Friday November 29 2019

It’s November 29, the day each year when Lois and I have my late sister Kathy in our minds on and off all day - she would have turned 72 today if she were still alive: she died 6 years ago in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where she lived with her husband, Steve.

We know Steve is in Oklahoma City today to celebrate Thanksgiving with his mom and siblings - he's told us he'll drink a cocktail with his sister and toast Kathy later in the day, and I'll do the same with Lois with my gin and tonic - cheers Kathy, and thanks for all the sweet memories you left us with!

I was only 20 months old when Kathy was born, so I simply don't remember a time when she wasn't around.

Flashback to 1948-1949, and the family house, just outside Dover:

me and my little redhead sister Kathy

Growing up, she was always much more adventurous and independent than me. She was always a bit rebellious and there were frequent clashes with our parents, especially my father. As a teenager, she stopped coming on family holidays, preferring to spend holidays with her school friends. And she was eager to move out as soon as possible and have her own apartment.

Several years later, when I worked for the British Embassy in Washington DC, she flew over there and lived for months with me, Lois and our 2 young daughters - Alison (8) and Sarah (6) while she was hunting for her own apartment. She also got a job with the embassy.

My sister Kathy at 35 years moves in with us in the spring of 1983:

the living room of our house in Columbia, Maryland.

Kathy and I go to Columbia city centre to watch

our first Independence Day Parade

In the summer of 1983 we took her with us on a vacation to New England.

 a boat trip on a lake in New Hampshire

on a mountain in New Hampshire

in Boston, Massachusetts

After several months with us, she managed to find her own apartment and she took this farewell photo of our little family in front of our house, before driving off in her Mustang to start her new life.

a farewell photo of us, before Kathy drove away to start her new life

Happy days !!!!!!

09:00 Lois and I roll out of bed. Unfortunately, I have woken up with a pain in the groin area - damn it! And Lois has her usual back problems. So it's painkillers for two after breakfast - damn (again) !!!!

10:00 An unpleasant noise from 3 doors away means we soon realise that builders have begun their work to demolish our former doctor’s surgery and build 6 houses on the land. The site was our surgery until January, but the doctors decided to have it torn down so they could sell the land. They are such bastards, those doctors!

Flashback to January: the doctors close the old medical centre,

and move into a new one 5 miles away from here. The one-story former 

medical centre can be seen in the background behind Lois.

The doctors' plan to tear down the old surgery

and get 6 new houses built on the land.

My goodness - they are such jerks, those doctors !!!!

Although the government's regional planning committee in Bristol has not 100% approved the construction company's plans yet, it looks like the builders have begun work on the approved parts of the plans and they have come along with some kind of digger today to identify where they are underground pipes lie, or something similar - they are such bastards, those builders !!!!

12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois settles on the couch and watches yet another sentimental American TV Christmas movie, "A Rose At Christmas".

The movie's US TV premiere (2018)

While watching the movie, she digs out the calendars we bought yesterday at Webb’s Garden Centre. She plans to send them to her relatives in Australia: Stephen in Adelaide and Sylvia in Melbourne, but when she opens them, she finds that there are no envelopes enclosed in the packaging, despite the words "Envelope Included" on the cover. My god, what madness !!!!

My god, she really get furious now at the garden centre – good grief! And as I roll out of bed, she insists that we drive immediately to the store to get a refund. The worst thing about that is that she was actually very happy with the calendars themselves, and now she has to shop elsewhere to find something similar - damn!

16:00 We fight the traffic jams caused by mothers picking up their children after school, and we pop in at the garden centre and get our refund; the store has stacks of these calendars and it is a bit of a mystery why no one has noticed before that there are no envelopes enclosed in the packaging, but I’m going to let that one slide. I imagine everyone is far too busy during the Christmas season to worry about details – good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television, the latest edition of Gogglebox, where these now famous "ordinary TV viewers" comment on the week's programmes from the comfort of their sofas and armchairs.

One of the Gogglebox program's couples, Giles and Mary, who live in a small village in County Wiltshire sometimes seem uncomfortably similar to Lois and me. And Lois says I’m turning into a bit of a clone of Giles.

Many evenings we sit on the couch watching television, and one or the other of us comes up with some question, such as whether or not some celebrity is dead yet or not - that sort of thing. And I usually dig my smartphone out and key the question into its tiny screen to google it.

Gogglebox Mary, however, always tries to ask "Siri", her smartphone's robotic voice, usually without success. Tonight, she wants to find out what cobwebs are made of, for example, but Giles is sceptical. Mary asks the question twice without answer, then she tries again:

I don’t feel tempted to use these voice things. Myself I prefer to endure the frustrations caused by my own typographical errors - the smartphone screen is so microscopic and my fingers are so big. I never use oral input - I know Siri, Alexis etc can make people absolutely furious with rage.

But maybe I'm just too old-fashioned. Maybe it's time I stepped into the Siri era. I will have to try to monitor Mary and Giles a little more closely as they continue to bawl Siri out over the coming weeks and months, no doubt about that!

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

Danish translation: fredag den 29. november 2019

Den 29. november, dagen hvert år, når Lois og jeg har min afdøde søster Kathy i vores tanker hele dagen – hun ville være fyldt 72, hvis hun stadig var i live: hun døde for 6 år siden i Norristown, Pennsylvania, hvor hun boede med sin mand, Steve. Vi ved at Steve er i Oklahoma City i dag, for at fejre Thanksgiving med sin mor og søskende – han har fortalt os, han senere på dagen vil drikke en cocktail med sin søster og hilse på Kathy, og jeg vil gøre det samme med Lois med min gin og tonic – skål Kathy, og tak for alle de søde minder, du efterlod os!

Jeg var kun 20 mdr gammel, da hun var født, så husker jeg simpelthen ikke en tid, når hun ikke var til stede.

tilbageblik til 1948-1949, og familiens hus, lidt uden for Dover:

mig og min lille rødhårede søster Kathy

Da hun voksede op, var hun altid meget mere eventyrlysten og uafhængig, end mig. Hun var altid lidt oprørsk, og der var hyppige opgør med vores forældre, især min far. Som teenager holdt hun op med at deltage i familieferie, og foretrak at holde ferier med sine skolevenner. Og hun var ivrigt efter at flytte ud som hurtigt som muligt og have sin egen lejlighed.

Flere år senere, da jeg arbejdede for det britiske ambassade i Washington DC, fløj hun derover og boede i flere måneder hos mig, Lois og vores unge døtre – Alison (8) og Sarah (6), mens hun var på jagt efter sin egen lejlighed. Hun fik også et job med ambassaden.

Min søster Kathy på 35 år flytter ind hos os i foråret 1983:

stuen til vores hus i Columbia, Maryland.

Kathy og jeg i Columbias bymidten i gang

med at kigge på vores 1. uafhængighedsdagsparade

Om sommeren 1983 tog vi hende med på en ferie i New England.

en bådtur på en sø i New Hampshire

kathy7: på et bjerge i New Hampshire

i Boston, Massachusetts

Efter flere måneder hos os, lykkedes det hende at finde sin egen lejlighed, og hun tog dette farvelbilleder af os foran vores hus, før hun kørte ud i sin Mustang.

Lykkelige dage!!!!!!

09:00 Lois og jeg vælter ud af sengen. Desværre har jeg vågnet med ondt i lyske-område – pokkers! Og Lois har stadi sine sædvanlige rygproblemer. Så er det smertestillende tabletter til to efter morgenmad – pokkers (igen) !!!!

10:00 Et ubehagelig larm fra 3 døre væk betyder, at vi snart bliver klar over, at byggemænd er begyndt på deres arbejde til at rive vores tidligere lægehus ned og bygge 6 huse på jorden. 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!

Tilbageblik til januar: lægerne lukker det gamle lægehus,

og flytter ind i et nye 5 miles væk herfra. Det én-etagers gamle lægehus 

kan ses i baggrunden bag Lois.

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 !!!!

Selvom regeringens regionale planlægningsudvalg i Bristol ikke har 100% godkendt bygningsfirmaets planer endnu, ser det ud til, at byggemændene er begyndt at foretage de godkendte  dele af planer, og de er kommet i dag med en eller anden slags gravemaskine for at identificere, hvor de underjordiske rør ligger, eller noget lignende – de er sådanne nogle sjufter, de der byggemænd!!!!

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden sætter Lois sig til rette i sofaen og ser endnu én sentimentale amerikanske tv-julefilm, ”A Rose At Christmas”.

Filmens amerikanske tv-premiere (2018)

Samtidig med at se filmen, graver hun frem de kalendere, vi købte i går i Webbs-havecentret. Hun planlægger at sende dem til sine slægtninge i Australien:  Stephen i Adelaide og Sylvia i Melbourne, men da hun åbner dem, finder hun ud af, at der er ingen kuvert vedlagt i emballage, på trods af ordene ”Envelope Included” på omslaget. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Gud, bliver hun virkelig rasende på havecentret – du godeste! Og da jeg vælter ud af sengen, insisterer hun på, at vi kører umiddelbart til butikken for at få en tilbagebetaling. Det værste er, at hun var meget glade for selve kalenderne, og nu bliver hun nødt til at shoppe andetsteds for at finde noget lignende  - pokkers!

16:00 Vi dyster mod de trafikpropper forårsagede af mødre, der henter deres børn efter endt skoledagen og smutter ind hos havecentret og får vores tilbagebetaling; butikken har stakkevis af disse kalendere, og det er lidt af et mysterium, hvorfor ingen har lagt mærke til før, at der ikke findes kuverter vedlagt i emballagen, men det springer jeg over. Jeg kan forestille mig, at alle har for travlt i juleperioden til at bekymre sig over detaljer – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, det seneste afsnit af Gogglebox, hvor disse nu berømte ”almindelige tv-seere” kommenterer ugens programmer fra deres komfortable sofaer og lænestole.

Et af Gogglebox-programmets deltager, Giles og Mary, der bor i en lille landsby i grevskabet Wiltshire ser nogle gange ud som om de er ukomfortabelt lignende til Lois og mig. Og Lois siger, jeg er ved at blive til en klone af Giles, ingen tvivl om det.

Mange aftener sidder vi i sofaen og ser på fjernsynet, og den ene eller den anden af os kommer med et eller andet spørgsmål, såsom er en eller anden kendis død eller ej – den slags. Og jeg plejer at grave min smartphone frem og taster spørgsmålet ind på dens lillebitte skærm for at google det.

Mary prøver imidlertid altid at spørge ”Siri”, sin smartphones automatisk stemme, normalt uden succes. I aften vil hun gerne finde ud af, hvad spindelvæv er lavet af, for eksempel, men Giles er skeptisk. Mary stiller spørgsmålet to gange uden svar, så prøver hun igen:

Selv foretrækker at lide frustrationerne forårsagede af mine egne typografiske fejl – smartphonens skærm er så mikroskopisk og mine digter er så store. Jeg bruger aldrig mundligt input – jeg ved godt at Siri, Alexis osv kan gøre folk rasende og edderspændte.

Men måske er jeg bare for gammeldags. Måske er det på tide, at jeg træder ind i Siri-æraen. Jeg må prøve at monitere Mary og Giles lidt nærmere, som de skælder Siri ud gennem de kommende ugerne og månederne, ingen tvivl om det!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!