Saturday 7 September 2019

09:00 Today, our oldest grandchild, Josie, turns 13 - she lives in Haslemere, Surrey. 

Lois and I send her a text message on whatsapp to wish her happy birthday. She replies that the family is visiting London today to celebrate the occasion, but we currently do not know what they plan to do there. We will have to see.

11:00 We talk on whatsapp with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, and with her 6-year-old twin daughters, Lily and Jessie. Francis, Sarah's husband, is out of the house - he is spending some time today perfecting his golf swing at the local driving range. He has also set up a mini-driving range in the family's backyard - golf is almost the only sport he can practice now that he suffers from various back, knee and ankle pains: my god - he is only 54 years old, 19 years younger than Lois and me: yikes - scary !!!!

The twins have recently started swimming lessons at their primary school: unfortunately, the school intends to teach them the crawl to begin with, and Lily has trouble with ducking her head and face under water, which is a bit of a shame. Jessie doesn't have these problems, thank goodness.

Lily and Jessie, their latest school pictures

Lois and I remind Sarah that Sarah herself had the same problems when she attended an American elementary school in the early 1980’s - American schools also concentrate primarily on the crawl. But Sarah finally managed to learn how to swim using a different style: the breast-stroke.

And I'm reminded that I myself had trouble ducking my head and face underwater - it's a little traumatic to realise that it's my DNA responsible for this weakness - damn!

Flashback to August 1955: a professional beach photographer

takes a picture of me at 9 years (right) and my red-headed

father (41) and my 2 red-headed siblings: Kathy (7) and Steve (3):

at the seaside resort of Broadstairs in Kent.

11:30 I sit down with the computer and continue designing a snapfish photo book consisting of photos we took a couple of weeks ago when we attended Ruth and Brian's 60th wedding anniversary in Bournemouth - Brian is Lois's cousin.

Flashback to August 24: We take part in Ruth and Brian’s

60th Wedding Anniversary Party in Bournemouth:  Brian is Lois's cousin

I have to design all the photo books and photo calendars we would like to order before Sunday night. The Snapfish site is offering a 50% discount this weekend - hurry, hurry, hurry!

The quality of many of the photos is a bit disappointing to say the least - I have to admit that. Lois and I are considering buying a new camera. However, perhaps the quality of the photos is not very important from Ruth and Brian's point of view: it is first and foremost a souvenir of the occasion. Brian has told us that many of their guests have promised to send them souvenir photos, but he suspects that few will remember to do so. Nowadays, people tend to just store their photos on the computer and then forget about them – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

12:00 Lois walks around the corner to visit Rose, her former work colleague from the time they both worked at the local retirement home for retired vicars. Lois has to tell Rose that one of their long-time colleagues, Mary, sadly died a few days ago of cancer. Poor Mary.

In the meantime, I head out into the backyard and prune another of the crazy shrubs that recently went berserk during our absence on holiday in Bournemouth / Poole and Haslemere. We call it our "vibernum", but we are not quite sure if this is the right name or not.

It is not one of our truly spiteful shrubs, such as our "berberis" and holly bushes, which have incredibly prickly leaves and branches. But this shrub compensates for its lack of thorns by running amok in all directions as soon as I turn my back.

I'm afraid I decide to treat the shrub pretty brutally. I hope that if I treat it mercilessly, this will send a clear message to our other shrubs and they will not be so ready to go crazy the next time we are away from home.

today's shrub-victim, our "so-called" vibernum,

after I have punished it mercilessly

with my powerful Gtech hedge trimmer - ha!

13:30 Lois comes back and we have lunch, a little later than usual, and afterwards we go to bed and  take a gigantic afternoon nap. I read about 30 pages of my bedtime book.

16:30 We roll out of bed and relax with a cup of tea and a Danish pastry on the couch.

Lois talks a bit about an article she read today in "The Week". For years she has had a regular subscription to "The Week" magazine, which gives her a fantastic overview of the most important news worldwide, including numerous background articles.

This article advises us to "sit less, move more, live longer". You don't have to go to the gym to benefit from exercise: even activities such as walking slowly or washing up can significantly increase a person's life, a study has found. Researchers from Norway recently looked at data on 35,000 people with an average age of 63 whose activity levels were monitored over six years.

Any exercise, no matter how light, was associated with a significantly lower risk of death. The researchers said the message that came out of their study was, "Sit less, move more and move often."

And also, on the same page...

Optimism increases longevity - people with optimistic views tend to live longer than their more negative peers, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have discovered. The study combined data from two long-term surveys of Americans over the age of 60: one based on 1,500 male war veterans and the other on 70,000 female nurses.

At the beginning of both surveys, participants had completed questionnaires measuring how optimistic they were. They had also been asked about other factors likely to affect their lifespan, including diet, health and exercise.

The analysis of the data, adjusted to take into account these "complicating factors", revealed that the most optimistic participants lived 10% to 15% longer on average than the least optimistic, and that they were significantly more likely to live until age of 85.

"Healthier behaviours and lower levels of depression only partially explain our statistics,"  said lead researcher Dr. Lewina Lee. "Preliminary results from other studies suggest that more optimistic people tend to have goals, as well as the confidence to achieve them: they are more effective at problem solving and may be better at regulating their emotions in stressful situations."

Lois and I talk a bit about the articles, and come to the conclusion that we must be more positive, but first and foremost that we must wash up more. It is fortunate that we have not invested in a dishwasher, that’s something we know for sure.

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards Lois settles down in the living room and watches a romcom movie starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock.

Romcom films are not my bag, so I sit down with the computer in the dining room and continue designing our snapfish photo books.

I also take a look at Facebook and I see that our daughter Alison has posted some charming photos of the family's outing to London today on the occasion of Josie's 13th birthday: they saw a performance of "The Worst Witch" at a theatre in the middle of the city.

Our granddaughter Josie's 13th birthday, that included

an excursion to London to see a theatre performance.

She's wearing the blue Adidas top that Lois and I gave her as a birthday present

21:00  I snuggle up to Lois on the couch and we see the first of a series of BBC television programmes celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Monty Python TV show. In 1969, both Lois and I, in our separate residences (we had not hooked up as yet), had got into the habit of staying up late to watch these first ever Python show. The BBC didn’t have the courage to show them earlier than 11pm.

We both have our favourite sketches and we look forward to seeing some of them in the coming days / weeks. My personal favourite sketch is the television interview with the “famous international composer, Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson”.

Eric Idle (right) interviews the famous

internationally famous composer, Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson.

during a BBC TV late night arts show

Here we see John Cleese, one of the show's other interviewers,

ejecting Jackson from the show after Jackson declined to speak

about his rumoured plans to have a 2nd garden shed installed

Happy times!

22:30 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation: lørdag den 7. september 2019

09:00 I dag fylder vores ældste barnebarn, Josie, 11 år, der bor i Haslemere, Surrey. Lois og jeg sender hende en sms på whatsapp for at ønske hende tillykke med fødselsdagen. Hun svarer, at familien besøger London i dag for at fejre anledningen, men vi i øjeblikket ikke ved, hvad de planlægger at lave der. Vi får se.

11:00 Vi snakker lidt på whatsapp med Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, og med hendes 6-årige tvillingedøtre, Lily og Jessie. Francis, Sarahs mand, er ude af huset – han bruger noget tid i dag på at perfektionere sin golfsving på den lokale drivingrange. Han har også sat en mini-drivingrange op i familiens baghave – golf er næsten den eneste sport han kan dyrke nu, hvor han lider af forskellige smerter i ryggen, knæene og anklerne: du godeste – han er kun 54 år gammel, 19 år yngre end Lois og mig: yikes - skræmmende!!!!

Tvillingerne har for nylig startet svømningstimer på deres folkeskole: desværre har skolen til hensigt at lære dem crawlen til at begynde med, og Lily har problemer med at dykke hovedet og ansigte under vandet, hvilket er lidt af en skam. Jessie har ikke disse problemer, gudskelov.

Lily og Jessie, deres seneste skolebilleder

Lois og jeg minder Sarah om, at Sarah selv havde de samme problemer, da hun gik i en amerikansk folkeskole først i 1980’erne – amerikanske skoler koncentrerer sig også først og fremmest på crawlen. Men Sarah nåede endelig at lære at svømme ved hjælp af en anderledes stilart: brøstsvømningen.

Og jeg mindes om, at jeg selv havde problemer med at dykke hovedet og ansigtet under vandet – det er lidt traumatisk at indse, at det er min dna, som er ansvarlig for denne svaghed – pokkers!

tilbageblik til august 1955: en professionel strandfotograf

tager et billede af mig på 9 år (til højre), sammen med min rødhårede

far og søskende: Kathy (7) og Steve (3):  badebyen Broadstairs i Kent.

11:30 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og går i gang med at designe en snapfish-fotobog bestående af fotoer vi tog for et par uger siden, da vi deltog i Ruth og Brian’s 60. bryllupsdagsfest i Bournemouth – Brian er Lois’ fætter.

tilbageblik til den 24. august: vi deltager i Ruth og Brians

60. bryllupsdagsfest i Bournemouth: Brian er Lois’ fætter

Jeg må designe alle de fotobøger og fotokalendere vi vil gerne bestille før søndag aften. Snapfish-webstedet tilbyder en rabat på 50% denne weekend – skynd dig, skynd dig, skynd dig!

Kvaliteten af mange af fotoerne er lidt skuffende for at sige mildt – det må jeg indrømme. Lois og jeg overvejer at købe et nyt kamera. Måske er kvaliteten af fotoerne imidlertid ikke særlig vigtige fra Ruth og Brians synspunkt: det er først og fremmest en souvenir af anledningen. Brian har fortalt os, at mange af deres gæster har lovet at sende dem souvenirfotoer, men han mistænker, at få vil huske at gøre det. Nu til dags har folk tendens bare til at lagre deres fotoer på computeren og derefter glemme om dem – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

12:00 Lois går rundt om hjørnet for at besøge Rose, sin tidligere arbejdskollega, da de begge to arbejdede på det lokale plejehjem til pensionerede præster. Lois skal fortælle Rose, at én af deres mest langvarige arbejdskollega, Mary, døde desværre for et par dage siden, af kræft. Stakkels Mary!

I mellemtiden går jeg ud i baghaven og beskære endnu en af de vanvittige buske, der for nylig gik amok under vores fravær på ferie i Bournemouth/Poole og Haslemere. Vi kalder den vores ”vibernum”, men vi er ikke helt sikre på, om dette er det rigtige navn, eller ej.

Den er ikke én af vores sandelig ondskabsfulde buske, såsom vores ”berberis” og kristtornbuske, som har utroligt prikkende blade og grene. Men denne buske kompenserer for sin mangel på torne ved at gå amok i alle retninger, så snart jeg vender mig om.

Jeg er bange for, at jeg beslutter at behandle busken temmelig brutalt. Jeg håber, at hvis jeg behandler den nådesløst, så vil dette sende et klart budskab til vores andre buske og de vil ikke være så klar til at gå amok næste gang vi er væk hjemmefra.

dagens busk-offer, vores ”såkaldte” vibernum,

efter jeg har straffet den nådesløst

med min magtfulde Gtech-hækkeklipper – ha!

13:30 Lois kommer tilbage og vi spiser frokost, lidt senere, end normalt, og bagefter går vi i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg læser omkring 30 sider af min sengetidbog.

16:30 Vi vælter ud af sengen og slapper af med en kop te og et wienerbrød  i sofaen.

Lois snakker lidt om en artikel, hun læste i dag i ”The Week”. Hun har i årevis haft en fast abonnement på ”The Week”-tidsskriftet, der giver hende en fantastisk oversigt af de vigtigste nyheder verden over, inklusive talrige baggrundsartikler.

Artiklen advarer os til at ”sid mindre, bevæg dig mere, lev længere”. Du behøver ikke at gå på motionscentret for at få gavn fra træning: endda aktiviteter såsom dét, at gå langsomt eller vaske tallerkener kan markant øge en persons levetid, har en undersøgelse opdaget. Forskere fra Norge kiggede for nylig på data om 35.000 mennesker med en gennemsnitlig alder på 63, hvis aktivitetniveauer blev overvåget over seks år.

Enhver motion, uanset hvor let, var forbundet med en væsentlig lavere risiko af død. Forskerne sagde, at budskabet, der kom ud af deres undersøgelse var:" Sid mindre og bevæge sig mere og bevæge sig ofte."

Også...

Optimisme øger levetiden -  folk med optimistiske synspunkter har en tendens til at leve længere end deres mere negative kammerater, har forskere ved Boston University School of Medicine opdaget. Undersøgelsen fortsatte data fra to langvarige undersøgelser af Amerikanere over 60 år: den ene baseret på ​​1.500 mandlige krigsveteraner og den anden på 70.000 kvindelige sygeplejersker.

I starten af ​​begge undersøgelser, havde deltagerne udfyldt spørgeskemaer for at måle, hvor optimistiske de var. De var også blevet spurgt om andre faktorer der sandsynligvis påvirker deres levetid, herunder kost, sundhed og motion.

Analysen af dataene, justeret for at tage hensyn til disse "komplicerende faktorer", afslørede, at de fleste optimistiske deltagere levede 10% til 15% længere i gennemsnit, end de mindst optimistiske, og at de var betydeligt mere tilbøjelig til at leve indtil en alder af 85.

"Sundere adfærd og lavere niveauer af depression forklarer kun delvist vores statistikker, "sagde leadforskeren Dr. Lewina Lee. "Indledende resultater fra andre undersøgelser antyder, at mere optimistiske mennesker har en tendens både til at have mål, og til at have tilliden til at nå dem: de er mere effektiv til problemløsning og de kan være bedre til at regulere deres følelser under stressende situationer. "

Lois og jeg snakker lidt om artiklerne, og kommer til den konklusion, at vi må være mere positive, men først og fremmest dét, at vi må vaske op mere. Det er heldigt at vi ikke har investeret i en opvaskemaskine: det ved vi med sikkerhed.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter sætter Lois til rette i stuen og ser en romcomfilm stjernespækket Hugh Grant og Sandra Bullock.

Romcomfilm er ikke min ting, så i mellemtiden sætter jeg mig med computeren i spisestuen og fortsætte med at designe vores snapfish-fotobøger. Jeg kigger lidt på Facebook og jeg ser at vores datter Alison har lagt nogle charmerende fotoer af familiens udflugt til London i dag på anledning af Josies 13. fødselsdag: de så en forestilling af ”The Worst Witch” på et teater midt i byen.

Vores barnebarn Josies 13. fødselsdag, der inkluderede

en udflugt til London for at se en teaterforestilling.

Hun er iført den Adidas-top, Lois og jeg forærede hende som fødselsdagsgave

21:00 Jeg putter mig ind til Lois i sofaen og vi ser det første af en serie af BBC tv-programmer, der fejrer 50-årsdagen af Monty Python tv-showet. I 1969 kom både Lois og jeg i vores adskillige boliger (vi havde ikke fundet sammen endnu)  til vane med at bliv oppe for at kigge på de tidligste shows: BBC havde ikke mod til at vise dem tidligere, end kl 23.

Vi har begge to vores yndlings-sketches og vi glæder os til at se nogle af dem i de kommende dage/uger. Min personlige yndlings-sketch er dét, der bestod af et tv-interview med den berømte internationale komponist, Arthur ”Two Sheds” Jackson.

Eric Idle (til højre) interviewer den berømte

internationale komponist, Arthur ”Two Sheds” Jackson.

under et BBC tv kunstprogram sent på aftenen

Her ser vi John Cleese, én af showets andre interviewere,

 bortvise Jackson fra showet efter Jackson afviste at tale

om sine rygtede planer om at få et 2. haveskur

Lykkelige tider!

22:30 Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!!