Saturday 3 August 2019

10:00 A quiet and peaceful day, thank goodness. I call Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, on whatsapp but there is no answer - later she sends me a text message promising to call us tomorrow at 9am (BST).

11:00 Lois goes out into the front yard and has a little chat with Bob, our neighbour. He is complaining about mouse-ear hawkweed (pilosella officinarum) on his lawns - he is very proud of his lawns and always keeps them cut very very short. 

He doesn't say it, but we know he suspects that all of the hawkweed originally came from our side of the property-line, which is a bit tiresome of him, though he is probably right. However, we do not think we can do much about the problem, other than fertilising the grass in the autumn, but that’s something we're not quite completely sure about - the jury is still out on that one.

I dig out my smartphone and zoom in gradually

on the offending carpet of mouse-ear hawkweed in our backyard

Bob can be a bit of a grumpy man at times, and he's much more enthusiastic about doing gardening than we are. But I don't want to annoy him too much with the less-than-perfect state of our garden: he's a good neighbour, a retired builder, and he often helps us with do-it-yourself problems, and the like.

Like many men who worked his entire working life in the construction industry, he has no other interests other than do-it-yourself projects and gardening and the like. He is a somewhat restless man who is constantly popping in and out between house and garden to cut something or prune something or saw a piece of wood for one purpose or another – my goodness, what a sick world we live in ha ha ha!!!!

12:30 Lois and I have lunch on the terrace and afterwards we go to bed for a couple of hours.

15:00 We get up. I start to read 2 more pages (pages 63 and 64 in the digital edition) of Anna Grue's novel, "The Further You Fall", which is our U3A Danish group's current project.

Anna Grue's novel "The Further You Fall," which is

our U3A Danish group's current project

Anna Grue, the author of the novel

The novel is a murder story. A cleaning assistant, Lilliana, whom no one knows anything about (not even her last name), has been murdered (garrotted) while working late in the kitchens of a large Danish advertising agency.

No one who works at the advertising agency knows Lilliana really well or has exchanged more than a few words with her, including Dan Sommerdahl, an advertising executive and hero of the novel, who works for the same agency as Lilliana, the victim.

Dan's best friend, Flemming Torp, is the officer in charge of the police investigation. Flemming has asked his friend Dan to help him by providing details about the bureau’s staff, but now Dan has been tempted to investigate the case himself, in the tradition of thousands of other fictional amateur detectives, a tradition that goes back to Sherlock Holmes.

A member of the agency's staff, Christoffer, tells Dan that he has seen Lilliana a few times with a friend of the same age sitting with her and drinking coffee in a local cafe - the friend is a black woman, "very black" , with "a million long thin braids in her hair".

Dan tries to contact Flemming by calling the police station to tell him about this clue, but he gets no response from Flemming's number, and he can't resist the temptation to sneak into the cafe himself and talk to a waitress - and he gets a result: he gets hold of Lilliana's address, which is also the black woman's address, as the 2 women were roomies.

Later, when Dan and Flemming meet, Dan tackles head-on the question of how much the typical amateur detective helps or hinders the professional cop, which is interesting. We can tell that Flemming is slightly irritated by Dan’s intervention.

"Just think of me as the annoying private detective who constantly interferes with police work and gets in his way, but who is ultimately the one who can pinpoint the killer ...." says Dan.

"... you mean when all the suspects are gathered in front of the fireplace in the library," Flemming responds. "Why don’t you just give me Lilliana's address now, so I can get someone to check out the apartment!"

Yikes - I just hope this murder doesn't end up ruining the two men's close friendship - I have to say!!!!

I suspect the two men will also soon be quarrelling  over a woman - Dan's wife, Marianne. I read in a newspaper article that Flemming has been secretly in love with Marianne since he was a young man - crikey, will it be pistols at dawn for the two best friends? I sincerely hope not ha ha ha!!!

the potential love triangle at the heart of the novel: the novel’s hero,

advertising man Dan Sommerdahl (Peter Mygind) on the right,

Dan's wife, Marianne (Laura Drasbæk) in the middle,

and Detective Flemming Torp (André Babikian) on the left:

both Dan and Flemming are in love with Marianne  - yikes pistols at dawn !!!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television, an interesting documentary about the UK's national housing shortage. The programme's host is the charming TV architect, George Clark, who is trying to start his own campaign for more municipal housing, a campaign similar to TV chef Jamie Oliver's “Healthier Food in School Cafeterias” campaign, or TV- chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recycling campaign, and the like.

An interesting programme and George has a lot of good arguments, but I feel we are sometimes being manipulated by being shown just the best existing UK municipal housing. And we all know that national or municipal-run businesses do not work very well, so it’s got to be important to support a thriving private construction industry.

It's perfectly okay to argue for increased state aid - that's one point of view, after all. But it is not okay in my opinion to argue for it, as George and many others do, on the premise that "Britain is the world's 5th largest economy", while everyone knows that these statistics aren't corrected for  population size, and so are not per head.

Moreover, I would like to bet that our status as "the world's 5th largest economy" will soon become a thing of the past - people who voted for Brexit voted essentially for fewer immigrants and (apparently without their conscious knowledge) also a lower standard of living ha ha !

And when we look at Vienna's best municipal apartment blocks, it is worth remembering that Austria is a high tax economy, also that we British are different from our continental neighbours in that we much prefer houses with gardens, than apartment blocks, but I’m going to let that one slide.

And it is always interesting and fun to see these kinds of TV celebrity campaign leaders, such as George Clarke or Jamie Oliver or Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall confronting the ministers in question, who are always very adept at dodging their questions, with smiles and nods, and promises that they are already "looking into it" without promising to take any action ha ha ha!

In this case, the minister in question had already been replaced in Boris's "coup d'état" before the programme could be broadcast ha ha ha (again) !!!!

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

Danish translation: lørdag den 3. august 2019

10:00 En stille og rolig dag, gudskelov. Jeg ringer på whatsapp til Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, men der er ikke noget svar – senere sender hun mig en sms, hvor hun lover, hun ringer til os i morgen kl 9 (engelsk tid).

11:00 Lois går ud i forhaven og snakker lidt med Bob, vores nabo. Han brokker sig over alle de hårede høgeurter på sine græsplæner – han er meget stolt af sine græsplæner og holder dem altid klippede meget meget kort. Han siger det ikke, men vi ved, han mistænker, at alle de høgeurterne oprindeligt stammer fra vores side af grænsen, hvilket er lidt kedeligt af ham, selvom det har han sandsynligvis ret i. Vi tror ikke imidlertid, at vi kan gøre ret meget for problemet, bortset fra at gøde græsset i efteråret, men det er vi ikke helt sikre på – juryen er stadig ude om det.

jeg graver min smartphone frem og zoomer gradvist ind

på den ”stødelige” tæppe af hårede høgeurter i vores baghave

Bob kan være lidt af en gnaven mand til tider, og han er meget mere ivrig efter at lave havearbejde, end os. Men jeg har ikke lyst til at irritere ham for meget over den mindre-end-perfekt tilstand af vores have: han er en god nabo, en pensioneret byggemand, og han hjælper os ofte med gør-det-selv problemer, og lignende.

Ligesom mange mænd, der arbejdede hele sit arbejdsliv i byggebranchen, har han ikke nogle andre interesser, bortset fra gør-det-selv projekter og havearbejde og den slags. Han er en lidt rasteløs mand, der smutter konstant ind og ud af sin have for at klippe noget eller save et stykke træ til ét eller andet formål – du godeste, sikke en syg verden vi lever i !!!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost på terrassen og bagefter går i seng for at tage en eftermiddagslur.

15:00 Vi står op. Jeg går i gang med at læse endnu 2 sider (siderne 63 og 64 i den digitale udgave) af Anna Grues krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.

Anna Grues krimiroman ”Dybt at falde”, som er

vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Anna Grue, romanens forfatterinde

Krimiromanen er kort sagt en mordfortælling. En rengøringsassistent, Lilliana, som ingen ved noget om (inklusive hendes efternavn), er blevet myrdet (garrotteret), mens hun arbejdede sent på aften i køkkenet af et stort dansk reklamebureau.

Ingen, der arbejder hos reklamebureauet kender Lilliana virkelig godt eller har vekslet mere end et par ord med hende, inklusive Dan Sommerdahl, en reklamemand, krimiromanens helt, der arbejder for samme bureauet som Lilliana, morderens offer.

Dans bedste ven, Flemming Torp, er den politimand, der står for politiundersøgelsen. Flemming har bedt sin ven Dan om at hjælpe ham ved at forsyne detaljer om bureauets personale, men nu er Dan blevet fristet selv til at undersøge sagen, i traditionen af tusindvis af alle amatøragtige detektiver, startende fra Sherlock Holmes.

Én af bureauets personale, Christoffer, fortæller Dan, at han et par gange har set Lilliana med en veninde i samme alder, der plejede at sidde sammen med Lilliana og drikke kaffe i en lokal café – veninden er en sort kvinde, ”meget sort”, med ”en million lange tynde fletninger i håret”.

Dan prøver at kontakte Flemming ved at ringe til politistationen, men han får ikke noget svar fra Flemmings nummer, og han kan ikke modstå fristelsen til at smutte selv ind i caféen og snakke med servitricen – og  hun får et godt resultat: han får fat på Lillianas adresse, som også er den sorte kvindes adresse, eftersom de er roomies.

Senere, da Dan og Flemming mødes, takler Dan direkte spørgsmålet om, hvor meget den typiske amatøragtige detektiv hjælper eller hindrer den professionelle politimand, hvilket er interessant. 

”Bare tænk på mig som den irriterende privatdetektiv, der ustandselig forstyrrer politiets arbejde og går i vejen, men som til sidst er den, der kan udpege morderen....” sager Dan.

”...når alle de mistænkte er samlet foran pejsen i biblioteket,” svarer Flemming. ”Giv mig lige Lillianas addresse nu, så jeg kan få sat nogen i gang med at undersøge lejligheden!”

Yikes – jeg håber bare på, at dette mord ikke ender med at ødelægge de to mænds tætte venskab – det må jeg nok sige!!!!

Jeg mistænker, at de to mænd også kommer til at skændes over en kvinde – Dans kone, Marianne. Jeg læste i en avisartikel, at Flemming har været hemmeligt forelsket i Marianne, siden han var en ung mand – du godeste, vil det være pistoler ved daggry for de to bedstevenner? Det håber jeg ikke!!!

den potentielle kærlighedstrekant: romanens helt,

reklamemanden Dan Sommerdahl (Peter Mygind) til højre,

Dans kone, Marianne (Laura Drasbæk) i midten,

og detektiven Flemming Torp (André Babikian) til venstre:

begge mænd er forelskede i den samme kvinde – yikes pistoler ved daggry!!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om Storbritanniens nationale boligmangel. Programmets vært er den charmerende tv-arkitekt, George Clark, der prøver at starte sin egen kampagne for mere bygning af kommunale boliger , en kampagne, som er noget i stil med tv-kokken Jamie Olivers kampagne for sundere mad i skolekafeterier, eller tv-kokken Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls kampagne om genbrug, og den slags.

En interessant program og George har en masse gode argumenter, men jeg føler at vi til tider bliver manipuleret ved at blive vist bare de bedste eksisterende britiske kommunale boligområder. Og vi ved alle, at nationalt or kommunalt drivede virksomheder fungerer ikke særlig godt, så det er vigtigt at støtte en blomstrende privat byggebranche.

Det er helt okay at argumentere for øgede statsstøtte – det er ét synspunkt, trods alt. Men det er ikke okay efter min mening at argumentere, som mange gør, på præmissen, at ”Storbritannien er verdens 5. største økonomi”, mens alle ved, at denne statistik ikke inkluderer en komponent af befolkningsstørrelse, og derfor ikke er pro persona.

Derudover vil jeg vædde på, at vores status som ”verdens 5. største økonomi” snart bliver til en ting af fortiden – folk, der stemte på Brexit, stemte essentielt for færre indvandrere og (uden deres bevidste viden) også en lavere levefoden ha ha!

Og da vi i aftens dokumentarfilm ser på Wiens bedste kommunale etageejendomme, er det værd at mindes om, at Østrig er en økonomi med høj skat, også at vi briter ligner ikke særlig meget vores kontinentale naboer i det, at vi langt bedre kan lide huse med haver, end etageejendomme, men det springer jeg over.

Der er altid interessant og morsomt at se disse slags tv-kendis-kampagneledere, såsom Clarke eller Oliver eller Fearnley-Whittingstall konfrontere den pågældende minister, der er altid meget dygtig til at vige uden om deres spørgsmål, med løfter om at ”undersøge” uden at love at skride til handling ha ha ha!  

I dette tilfælde blev den pågældende minister allerede erstattet i Boris'  "statskup", før programmet kunne blive udsendt ha ha ha (igen) !!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!