Sunday, September 29 2019

05:00 I get up early and turn on my smartphone. Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia has sent me a text message: Lois and I have the habit of talking on whatsapp with her every Sunday at 9am or so (4pm Perth time), but today Sarah, Francis and their 6-year old twin daughters plan to spend the day kayaking.

She suggests we talk tomorrow instead. Tomorrow is a public holiday in Western Australia, for the Queen's birthday, which is touching.

Tomorrow is a public holiday for the Queen's Birthday

in Western Australia (the black swan, bottom right, is the state's emblem)

08:00 I jump back into bed with Lois and we drink our morning tea.

09:00 We start to see hundreds of runners stream past the house - they are all participating in this year's Cheltenham half marathon.

newsflash from a local news web-site

first the really serious guys show up, and ....

... later, the less serious and ...

... eventually the least serious, which is nice

Local police have declared the half marathon runners route 'safe', as long as participants take 'sensible' precautions, especially in the notorious St Pauls area of the town.

I recently read on my go-to news site, Onion News, that even the notorious Rio Marathon is much safer nowadays than before. Thank God that those really bad days are now a thing of the past!

And isn’t it great that the world is becoming more and more crime-free? That’s something we should celebrate, I believe.

10:00 Lois has to go out. She wants to attend her sect's two worship services taking place today in Tewkesbury library. But first she has to walk around the corner to the local Royal Oak pub where she parked the car last night. We couldn't park the car in front of the house overnight because our road has to be closed today all morning, as part of the arrangements for the half-marathon. What madness !!!!

I have some alone time and get busy crossing off various tasks on my mile-long to-do list: I take out the trash and recycling waste to the backyard, and I iron my shirts, pyjamas and shorts etc. My god, life is hard, no doubt about that !!!!!

11:30 I sit down at the dining table and read another 2 chapters of Njal's saga, written in the 13th century in Iceland, although the saga itself and the events in it are much much older. Scilla's U3A Old Norse group is holding its regular fortnightly meeting here on Wednesday at 2:30 pm, and this saga is the group's current project.

Gunnar, one of the heroes of the saga, is being sued for the killing of several of his neighbours, despite his best friend Njal advising him at some point in the past, never to kill more than one member of any given family.

Unfortunately, Gunnar forgot to follow  Njal's advice, and now he is being sued for multiple killings. A jury made up of 9 of Gunnar's surviving neighbours has been sworn in.

Gunnar is being sued over the killing of several of his neighbours

Whatever the outcome of the court action, it has become inevitable now, I suspect, that one or other of Gunnar's many enemies will finally succeed in killing him - almost all the people in Iceland seem to be planning to bump him off, to put it mildly.

And Njal, Gunnar's best friend, is now advising him never to leave his house without taking along several members of his social circle as "protection" - yikes!

Poor Gunnar !!!!!!

Gunnar (right), seen here with a neighbour in happier times,

i.e. before all the death threats started flowing in

Hliðarende’s lone postwoman, seen here

just about to deliver to Gunnar's house the latest stack of threatening letters

Oh dear! I’m finding it hard work today translating these 2 chapters into English, to put it mildly. And I’m not done with it until 4 pm. I work solidly, apart from a 3 hour break to have lunch and then a gigantic afternoon nap.

16:00 Lois comes back from Tewkesbury and we relax on the couch with a cup of tea and a slice of bread with homemade greengage jam - yum yum!

I take a look at my smartphone. Yesterday I noticed a "for sale" sign in front of the house next door. I do a little research on the net and I see that the price is £470,000 - my god, what madness !!! It’s true, however, that the house has been modernised much more than ours, with a combined kitchen-dining-living room-area in the modern style, and a master bedroom with en-suite bathroom, and separate family bathroom, etc. Also, the backyard over there is more "low maintenance", to put it mildly. I doubt that our house could attract such a price, I must say.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television. An interesting documentary is on, all about a new "pyramid" that has been discovered in Egypt: in fact, the walls of the "pyramid" have all disappeared, which is a bit of a shame, and only the tomb that lay beneath the pyramid is still preserved, and appears to be completely intact, which seems strange, to put it mildly.

Interesting programme, but it’s unfortunately yet another Channel Four documentary that lasts 60 minutes (including adverts) but only contains approx. 15 minutes of information.

It seems that after massive efforts, the archaeologists have managed to break into this newly-discovered tomb, but they find that the body and all the jewellery etc have been removed. The tomb and pyramid were designed to preserve a dead princess, Hatstepsut, who died 3,700 years ago.

The tomb of a princess which has lost

the pyramid that once covered it over - what madness !!!!

It is not unusual for Egyptian tombs to be robbed and looted, but this case is slightly different from the norm - the crime was committed before the tomb was sealed, and must have required the priest himself to take part in the robbery - in other words, a “bent”,  or corrupt, priest.

Good grief, what a dishonest, crime-ridden world we live in !!!!!

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

Danish translation: søndag den 29. september 2019

05:00 Jeg står tidligt op og tænder for min smartphone. Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien har sendt mig en sms: Lois og jeg har for vane at tale på whatsapp med hende hver søndag kl 9 eller deromkring (kl 16 Perth tid), men i dag planlægger hun, Francis og deres 6-årige tvillingedøtre at bruge dagen på kajakroning.

Hun foreslår, at vi taler i morgen i stedet for. I morgen er en hellidag i Western Australia:  på anledning af dronningens fødselsdag, hvilket er rørende.

08:00 Jeg hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté.

09:00 Vi begynder at se hundredvis af løbere suse forbi huset – de deltager alle i dette års Cheltenham halvmaraton.

først dukker de helt seriøse fyre sig op, og....

...senere, de mindre seriøse og...

...til sidst de mindst seriøse

Det lokale politi har erklæret halvmaratonløbernes rute til at være ”sikkert”, så længe deltagerne tager ”fornuftige” forholdsregler, især i det notoriske St Pauls-område.

Jeg læste for nylig på min go-to nyhedswebsted, Onion News, at selv den notoriske Rio-maraton nu til dags er meget mere sikkrere, end før. Gudskelov, at de der virkelig dårlige dage nu er en ting af fortiden!

10:00 Lois skal af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts to gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek. Først skal hun går rundt om hjørnet til den lokale Royal Oak-pub, hvor hun parkerede bilen i går aftes. Vi kunne ikke parkere bilen foran huset fordi vejen skal lukkes i dag hele formiddagen, som en del af forberedelsene på maratonløbet. Sikke et vanvid!!!!

Jeg har lidt alenetid og går i gang med at strege forskellige opgaver på min mile-lange gøremålsliste: jeg tager affaldet og genbrugsaffaldet ud i baghaven, og jeg stryger mine skjorter, pyjamas og shorts. Du godeste, livet er hårdt, ingen tvivl om det!!!!!

11:30 Jeg sætter mig ved spisebordet og læser endnu 2 kapitler af Njals saga, skrevet i det 13. århundrede i Island, selvom selve sagaen og begivenhederne derinde er meget meget ældre. Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige fjortendagsmøde på onsdag kl 14:30 hos os og denne saga er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Gunnar, én af sagaens helte, blivet sagsøget for drabet af flere af sine naboer, på trods af, at hans bedste ven Njal før i tiden rådede ham, aldrig til at dræbe samtidig flere end én medlem af nogen given familie.

Desværre glemte Gunnar at følge Njals råd, og nu bliver han sagsøget for flere drab, og en jury bestående af 9 af Gunnars naboer er blevet taget i ed -  yikes!

Gunnar bliver sagsøget for drabet af flere af sine naboer – yikes!

Det er blevet begyndt at virke uundgåeligt nu, at det snart vil lykkes én eller anden af Gunnars mange fjender endelig at dræbe ham – det virker næsten, at alle de mennesker i Island planlægger at slå ham ihjel, for at sige mildt. Og Njal, Gunnars bedste ven, råder ham ikke til at rejse hjemmefra, uden at han tage flere medlemmer af sin omgangskreds med, som ”beskyttelse”– yikes!

Stakkels Gunnar !!!!!!

Gunnar, set her i lykkeligere tider,

før dødtruslerne startede at strømme ind

Hliðarendeis kvindelige postbud, set her

lige ved at levere til Gunnars hus den seneste stak af truende breve

Det er hårdt arbejde i dag for mig at oversætte de 2 kapitler til engelsk, for at sige mildt. Og jeg er ikke færdig med mit hjemmearbejde indtil 16. Jeg arbejder solidt, bortset fra, at jeg tog en pause for at spise frokost og tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

16:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Tewkesbury og vi slapper af i sofaen med en kop te og et stykke brød med hjemmelavet reineclaude marmelade – yum yum!

Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone. I går lagde jeg mærke til et ”til salg” skilt foran nabohuset. Jeg gør lidt forskning på nettet, og jeg ser, at prisen er 470.000£ - du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Men huset er blevet moderniseret meget mere, end vores, med et kombineret køkken-spiseområde-stueområde efter den moderne stil, og et mestersoveværelse med en-suite badeværelse, og adskilt familiebadeværelse osv. Også baghaven derovre er mere ”low maintenance”, for at sige mildt.  Jeg tvivler på, at vores hus kunne tiltrække sådan en pris, det må jeg nok sige.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om en ny ”pyramide”, der er blevet opdaget i Egypten: faktisk er pyramidens murerne forsvundet, hvilket er lidt af en skam, og kun gravet, der lå under pyramiden,  er stadig i behold, hvilket virker mærkeligt, for at sige mildt.

Interessant, men endnu et Channel Four-dokumentarfilm, der varer 60 minutter, men indeholder kun ca. 15 minutters oplysninger.

Arkæologerne formår efter massive indsatser at bryde ind i gravet, men de finder ud af, at kroppen og alle de smykker osv er blevet fjernet. Gravet og pyramiden blev designet til at bevare en død princesse, Hatstepsut, for 3.700 år siden.

en princesses grav, der har mistet

den pyramide, der engang dækkede det – sikke et vanvid!!!!

Det er ikke usædvanligt, at egyptiske grav blev røvet og plyndret, men dette tilfælde er lidt anderledes, end normen – forbrydelsen blev begået, før gravet blev forseglet, og må have krævet at selve præsten deltog i røveriet – en korrupt præst med andre ord. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzz!!!!!