10:00 Lois has to leave - she
wants to participate in her sect's two worship services taking place today in Tewkesbury
library.
The moment she gets in the car in
front of the house, Sarah calls us on whatsapp - Sarah is our daughter in Perth,
Australia. I chat a little with her for the second day in a row and with her
soon-to-be 6-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie.
Francis, Sarah's husband is out
of the house looking at rental houses in the Yanchep area. The lease at their
current house in Ocean Reef is about to end. They are now looking for a cheaper
rental house so they can have a little money over to start paying a mortgage on
a piece of land: their long-term goal is to build a new house, designed by
Francis himself. An exciting plan - and Lois and I will hopefully be able to
see the progress of the plan ourselves when we visit the family next year.
flashback to March 2018: Lois standing
in front of the family’s house in Ocean Reef
Lily and Jessie, our twin grandchildren
The twins are very excited
because they are fully aware that they have their birthday in 3 weeks or so’s
time, and they have sent Lois and me a wish list of birthday presents – how cute
they are !!!
They're keen to show me various
things - Jessie shows me the drawing that won a prize in their primary school
drawing competition: a lake full of sea monsters, under twin suns - yikes, what
an imagination!
Lily wants to show me the "3rd prize
ribbon" she won by finishing third in the school's big race, despite having
to run 50% more distance than her competitors. I try to take a picture of it
with my camera while holding the smartphone in the other hand, but it is too
difficult - the pictures are rubbish. Damn!
I try to take a picture of Lily's
"3rd prize ribbon" but without success - damn!
flashback to June: Lily
finishes third in the Primary School’s big race in spite of
having to run a 50% longer distance
than the other children
Sarah promises to send me proper
pictures of both Jessie's drawing and Lily with her "prize ribbon ",
which is nice.
Jessie's interpretation of a lake
filled with sea monsters reminds me that I have to look a little more deeply into
the local Sainsbury’s supermarket frozen food section next time Lois and I go
shopping - for a couple of years now we have been on a hunt for the frozen
version of Long John Silver's latest line, “abomination from the deep”, that
hit the headlines 4 years ago (source: Onion News).
Flashback to 2015: Long John Silver unveil
their latest look in the fish dish department :
the famous "abomination from the
deep". But why has it taken so long for the
frozen version to show up in the shops
in England - wake up, Sainsbury’s !!!!
11:30 The whataspp call with
Sarah ends, and I start to leaf through the next 3 chapters of Njal's saga,
written in the 13th century in Iceland, although the saga itself and the events
are much older. Scilla's U3A Old Norse group is holding its regular meeting on
Wednesday in the bar of the town’s Everyman Theatre, and this saga is the
group's current project.
The deadly feud between the two
women, Hallgerd and Bergthora, is taking a break for a while (death toll in the
feud currently stands at about 10 of Hallgerd's staffers, and same for Bergthora's
staffers or thereabouts).
Hallgerda...
... and Bergthora - the score in the two women's
long-standing feud is 10-10 (number of employees killed)
In a fun, delightfully lighter
and slightly less lethal episode, Hallgerd sends her Irish slave, Malcolm, on
yet another mission, this time not to kill anyone, but to steal cheese from one
of Bergthora's farmhouses, also to burn the farmhouse down.
Later, however, the crime is revealed,
when some of Bergthora's friends investigate a suspicious piece of cheese and
find out that marks on the cheese match the marks on Hallgerd's cheese mould -
yikes, I foresee trouble brewing here, no doubt about that !!!!
Saga extract: the moment Hallgerd's cheese-theft
was discovered - yikes!
13:00 I have lunch, and then go to bed to take a
gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois comes back from Tewkesbury. I get up at
4 pm and we relax with a cup of tea on the sofa.
18:00 We have dinner and spend
the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. The 7th (and last) episode of "Gentleman
Jack" is on, a drama revolving round a real life Victorian lesbian, Anne
Lister (played by Suranne Jones).
Anne wrote copious diary entries,
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 County.
A happy ending for once. Anne
comes back from Denmark, and her "squeeze", Miss Walker, comes back
from Scotland, along with her parents.
The two women are finally reunited
when they meet up on the top of a hill in Yorkshire, and we see them now fully reconciled
and kissing again, and a little later "marrying" each other in a
secret ceremony at the back of some church, while the rest of the congregation
is busy taking part in the regular communion service, which is nice.
Anne and her "squeeze",
Miss Walker, finally
reunited on top of a hill in Yorkshire
- hurrah!
When Miss Walker's parents bring
their daughter back from Scotland, there is a fun sequence in the stagecoach - a game of "I Spy", what the
Germans call, "I see what you don't see", initiated by Miss Walker's annoying mother .
Danish translation: søndag den 7. juli 2019
10:00 Lois skal af sted – hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts to
gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek.
Det samme øjeblik hun stiger ind i bilen foran huset ringer Sarah til os
på whatsapp – Sarah er vores datter i Perth, Australien. Jeg snakker lidt med
hende for 2. dag i træk og med hendes snart 6-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie.
Francis, Sarahs mand er ude af huset i gang med at kigge på lejehuse i
Yanchep-området. Lejemålet på deres nuværende hus i Ocean Reef er ved at være
slut. De søger nu et billigere lejehus, så de kan have lidt overskud til at
begynde at betale et realkreditlån til et stykke land: deres langsigtete mål er
at få bygget et nyt hus, designet af selve Francis. En spændende plan – og Lois
og jeg vil kunne selv se fremskridtet med planen, når vi besøger familien næste
år.
tilbageblik
til marts 2018: Lois står foran familiens hus i Ocean Reef
Lily og
Jessie, vores tvillingebørnebørn
Tvillingerne er meget begejstrede fordi de er helt klar over, at de har
fødelsdag om 3 ugers tid, eller deromkring, og de har sendt Lois og mig en
ønskeliste, hvad angår fødselsdagsgaver – hvor er de dog søde !!!
De er friske på at vise mig forskellige ting – Jessie viser mig den tegning,
der vandt en pris i deres folkskoles tegnekonkurrence: en sø, fyldt med søuhyrer, under tvillingesole
– yikes, sikke en forestillingsevne!
Lily har lyst til at vise mig det ”sejrsbånd”, hun vandt ved at slutte
tredje i skolens store løberace, på trods af at løbe 50% større afstand, end
hendes konkurrenter. Jeg prøver at tage et billede af det med min kamera, mens
jeg holder smartphonen i den anden hånd, men det er for svært – billederne er
elendige. Pokkers!
Jeg prøver
at tage et billede af Lilys ”sejrsbånd” men uden succés – pokkers!
tilbageblik
til juni: Lily slutter tredje i folkeskolens store løberace på trods af,
at hun måtte
løbe en 50% længere afstand
Sarah lover at sende mig ordentlige billeder både af Jessies tegning og
Lily med sit ”sejrsbånd” på, hvilket er rart.
Jessies fortolkning af en sø propfyldt af søuhyre minder mig om, at jeg
skal søge lidt videre i det lokale Sainsburys supermarkeds frosne fødevarer
sektion næste gang Lois og jeg går på madindkøb – vi har været i et par år på
jagt efter Long John Silvers ”vederstyggelighed fra dybet”, der ramte
overskrifterne for 4 år siden (kilde: Onion News).
Tilbageblik
til 2015: Long John Silver afdækker deres seneste linje i frosne fisk:
den berømte ”vederstyggelighed
fra dybet”. Men hvorfor har det taget så lang tid
til at dukke
op i butikkerne i England – vågn op, Sainsburys!!!!
11:30 Whataspp-opkaldet med Sarah slutter, og jeg går i gang med at
blade igennem de næste 3 kapitler af Njals saga, skrevet i det 13. århundrede i Island, selvom
selve sagaen og begivenhederne er meget ældre. Scillas U3A
oldnordiske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde på onsdag på baren af byens Everyman-teater,
og denne saga er gruppens nuværende projekt.
Den dødelige fejde mellem de to kvinder, Hallgerd og Bergthora, tager en
pause for en gangs skyld (dødstal stå på omkring 10 blandt Hallgerds ansatte,
Bergthoras ansatte også).
Hallgerd
Bergthora –
scoren i deres langvarige fejde står på 10-10
(antal
ansatte dræbt)
I en morsom, munter og lidt mindre dødelige episode, Hallgerd sender sin
irske slave, Malcolm, ikke for at dræbe nogen, men for at stjæle ost fra en af
Bergthoras stuehuse, også at brænde stuehuset
ned.
Senere imidlertid bliver forbrydelsen afsløret, da nogle af Bergthoras
venner undersøger et mistænksomt stykke ost og finder ud af, at mærker på osten
matcher mærker på Hallgerds støbeform – yikes, jeg forudser optræk til ballade,
ingen tvivl om det!!!!
det øjeblikket, Hallgerds forbrydelse blev afsløret – yikes!
13:00 Jeg spiser frokost og går i seng for at tage en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden kommer Lois tilbage fra Tewkesbury. Jeg står op
kl 16 og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt
fjernsyn. De viser det 7. (og sidste)
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.
En lykkelig slutning for en gangs skyld. Anne kommer tilbage fra
Danmark, og hendes “squeeze”, frøken Walker, kommer tilbage fra Skotland,
sammen med sine forældre. Anne og frøken Walker mødes endelig på toppen af en
bakke i Yorkshire, og vi ser dem endelig kysse, og lidt senere ”gifte sig” med
hinanden i et hemmeligt ceremoni i en eller anden kirke, mens resten af
menigheden er i færd med at deltage i den almindelige Nadver, hvilket er rart.
Anne og
hendes ”squeeze”, frøken Walker, endelig
genforenede
på toppen af en bakke i Yorkshire – hurra!
Da frøken Walkers forældre medbringer deres datter tilbage fra Skotland,
er der en morsom sekvens i vognen – et spil ”I Spy”, dét, tyskerne kalder, ”Jeg
ser dét, du ikke ser” (eller deromkring) initiateret af frøken Walkers irriterende mor.
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!!
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