Friday 5 July 2019

08:30 Lois and I tumble out of bed in half-asleep mode, because Ian, our friendly local window cleaner is coming this morning at 9 am and we don't want him to catch us in bed or in the bath - yikes, no peace for the wicked ha ha ha!

10:00 I start reading the The Miller’s Tale prologue and the first 100 lines of the story, part of Chaucer's famous Canterbury tales. Lynda's U3A Middle English group is holding  its regular monthly meeting this afternoon in the bar of the town’s Everyman Theatre, and Canterbury Tales  are the group's current project.

I suspect that the Miller's Tale is going to be one of the bawdier stories - all the elements are already there - a rich elderly man, John, a carpenter, who married a sexy, young, 18-year-old teenage girl, Alison. The author immediately comments that this kind of situation is not the best from the man's point of view, if he does not want his circle of friends to be laughing at him behind his back as soon as his wife’s eyes begin to wander.

The mismatched couple own a hostel in Oxford, where a young student, Nicholas, is lodging, and right from the start of the tale, we find that the young man's hands are already on Alison's thighs and crotch – my god, what madness !!! For the moment, the girl is refusing to kiss him back, and telling him to take his hands off her. So the jury is still out on that one. We will have to see.

Chaucer's take on the subject (old man, young wife) would no doubt find many people around alive today who would agree with him.

An elderly man who lives in our neighbourhood, Oscar Subitzky, recently hit the local headlines when he began dating a young cardiologist half his age (source: Onion News Local). I remember the Onion website carried an interview with the primary source for the story, Subitzky's own daughter, Rachel Welch.

Subitzky's end-of-life-crisis apparently began when he suddenly left a safe job as an accountant, at the age of just 65. His daughter, Rachel Welch admitted that she did not understand what had come over Subitzky when he announced six months after his retirement that he had started dating a cardiologist almost half his age.

"You hear these stories of men in their late 60’s who suddenly come home with an expensive new pacemaker or decide to get work done on their kidneys out of the blue, but Dad just never seemed like the type," Welch said. "If he honestly believes that spending thousands of pounds on blood transfusions will change the way he feels inside, I'm afraid he's going to be very disappointed."

Lately, Welch has said what with "all the fancy new breathing tubes he now wears", and “the presence of a new young live-in nurse only a few years older than some of his grandchildren”, she sometimes does not recognise her father any more.

"What is he going to want to do next?,” she speculated to journalists. “Piss off into some £10,000 a day, all-inclusive hospice?"

I sympathise a lot with Subitzky's daughter, and I recall that the Subitzky story caused a bit of a sensation in the local area, although eventually the man’s neighbours were reconciled to his wild, extravagant spending sprees - after all, it was good for the local economy, at a time when many local shops and pubs were threatening to close.

Flashback to earlier this year: the date of the post office closure

is revealed, and the whole village goes into mourning – sob sob !!!

Money talks, after all! And it is also perhaps a bit too early to write off Subitzky's chances with his new nurse. The relationship between "Young Mr Grace" and his young nurse in the sitcom "Are You Being Served" was a long and happy one, and it lasted at least as long as the sitcom itself, I have to say.

flashback to the 1970s: "Young Mr Grace" and his young nurse

- their relationship one that certainly lasted, confounding all the many doubters

12:00 We have lunch on the terrace and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 1:15 pm and take the bus into town. Meanwhile, Lois goes around the corner to the local library to help library staff manage the regular weekly "Baby Bounce & Rhyme" session for very young children and their mothers.

14:00 I arrive at the theatre bar, ridiculously early, as usual, and I sit and grab a quick drink while waiting for the other group members to arrive.

 I arrive at the bar ridiculously early, as usual

14:30 The other group members show up and the meeting starts. We take turns reading about 20 lines of text in a (hopefully) authentic Middle English accent, and then translate them into modern English. We have a lot of fun and laugh a lot - I shudder to imagine what the bar's other customers are thinking - yikes!

I think I impress the other team members with my knowledge of the origin of many of the words in the text. Chaucer says that old John's pretty young (18-year-old) wife, Alison, has “a mouth as sweet as wine, or like apples”, and that she sings as gaily as any swallow sitting on a barn ("as any swalwe sittynge on a berne ”).

Other members did not know that the English word "barn" ("berne" in Middle English) originally meant a place to store barley ("bar" in Middle English). Barley was the most popular crop, the so-called “top crop”,  in Anglo-Saxon and medieval times – the No. 2 crop was wheat, No. 3 was rye, and No. 4 was oats.

An alternative word for a barn was a "barton", which also originally meant a building where you could store barley: many villages came to be called "Barton", and it also became a popular family name for people who came from such villages.

Our modern word "barley" was originally an adjective - "bar-like" ie barley-like.

Isn’t the history of words totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else?

I think the other team members are very impressed when they hear my explanation of the word’s development - there is a kind of stunned silence, and they become lost in thought  for once, which is nice!

16:00 The meeting ends and I take the bus home again - I feel exhausted. I relax with Lois on the couch, and we have a cup of tea, also a piece of cake.

18:30 We have dinner out on the terrace, which is nice. And we spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "The Last Word".

Lois and I have got into the habit of hearing this programme every week because we want to find out if anyone in the past 1-4 weeks has died or not (I have noticed that most weeks there are only 4- 5 deaths, which is something of a comfort, to put it mildly). The host of the programme is the charming Matthew Bannister.

Min Hogg recently died, at 80 years of age, the lively first editor of the magazine "World of Interiors".

Min Hogg, in my kind of book-lined sitting-room

Min celebrated eccentric tastes and eccentric people. We hear her talk about a couple who decided they just loved "museum-quality Georgian furniture", and who never went out of the house. They ate tuna sandwiches at home on the floor until they had got enough money together to pay a deposit on some piece of furniture they had seen and admired in some store. The couple spent a total of 20 years not going out, except every now and then to buy another piece of furniture.

What a great life style! I wouldn’t want to buy Georgian furniture, but what a paradise, never to have to go out of your house for 20 years!!!

How fantastic my life would be if we could just stay in the house all day, and just sit and eat tuna or other kinds of sandwiches on the floor three times a day - unfortunately almost every day there is some task or other that we are forced to leave the house for - dammit!

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

Danish translation:  fredag den 5 juli 2019

08:30 Lois og jeg vælter ud af sengen i halvsovende tilstand, fordi Ian, vores venlige lokale vinduespudser kommer i formiddag kl 9, og vi vil ikke have ham til at fange os i sengen eller i bad – yikes, ingen fred for de ugudelige ha ha!

10:00 Jeg går i gang med at læse prologen til Møllerens prolog og de første 100 linjer af fortællingen, en del af Chaucers berømte Canterbury-fortællinger. Lyndas U3A middelengelske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige månedlige møde i eftermiddag på baren af byens Everyman-teater, og Canterbury-fortællinger er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Jeg mistænker, at Møllerens fortælling kommer til at være én af de mere sjofle fortællinger – alle de elementer er dér allerede – en rig ældre mand, John, en tømrer, der giftede sig med en sexet, ung, 18-årig teenagepige, Alison. Forfatteren kommenterer med det samme, at denne slags arrangement er ikke den bedste fra mandens synspunkt, hvis han ikke vil have sin omgangskreds til at grine af ham bag hans ryg, så snart hendes øjne begynde at vandre.

Parret ejer et vandrehjem i Oxford, hvor en ung studerende, Nicholas, opholder sig, og allerede lige fra starten er den unge mands hænder på Alisons lår og skridt – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! I øjeblikket nægter pigen at kysse ham tilbage, og hun er i gang med at fortælle ham, han må tage hænderne væk fra hende. Så det er juryen stadig ude om. Vi får se.

Chaucers take på emnet (gammel mand, ung kone) ville uden tvivl finde mange i dag, der ville være enig med ham. En lokal ældre mand, Oscar Subitzky, ramte de lokale overskrifter for nylig, da han begyndte at date en ung kardiolog halv sin alder (kilde: Onion News Local), ifølge nyhedswebstedets kilde, Subitzkys datter, Rachel Welch.

Subitzky's livsende-krise begyndte, da han pludselig efterlod et sikkert job som revisor i en alder af 65 år. Hans datter, Rachel Welsch indrømmede, at hun ikke forstod det, der var kommet over Subitzky, indtil han meddelte seks måneder efter hans pension, at han var begyndt at date en kardiolog næsten halv sin alder.

"Du hører disse historier om mænd i deres sene 60'ere, der pludselig kommer hjem med en dyr ny pacemaker eller beslutter at få arbejde udført på deres nyrer ud af det blå, men far syntes bare aldrig som typen," sagde Welsch. "Hvis han ærligt mener at dét, at bruge tusindvis af dollars på blodtransfusioner, vil ændre den måde, han føler sig indenfor, er jeg bange for, at han kommer til at blive meget skuffet."

På det sidste har Welsch sagt mellem "alle de flotte nye åndedrætsrør, han nu bærer", og tilstedeværelse af en ny ung sammenlevende sygeplejerske kun et par år ældre end nogle af hans børnebørn, genkender hun nogle gange ikke sin far.

"Hvad vil han gøre nu, måske pisse af ind i et eller andet 10.000£ om dagen, altomfattende hospice?" spekulerede hun.

Jeg sympatiserer meget med Subitzkys datter, og jeg mindes om, at nyheden om Subitzky forårsagde lidt af en sensation i det lokale område, men til sidst blev Subitzkys naboer forsonet til hans mærkelige opførsel – når alt kom til alt, var det godt for den lokale økonomi, på et tidspunkt, da mange lokale butikker og pubber var ved at true med at lukke.

Tilbageblik til tidligere på året: datoen af postkontorets lukning

bliver afsløret, og hele landsbyen anlægger sorg – hulk hulk!!!

Penge er penge, trods alt! Og det er for tidligt at afskrive Subitzkys chancer med sin nye unge sygeplejerske. Relationen mellem ”Unge hr Grace” og hans unge sygeplejerske i sitcommen ”Are You Being Served” var et langvarige og lykkelige, og den varede mindst så længe som selve sitcommen, det må jeg nok sige.

tilbageblik til 1970’erne: ”Unge hr Grace” og hans unge sygeplejerske

12:00 Vi spiser frokost på terrassen og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 13:15 og tager bussen ind i byen. I mellemtiden går Lois rundt om hjørnet til det lokale bibliotek for at hjælpe bibliotekets personale med at styre den regelmæssige ugentlige ”Baby Bounce & Rhyme”-sessionen til meget unge børn og deres mødre.

14:00 Jeg ankommer på teatrets bar, tåbelig tidligt, som sædvanligt, og jeg sidder og snupper en hurtig drik, mens jeg venter på, at de andre gruppemedlemmer ankommer.

jeg ankommer på baren tåbelig tidligt, som sædvanligt

14:30 De andre gruppemedlemmer dukker op, og mødet starter. Vi skiftes til at læse højt omkring 20 linjer af teksten i en (forhåbentlig) autentisk middelengelsk accent, og oversætte dem til moderne engelsk. Vi får det meget sjovt og griner meget – jeg gyser at tænke om, hvad barens andre gæster tænker – yikes!

Jeg tror, jeg imponerer de andre gruppemedlemmer med min viden om oprindelsen af mange af ordene i teksten. Chaucer siger, at gamle Johns kønne unge (18-årige) kone, Alison, har en mund så sød som vin eller som æbler, og at hun synger så livligt som en svale som helst, der sidder på taget til en lade (”as any swalwe sittynge on a berne”).

Andre medlemmer vidste ikke, at det engelske ord ”barn” (”berne” på middelengelsk) betød oprindeligt, et sted, hvor man gemmer byg (”bar” på middengelsk). Byg var den mest populære afgrøde i angelsaksiske og middelalderlige tider – nr. 2 var hvide, nr 3 var rug, og nr 4 var havre.

Et alternativt ord for ”barn” var ”barton”, der også oprindeligt betød en bygning, hvor man kunne gemme byg: og mange landsbyer kom til at hedde ”Barton”, og det blev også et populært efternavn.

Vores moderne ord ”barley” var oprindeligt et adjektiv – ”bar-like”.

Er historien af ord ikke fascinerende? Hvem ville ønske at studere noget andet?

Jeg tror, at de andre gruppemedlemmer er meget imponeret, da de hører min forklaring af ordets udvikling – der er en slags bedøvet tavshed, og de falder i staver for en gangs skyld, hvilket er rart!

16:00 Mødet slutter og jeg tager bussen hjem igen – jeg føler mig udmatter. Jeg slapper af med Lois i sofaen med en kop te og et stykke kage.

18:30 Vi spiser aftensmaden ude på terrassen, hvilket er rart. Og vi bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Det sidste ord”.

Lois og jeg er kommet i vane med at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om nogen i de seneste 1-4 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste uger kun sker 4-5 dødsfald, hvilket er lidt trøstende, for at sige mildt). Programmets vært er den charmerende Matthew Bannister.

Min Hogg døde for nylig desværre, på 80 år, den livlige første redaktør til magasinet ”World of Interiors”.

Min fejrede ekcentriske smag og ekscentriske mennesker. Vi hører hende tale om et ægtepar, der besluttede, de bare elskede ”museum-kvalitet georgianske møbler”:  og de kom aldrig aldrig ud af huset. De spiste tun sandwiches hjemme på gulvet, indtil de havde sparet nok penge sammen til at betale et depositum til en eller anden møbel, de havde set og beundret i en eller anden butik. Parret brugte alt i alt 20 år på ikke at komme ud af huset, bortset fra at komme ud for at købe endnu en møbel.

Sikke en flot livstil! Jeg ville ikke interessere mig for at købe georgianske møbler, men sikke en paradis, aldrig at komme ud af ens hus i 20 år!!!

Hvor ville mit liv være dog fantastisk, hvis vi kunne forblive i huset og spise tun eller andre slags sandwiches på gulvet tre gange om dagen – desværre er der næsten hver dag én eller anden opgave, som vi bliver tvunget til at komme ud af huset for at gøre – pokkers!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!