Friday January 3 2020

One of my top teeth was pulled out yesterday and my mouth and gums are still sore, but not as sore as yesterday, thank goodness. Lois cooks things today that do not require me to chew hard. I dissolve a teaspoon of salt in a glass of warm water and hold it in my mouth for a few seconds before spitting it out, which helps protect against infections, it seems. I still lack energy, but otherwise I don't feel too bad. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’m on the mend.

Daria, the Romanian dentist with the good, relaxed conversation skills

and the charming smile, pictured here with a typical clinic patient.

It was Daria who pulled my tooth out yesterday

09:30 We drive over to the local Sainsbury’s supermarket to shop, and afterwards I try to take it fairly easy for the rest of the day - it's a big day tomorrow when I have to drive over to Oxford.

Lois and I have been invited to lunch with Lois’s niece, Sharon, and we hope to meet many of Lois's huge bunch of relatives over there: Sharon and her partner Michael and their 4 children, and Ian (Lois's nephew) and his partner Tasha and their 7 - yes, 7 - children, a total of 15 people - yikes !!!!! Plus young Aidan's partner Beth and their two small children - makes 18 !!!!!! And Lois has bought a Christmas present for each of them - how warm-hearted she is ha ha ha !!!!

11:00 I lack energy and I still feel a little bit groggy from time to time, but I sit down with the computer and in the course of the day I manage to read 3 more pages of Anna Grue's 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 looking up the difficult words in a dictionary. I also am so warm-hearted ha ha ha!

Anna Grue, the author of the novel

Anna Grue, the author of the novel, is bit of a dog person - no doubt about that. And the novel's hero, Dan Sommerdahl, has an interesting elderly dog called Luffe - Lois and I are waiting to see whether Luffe turns out to be incontinent, as we suspect.

Lois and I are not dog people, to put it mildly - we are more “cat people”, and it is interesting that much of the world's population can roughly be categorised as either dog people or cat people.

But there are some tasks which both dog owners and cat owners have in common: in the pages I read today, Luffe gets his claws clipped by Dan's temporary young house guest, Benjamin. Benjamin also takes the opportunity to fix a number of other problems around the house, such as resetting the television, DVD player, etc. This is the kind of task young people are best at, Lois and I have discovered.

But Benjamin admits that the most difficult task of all was actually clipping Luffe’s claws.

And Dan explains to him, "He [i.e. Luffe - Ed.] hates it. Just between ourselves, that spoiled dog usually gets taken to the vet to have it done, and even then the two of us have to hold him down while the vet does the clipping."

Very nostalgic for me to read these words - Lois and I used to take our dearly departed cat Minx to the vet regularly to get her claws clipped - happy times (though not from Minx's point of view ha ha ha) !!!!!

Flashback to October 2018: two of our grandchildren Rosalind and Josie, 

along with Ed, our son-in-law:  this is also our last photo ever

of the 18-year-old Minx - sob, sob! Poor Minx !!!!!!!

16:00 I get up after my usual gigantic afternoon nap and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch. We listen to the radio for a bit, an interesting episode in the series "The Last Word". Lois and I have got into the habit of trying to hear this programme every week because we are so anxious to find out if anyone in the last 2-3 weeks has died or not.

Sadly, Neil Innes, the gifted musician, died earlier this week at the age of 76. He was a member of the Bonzo Dog Band pop group, and was also known as "the 7th Python", due to his work on various Monty Python films.

There was a time that Lois and I can remember, when the lyrics of pop songs suddenly became much more poetic and lyrical - it started with the movie Thomas Crown Affair, with its haunting theme song, "The Windmills of Your Mind" -

 

And the Bonzo Dog Band's iconic "Canyons of Your Mind" was a worthy contribution to this genre, that’s something I have no doubts about.

 

And who could ever forget the video, with Neil Innes's iconic guitar solo, described by some as "the world's worst guitar solo ever" - a little unfair, Lois and I think. Neil's guitar playing was usually more refined, I have to admit, but Neil compensated for the solo's mediocre melody by showing his usual infectious enthusiasm.

Innes's iconic guitar solo on "Canyons":-

lead singer Viv Stanshall can be seen on the far right

But I can't help but round off this tribute to Innes without commenting that Lois and I thought it was not good form for the other band members to swoon and fawn so shamelessly over Innes during the solo, which was a little distracting, to put it mildly. 

Lead singer Viv Stanshall actually touched Innes's hand during the solo, and declared, pretty loudly actually, that he would never wash it again, which was a little embarrassing and not worthy of him, Lois and I think.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television, a fascinating tribute to the old sketch show from the 1990’s, "The Fast Show".

Very nostalgic for me because a couple of years ago I started a project to translate all the show's catchphrases  into Danish. I started with "which was nice" ("hvilket var rart" in Danish), but then I sadly forgot all about it - so tonight I make a mental note to resume the project later on in 2020.

This particular catchphrase was apparently inspired by middle-aged actors, for example, who used to say things like, "And then I did a TV, which was nice".

Great, I have it already within the first few days of the New Year - my new project !!! I love a good challenge!

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

Danish translation: fredag den 3. januar 2020

En af mine øverste tænder blev trukket ud i går, og min mund og tandkød er stadig øm, men ikke så øm som i går, gudskelov. Lois laver mad, som ikke kræver, at jeg tygger hårdt. Jeg løser en teskefuld salt i et glas varmt vand og holder den i munden i nogle sekunder, før jeg spytte den ud, hvilket hjælper med at beskytte mod infektioner, ser det ud til. Jeg mangler stadig energi,  men ellers har jeg det ikke særlig dårligt. Jeg krydser fingre for mig selv – yikes!!!!!

Daria, den rumanske tandlæge med de gode, afslappede samtalefærdigheder

og det charmerende smil, afbildet her sammen med en typisk klinikpatient.

Det var Daria, der trak min tand ud i går

  

09:30 Vi kører over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind, og bagefter prøver jeg at tage det roligt resten af dagen – det er en stor dag i morgen, når jeg må køre over til Oxford.

Lois og jeg er blevet inviteret til frokost hos Lois’ niece, Sharon, og vi håber at mødes med mange af Lois’ enorme flok af slægtninge derovre: Sharon og hendes partner Michael og deres 4 børn, og Ian (Lois’ nevø) og hans partner Tasha og deres 7 – ja, 7 – børn, sammenlagt 15 mennesker – yikes !!!!!  Og Lois har købt en julegave til hver af dem - hvor er hun dog varmhjertet ha ha ha!!!!

11:00 Jeg mangler energi og jeg føler mig stadig lidt omtåget fra tid til anden, men jeg sætter mig med computeren og det lykkes mig i løbet af dagen at læse endnu 3 sider af Anna Grues krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”, som er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt. Og jeg udfærdiger en ordforrådsliste til hver side, for at spare vores gruppemedlemmer for at slå de svære ord op i en ordbog. Jeg er så varmhjertet også ha ha ha!

Anna Grue, romanens forfatter

Anna Grue, romanens forfatter, er et hundemennesker – ingen tvivl om det. Og romanens helt, Dan Sommerdahl, har en interessant ældre hund, der hedder Luffe.

Lois og jeg er ikke hundemennesker, for at sige mildt – vi er snarere kattemennesker, og det er interessant, at verdens befolkning i grov træk kan kategoriseres som enten hundemennesker eller kattemennesker.

Men nogle opgaver har begge hundeejere og katteejere til fælles: i de sider, jeg læser i dag, får Luffe sine kløer klippet af Dans midlertidlige unge husgæst, Benjamin. Benjamin benytter lejligheden også at fiksere en række andre problemer i huset, fx at gendanne fjernsynet, dvd-spilleren osv. Dette er den slags opgave, unge mennesker er bedste til, har Lois og jeg opdaget.

Og Benjamin indrømmer, at det sværeste opgave faktisk var at klippe kløerne på Luffe. Og Dan forklarer ham, “Han [Luffe – red.] hader det. Mellem os sagt, så plejer den forkælede hund at komme til dyrlægen for at få det gjort, og så er vi to om at holde ham, mens dyrlægen klipper.”

Meget nostalgisk for mig at læse disse ord – Lois og jeg tog vores afdøde kat Minx til dyrlægen regelmæssigt for at få hendes kløer klippet – lykkelige tider (selvom ikke set ud fra Minx’ synspunkt ha ha ha) !!!!!

Tilbageblik til oktober 2018:  to af vores børnebørn Rosalind og Josie, sammen med Ed,

vores svigersøn: også vores sidste foto nogensinde

af den 18-årige Minx – hulk,hulk!  Stakkels Minx !!!!!!!

16:00 Jeg står op efter min sædvanlige gigantiske eftermiddagslur og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant afsnit i serien ”Det sidste ord”. Lois og jeg er kom i vane med at prøver at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi er ivrige efter at finde ud af, hvis nogen døde de sidste 2-3 uger, eller ej.

Neil Innes, den begavede musiker og komiker, døde desværre tidligere på ugen på 76 år. Han var medlem af popgruppen Bonzo Dog Band, og blev også kendt som ”den 7. Python”, på grund af sit arbejde på forskellige Monty Python-film.

Der var en periode, som Lois og jeg godt kan huske, da teksten af popsange pludselig blev meget mere poetisk – det startede med filmen Thomas Crown Affair, med dens uforglemmelige temamelodi, ”The Windmills of Your Mind” –

Og Bonzo Dog Bands ikoniske ”Canyons of Your Mind” var et værdigt bidrag til denne genre, det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om.

Og hvem kunne glemme videoen, med Neil Innes’ ikoniske guitarsolo, beskrevet af nogle som ”verdens værste guitarsolo nogensinde” – lidt unfair, synes Lois og jeg. Neils guitarspil var sædvanligt mere raffineret, det må jeg indrømme, men Neil kompenserede for soloens middelmådige melodi ved at vise sin sædvanlige entusiasme.

Innes’ ikoniske guitarsolo på ”Canyons”:

forsangeren Viv Stanshall kan ses til højre

Men jeg kan ikke undgå at runde denne hyldest til Innes af uden at kommentere, at Lois og jeg syntes det var ikke god tone for de andre bandmedlemmer at dåne så skamløst over Innes under soloen, hvilket var lidt distraherende, for at sige mildt. Forsangeren Viv Stanshall rørte Innes’ hånd og erklærede, at han aldrig ville vaske den igen, hvilket var lidt pinligt og ikke værdigt af ham, Lois og jeg synes.

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

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, et interessant hyldest til det gamle sketch-show fra 1990’erne, ”The Fast Show”.

Meget nostalgisk for mig, fordi jeg for et par år siden påbegyndte et projekt for at oversætte alle showets slagord til dansk. Jeg startede med ”which was nice” (”hvilket var rart” på dansk), men derefter glemte jeg om det hele – så i aften laver jeg en mental bemærkning at genoptage projektet senere på 2020.

Slagordet var tilsyneladende inspireret af midaldrende skuespillere, der eksempelvis plejede at sige, ”og så lavede jeg lidt tv, hvilket var rart”.

Fantastisk, jeg har det allerede indenfor nytårets første få dage – mit nye projekt!!! Jeg elsker en god udfordring!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!