Monday December 30 2019

09:00 Lois starts the day with a cup of tea and a good old children's classic - a Worzel Gummidge story.

Happy days!

I still have a mild cold in my nose and a bit of a sore throat, so I decide to take it a bit easy again today. However, having the cold is good for my progress with our U3A Danish group's current project: Anna Grue's crime novel, "The Further You Fall". Yesterday I read 6 pages and compiled a vocabulary list for each page for the benefit of our group members. And today I manage to read 8 pages - yikes! The downside is that I'm getting more and more obsessed with figuring out what's going on in the plot - yikes (again) !!!!

And at the same time, I'm also gradually getting a little more concerned about whether the plot may get too naughty from the point of view of some of our group's female members. It is not easy to be the leader of a U3A self-help language group because I have to choose a project - some Danish crime novel - without having read it in advance. And the Danes are much more broad-minded than us British, to put it mildly. Yikes (again again) !!!!

Anna Grue's crime novel, which is our U3A Danish group current project:

is the plot becoming more and more "naughty" with each chapter?

A little bit of naughtiness is ok, but it’s easy to start crossing boundaries. We already know that the novel's (so far) two murder victims, two unlikely roomies, the unassuming cleaning assistant Lilliana and the sexy African Sally, were somehow both involved in sex work.

Today, however, I read that the novel's amateur detective hero Dan Sommerdahl comes across a couple of photos of the two women, in which there was "no attempt to hide their breasts and genitals: yet the images were anything but provocative - the two women were sitting huddled together, turned away, hiding  their serious faces behind their hands. And their nudity suggested vulnerability, not sex."

Yikes (for the 3rd time!) !!!! And the women were apparently involved with a website that has a suspicious name: ChickSupportGlobal.

Well we’ll have to see.

However, it’s becoming harder and harder not to read on and find out what happens on the next page - I have to say!!!!

I must try not to get too obsessed with the plot of this novel and forget about the realities of my own life, which is so much more wholesome needless to say  ha ha ha!

11:00 I am indeed becoming increasingly aware that important tasks on my to-do list have not been done and crossed off the list, especially in connection with our holiday in Australia next year. For the most part, we will be staying in Perth with our younger daughter Sarah and her family, but I have to book a rental car, to start with, a small Hyundai hopefully, just like last time.

Driving in Australia is quite easy - it's the same as here, thank goodness.

Flashback to April 2018: Lois standing next to our little Hyundai rental car

And while we are over there, Lois has been wanting to visit her cousin in Adelaide for a few days, that is, Stephen, who has (mild) Parkinson's disease. We have to make a decision on the question "plane or train", and the like, and set the dates, etc. Busy busy busy !!!! But I decide to postpone these difficult questions to “next year” ha ha ha!

Flashback to April 2016: me (left) with Lois' cousin Stephen

and Stephen's wife, Diane.

Lois (centre) with Stephen and Diane

12:00 Lunch and afterwards a gigantic afternoon nap. We settle down on the couch at 4 pm - a cup of tea and a slice of Lois's homemade Christmas cake - yum yum!

Lois is soon digging out her shiny new smartphone and texting her friends, plus Alison, our elder daughter in Haslemere. We had hoped to meet up with Alison and her 3 children again today in Oxford, at Lois's niece Sharon's house, but the plan has not come to fruition because Sharon and Michael have decided to spend the night at a health spa centre - please, what madness! !!!

However, it is surprising to me how much Lois has started using her smartphone. She is not particularly interested in surfing the web yet. She mostly uses it to text friends and family, or look on Facebook, and the like.

18:00 Dinner and then we spend the rest of the evening watching some television. Alison puts a charming picture up on "Insta", showing the jigsaw puzzle that Lois and she worked on at Christmas time - she has now completed it, which is nice.

the completed puzzle on "Insta"

Flashback to December 26: Alison (left) and Lois

working on the puzzle in the evening

We turn on the television and watch a 2-hour "slow TV" programme depicting a steam train ride in western Scotland from Fort William and Britain's highest mountain (Ben Nevis) north to Mallaig, a quiet little Atlantic port.

This programme is Lois' choice and it is only fair that she makes at least half of our TV choices, I must admit, though this program is not my “bag” to put it mildly. She says we've suffered from having seen too much sex lately - yesterday's drama documentary about the Profumo case was a good example of this - and we need a "sex break" for a couple of nights before we see it the second episode. And I have to give her that one ha ha ha!

I find this particular slow tv programme soothing but also quite boring, however, and I can't resist the temptation to doze off now and then during the programme. The scenery is beautiful, I have to admit, but much of the time it is hidden from viewers by high hedges and other obstacles next to the railway track.

And the soothing sound of the train, as it glides gracefully over the tracks, is, to some extent, marred by mysterious rhythmic “cracking” sounds every 2 seconds, as if someone on the train is being well and thoroughly flogged, which is a little distracting, to put it mildly. My god, what a crazy world we live in!!!!

Not only that, but the train staff are a laconic bunch of people, to put it mildly, and they tell us very little about their routines, etc. They need a bit of a personality transplant in my opinion.

22:00 I talk to Lois for a while before we go to bed. I say that I think the Scandinavians are much better than us Brits when it comes to producing entertaining "slow TV" films.

I recall that two years ago we saw a Norwegian film about two Sami women crossing northern Norway on 2 sledges drawn by reindeer, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The temperature was -6F (-21C) - brrrrrrrr !!!!

Lois and I had never tried to watch slow TV shows before, so we turned off the lights and snuggled up on the couch. The programme was very calming and reassuring, and it was nice to hear the reindeer's hooves crunching rhythmically over the snow - much more soothing than the sound of some train passenger being flogged, I have to say (did he/she not have a ticket perhaps??) !!!!!

At the end of the Norwegian film, we saw the famous Northern Lights. I was surprised to see that it is mostly green in colour.

the Northern Lights in north Norway - brrrr!!!

But hopefully it was nice'n'warm in that tent.

from time to time the programme-makers flashed fun facts about the Sami people

and other information up on the screen, which was nice

We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation: mandag den 30. december 2019

09:00 Lois starter dagen med en kop te og en god gammeldags børnehistorie: en Worzel Gummidge bog. 

Lykkelige dage !!!!!

Jeg har stadig en mild forkølelse i næsen og lidt af en øm hals, så beslutter jeg mig for at tage det lidt roligt igen i dag. Forkølelsen er imidlertid god for mit fremskridt med vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt: Anna Grues krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”.  I går læste jeg 6 sider og udfærdigede en ordforrådliste til hver side til fordel for vores gruppemedlemmer. Og i dag lykkes det mig at læse 8 sider – yikes! Ulempen er, at jeg bliver mere og mere besat af at finde ud af, hvad der så sker i plottet – yikes (igen)!!!!

Anna Grues krimiroman, der er vores U3A danske gruppes

nuværende projekt: er plottet ved at blive mere og mere ”frækt” med enhvert kapitel?

Og jeg bliver også samtidig gradvist lidt mere bekymret over, om plottet kan blive for frækt set ud fra synspunktet af nogle af vores gruppes  kvindelige medlemmer. Det er ikke ret nemt at være leder af et U3A selv-hjælp sprogsgruppe, fordi jeg må vælge et projekt – en eller anden dansk krimiroman - uden at have læst den i forhånd. Og danskerne er meget mere frisindede, end os briter, for at sige mildt. Yikes (igen igen) !!!!

En lille smule frækhed er ok, men det er nemt at overtræde grænserne. Vi ved allerede, at romanens (hidtil) to mordofre, to usandsynlige roomies, den stilfærdige rengøringsassistent Lilliana og den sexede afrikaner Sally, var på en eller anden måde begge to involveret i sexarbejde.

I dag imidlertid læser jeg, at romanens amatørdetektiv-helt Dan Sommerdahl falder over et par fotoer af de to kvinder, hvor der var ”intet forsøg på at skjule deres bryster og kønsdele:  alligevel var billederne alt andet end udfordrende – de to kvinder sad og krøb sammen, vendte sig væk, skjulte de alvorlige ansigter bag hænderne. Deres nøgenhed gav associationer til sårbarhed, ikke sex.” 

Yikes (for 3. gang!) !!!! Og kvinderne var tilsyneladende involveret med et websted, der har et mistænkeligt navn: ChickSupportGlobal.

Nå vi får se.

Men det bliver imidlertid sværere og sværere, ikke at læse videre og finde ud af, hvad der sker på næste side – det må jeg nok sige!!!!

Jeg må prøve ikke at blive for besat af plottet af denne roman og glemme alt om virkelighederne af mit eget liv ha ha ha!

11:00 I mellemtiden bliver jeg mere og mere klar over, at vigtige opgaver på min gøremålsliste ikke er blevet klaret og streget ud, især i forbindelse til vores ferie i Australien næste år. For det meste vil vi opholde os i Perth hos vores yngste datter Sarah og hendes familie, men jeg skal booke en lejebil, til at begynde med, en lille Hyundai, ligesom sidste gang.

Det er ganske nemt at køre i bil i Australien – det er det samme som her, gudskelov.

tilbageblik til april 2018: Lois ved siden af vores lille Hyundai-lejebil

Og Lois har lyst til at besøge sin fætter i Adelaide i et par dage, Stephen, der har (mild) parkinsons syge. Vi må tage en beslutning om spørgsmålet ”fly eller tog”, og den slags, og fastsætte datoerne osv. Travlt travlt travlt!!!!  Jeg beslutter at udskyde disse vanskelige spørgsmål til “næste år” ha ha ha!

Tilbageblik til april 2016: mig (til venstre) sammen med Lois’ fætter Stephen

og Stephens kone, Diane.

Lois sammen med Stephen og Diane

12:00 Frokost og bagefter en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Vi sætter os til rette i sofaen kl 16 – en kop te og en skive Lois’ hjemmelavede julekage – yum yum!

Lois er snart i gang med at grave sin spritnye smartphone frem og sms’e sine veninder, også Alison, vores ældste datter i Haslemere. Vi havde håbet at mødes med Alison og hendes 3 børn i dag i Oxford, i Lois’ niece Sharons hus, men planen er ikke blevet til noget, fordi Sharon og Michael har besluttet at overnatte i et spacenter – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Det er imidlertid overraskende for mig hvor meget Lois er begyndt at bruge sin smartphone. Hun eir ikke særlig interesseret endnu i at surfe nettet. Hun bruger den for det meste til at sms’e til sine veninder eller kigge på Facebook, og den slags.

18:00 Aftensmad og derefter bruger vi resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Alison lægger et charmerende billede op på ”Insta”, der forestiller det puslespil, som Lois og hun arbejdede på ved juletid – hun har nu fuldført det, hvilket er rart.

det fuldføre puslespil på ”Insta”

tilbageblik til den 26. december: Alison (til venstre) og Lois

arbejder på puslespillet om aftenen

Vi tænder for fjernsynet og ser et 2-timers ”langsom tv”-program, der skildrer en damptogtur i det vestlige Skotland fra Fort William og Storbritanniens højeste bjerg (Ben Nevis) til Mallaig, en lille havneby ved Atlanterhavet.

Dette program er Lois’ valg, og det er kun fair, at hun beslutter mindst halvdelen af vores tv-valg, det må jeg indrømme, selvom dette program er ikke mit nummer for at sige mildt.  Hun siger, vi har lidt af at have set alt for meget sex på det seneste – gårsdagens dramadokumentarfilm om Profumo-sagen var et godt eksempel på dette – og vi trænger til en ”sexpause” i et par aftener, før vi ser det 2. afsnit. Og det må jeg give hende ret i ha ha ha!

Jeg finder dette program beroligende men også ganske kedeligt imidlertid, og jeg kan ikke modstå fristelsen til at blunde lidt af og til under programmet. Landskabet er smukt, det må jeg indrømme, men meget af tiden er det skjult for seerne af høje hækker og andre forhindringer, der ligger ved siden af jernebanesporet.

Og den beroligende lyd af toget, mens det yndefuldt kører over sporet, er i vis grad ødelagt af mystiske rytmiske smældelyde hver 2. sekund,  som om nogen på toget bliver godt og grundigt pisket, hvilket er lidt distraherende, for at sige mildt. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Derudover er togets personale alt i alt et lakonisk bundt mennesker, for at sige mildt, og de fortæller os meget lidt om deres rutiner osv. De trænger til lidt af et personlighedtraktat i min udtalelse.

22:00 Jeg snakker lidt med Lois før vi går i seng. Jeg siger, jeg synes at skandinaverne er meget bedre end os briter, når det kommer til at producere underholdende ”langsom tv” film.

Jeg mindes om, at vi for 2 år siden så en norsk film, der handlede om to sami kvinder, der krydsede det nordlige Norge med 2 slæder trukket af rensdyr, 200 miles nord for den arktiske cirkel. Temperaturen var -6F (-21C) – brrrrrrrr!!!!

Lois og jeg havde aldrig forsøgt os med at se langsom-tv-programmer før, så vi slukkede for lyset og puttede os ind til hinanden i sofaen. Programmet var meget roligt og betryggende, og det var rart at høre rensdyrenes hove træde rytmisk over sneen – meget bedre, end lydene af en eller anden togpassager, der bliver pisket, det må jeg nok sige!!!

Ved slutningen af filmen så vi det berømte nordlys. Jeg var overrasket at se, at det for det meste er grønt.

nordlyset i det nordlige Norge: men det må være dejlig varmt i teltet, gudskelov.

af og til flashede programmagerne sjove fakta om samifolket

og andre oplysninger op på skærmen, hvilket var meget underholdende og interessant

Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!