Friday 31 May 2019

09:15 Lois and I drive over to the "big" Sainsbury’s supermarket to go food-shopping. I also have 5 black plastic sacks in the car boot, full of unwanted old documents, bills, etc., which I want to throw into the recycling container in the supermarket's car-park.

We feel that the council's recycling system is very old-fashioned in comparison with US cities for example. Three years ago, we read about exciting developments in this field in American cities (source: Onion News), and were expecting that Cheltenham would quickly copy the new US system, but so far, the town's attempts at modernisation have been a bit disappointing, to put it mildly.

In a report published 3 years ago by the Environmental Protection Agency, officials praised new initiatives to take the guesswork out of the often confusing process of household waste management, and noted that more and more cities were now providing residents with bins just for material that looks like it could probably be recycled.

"We are aware that it can be difficult to know whether those stained pizza boxes or orange juice cartons with plastic spouts can be recycled or not, so with the introduction of these new containers, we invite residents to just throw them all in and not worry about it!" said Rosa Fernandez, a spokesperson for the city of Seattle, who has urged its citisens to use the new bins to discard plastic bags, wrapping paper or other items that they suspect could be recyclable, and put them out on the kerbside next to their usual recycling bins and waste bins.

"Whether you're trying to find out if your city is taking plastic with number 4 or higher, or you cannot remember if you are allowed to send books for recycling, do not worry - just look for the little bins with the question mark on the side."

Fernandez added that the city is currently considering providing an additional bin for things that residents know are not recyclable, but which they still feel bad about throwing out.

Lois and I think it's a shame that Cheltenham is always the last town to adopt new ideas, but I’m going to let that one slide, at least until the council has approved my appeal against our tax-bill ha ha ha!

09:30 We do our shopping, and then relax in the supermarket's café with a cup of coffee and a piece of cake, while one of the supermarket's franchised Eastern European car-washers cleans and polishes our car in the parking lot.

I find I can park the car right next to the paper recycling skip,

which is lucky - hurrah!

After our food-shopping, we pop into the supermarket's café

to recharge our batteries with a cup of coffee and a piece of cake - yum yum!

11:00 We come home. In the supermarket we bought Bill, our terminally ill neighbour, today's Daily Mail newspaper, so Lois swings by Bill’s to hand it over. She says he seems to be a little better today, less sleepy than yesterday, which is good.

11:45 Lois goes out in the front yard to weed a little in the flower beds - she says our roses are now past their best and that we should replace them with some sort of hedge. I comment that it will be best if we choose something with thorns, so the school children are not tempted to lean against the garden wall while they stand waiting for the school bus. Yes, we are now two typically bitter old crows – that’s for sure!

Lois goes out into the front yard to weed a bit in the flower beds

In the meantime, I get going with ironing my shirts, underwear and “gentleman’s” night-shirts.

me from an ironing board’s perspective as I prepare to pick up the iron:

a slightly scary sight from the ironing board's viewpoint, no doubt about that.

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards 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.

16:30 We listen a little to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "More or Less", a series all about the statistics you see in the press or in the media. Tim Harford, the programme's charming host, does his best to find out if these statistics hold water or not, which is not always easy to to put it mildly.

A slightly unusual episode because it was recorded not in the BBC studio, but live in front of an audience at the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival in Wales. Tim started the program by explaining that "Today we are in Wales, a country that is literally the size of Wales", a bit of a statistician’s in-joke. I'm sure other countries have their own equivalents when trying to make sizes more meaningful to a puzzled audience - let's hope they don't all use "Wales" ha ha!

Tim Harford, the programme’s charming presenter

We often hear that Britain is (or was last year) (marginally) the world's fifth largest economy – and we hear this statement mostly from people who want the government to do this or that, or spend more on this or that.

The world's largest economies (2018) - IMF

Nigel Farage recently claimed that because we were the world's fifth largest economy, we should be able to strike better trade agreements as an "independent country", than we could as an EU member - I'm glad he's got a good grasp of bargaining power ha ha.

And actress and activist Emma Thompson recently complained that we were the world's fifth largest economy, but "20-30% of our children live in poverty", which was totally shocking, she said.

Tim's message is that if you hear the expression "5th largest economy in the world" or the like, you should shut your ears immediately or run for the hills - you are probably just about to be misled by some fanatic or activist with an axe to grind.

In fact, Britain does better than the other top 5 economies when it comes to child poverty. Also, it is noteworthy that poverty is defined as a level that’s below 50% of the median level, so the richer the country, the higher the threshold, Tim says.

Also, the size of an economy is more or less dependent on the population. When it comes to "largest economies", if you look at "gross domestic product per capita", Britain is only No. 20 in the world: the top 4 are Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway and Ireland – my goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. An old episode of Top of the Pops is on, from New Year's Eve 1987. The programme's charming hosts are Gary Davies and Peter Powell.

It's always a little touching, I think, seeing people on the brink of a new year, not knowing what the year is going to bring them, while we, in 2019, know it all too well.

My favourite events of 1988: the progress with developing the internet, and the beginning of the collapse of communism. A bunch of celebrities died in 1988, as well as even greater numbers of ordinary people, so 1988 was not a good year for them, to put it mildly! But I’m going to let that one slide, because no one lives for ever ha ha ha !!

21:00 We continue to watch a bit of television. The latest episode of "Gogglebox" is on, a fun program where various TV viewers look at some of the week's programmes and comment on them from their sofas and armchairs, simultaneously, as the programmes are being aired.

For Lois and me, the only disadvantage of this show is that programme participants don’t usually watch the kind of programmes that Lois and I typically see.

But I’m going to let that one slide, because it also means that Lois and I can now speak confidently with our friends and neighbours about the programmes that the average Joe on the street sees, which is nice: so it increases our street-cred, no doubt about that.

In Netflix's new erotic thriller series "What / If", we see a wife in a bubble bath who kisses her husband when he comes home late in the evening from work, and then pulls him, fully dressed in his business suit, into the water.

My god, what madness !!!!

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

Danish translation

09:15 Vi kører over til det “store” Sainsburys-supermarked for at gå madindkøb. Jeg har også i bagagerummet 5 sække propfuldt med uønskede gamle dokumenter, regninger osv, som jeg vil smide ind i  genbrugcontaineren på supermarkedets parkeringsplads.

Lois og jeg føler, at den lokale kommunes genbrugsystem er meget gammeldags i sammenligning med byer i USA for eksempel. Vi læste for 3 år siden om spændende udviklinger i dette feld i amerikanske byer (kilde: Onion News), og forventede, at Cheltenham hurtigt vil kopiere det nye amerikanske system, men hidtil har byens forsøg på modernisering været lidt skuffende for at sige mildt.

I en rapport, der blev offentliggjort for 3 år siden af Miljøstyrelsen, rosede embedsmænd nye initiativer til at tage gætteværket ud af den ofte forvirrende proces af håndteringen af husholdningsaffaldshåndtering, og bemærkede,  at flere og flere byer nu forsyner beboere med genbrugsbeholdere til materialer, der ser ud som om, at de sandsynligvis kunne være genanvendelige.

"Vi er klar over, at det kan være svært at vide, om de der plettede pizzakasser eller appelsinjuicekartoner med plastiktud kan genanvendes eller ej, så med indførelsen af disse nye affaldsbeholdere, opfordrer vi beboerne til kun at smide dem alle ind og ikke bekymre sig om det, "siger Rosa Fernandez, en talsmand for byen Seattle, der har opfordret sine borgere til at bruge de nye genbrug/affaldsbeholdere  til at kassere plastikposer, indpakningspapir eller andre artikler, som de mistænker kunne tænkes at blive genanvendt, og placere dem på kantsten ved siden af deres sædvanlige genbrugsbeholdere  og affaldsbeholdere.

"Uanset om du prøver at finde ud af, om din by tager plast med nummer 4 eller højere, eller du ikke kan huske, om du får lov til at sende bøger for genanvendelse, skal du ikke bekymre dig - bare se efter de lilla genbrug/affaldsbeholdere med spørgsmålstegnet på siden. "

Fernandez tilføjede, at byen i øjeblikket overvejer at give en ekstra affaldsbeholder  til ting, som beboerne ved, ikke er genanvendelige, men som de alligevel har det dårligt med at smide ud.

Lois og jeg mener, det er lidt af en skam, at Cheltenham altid er den sidste by til at adoptere nye idéer, men det springer jeg over imidlertidigt, i det mindste indtil kommunen har godkendt min skatteregningsappel ha ha!

09:30 Vi køber ind, og bagefter slapper af i supermarkedets café med en kop kaffe og et stykke kage, mens én af supermarkedets østeuropæske bilvaskmænd vasker og polere bilen på parkeringspladsen.

jeg finder jeg kan parkere bilen ved siden af genbrugcontaineren,

hvilket er heldigt – hurra!

efter madindkøbet smutter vi ind i supermarkedets café

for at genoplade vores batterier med en kop kaffe og et stykke kage – yum yum!

11:00 Vi kommer hjem. I supermarkedet har vi købt Bill, vores terminalt syge nabo, dagens Daily Mail-avis, så smutter Lois ind hos ham, for at overbringe den til ham. Hun siger, han synes at have det lidt bedre i dag, mindre søvnig, end i går, hvilket er godt.

11:45 Lois går ud i forhaven for at luge lidt i blomsterbedene – hun siger, at vores roser nu er forbi deres bedste dage, og at vi burde udskifte dem med en eller anden slags hæk. Jeg kommenterer, at det vil være bedst hvis vi valger noget med torne, så skolebørnene ikke bliver fristet til at læne sig mod havevæggen, mens de står og venter på skolebussen. Ja, vi er typiske bitre gamle krager – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!

Lois går ud i forhaven for at luge lidt i blomsterbedene

I mellemtiden går jeg i gang med at strege mine skjorter, undertøj og natskjorter (”til herre”).

et strygebrætperspektiv af mig, mens jeg forbereder mig på at tage strygejernet op:

noget skræmmende fra strygebrættets perspektiv, ingen tvivl om det.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30 og vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i sofaen

16:30 Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”More or Less”, der handler om statistikkerne, man ser i presssen eller i medierne. Tim Harford, programmets charmerende vært, gør sit bedste for at finde ud af, om disse statistikker holder stik, eller ej, hvilket ikke er altid nemt, for at sige mildt.

Et lidt usædvanligt afsnit, fordi det blev optaget, ikke i BBC studiet, men live foran et publikum ved Hay litterære festival i Wales. Tim indledte programmet ved at forklare, at “I dag er vi i Wales, et land, som bogstavelig talt er størrelsen af Wales”, hvilket er lidt af en statistikers in-joke.

Tim Harford, programmets vært

Vi hører ofte, at Storbritannien er (eller var i fjor) verdens 5. største økonomi – for det meste fra mennesker, der vil have at regeringen laver dette eller hint, eller bruger flere penge på dette eller hint.

Verdens største økonomier (2018) - IMF

Nigel Farage påstod for nylig, at vi var verdens 5. største økonomi, så vi burde være i stand til at afslutte en bedre handelsaftale som et ”uafhængigt land”, end som medlem af EU.

Skuespillerinden og aktivisten Emma Thompson brokkede sig for nylig, at vi var verdens 5. største økonomi, men ”20-30% af vores børn lever i fattigdom”.

Tims budskab er, at hvis du hører udtrykket ”verdens 5. største økonomi” eller lignende, skulle du lukke ørene med det samme – du skal lige til at blive vildladt af en eller anden fanatiker, eller en aktivist, der vil mele sin egen kage!

Faktisk gør Storbritannien sig bedre, end de 4 største økonomier, når det kommer til barnfattigdom. Også er det bemærkelsesværdigt, at fattigdom er defineret som under 50% af mediumniveauet, så j rigere landet, jo højere tærsklen, siger Tim.

Også, en økonomis størrelse er i mere eller mindre grad afhængig af befolkningstallet. Når det kommer til ”største økonomier”, hvis man kigger på ”bruttonationalprodukt per capita” er Storbritannien kun nr. 20 i verden: de top 4 økonomier er Luxembourg, Schweiz, Norge og Irland – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser et gamle afsnit af Top of the Pops fra nytårsaften 1987. Programmets charmerende værter er Gary Davies og Peter Powell.

Det er altid lidt rørende, synes jeg, at se folk på randen af et nyt år, ikke vidende, hvad året kommer til at bringe dem, mens vi, i 2019, ved det godt. Mine yndlingsbegivenheder: udviklingen af nettet, og starten på kommunismens kollaps. En flok kendisser døde i 1988, såvel som endnu flere almindelige mennesker, så var 1988 ikke et godt år for dem, for at sige mildt! Men det springer jeg over, fordi ingen lever i evigt ha ha!!

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit af ”Gogglebox”, et morsomt program, hvor forskellige tv-seerne ser på nogle af ugens programmer og kommenterer dem i deres sofaer og lænestole osv.

For vores vedkommende er den eneste ulempe ved dette program, at programmets deltagere sædvanligt ikke de slags programmer, som Lois og jeg typisk ser.

Men det springer jeg over, fordi det også betyder , at Lois og jeg nu taler selvsikkert med vores venner og naboer, om programmerne, de gennemsnitlige mennesker ser, hvilket er rart: det øger vores streetcred, ingen tvivl om det.

I Netflix’ nye erotiske thriller-serie ”What/If”, ser vi en kone i et boblebad, der kysser sin mand, da han kommer tilbage fra arbejder, og så trækker ham, fuldt klædt i sit forretningsjakkesæt, ind i vandet.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid !!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!