Sunday 18 August 2019

10:00 Lois has to go out. She wants to attend her sect's two services taking place today in Tewksbury library - she is willing to drive herself, which is encouraging: she has suffered from back pain for some days, but it looks like she's finally has gotten over these problems and she doesn't ask me to drive her over there. This will give me a lot more alone time and hopefully I can cross a lot of tasks off my mile-long to-do list.

10:30 Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, calls me on whatsapp. She's happy that her husband, Francis, is spending some time today perfecting his golf swing at the local driving range - she thinks this will be good for his morale: he recently received a slightly depressing diagnosis from his specialist about his knee problems, back problems, also now ankle problems - my goodness! He's only 54 years old, damn it!

Flashback to Christmas Day 2018: the family in happier times -

(from left to right) Francis, Lily, Sarah and Jessie - a Christmas Skype call

The lease at their current house in Ocean Reef had been coming to an end, and Sarah was also concerned that Francis was not strong enough to handle both the cleaning of the current house and the move itself. Fortunately, Sarah has agreed with the house owners to extend the lease on a rolling monthly basis. This will give Sarah and Francis the chance to get the house in order gradually, and keep it in order until the opportunity arises to move in to a cheaper house, and simultaneously to apply for a loan to buy a piece of land.

Flashback to March 2018: Lois stands and poses in front

the family house in Ocean Reef

Apart from Francis's health problems, everything is going very well - Sarah's job, and the 6-year-old twins Lily and Jessie's schooling. Sarah is especially pleased with the twins' progress in their reading skills, which is nice to hear.

11:30 I dig out my mile-long to-do list and line up a few tasks. I iron my underwear, shirts and pyjamas. I replace all the electric bulbs here and there in the house that are burnt out.

Unfortunately, one of my weaknesses is that I tend to notice that a light bulb is burnt out just in the evening, but the following day I forget about the problem and so do nothing about it. It is not until the following evening that I notice the problem again. And then I continue with the same pattern of “non-activity” day after day - what madness and it drives Lois crazy - and rightly so !!!!

Modern electric bulbs drive me crazy too - there are so many different types, compared to the good old days - what a sick world we live in !!!!

modern electric bulbs - what madness !!!

12:15 I sit down with my computer and design my 47th wedding anniversary card for Lois - the theme is Weston and Lee's comic songs, to be exact, their moving song "How does the hen know the size of the egg cup?", One of the unanswered questions of our times , no doubt about that. Somehow I manage to apply the song to our relationship, which is a bit of a challenge to say the least, but I think it was successful to a certain, slightly limited degree.

I always try to use a topical theme for my cards - and we heard a program about Weston and Lee's songs last night.

I get going with preparing a Danish vocabulary list, which I will send to our U3A Danish group members - I want members to learn the list by heart before our next group meeting, which will take place here on September 12th. I am so demanding ha ha ha!

13:00 I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed to take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 2:30 pm and hop on my fitness bike. I ride my usual 6 miles.

15:00 Lois comes back from Tewkesbury and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. Afterwards, we start watering our vegetables and flower beds, and we pop in at the neighbours (Stephen and Frances) and water their much more extensive vegetable garden and flower beds. They are away from home for a few days in the Forest of Dean, with their daughter Elizabeth and her 2 children. My god, what madness, all this watering !!!

We pop in at the neighbours’ and start watering

their vegetable garden and flower beds: much more extensive than ours,

I have to say - what madness, all this gardening !!!!

17:00 We come back and I take a look at my smartphone and the Danish news. I catch sight of Morten Ingemann's latest cartoon and I get a bit of a shock, to put it mildly.

the Danish artist, Morten Ingemann, my favourite cartoonist

Ingemann is my favourite Danish cartoonist - no doubt about that. He is particularly interested in ugly, overweight, middle-aged or elderly people, the kind of people that most cartoonists rarely pay attention to.

He has the ability to turn a completely routine situation into one that makes us examine our motives, which is always refreshing.

It is a frequent event in the evenings in many living rooms across the country that a teenage girl or boy, in the middle  of doing their homework for the following day, cannot understand some question or other: it may contain an unusual or scientific word, maybe.

In this evening’s  strip, we see a teenage girl, her middle-aged obese mother, and her middle-aged obese father. The girl is doing her homework, and asks her mother what one of these difficult words means, but the woman says sorry she hasn’t a clue, and she recommends her daughter ask her father instead.

Nothing unusual here at first glance, but as soon as we realise that the “difficult word” is actually "orgasm", we start to wonder if the mother has some kind of subtext here and that her marriage may not be as harmonious as it seems on the surface. But the beauty of Ingemann's strips is always that we are never quite sure whether our instincts are correct or whether we are just imagining things  - that is what I call "depth" - which is exactly why I like Ingemann's work so much .

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. An interesting documentary is on (part 2 of 3), all about Queen Elizabeth's uncles, Prince David (Edward 8th), Prince George, Prince Henry, and her aunt, the Princess Mary.

The programme is based in part on a collection of recently published personal letters of Princess Mary:  letters to and from many of her siblings, which reveal what they really thought about events in the 1920’s and 1930’s as well as about each other and about their parents, King George V and Queen Mary. This is particularly interesting because we hear about their personal opinions - as members of the royal house, of course, they were not allowed to express these opinions in public during their lifetime.

It is interesting to hear again about the abdication crisis in 1936. It was only in the autumn of 1936 that the story of the new (but uncrowned) King Edward's affair with Mrs Wallis Simpson broke in the British press, due to a secret agreement between the government and the big press barons: the big national newspapers had agreed not to publish stories about the private life of the members of the royal house – my god, what madness !!!

Of course, Edward and Wallis's affair was well known in the United States. Alan Turing, the famous codebreaker, even wrote a letter to his mother in the summer of 1936 asking her if she had heard of Wallis - "if not, you soon will!", he wrote.

an American Pathé news clip

Baldwin, the prime minister, however, warned Edward that this press silence could not continue for much longer, and after Edward refused to give up his relationship with Wallis, Baldwin forced Edward to give up the throne, which was a bit of a relief to everyone, including Edward's siblings. It is interesting to see tonight the letters Edward's siblings wrote to Baldwin thanking him for taking this action.

Lois and I think Edward would have been a very bad king - totally selfish, without proper principles, not very sensible, and with a half-secret admiration for Hitler. What a disaster he would have been, especially with a world war looming.

And it's nice to see again some charming pictures of Edward's brother, the new king George VI, with the little princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, as we hear the words of Edward's famous radio broadcast: his abdication speech to the nation.

how cute the 10-year-old Princess Elizabeth looks!

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

Danish translation:  søndag den 18. august 2019

10:00 Lois skal af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts to gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewksburys bibliotek – hun er villig i at køre selv, hvilket er opmuntrende: hun har lidt af rygsmerter i nogle dage, men det ser ud til, at hun endelig er kommet sig over disse problemer, og hun ikke beder mig om at køre hende derovre. Dette vil give mig meget mere alenetid, og jeg kan forhåbentlig strege en masse opgaver fra min mile-lange gøremålsliste.

10:30 Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, ringer til mig på whatsapp. Hun er glad for, at hendes mand, Francis bruger noget tid i dag på at perfektionere sin golfsving på den lokale drivingrange – hun mener, dette vil være godt for hans moral: han modtag for nylig en lidt deprimerende diagnose fra sin specialist om sine knæproblemer, rygproblemer, også nu ankelproblemer – du godeste! Han er for fanden kun 54 år gammel – yikes!

Tilbageblik til juledag 2018: familien i lykkeligere tider –

(fra venstre til højre) Francis, Lily, Sarah og Jessie – et jule-Skype-opkald

Lejemålet på deres nuværende hus i Ocean Reef var ved at være slut,  og Sarah var også bekymret over, at Francis ikke var stærk nok til at takle både rensningen af det nuværende hus og selve flytningen. Heldigvis har Sarah aftalt med husets ejere at forlænge lejemålet på et rullende månedligt grundlag. Dette vil give Sarah og Francis chancen for at få huset gradvist i orden, og holde det i orden, indtil muligheden opstår for at flytte ind til et billigere hus og omsøge samtidig om et lån til at købe et stykke jord.

Tilbageblik til mars 2018: Lois står og poserer foran

familiens hus i Ocean Reef

Bortset fra Francis helbredsproblemer går alt meget godt – Sarahs job, og de 6-årige tvilllinger Lily og Jessies skolegang. Sarah er især glad for tvillingernes fremskridt i deres læsningsfærdigheder, hvilket er rart at høre.

11:30 Jeg graver min mile-lange gøremålsliste frem og streger et par opgaver. Jeg stryger mine undertøj, skjorter og pajamas. Jeg udskifter alle de elektriske pære her og der i huset, der er brændt ud.

Det er desværre en af mine svagheder, at jeg har tendens til at lægge mærke til, at en pære er brændt ud, bare om aftenen, men den følgende dag glemmer jeg om problemet, og gør derfor ikke noget ved det. Det er først den følgende aften, at jeg lægger mærke til problemet igen. Og så fortsætter jeg med samme aktivitetsmønstret dag efter dag - sikke et vanvid, og det kører Lois skør - og med rette!!!!

Moderne elektriske pærer kører mig skør også – der er så mange forskellige typer, i sammenligning til de gode gamle dage – sikke en syg verden vi lever i !!!!

moderne elektriske pærer – sikke et vanvid!!!

12:15 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og designer min 47. brylluspdagskort til Lois – temaet er Weston og Lees komiske sange, for at være præcis, deres ”Hvordan kender hønen til størrelsen af æggebægeren?”, et af de ubesvarede spørgsmål af vores tider, ingen tvivl om det. På en eller anden måde lykkes det mig at anvende sangen til vores forhold, hvilket er lidt af en udfordring for at sige mildt, men jeg tror, det var succesfuldt i en vis, lidt begrænset grad.

Jeg prøver altid at bruge et topisk tema til mine kort – og vi hørte et program om Weston og Lees sang igår aftes.

Jeg udarbejder en danske ordforrådliste, som jeg vil afsende til vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer – jeg vil have medlemmerne til at lære listen udenad før vores næste gruppemøde, der finder sted hos os den 12. september. Jeg er så krævende ha ha ha!

13:00 Jeg spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 14:30 og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles.

15:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Tewkesbury og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Bagefter går vi i gang med at vande vores grøntsager og blomstebede, og vi smutter ind hos naboerne (Stephen og Frances) og vander deres meget mere ekstensive grøntsagshave og blomstebede. De er væk hjemmefra i et par dage i Forest of Dean, med deres datter Elizabeth og hendes 2 børn. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Vi smutter ind hos naboerne, og går i gang med at vande

deres grøntsagshave og blomsterbede: meget mere ekstensive, end vores,

det må jeg nok sige – sikke et vanvid!!!!

17:00 Vi kommer tilbage og jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone, og de danske nyheder. Jeg får øje på Morten Ingemanns seneste tegneserie og jeg får lidt af et chok, for at sige mildt.

Danske Morten Ingemann, min yndlingstegner

Danske Ingemann er min yndlingstegner  – ingen tvivl om det. Han interesserer sig især for grimme, overvægtige, midaldrende eller ældre folk, de slags mennesker, som de fleste tegnere sjældent giver opmærksomhed til.

Han har evnen til at vende en helt rutinemæssig situation til én, der får os til at eksaminere vores motiver, hvilket altid er forfriskende.

Det er en hyppig begivenhed om aftenen i mange dagligstue landet over, at en teenagepige eller dreng, i gang med at gøre deres hjemmearbejde til den følgende dag, ikke kan forstå et eller andet spørgsmål: det indeholder måske et usædvanligt eller videnskabeligt ord, kan det være. 

I aftenens stribe ser vi en teenagepige, hendes midaldrende overvægtige mor, og hendes midaldrende overvægtige far. Pigen spørger sin mor, hvad ét af disse slags svære ord betyder, men kvinden svarer, hun ikke har den fjerneste anelse, og hun anbefaler sin datter at spørge sin far i stedet for.

Intet usædvanligt her ved første øjekast, men så snart vi indser, at det svære ord faktisk er ”orgasme”, begynder vi at undre os, om moren har noget slags undertekst her og hendes ægteskab ikke er så harmonisk, som det virker på overfladen. Men skønheden med Ingemanns tegnestriber er altid, at vi aldrig er helt sikre på, om vores instinktiver er korrekte, eller om vi bare forestiller os det hele – dét er hvad jeg kalder ”dybde” – og derfor kan jeg godt lide Ingemanns værk så meget.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm (2. del af 3), der handler om dronning Elizabeths onkler, prins David (Edward 8.), prins Georg, prins Henry, og dronningens tante Mary.

Programmet er delvis baseret på en samling af princesse Marys personlige breve, som er for nylig blevet offentliggjort: mange af dem fra hendes  søskende, der afslører, hvad de virkelig mente om begivenheder i 1920’erne og 1930’erne også om hinanden og om deres forældre, kong Georg 5. og dronning Mary. Dette er i særdeleshed interessant, fordi vi hører om deres personlige meninger – som medlemmer af kongehuset, var de selvfølgelig ikke tilladt at udtrykke disse meninger i offentlighed under deres livtider.

Det er interessant at høre igen om abdikation-krise i 1936. Det var kun i efteråret 1936, at historien om den nye (men ukronede) kong Edwards affære med fru Wallis Simpson, brød i den britiske presse, på grund af en hemmelig aftale mellem regeringen og de store presse-baroner: de store nationale aviser aftalte ikke at offentliggøre historier om det private liv af kongehusets medlemmer – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Selvfølgelig var Edward og Wallis’ affære velkendt i USA. Alan Turing, den berømte kodebryder, skrev et brev til sin mor i sommeren 1936, hvor hun spurgte hende, om hun havde hørt om Wallis – ”hvis ej, vil du snart gør det!”, skrev han.

en amerikansk Pathé-nyheder klip

Baldwin, premierministeren, advarede Edward imidlertid, at denne presse-tavshed ikke kunne fortsætte meget længere, og efter Edward afviste at slå op med Wallis, tvang Baldwin Edward til at opgive tronen, hvilket var lidt af en lettelse for alle, inklusive Edwards  søskende. Det er interessant at se i aften de breve, Edwards søskende skrev til Baldwin, hvor de takkede ham for at skride til denne handling.

Lois og jeg synes, Edward ville have været en meget dårlig konge – helt egoistisk, uden stærke principper, ikke særligt fornuftig, og med en halvt-hemmelig beundring for Hitler. Sikke et katastrofe!

Og det er rart at se igen nogle charmerende billeder af Edwards bror, den kommende George 6., med de små princesser, Elizabeth og Margaret, mens vi hører ordene af Edwards radio-udsendelse: sin abdikationstale.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!