Sunday December 22 2019

09:00 No whatsapp call this morning from our younger daughter Sarah, who lives in Perth, Australia with Francis and their 6 year old twins. 

Later, I find out that their car has now been repaired and they left yesterday to spend their Christmas vacation along the coast south of Perth: Wave Rock, and the like. Lois and I hope we can talk to them sometime over Christmas and New Year.

Our elder daughter, Alison, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey with Ed and their 3 children, is also not home at the moment. Currently, they are spending a few days with Ed's parents in Highcliffe, Dorset. Later in the day, we see two charming photos of Isaac (9) and Josie (13) as they and Alison took the family's Danish dog, Sika, for a walk on the local beach. How fast are they growing up!

Our grandchildren, Isaac (9) and Josie (13), take the family's Danish dog,

Sika, for a walk on Highcliffe Beach

10:15 Lois and I have to go out. She wants to attend her sect's two worship services taking place today in Tewkesbury library. Her back and hips have been hurting her over the past 2-3 days and she has asked me to drive her over there. I drop her off in front of the library and drive home.

11:00 I have some alone time and get going with reading 2 more pages of Anna Grue's Danish crime novel, "The Further You Fall", which is our U3A Danish group's current project. And I compile a vocabulary list for each page, to save our group members from having to look the hard words up in their dictionaries. How warm-hearted I am ha ha ha!

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

The novel starts with a violent murder, late at night, when a cleaning assistant is garotted in the kitchens of a large Danish advertising agency.

The book's main character, Dan Sommerdahl, one of the agency's bosses, has aspirations about becoming a bit of an amateur detective, and he is keen to help his friend in the local police, Flemming Torp, try to identify the mystery murderer, who also apparently works for the agency.

Police Detective Flemming Torp (left) along with

his best friend, Dan Sommerdahl and Dan's wife, Marianne

Dan now seems to be happily married to his wife, Marianne, but in the past he has had a bit of a chequered career when it came to his love life, and he was known in his advertising agency for having sex, both on his desk and during his desk, with "almost every attractive young female trainee" that he came into contact with within the agency: my goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!

Today, as I work through the next 2 pages of the novel, I run into a somewhat embarrassing dilemma as I try to work out the meaning of some of the more difficult words used by the author, Anna Grue, when she’s describing some of the attractive young graphic artist trainees that Dan has had sex with at his desk in previous years.

The author describes these young women as "spidsbrystet" - and from the context I suspect she means these young women tended to have incredibly pointy breasts, even though the dictionary interprets the word "spidsbrystet" as a "piece of beef from the front and top of the breastbone "- probably what we would call a piece of " brisket "in English. My god, what madness! And there are some other embarrassing sexual references too - yikes!

Sometimes, being a U3A language group leader is not easy - and I don't want to offend our group's female members. I will try to have a quiet chat about the subject with Jeanette, our group's only genuine Danish member, before our next group meeting in late January.

Flashback to 2009: the Danish news site extrabladet.dk showcases Leonardo Caprio’s

new model girlfriend, Anne Vi, in an incredibly bizarre dress

with totally sticky-out chest-parts. My god, what madness!

And I don't suppose Dan's young graphics student-girlfriends 

looked anything like that - ha ha!

Fortunately, I have asked Lois to give me a more modern dictionary as one of my Christmas presents, which will be nice. I am sure that "piece of brisket" is not the correct English translation here. My goodness!

13:00 I have lunch, but afterwards there is not enough time to take my usual afternoon nap. I have to drive to Tewkesbury again to pick up Lois after the 2nd of her sect's two services. I drive her home and go to bed immediately - I need to relax a little and I fall asleep right away. I get up at 4pm.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television. But, as Christmas approaches, most of the evening programmes are becoming more and more crap, I have to say.

We decide to watch an old comedy film, "Make Mine A Million" on the Talking Pictures channel, a channel that specialises in broadcasting old movies and old TV shows, which is often nostalgic for old crows like Lois and me. And it's nice to see the old actors that we remember from our youth.

The old-fashioned comedian, Arthur Askey, takes on the film's lead role as a BBC makeup artist who makes a fortune by illegally interrupting BBC TV shows with his own homemade commercials for products that his shifty friend, Sid James, is trying to bring on the market.

It is amusing that the channel nowadays shows the same "warning screen" before the beginning of all its programmes now, to warn TV viewers that the programme contains outdated sexual and racial stereotypes and suchlike – my god! Lois and I suspect that this is a problem that every "retro channel" has to face nowadays.

It's fun for Lois and me to try to spot sexist or racist remarks and behaviours in the movie, even if they are extremely mild in this case, I have to say. We see the head of a commercial television station, for example, holding "auditions" in its private office, where a stream of young women step inside one by one, to be examined, sized up, and tested, and have their buttocks patted as they leave.

Lois and I tend to think, however, that few TV viewers will be offended by these scenes, which were probably included as a kind of satirical commentary on typical bosses and their lifestyles, but we suspect the channel didn't want to take any risks, just in case .... My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

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

Danish translation: søndag den 22. December 2019

09:00 Ingen whatsapp-opkald i formiddag fra vores yngste datter Sarah, der bor i Perth, Australien sammen med Francis og deres 6-årige tvillinger. Senere finder jeg ud af, at bilen er blevet repareret og de tog afsted i går for at holde deres juleferie langs kysten syd for Perth: Wave Rock, og den slags. Lois og jeg håber på, vi kan tale med dem en eller anden tid julen og nytåret over.

Vores ældste datter, Alison, der bor i Haslemere, Surrey sammen med Ed og deres 3 børn, er også ikke hjem for øjeblikket. For tiden opholder de sig et par dage hos Eds forældre i Highcliffe, Dorset. Senere på dagen ser vi to charmerede billeder af Isaac (9) og Josie (13), da de og Alison tog familens danske hund, Sika, en tur på den lokale strand. Hvor vokser de hurtigt!

Vores børnebørn, Isaac (9) og Josie (13), tager familiens danske hund,

Sika, en tur på Highcliffe-stranden

10:15 Lois og jeg skal ud. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts to gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek. Hun har haft ondt i ryggen og hofterne de seneste 2-3 dage, og hun har bedt mig om at køre hende derover. Jeg sætter hende af foran biblioteket og kører hjem.

11:00 Jeg har lidt alenetid og går i gang med at læse endnu 2 sider af Anna Grues danske krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”, som er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt. Og jeg udfærdiger en ordforrådliste til hver side, for at bespare vores gruppemedlemmer for at måtte de svære ord op i deres ordbøger. Hvor er jeg dog varmhjertet  ha  ha ha!

Anna Grues danske krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”,

som er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Anna Grue, romanens forfatterinde

Romanen starter med et voldsomt mord, sent på aftenen, da en rengøringsassistent bliver garrotteret i køkkenerne i et stort dansk reklamebureau.

Bogens hovedfigur, Dan Sommerdahl, en af bureauets cheffer, har ambitioner om at blive lidt af en amatørdetektiv, og han er opsat på at hjælpe sin ven i politiet, Flemming Torp, med at prøve at identificere den ukendte gerningsmand, der tilsyneladende også arbejder for bureauet.

Politidetektiven Flemming Torp (til venstre) sammen med

sin bedste ven, Dan Sommerdahl og Dans kone, Marianne

Dan synes nu at være lyggeligt gift med sin kone, Marianne, men han i fortiden har haft lidt af en omtumlet tilværelse når det kommer til hans kærlighedsliv, og han var kendt i sit reklamebureau for at have sex, både på sit skrivebord, og under sit skrivebord, med ”næsten hver attraktiv ung kvindelig praktikant”, der Dan kom i kontakt med i bureauet:  du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

I dag, som jeg arbejder igennem de næste 2 sider af romanen, løber jeg ind i et lidt pinligt dilemma, da jeg prøver at udarbejder betydningen af nogle af de sværere ord, som forfatteren, Anna Grue, bruger til at beskrive nogle af de attraktive unge grafikelever, som Dan i de foregående år har haft sex med.

Forfatteren beskriver disse unge kvinder som ”spidsbrystede” – og fra konteksten mistænker jeg, at hun vil siger, de havde tendens til at have utroligt spidse bryster, selvom ordboget fortolker ordet "spidsbryst" som et ” stykke oksekød fra den forreste og øverste del af brystet” - på engelsk et stykke "brisket" formentligt. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Og der er også nogle andre pinlige seksuelle referencer - yikes!

Det er nogle gange ikke let at være en U3A sproggruppeleder - og jeg har ikke lyst til at støde vores gruppes kvindelige medlemmer. Jeg vil prøve at tage et stille snak om emnet med Jeanette, vores gruppes eneste ægte danske medlem før vores næste gruppemøde sent i januar.

tilbageblik til 2009: ekstrabladet.dk fremviser Leonardo Caprios

nye modelkæreste, Anne V, i en utrolig bizar kjole

med totalt strittende brystsparti. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Og jeg formoder ikke, at Dans unge grafikelever så således ud ha ha!

Heldigvis har jeg bedt Lois om at give mig en mere moderne ordbog som én af mine julegaver, hvilket vil være rart. Jeg er bombesikker på, at ”brisket” ikke er den korrekte engelske oversættelse. Du godeste!

13:00 Jeg spiser frokost, men bagefter er der ikke nok tid til at tage min sævanlige eftermiddagslur. Jeg skal køre til Tewkesbury igen for at hente Lois efter den 2. af hendes sekts to gudstjenester. Jeg kører hende hjem og går straks i seng – jeg trænger til at slappe lidt af og falder i søvn med det samme. Jeg står op kl 16.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Men, mens jul nærmer sig, er de fleste af aftenprogrammerne  mere og mere noget skrammel, det må jeg nok sige.

Vi beslutter at se en gammel komediefilm, ”Make Mine A Million” på Talking Pictures-kanalen, en kanal, der specialiserer sig om at sende gamle film og gamle tv-serier, hvilket ofte er nostalgisk for gamle krager som Lois og mig. Det er rart at se de gamle skuespillere, som vi husker fra vores ungdom.

Den gammeldags komiker, Arthur Askey, tager filmens hovedrolle som en BBC makeupartist, der scorer en kasse ved at afbryde BBC-tv-programmer ulovligt med sine egne hjemmelavede reklamer til produkter, som hans mistænkelige ven, Sid James, prøver at bringe på markedet.

Det er morsomt, at kanalen nu til dags viser den samme ”advarselsskærm” før begyndelsen af alle sine programmer, for at advare tv-seerne, at programmet indeholder uddaterede seksuelle og racestereotyper – du godeste! Lois og jeg formoder, at det er et problem, som hver ”retro-kanal” nu til dags må bakse med.

Det er sjovt for Lois og mig at prøve at spotte sexistiske eller racistiske bemærkninger og adfærd i filmen, selvom de er ekstremt milde i dette tilfælde, det må jeg nok sige. Vi ser cheffen af et kommercielt tv-station, for eksempel, der holder ”auditioner” i sit private kontor, hvor en stribe unge kvinder træder ind én efter én, for at blive undersøgt, set an, og prøvet, og får deres bagdele klappet, da de tager af sted.

Lois og jeg har tendens til at synes, imidlertid, at få tv-seere kommer til at blive krænket af disse sekvenser, som sandsynligvis blev inkluderet som en slags satiriske kommentar om typiske cheffer og deres livstil, men vi formoder, at kanalen ikke har lyst til at tage nogle risikoer, bare for det tilfælde.... Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!