Tuesday 4 June 2019

08:00 Lois and I take a shower and after breakfast I start clearing up the living room, because my friend "Magyar" Mike is coming this morning at 10 am for our weekly "Hungarian hour". I prepare a Hungarian vocabulary test that I want him to take at the beginning of the hour, and he will have done the same for me.

10:00 Mike arrives and we study Hungarian for an hour. He is more on the ball today, which is nice. And he had a successful and cautiously promising appointment yesterday with his lawyer, when they discussed Mike's problem with the house next door.

The owner of the house, Peter, has vanished, but when he went he left a key with Mike so Mike could pop in and collect the man's post, etc. But Mike hasn't heard anything from the man for nearly 2 years and the garden has become a real jungle. The local council has refused to take action, because it’s private property – my god, what madness !!!

Mike’s  lawyer has agreed to do some research to determine whether Peter is still paying his local taxes or not. Mike also has a theory that Peter may be somewhere suffering from dementia or the like. Mike's lawyer promises to do some research to find out if there are online records that provide information on the identity and addresses of such people.

 "Magyar" Mike in happier times: in 1994 in Hungary

together with our Hungarian friend, László

Me in 1994 in Hungary, on the visit to Lászlo's weekend cottage

Peter is / was a supporter of Greenpeace, and I had a theory last year, based on a look at Peter's Facebook page, that he might have gone "off grid" to plan some "secret mission", or to evade police monitoring, but Mike was not convinced ha ha ha!

This morning, I remind Mike that Greenpeace recently hit the headlines when a Baptist clergyman called on the ecological organisation to stop supporting and defending any species, such as telia felina, which were not maintaining the highest moral standards (report, Onion News ).

HUNTSVILLE, AL: a coalition of Baptist clergymen, spoke out on Monday against Telia felina, a transgendered sea anemone, which they decried as "low and depraved".

"This filthy anemone, which shows both male and female characteristics, is making our oceans’ tidal zones a hotbed of sin and perversion," said Rev. William Chester, spokesman for the Save Our Seas Coalition, a Huntsville-based activist group dedicated to "preserving aquatic decency and morality." "For God knows how long this perverted sea creature has been running rampant in our oceans, spreading its unnatural bisexual lifestyle. And it's high time somebody took a stand."

The Baptist group also strongly condemned the reproductive habits and family structure of anemone.

"Unlike many respectable, God-fearing creatures, Telia felina reproduces asexually, openly mocking traditional family values ​​ by feeding and educating its young in a single parenting environment," said Chester. "This anti-Christian anemone, that has the audacity to believe that a child can grow up properly without the benefit of two loving parents, is truly the" Murphy Brown "of the oceans [a world-famous real-life recovering alcoholic - Ed]."

Chester added: "If you still doubt the pain and suffering caused by this underwater abomination to the lord, just look into the eyes of a young anemone who is forced to grow up and wonder why Mother and Father live in the same body. This, my friends, is not natural. "

As part of its campaign against invertebrates, Save Our Seas is calling on Greenpeace and other environmental groups to stop their defence of endangered species and regions that do not comply with high moral standards. The group also threatens a boycott of aquariums showing Telia felina or any other creature of questionable character.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!

And Mike and I wonder for a moment whether Chester's rant could have pushed Peter over the edge and driven him completely crazy. That kind of thing has happened before with Greenpeace activists, we know that for sure – they are highly sensitive creatures, although they are believed to mate conventionally.

I believe that the life style and reproductive habits of sea anemones are very efficient: it makes sense to have both father and mother in the same body, I think - it means that it is no longer necessary to get dressed up and go on dates, be charming and seductive, go to bed together, and that kind of thing, to be able to have children. One can just do it on demand, which seems reasonable ha ha!

But this morning I decide to let that one slide - I know that Mike is nothing if not traditional in his attitudes, no doubt about that!

11:00 Mike has to leave, and Lois and I relax with a cup of coffee on the couch. Afterwards, we drive over to the local Sainsbury’s supermarket to buy some things, including two birthday cakes for Lois - the one that Lois and I can gorge on tomorrow, and another cake, that Lois can take with her tonight when she attends her sect’s weekly Bible seminar - she plans to offer the seminar participants a slice of cake each during the tea break on the occasion of her 73rd birthday tomorrow, which is typically kind of her.

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and getting started shredding even more ancient bank statements and other financial documents, as part of the current phase of our downsizing mini-project.

Meanwhile, Lois starts to decorate the birthday cake she and I look forward to gorging ourselves on and “demolishing” tomorrow at 4 pm with our obligatory cup of tea - yum yum!

Lois has decorated the birthday cake, she and I

look forward to demolishing tomorrow afternoon - yum yum!

16:00 We swing by Bill’s, our neighbour who was recently discharged from the hospital - he is suffering from a terminal cancer, and he has opted against treatment,  chemotherapy or the like. Bill's wife of 60 years, Mary, suffers from dementia and has been settled in a local nursing home.

We talk a little with Bill - he stays the whole time in his favourite armchair beside the fire. Lois says he doesn't move around much. The doctors do not know how long he has left, which is sad.

Bill speaks a little about his feelings. It was a massive shock about 2 weeks ago to be told that he was terminally ill with a pancreatic cancer that had been growing slowly for years without symptoms. But he reflects that he has had a very happy life, with a 60-year-old happy marriage, two sons in Britain and a daughter in New Zealand, and a career that allowed him to travel the world with the British army.

His religion comforts him, I think. He was a member of the Anglican Church until approx. 5 years ago when he converted to the Catholic Church so that he could go to church with Mary, who was born a Catholic. The local Catholic curate has visited him and given him the sacrament: and he told Bill that the last rites were not needed to go to heaven, which reassured Bill, I think.

And I can't help but think about who and what will reassure and comfort me when my time comes - yikes squared !!!!!

We chat to Bill for 45 minutes, but Lois thinks he's starting to look a little tired. We say goodbye, but I promise to push his recycling boxes out onto the pavement - the collection begins at 7 in the morning. One of his sons is visiting him later in the evening, he says.

17:30 We have dinner a little earlier than usual, and afterwards Lois has to go out - she wants to take part in her sect’s weekly Bible seminar taking place tonight in Brockworth library.

I have some time off, but I'm starting to worry about the priorities of the week and my to-do list - I'm going to concentrate tonight and tomorrow on Lois's birthday, and we're planning to have lunch at The House in the Wall pub located a little outside the town, which will be nice - and afterwards there’ll be gigantic afternoon naps followed by birthday cake - yum yum!

But after Wednesday, there are a lot of duties requiring my attention: our U3A Danish group will be meeting on Thursday and Lynda’s U3A Middle English group on Friday, and I have not had time to read any of the specified texts yet - help!

19:00 I sit down with the computer and start designing my birthday card for Lois: the theme I choose is "Love Island" - the TV reality dating show that we both saw yesterday. I always try to base my cards on something topical in our life together. And I wrap my birthday presents to her.

I listen a little to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "Ramblings", which is about walks out in the country, where the programme's charming host, Clare Balding, walks here and there and talks to interesting people she has agreed to meet with on the way. Today she talks to two sisters, Pat and Jean, who became involved in intelligence work during World War II.

Jean was stationed in Cairo and in Italy and engaged in sending and receiving secret messages to British agents in southern Europe, while Pat was stationed on the English south-east coast and was charged with intercepting  the encoded communications of German war ships and submarines.

I feel a connection with Jean and Pat because my career also involved a lot of confidential work that I could not talk to Lois about, although of course she was aware of the broad picture of my work. But Jean and Pat did not find out that they both worked for the same organisation until many years after the end of the war – my goodness, people took security very seriously in those times, no doubt about that !!!

22:00 Lois comes back from her Bible seminar. I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and unwind after the evening's stimulating seminar, and she stays up and watches a bit of television. She doesn't wake me up when she jumps into bed with me around 11 pm. Zzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg tager et brusebad og efter morgenmad går jeg i gang med at rydde op i stuen, fordi min ven ”Magyar” Mike kommer i formiddag kl 10 til vores ugentlige ”ungarske time”. Jeg udarbejder en ungarsk ordforrådtest, jeg vil have ham til at tage i begyndelsen af timen, og jeg er helt sikker på, at han har gjort det samme for mig.

10:00 Mike ankommer og vi studerer ungarsk i en time. Han virker mere oppe på dupperne i dag, hvilket er rart. Og han havde en succésfuld og lidt lovende aftale i går med sin advokat, hvor de diskuterede Mikes problem med nabohuset til sit eget.

Nabohusets ejer, 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!!!

Hans advokat har aftalt at gøre lidt forskning for at afgøre, om Peter stadig betaler sine lokale skatter, eller ej. Mike har også en teori, at Peter måske lider af demens eller noget lignende. Mikes advokat lover at gøre lidt forskning for at finde ud af, om der er online registre, der giver oplysninger om identiteten og adresser af sådanne mennesker.

”Magyar” Mike i lykkeligere tider: i 1994 i Ungarn

sammen med vores ungarske ven, László

Mig i 1994 i Ungarn

Peter er/var en tilhænger til Greenpeace, og jeg havde en teori i fjor, baseret på at have set på Peters Facebookside, at han måske var gået ”off grid” for at planlægge  en eller anden ”hemmelig mission”, eller for at slippe for politiovervågning, men Mike var ikke overbevist ha ha ha!

I formiddag minder jeg Mike om, at Greenpeace ramte overskrifterne for nylig, da en koalition af baptistpræsterne opfordrede den økologiske organisation til at holde op med at støtte og forsvare arter, såsom telia felina, der ikke opretholdt de højeste moralske standarder (rapport, Onion News).

HUNTSVILLE, AL-A-koalitionen af baptistpræsterne talte mandag åbent mod Telia felina, en transgenderet havanemone, de skælder ud som "lave og depraverede".

"Denne beskidte anemone, der udviser både mandlige og kvindelige karakteristika, gør vores oceaners tidevandszoner til arnesteder for synd og perversion", sagde Rev. William Chester, talsmand for Save Our Seas Coalition, en Huntsville-baseret aktivistgruppe dedikeret til "bevarelse af akvatisk anstændighed og moral." "For Gud ved, hvor lang tid er denne perverterede havdyr gået amok i vores oceaner og spredt sin unaturlige biseksuelle livsstil. Og det er på tide, at nogen gør modstand."

Baptistgruppen fordømte også stærkt anemons reproduktive vaner og familiestruktur.

"I modsætning til så mange respektable, gudfrygtige væsener, reproducerer Telia felina aseksuelt, og  spotter traditionelle familieværdier åbent ved at føde og opdrage sine unge i et enlige forælder miljø," sagde Chester. "Denne anti-kristne anemone, som har frækheden til at tro, at et barn kan vokse ordentligt op uden fordelen af to kærlige forældre, er sandelig oceanernes ”Murphy Brown” [en verdenskendt virkelig liv gendannende alkoholiker – red] ."

Chester tilføjede: "Hvis du stadig tvivler på den smerte og lidelse, der voldes af denne undersøiske vederstyggelighed til herren, skal du bare se ind i øjnene på et ungt anemonebarn, der bliver tvunget til at vokse op og undre sig over, hvorfor mor og far bor i samme krop. Dette, mine venner, er ikke naturligt."

Som led i sin kampagne mod hvirvelløse dyr opfordrer Save Our Seas Greenpeace og andre miljøgrupper til at holde op med deres forsvar af truede arter og regioner, der ikke overholder høje moralske standarder. Gruppen truer også en boykot af akvarier, der viser Telia felina eller enhver anden skabning af tvivlsom karakter.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Og Mike og jeg spekulerer kort på, om Chesters skvalder kunne have skubbet Peter over kanten og kørt ham skør. Den slags ting er sket før, det ved vi med sikkerhed.

Jeg mener selv, at havanemoners livstil og reproduktive vaner er meget effektive: det giver mening, at have far og mor i samme krop, synes jeg – det betyder, at det ikke længere er nødvendigt at stadse sig op og gå på dates, være charmerende og forførende, gå i seng sammen, og den slags, for at være i stand til at få børn. Man kan blot gøre det på forlangende, hvilket synes fornuftigt ha ha!

Men det springer jeg over i formiddag  – jeg ved godt, at traditionel i hans attituder, det er Mike, ingen tvivl om det!

11:00 Mike skal af sted, og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Bagefter kører vi over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe nogle ting, herunder to fødselsdagskager til Lois – den ene, som Lois og jeg kan mæske os i i morgen, og den anden, som Lois kan tage med i aften, når hun deltager i sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar – hun planlægger at tilbyde seminarets deltagere hver en skive kage under te-pausen på andledning af sin 73. fødselsdag i morgen, hvilket er typisk venligt af hende.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og går i gang med at makulere flere ældgamle kontoudtog og andre finansielle dokumenter som den nuværende fase af vores downsize mini-projekt.

I mellemtiden går Lois i gang med at pynte den fødselsdagekage, hun og jeg glæder os til at mæske os i og fortære i morgen kl 16 med vores obligatoriske kop te – yum yum!

Lois har pyntet den fødselsdagskage, hun og jeg

glæder os til at mæske os i i morgen eftermiddag – yum yum!

16:00 Vi smutter ind hos Bill, vores nabo, der for nylig blev udskrevet fra hospitalet – han lider af en terminal kræft, og han har afvist behandling:  kimoterapi eller ligende. Bills kone af 60 år, Mary, lider af demens og er blevet anbragt i et lokalt plejehjem.

Vi snakker lidt med ham – han bliver siddende hele tiden i sit yndlingslænestol ved siden af ilden. Lois siger, han bevæger sig ikke ret meget mere. Lægerne ved ikke, hvor lang tid han har tilbage, hvilket er trist.

Bill taler lidt om sine følelser. Det var et massivt chok for omkring 2 uger siden at få at vide, at han var terminalt syg med en kræft i bugspytkirtlen, der var vokset langsomt i årevis uden symptomer. Men han reflekterer, at han har haft et meget heldigt liv, med en 60-år gamle lykkelige ægteskab, to sønner i Storbritannien og en datter i New Zealand, og en karriere, der tilladt ham at rejse verden over med den britiske hær.

Hans religion trøster ham, synes jeg. Han var et medlem af den anglikanske kirke, indtil ca. 5 år siden, da han konverterede til den katolske kirke, så han kunne gå i kirke sammen med Mary, der blev født en katoliker. Den lokale katolske kapellan har besøgt ham og givet ham nadveren:  og han fortalte Bill, at de sidste riter ikke var nødvendige for at gå i himlen, hvilket beroligede Bill, synes jeg.

Og jeg kan ikke undgå at tænke på, hvem og hvad vil berolige og trøste mig, når min tid kommer – yikes kvadrat !!!!!

Vi bliver snakkende med Bill i 45 minutter, og Lois synes, han begynder at se lidt træt ud. Vi siger farvel, men jeg lover at skubbe hans genbrugsspande ud på fortovet – indsamlingen begynder kl 7 i morgen. En af hans sønner besøger ham senere på aftenen, siger han.

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad lidt tidligere, end normalt, og bagefter skal Lois ud – hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek.

Jeg har lidt alenetid, men jeg begynder at bekymre mig over ugens prioriteter og min gøremålsliste – jeg vil koncentrere mig i aften og i morgen om Lois’ fødselsdag, og vi planlægger at spise frokost på ”The House in the Wall”-pubben, der ligger lidt udenfor byen, hvilket vil være rart, og bagefter eftermiddagslure og fødselsdagskager – yum yum!

Men efter onsdag vil en masse pligter kræver min opmærksomhed: vores U3A danske gruppe samles på torsdag og Lyndas U3A middelengelske gruppe samles på fredag, og jeg har ikke haft tid til at læse de specificerede teksterne endnu – hjælp!

19:00 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og går i gang med at designe min fødselsdagskort til Lois: det tema jeg vælger er ”Love Island” – det tv-reality datingshow som vi begge så i går. Jeg prøver altid at basere mine kort på noget ”topisk” i vores samliv. Og jeg pakker mine fødseldagsgaver ind.

Jeg lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Ramblings”, der handler om gåture ude på landet, hvor programmets charmerende vært, Clare Balding, vandrer her og der og snakker med interessante mennesker hun har aftalt at mødes med på vej. I dag taler hun med to søstre, Pat og Jean, der blev involveret  i efterretningsarbejde under den 2. verdenskrig.

Jean var udstationeret i Cairo og i Italieen og beskæftigede sig med at sende og modtage hemmelige beskeder til britiske agenter i den sydlige Europa, mens Pat var udstationeret på den engelske sydøsterlige kyst og beskæftigede sig med at opfange tyske krigskibes og undervandsbådes kommunikationer.

Jeg føler en forbindelse med Jean og Pat, fordi min karriere også involverede en masse fortroligt arbejde, som jeg ikke kunne tale med Lois om, selvom hun selvfølgelig var klar over det brede billede af mit arbejde. Men Jean og Pat fandt ikke ud af, at de begge arbejdede for samme organisationen indtil mange år efter endt krigen – du godeste, man tog sikkerhed for alvor i denne tider, ingen tvivl om det!!!

22:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra sit bibelseminar. Jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare ned efter aftenens stimulerende seminar, og hun forbliver oppe og ser lidt fjernsyn. Hun vækker mig ikke, da hun hopper op i sengen til mig kl 23. Zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!