Wednesday October 23 2019

10:00 It's not raining this morning for once, so Lois and I rush out to the vegetable garden to get down and dirty, do a bit of weeding and continue our mini project of putting it to bed for the winter. I concentrate on the so-called "Sector B", adjacent to our neighbour Bob's fence, which includes our "spare rhubarb plant" but otherwise nothing worthwhile that’s still growing. 

After an hour's work on my hands and knees, I declare the sector officially weed-free - hurrah! We come back into the house at 11:30 am and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

It is important that we carefully preserve our "spare rhubarb plant", so that Lois can occasionally make one of her famous rhubarb pies or tarts, which are good for my morale whenever we are going through tough times, I have to say.

One can take it too far, however, when it comes to rhubarb pies - I have to admit. A local resident, Todd Fontaine, got into trouble recently, after the parish council expressed concern over the condition of his tanktop, according to our go-to local news site, the influential Onion News. Fontaine is well known in the local area for his addiction to rhubarb pies.

A Prestbury area tank-top has been subjected to a huge “shit-storm” from local men's clothing spokesmen and women, who say the garment is so severely strained that it is in imminent danger of succumbing to an explosive and potentially dangerous fabric-degradation-related rupture.

According to Edwin Thurley, co-chair of the parish council’s sleeveless clothing sub-committee,  the tank-top, a 1981 horizontally striped, blue-and-white "Kmart Casual", with a vest pocket and double blend of poly / cotton, would not be able to withstand the pressure currently being placed on it by its owner,  and could  "burst without warning at almost any moment."

Despite the turmoil, Fontaine refuses to remove the tank-top, adamant that he has remained within the letter of  the law.

"I believe  I have the right to continue wearing this tank top if I choose, no matter how much weight I may, or may not, have put on", he said, "and by the way, I think I'll just get another helping of rhubarb pie."

Lois and I share Fontaine's love of rhubarb pies, but we tend to think he takes it too far. Just to be on the safe side, we will continue to give him a wide berth next time we see him in any local restaurant – that’s for sure!

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and  take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and sit down with the computer. I compile  a Danish vocabulary list covering pages 110-114 of the Danish crime novel, Anna Grue's "The Further You Fall" - the novel is our U3A Danish group's current project.

Anna Grue's crime novel, "The Further You Fall," which is

our U3A Danish group's current project

I also prepare a vocabulary test, based on the vocabulary list, a test that I want our group members to take in their spare time, at some point before our next group meeting, which will take place on Thursday, November 7th. I am so demanding ha ha ha!

The correct answers to the test spell out one of our favourite stand-up comedian Tim Vine's famous one-line jokes, "I was in this restaurant and I asked for something 'herby.' They gave me a Volkswagen with no driver”. Not one of his best - I have to admit, but I’m going to let that one slide because Tim’s currently going through a very painful period in his life: his radio chat show is taking a 6-week break and he finds it hard not to tell jokes for more than a few minutes at a time ha ha ha!

Incidentally, the correct answers to the test are top secret until 3 pm on November 7, needless to say ha ha ha!

17:30 We have dinner a little earlier than usual, because afterwards we have to go out. Lois wants to attend her sect's monthly business meeting, taking place tonight in Tewkesbury library. She doesn't like driving the car in the dark, so she has asked me to drive her over there. Her friends Alf and Marianne have agreed to drive her home after the meeting and drop her off in front of our house.

20:00 I come home for some alone time. I spend the rest of the evening listening to radio, an interesting programme  dealing with GCHQ's "secret" history (part one of two). The programme's host is the charming Gordon Carera.

An interesting programme revolving around GCHQ's oldest listening post, located just outside the seaside resort of Scarborough. The listening post is the world's oldest and longest-running: it began operations in 1914, with the aim of monitoring the German Navy's radio communications.

I did not know that the listening post was for many years responsible for, inter alia, monitoring Soviet merchant radio communications on behalf  of the 5 close allies, and that’s why it was Scarborough that first discovered, in 1962, that Soviet merchant ships had turned around and begun to sail back to Russia, so as not to challenge  Kennedy's blockade of Cuba.

I myself visited Scarborough in 1973 or thereabouts,  on a business trip, but to be on the safe side I didn't take any photos of the listening post ha ha!

Flashback to 1973: Lois and I on a weekend break in mid-Wales.

See our little car in front of the B&B we stayed in,

- happy times !!!!

22:00 Lois returns from Tewkesbury. I go to bed, but Lois stays up and watches a bit of television - she needs to relax a bit and wind down after tonight's stimulating business meeting: some local resident has apparently died and left  £2000 to the sect's local leadership, which is nice.

I have got into the habit of choosing Lois’s  "wind-down" programme, and tonight I recommend a classic 1960’s movie "A Kind of Loving": a young man (Alan Bates) gets his girlfriend (June Ritchie) pregnant, in a small town in Lancashire, where there are tons of factories of one kind or another. There's a shotgun wedding, followed by a difficult  marital life in the house of June's sharp-tongued mother (Thora Hird). Yikes!

Last week I recommended a similar movie from the 1960's, "Girl with Green Eyes". All of these films (the so-called kitchen sink cinema) created a bit of a sensation in the early 1960’s because they were considered very sexy and daring. But Lois says they seem very tame today: you see couples in bed together, but they just talk, she says.

But it is totally nostalgic to see the old hairstyles etc, for example the old bee-hive hairstyles that were popular back then. Lois and I were both teenagers in the early 1960’s.

Flashback to 1962: Lois, aged 16, 

in Kew Gardens, London, with her father

23:30 Lois finally hops into bed with me. Zzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!

Danish translation: onsdag den 23. oktober 2019

10:00 Det regner ikke i formiddag  for en gangs skyld, så Lois og jeg skynder os ud i grøntsagshaven for at komme ned og beskidt, luge lidt og fortsætte med vores mini-projekt for at putte den i seng til vinteren. Jeg koncentrerer mig om den såkaldte ”sektor B”, der støder på vores nabo Bobs hegn, som inkluderer vores ”reserve-rabarberplante” men derudover ikke noget værdigt, som stadig gror. Efter en times arbejde på hænderne og knæene erklærer jeg området officielt udkrudt-fri – hurra! Vi kommer tilbage ind i huset kl 11:30 og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

Det er vigtigt, at vi bevarer vores ”reserve-rabarberplante” forsigtigt, så Lois engang imellem kan lave én af sine berømte rabarber-pies eller -tærter, som er gode for min moral, når som helst vi er igang med at gå gennem hårde tider, det må jeg nok sige.

Man kan tage overhånd imidlertid, når det kommer til rabarber-pies – det må jeg indrømme. En lokal beboer, Todd Fontaine, rodede sig ind i noget for nylig, efter landsbyens kommune udtrykkede bekymring over tilstanden af hans tanktop, ifølge vores go-to lokale nyhedswebsted, den indflydelsesrige Onion News. Fontaine er velkendt i det lokale område for at blive forfalden til rabarber-pies.

En tanktop i Prestbury-området er blevet udsat for en kæmpe shitstorm fra lokale talsmænd for herretøj, der siger, at tøjet er så hårdt anstrengt, at det er i overhængende fare for at bukke under for en eksplosiv og potentielt farlig stof-nedbrydning-relateret brud.

Ifølge kommunens ærmeløs beklædnings-underudvalg, medformand Edwin Thurley, var tanktoppen, en 1981 vandret stribet, blå-hvid "Kmart Casual" med en vestlomme og dobbelt blanding af poly / bomuld, ikke i stand til at modstå den pres, som i øjeblikket bliver placeret på det af dens ejer og kan "sprænge uden advarsel på næsten ethvert øjeblik."

På trods af uro, nægter Fontaine at fjerne tankpladen, idet han er opmærksom på, at han har overholdt loven til punkt og prikke.

”Jeg tror, jeg har ret til at fortsætte med at bære denne tank top, hvis jeg vælger, uanset hvor meget vægt jeg måske eller måske ikke har taget på,” sagde han. " For resten tænker jeg, at jeg får endnu én portion rabarber-pie."

Lois og jeg deler Fontaines kærligehed til rabarber-pies, men vi har tendens til at synes, at han tager overhånd i en vis grad. Vi vil fortsætte at holde godt klar af ham, næste gang vi ser ham i én eller anden lokal restaurant – det ved vi med sikkerhed!

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og sætter mig med computeren. Jeg udfærdiger en dansk ordforrådliste, der dækker siderne 110-114 af den danske krimiroman, Anna Grues ”Dybt at falde” – romanen er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.

Anna Grues krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”, som er

vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Jeg udarbejder også en ordforrådtest, på grundlag af ordforrådlisten, som jeg vil have vores gruppemedlemmer til at tage i deres fritid, på ét eller andet tidspunkt før vores  næste gruppemøde, der finder sted torsdag den 7. november. Jeg er så krævende ha ha ha!

De korrekte svar til testen staver én af vores yndlings-standup-komiker Tim Vines berømte én-linje vittigheder, ”I was in this restaurant and I asked for something ’herby’. They gave me a Volkswagen with no driver”. Ikke én af hans bedste – det må jeg indrømme, men det springer jeg over, fordi han for tiden går igennem en meget smertefuld periode: hans radio-chatshow tager en 6-ugers pause, og han har svært ved ikke at fortælle vittigheder i mere end et par minutter ha ha ha!

For øvrigt er de korrekte svar til testen tophemmelige indtil kl 15 den 7. november, unødvendigt at sige ha ha ha!

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad lidt tidligere, end normalt, fordi derefter skal vi af sted. Lois ønsker at deltage i sin sekts månedlige forretningsmøde, der finder sted i aften i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek. Hun kan ikke lide at køre bil i mørket, så hun har bedt mig om at køre hende derover. Hendes venner Alf og Marianne har aftalt at køre hende hjem efter endt mødet og sætte hende af foran vores hus.

20:00 Jeg kommer hjem og har lidt alenetid. Jeg bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio, et interessant program, der handler om GCHQs ”hemmelige” historie (1. del af to). Programmets vært er den charmerende Gordon Carera.

Et interessant program, der kredser om GCHQs ældste lyttepost, der ligger lige udenfor badebyen Scarborough. Lytteposten er verdens ældste og mest langvarige: det startede operationer i 1914, med det formål at monitorere den tyske marines radiokommunikationer.

Jeg vidste ikke, at lytteposten var i mange år ansvarlig for, blandt andet, at monitorere sovjetiske handelsskibes radiokommunikationer til fordel for de 5 tætte allierede, og derfor var det Scarborough, der i 1962 først opdagede, at sovjetiske handelsskibe havde vendte sig om og begyndt at sejle tilbage til Rusland som resultat af Kennedys blokade af Cuba.

Jeg selv besøgte Scarborough i 1973 eller deromkring på forretningsrejse, men for en sikkerheds skyld tog jeg ikke nogle fotoer af lytteposten ha ha!

tilbageblik til 1973: Lois og jeg på weekendophold

i det centrale Wales – lykkelige tider!!!!

22:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Tewkesbury. Jeg går i seng, men Lois forbliver oppe og ser lidt fjernsyn – hun trænger til at slappe lidt af og geare ned efter aftenens stimulerende forretningsmøde: en eller anden lokale beboer er tilsyneladende død og testamenteret 2000£ til sektens lokale bestyrelse, hvilket er rart.

Jeg har kommet i vane med at vælge hendes ”nedgearingsprogram”, og i aften har jeg anbefalet en klassiske film fra 1960’erne ”A Kind of Loving”: en ung mand (Alan Bates) gør sin kæreste (June Ritchie) gravid i en lille by i grevskabet Lancashire, hvor der er tonsvis af fabrikker af en eller anden art. Der skal være en hastebryllup, fulgt op med et vanskeligt, ægeskabeligt liv hos Junes skarptungede mor (Thora Hird). Yikes!

Sidste uge anbefalede jeg en lignende film fra 1960’erne, ”Girl with Green Eyes”. Alle disse slags film (den såkaldte køkkenvask-realisme) skabte lidt af en sensation først i 1960’erne, fordi de blev betragtet som meget sexede og dristige. Men Lois siger, de virker meget tamme i dag: man ser kærestepar i sengen, men de snakker bare, siger hun.

Men det er helt nostalgisk at se de gamle frisurer osv, for eksempel den gamle bikube-frisurer, der dengang var populære. Lois og jeg var begge to teenagere først i 1960'erne.

Lois i 1962, på 16 år, i Kew Gardens sammen med sin far

23:30 Lois hopper endelig op i sengen til mig. Zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!