09:30 Lois and I are preparing to head into town this
morning, and are just about to leave when we get a series of 3 whatsapp calls
from Australia. But when I answer the call, I hear only silence on the other
end of the line, and a little later, a lot of giggling. I’m guessing that our
6-year-old twin grandchildren have grabbed our daughter Sarah's cell phone and
have clicked on my picture on Sarah’s whatsapp homepage, although they are too shy
to talk to me!
How sweet they are though – my goodness - they just make my day ha ha
ha!
whatsapp missedcalls
Flashback to 2018 and our most recent visit
to Sarah and her family -
Lois (right), with Jessie (left) and Lily,
Sarah's twins, then 5 years old
09:35 We take the bus into town. Coincidentally, our neighbour 2 doors away, Stephen, is also on the bus. He tells us that the government's regional planning committee in Bristol has approved a building firm's plans to build 6 new houses right next to Stephen's house, despite the protests of all Stephen's neighbours, including Lois and me, and the local council. They are such jerks, those regional planning committees!
The site was our old doctor's surgery until January, but the doctors decided to have the surgery demolished so they could sell the land. They are such bastards, those doctors!
On top of that, Stephen tells us on the bus that he recently spotted a demolition company van that had come to investigate the place. Damn! I predict months (years?) filled with noise and dust and illegally parked lorries, while the existing surgery building is demolished and the new houses are built. Damn (again) !!!!!
09:45 We take the bus into town and pop into the HSBC
bank. The legal firm that took care of the sale of our daughter Sarah's
apartment in Cheltenham about 5 years ago, has finally sent her a cheque for £250,
a sum which they withheld from her at the time for some reason: what madness
!!! Sarah moved to Australia 4 years ago, along with Francis and their twin
daughters.
The site was our old doctor's surgery until January, but the doctors decided to have the surgery demolished so they could sell the land. They are such bastards, those doctors!
On top of that, Stephen tells us on the bus that he recently spotted a demolition company van that had come to investigate the place. Damn! I predict months (years?) filled with noise and dust and illegally parked lorries, while the existing surgery building is demolished and the new houses are built. Damn (again) !!!!!
Flashback to January: our doctors close the old surgery,
and move into a new one 5 miles away from here
The doctors' plans to tear down the old surgery
and get 6 new houses built on the site
My goodness - they are such jerks, those doctors !!!!
I pay the cheque into to Sarah's account and afterwards
ask for a new pocket-code-generating device - my old one is broken unfortunately.
I was not very impressed with the bank's efficiency, to put it mildly: just carrying out these two tasks (Sarah's
cheque and my new pocket unit) takes at least 45 minutes, which is a bit
ridiculous - what a crazy world we live in! !!!
The bank in the middle of Cheltenham, where Sarah has her UK account
The bank only has 2 "windows" with cashiers
behind them - the bank is constantly trying to force customers to use their various
machines, their "automated tellers", rather than having the staff
themselves help them. They are such bastards, those banks !!!!
the bank from the inside: with those damned ”automatic tellers” on the right
10:30 We head into the Marks & Spencer department
store to buy vegetables, also some birthday cards, and afterwards we take the
bus home. We relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.
12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a
gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois goes around the corner to the local
library to help the library staff organise and lead their weekly "Baby
Bounce & Rhyme" session for local young children and their mothers
(and grandparents). In these sessions, the mothers and children sit in a
circle, and the librarian and Lois, the volunteer “assistant,” sit with them
all, choosing and leading the children's
songs.
15:00 I get up and hurry out into the backyard. There is
an unexpected break in the afternoon's almost constant rain - I collect the
piles of cut hedge branches from the week's gardening and stuff them into a
large green sack just in time before it starts raining again.
15:30 Lois comes back from the library, a little
exhausted, to put it mildly. She says that for the first time she had to lead
the library's "mothers-and-children" session herself, because the
librarian, who usually leads, could not leave her normal duties for some
reason. So Lois was forced to take charge, choose and lead the songs, etc.: she
says she spoke in a loud, commanding voice and without pauses, so that the
mothers did not have the chance to start chatting to each other too much, which
is always a bit of a problem in these Baby Bounce sessions.
Bravo Lois – atta girl! I like a masterful woman
ha ha!
the local library: a typical Baby Bounce
& Rhyme session in progress
16:00 We relax on the couch with a cup of tea, and a
piece of bread and homemade gooseberry jam - yum yum! We listen to the radio for
a bit, an interesting programme in the series "The Last Word".
Lois and I have gotten into the habit of hearing this
program every week because we want to find out if anyone has died in the last
1-4 weeks or not (I've noticed that most weeks there are only 4- 5 deaths,
which is quite comforting, to put it mildly). The programme's host is the
charming Matthew Bannister.
Su Beng died recently, unfortunately. He spent his life
on various military and guerrilla campaigns: fighting was his whole life, his
obsession, ever since falling out of his cradle. He fought the Japanese when
they were the occupying power in China; he fought for, and later against, Chairman Mao
in China, and against Chiang-Kai-shek in Taiwan.
He just loved to fight and topple regimes, and that kind
of thing! What a crazy man!
Lois and I did not know, however, that Beng, during his
long life as a guerrilla and rebel, had a bit of a "career break" for
a couple of years when he opened a restaurant in Japan where customers could sample
Beng’s own "take" on Chinese noodles and dumplings: he saw a gap in
the market and grabbed the opportunity with both hands, and the restaurant was
very successful - kudos, Beng!
But I suppose he must have finally got tired of his busy
new life as a restaurateur, and he in fact went back to fighting and toppling
regimes, etc., which after all was his "first love".
What a crazy world we live in !!!!
Su Beng - a recent photo: seen here at his
100th birthday party,
showcasing his best-selling autobiography
18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening
watching a bit of television. We see another episode in a Channel 5 documentary series about the
Tower of London.
Lois and I did not know that the Tower complex also
housed, until recently a mini-zoo, dating from the 13th century, right up till
the 1830’s. It contained lions, tigers, baboons, an elephant and even a polar
bear.
The polar bear was a gift from the King of Norway, in
1252. It was kept on a leash, and allowed to catch fish in the River Thames. My
goodness, what a crazy world they lived in in those times !!!
We also get an idea tonight of how hot it must have been
in the castle's kitchens under Henry VIII: there were 6 large fires that burned
1.7 million logs a year. It must have been very very hot inside the kitchens, so
hot in fact, according to tonight’s programme, that the men and women who
worked in there got into the habit of taking their clothes off whilst doing the cooking,
until King Henry eventually stopped the practice.
Bravo, Your Majesty! Lois and I suspect that, despite his
6 wives and dozens of mistresses, Henry was actually more of a "new man" than we sometimes give him credit for. He was obviously very aware of
the risks of the problems that an 16th century "metoo" movement might have
caused him.
Kudos, Your Majesty ha ha ha!
21:00 We continue to watch a bit of television: the latest
episode of Gogglebox, a fun programme where various TV viewers watch some of
the week's programmes and comment on them from their couches and armchairs,
etc.
Tonight we see the Googlebox series participants watching
a news item about Prince Harry and Meghan who, in separate actions, have
decided to sue a number of national newspapers.
So nice to see the Goggleboxers still with their fingers
firmly on the pulse, as usual!
22:00 We go to bed - we have to get up early in the
morning to visit our new doctor's surgery and get our annual flu shot, along with
all the other local old crows - zzzzzz !!!!
Danish
translation: fredag den 11. oktober 2019
09:30 Lois og
jeg forbereder os til at smutte ind i byen i formiddag, og er ved at tage af
sted, da vi får en række af 3 whatsapp-opkald fra Australien. Men når jeg
besvarer opkaldet, hører jeg kun tavshed i den anden ende af linjen, og lidt
efter, en masse fnisen. Jeg gætter, vores 6-årige tvillingebørnebørn har
snuppet vores datter Sarahs mobiltelefon og har klikket på mit billede på den
whatsapp-hjemmeside, selvom de er for generte til at tale med mig! Hvor er de
dog søde - du godeste – de laver min dag ha ha ha!
tilbageblik
til 2018 og vores seneste besøg hos Sarah og hendes familie -
Lois,
med Jessie (til venstre) og Lily, Sarahs nu 6-årige tvillinger
09:35 Vi tager
bussen ind i byen. Tilfædigvis er vores nabo 2 døre væk, Stephen, også i
bussen. Han fortæller os, at regeringens regionale planlægningsudvalg i Bristol
har godkendt et bygningsfirmas planer om, at bygge 6 nye huser umiddelbart ved
siden af Stephens hus, på trods af protesterne af alle Stephens naboer,
inklusive Lois og mig, og den lokale kommune. De er sådanne nogle sjufter, de
der regionale planlægninsudvalg!
Lokalet var indtil januar
vores lægehus, men lægerne besluttede at få lægehus revet ned, så de kunne
sælge jorden. De er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger!
Oven i købet fortæller
Stephen os i bussen, at han forleden fik øje på en nedrivningsfirmas vogn, der
var kommet for at undersøge stedet. Pokkers! Jeg forudser måneder (år?)
propfyldt af støj og støve, mens det eksisterende lægehus bliver revet ned, og de nye hus bliver
bygget. Pokkers (igen) !!!!!
Tilbageblik til januar: lægerne
lukker det gamle lægehus,
og
flytter ind i et nye 5 miles væk herfra
Lægernes
planer om at reve det gamle lægehus ned
og
få 6 nye huse bygget på jorden
Du
godeste – de er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der læger !!!!
Jeg sætter
checken ind på Sarahs konto, og bagefter beder jeg om en ny
lomme-kode-frembringende enhed – min gamle er desværre gået i stykker. Jeg var
ikke særlig imponeret med bankens effektivhed, for at sige mildt: det, at klare
to opgaver (Sarahs check og min nye lommeenhed) tager mindst 45 minutter,
hvilket er lidt latterligt for at sige mildt – sikke en skør verden vi lever i
!!!!
Den
bank, hvor Sarah har sit britiske konto
Banken har kun
2 ”vinduer” med kasserere bag dem – banken prøver konstant at tvinge kunderne
til at bruge deres forskellige maskiner, deres "automatiske
kasserere", i stedet for at få
selve personalet til at hjælpe dem. De er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der
banker!!!!
banken
indefra: med de fordømte ”automatiske kasserere til højre
10:30 Vi
smutter ind i Marks & Spencer-stormagasinet for at købe grøntsager, også
nogle fødselsdagskort, og bagefter tager vi bussen hjem. Vi slapper af med en
kop kaffe i sofaen.
12:00 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.
I mellemtiden går Lois rundt om hjørnet til det lokale bibliotek for at hjælpe
bibliotekets personale til at organisere og lede deres ugentlige ”Baby Bounce
& Rhyme” session for lokale unge børn og deres mødre (og bedsteforældre). I
disse sessioner sidder mødrene og børnene i en cirkel, og bibliotekaren og
Lois, den frivillige ”assistent”, sidder med dem alle, og vælger og leder
børnesangene.
15:00 Jeg står
op og skynder mig ud i baghaven. Der er en uforventet pause i
eftermiddagens næsten konstant regnvejr
- jeg samler de bunkevis af klippede hækkegrene fra ugens havearbejde og proppe
dem ind i en stor grøn sæk, lige i tide, før det begynder at regne igen.
15:30 Lois
kommer tilbage fra biblioteket, lidt udmattet, for at sige mildt. Hun siger, at
hun for første gang skulle selv lede bibliotekets ”mødre-og-børn” session,
fordi bibliotekaren, der sædvanligt fører an, ikke kunne forlade sine normale
pligter af en eller anden grund. Så blev Lois tvunget til at have kommandoen, vælge
og lede sangene osv: hun siger, hun talte altid med en høj, bydende stemme og
uden pauser, så mødrene ikke havde chancen for at begynde at snakke mellem sig
for meget, hvilket altid er lidt af et problem i disse Baby Bounce-sessioner.
Bravo Lois –
sådan skal det være! Jeg kan godt lide en myndig kvinde ha ha!
det
lokale bibliotek: en typisk Baby Bounce & Rhyme-session er i færd
16:00 Vi
slapper af i sofaen med en kop te og et stykke brød med hjemmelavet
stikkelsbær-marmelade – yum yum! Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i
serien ”Det sidste ord”.
Lois og jeg er
kommet i vane med at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud
af, om nogen i de seneste 1-4 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de
fleste uger kun sker 4-5 dødsfald, hvilket er lidt trøstende, for at sige
mildt). Programmets vært er den charmerende Matthew Bannister.
Su Beng døde desværre
for nylig. Han brugte sit liv på forskellige militære og guerilla-kampagner: at
kæmpe var hele hans liv, hans tvangstanke, siden han faldt ud af sin vugge. Han
kæmpede mode de japanerne, da de var besættelsesmagten i Kina, han kæmpende
for, og senere imod, Formand Mao i Kina, og mod Chiang-Kai-shek i Taiwan.
Han elskede
bare at kæmpe og styrte regimer, og den slags! Sikke en vanvittig mand!
Men Lois og
jeg vidste ikke imidlertid, at Beng, i løbet af sit lange liv som guerilla og
oprører, tog lidt af en ”karriere-pause” i et par år, da han åbnede en
restaurant i Japan, hvor man kunne spise Bengs eget ”take” på kinesiske nudler
og melboller: han så et hul i markedet og greb muligheden med begge hænder, or
restauranten var meget succésfuld – ros til dig, Beng!
Men jeg
formoder, at han endelig blev træt af sit travlte liv som restauratør, og gik
tilbage til dét, at kæmpe, styrte regimer osv, hvilket trods alt var sin
”første kærlighed”.
Sikke en skør
verden vi lever i !!!!
Su
Beng – et nyligt foto: set her til sin 100. fødselsdagsfest,
i
gang med at fremvise sin bedstsælgende-autobiografi
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Vi ser et
afsnit i en Channel 5 dokumentarserie, der handler om Tower of London.
Lois og jeg
vidste ikke, at komplekset husede også indtil for nylig en mini-zoologisk have,
der daterede fra det 13. århundrede og deromkring, indtil 1830’erne. Det
indeholdt løver, tigre, bavianer, en elefant og endda en isbjørn.
Isbjørnet var
en gave fra den norske konge, i 1252. Det var beholdt på en læsse, og tilladt
at fange fisk i floden Thames. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden, de leved i de
der tider!!!
Vi ser også i
aften, hvor varmt det må have været i slottets køkkener: der var 6 store ilder,
som brændede 1,7 millioner tømmerstokke om året. Det må have været meget meget
varmt inde i køkkener, så varmt faktisk, at mændene og kvinderne, der arbejdede
derinde, kom i vane med at smide tøjet under madlavning, indtil kong Henrik
stoppede dem.
Bravo, din
majestæt! Lois og jeg mistænker, at Henrik, på trods af sine 6 koner og
dusindvis af elskerinder, faktisk var mere
af en ”moderne mand”, end vi nogle gange giver ham ære for! Han var sandlygvis
meget klar over, risikoerne for problemerne, en tidlig ”metoo”-bevægelse kunne
have voldt for ham.
Ros til dig,
din majestæt ha ha ha!
21:00 Vi
fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit af Gogglebox, et morsomt program, hvor forskellige tv-seerne
ser på nogle af ugens programmer og kommenterer dem i deres sofaer og lænestole
osv.
Vi ser
Googlebox-seriens deltagere i gang med at se på en nyhedsprogram om prins Harry
og Meghan, der, i adskilte processer har besluttet at sagsøge en række
landsdækkende aviser.
22:00 Vi går i
seng – vi må stå tidligt op i morgen, for at besøge vores nye lægehus og få vores årlige
influenzaskud, sammen med alle de andre lokale gamle krager – zzzzzz!!!!
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