Friday November 15 2019

10:00 Lois's non-smartphone, which I originally bought for myself in the 1990’s, finally broke down a few weeks ago, so today we decide to take the bus into town and get her a new one. We don't like her not having a mobile when driving alone, so it's a little urgent.

We head into the Vodaphone phone shop, but after waiting for 15-20 minutes, because all their assistants are busy with customers, we decide to literally cross the street to the network-3 store where we buy her her first smartphone, a Huawei Y6 - it costs only £90 or so, which is nice: she can top it up, as required, on the web or in a supermarket, the assistant says - hurrah!

The "3" phone shop on the High Street

Only one problem - it does not come with a decent manual, so we will have to do a little research on the web and download what we come across: damn !

However, this is a big moment in Lois's life: her first smartphone ever - she's about to enter the smartphone era: hurrah! Currently, she depends on me if, for example, she needs to communicate on whatsapp with the other members of her sect, or use their whatsapp chat rooms and the like.

11:00 We head into the M&S department store, which is next to the “3” phone shop. Lois wants to buy a couple of sweaters, but unfortunately she doesn't see any that attract her. She's only 5 feet 3, and the magazine's sweaters are all way too long, she says, probably because today's young women are so tall. We are looking for a so-called "cropped" sweater that just reaches down to the midriff or thereabouts, but without success.

The M&S department store, right next door to the “3” phone shop

I recommend her to do some research on the web where there are loads of such sweaters available, but I notice she's not so keen on that idea. She prefers to try clothes on in a fitting room, I suspect.

11:30 We head into the store’s café and recharge our batteries with a cup of coffee and a mince-pie.

We head into the M&S store’s café to recharge our batteries

The M&S café is indeed massive, but we find it very difficult to find a free table. The store is packed with people, mostly elderly pensioners, and I notice lots of retired married couples where the woman is hunting for nice clothes and the man just stands and waits while his wife rummages around the selection of dresses, sweaters, coats, underwear and the like - my god, what madness !!!

Old people are such a nuisance! And they ruin things for us other old people, no doubt about that !!!!

12:30 We take the bus home and have lunch. Afterwards, I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 4 pm and we relax with a cup of tea and a slice of bread with homemade gooseberry jam - yum yum! We have dinner at 6 pm, as usual.

20:00 We spend the rest of the evening watching some television, an interesting documentary about the Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who wrote the famous futuristic novel "The Handmaid’s Tale", which has been adapted for a TV series or three .

The programme mostly consists of an interview with Attwood conducted by the BBC's Alan Yentob. And we soon find out that Attwood has a wicked sense of humour, to put it mildly.

Lois and I are not in the habit of watching series such as "The Handmaid's Tale", but I do remember that we once switched channels and accidentally watched a few minutes of one episode or other - and what we saw after about one second was one of the so-called "handmaids" flat on her back on a table, impassively having intercourse with a man, who we suspect was one of the regime's leaders, or something similar. 

It gave us a bit of a shock, to put it mildly - we were just in the middle of devouring a plate groaning with some of Lois's delicious homemade muffins [Copyright: "Acorn Antiques" and Mrs Overall]. My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!

This futuristic series is set in the US, where a fundamentalist totalitarian government is in power. A plague or similar disaster has made the majority of women barren, so the minority who can still have children are dressed up in medieval handmaids’ costumes and assigned to the regime's leaders and other important men, whose wives are all barren.

The regime's subsidiary aim, says Attwood, was to find a way to re-subdue the women of the country, all so recently liberated by the success of the women's movement: and the method they used was to force them to concentrate simply on having babies for the good of the state.

typical handmaids from the series

- good grief, what madness !!!!

In tonight's documentary, we discover that Attwood got the idea for the handmaid's costume from the picture on a cleaning agent that frightened her as a child, the so-called "Old Dutch Cleanser" packet.

And Attwood was inspired to make the costumes red from Christian iconography and the like, in which the colour red has always depicted sexuality, for example in the case of Mary Magdalene, in comparison to the Virgin Mary, who is usually dressed in blue.

Pure insanity !!!!

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

Danish translation: fredag den 15. november 2019

10:00 Lois’ ikke-smartphone, som jeg købte til mig selv i 1990’erne, gik endelig i stykker for et par uger siden, så tager vi bussen ind i byen. Vi kan ikke lide, at hun ikke har en mobil med, når hun kører bil alene, så det er lidt pressende.

Vi smutter ind i Vodaphone-mobilbutik, men efter vi har stod og ventet i kø i 15-20 minutter, fordi alle deres ekspedienter er travlt optaget med kunder, beslutter vi bogstavelig talt at gå over gaden til netværk-3-butikken, hvor vi købte hende hendes først smartphone, en Huawei Y6 – det kostede kun 90£ eller deromkring, hvilket er rart: hun kan toppe den op, som krævet, på nettet eller i et supermarked, siger ekspedienten – hurra!

”3” mobilbutikken på Højgade

Kun ét problem – den kommer ikke med en hæderlig manual, så vi bliver nødt til at gøre lidt forskning på nettet, og downloade dét, vi støder på: pokkers!

Dette er imidlertid et stort øjeblik i Lois’ liv: hendes første smartphone nogensinde – hun er ved at træde ind i smartphone-æraen: hurra! I øjeblikket afhænger hun af mig, hvis hun for eksempel er nødt til at kommunikere med de andre medlemmer af sin sekt, og bruge deres whatsapp- chatrum og den slags.

11:00 Vi smutter ind i M&S-stormagasinet, der ligger ved siden af 3-mobilbutikken. Lois har lyst til at købe et par trøjer, men desværre ser hun ikke nogle, der tiltrækker hende. Hun er kun 5 fods 3, og magasinets trøjer er alle for lange, siger hun, sandsynligvis fordi nutidens unge kvinder er så høje. Vi søger en såkaldt ”beskåret” trøje, der bare når ned til mellemgulvet, men uden succés.

M&S-stormagasinet, lige ved siden af 3-mobilbutikken

Jeg anbefaler hende at gøre lidt forskning på nettet, hvor der er bunkevis af sådanne trøjer til rådelighed, men jeg mærker, hun ikke er ret frisk på idéen. Hun foretrækker at prøve tøj på i et omklædningsrum, mistænker jeg.

11:30 Vi smutter ind i magasinets café og genoplader vores batterier med en kop kaffe og en mince-pie.                

Vi smutter ind i M&S-caféen for at genoplade vores batterier

M&S-caféen er sandelig massiv, men vi har meget svært ved at finde et ledigt bort. Magasinet er propfyldt af mennesker, for det meste ældre, pensionerede folk, og jeg bemærker masser af pensionerede ægtepar, hvor kvinden er på jagt efter pæne tøj, og manden bare står og venter, mens hans kone roder rundt på udvalget af kjoler, trøjer, frakker, undertøj og den slags – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Gamle mennesker er sikke nogle gener! Og de ødelægger tingene for os andre gamle mennesker, ingen tvivl om det!!!!

12:30 Vi tager bussen hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 16 og vi slapper af med en kop te og et stykke brød med hjemmelavet stikkelsbærmarmelade – yum yum! Vi spiser aftensmad kl 18, som sædvanligt.

20:00 Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om den kanadiske forfatterinde, Margaret Atwood, der skrev den berømte futuristiske roman ”Tjenerindens fortælling”, som er blevet adapteret til en tv-serie eller tre.

  

Programmet består for det meste af et interview med Attwood, foretaget af BBCs Alan Yentob. Og snart finder vi ud af, at Attwood har en ond sans for humor, for at sige mildt.

Lois og jeg har ikke for vane at se serier som ”Tjenerindens fortælling”, men jeg mindes om, at vi engang skiftede kanaler og ved en fejltagelse så nogle minutter af et eller andet afsnit – og vi så én af de såkaldte ”tjenerinder” liggende på sin ryg på et bord, lydigt ifærd med et samleje med en mand, som vi formoder, var én af regimets ledere, eller noget lignende. Det hele gav os lidt af et chok, for at sige mildt – vi var midt i at fortære en tallerken bugnet med Lois’ hjemmelavede muffins. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Denne futuristiske serie spiller sig ud i USA, hvor en fundamentalistisk totalitær regering er på magt. En pest eller lignende katastrofe har gjort størstedelen af kvinderne ufrugtbare, så mindretallet der stadig kan få børn bliver klædt om i middelalderlig tjenerinders kostumer og tildelt til regimets ledere og andre vigtige mænd.

Regimets formål var delvis at undertvinge landets kvinder, nybefriede  efter succesen af kvindebevægelsen, ved at tvinge dem til at koncentrere sig bare om at få børn til fordel for staten. Sikke et vanvid!!!

typiske tjenerinder fra serien

- du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

I aftenens dokumentarfilm, opdager vi, at Attwood fik idéen for tjenerindernes kostum fra billedet på et rengøringsmiddel, som forskrækkede hende som barn, den såkaldte ”Old Dutch Cleanser”-pakke.

Attwood blev inspireret til at gøre kostumerne røde fra kristen ikonografi og lignende, hvor farven rød altid har skildret seksualitet, eksempelvis i tilfældet af Mary Magdalene, i sammenligning med Jomfru Maria, der normalt blev klædt i blå.

Sikke et vanvid!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!