Lois’s cold is now very bad,
while my cold is not fully developed yet, I suspect, although I certainly lack
energy, no doubt about that.
We decide to cancel tomorrow's
U3A Danish group meeting, which is a bit of a shame, but it’s unavoidable, we
think. Two other group members are on holiday anyway, so the cancellation is
not a disaster.
A delivery man delivers the 10
huge "jiffy bags" we ordered from amazon, and Lois starts packing up the
two latest copies of the "Peter Rabbit" children's magazine, plus a
snapfish photo book, into a jiffy bag, so we can ship them out to our 5-year-old
twin children in Perth, Australia.
In the meantime, I go out into
the garden and start mowing the lawn in front of the house, and the one immediately
behind the house – I’m leaving the other lawns till tomorrow. I feel too tired to do them all.
typical "jiffy bags" of the kind we ordered
from amazon
12:30 We have lunch and
afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois gets going
with leafing through the piles of outdated tourist brochures, also tons of
souvenirs of our 2 daughters' school work from when they were students in an
American school 1982-1985. All those pieces of papers are ones I came across recently in
our attic - the attic I am one day hoping to get in order, and in the long run to empty, as
the most important part of our current downsizing mini-project.
I now need to let Lois browse
through all that schoolwork and those tourist brochures, so we can just keep at
least a few examples of children's schoolwork, for old-time’s sake. It's all
very nostalgic - I have to admit.
In the attic I came across tons
of outdated tourist brochures
and souvenirs of our 2 daughters’
school work 1982-85 in the US
My god - what madness !!!!!
14:30 I get up and we drive over
to Bishops Cleeve, a small town located 3 miles north of Cheltenham. We swing
by the local post office to send off the 2 "Peter Rabbit" children's
magazines and “snapfish” photo book to our twin grandchildren in Australia.
Unfortunately, there is no longer
a post office in our own village – it sadly closed a week ago, because the owner of
the affiliated newsagent’s wanted to
retire without putting the business on the market for a while, for one reason or another – my
god, what madness!!!!
She has thereby seriously damaged the village's economy
- no doubt about that.
Flashback to earlier in the month:
the date of the post office closure
is revealed, and the whole village goes
into mourning - sob sob !!!
The local tourist office could now suggest
that the whole village be emptied and transformed into a ghost town and
marketed as a tourist attraction, but Lois and I have serious doubts about plans
of that kind.
We recall that a ghost town in
the US recently hit the headlines when the
famous world traveller Vic Coyne, who was based in Lodi NJ, quickly became disillusioned
during an outing to the area (source: Onion News).
SAGEBRUSH, TX- An excursion to Sagebrush Wild West Ghost Town ended in
disillusionment Saturday, when Lodi, NJ resident Vic Coyne suddenly saw the "genuine 1873 frontier village" for the fantasy scam it
always was.
"I was at first taken aback by the blacksmith’s shop with its
concrete frame," Coyne said. "but I finally figured it could be a
reconstruction from old photographs in collaboration with a local history society."
The final blow, Coyne said, was the "old-time" saloon, where
the bartender's nameplate read 'Smilin'
Joe', and one of the menu choices was 'Old-fashioned Sarsaparilla', with 'Hires
Root Beer' in parentheses."
Good grief, there are scams and traps
everywhere nowadays, just waiting for the unsuspecting tourist, no doubt about
that !!!
16:00 We come home and relax with
a cup of tea on the couch. Lois lugs some of the piles of our daughters' old 1980's homework papers down the stairs and puts them on the unused half of
our dining table. She begins to order them and label them, etc.
examples of our two
daughters' old homework dating
from our residence in the US 1982-85: my
god, what madness !!!
Sarah writes about "My Mom" - note American spelling.
extract from a school bulletin of the period
flashback to November 1984: we
celebrate Thanksgiving in our house
in Columbia – (left to right) Sarah
(8), me (38), Lois (38), Alison (10) and my sister Kathy (37)
Happy times!
Meanwhile, I go upstairs to
Alison's old room and pack all our unwanted old LP’s and cassettes into boxes
and bags, and lug them down the stairs. I put them in the hall so we can load
them up tomorrow into the car boot, drive to Leckhampton, and donate them to the
local Red Cross charity shop.
17:00 We walk around to our
neighbours’ house, two doors away. Stephen and Frances have asked us to look
after their house and huge garden for 3 weeks while they are on vacation in
Canada. We start watering their huge vegetable garden and large flower beds,
and the seedlings etc in their greenhouse.
Lois waters the seedlings etc in our
neighbours’ greenhouse. In the background we see
the old doctor’s surgery that closed 4
months ago when the doctors
moved to a newly built medical centre
on the other side of Bishops Cleeve.
My god, they were such bastards, those doctors, no doubt about that!
18:00 We are now exhausted, both
of us. We have dinner - one of the
low-fat ready meals we recently bought from CookShop in Leckhampton - yum yum!
We spend the rest of the evening
watching a bit of television, the latest episode of the dating show "First
Dates".
This show is mine and Lois's favourite
dating show, where participants go on a date and eat at a special restaurant, on
a blind date with a potential partner that the TV channel has chosen for them.
Ross (21), and Molly (23) are
both very into computer games, and Ross manages to make me look like an
extrovert, which is no easy task to say the least.
Even before Molly turns up at the
restaurant, Ross panics and decides to hide in the toilets. The programme makers
have to send in a waiter to coax him
out, which is not a good sign.
During their date, Ross and Molly
talk a bit about their obsession with computer games, but after that, Ross doesn’t
really know what to talk to Molly about, and the conversation stalls. So he pops
back into the toilet for 10 minutes – oh dear!
At the end of the date, Molly
decides that they can only be friends, nothing more - no surprise there. But
poor Ross !!!
My goodness, what a crazy world
we live in !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz
!!!!!
Danish translation
Lois er nu meget forkølet, mens min forkølelse er ikke fuldt udviklet
endnu, mistænker jeg, selvom jeg vist nok mangler energi, ingen tvivl om det.
Vi beslutter at aflyse morgendagens U3A danske gruppemøde, hvilket er
lidt af en skam, men det er uundgåeligt, synes vi. To andre gruppemedlemmer er alligevel
på ferie, så aflyselsen er ikke en katastrofe.
En leveringsmand leverer de 10 kæmpe ”kuverter-jiffy” vi bestillede fra
amazon, og Lois går i gang med at pakke de to seneste eksemplarer af ”Peter
Rabbit”-børnemagasinet, plus en snapfish-fotobog i kuverten, så vi kan afsende dem til vores
5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien. I mellemtiden går jeg ud i
haven og går i gang med at slå græsplænen foran huset, og den, der ligger
umiddelbart bag huset – jeg overlader de andre græsplæner til i morgen.
typiske ”kuverter
jiffy” af slagsen vi bestillede fra amazon
12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden går Lois i gang med at blade igennem
de bunker af uddaterede turistbrochurer, også tonsvis af souvenirs af vores 2
døtres skolearbejde, da de var elever i en amerikansk skole 1982-1985. Alt det
der faldt jeg over forleden i vores loft, som jeg gerne vil ordne og i det
lange løb tømme, som den vigtigste del af vores nuværende downsize mini-projektet.
Nu behøver jeg at lade Lois blade igennem alt det der skolearbejde og
turistbrochurer, så vi måske kan opbevare i mindst et par eksempler på børnenes
skolearbejde, for gamle dages skyld. Det hele er meget nostalgisk – det må jeg
indrømme.
I
loftet faldt jeg over tonsvis af uddaterede touristbrochurer
og souvenirs af vores 2 døtres skolearbejde
1982-85 i USA
Du godeste –
sikke et vanvid !!!!!
14:30 Jeg står op, og vi kører over til Bishops Cleeve, en lille by, der
ligger 3 miles nord for Cheltenham. Vi smutter ind i det lokale postkontor, for
at afsende de 2 ”Peter Rabbit”-børnemagasiner og snapfish-fotobogen til vores
børnebørn i Australien.
Desværre er det ikke længere et postkontor i vores landsby – der lukkedes
desværre for en uge siden, fordi ejeren af den samhængende bladhandlerforretning ville gå på pension, uden at sætte forretningen umiddelbart
på markedet, af en eller grund – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!! Hun har dermed
skadet landsbyens økonomi alvorligt– ingen tvivl om det.
Tilbageblik
til tidligere på måneden: datoen af postkontorets lukning
bliver
afsløret, og hele landsbyen anlægger sorg – hulk hulk!!!
Det lokale turistbureau har foreslået, at hele landsbyen bliver tømmet
og omdannet til en spøgelsesby og markedsført som en turistattraktion, men Lois
og jeg har vores alvorlig tvivl om planen.
Vi mindes om, at en spøgelsesby i USA for nylig ramte overskrifterne, da
den berømte verdensrejsende Vic Coyne, der bor i Lodi NJ, hurtigt blev
desillusioneret under et udflugt til området (kilde: Onion News).
SAGEBRUSH, TX-En udflugt til Sagebrush Wild West Ghost Town sluttede i
desillusion lørdag, da Lodi, NJ-indbyggeren Vic Coyne i løbet af to timer kom pludselig
for at se den "ægte 1873 grænse landsby" som den fantasi-svindel, den
altid var. "Jeg blev først overrumplet af grovsmedjeforretning med dens konkrete
skelet," sagde Coyne. "men jeg regnede med, at det kunne være en
rekonstruktion fra gamle fotografier i samarbejde med et lokalt historisk
samfund."
Det sidste slag, der bragte bageret til at flyde over, sagde Coyne, var
den "gammeldags" værtshus, hvor der stod bartenderens navneskilt, 'Smilin' Joe' og et af menuens valg var 'Gammeldags
Sarsaparilla' med 'Hires Root Beer', inden
for parentes. "
Du godeste, der er fup og svindel overalt nu til dags, der venter den
uforsigte turist, ingen tvivl om det!!!
16:00 Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop te I sofaen. Lois slæber
nogle af de bunker af vores døtres gamle hjemmearbejde fra 1980’erne ned ad
trappen og lægger dem ud på den ubrugte halvdel af vores spisebord, og går i
gang med at ordne dem og etikettere dem osv.
eksempler på vores to døtres gamle hjemmearbejde, der daterer
fra vores ophold i USA 1982-85: du godeste, sikke et vanvid !!!!
tilbageblik til november 1984: (venstre til højre) Sarah, mig, Lois, Alison
og min søster Kathy
I mellemtiden går jeg op til Alisons gamle værelse og pakker alle vores
uønskede gamle LP-plader og kassetter i kasser og poser, og slæber dem ned ad
trappen. Jeg lægger dem i entréen, så vi kan læsse dem i morgen i bilens
bagagerum og køre til Leckhampton, for at donere dem til den lokale Røde
Kors-velgørenhedsbutik.
17:00 Vi går rundt til vores naboers hus, to døre væk. Stephen og
Frances har bedt os om at passe på deres hus og enorme have i 3 uger, mens de
er på ferie i Canada. Vi går i gang med at vande deres enorme grøntsagshave og
store blomsterbede, og frøplanterne osv i deres drivhus.
Lois vander
frøplanterne osv i vores naboers drivhus. I baggrunden ser vi
det gamle
lægehus, der lukkedes for 4 måneder siden, da lægerne
flyttede til
et nybygget lægehus i den anden side af Bishops Cleeve.
Du godeste,
de var sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger, ingen tvivl om det!
18:00 Vi er udmattede, begge to. Vi spiser aftensmad, en af de
fedtfattige færdigretter, vi for nylig købte hos CookShop i Leckhampton – yum yum!
Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, det seneste afsnit
af De viser en speciel
juleudgave af dating-showet ”First Dates”.
Dette show er
Lois’ og min yndlings-datingshow, hvor deltagere går ud på en date og spiser på
en special restaurant med en potentiel partner, som tv-kanalen har valgt til
dem.
Ross (21), og Molly (23) er begge to til computerspil, men Ross formår
at få mig til at se ud som en ekstrovert, hvilket er ingen nem opgave, for at
sige mildt.
Før Molly dukker op på restauranten, går Ross i panik og beslutter at
skjule sig i toiletterne. Programmagerne
skal sende en tjene ind for at lirke ham ud, hvilket ikke er et godt tegn.
Under deres date snakker Ross og Molly lidt om computerspil, men
derefter ved Ross slet ikke hvad at tale om med hende, og samtalen går i stå.
Ross smutter på toilettet igen.
Ved slutningen af daten beslutter Molly, at de blot kan være gode venner,
intet mere, ingen overraskelse der. Men stakkels Ross!!!
Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!
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