Wednesday 3 July 2019

10:00  Lois and I drive to the town of Bishops Cleeve, 3 miles away from here, to pop into the local Tesco supermarket and buy a few things: we are running out of certain vegetables, but above all Lois needs 12 pounds of sugar, or thereabouts - it's high time she made this year's gooseberry jam, she says.

On our way home, we pop into the local Wyevale garden centre to buy a special "Head Gardener" mug for Stephen, our neighbour, to thank him for looking after our house and backyard last week when we were on a mini-vacation in Southport visiting Lois' 86-year-old cousin Iris.

In fact, we had already bought two mugs during the holidays, one for Stephen - the "Head Gardener" mug, and the other, a "Nanny" mug, for Stephen's wife, Frances.

Unfortunately, however, Stephen’s "Head Gardener" mug got accidentally smashed on the journey home which was a bit of a shame to put it mildly. No house with garden is complete without a crazy kitsch "Head Gardener" mug - we have no doubts on that score ha ha ha!

the two "Head Gardener" mugs we have bought for our neighbour Stephen: 

we plan to give him both, in case he can use the smashed one for anything around the house

[the smashed version is on the right - Ed.]

Flashback to happier times for our neighbour Stephen, a keen cyclist:

seen here at the famous Lands End signpost, England's most southwesterly point

11:30 The receptionist at our new doctor's surgery calls us. She says our doctor wants to talk to Lois on the phone next Wednesday. 

Lois took her regular annual blood test at the surgery on Monday - we assume that the phone call is not going to be about anything serious if it can wait a week, but it will be annoying, to put it mildly, if Lois' cholesterol levels have actually risen, or something similar - damn!

But it all goes to make us consider whether we should resume our dieting. We have been a little naughty over the last few months, that’s for sure.

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. In the meantime, Lois rushes into the kitchen to make this year's gooseberry jam.

an example of the complex maths that goes into

jam-making (based on Fermat’s "little jam theorem",

the proof of which has so far eluded mathematicians

- Wake up, Cambridge!!!)

15:00 I get up - Lois is already boiling the sugar for the jam.

Lois, starting to boil the sugar 

for this year's homemade gooseberry jam

I go into our fruit-garden and pick two small bowls of blackcurrants: not very many, but it is one of our most labour-intensive tasks, no doubt about that. "Is it worth it? I ask myself. In the meantime, Lois has now made 11 one-pound jars of gooseberry jam. What a woman !!!

Lois with this year's 11 one-pound jars of gooseberry jam (yum yum) -

in the foreground my miserable 2 bowls of freshly picked 

blackcurrants can be seen  - what madness !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards we call Alison, our daughter in Haslemere, Surrey. The good news is that Ed, Alison's husband, has finally had the offer of a good permanent job, actually at his former firm, Wolseley / Ferguson. Ed was the legal manager of the company's Scandinavian operations for almost 6 years, from December 2012 to March 2018, and the whole family moved to Copenhagen, and their 3 children, Josie (now 12), Rosalind (now 11) and Isaac (now 8) went to an international school over there.

Ed was laid off last year when the company decided to sell its Scandinavian subsidiaries, and the family moved back to their old house in Haslemere. Since then, he has only had temporary jobs.

The second bit of news is that Josie, Ali and Ed's 12-year-old daughter, is unexpectedly going on a school excursion tomorrow to the Wimbledon tennis championships, court  # 1. There was apparently a tannoy announcement the other day that invited all students who were interested in tennis  to assemble in the school hall at the end of the school day. Ten students showed up, and it turned out that the school happened to have received exactly 10 free tickets – my god, how lucky Josie is!

20:00 After we hang up, I take a little look at my smartphone to see who is playing tomorrow on Court no. 1. I don't know anything about tennis, but I can recognise a few names: Johanna Konta, one of the few British tennis players, for example, No. 19 on the world rankings. Of course, I've heard of Nadal, but I suspect his match will take place in the evening.

Wimbledon: Tomorrow's matches on court # 1

the Brit, Johanna Konta, no. 19 in the world rankings

But I suspect Josie may only see the Japanese hero Nishikori destroy the British player  Cameron Norrie, who is unseeded. Poor Josie !!!

I recall that Nadal hit the world's headlines just six years ago when he told journalists about a traumatic personal crisis that had taken place during a recent match (source: Onion News).

INDIAN WELLS, CA - In an interview after his 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Ernest Gulbis at BNP Paribas Open, Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal told the world's journalists that he hit a shot during the second set of Thursday that went super low over the net. 

"That shot was very very close," said Nadal, explaining that he just kept thinking "Clear the net, clear the net!" right up to the moment when the tennis ball went flying over on to the other side of the court.

"When you hit a shot that is that close to the net, you are of course worried that it will hit the net and not go over," Nadal explained. "And sometimes the ball just hits the white part and still goes over, but not always. This time I was lucky because it didn't even hit the white part - it was just really super low."

Nadal added that he was also happy that the ball he had hit over the net had landed so far from out-of-bounds that it was not even on the line!

I recall that the interview at the time caused a bit of a sensation - the world's professional tennis players took inspiration from Nadal's moment of traumatic anxiety, and began to hit their balls a little higher than before, so that they also cleared the net and landed somewhere on the other side of the court, sometimes several times in succession. What madness!

The downside was that matches became much longer - and the "receiver" somehow had to guess exactly where the ball would come to land.

The problem was resolved several years later, when players learned to always serve aces, and tennis matches became reasonably short again, which was a bit of a relief, to put it mildly.

But I mustn’t say too much about tennis - Lois says I don't understand the game at all, but I’m going to let that one slide because she's mostly a good-hearted person, in essence anyway ha ha ha!

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

Danish translation:  onsdag den 3. juli 2019

10:00 Lois og jeg kører over til byen Bishops Cleeve, 3 miles væk herfra, for at smutte ind i det lokale Tesco-supermarked og købe et par ting: vi er ved at løbe tør for visse grøntsager, men først og fremmest har Lois brug for 12 pund sukker, eller deromkring – det er på høje tid, at hun laver årets stikkelsbærmarmelade, siger hun.

På vej hjem smutter vi ind i det lokale Wyevale-havecenter for at købe et specielt ”Hovedgartner”-krus til Stephen, vores nabo, for at takke ham for at passe på vores hus og baghave sidste uge, da vi var på mini-ferie i Southport på besøg hos Lois’ 86-årige kusine Iris. Faktisk købte vi allerede to krus under ferien, den ene til Stephen et ” Hovedgartner”-krus, og det andet, et ”Nanny” krus, til Stephens kone, Frances, men desværre blev Stephens ”Hovedgartner”-krus tilfældigvis smadret på rejsen hjem, hvilket var lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt. Intet hus med have er komplet uden et vildt  kitschet ”hovedgartner”-krus – det har vi ikke nogen tvivl om ha ha ha!

de to ”Hovedgartner”-krus vi købte til vores nabo Stephen:

[nb den smadrede version er til højre – red.]

Tilbageblik til vores nabo Stephen, en entusiastisk cyklist, i lykkeligere tider:

ved det berømte Lands End- vejskilt, Englands mest sydvestlige punkt

11:30 Receptionisten ved vores nye lægehus ringer til os. Hun siger, at vores læge ønsker at tale på telefon med Lois næste onsdag. Lois tog sin regelmæssige årlige blodprøve ved lægehuset i mandags – vi formoder, at telefonopkaldet ikke kommer til at handle om noget alvorligt hvis det kan vente en uge, men det vil være irriterende, for at sige mildt, hvis Lois’ kolesteroltal faktisk er steget, eller noget lignende – pokkers!

Men det hele får os til at overveje, om vi skulle genoptage vores slankekur. Vi har været lidt uartige de seneste få måneder, det ved vi med sikkerhed.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I melletiden skynder Lois sig ind i køkkenet for at lave årets stikkelsbærmarmelade.

et eksempel på den komplicerede matematik

involveret i marmeladelavning (Fermat's "Little Jam" Theorem)

15:00 Jeg står op – Lois er allerede  i gang med at koge sukkeret til marmeladen.

Lois, i gang med at koge sukkeret til årets hjemmelavede stikkelsbærmarmelade

Jeg går ind i vores frugthave og plukker to små skåle solbær: ikke særlig mange, men det er en af vores mest arbejde-intensive opgaver, ingen tvivl om det. ”Er det det værd?, spørger jeg mig selv. I melletiden har Lois nu nået at lave 11 1-pund krukker stikkelsbærmarmelade. Sikke en kvinde!!!

Lois med årets 11 1-pund krukker stikkelsbærmarmelade -

i forgrunden kan mine elendige 2 skåle nyplukkede solbær ses – sikke et vanvid!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter ringer vi til Alison, vores datter i Haslemere, Surrey. Den gode nyhed er, at Ed, Alisons mand, endelig har haft tilbuddet af et godt permanent job, faktisk ved sine tidligere firma, Wolseley/Ferguson. Ed var den juridiske chef til selskabets skandinavske operationer i næsten 6 år, fra december 2012 til marts 2018, og hele familien flyttede til København, og deres 3 børn, Josie (nu 12), Rosalind (nu 11) og Isaac (nu 8) gik i en international skole derovre.

Ed blev afskediget sidste år, da selskabet besluttede at sælge sine skandinavske datterselskaber, og familien flyttede tilbage til deres gamle hus i Haslemere. Siden da har han kun haft midlertidlige jobs.

Den anden nyhed er, at Josie, Ali og Eds 12-årige datter, i morgen går på en skoleudflugt til Wimbledon tennis-mesterskaberne, bane nr. 1.  Der var tilsyneladende en højtaler-meddelelse forleden, der inviterede alle elever, der interesserede sig for tennis, at samles i skolehallen ved slutningen af skoledagen. Ti elever dukkede op, og det viste sig, at skolen tilfældigvis havde modtaget nøjagtig 10 gratis billetter – du godeste, hvor er Josie dog heldig!

Efter vi lægger på, kigger jeg lidt på min smartphone, for at se, hvem der spiller i morgen på bane nr.1 . Jeg kender ikke noget til tennis, men jeg kan genkende et par navne:  Johanna Konta, en af de få britiske tennisspillere, for eksempel, nr 19 på verdensranglisten. Selvfølgelig har jeg hørt om Nadal, men jeg mistænker, at hans kamp kommer til at finde sted om aftenen.

Wimbledon: morgensdagens kampe på bane nr. 1

Johanna Konta, nr 19 i verdensranglisten

Men jeg mistænker, at Josie kun kommer til at se den japanske helt Nishikori ødelægge britiske Cameron Norrie, ikke på verdensranglisten. Stakkels Josie !!!

Jeg mindes om, at Nadal ramte verdens overskrifterne for kun 6 år siden, da han fortalte journalister om en personlig, traumatisk krise, der fandt sted under en nylig kamp (kilde: Onion News).

INDIAN WELLS, CA -  I et interview efter sin 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 sejr over Ernests Gulbis på BNP Paribas Open, fortalte spanske tennisspiller Rafael Nadal verdens journalister, at han rammede et skud i løbet af det andet sæt torsdag, der gik super lavt over nettet. "Det skud var meget tæt," sagde Nadal, der forklarede, at han fortsatte med at tænke "gå fri af nettet, fri af nettet" helt op til, at tennisballen nåede frem over nettet.

"Når du rammer et skud, der er så tæt på nettet, er du selvfølgelig bekymret over, at det vil ramme nettet og ikke gå over”, forklarede Nadal. ”Og nogle gange rammer bolden selv den hvide del og går stadig over, men ikke altid. Denne gang var jeg heldig, fordi den ikke engang ramte den hvide del - det var bare rigtig super lavt. "

Nadal tilføjede, at han også var glad for, at bolden han havde ramt over nettet landede så langt fra det forbudte område, at det endda ikke var på linjen.

Jeg mindes om, at interviewet på tidspunktet forårsagede lidt af en sensation – verdens professionelle tennisspillere tog inspiration fra Nadals øjeblik af traumatisk ængst, og begyndte at ramme bolden lidt højere, end før, så den bare gik fri af nettet og nåede frem til den anden side af banen – endnu senere, begyndte de at ramme bolden endnu højere.

Ulempen var, at kampe blev meget længere – også det blev meget sværere for ”modtageren” til at gætte, præcis hvor bolden kom til at lande i deres side af banen.

Problemet blev løst flere år senere, da spillere lært altid at spille serve-esser, og tenniskampe blev rimeligt korte igen, hvilket var lidt af en lettelse, for at sige mildt.

Men jeg må ikke sige for meget om tennis – Lois siger, jeg forstår spillet overhoved ikke, men det springer jeg over, fordi hun for det meste er godthjertet ha ha ha!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!