Tuesday 30 July 2019

The weather girl says it's going to rain all day with thunderstorms tonight, so Lois and I decide to occupy ourselves with various household tasks, such as ironing, etc. - ugh!!!!

Our U3A Danish group is holding its fortnightly meeting here on Thursday. During the group meetings, we are currently taking turns to read a page or so of the Danish crime novel, Anna Grue's "Deep to Fall," before translating the page into English.

Today, I suddenly realise that we're getting to the end of the pages I've sent the members so far, and I need to send out more, as well as a vocabulary list for each page. The purpose of the vocabulary lists is to save them from looking up a lot of difficult words in the dictionary - I'm so thoughtful ha ha ha! 

I go on the computer and grab the next 3-4 pages and start compiling a vocabulary list for each page.

"The Further You Fall" - the Danish crime novel that’s

our U3A Danish group's current project.

Anna Grue, the author of the novel

A cleaning assistant, Lilliana, whom no one knows anything about (not even her last name), has been murdered (garrotted) while working late at night in the kitchen of a large Danish advertising agency.

Police have reacted by picking up Benjamin, Liliana's workmate, as their initial suspect - the young man has already lied to police about his movements on the night in question. And with his various weird fashion choices (makeup, piercings, safety pins, etc.) he’s the very prototype of a serial killer, many of the police seem to think.

However Flemming, the novel's principal police detective, doesn't himself believe that Benjamin is the murderer, no matter how weird his appearance  - Flemming’s  opinion is that it’s often  the youngsters who are the most painted and pierced and tattooed and back-combed etc etc,  who are the softest and most innocent ones underneath.

We readers, in any case, know that Flemming is wasting his time trying to track down the killer - his job is simply to pass on information to the balding real hero of the novel, the amateur detective Dan Sommerdahl, an advertising man who works at the same agency as Lilliana, the killer's victim. So why not give up now, Detective Flemming ha ha ha!

One of the Danish TV channels has started working on a Dan Sommerdahl crime series, and shooting of the series is actually already underway in the Helsingør area, north of Copenhagen.

Detective Flemming (left), along with Marianne and Dan Sommerdahl

According to the article, the new crime series will be starting on Danish TV in the spring of 2020. Lois and I are looking forward to it hopefully being shown on UK TV some time after that date.

Flashback to June 2017: we visit Helsingør Castle (Shakespeare’s Elsinore)

with our daughter Alison (right)

17:00  I have a strong gin and tonic and say "Skål !" to a bunch of men from the state of Virginia's largest English settlements who, according to an email sent to me by Steve, my American brother-in-law,  met in Jamestown exactly 400 years ago, on July 30, 1619. 

It was the first meeting of a representative legislature in what would become the United States, and it paved the way for an experiment in democracy that continues to this day.

"What happened in Jamestown July 30 through August 4 was the foundation of the Democratic model in America," said Kathy Spangler, CEO of Commemoration in 2019, American Evolution. "It has had a bearing on what our democracy became."

Hail, ye men of Virginia - you kept us out of war!

Kathy Spangler

18:00 Lois and I have dinner and listen to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "Word of Mouth". Today's episode is all about the influence of Old Norse and the Scandinavian languages ​​in general on the English language. The programme's host is the charming children's author Michael Rosen.

An interesting programme - but Lois's and my problem with it is, that we find we already know a lot of what is being said. Damn!

But there are some new insights:  it seems that philologists now think that the word "Viking" was originally an Anglo-Saxon word that meant "someone who leaves" or "someone leaving home," and that the Vikings themselves borrowed the word from English, and that later the word eventually came to mean, obviously, some sort of weird kind of pirate (without horns).

We hear that it was the northern and eastern areas of Britain that were most strongly influenced by the Scandinavians, while the southern and western regions of England received more influence from the French language.

Lois and I did not know that the word "poppet", which is often used in southern England as a common term of endearment when talking to a young child, and also “duck”, which  people in northern England use in the same way, both originally meant “doll”. 

"Poppet"  has a French origin (“poupet” in French), while "duck" has a Danish origin (“dukke” in Danish), both words meaning a doll.

The Danelaw jurisdiction and the various Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions

Also in this programme we get a reminder that London was once firmly within the Danes' sphere of influence:  many areas bordering the River Thames were originally named by the Vikings: areas such as Ivybridge, Templebridge, Butcher's Bridge, Privybridge, for example, where the "bridge" suffix does not mean a bridge, but derives from an old Danish word for a wharf or a quay.

Ivybridge Lane (top, towards left-hand corner), not far from the River Thames: 

the name is a reminder of the fact that the Vikings were once storming about round here

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

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

Danish translation

Vejrpigen siger, det kommer til at regne hele dagen med tordenvejr i aften, så beslutter Lois og jeg at beskæftige os med forskellige huslige opgaver, som strygning osv.

Vores U3A danske gruppe holder sit fjortendagsmøde på torsdag hos os. Under gruppemøderne plejer vi at skiftes til at læse en side, eller deromkring, af den danske krimiroman, Anna Grues ”Dybt at falde”, og oversætte den til engelsk.

I dag bliver jeg pludselig klar over, at vi er ved at komme til enden af de sider jeg hidtil har sendt dem, og jeg har brug for at sende endnu flere ud, samt en ordforrådliste til hver side. Formålet med ordforrådlisterne er at spare dem for at slå en masse svære ord op i ordbogen – jeg er så betænksom ha ha ha! Jeg går i gang med at få fat på de næste 3-4 sider og jeg udarbejder en ordforrådliste til hver side.

”Dybt at falde” – den danske krimiroman, der er

vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.

Anna Grue, romanens forfatterinde

En rengøringsassistent, Lilliana, som ingen ved noget om, er blevet myrdet (garrotteret), mens hun arbejdede sent på aften i køkkenet af et stort dansk reklamebureau.

Politiet henter Benjamin, Lilianas arbejdskammerat som deres første mistænkt – den unge mand er allerede har lyvet til politiet om sine bevægelser i løbet af den pågældende aften. Og med sine forskellige modevalg (makeup, piercinger, sikkerhedsnåle osv) ligner han prototypen på en seriemorder, tror politiet, selvom Flemming, romanens førende detektiv, ikke tror at han er gerningsmanden – han tror, at de unge, der er allemest malet og piercet og tatoveret og touperet efter hans mening er sædvanligt de blødeste indeni.

Vi læsere ved i hvert fald, at Flemming spilder sin tid i at prøve at opspore morderen – hans funktion er blot at videregive information til romanens skaldede helt, den amatørdetektiv Dan Sommerdahl, en reklamemand, der arbejder hos samme bureauet som Lilliana, morderens offer. Så hvorfor ikke give op nu, Detektiv Flemming ha ha ha!

En af de danske tv-kanaler er begyndt at arbejde på en Dan Sommerdahl-krimiserie, og optagelser er faktisk allerede i gang i Helsingør-området.

detektiven Flemming (til venstre), sammen med Marianne og Dan Sommerdahl

Ifølge artiklen starter den nye krimiserie på dansk tv i foråret 2020.

Tilbageblik til juni 2017: vi besøger Helsingør (Shakespeare’s Elsinore)

sammen med vores daughter Alison (til højre)

17:00 Jeg drikker en stærk gin og tonic og udbringer en skål for et bundt mænd fra delstaten Virginias  største engelske bosættelser, der ifølge en email, som Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror sendte mig, nøjagtig 400 år siden til dagen, mødtes i Jamestown den 30. juli 1619. Det var det første møde i en repræsentativ lovgivningsmagt i det, der ville blive USA, og banede vejen for en eksperiment i demokrati, der fortsætter til i dag.

'Hvad der skete i Jamestown 30. juli til 4. august var grundlaget for den demokratiske model i Amerika,' sagde Kathy Spangler, administrerende direktør for Commemoration i 2019, American Evolution. 'Det har haft betydning for, hvad vores demokrati blev.'

Hyl jer, jer mænd af Virginia – i holdt os ud af krig!

18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Fra mund til mund”. Dagens afsnit handler om indflydelsen af oldnorsk og de skandinavske sprog i almindelighed på det engelske sprog. Programmets vært er den charmerende børneforfatter Michael Rosen.

Et interessant program – men Lois’ og mit problem ved det er, at vi finder, vi allerede ved en masse af hvad bliver sagt. Pokkers!

Men der er nogle nye indsigter:  det lader til, at filologer nu tror, at ordet ”viking” oprindeligt var et angelsaksisk ord, der betød ”én, der tager af sted” eller ”én, der forlader hjem”, og at selve vikingerne lånte samme ordet , og at ordet til sidst kom til at betyde en sørøver.

Det er for det meste Englands sydlige og vestlige regioner, der fik den mindre indflydelse fra den skandinavske sprog og den meste fra den franske sprog. Lois og jeg vidste ikke, at ordet ”poppet”, som man ofte bruger i det sydlige England som et almindeligt kælenavn, når man taler med et lille barn, men folk i det nordlige England bruger et tilsvarende kælenavn, ”Duck”. Både kælenavne betyder ”dukke”, men ”poppet” har en fransk oprindelse, mens ”duck” har en dansk oprindelse. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

Danelaw-jurisdiktionen

Og i dette program får vi en skarp mindelse om, at London var fast indenfor danskernes indflydelsesfære: områder, der grænser op til floden Thames, blev navnet af vikingernes: områder såsom Ivybridge, Templebridge, Butcher’s Bridge, Privybridge, hvor ”-bridge” suffikset ikke betyder en bro, men stammer fra et gammelt danske ord for ”bolværk” eller ”kaj”.

Ivybridge Lane, ikke ret langt fra floden Thames: navnet er en mindelse om,

at vikingerne engang stormede rundt heromkring

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

22:00 Vi går is seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!

Monday 29 July 2019

Lois and I have only one thing on our to-do list this morning, and we manage to screw it up as usual – oh dear!

Our neighbour Bill, who sadly died about 4 weeks ago, is having his funeral ceremony today. The ceremony is scheduled for 11am, but for some reason Lois has got the idea into her head that it will be taking place at 12:30 pm – and she says later, she thinks she must have mixed the time up with the time of her friend Sheila's funeral which took place at 12:30pm a few weeks ago.

But I blame myself in part, too, because I didn't check up on the time, which was clearly marked with a cross on our wall calendar. I think I've recently become overly laid-back and blasé - in the past I was almost fanatical about checking out all the details of upcoming events: the time, the address, how best to get there and the like, to the point of being annoying to Lois and to everyone else.

part of our wall calendar – the one I failed to look at,

when it came to checking the time Bill's funeral was scheduled for - damn it!

11:30 In all innocence we take the bus into town and head to St.Gregory's, the town’s largest Catholic church, but we find it is deserted, except for 2-3 people who pop into the church, dip their hand in holy water, say a prayer, or make some sort of peculiar holy gestures while looking at the altar or standing in front of it, before finally sneaking out again.

I have never been to a Catholic church in the UK before, only as a tourist in Italy and Hungary. An interesting experience - I suppose Catholics pop in to get some help or encouragement from God if they are having a difficult day, but I'm not entirely sure - the jury is still out on that one.

St Gregory's, the town’s largest Catholic church

Catholics seem to like to pop into a church and dip their hand in holy water -

if they are in the middle of a difficult day perhaps?

If you are raised in a Protestant church, you become accustomed to the notion that you can pray to God from wherever you happen to be, but Catholics may be able to get a better connection in a physical church, in front of an altar and surrounded by statues and the like. I suppose it’s all a bit like different types of internet connection: dial-up, wifi, 3G, 4G, etc., but I'm not too sure about that either. Anyone know?

12:00 Meanwhile, Lois and I wander around a bit nervously inside this huge church, looking at the statues, etc., while we wait for the other guests to show up.

After 10-15 minutes, I get a little worried that no other guests have appeared, and I browse through the church's calendar, which I spot on a table – and I suddenly realise that the funeral ceremony has already taken place and now of course it’s all over.

12:30 We take the bus home and drop in a bit sheepishly next door, where Bill's 2 sons, Neil and Andrew, and Bill's daughter Debbie and her partner Clyde, who live in New Zealand, are already holding the get-together. Most of the guests are Bill's relatives, but Francis and Stephen are also there - Bill's neighbours on the other side, two doors away from us. The dining table is “groaning” with lots of delicious food as a buffet. We talk to a lot of people, and it's warm in Bill's backyard, where the get-together is being held.

Bill's New Zealander son-in-law Clyde tells us that the family plans to sell the house, rather than rent it out, which Lois and I, and also Stephen and Francis, are very happy to hear - it will be friendlier to have permanent new neighbours, rather than a succession of different ones.

He says they got a number of estimates from various real estate agents - and the lowest was still over £400,000 - yikes! But Bill's house has been fully modernised in the fashionable way: an all-in-one kitchen-dining-living-dining area, a master bedroom with its own bathroom, as well as  a family bathroom, and a relatively low-maintenance backyard - just lawns and shrubs: exactly the kind house a couple with kids would opt for.

I myself prefer our separate kitchen, separate dining room, and separate living room thank you very much. It's nice to be able to eat without having to see all the pots and pans waiting to be washed up, and it's nice that one person can watch TV while someone else can do something else in another room, without hearing the television blaring away all the time.

It is true, however, that Lois sometimes wishes we could hold large parties where people stand and chat in one big room, but I’m going to let that one slide - I myself am very happy that our house is not ideal for such events, I have to say ha ha ha.

15:00 Eventually we become tired of all the chit-chat, and we decide to come home and go to bed for a few hours in our daughter Sarah's old room.

The window is wide open, and we can still hear the chit-chat from Bill's relatives in his backyard as we relax in Sarah's old double bed.

Flashback to July 7 - Sarah's old window in happier times

with our backyard to the left, and Bill’s to the right.

We feel like real old crows today, because we got the time of the funeral ceremony wrong – my god, how embarrassing! Although Bill's sons and daughter don't seem to be offended, which is nice. Let's hope we're not late for our own funerals ha ha!

17:00 Alison, our daughter in Haslemere, calls us while we are still in bed - Lois and I hope to visit them in August after returning from a camping holiday in southern France.

We roll out of bed and go for a short walk on the local football field and post a letter in the nearby mailbox.

we go for a short walk on the local football field

19:00 We grab a quick snack dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. An interesting documentary (part 2 of 3) is on, giving the background to the late stand-up comedian Victoria Wood's famous sitcom "Dinnerladies", which used to be one of our favourite sitcoms.

Victoria Wood was a slightly unusual performer, to put it mildly. When her sitcom "Dinnerladies" was recorded in front of a live audience, she decided to be her own warm-up guy. She used to explain that she was a stand-up comedian by profession, so why should she have to pay some other stand-up to warm up the audience?

Standup comedian Victoria Wood was her own warm-up guy

when her "Dinnerladies" sitcom was being recorded in front of a live audience

The sitcom revolved around a bunch of women working in the kitchen of a large cafeteria in a workplace in the north of England. One of the long-running features of the series was that the women did not hesitate to discuss their sex lives quite openly with each other. Lois worked for years in a kitchen for a local nursing home, and she says that this trait about women working together is actually very realistic.

Lois says it is very characteristic of women working together 

to discuss their sex lives quite openly with each other

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

Danish translation

Lois og jeg har kun én opgave på vores gøremålsliste i formiddag, og vi når at fucke den op, som sædvanligt. Vores nabo Bill, der desværre for omkring 4 uger siden døde, har sit begravelsesceremoni  i dag. Ceremoniet finder sted kl 11, men Lois har af en eller anden grund fået den tanke i sit hoved, at det skal finde sted kl 12:30 – hun synes, hu havde blandet tiden sammen med tiden af sin veninde Sheilas begravelse, der fandt sted kl 12:30 for et par uger siden.

Men jeg bebrejder mig selv delvis også, fordi jeg ikke tjekkede op på tiden, som var tydeligt markeret med et kryds sat i vores vægkalenderen. Jeg synes, jeg for nylig er blevet alt for afslappet og blasé – før i tiden var jeg næsten fanatisk om at tjekke alle detaljerne om kommende begivenheder: tid, adresse og den slags, til det punkt af at irritere Lois og alle andre.

en del af vores vægkalender, som jeg undlod at tjekke,

når det kom til tiden, Bills begravelse blev bestemt til  – pokkers!

11:30 Vi tager bussen ind i byen og går hen til St.Gregory’s, byens største katolske kirke, men vi finder den er mennesketom, bortset fra 2-3 personer, der smutter ind i kirken, dypper hånden i helligt vand, siger en bøn, eller laver mærkelige hellige gestusser mens de kigger på alteren eller står foran den, og til sidst smutter ud igen.

Jeg har aldrig været i en katolsk kirke i Storbritannien før, kun som turist i Italien og Ungarn. En interessant oplevelse – jeg formoder, at katolikere smutter ind for at få lidt hjælp eller opmuntring fra Gud, hvis de er i gang med at opleve  en vanskelig dag, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på – juryen er stadig ude om det.

St Gregory’s, byens største katolske kirke

Katolikere synes at smutte ind i en kirke og dyppe hånden i helligt vand,

hvis de er midt i en vanskelig dag, mistænker jeg

Hvis man bliver opdraget i en protestant kirke, bliver man vænnet til det begreb om, at man kan bede til Gud fra hvor som helst man kommer til at være, men katolikere måske kan få en bedre forbindelse i en fysisk kirke, foran en alter og omgivet af statuer og den slags. Jeg formoder, at det hele ligner forskellige typer af internetforbindelser:  dialup, wifi, 3G, 4G osv, men det også er jeg ikke helt sikker på.

12:00 I mellemtiden vandrer Lois og jeg rundt lidt nervøst indenfor denne enorme kirke og kigger på statuerne osv, mens vi venter på, at de andre gæster dukker op.

Efter 10-15 minutter bliver jeg lidt bekymret over, at ingen andre gæster er dukket op, og jeg blader igennem kirkens kalender, som jeg får øje på på et bord – jeg bliver pludselig klar over, at begravelsesceremoni allerede fandt sted og nu er det hele slut selvfølgelig.

12:30 Vi tager bussen hjem og smutter ind hos nabohuset, hvor Bills 2 sønner, Neil og Andrew, og Bills datter Debbie og hendes partner Clyde, der bor i New Zealand, er allerede i gang med at holde gravøllet. De fleste gæster er Bills slægtninge, men Francis og Stephen er også der – Bills naboer på den modsatte side af hans hus, to døre væk fra vores. Spisebordet bugner med masser af lækker mad –  en stående buffet. Vi snakker med en masse mennesker, og det er varmt i Bills baghave, hvor gravøllet holdes.

Clyde fortæller os, at familien har planer om at sælge huset, snarere end at udleje det, hvilket Lois og jeg, også Stephen og Francis er meget glade for, at høre – det vil være venligere, at have permanente nye naboer, snarere, end en række forskellige.

Han siger, at de har fået en række vurderinger fra forskellige ejendomsmæglere – og den laveste var stadig over 400.000£ - yikes! Men Bills hus er blevet fuldt moderniseret på den moderigtige måde: et alt-i-ét køkkenområde-spiseområde-stueområde, et mesterværelse med eget badeværelse, udover et familiebadeværelse, og en forholdsvis lav-maintence baghave – bare græsplæn og buske:  præcis det slags hus et par med børn ville optere for.

Jeg selv foretrækker vores adskilte køkken, adskilte spisestue, og adskilte stue thank you very much! Det er rart at kunne  spise uden at måtte se alle de potter og pander, der venter på at blive opvasket, og det er rart, at ét menneske kan se på fjernsynet, mens nogen anden kan gøre noget andet i et andet værelse uden at høre fjernsynet hele tiden.

Det er sandt imidlertid, at Lois nogle gange ønsker vi kunne holde store fester, hvor folk står og snakker i ét stort rum, men det springer jeg over – jeg er meget glad for, at huset er ikke ideelt til sådanne eventer, det må jeg nok sige.

15:00 Vi er blevet trætte af sniksnakken, og vi beslutter at komme hjem og gå i seng i et par timer i vores datter Sarahs gamle værelse. Vinduet åbent på vid gab, og vi kan stadig høre sniksnakken fra Bills slægtninge i hans baghave, mens vi ligger inde i Sarahs gamle dobbeltseng.

Tilbageblik til den 7. juli – Sarahs gamle vindue i lykkeligere tider

med vores baghave til venstre, og Bills til højre.

Vi føler os som ægte gamle krager, på grund af, at vi fik tiden af begravelsesceremoniet forkert – du godeste, hvor pinligt! Selvom Bills sønner og datter synes ikke at være krænket, hvilket er rart.

17:00 Alison, vores datter i Haslemere, ringer til os, mens vi ligger inde i sengen – Lois og jeg håber at besøge dem i  august efter de kom tilbage fra en campingferie i det sydlige Frankrig.

Vi vælter ud af sengen og går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane og lægge et brev i den nærliggende postkasse.

vi går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane

19:00 Vi snupper en hurtig snack-aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm (2. del af 3), der handler om den standup komiker Victoria Woods berømte sitcom ”Dinnerladies”, én af vores yndlings-sitcoms.

Victoria Wood var en lidt usædvanlig performer, for at sige mildt. Når hendes sitcom ”Dinnerladies” blev optaget foran et live publikum, besluttede hun at være sin egen opvarmer. Hun plejede at sige, at hun var standup komiker af profession, så hvorfor skulle hun betale nogen anden til at opvarme publikummet.

Standup komikeren Victoria Wood var sin egen opvarmer,

når hendes ”Dinnerladies”-sitcom blev optaget foran et live publikum

Sitcommen kredsede om et bundt kvinder, der arbejdede i køkkenet af et stort cafeteria i en arbejdsplads i det nordlige England. En af seriens mest iøjnefaldende egenskaber var, at kvinderne tøvede ikke med at diskutere åbenlyst deres sexliv med hinanden.  Lois arbejdede i årevis i et køkken til et lokalt plejehjem, og hun siger, at denne egenskab om kvinder, der arbejder sammen, faktisk er meget realistisk.

Lois siger, at det er meget karakteristisk for kvinder,

der arbejder sammen, ikke at tøve med at diskutere åbenlyst deres sexliv med hinanden

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!