09:00 Lois and I stay lying in bed again - she stayed up
until midnight last night watching a comedy film on television: "The
Lovers" (1973), based on a 1970’s sitcom, and she does not want to start
the day off too soon.
The "Lovers" tv-sitcom from
the 1970’s
Paula Wilcox and Richard Beckinsale
during filming of the movie, which came out in 1973
11:00 Lois rushes out into the backyard to pick
raspberries and do a bit of weeding in the vegetable garden. In the meantime, I
start to vacuum all over the house - our U3A Danish group will be gathering here tomorrow afternoon and we don't want them
to think we live like pigs ha ha ha!
12:30 We are just sitting ourselves down at the dinner table
when we get a text message from Sarah, our 42-year-old daughter, who lives in
Perth, Australia with her husband and their 6-year-old twins. She asks us if I
or Lois have any knowledge of gallstone problems in our families - yikes! (Our
answer was no, for both of us).
A few weeks ago, Sarah was admitted to the local hospital
because her doctor suspected she had appendicitis, although the hospital came
to the conclusion that she was "simply" suffering from diverticulitis, and a special diet seemed to solve the
problem. But the problem may have arisen again, because Sarah was on sick
leave today and she is currently waiting for the results of new tests.
Poor Sarah! That’s why, you see, Lois and I worry so much about
her, because she is living on the other side of the world, and has no close
support in the form of relatives, plus she has a stressful job, two lively 6-year-old twins,
and a husband, Francis, who himself has several physical health problems (his
back, legs, knees) and is 12 years older than Sarah. Yikes (again) !!!! We just
hope the tests reveal nothing too troublesome. Poor Sarah (again) !!!!
Flashback to April 2018: me (left) at a
beach cafe
in the Margaret River region, Western
Australia,
along with Francis, Sarah, and the twins
Obviously however, Lois and I hope the family can make
their Australian adventure a success. They moved over there in December 2015,
after talking about the step for years, although not planning it in any great detail, I have to say.
Francis's motives have never been 100% clear to us. He
had had a difficult upbringing, to put it mildly, with a dominating mother and
two dominating older sisters, followed by a bit of a challenging career in
online building design, where the competition was fierce. We feel he has always
had something to prove to his mother and sisters, although his mother now
suffers from dementia, poor lady. Let's hope that despite everything Francis
can finally make his dreams a reality.
12:45 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and
take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up
at 3 pm and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch.
16:00 I talk on the phone with my younger sister, Gill, who lives in Cambridge.
She broke two bones in her left hand 5-6 weeks ago: the bones have healed but her hand movements are
unfortunately still very limited. A carer pops in every morning to help Gill's husband,
Peter, get dressed and take a shower: he is severely disabled, but Gill is
currently unable to help Peter with these kinds of tasks. Gill is also unable
to cook, except for very simple meals, so they have got into the habit of
buying and eating a lot of ready meals.
However, Gill and Peter still plan to visit Paris in May
2020 and stay in a hotel with plenty of rooms for the disabled, and to travel
with an agency that offers to rent the kind of special equipment that Peter
needs.
I ask Gill for the latest news about their 3 daughters:
Zoe (and her partner Chris), Lucy, and Maria (and her partner Tom).
Maria, the youngest of Gill and Peter's 3 daughters,
plans to marry her long-time partner, Tom, in April. Gill finds it amusing to see
how these dyed-in-the-wool millennials go about preparing for the wedding. Everything is
researched and planned in great detail: the couple have even attended wedding
cake tasting sessions, sampling different cakes and suchlike, and also taken
part in "meet your caterer" experiences.
My god, what madness !!!!!
Flashback to May 2015: Gill and Peter's 30th
wedding anniversary:
(from left to right) Tom and Maria (who are
to marry in April 2020), Chris and Zoe, Lucy,
Gill, Gill's best friend Jill, Jill's
husband, and Peter (in the wheelchair)
18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening
watching some television. The latest episode of Grand Designs is on. The
programme's host is the charming Kevin McCloud.
"Grand Designs" is the series I love to hate,
first and foremost because I hate these huge modern houses with their huge
echoing half-empty living rooms,
uncomfortable sofas, massive heavy dining tables, massive high ceilings and big windows, etc.
The houses always look more like industrial complexes, a power plant, or a
company's head office, than a home in my opinion.
Tonight we see Edward, a particularly crazy and, in my
opinion, very immature man who, along with his wife, Hazel, and their two
daughters (aged 10-12 ?), who are planning to build a massive house on dangerous
cliffs in north Devon. He estimates the project will take 18 months and will
cost around £1.5 million, or so.
Edward and Hazel in 2011, at the start of the project
Edward and Hazel, seen here with their 2
daughters in 2011 or so,
on the dangerous cliffs where Edward plans
to build a massive house
What madness !!!
And even Kevin McCloud, the programme's charming
host, who is usually enthusiastic about any plans to build massive houses,
doubts whether Edward's plans are sensible.
that Richard's crazy plans don't make much
sense - yikes!
Oh dear, I foresee a gigantic tragedy in the making !!!
Kevin's initial interview with Edward and Hazel took
place 10 years ago, or so. And at the end of the programme, we see Kevin's most
recent visits to the site.
The project has turned into a bit of a disaster, to put
it mildly. After 8 years, Edward has spent £3m, he owes £4m, and the house is
only half-finished: all work has stopped. On top of that, his wife Hazel has left
him and their two daughters have grown up and left home as well.
Kevin tries to put a positive "spin" on the
story, as always, but he has a hard time appearing totally convincing, I have
to say.
Lois and I have often remarked, it is extraordinary how
often the marriages are destroyed during some building project in the Grand Designs
television series. The project often turns into strictly the man’s dream child,
and becomes more and more of an insane obsession with him, while everybody else
in his family are starting to lose interest.
Edward has spent 8 years of his life on this project,
losing his wife and daughters, not to mention £7m. And now he owns a "house" that
is not even habitable, nothing more than an abandoned building site.
What madness !!!!
Why can't these men just live in an ordinary house, like
ours, and, dare I say it, just buy one of the millions of houses that have already been
built: and then live their lives in a normal way, pursuing a range of interests,
and not getting mesmerized by dreams of stunning views, massive rooms, massive
furniture, and empty lives?
They are all fools ha ha ha!
22:00 We go to bed. I read about 20 pages of my bedtime
book before drifting off to sleep - zzzzzzz !!!!!
Danish
translation: onsdag den 9 oktober 2019
09:00 Lois og
jeg bliver liggende i sengen igen – hun blev oppe til midnat i går aftes, mens
hun så en komisk film på fjernsyn: ”The Lovers” (1973), baseret på en sitcom
fra 1970’erne, og hun har ikke lyst til at starte dagen for tidligt.
The Lovers”-sitcommen fra 1970’erne
The Lovers: Paula Wilcox og Richard Beckinsale
under optagelsen af filmen
11:00 Lois
skynder sig ud i baghaven for at plukke hindbære og luge lidt i grøntsagshaven.
I mellemtiden går jeg i gang med at støvsuge overalt i huset – vores U3A danske
gruppe samles her i morgen eftermiddag og vi vil ikke have dem til at tro, vi
lever som svin ha ha!
12:30 Vi
sætter os ved spisebordet, da Sarah, vores 42-årige datter, som bor i Perth,
Australien sammen med sin mand og deres 6-årige tvillinger, sender os en sms.
Hun spørger os om, enten jeg eller Lois har nogle slægtninge eller forfædre,
der havde problemer med galde-sten – yikes! (Vores svar var nej, for begge to
af os).
For et par
uger siden, blev Sarah indlagt til det lokale hospital, fordi hendes læge
mistænkte, hun havde fået blindtarmsbetændelse, selvom hospitalet snarere kom
til den konklusion, hun ”simpelthen” led af divertikulsygdom, og en speciel
kost virkede at løse problemet. Men problemet må have opstod igen, fordi Sarah
var sygemeldt i dag, og hun i øjeblikket venter på resultaterne af nye test.
Stakkels
Sarah! Derfor, ser du, bekymrer Lois og jeg os over hende, fordi hun bor i den
anden side af verden, og har ikke nogen tæt støtte i form af slægtninge, samt
en stressende job, to livlige 6-årige tvillinger, og en mand, Francis, der selv
har adskillige fysiske sundhedsproblemer (ryggen, benene, knæene) og er 12 år
ældre, end Sarah. Yikes (igen) !!!! Vi håber bare på, at
testene ikke afslør noget for bekymrende. Stakkels Sarah (igen) !!!!
tilbageblik til april 2018: mig (til venstre) på en
strandcafé
i Margaret River-regionen, Western
Australia,
sammen med Francis, Sarah, og
tvillingerne
Lois og jeg
håber imidlertid, at familien kan gøre deres australske eventyr til en succés.
De flyttede derovre i december 2015 efter at have talt om trinnet i årevis.
Francis’ motiver har aldrig været 100% tydelige til os. Han havde haft en
vanskeligt opdragelse, for at sige mildt, med en dominerende mor og to
dominerende ældre søstre, fulgt af lidt af en vanskelig karriere i online
bygningsdesign, hvor konkurrencen var skarp. Vi føler, han altidhar haft noget
at bevise til sin mor og søstre, selvom hans mor lider nu af demens, staklen.
Lad os håbe på, at han endelig trods alt kan gøre sine drømme til
virkeligheden.
12:45 Lois og
jeg spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
16:00 Jeg
snakker lidt på telefonen med min lillesøster, Gill. Hun brækkede to knogler i
den venstre hånd for 5-6 uger siden: knoglerne er helet men hendes
håndbevægelser er desværre stadig helt begrænsede. En plejer smutter ind hver
formiddag for at hjælpe Gills mand, Peter, med at klæde sig på og tage et
brusebad: han er alvorligt handicappet, men Gill er for øjeblikket ikke i stand
til at hjælpe Peter med disse slags opgaver. Gill er heller ikke i stand til at
lave mad, bortset fra meget simple måltider, så de er kommet i vane med at købe
og spise en masse færdigretter.
Gill og Peter
planlægger imidlertid at besøge Paris i maj 2020 og opholde sig i et hotel med
en masse værelser til de handicappede, og at rejse med et bureau, der tilbyder
at hyre det slags specielt udstyr, som Peter har brug for.
Jeg beder Gill
om de seneste nyheder om deres 3 døtre: Zoe (og hendes partner Chris), Lucy, og
Maria (og hendes partner Tom).
Maria, den
yngste af Gill og Peters 3 døtre, planlægger at gifte sig med sin langvarige
partner, Tom, i april. Gill finder det morsomt at se, hvordan disse ægte
millennialer går til værks med forberedelserne på brylluppet. Alt er forsket og
planlagt i store detaljer: parret har endda deltaget i
bryllupskage-prøvesessioner, hvor de smager på forskellige kager og den slags,
og har også deltelt i "mød jeres cateringsleder" oplevelser.
Du godeste,
sikke et vanvid !!!!!
tilbageblik
til maj 2015: Gill og Peters 30. bryllupsdag:
(fra
venstre til højre) Tom og Maria (der vil gifte sig i april 2020), Chris og Zoe,
Lucy,
Gill,
Gills bedste ven Jill, Jills mand, og
Peter (i kørestolen)
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på 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, massive tunge spiseborde, massivt høje lofter osv. Husene ligner altid mere industrielle
komplekser, et kraftværk, eller et selskabs hovedkontor, end hjemmer efter min
mening.
I
aften ser vi Edward, en i sær vanvittig og efter min mening, meget umøden mand,
der sammen med sin kone, Hazel, og deres to døtre (på 10-12 år måske), der
planlægger at få bygget et massivt hus på farlige klinter i det nordlige Devon.
Han anslår, at projektet vil tage 1,5 år og koster omkring 1,5 million £, eller
deromkring.
Edward og Hazel
Edward og Hazel, set her, sammen med deres 2 døtre,
på
de farlige klinter, hvor Edward planlægger at få bygget e massivt hus
Sikke et
vanvid!!! Og selv Kevin, programmets charmerende vært, der normalt er
entusiastisk om nogle planer som helst om at bygge massive huse, tvivler, om
Edwards planer er fornuftige.
selve den gung-ho tv-vært Kevin mistænker,
at
Richards planer ikke er helt fornuftige – yikes!
Jeg
forudser en gigantisk tragedie i vente!!!
Kevins
oprindelige interview med Edward og Hazel fandt sted for 10 år siden, eller
deromkring. Ved slutningen af programmet ser vi Kevins seneste besøg til
bygningspladsen.
Projektet er
blevet til lidt af en katastrofe, for at sige mildt. Efter 8 år har Edward
brugt 3m£, han skylder 4m£, og huset er
kun halvt-færdigt: arbejdet er stoppet. Oven i købet har hans kone Hazel forlod
ham, og deres to døtre er vokset op og forlod hjemmet også.
Kevin prøver
at sætte en positiv ”spin” på historien, som altid, men han har svært ved at
virke totalt overbevisende, det må jeg nok sige.
Lois og jeg
har ofte bemærket, det er ekstraordinært, hvor ofte ægteskaber bliver ødelagt i
løbet af et eller andet bygningsprojekt i Grand Designs-tv-serien. Projektet
bliver ofte til drømmebarnet af manden, et projekt, der bliver mere og mere
lidt af en vanvittig tvangstanke hos ham.
Edward har
brugt 8 år af sit liv på dette projekt, og mistet sin kone og døtre, for ikke
at nævne 7m£. Og nu ejer han et hus, som ikke engang er beboeligt, en forladte
bygningsplads. Sikke et vanvid!!!!
Hvorfor kan
disse mænd ikke nøjes med at bo i et almindeligt hus, som vores, og oven i
købet købe ét, der allerede er blevet bygget, og leve deres liv på en normale
måde, og ikke blive hypnotiseret af drømme om fantastiske udsigter, massive
værelser og massive møbler?
De er alle fjolser
ha ha ha!
22:00 Vi går i
seng. Jeg læser omkring 20 sider af min sengetidbog, før jeg glider over i
søvnen – zzzzzzz!!!!!
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