Sunday 9 June 2019

08:30 Lois and I take a shower and a little later, during breakfast, we talk on whatsapp with our younger daughter Sarah and her soon-to-be  6-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie: a learning opportunity for the kids as they watch Lois and me getting on with our breakfast - they are shocked to start with,  until Sarah explains to them that it is still morning in England even though they are right now waiting for their dinner. How cute they are !!!!

Flashback to April 2018: me (left) at a beach cafe in the Margaret River region,

Western Australia, along with Francis, Sarah, and the twins

11:00 Lois has to go out. She wants to participate in her sect's two worship services, taking place today in Tewkesbury library.

Earlier in the morning, she walked around the corner to the local convenience store and bought a newspaper, "The Mail on Sunday" for Bill, our elderly neighbour, but she did not have the chance to pass it on to him because we knew one of his carers had popped in - her car was parked in front of Bill's house. Bill suffers from a terminal cancer, and doctors do not know how long he has left, poor Bill.

That means I will have to go round and hand  the paper over to Bill, and chat a little with him, which will be good for me. Lois is very used to dealing with sick and seriously ill people and talking to them. She worked for years in a nursing home, and also there are many elderly people who are members of her sect, and she often visits them in the hospital and the like.

In contrast, I always seem to avoid such situations - is this pure chance, or is it intentional? I'm not sure about that.

Compared to Lois, I have far fewer friends and therefore fewer sick friends. When my father and mother died in the hospital, it was my brother, Steve, who was with them and held their hands when they died: Steve was unemployed and had plenty of time, but he was also very caring, I have to say.

One of my problems is that I am inclined to be an optimist, and I never expect people to die - I always assume that they are going to recover, no matter how serious it is - I am such an idiot.

11:30 I sit down with the computer and design a photo book of the best pictures we took or received during the month of May. And I order the resulting photo book from our favourite photo site, snapfish.co.uk.

The photo book I've designed: the front page shows me at a lunch place

with our elder daughter Alison in Haslemere, where she lives with Ed and their 3 children

12:00 I finally pluck up courage and go next door to  Bill’s, our terminally ill neighbour - he has a key box with entry code next to his front door, which I am now using for the first time.

I hand him the paper and talk to him a bit:  he says he threw up earlier in the day and decided to leave his lunch for later. But he is right now expecting  Jo, his daughter-in-law,  and I can't stay there long, so I have it easy my first time alone with him.

13:00 I come home and hurry into the kitchen to make one portion of lunch: my signature lunch - cheese and cucumber sandwiches, with a banana for dessert: yum yum! My cooking skills are extremely limited, I have to admit.

14:00  I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and start shredding yet more old bank statements and other ancient financial documents, which is all part of our current downsizing mini-project.

And I go out into the vegetable garden and check up on Lois' bar beans, which she planted yesterday. They look healthy and wave to me in the breeze, which is nice.

the runner beans Lois planted out yesterday

 – they wave hello in the breeze, which is nice

My alone time is coming to an end. I take a little at my smartphone and the Guardian  news site. I come across the kind of article that always blows my mind.

The location of an old crater made by the largest asteroid ever to hit the UK has been tracked down to a place on the sea between mainland Scotland and the outer Hebrides.

Scientists at Oxford and Aberdeen Universities found evidence of the violent collision in Scotland on a field trip in 2008, but have only now found out where the asteroid hit.

The 38,000 mph collision, which created a 12 km wide crater in the Earth, occurred 1.2 billion years ago, when most of life on Earth was still in the oceans, and plants still had no roots in ground. At that time, what is now Scotland was a dry land close to the equator.

It is nice to feel totally insignificant - us with our pitiful 70-year to 90-year lifetimes - I must admit that, and it gives me a rush in my mind to think of a period like 1.2 billion years!

We are told, when we are young, that every one of us is valuable - and it is probably necessary for a child’s healthy mental development to feel important. And Mr Rogers told our kids the same thing, which was nice. But the truth is that we are actually completely insignificant, and the world can easily do very well without us when we finally vanish ha ha ha!

16:00 Lois comes back from Tewkesbury and we relax with a cup of tea and a piece of cake on the couch.

17:00 We start watering our huge garden, greenhouse and flower beds, also our neighbours' huge garden and greenhouse (at Stephen and Frances’s, two doors away from here): they are finally coming home on Tuesday from their 3 week vacation in Canada, which will be a bit of a relief, to put it mildly.

We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. The latest episode of "Gentleman Jack" is on, a series that revolves around a real life Victorian lesbian, Anne Lister (played by Suranne Jones).

Anne wrote copious diary notes, including about her sex life (she used a simple substitution code to hide the most sensitive details), which allowed the series author to create an authentic depiction of Anne's dramatic lifestyle in the 1830’s just outside the town of Halifax in Yorkshire. .

It's nice to see Anne really enjoy herself in bed with her current "squeeze", Miss Walker. And for her part the nervous Miss Walker now really seems to have started to relax and have fun.

And Lois and I also think that Miss Walker looks much more attractive, with her hair down, for once, and all those pins taken out.

Miss Walker looks much more attractive with her hair down, we think

But it's a bit of a shame, later on the episode, when Miss Walker receives a letter from the vicar who raped her a couple of years ago - he has just become a widow and wants to marry her - damn !!! And according to the then zeitgeist, she feels that as "damaging goods" she has to say yes.

My goodness, what a crazy world they lived in !!!!

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

Danish translation:  søndag den 9. juni 2019

08:30 Lois og jeg tager et brusebad og lidt senere, under morgenmad, taler vi på whatsapp med vores yngste datter Sarah og hendes snart 6-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie: en læremulighed for børnene, da de se Lois og mig i gang med at spise morgenmad – de er chokeret i begyndelsen, indtil Sarah forklarer til dem, at det stadig er formiddag i England, mens de venter på deres aftensmad. Hvor er de dog søde!!!!

tilbageblik til april 2018: mig (til venstre) på en strandcafé i Margaret River-regionen,

Western Australia, sammen med Francis, Sarah, og tvillingerne

11:00 Lois skal af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts to gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek.

Tidligere på formiddagen gik hun rundt om hjørnet til den lokale nærbutik og købte en avis, ”The Mail on Sunday” til Bill, vores ældre nabo, men hun ikke har haft lejligheden til at overbringe den til ham, fordi vi vidste, én af hans plejere havde smuttet ind hos ham – hendes bil var parkeret foran Bills hus. Bill lider af en terminal kræft, og lægere ved ikke, hvor lang tid han har tilbage, stakkels Bill.

Det betyder, at jeg må overbringe avisen til Bill og snakke lidt med ham, hvilket vil være godt for mig. Lois er meget vant til at omgås syge og alvorligt syge mennesker,  og snakke med dem. Hun arbejdede i årevis i et plejehjem, også der er mange ældre mennesker, der er medlemmer af hendes sekt, og hun har ofte besøget dem i hospitalet, og lignende.

Tværtimod synes jeg altid at undgå sådanne nogle situationer  - er dette tilfældigt, eller er det med vilje? Det er jeg ikke helt sikker på.  

I sammenligning til Lois har jeg langt færre venner, og derfor færre syge venner. Da min far og min mor døde i hospitalet, var det min bror, Steve, der var med dem, og holdt dem i hånden, da de døde:  Steve var arbejdsløs og havde masser af tid, men han var også meget omsorgsfuld, det må jeg nok sige.

Ét af mine problemer er, at jeg hælder til at være optimist, og jeg forventer aldrig, at folk vil dø – jeg formoder altid, at de skal komme sig ovenpå det, uanset hvor alvorligt det er – jeg er sådan en idiot.

11:30 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og designer en fotobog af de bedste billeder vi tog, eller modtog, under maj måned. Og jeg bestiller den resulterende fotobog fra vores yndlingsfotowebsted, snapfish.co.uk .

Den fotobog, jeg har designet: forsiden viser mig på et frokoststed

med vores ældste datter Alison i Haslemere, hvor hun bor med Ed og deres 3 børn

12:00 Endelig tager jeg mod til mig og smutte ind hos Bill, vores terminalt syge nabo – han har en nøgleboks med adgangskode ved siden af sin hoveddør, som jeg nu bruger for første gang.

Jeg rækker ham avisen og snakker lidt med ham: han siger, han kastede op tidligere på dagen, og har besluttet at overlade sin frokost til senere. Men han forventer Jo, sin svigerdatter, på dette tidspunkt og jeg kan ikke blive der længe, så har jeg det nemt min første gang alene med ham.

13:00 Jeg kommer hjem og skynder mig ind i køkkenet for at lave én portion frokost: min signaturfrokost – ost og agurk sandwich, med en banan til dessert: yum yum! Min madlavningsfærdigheder er ekstremt begrænsede, det må jeg nok sige.

14:00 Jeg går i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og går i gang med at makulere endnu flere gamle kontoudtog og finansielle dokumenter, som en del af vores nuværende downsize mini-projekt.

Og jeg går ud i grøntsagshaven og tjekker op på Lois’ stangbønner, som hun plantede ud i går. De ser sunde ud og vinker til mig i brisen, hvilket er rart.

de stangbønner, Lois i går planted ud: de vifter hej til mig, hvilket er rart

Min alenetid er ved at være slut, og jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone, og Guardian.co.uk nyhedswebstedet. Jeg falder over den slags artikel, der blæser mit sind væk.

Placeringen af et gammelt slagkrater lavet af den største asteroide, der nogensinde har ramt Storbritannien, er blevet sporet til et sted under havet mellem fastlandet Skotland og de ydre Hebrider.

Forskere ved Oxford og Aberdeen Universiteter fandt tegn på den voldelige kollision i Skotland på en felttur i 2008, men har kun nu fundet ud af, hvor asteroiden ramte.

Den 38.000 mph kollision, der skabte et 12 km bredt krater i jorden, skete for 1,2 mia år siden, da det meste af livet på Jorden stadig var i oceanerne, og planterne endnu ikke havde rod på jorden. På det tidspunkt, dét, hvad er nu Skotland, var et semi-tørt land, der lå tæt på ækvator.

Det er rart at føle sig helt ubetydelig – os med vores ynkelige 70-år / 90-år lange livstider – det må jeg indrømme, og det giver mig et sus i maven, at tænke på en periode som 1,2 mia år!

Vi bliver fortalt, da vi er unge, at hver eneste af os er vigtig – og det er sandsynligvis nødvendigt, at et barn føler sig vigtig. Og Mr Rogers fortalte vores børn det samme, hvilket var rart. Men sandheden er, at vi faktisk er helt ubetydelige, og verden sagtens kan klare sig helt godt uden os, når vi endelig forsvinder ha ha ha!

16:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Tewkesbury, og vi slapper af med en kop te og et stykke kage i sofaen.

17:00 Vi går i gang med at vande vores enorme have, drivhus og blomsterbede, også vores naboers enorme have og drivhus (hos Stephen og Frances, to døre væk herfra): de kommer endelig hjem på tirsdag fra deres 3 uges ferie i Canada, hvilket er lidt af en lettelse.

Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit af ”Gentleman Jack”, der kredser om en virkelig liv victoriansk lesbisk kvinde, Anne Lister (spillet af Suranne Jones).

Anne skrev rigelige dagbogsnotater, inklusive om sit sexliv (hun brugte en simpel substitutionskode for at skjule de mest følsomme detaljer), hvilket har tilladt seriens forfatterinde til at skabe en autentisk skildring af Annes dramatiske livstil i 1830’erne lige udenfor byen Halifax i grevskabet Yorkshire.

Det er rart at se Anne virkelig hygge sig i sengen med sin nuværende ”squeeze”, frøken Walker. Den nervøse frøken Walker har virkelig begyndt at slappe af og få det sjovt.

Også Lois og jeg synes, at frøken Walker ser langt mere attraktiv ud, med løst hår, for en gangs skyld, med sine hårnåle taget ud.

 frøken Walker ser langt mere attraktiv ud med løst hår, synes vi

Men det er lidt af en skam, senere på episoden, da frøken Walker modtager et brev fra den præst, der for et par år siden voldtog hende – han er lige nu blevet enke, og ønske at gifte sig med hende – pokkers!!! Og ifølge den daværende tidsånd, føler hun, som ”beskadige varer” at hun må sige ja.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden de dengang levede i !!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!