Saturday November 23 2019

08:00 Lois and I get up. The weather girl has said it's going to rain on and off today, so no chance of doing gardening - damn it! Tomorrow Sunday may be a rain-free day, she says, but I’m not betting on it, that’s for sure.

09:00 I sit down with the computer and compile all the Danish vocabulary lists I have prepared for the 4th chapter of Anna Grues's crime novel “The Further You Fall”. Then I send out the lists via email to our U3A Danish group members - this novel is the group's current project.

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

our U3A Danish group's current project

Anna Grue, the author of the novel

Afterwards, I spend the morning preparing a Danish vocabulary test, which I want members to take in their spare time before our next group meeting, which is taking place on December 5 - this will be our last meeting before our usual Christmas break. It'll be nice to have a break: I enjoy managing the group, but it's a lot of work, no doubt about that.

The correct answers to my Danish vocabulary test spell out yet another of our favourite stand-up comedian Tim Vine's iconic one-line jokes. "You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice. "

Quite amusing,  but not one of Tim's best - I have to admit that, but I’m going to let that one slide: Tim has had a succession of problems in his private life, the poor thing.

Tim Vine, pictured here, on the phone to his therapist recently

Parked cars are a good example of things we often tend not to notice, but they have become a massive source of inspiration, not just for stand-up comedians, but also for some of the world's most influential philosophers, starting with the iconic German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who took the photograph below, which was later showcased on my go-to local news site, Onion News, where it actually won some kind of prize, or something of the sort. Go Friedrich!

Nietzsche's iconic photograph,

showcased later on the Onion News site

Later, another headline on the news site inspired researchers to come up with the famous concept of the so-called "butterfly effect".

So the next time you happen to see a parked car or windscreen with a yellow "post-it" slip stuck on it, stop for a few seconds and think about the brevity of your life - you'll be glad you did!

It is well known that Stalin, the iconic Russian dictator, hated to see wipers that had not been put back to their default rest-position on a parked car, and had a habit of adjusting them manually if he happened to see a case of this oversight on the street. A sign of a latent OCD perhaps?

Stalin pictured here forcing a set of wipers down manually 

- an early sign of OCD perhaps?

12:00 We have lunch and 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 home-grown greengage jam - yum yum!

17:00  Glancing at my smartphone, I see that Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, has sent us a charming photo of our 6-year-old twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessie. They had just received the calendar that Lois and I sent them a few weeks ago. The calendar showcases photos of our "larger family": Lois and me in Cheltenham, Sarah and her family in Perth, and Sarah's sister Ali and her family in Haslemere, Surrey.

Lily and Jessie, our 6-year-old twin grandchildren in Perth, Australia,

with the calendar Lois and I recently sent them by post

- how cute they are though !!!!!

Lois and I like to send Sarah and her family calendars with pictures of us all, to stay in touch. Our two daughters, Sarah and Alison, are so busy as mothers of young children, and Sarah with her career as well. It is up to Lois and me, I believe, to keep this "larger family" together as far as we can.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television, the fourth part of Michael Portillo's interesting documentary series about train trips in Australia.

Unfortunately, I drift off to sleep during the programme and miss 50% of it - damn it! Lois tries to shake me and wake me up several times without success. She says that each time I just opened my eyes for a few seconds and immediately went back to sleep - damn (again) !!!

It has been raining massively this autumn in England, and in Denmark too it has been the wettest autumn  ever - I read it on the Danish news media. So tonight it's nice for Lois and me to see that we don't actually live in one of the wettest areas in the world, as we had mistakenly thought.

Queensland, Australia, is one of the world's best sugar cane growing areas due to its wet climate - areas of the state get about 180 inches of rain a year - dearest, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Tonight Michael ends his journey in Townsville, ie literally "Town Town", a bit of a tautology, but he explains the reason why, which is nice. It's always nice to learn something new on a Saturday night ha ha ha!

21:00 We continue to watch some television, the latest episode of Gogglebox, a fun programme where participants comment on some of the week's TV shows from the comfort of their couches and armchairs.

In this episode, the programme's participants react to Prince Andrew's disastrous TV interview, where for some reason the Prince seemed to be making up his "explanations" from minute to minute, without thinking them through properly in advance – my god, what madness !!!

Lois comments that the movements of all members of the Royal Family would have been closely tracked by their security personnel, so it would have been simple to prove where he was or was not, at any given time. So why didn't he say that, or something like that?

We also see the Gogglebox participants' reactions to the pitiful "big debate" between Boris and Jeremy. It is hard to believe that our two biggest parties could not have found some better, more intelligent, more honest, more forward-looking leaders than these two here. Good grief, what a crazy country we live in !!!!

Lois often says that I am gradually turning into a clone of one of Gogglebox's most famous participants, Giles, and she has a point, I have to admit. Tonight Giles is talking to his wife, Mary, about his "shrinking personal horizons".

“Point taken, Lois” !!!! Enough said!!!!

And I do like to monitor movements in the neighbourhood – there is no doubt about that.

This morning I noticed that a couple, probably in their 30’s, were visiting the neighbouring house with an estate agent in tow - the house has been on sale for a few weeks: Bill, our former neighbour, sadly died 2-3 months ago, and Mary , Bill's wife, moved into a nursing home - she suffers from dementia unfortunately.

These young people are the first couple we have seen who have visited the house. Lois and I think the £ 470,000 price tag is way too high, but we'll see.

next door in happier times -

pictured here on November 8th

before anybody had shown any interest in it.

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

Danish translation: lørdag den 22. november 2019

08:00 Vi står op. Vejrpigen har sagt, det kommer til at regne af og til igen i dag, så ingen chance for at lave arbejde – pokkers! Søndag kunne være en regnfri dag, siger hun, men det satser jeg ikke på det – det ved jeg med sikkerhed.

09:00 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og samler alle de danske ordforrådlister, jeg har udfærdiget til det 4. kapitel af Anna Grues krimiromanen. Så afsender jeg listerne via email til vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer – denne krimiroman er gruppens nuværende projekt.

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

vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Anna Grue, romanens forfatterinde

Bagefter bruger jeg formiddagen på at udarbejde en dansk ordforråtest, som jeg vil have medlemmerne til at tage i deres fritid før vores næste gruppemøder, der finder sted den 5. december – dette vil være vores sidste møde før vores sædvanlige julepause. Det vil være rart at have en pause: jeg nyder at styre gruppen, men det er en masse arbejde, ingen tvivl om det.

De korrekte svar til min danske ordforrådtest staver endnu én af vores yndlings-standup komiker Tim Vines ikoniske én-linje vittigheder. "You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice."

Ikke én af Tims bedste måske – det må jeg indrømme, men det springer jeg over: Tim har haft stakkelsvis af problemer i sit privatliv, staklen.

Tim Vine, afbildet her, på telefonen til sin terapeut

Parkerede biler er et godt eksempel på ting, vi ofte har tendens ikke til at lægge mærke til, men de er blevet en massiv kilde på inspiration, og ikke bare for standupkomikere, men også for nogle af verdens mest indflydelsesrige filosofer, startende fra den ikoniske tyske filosof Friedrich Nieztsche (1844-1900), der tog dette fotografi, senere fremvist i mit go-to lokale nyhedswebsted, Onion News, hvor det faktisk vandt en slags gevinst, eller lignende. Kom så, Friedrich!

Nietzsches ikoniske fotografi,

fremvist senere på Onion News-webstedet

Senere inspirede en anden overskrift på nyhedswebstedet forskere at komme med det berømte begreb om den såkaldte ”sommerfugleffekt”.

Så næste gang, du tilfældigvis ser en parkeret bil eller en forrude med en gul ”post-it”-seddel stukket på den, standse i et par sekunder og tænk på den korte varighed af dit liv – du vil være glad for, at du gjorde det: det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !

Det er velkendt, at Stalin, den ikoniske russiske diktator, hadede at se vinduesviskere, der ikke var blevet sat til ro, og havde en vane for at justere dem manuelt, hvis han tilfældigvis så dem på gaden. Et tegn på et latent ocd måske?

Stalin tvinger et sæt vinduesviskere ned manuelt – et tidligt tegn på ocd måske?

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og 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 hjemmedyrket reineclaudemarmelade – yum yum!

17:00 Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone, og jeg ser, at Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien, har sendt os et charmerende billede af vores 6-årige tvillingebørnebørn, Lily og Jessie. De havde lige modtaget den kalender, som Lois og jeg afsendte dem for et par uger siden. Kalenderen fremviser fotoer af vores ”større familie”: Lois og mig i Cheltenham, Sarah og hendes familie i Perth, og Sarahs søster Ali og hendes familie i Haslemere, Surrey.

Lily og Jessie, vores 6-årige tvillingebørnebørn i Perth, Australien,

med den snapfish-kalender Lois og jeg for nylig sendte dem

- hvor er de dog søde!!!!!

Lois og jeg kan godt lide at sende Sarah og hendes familie billeder af os alle, for at holde kontakten. Vores to døtre, Sarah og Alison, har så travlt som mødre til unge børn, og Sarah med sin karriere også. Det er op til Lois og mig, tror jeg, at holde denne ”større familie” sammen, så vidt vi kan.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, de fjerde del af Michael Portillos interessante dokumentarserie, der handler om togture i Australien.

Desværre glider jeg over i søvnen under programmet og går glip af 50% af det – pokkers! Lois forsøger at ryste mig og vække mig flere gange uden succés. Hun siger, jeg hver gang bare åbnede øjene i et par sekunder og vendte straks tilbage i søvn – pokkers (igen) !!!

Det har regnet massivt denne efterår i England, og i Danmark har det været det vådeste efterår nogensinde – jeg har læst det i de danske nyhedsmedier. Så i aften er det rart for Lois og mig, at se, vi faktisk ikke bor i ét af de vådeste område i verden,  ligesom vi troede fejlagtigt.

Queensland, Australien, er ét af verdens bedste område at dyrke sukkerrør i – områder af delstaten får 177 tømmer regn om året – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

I aften ender Michael sin rejse i Townsville, dvs bogstaveligt talt ”Town Town”, lidt af en tautologi, men han forklarer grunden til, hvilket er rart. Det er altid rart at lære noget ha ha ha!

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, det seneste afsnit af Gogglebox, et morsomt program, hvor deltagernes kommenterer nogle af ugens tv-programmer fra trøsten af deres sofaer og lænestole.

I dette afsnit reagerer programmets deltagere til Prins Andrews katastrofale tv-interview, hvor af en eller anden grund virkede prinsen at være i fuld gang med at opdigte sine ”forklaringer” fra minut til minut, uden at gennemtænke dem godt og grundigt i forvejen – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Lois kommenterer, at bevægelserne af medlemmer af kronhuset ville have været præcis opsporet af sikkerhedspersonalet, så ville det have været simpelt at bevise, hvor han var eller ikke var på noget given tidspunkt. Så hvorfor sagde han ikke det, eller noget lignende?

Vi ser også deltagernes reaktioner til den ynkelige ”store debat” mellem Boris og Jeremy. Det er svært at tro, at de to største partier ikke kunne have fundet nogle bedre, mere intelligent, mere ærlige, mere fremsynede ledere, end de to her. Du godeste, sikke et skør land vi lever i !!!!

Lois siger ofte, at jeg gradvist bliver til en klon af én af Gogglebox-programmets mest berømte deltagere, Giles, og hun har et point, det må jeg indrømme. I aften taler han til sin kone, Mary, om sine ”krympende personlige horisonter”.

”Point taken, Lois” !!!! Nok sagt!!!!

Jeg kan godt lidt at monitere bevægelserne i nabolaget – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om.

I morges bemærkede jeg, at et par, sandsynligvis i 30’erne, besøgte nabohuset sammen med en ejendomsmælger på kølvandet – huset er været til salg i nogle uger: Bill, vores tidligere nabo, døde desværre for 2-3 måneder siden, og Mary, Bills kone, flyttede ind i et plejehjem – hun lider desværre af demens.

Disse unge mennesker er det første par, vi har set, der har besøgt huset. Lois og jeg synes, prisen på 470.000£ er alt for høj, men vi får se.

nabohuset i lykkeligere tider –

afbildet her den 8. november

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!