Monday December 9 2019

09:00 Lois and I tumble out of the shower cabin and after breakfast we head into the village. Lois wants to bake our Christmas cake today and she lacks a variety of ingredients - most of which we manage to get this morning at the Bakery Stores, but they don't have the right kind of brown sugar and they have no marzipan, which is a bit of a shame, so when we get home, we hop in the car and head down to the local Sainsbury’s supermarket to get hold of these 2 essential foods - my goodness!

On our way home from Bakery Stores, I take a quick photo of the Kings Arms pub, which has been refurbished by its new owners (TV boss Raymond Blanc's brasserie chain) over the past few months.

The pub is still surrounded by barriers, but the builders have disappeared, we suspect. Now and then we see staff move between the building and the parking lot, but they look like waiters / waitresses or kitchen staff, judging from their work clothes - Lois thinks Saturday will be the pub's big reopening day and tables are fully booked for weeks - yikes, what madness !!!!

the refurbished Kings Arms pub - Saturday will be

its big reopening day, Lois believes

On our way home, I also take a quick photo of the former medical centre, which is being demolished. The doctors sold it to a construction company, which plans to build 8 new houses on the land - the doctors wanted the construction company’s money so they could open a brand new surgery 5 miles away from here. They are such bastards, those doctors !!!!

The demolition is already underway and the old surgery’s

entire front half has already been destroyed - what madness !!!!

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

and move into a new one, 5 miles away from here.

No letters were written to patients - you had to turn up and read the notice

to know it had happened: what madness!!!!

January 2019: the old one-storey medical centre 

can be seen in the background behind Lois.

The doctors plans for tearing down the old surgery

and having 6 new houses built on the land

My goodness - they were such bastards, those doctors !!!!

12:00 We come home and have lunch. Afterwards, I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois rushes into the kitchen to assemble the ingredients and bake our Christmas cake.

While the cake is in the oven, she settles down in the living room to watch another sentimental American Christmas TV movie, "A Joyous Christmas" (2017).

Lois has begun to discover a series of clichés that appear in many of these types of films - she has seen so many of them this month, and is becoming a bit of an expert on the genre, I have to say.

It is amazing how many of the films centre on people with their own event-organiser business:  someone who undertakes to organise their customers’ Christmas parties, wedding parties and other festive occasions, on behalf of people who presumably are too busy to do it for themselves.

For the most part, it is the leading woman who is the event organiser, but today it is the man. As usual, the two main characters, the man and the woman, are either divorced or widowed, and one of them has returned to his/her snowy hometown in time for Christmas, after encountering some personal setback, or the like.

A simple formula, but very effective, and Lois wallows int it, though it's not really my ‘bag’, I have to say.

18:00 The cake is now fully baked (ie not half-baked ha ha) and can now be taken out of the oven. We have dinner and settle down in the living room to write in more of our Christmas cards: this time to a long list of recipients in the UK. I have already written and sent all my cards to friends and relatives abroad.

our Christmas cake is now baked and can be taken out of the oven -

now it has to be covered with icing etc, but that must wait for another day

20:00 I take a look at my smartphone and I see that Alison, our daughter in Haslemere, Surrey, has posted a charming photo on "Insta". This month she is participating in some kind of sports challenge, where you have to run a certain number of miles a day or tackle other kinds of exercise goals - I don't know exactly what these challenges are.

Ali with Sika, the family's Danish dog

A great photo - and in my comment, I ask Ali if it is her or Sika (the family's Danish dog) who took this "selfie" - if it was Sika, his techniques have advanced a lot in the last few months, I tell her, probably because of her mentoring no doubt ha ha!

We watch a little television, the two TV quizzes in which Lois and I, the two old crows, always try to compete with the quizzes' young participants. We like to keep score in this unofficial match, but we allow ourselves to score points only if we come up with correct answers to questions that the participants' fresh young brains seem totally baffled over ha ha ha!

In "Only Connect", participants are challenged to show their skills in lateral thinking and make connections between seemingly unrelated concepts. Lois and I score two "points" tonight, which is not too bad. Our two little triumphs are as follows:

In "University Challenge" we score a total of 4 points tonight, two of them reproduced here:

And finally a question more suitable to old crows than fresh young brains....

Little triumphs please small minds, as my mother used to say. Good grief, how right she was!!!!!!!

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

Danish translation: mandag den 9. December 2019

09:00 Lois og jeg vælter ud af brusekabinen og efter morgenmad går vi hen ind i landsbyen. Lois har lyst til at bage vores julekage i dag, og hun mangler en række ingredienter – de fleste af disse får vi fat i i Bakery Stores-nærbutikken, men de har ikke den rigtige slags brun sukker og de har ikke noget marcipan, hvilket er lidt af en skam, så da vi kommer hjem, hopper vi i bilen og tøffer ned til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at få fat i disse 2 vigtige fødevarer – du godeste!

På vores vej hjem fra Bakery Stores, tager jeg et hurtigt foto af Kings Arms-pubben, som er blevet istandsat af sine nye ejere (tv chefen Raymond Blancs brasserie-kæde) over de seneste få måneder.

Pubben er stadig omgivet af barrierer, men byggemændene er blevet forsvundet, mistænker vi. Nu og dag ser vi personale flytte mellem bygningen og parkeringspladsen, men de ser ud som tjenere/tjenerinder eller køkkenpersonale, ud at dømme fra deres arbejdstøj – Lois tror, lørdag bliver pubbens store genåbningsdag, og borde er fuldt reserveret i flere uger – yikes, sikke et vanvid!!!!

den istandsette Kings Arms-pub – lørdag bliver

dens store genåbningsdag, tror Lois

På vores vej hjem tager jeg også et hurtigt foto af det tidligere lægehus, som er i gang med at blive nedrevet. Lægerne solgte det til et bygningsfirma, som planlægger at bygge 8 nye huse på jorden – lægerne ville have bygningsfirmas penge, så de kunne åbne et spritnyt lægehus 5 miles væk herfra. De er sådanne nogle sjovere, de der læger!!!!

Nedrivningen er allerede i gang, og det gamle lægehus’

hele forreste halvdel er allerede blevet ødelagt – sikke et vanvid!!!!

Tilbageblik til januar: lægerne lukker det gamle lægehus,

og flytter ind i et nyt, 5 miles væk herfra.

Det gamle én-etagers 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 var sådanne nogle sjovere, de der læger !!!!

12:00 Vi kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden skynder Lois sig ind i køkkenet for at samle ingredienterne og bage vores julekage.

Mens kagen er i ovnen sætter hun sig til rette i stuen for at se endnu en sentimental amerikansk jule-tvfilm, ”A Joyous Christmas” (2017).

Lois er begyndt at opdage en række klichéer, som dukker op i mange af disse slags film – hun har set så mange af dem denne måned, og bliver til lidt af en ekspert om genren, det må jeg nok sige.

Det er forbløffende hvor mange af filmene har som hovedroller mennesker med deres egen forretning som event-organisator: én, der organiserer sine kunderes julefester, bryllupsfester og andre festlige anledninger på vegne af kunder, der har for travlt til selv at gøre det.

For det meste er det kvinden, der er eventorganisatoren, men i dag er det manden. Som sædvanligt er de to hovedfigurer, manden og kvinden enten skilt eller enke/enkemand, og én af dem er rejst tilbage til sin snedækkede hjemby i tide for jul efter et eller andet personlig tilbageslag, eller lignende.

En simpel formel, men meget effektiv, og Lois svælger i den, selvom det ikke rigtig er min ting, det må jeg nok sige.

18:00 Kagen er nu fuldt baget, og kan tages ud af ovnen. Vi spiser aftensmad og sætter os til rette i stuen for at give os til at skrive flere af vores julekort: denne gang til en lang liste over modtagere i Storbritannien. Jeg har allerede skrevet og afsendt alle mine kort til venner og slægtninge i udlandet.

vores julekage er nu baget og kan tages ud af ovnen –

nu skal den dækkes med glasur osv, men det må blive en anden dag

20:00 Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone, og jeg ser, at Alison, vores datter i Haslemere, Surrey, har lagt et charmerende foto op på ”Insta” – denne måned er hun i gang med at deltage i en eller anden slags sportsudfordring, hvor man må løbe et vist tal miles om dagen eller takle andre slags motionsmål – jeg ved ikke præcis, hvad disse udfordringer er.

Ali med Sika, familiens danske hund

Et fantastisk foto – og i min kommentar, spørger jeg Ali, om det er hende eller Sika (familiens danske hund), som tog denne ”selfie” – hvis det var Sika, har hans teknikker avanceret meget i de seneste få måneder, fortæller jeg hende, sandsynligvis på grund af hendes mentorning uden tvivl.

Vi ser lidt fjernsyn, de to tv-quizzer, hvor Lois og jeg, to gamle krager, altid forsøger at dyste med quizzernes unge deltagere. Vi kan godt lide at holde scoren i denne uofficielle kamp, men vi tillader os selv til at  score points bare hvis vi kommer med korrekte svar på spørgsmål, som deltagernes friske unge hjerner virker totalt betuttede over ha ha ha!

I ”Only Connect”, hvor deltagerne blive udfordret til at vise deres færdigheder i lateral tænkning for at komme med forbindelser mellem tilsyneladende uforbundet koncepter, scorer vi to ”points” i aften, hvilket er ikke særlig slemt. Vores to triumfer er som følger:

I ”University Challenge” scorer vi sammenlagt 4 points, to af dem gengivet her:

Små triumfer behager små sinder, som min mor plejede at sige. Du godeste!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!