisation's newsletter, which is nice.

Mike has also had a big problem with the house next door to his, going back almost two years. The owner, Peter, has disappeared, but he left a key with Mike so that Mike could step inside and collect the post, etc. But Mike hasn't heard anything from the man for over a year and the garden has become a real jungle. The local council has refused to take action, because it is private property – my god, what madness !!! Mike says he has an appointment with a local lawyer next week so he can ask if she can advise him on whether there’s anything he can do about the situation.

Poor Mike !!!!!

11:00 Mike has to leave, and Lois and I relax with a cup of coffee on the couch. Afterwards I go upstairs and vacuum the bedrooms.

Meanwhile, Lois calls the nursing home in Southport, Lancashire, where her elderly cousin, Iris, lives. She asks if the nursing home's guest room is going to be vacant in late June, so Lois and I can stay there for three nights and visit Iris, who is ageing quickly now - she hasn't been so well recently, and Lois wants to see her in case Iris decides, at some point, that she is no longer strong enough to receive visitors. Fortunately, the room is free when we want to use it.

The nursing home where Lois' s elderly cousin Iris lives

We had initially rejected this option (staying at the home itself) because we would be around the clock in the company of "really" old people, some of them a little “screwy”, to put it mildly. But the stay will only be for 3 nights, so it would not be disastrous.

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards listen to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "Compass". This episode is all about back pain and why Africans living high up in the mountains of Kenya do not suffer from back pain. The host of the program is the charming Dr. Vybarr Cregan-Reed (crazy name, crazy guy).

Vybarr speaks to residents of a Kenyan village where cases of back pain are practically non-existent. People work for 5-6 hours a day, herding cattle and the like, and spend the rest of the day in "light activity", other tasks that keep them on their feet. They do not have any chairs in their houses - only a bunch of rocks that they have come across and picked up here and there in the area.

The village of Pemja, Kenya

Then Vybarr speaks to various experts, who all say that today's sedentary life style in the developed world is what’s responsible for the large number of back problems we suffer from. And our comfortable chairs and armchairs have made our backs bend inward too much around the waist. Chairs with very upright backs are also bad for the back, it appears.

Evolution has actually developed our backs for us ideally to spend most of our lives on our feet. Oh dear!

Over the majority of human history people have not actually had any chairs with backrests. Benches were the norm - there were no chairs in the Bible for example, or in the Viking sagas. Chairs with backrests first appear in the 19th century: in Dickens’s novels, there are plenty of chairs, and plenty of people with backache – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

typical Viking halls, with benches for sitting on

The simple benches in Pemja village school in Kenya

Interesting programme, but Lois and I are reluctant to adopt the Kenyan mountain lifestyle. We don’t have any cattle at the moment, and it's probably too late for us anyway at our age - oh dear (again) !!!!

14:00 I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3:30 pm and we relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on the sofa.

Meanwhile, Lois has already called Iris, her elderly cousin in Southport, to tell her that Lois and I have booked her nursing home's guest room for 3 nights in late June.

When Lois called her, Iris was preparing for the home's annual "sports day": residents sit in armchairs in the lounge and play various indoor games, including quoits, "badminton" (played with balloons and fly-swatters), and "football” (played sitting down, with a soft spongy ball and a mini-goal). My goodness - they sound like my type of sports!

a typical indoor quoits set

17:00 I take a little look at my smartphone. I see that Lily and Jessie, our 5-year-old twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia, have had an exciting day, with a visit from some Australian marines, as well as their mascot Damien the Bear.

Lois and I are very impressed with the children's local primary school: the kids get lots of interesting experiences, thanks to the school's teachers and staff - if only Lois and I had gone to schools like that. In 1951, when we were 5, there was unfortunately very little money around for those kinds of school visits - damn!

our twin grandchildren's class with the visiting

Navy guys, plus Damien the Bear, the unit's mascot - poor Damien !!!!

In the life-raft: our granddaughter Lily is on the left

17:30 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television, an interesting documentary in a new series, all about the German air strikes on British cities (in particular the major port cities) in May 1941. The hosts of the programme are the charming Michael Buerk, Angellica Bell and Rob Bell (not related, as far as I know).

An interesting and touching programme. The port city of Liverpool was one of the German Air Force’s most important targets, because Britain was heavily dependent on food supplies from the US and Canada especially in the early years of World War II, to put it mildly.

We see pictures of a secret underground command centre in the port area, bomb-proofed and protected by 7 foot thick walls, where the integrity of this lifeline to North America was monitored.

It is nostalgic for me and Lois to see the pictures of Liverpool. They remind us of our visit to the city in 1999.

Lois, on the ferry that crosses the River Mersey

Lois in a replica of the famous Cavern Club, where the Beatles started

Happy times !!!!

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

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg står op og tager et brusebad. Efter morgenmad går jeg i gang med at rydde op og støvsuge stueetagen – stue, spisestue og entré – fordi min ven, ”Magyar” Mike kommer i formiddag kl 10 for vores regelmæssige ”ungarske time”. Jeg overlader den 1. sal til senere på dagen.

10:00 Mike ringer på døren og vi studere ungarsk i en time. Mike har meget ældes i de seneste 12 måneder, ingen tvivl om det. Han ligner en lidt krumboget lille gammel mand, og han bevæger sig meget meget langsomt, og taler med dirrende stemme – du godeste! Og han har mere og mere svært ved at huske ungarsk ordforråd og grammatik, selvom det er et vanskeligt sprog, det ved jeg med sikkerhed.

Mike i lykkeligere tider,

sammen med vores ven, Ibolya, i den lille by Kaposvár i det sydlige Ungarn

Mig i Kaposvár, Ungarn (1994)

Mike siger også, han har besluttet sig for at opgive sit ubetalte job som redaktør af Cotswold Wardens-organisationens 6-månedlige nyhedsbrev. Han er begyndt at finde det hele arbejde lidt for trættende, end før. ”Cotswold Wardens” er en gruppe af frivillige, der hjælper til at vedligeholde gangstier, stenter osv højt oppe på Cotswold-bakkerne og aktiv fysisk rolle i organisationen, men hans præsentationsfærdigheder og kendskab til trykketeknikker er kommet til god nytte, når det er kommet til forberedelsen af nede i dalene; de leder også guidede gåture ude på landet. Mike opgav for længst en organisationens nyhedsbrev, hvilket er rart.

Han har også i snart 2 år haft et stort problem med nabohuset. Ejeren, ved navn Peter, er forsvundet, men han efterlod en nøgle hos Mike, så Mike kunne træde ind, og samler mandens post osv. Men Mike har ikke hørt noget fra manden i over et år og haven er blevet til en sand jungle. Den lokale kommune har afvist at skride til hændling, på grund af, at det er privat ejendom – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Mike siger, han har aftale næste uge hos en lokal advokat, for at spørge hende, om hun kan rådgive ham.

Stakkels Mike!!!!!

11:00 Mike skal af sted, og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Bagefter går jeg i gang med at støvsuge soveværelserne. I mellemtiden ringer Lois til det plejehjem i Southport, Lancashire, hvor hendes ældre kusine, Iris, bor. Hun spørger om, om plejehjemmets gæsteværelse er ledig sidst i juni, så Lois og jeg kan opholde os der i tre nætter og besøger Iris, der ældes hurtigt – hun har ikke haft det ret godt for nylig, og Lois har lyst til at se hende før Iris beslutter, hun ikke længere er stærk nok til at kunne modtage besøgende. Heldigvis er værelset ledigt, når vi har lyst til at bruge det.

Det plejehjem, hvor Lois’ kusine Iris bor

Vi havde i begyndelsen afvist denne option, fordi vi ville være hele døgnet rundt i selskab med ”virkelig” gamle mennesker, nogle af dem lidt åndsvage, for at sige mildt. Men opholdet ville være kun 3 nætter, så ville det ikke være katastrofalt.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Compass”. Dette afsnit handler om rygsmerter, og hvorfor afrikanere, der bor højt oppe i bjergene i Kenya, ikke lider af rygsmerter. Programmets vært er den charmerende dr. Vybarr Cregan-Reed (skørt navn, skør fyr).

Vybarr taler med indbyggere af en landsby, hvor tilfælde af rygsmerter næsten ikke eksisterer. Mennesker arbejder i 5-6 timer om dagen, ved at passe på kvæg og lignende, og bruger resten af dagen på ”let aktivitet”, andre opgaver, der holder dem på fødderne. De havde ikke nogle stole i deres huse - kun klipper, som de stødte på i området.

Landsbyen Pemja, Kenya

Så taler Vybarr med forskellige eksperter, der siger at nutidens stillesidende livstil i den udviklede verden er ansvarlig for de store antal af rygproblemer, vi lider af. Og vores komfortable stole og lænestole har gjort vores rygge til at bøje sig fremad for meget omkring taljen. Stole med meget opretstående ryglæn er også dårlige for ryggen, lader det til. Evolutionen har faktisk udviklet vores rygge til at tilbringe hovedparten af vores liv på fødderne. Oh dear!

I størstedelen af menneskelig historie har vi faktisk ikke haft nogle stole med ryglæn. Bænke var normen – der var ikke nogle stole i bibelen for eksempel, eller i vikingesagaerne. Stole med ryglæn dukker først op først i 1800-tallet: i Dickens romaner er der midlertid masser af stole – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

En typisk vikingehal, med bænker til at sidde på

De simple bænker i landsbyen Pemjas skole i Kenya

Interessant program, men Lois og jeg tøver med at adoptere den kenyanske livstil. Det er sandsynligvis for sent for vores vedkommende alligevel – oh dear (igen) !!!!

14:00 Jeg går i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftemiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30, og vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i sofaen.

I mellemtiden har Lois ringet til Iris, sin ældre kusine i Southport, for at fortælle hende at Lois og jeg har booket hendes plejehjems gæsteværelse i 3 nætter sidst i juni.

Da Lois ringede til hende, var Iris i gang med at forberede sig på plejehjemmets årlige ”sportsdag”: beboerne sidder i lænestole i plejehjemmets stue og spiller forskellige spil, inklusive ringspil, ”badminton” (spillet med balloner og fluesmækkere), og ”fodbold” (spillet med en blød bold og et mini-mål). Du godeste – det der lyder om min type af sport!

et typisk ringspil-sæt

17:00 Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone. Jeg ser at Lily og Jessie, vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien, har haft en spændende dag, med et besøg af nogle australske marinere, samt deres maskotbjørn Damien – Lois og jeg er meget imponeret af børnenes lokale folkeskole: børnene får en masse interessante oplevelser, takket være skolens lærere og personale – hvis bare Lois og jeg var gået i sådanne skoler: i 1951, da vi var 5, var der desværre meget få penge til de slags skolebesøg – pokkers!

vores børnebørns klasse sammen med de besøgende

mariner, for ikke at nænve Damien, enhedens maskot – stakkels Damien!!!!

vores barnebarn Lily er til venstre – hvor er hun dog sød!!!

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, et interessant dokumentarfilm i en ny serie, der handler om de tyske luftangreb på britiske storbyer (i sær de store havnebyer) i maj 1941. Programmets værter er de charmerende Michael Buerk, Angellica Bell og Rob Bell (ikke beslægtede, så vidt jeg ved !!!!).

Et interessant og rørende program. Havnebyen Liverpool var et af tyskernes vigtigste mål, på grund af, at Storbritannien var kræftigt afhængig af madforsyninger fra USA og Canada under den 2. verdenskrigs tidlige år, for at sige mildt.

Vi ser billeder af et hemmeligt undergrundskommandocenter i havnområdet, bombsikkert og beskyttet af 7 fods tykke vægge, hvor integriteten af denne livslinje til Nord-Amerika blev overvåget.