06:00 I get up early and take a
little look at my smartphone. I see that our 12-year-old granddaughter, Josie,
has been awarded a high school prize for her performance in Spanish, which is
nice. I hope she in fact has inherited my interest in foreign languages, which
would be very gratifying to me, that’s for sure.
Josie, our 12-year-old granddaughter in
Haslemere, Surrey
09:00 Lois starts the day by walking
around the corner to Billy Shears, the local ladies’ hairdresser, to get her
hair cut. She comes home and we relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa.
Afterwards we drive over to the big Sainsbury’s supermarket to do the
shopping.
We also spend around £100 on children’s summer clothes that we can
ship to Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. Children's summer clothing is
on special offer right now in the UK, so this will save Sarah a lot of money -
the Australian summer starts in 3-4 months’ time. I know - it's madness isn't it! What a crazy planet !!!!
On the way to the supermarket we
throw two big black bags full of Sarah's old high school notes into the huge paper
recycling container at the supermarket's parking lot. My goodness! What an
achievement as regards the massive piles of unwanted paper I recently came
across in our attic. These two black bags mark the official end of the 3rd (and
in some ways the hardest) phase of our current downsizing mini-project. Hurrah!
flashback to May 31 – the first time I
use the giant paper recycling bank
at the big Sainsbury’s – happy times!!!
The next phase is likely to be
the bedding phase. We have stored a lot of unwanted bedding in the attic, for
reasons that are not completely clear, to put it mildly: sheets, woollen
blankets, duvets, pillows and the like, not to mention Sarah's old sleeping
bags and inflatable camping air mattresses. What madness !!!
In some ways, it would be nice to
keep Sarah's old air mattress, but I don't know what kind of condition it is in.
A local man, Adam Weaver, is
known for his weakness for defective air mattresses, but such mattresses are a
young man’s game, Lois and I suspect, and not for old crows like us – that’s for
sure !!! Witness a recent incident that hit the local headlines (source: Onion
News).
Local house-guest Adam Weaver told journalists on Thursday that he
couldn't wait to spend the whole night fighting to maintain a comfortable
position, and telling his friend and host, Luke Irving, that he was more than
happy to have been given an air mattress that would slowly deflate throughout
the night.
"Thank you very much for letting me sleep on this partially
inflated air mattress that will gradually lose its shape over the next eight
hours," said Weaver, noting that he was eager to try in vain to get some
rest, gradually sinking deeper and deeper into the collapsing mattress.
"I just know I'm going to get up in the morning with nothing but a
heap of crumpled vinyl between me and the hardwood floor, and feel refreshed,
physically rejuvenated and fully attentive. This will be a pure delight."
Weaver also expressed his pleasure at receiving a cushion from the couch
with his bedding, one that would force his neck into a strained position and
leave him in physical pain for much of the following day.
My goodness, what a crazy world
we live in !! But Lois and I believe we are fortunate in this country that we
have young men who can not only tolerate but actually rejoice in difficulty and pain - and are more than ready,
for example, to serve in our army in very difficult conditions worldwide.
12:30 We come home and have lunch.
Afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap.
Meanwhile, Lois pops in to see
our temporary "neighbours", Neil and his sister Debbie from New Zealand, who are staying in
the house for a brief period while arranging their father's funeral. Sadly, Bill died
3 weeks ago of cancer, and his wife, Mary, has been moved to a nearby nursing
home – she suffers from dementia.
Neil and Debbie tell Lois that
they have just managed to fix the funeral date (Monday, July 29). The delay in
arranging it was because the priest was away on vacation – good grief, what
madness !!! Bill was a Catholic, and he and Mary were members of the town’s
largest Catholic Church, St Gregory's, in the middle of town.
15:30 I get up and start clearing
up and vacuuming all over the house - our U3A Danish group is holding its
regular fortnightly meeting here tomorrow: but I’m leaving the tidying of the
living room itself till tomorrow - the living room is where we meet and it makes sense
to do it only at the last minute.
16:00 Lois comes back and we
relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on the couch.
18:00 We have dinner and
afterwards Lois has to go out. She wants to attend her sect’s weekly Bible Class, taking place tonight in Tewkesbury library.
I have a little alone time and
spend the evening watching a bit of television. An interesting documentary
(part 1 of 2) is airing, all about archaeologists' attempts, using an ROV (underwater
remotely operated vehicle) to find historical shipwrecks in the Black Sea, also
to find out exactly when and how the Black Sea, originally a landlocked lake, became
a sea.
A fascinating programme, even
though I suspect there is actually only one hour of material, which is being
padded out to occupy 2 hours of screen time, but I’m going to let that one
slide because the subject is so fascinating to me.
It is believed that the Black Sea
became a real sea some 3,000 years ago, around the time the ancient Greeks arrived in the
area, but no one is quite sure why and how the process played out - some
believe there was a huge deluge, which also became the origin of the biblical
tale of the Flood, Noah, and his ark, and all that stuff.
The Black Sea was a very busy waterway in classical and prehistoric times, no doubt about that, because of all the various
civilisations that existed along the shoreline of the sea, who all wanted to
trade various goods with each other. But
for 40 years or so, much of the sea’s coastline was out-of-bounds for Western
archaeologists because of the Iron Curtain.
Old shipwrecks are usually
partially or wholly destroyed over the centuries, mostly eaten away by little ship-worms, but in the
Black Sea there is little or no oxygen below a depth of 500 feet or so, so there are no ship-worms: and
the archaeologists in this programme are expecting that there will be many
well-preserved shipwrecks there waiting to be discovered.
Prof Jon Adams of Southampton
University, Mission Chief
Dr Helen Farr ,also of Southampton University,
one of the
underwater archaeologists involved with the current mission in
the Black Sea
one of the well-preserved shipwrecks
the mission comes across:
some look as if they sank just yesterday - good grief!
In this first episode,
archaeologists "merely" find ships from the Ottoman Empire, in other
words, "only" up to 300-400 years old. But at the end of the episode,
archaeologists come across the kind of amphorae that date from classical times,
so I suspect that the second episode will have all the real action. We will
see!!!
21:30 Lois comes back from
Tewkesbury and we hop into bed around 10 pm - zzzzzzz !!!!
Danish translation
06:00 Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på min smartphone. Jeg ser, at
vores 12-årige barnebarn, Josie, er bleve tildelt en højskolepris for sin
præstation i spansk, hvilket er rart. Jeg håber på, at hun faktisk har arvet
min interesse for fremmede sprog.
Josie, vores
12-årige barnebarn i Haslemere, Surrey
09:00 Lois starter dagen med at gå rundt om hjørnet til Billy Shears,
den lokale damefrisør for at få håret
klippet. Hun kommer hjem og vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Bagefter
kører vi over til det store Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. Vi bruger
også omkring 100£ på sommerbørnetøj, som vi kan afsende til Sarah, vores datter
i Perth, Australien. Sommerbørnetøj er på special tilbud lige nu i
Storbritannien , så dette vil spare Sarah en masse penge – den australske
sommer starter om 3-4 måneders tid.
På vej ind i supermarkedet smider vi to store sorte sække propfuldt af
Sarahs gamle gymnasiumsnotater i i den kæmpe genbrugcontaineren på
supermarkedets parkeringsplads. Du godeste! Sikke en bedrift, hvad angår de
uønskede bunker papir, jeg for nylig faldt over i loftet. Disse to sorte sække
markerer den officielle ende på den 3. (og
på nogle måder den sværeste) fase af vores nuværende downsize mini-projekt.
Hurra!
tilbageblik
til den 31. maj – første gang, jeg bruger den kæmpe genbrugcontainer
på det store Sainsburys parkeringsplads –
lykkelige tider!!!!
Den næste fase vil sandsynligvis være sengetøj-fasen. Vi har gemt en
masse uønsket sengetøj oppe i lofte, af grunder, der er helt uklare, for at
sige mildt: lagner, uldne tæpper, dyner,
hovedpuder og den slags, for ikke at nævne Sarahs gamle soveposer og pustelige
camping-luftmadras. Sikke et vanvid!!!
På nogle måder ville det være rart at opbevare Sarahs gamle luftmadras,
men jeg ved ikke, hvad slags tilstand den er i.
En lokal mand, Adam Weaver, er kendt for sin svaghed for defekte
luftmadrasser, men sådanne madrasser er en ung persons spil, mistænker Lois og
jeg, og ikke for gamle krager – det ved vi med sikkerhed!!! Vidne en nylig
anledning, der ramte de lokale overskrifter (kilde: Onion News).
Lokale husgæst Adam Weaver sagde til
journalister i torsdag, at han ikke kunne vente med at tilbringe hele natten
med at kæmpe for at opretholde en komfortabel stilling, og fortalte sin ven og
vært, Luke Irving, at han var helt glad for at have fået en luftmadras, der
langsomt ville deflere gennem natten .
"Tak, jeg er meget begejstret for at sove
på denne delvist opblåste luftmadras, der gradvis vil miste sin form i løbet af
de næste otte timer", sagde Weaver og bemærkede, at han var ivrig efter at
forsøge uden succés at hvile sig som han synker gradvist dybere ind i den
kollapsende madras.
"Jeg ved bare, at jeg kommer til at stå op
om morgenen med intet andet end en bunke af krøllet vinyl mellem mig og
hårdttræsgulvet, føler mig forfrisket, fysisk forynget og helt opmærksom. Dette
vil være en ren nydelse. "
Weaver udtrykkede også sin glæde ved at modtage
en kastepude fra sofaen sammen med hans strøelse, der ville tvinge halsen til
en anstrengt stilling og efterlade ham med fysisk smerte hele dagen efter.
Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !! Men Lois og jeg tror, at vi er heldige i
dette land, at vi har unge mænd, der kan fryde sig over vanskelighed og smerter
– og er klar, for eksempel, at tjene i vores hær i meget vanskelige vilkår
verden over – ingen tvivl om det!!!
12:30 Vi kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at
tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.
I mellemtiden smutter Lois ind hos naboerne. Neil og hans søster fra New
Zealand, Debbie, bor imidlertidigt i huset, mens de arrangerer deres far Bils
begravelse. Bill døde desværre for 3 uger siden af kræft, og hans kone, Mary,
er blevet ansat i et nærliggende plejehjem – hun lider af demens.
Neil og Debbie fortæller Lois, at de kun lige har formået at bestemme
begravelsesdatoen (mandag den 29. juli). Forsinkelsen opstod på grund af, at
præsten var væk på ferie – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Bill var katoliker og
hun og Mary var medlemmer til byens største katolske kirke, St Gregory’s, midt
i byen.
15:30 Jeg står op og går i gang med at rydde op og støvsyge overalt i
huset – vores U3A danske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige fjortendagsmøde i
morgen hos os: jeg overlader rengøringen af stuen til i morgen – stuen er hvor
vi samles, og det giver mening at gøre den rent kun på sidste øjeblik.
16:00 Lois kommer tilbage og vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i
sofaen.
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal Lois ud. Hun vil deltage i
sin sekts ugentlige bibelklasse, der finder sted i aften på byen Tewkesburys
bibliotek.
Jeg har lidt alenetid og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser
en interessant dokumentarfilm (1. del af 2), der handler om arkæologers forsøg,
ved hjælp af et ROV (fjernstyrede undervandsfartøj) på at finde historiske forlis i Sortehavet,
også at finde frem til, præcis hvornår og hvordan Sortehavet, oprindelig en sø,
helt omgivet af land, blev til et hav.
Et fascinerende program, selvom jeg mistænker, der er 1 times materiale,
der bliver fyldt ud for at optage 2 timers skærmetid, men det springer jeg over,
fordi emnet er så fascinerende for mit vedkommende.
Man tror, at Sortehavet blev til et rigtigt hav for omkring 3.000 år
siden, den periode de gamle grækkere ankom til området, men ingen er helt
sikker på, hvorfor og hvordan processen spillede sig ud – nogle tror, at der
var en kæmpe oversvømmelse, som også var oprindelsen af den bibelske fortælling
om Syndfloden, Noa og hans ark, og den slags.
Sortehavet var et meget travlt hav i klassiske og forhistoriske tider,
ingen tvivl om det, på grund af alle de forskellige civilisationer, der fandts
langs havets kystelinjer, som ønskede at handle forskellige varer med hinanden.
Men i 40 år, eller deromkring, størstedelen af havets kystelinje var forbudt
for vestlige arkæologer, på grund af Jerntæppet.
Gamle forlis
bliver sædvanligvis delvis ødelagt gennem århundreder af små skib-orm, men i
Sortehavet er der ingen ilt under en dybde på 150m eller deromkring, så de
arkæologer i dette program forventer, at der kunne være mange velbevarede
forlis, der venter på, at blive opdaget.
Prof Jon Adams af Southampton University,
missionens chef
Helen Farr af Southampton
University, én af de undervandsarkæologer,
der er involveret med den
nuværende mission i Sortehavet
en af de mange velbevarede forlis,
missionen falder over
I dette første
afsnit finder arkæologerne ”bare” skibe
fra det osmanniske rig, med andre ord, ”kun” 300-400 år gamle. Men ved
slutningen af afsnittet falder arkæolgerne over de slags amforaer, der daterer
fra klassiske tider, så jeg mistænker, at det 2. afsnit vil have al den ægte
aktion. Vi får se!!!
21:30 Lois kommer tilbage fra Tewkesbury og vi hopper op i seng ved
22-tiden – zzzzzzz!!!!
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