Tuesday November 26 2019

08:30 Lois and I tumble out of the shower cabinet and I rush into the kitchen to grab some breakfast and clean up the living room. My friend, "Magyar" Mike is arriving at 10 am this morning to take part in our weekly "Hungarian hour" and I have to arrange the furniture: he needs two small tables on either side of his armchair, for example, so he can put his cup of coffee, his textbook and his papers down within reach. It's raining outdoors and it's cold, but I open a small window so the atmosphere in the living room doesn't get too stuffy or smelly, and that kind of thing. Busy, busy, busy !!!!

10:00 Mike arrives and we study Hungarian for an hour. We have now reached Lesson 8 in our current textbook, and Mike is already beginning to have difficulty understanding the grammar and remembering the vocabulary and suchlike. He has aged a lot over the past 1-2 years and I am afraid that we are on the verge of unfortunately having to conclude that he can no longer cope with it all. Hungarian is not an easy language, to put it mildly, and we are getting near the end of the line, I fear, after 25 years of studying together. But we'll see. We have one more meeting (next Tuesday, December 3) before our annual Christmas break.

Flashback to 1994, and my first ever visit to Hungary -

Mike and I showcase our second-hand

"Excellent worker" medals from the communist era

- happy days !!!

11:00 Mike leaves and Lois and I walk into the village. She wants to buy a pack of Ibuprofen painkillers at the local pharmacy for her back problems, and also post a few letters in the village mailbox.

On the way home, we take a look at the Kings Arms pub that closed a few months ago. Fortunately, Raymond Blanc's restaurant-brasserie chain has bought it and their builders have been fully occupied with refurbishing and renovating it. Raymond would like to reopen the pub in time for the Christmas season, a very lucrative 2-3 weeks for the catering industry, to put it mildly.

The parish council, in collaboration with local businesses, has organized an "open day", scheduled for Saturday, and the Kings Arms brasserie is slated to take part in this mini-festival. But today, Lois and I sneak a peep through the windows and there are still a lot of junk and clutter in the big room facing the street. They've put up some shiny new pub-signs, but I bet they won't be ready in time for the mini festival on Saturday – yikes !!!!

On the way home, Lois and I take a look at the Kings Arms pub – it's supposed to happen

that the pub will be taking part in the village's mini-festival, scheduled for Saturday,

but Lois and I have our doubts - that pub will never be ready in time, we suspect!

Later in the day, Lois calls her former workmate, Rose. Rose knows everything about everything and everyone in the village, despite the fact that she is not very mobile - yikes, she must have spies everywhere !!!!

Rose says she has heard that the village's post office, which unfortunately closed a few months ago, is to be reopened in a popular convenience store, the Burgage Stores. And the store that until this year housed both the post office and a newsagent’s has finally been sold, and is to be reopened as a florist. My god, what a madness !!!!

The Burgage Stores, which, according to Rose, will soon house the village post office

- my god, what madness !!! But very convenient for Lois and me -

it is only 5 minutes away on foot

But do we really want a florist in the village? Florists never last very long, in mine and Lois's experience.

The redeeming feature with florists, of course, is their well-known ability to come up with pithy or sarcastic sound-bites about world events, a bit like bartenders, taxi drivers and barbers, professions that our go-to news site Onion News often uses as sources for their famous vox pops, such as when those crazy Swedes debuted their infamous “mansplaining hotline” a couple of years ago.

Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television, an interesting documentary (part 1 of 3) about Tutankhamon, the famous Egyptian pharaoh. The programme's host is the charming Dan Snow.

Lois and I know full well that Dan Snow, the programme's charming host, has a wonderful ability to make you think that something he's talking about is an exciting fresh piece of news that has just been revealed, though it may be something we've heard about a million times before in other documentaries over the years. But I’m going to let that one slide, because his enthusiasm is certainly contagious, no doubt about that.

Tutankhamon became a pharaoh at the age of 8-9 years, and died at 19. He married his half-sister, and they had time to have two children, which was nice, although unfortunately both of the kids died - no surprise there, considering that as well as the parents being siblings, Tutankhamon’s mother was also his aunt. What a crazy family!!!! 

But the whole family were obviously all strongly attracted to one another, which is heart-warming. And tonight we see Tutankhamon's cosmetics drawer, complete with eyeliner and the like, which would have kept him looking at his best.

Tutankhamon's servants also packed piles of underwear on behalf of their Pharaoh - including 145 pairs of underpants, all perfectly preserved, but that makes sense, I have to say. Who knew how long the pharaoh would have to cope without the opportunity of popping into a good launderette or coming across a good coin-wash? My mother always told me to pack a bunch of underwear when planning a trip. Also that it was important to have a clean pair on, she said, in case I got involved in some accident or other, just for the sake of the ambulance people, and suchlike.

For me, what is most fascinating thing when it comes to ancient Egypt is the modern belief of historians that many of the tombs of the Pharaohs were plundered not by uneducated robbers centuries after the funerals, but by the undertakers, grave-diggers and priests themselves, the ones who buried them, and on top of that, that the tombs got plundered soon after the funeral itself - the whole set-up was a kind of one-stop-shop ha ha!

It seems that only the Pharaohs themselves, and all the common people, sincerely believed that the Pharaohs were travelling to the after-life, and with lots of jewellery and other more useful and practical possessions.

That's humanity in a nutshell, right? A combination of philosophical abstract religious beliefs for the pious, and the desire for money in this life for the more down-to-earth.

Let's hope that the religion of the ancient Egyptians was a bunch of crap, as I suspect it probably was. I wouldn’t want to think that the Pharaohs arrived in the after-life with nothing in their suitcases ha ha ha!

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

Danish translation: tirsdag den 26. november 2019

08:30 Lois og jeg vælter ud af brusekabinen og jeg skynder mig ind i køkkenet for at snuppe lidt morgenmad og rydde op i stuen. Min ven, ”Magyar” Mike kommer i formiddag kl 10 for at deltage i vores ugentlige ”ungarsk time”, og jeg må arrangere møblerne: han har brug for to små bord på begge side af sin lænestol, for eksempel, så han kan sætte sin kop kaffe, sin lærebog og sine papirer ned indenfor rækkevidde. Det regner udendørs og det er koldt, men jeg åbner et lille vindue, så atmosfæren i stuen ikke bliver for lummert og den slags. Travlt, travlt, travlt!!!!

10:00 Mike ankommer og vi studerer ungarsk i en time. Vi er nu nået til Lektion 8 i vores nuværende lærebog, og Mike er allerede begyndt at have svært ved at forstå grammatikken og at huske ordforrådet og den slags. Han har meget ældes de seneste 1-2 år, og jeg er bange for, at vi er på randen af måtte konkludere desværre, at han ikke længere kan hamle op med det hele. Ungarsk er ikke et nemt sprog, for at sige mildt, og vi er ved at komme til enden af linjen, frygter jeg, efter 25 års studie. Men vi får se. Vi har endnu ét møde tilbage (næste tirsdag, den 3. december), før vores årlige julepause.

Tilbageblik til 1994, og mit første besøg nogensinde til Ungarn –

Mike og jeg fremviser vores brugte

”udmærkede arbejdere” medaljer fra den kommunistiske æra

Lykkelige dage !!!

11:00 Mike skal af sted og Lois og jeg går hen ind i landsbyen. Hun ønsker at købe en pakke Ibuprofen smertestillende tablette på det lokale apotek, og også lægge et par breve i landsbyens postkasse.

På vejen hjem kigger vi lidt på Kings Arms-pubben, der lukkede for nogle måneder siden. Heldigvis har Raymond Blancs restaurant-brasserie-kæde købte den og deres byggemænd er blevet i fuld gang med at istandsætte og renovere den. Raymond vil gerne kunne genåbne pubben i tide til julesæsonen, en meget lukrative 2-3 uger for cateringbranchen, for at sige mildt.

Landsbyens kommune, i samarbejde med lokale forretninger, har organiseret en ”åben dag”, bestemt til lørdag, og det er meningen, at Kings Arms-brasserie deltager i denne mini-festival. Men i dag kigger Lois og jeg ind ad vinduet og der er stadig en masse rodebunker og tingeltangel i den store sal. Jeg satser på, at de ikke vil være klar i tide til mini-festivalen på lørdag – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !!!!

På vej hjem kigger Lois og jeg på Kings Arms-pubben – det er meningen ,

at pubben deltager i landsbyens mini-festival, bestemt til lørdag,

men Lois og jeg har vores tvivler – pubben vil aldrig være klar i tide, mistænker vi

Senere på dagen, Lois ringer til sin tidligere arbejdskammerat, Rose. Rose ved alt om alt og alle i landsbyen, på trods af, at hun er ikke særlig mobil – yikes,  hun må have spioner overalt !!!!

Rose siger, hun har hørt, at landsbyens postkontor, der desværre lukkede for nogle måneder siden, skal genåbnes i en populær nærbutik, Burgage Stores. Og den butik, der indtil i år husede både postkontoret og en bladhandlerforretning, endelig er blevet solgt, og skal genåbnes som en blomsterhandel. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Burgage Stores, som ifølge Rose, vil snart huse landsbyens postkontor

- du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! Men meget bekvemt for Lois og mig –

det er kun 5 minutter væk til fods

Og vil vi virkelig have en blomsterhandler i landsbyen? Blomsterhandlere varer aldrig særlig længe, i min og Lois’ erfaring.

Det forsonende træk med blomsterhandlere er selvfølgelig deres velkendte evne til at komme med kraftige eller spydige lyd-bites om verdensbegivenheder, lidt som bartendere, taxachaufføre og barbere, professioner, som vores go-to nyhedswebsted Onion News ofte benytter som kilder på sine berømte voxpopper, som for eksempel, da de der vanvittige svenskere åbnede deres berygtede ”mansplaining”-hotline for et par år siden.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

12:00 Vi kommer 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 reineclaudemarmelade – yum yum!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm (1. del af 3) der handler om Tutankhamon, den berømte egyptiske farao. Programmets vært er den charmerende Dan Snow.

Lois og jeg ved godt, at Dan Snow, programmets charmerende vært, har en vidunderlig evne til at få dig til at tro, at noget, han taler om, er en begejstrende ny nyhed, som lige nu er blevet afsløret, selvom den kan være noget, vi har hørt om en million gange før i andre dokumentarfilm gennem årene. Men det springer jeg over, fordi hans begejstring er smittende, ingen tvivl om det!

Tutankhamon blev farao på 8-9 år, og døde på 19. Han giftede sig med sin halvsøster, og de havde tid til at få to børn, hvilket var rart, selvom de desværre begge to døde – ingen overaskelse der, i betragtning af, at hans mor oven i købet også var hans tante. Sikke en vanvittig familie!!!! Men de var alle åbenbart tiltrukkede til hinanden, hvilket er hjertevarmende. Og i aften ser vi Tutankhamons kosmetikpunge, med hans eyeliner og den slags.

Tutankhamons tjenestefolk pakkede også bunkevis af undertøj på faraoens vegne – inklusive 145 par underbukser, alle perfekte bevarede, men det der giver mening, det må jeg nok sige. Hvem vidste, hvor længe faraoen ville måtte klare sig uden at få muligheden til at smutte ind i et godt selvbetjeningsvæskeri eller falde over en god møntvask? Min mor fortalte mig altid at pakke en bunke undertøj, når jeg planlagde en rejse. Også at det var vigtigt at have taget et rent par på , for det tilfælde, at jeg bliver involveret i en eller anden ulykke, for ambulancefolkets skyld, og den slags.

For mit vedkommende er det mest fascinerende, når det kommer til det gamle egyptien, er det moderne tro, at mange af faroernes grav blev plyndret ikke af ukultiverede røvere århundreder efter begravelserne, men af selve bedemændene, gravere og præster, som begravede dem, og oven i købet plyndrede snart efter selve begravelsen  - hele setuppet var et one-stop-shop ha ha!

Det ser ud til, at kun selve faraoerne og de almindelige folk oprigtigt troede, at faroerne var ved at rejse til det hinsides liv med masser af smykker og andre mere nyttige og praktiske ejendele.

Det er menneskeheden i en nøddeskal, ikke? En kombination af filosofiske abstrakte religiøse tro for de fromme, og lysten efter penge i dette liv for de mere jordnære.

Lad os håbe på at de gamle egypteres religion var noget lort. Jeg ville ikke gerne tro, at faraoerne ankom til det hinsides liv med intet i deres kufferter ha  ha ha!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!