Thursday October 24 2019

10:00 We drive over to the small town of Bishop's Cleeve to shop at the local Tesco supermarket. On the way, we head into the post office to buy two copies of "Peter Rabbit" children's magazine, which we then ship on the spot to our 6-year-old twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessie, in Perth, Australia.

Afterwards we drive a little further to the Court Farm farm-shop, to buy fruit, vegetables, bread, meat and cheese: Court Farm has removed all plastic packaging from their fruits and vegetables, which is nice to see.

Flashback to July:  the Court Farm farm-shop in happier times, in summer

July: after loading our food items into our car boot, 

we ordered a relaxed cup of coffee

Then, out back we visited the farm's locally famous sow, 

Flora, and her (11?) piglets

the sight reminded us both of July 2013, 6 years earlier: our twin grandchildren

Lily and Jessie in Gloucester Hospital, only 1 day old.

The twins today, with their mother, our daughter Sarah (42),

at a zoo near the family home in Perth, Australia

11:30 We return home and Lois's Jehovah's Witness friend is waiting for us out front, but fortunately she just came to say sorry, because she hasn’t been round recently to talk to Lois, due to some health problem or other. She doesn't want to stop us carrying our food-shopping into the house, she says. She leaves with a promise to hopefully see Lois next week.

Lois' sect and the Jehovah's Witnesses both believe in the infallibility of the Bible as God's word, but they interpret the text differently in many cases. The Witnesses believe in a physical hell and a physical devil, for example, while Lois's sect believes that both concepts are metaphorical.

However, they enjoy talking to each other - and for the woman, it must definitely be a relief to talk to someone who knows the Bible well, instead of most of the people whose doorbell she rings as she walks around the neighbourhood - I have no doubts about that.

However, I tip Lois off that the woman will probably at some point in the future be hoping to convert Lois to her own beliefs - and she always leaves a copy of the Watchtower magazine with us so Lois can browse it before her next visit.

 typical editions of the "Watchtower" magazine

Christians have a duty to convert others and spread their faith, and I always assumed it must be the same with other religions until I saw an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm":- we see Larry complaining about this Christian “duty”, a contrast to the Jews, who don't give a damn whether you convert to Judaism or not.

12:00 Lois and I relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa. We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and we hop into the shower cubicle, but we forgot that our central heating doesn't heat the water between noon and 4 pm, so unfortunately the shower water gets a little too cold before we're done - damn! Brrrrrrrr !!!!!

One of our acquaintances, Marshall Bregman, has a few tips for his friends and neighbours when they get into that kind of situation. In fact, he doesn't talk about anything else if you say hi to him in one of the village's 3 pubs. His interest in lukewarm showers caught the attention of local journalists, and for a brief period he hit the headlines around the world (source - our go-to news site, the influential Onion News).

Resigning himself to his lukewarm fate, local man Marshall Bregman was at last coming to terms with the fact that his shower wouldn't get any hotter, sources claimed Friday.

"I didn’t want to believe it, but it's clear to me now that this shower is as hot as it will ever be," Bregman said, adding that it was pointless to wonder why, when he was powerless to effect any change.

“I tried everything from turning the dial all the way to giving it a good 10 minutes to get nice and steamy, but it's definitely not happening. You can only stand under the shower head and try to detect an increase in temperature for so long, before you have no choice but to fully accept the situation. If nothing else, there is a kind of peace that comes with acceptance. ”

At press time, Bregman was giving the shower another minute to warm up.

What madness! But Bregman has his supporters in the village, no doubt about it. However Lois and I think Bregman's strong beliefs tend to create divisions among the village's most prominent citizens, which is not so good. Others, however, think the controversy is good for the village overall, and is generating a healthy debate. So Lois and I aren't entirely sure - the jury is still out on that one.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the evening watching some television, an interesting documentary about the problem of the plastic that is everywhere in our modern life. The programme's host is the charming Lucy Siegle.

Yet another scary programme about plastic. Our plastic packaging ends up in the sea where fish eat it, and later we eat the fish - yikes! There are micro-plastic particles in the air we breathe in our homes, from all the plastic tubs etc we use and the plastic in the clothes we wear and effects of their laundry - yikes, that plastic gets everywhere !!!!!

And then these micro-plastic particles get into our lungs and destroy our immune cells - yikes (again) !!!!

Lois and I wonder if we could ever manage without storing uneaten food in plastic tubs in the fridge, for example. Do we have to throw away our synthetic clothes and wear only wool and cotton, and only keep cardboard containers in the fridge for example?

Are our carpets synthetic? We don’t know. It may be that we have to "go modern", throw out all our lovely soft carpets and put up with a load of uncomfortable hardwood floors, like all the young people have. Scary!!!!

We get all our milk in glass bottles from the milkman now, and we plan to give up tea bags and coffee bags when we've used up our currents myriad stacks of them - but where will it all end?  What madness it all is !!! Plastic used to be our friend !!!!!

20:00 We continue to watch some television, the latest episode of Grand Designs. The programme's host is the charming Kevin McCloud.

"Grand Designs" is the series I first and foremost love to hate, because I hate these huge modern houses with their huge echoing half-empty living rooms, uncomfortable sofas which are too deep to sit on (one can only lie, half-lie or half-sit), massive heavy dining tables and chairs, massively high ceilings (double-height), etc. The houses always look more like industrial complexes, a power plant, or a company's headquarters, than homes in my opinion.

Tonight's episode is no exception. We see 5 horrible new houses, all of which are candidates to be named "House of the Year" by RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).

My god, what a crazy world we live in !!! The very opposite of “hygge” and cosiness. It must be like living in a warehouse - yuck !!!!

22:00 We go to bed.

23:45 Lois can't sleep and she wakes me up unfortunately. I read about 20 pages of my bedtime book before we both drift off to sleep again - zzzzzzzzz !!!!! We must stop watching these programmes about plastic ha ha ha!

  

Danish translation

10:00 Vi kører over til den lille by Bishops Cleeve for at købe ind i det lokale Tesco-supermarked. På vej smutter vi ind i postkontoret for at købe to eksemplarer af ”Peter Rabbit”-børnemagasin, som vi afsender på stedet til vores 6-årige tvillingebørnebørn, Lily og Jessie, i Perth, Australien. Bagefter kører vi lidt videre til Court Farm gårdbutik, for at købe frugt, grøntsager, brød, kød og ost: Court Farm har fjernet al plastik emballage fra deres frugt og grøntsager, hvilket er rart at se.

Tilbageblik til juli: Court Farm-gårdbutik i lykkeligere tider, om sommeren

Efter at læsse fodevarerne i bilens bagagerum, bestillede vi en afslappet kop kaffe

Bagefter besøgte vi gårdens lokalt berømte so, Flora, og hendes (11?) smågrise

synet mindede os begge to om juli 2013, 6 år tidligere: vores tvillingebørnebørn

Lily og Jessie i Gloucester-hospitalet, kun 1 dag gamle.

Tvillingerne i dag, med deres mor, vores datter Sarah (42)

på en zoologiske have nær familiens hjem i Perth, Australien

11:30 Vi kommer hjem og Lois’ jehovas vidner-veninde venter på os foran huset, men heldigvis er hun bare kommet for at sige undskyld, fordi hun for nylig ikke er kommet for at snakke med Lois, på grund af ét eller andet sundhedsproblem. Hun har ikke lyst til at stoppe os i at fortsætte med at bære vores fødevarer ind i huset, siger hun. Hun tager af sted med en løfte om forhåbentlig at se Lois næste uge.

Lois’ sekt og jehovas vidnere tror begge på bibelens ufejlbarlighed, som Guds ord, men de fortolker teksten anderledes i mange tilfælde. Vidnerne tror på en fysisk helvede og en fysisk djævel, for eksempel, mens Lois’ sekt tror, at begge begreber er metaforiske.

Men de nyder imidlertid at snakke med hinanden – og for kvinden er det helt sikkert lidt af en lettelse at snakke med én, der kender bibelen godt, i stedet for de fleste mennesker, hvis dørklokke hun ringer på, mens hun går rundt i nabolaget – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om.

Jeg advarer Lois imidlertid, at kvinden sandsynligvis på ét eller andet tidspunkt i fremtiden håber at konvertere Lois til sine egne tro – og hun efterlader altid et eksemplar af ”Watchtower”-magasinet hos os, så Lois kan blade det igennem før hendes næste besøg.

Kristne har en pligt til at konvertere andre og sprede deres tro, og jeg antog altid, at det må være det samme med andre religioner, indtil jeg så et afsnit af ”Curb Your Enthusiasm”, hvor Larry brokker sig over denne kristne pligt, som er i modsætning til  jøderne, der er revnende ligeglade med, om du konverterer til judaisme eller ej, hvilket er en forfriskende forandring.

typiske udgaver af ”Watchtower”-magasinet

12:00 Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og vi hopper op i brusekabinen, men vi har glemt at vores centralvarme ikke varmer vanden mellem kl 12 og kl 16, så brusevandet desværre bliver lidt for koldt før vi er færdige – pokkers! Brrrrrrrr!!!!!

En af vores bekendte, Marshall Bregman har et par råd for sine venner og naboer, hvis kommer i den slags situation. Faktisk taler han ikke om noget andet, hvis du siger hej til ham i en eller anden af landsbyen 3 pubber. Hans interesse for lunkne brusebad fik opmærksomheden af lokale journalister, og han ramte i en kort periode overskrifterne hele verden rundt (kilde – vores go-to nyhedswebsted, den indflydelsesrige Onion News).

En lokal mand, Marshall Bregman, forsonede sig til sidst med det faktum, at hans brusebad ikke ville blive varmere, sagde kilder fredag.

”Jeg ville ikke tro det, men det er nu klart for mig, at dette brusebad er så varmt, som det nogensinde vil blive,” sagde Bregman og tilføjede, at det var meningsløst at undre sig over hvorfor, da han var magtesløs til at udføre nogen ændring .

”Jeg prøvede alt fra dét, at dreje drejeknappen hele vejen rundt,  til dét, at give den gode 10 minutter for at blive dejlig  og dampende, men det er bestemt ikke at ske. Du kan kun stå under vandhanen og prøve at opdage en stigning i temperaturen i så længe, før du ikke har andet valg end at acceptere situationen fuldt. Hvis ikke andet, er der en slags fred, der kommer med accept.”

På pressetid gav Bregman brusebadet endnu ét minut til at varme op.

Sikke et vanvid! Men Bregman har sine tilhængere i landsbyen, ingen tvivl om det. Men Lois og jeg synes, at Bregmans stærke tro har tendens til at skabe splittelser blandt landsbyens mest fremtrædende borgere, hvilket ikke er ret godt. Andre synes, imidlertid, at kontroversen er god for landsbyen i det hele taget, og generer en sund debat. Så derfor er Lois og jeg ikke helt sikre på det hele – juryen er stadig ude om det.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om problemet af den plastik, der er overalt i vores moderne liv. Programmets vært er den charmerende Lucy Siegle.

Endnu ét skræmmende program om plastik. Vores plastikemballage munder  ud i havet, hvor fisk spiser den, og vi senere spiser fiskene – yikes! Der er mikroplastikpartikler i luften i vores huser, fra alle den plastik baljer osv, vi bruger, og plastikken i tøjet vi bærer – yikes, den der plastik er overalt!!!!!

Og disse mikroplastikpartikler kommer ind i vores lunger og ødelægger vores immunceller - yikes (igen) !!!!

Lois og jeg spekulerer på, om vi nogensinde kunne klare os uden at opbevare uspist mad i plasticbøtter i køleskabet, for eksempel. Bliver vi nødt til at smide vores syntetiske tøj væk og have kun uld og bomuld på, og have kun træbøtter i køleskabet for eksempel?

Er vores gulvtæpper syntetiske? Det ved vi ikke. Det kan være, at vi bliver nødt til at "gå moderne", smide vores gulvtæpper ud og have ukomfortable trægulver, som alle de unge mennesker gør. Skræmmende!!!!

20:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit af Grand Designs. Programmets vært er den charmerende Kevin McCloud.

”Grand Designs” er den serie jeg først og fremmest elsker at hade, fordi jeg hader disse enorme moderne huse med deres enorme ekkoende halv-tomme stuer, ukomfortable sofaer, for dybe til at sidde på (man kan kun ligger, halvt-ligger eller halvt sidder), massive tunge spiseborde og stole, massivt høje lofter (dobbelt-højde) osv.  Husene ligner altid mere industrielle komplekser, et kraftværk, eller et selskabs hovedkontor, end hjem efter min mening.

Aftenens afsnit er ikke nogen undtagelse. Vi ser 5 horrible nye huse, der alle er kandidater til at blive navnet ”årets hus” af RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!  Det helt modsatte af hygge og hyggelighed. Det må være ligesom et bo i et lager – yuk!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng.

23:45 Lois kan ikke sove, og hun vækker mig desværre. Jeg læser omkring 20 sider af min sengetidbog, før vi begge to glider over i søvnen igen – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!