Tuesday November 12 2019

08:00 Lois and I roll out of bed.

Ian, our friendly local window cleaner, will be arriving at 9 this morning and we would rather not have him see us in bed or in the shower cubicle. We decide to take our shower a little later in the day, a habit we have recently gotten into.

As Ian starts cleaning our windows, we sit down at the dining table and read the next chapter (67) of Njal's saga, written in the 14th century, though the saga itself and the events in it are much earlier. Scilla's U3A Old Norse group is holding its regular fortnightly meeting here tomorrow (Wednesday) and this saga is the group's current project.

Busy busy busy !!!

In this chapter, we get to know Thorgeir a little better and we read something about his personality, which is nice. So far, the only thing we know about Thorgeir is that he has made Thorfinna pregnant. Thorfinna is one of Njal's close relatives, so Njal is not very happy to find she is suddenly expecting a baby, that’s for sure.

Thorfinna (left) with her lover, Thorgeir

flashback to chapter 64: Njal breaks the shock news

that Thorgeir has made his close relative Thorfinna pregnant.

Today we learn that Thorgeir is a shy, sensitive man - tall, strong, true-hearted and very honest, though also “a little gullible”, and Lois and I begin to wonder if it was Thorfinna who seduced him and not the other way around. But that’s something we are not quite sure about - the jury is still out on that one. We will have to see.

In chapter 67, Thorgeir turns out to be a shy, sensitive man,

true-hearted but slightly gullible – could it be that it was Thorfinna who

seduced him, and not the other way around?

But that's something the jury is still out on. We will have to see!

10:00 Ian leaves and we hop into the shower. We have lunch at 12 noon and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap.

14:30  I get up and we drive over to the small town of Bishop's Cleeve, 3 miles north of Cheltenham. Lois has an appointment at 3 pm with the local clinic's physio-therapist, Sally, to get treatment for her back and hip problems.

Bishop's Cleeve Village Clinic, where Lois has 

an appointment with the physiotherapist

While Lois is getting prodded and pushed, pummelled, punched, thumped and massaged by Sally, I slip into Lowry’s café, next door to the clinic, to grab a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate pear cake - yum yum!

I look at my smartphone and read through the painkiller news, as usual. Lois has the habit of taking an ibuprofen after breakfast to relieve her back pain and the like. But today I read about an attractive 38-piece AstraZeneca pill sampler that I must remember to recommend to her (source: my go-to news site, the influential Onion News).

ALPHARETTA, GA - Gathering around the kitchen table to pick out their favourites, all four members of the Johnson household eagerly dug into a 38-piece AstraZeneca pill sampler that they had received as a holiday gift, sources confirmed Friday.

"I like the blue-reds, but I pretty much eat any of them except the yellow ones - I always leave them to dad," said 12-year-old Evan Johnson, who added that out of the box's various painkillers, decongestants , oestrogen supplements and anti-psychotic drugs, he mostly enjoys those that have a codeine-based gel inside.

“It's also just as fun to grab one, not knowing what's inside, and then try to guess what you've taken. Last year I got a beta blocker and it was really disgusting, so maybe I just want to look at the little guide and pick out only the good ones. "

At press time, each family member, according to reports, had taken too many pills and were complaining of stomach discomfort, dizziness and blurred vision.

15:45 Lois joins me after her appointment and orders a cup of tea. We stay sitting in the cafe for another quarter-hour. She says she's not tempted by the 38-piece AstraZeneca pill tests, which is a bit of a shame. We cross the road and go grocery shopping at the local Tesco supermarket.

the local Tesco supermarket

17:00 We come home and have dinner. We spend the rest of the evening watching some television, the third part of an interesting documentary series on the Smithsonian channel, "Britain in Colour", which showcases various old news clips and family movie clips, recently colourised. And it is amazing how much the addition of colour to these old movie clips increases their clarity and vividness - I have to say.

This episode is about movie clips of Winston Churchill, the UK's prime minister during World War II and again in the 1950’s, and it is fun to see the great man in a new light, thanks to various old family movies.

We see various clips from the 1920's and 1930’s when he was in the political wilderness. In one clip, we see him sliding down a chute into the water somewhere in the south of France, losing his black swimming trunks in the process. 

Lois explains to me the scientific background to this phenomenon, which is apparently quite frequent, she comments, something to do with water pressure, she adds. My god, what a crazy world we live in !!! At the end of the clip, we see Churchill's black bathing trunks floating  in the water and out to sea - my god, what madness!

Churchill visits Hollywood, invited by Randolph Hurst. He meets Charlie Chaplin and watches him fooling around on the set of his latest movie.

flashback to the 1930’s: Randolph Hurst, Churchill and Louis B Mayer, in Hollywood

with Charlie Chaplin filming his latest movie.

Later, after Churchill is appointed prime minister, we see him visiting the bombed-out Coventry Cathedral.

Churchill visits the bombed-out Coventry Cathedral

These pictures remind me that I visited the ruined cathedral myself in 2001, together with my mother, my sister Kathy, and her American husband, Steve. By chance, the date was September 11, "a day that will live in infamy," as Roosevelt had said earlier of the Pearl Harbour attack.

 flashback to September 11, 2001: I visit the ruined cathedral,

with my mother, my sister Kathy, and her American husband, Steve.

Churchill always said that the highlight of his life was to stand in 1945 on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the royal family and look at the thousands of people gathered in the square in front of the palace to celebrate the end of the war.

Churchill's mother was an American, and Winston had a deep and life-long love for the US of course. And I had forgotten that he chose the Battle Hymn of the Republic as his funeral march in 1965.

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

Danish translation: tirsdag den 12. november 2019

08:00 Lois og jeg vælter ud af sengen. Ian, vores venlige lokale vinduespudser, kommer i formiddag kl 9, og vi vil hellere ikke have, at han ser os i seng sammen eller i brusekabinen. Vi beslutter at tage vores brusebad lidt senere på dagen, en vane, vi for nylig er kommet ind i.

Mens Ian går i gang med at pudse vores vinduer, sætter vi os ved spisebordet og læser det næste kapitel (67) af Njals saga, skrevet i det 14. århundrede, selvom selve sagaen og begivenhederne derinde er meget tidligere. Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige fjortendagsmøde på onsdag hos os og denne saga er gruppens nuværende projekt. Travlt travlt travlt!!!

I dette kapitel lærer vi Thorgeir lidt bedre af kende, og vi læser noget om sin personlighed, hvilket er rart. Hidtil ved vi bare om Thorgeir, at han har gjort Thorfinna gravid. Thorfinna er én af Njals tætte slægtninge, så Njal er ikke særlig glad for, at hun pludselig forventer et barn – det ved vi med sikkerhed.

Thorfinna (til venstre) med sin elsker, Thorgeir

tilbageblik til kapitel 64: Njal bryder chok-nyheden om,

at Thorgeir har gjort hans slægtning Thorfinna gravid.

I dag lærer vi, at Thorgeir er en genert, følelsesmæssig mand – høj, stærk, sandhjertet og meget ærlig, selvom også lidt lettroende og blåøjet, og Lois og jeg begynder at spekulere på, om det var Thorfinna, som forførte ham, og ikke omvendt. Men det er vi ikke helt sikre på  - juryen er stadig ude om det. Vi får se.

 I kapitel 67 viser Thorgeir sig at være en genert, følelsesmæssig mand,

sandhjertet men lidt lettroende – kan det være, at det var Thorfinna, som

forførte ham, og ikke omvendt? Men det er juryen stadig ude om. Vi får se!

10:00 Ian skal af sted og vi hopper op i brusekabinen. Vi spiser frokost kl 12 og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur.

14:30 Jeg står op og vi kører over til den lille by Bishops Cleeve, der ligger 3 miles nord for Cheltenham. Lois har en aftale kl 15 hos den lokale kliniks fysioterapeut, Sally, for at modtage behandling af sine ryg- og hofteproblemer.

Bishops Cleeve Village Clinic, hvor Lois har en aftale hos fysioterapeuten

Mens Lois bliver skubbet, stødt, dunket og masseret af Sally, smutter jeg ind i Lowrys-caféen, der ligger ved siden af klinikken for at snuppe en kop kaffe og et stykke pærekage med chokolade – yum yum!

Jeg kigger på min smartphone og læse igennem smertestillende nyhederne, som sædvanligt. Lois har for vane at tage en ibuprofen efter morgenmad for at lindre sine rygsmerter og den slags. Men i dag læser jeg om en attracktiv 38-stykke AstraZeneca-pilleprøver, som jeg må huske at anbefale hende (kilde: min go-to nyhedswebsted, den indflydelsesrige Onion News).

ALPHARETTA, GA - Samlet omkring køkkenbordet for at udvælge deres favoritter, kastede alle fire medlemmer af Johnson-husstanden sig ivrigt over en 38-stykke AstraZeneca-pilleprøver, som de modtog som feriegave, bekræftede kilder fredag.

”Jeg kan godt lide de blå-røde, men jeg spiser stort set nogen af dem undtagen de gule - jeg overlader altid dem til far, ”sagde den 12-årige Evan Johnson, der tilføjede, at ud af kassens forskellige smertestillende midler, dekongestanter, østrogentilskud og antipsykotiske medikamenter, nyder han mest dem, der har en kodinbaseret gel derinde.

”Det er også ligesom sjovt at få fat i en eller anden,  uden at vide, hvad der er indeni, og prøve så at gætte, hvad du har taget. Sidste år fik jeg en betablokker, og den var dog virkelig modbydelig, så måske vil jeg bare se på den lille guide og vælge kun de gode. ”

På pressetidspunktet havde hvert familiemedlem, ifølge rapporter, taget for mange piller og klagede over ubehag i maven, svimmelhed og sløret syn.

15:45 Lois kom hen til mig efter sin aftale og bestiller en kop te. Vi bliver siddende i caféen endnu et kvarter. Hun siger, hun ikke er fristet af den 38-stykke AstraZeneca-pilleprøver, hvilket er lidt af en skam. Vi krydser vejen og går madindkøb på det lokale Tesco-supermarked.

det lokale Tesco-supermarked

17:00 Vi kommer hjem og spiser aftensmad. Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, den 3. del af en interessant dokumentafilmserie på Smithsonian-kanalen, ”Storbritannien i farve”, der fremviser forskellige gamle nyhedsfilmklip og familiefilmklip, for nylig kolorerede. Og det er forbløffende, hvor meget tilføjelsen af farve til disse gamle filmklip øger deres klarhed og livlighed – det må jeg nok sige.

Dette afsnit handler om filmklip af Winston Churchill, Storbritanniens premierministre under den 2. verdenskrig og igen først i 1950’erne, og det er morsomt at se den store mand i et nyt lys, takket være forskellige gamle familiefilmklip.

Vi ser forskellige familiefilmklip fra 1930’erne, da han var i det politiske vildnis. I dette klip ser vi ham glider ned ad en glidebane ind i vandet et eller andet sted i Syd-Frankrig, og taber sine sorte badebukser i processen. Lois forklarer mig den videnskabelige baggrund til dette fænomen, som tilsyneladende er ganske hyppigt, kommenterer hun, noget med vandpres at gøre, tilføjer hun.  Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!! I slutningen af klippet ser vi Churchills sorte badebukser flyde i vandet – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Han besøger Hollywood, inviteret af Randolph Hurst. Han møder Charlie Chaplin og se på ham fjolle rundt under optagelsen af sin seneste film.

tilbageblik til 1930’erne: Randolph Hurst, Churchill og Louis B Mayer, i Hollywood

Med Charlie Chaplin under optagelsen af sin seneste film.

Senere, efter Churchill bliver udnænvt til premierminister,  ser vi ham besøge den udbomberede Coventry Cathedral.

den udbomberede Coventry Cathedral

Disse billeder minder mig om, at jeg besøgte den ødelagte katedral i 2001, sammen med min mor, min søster Kathy, og hendes amerikanske mand, Steve. Tilfældigvis var datoen den 11. september, en dag, som vil leve i skændsel”, ligesom Roosevelt sagde om Pearl Harbour.

tilbageblik til september: jeg besøger den ødelagte katedral den 11. september 2001, sammen med min mor, min søster Kathy, og hendes amerikanske mand, Steve.

Churchill sagde altid, at hans livs højdepunkt var at stå i 1945 på altanen i Buckingham Palace med den kongelige familie og se på de tusindvis af mennesker samlet på torvet foran slottet.

Churchills mor var amerikaner, og Winston havde en dyb livsvarig kærlighed til USA. Jeg havde glemt at han valgte Battle Hymn of the Republic som sin begravelsesmarch i 1965.

Alt i alt en fascinerende biograf.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!