Monday January 27 2020

09:30 Lois and I talk a little on whatsapp with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. Today is a public holiday - the country's national day, Australia Day.

Lily and Jessie, Sarah and Francis' 6-year-old twins can be heard in the background during the call, but they are very tired. They stayed up later than usual last night to see the fireworks down at the harbour, and they have spent the day today shopping and playing with some of their young ballet classmates. How cute they are though !!!

Flashback to last night: our son-in-law Francis took these pictures

down at the harbour where a fireworks show was underway.

A week ago, the family moved from their old rental house in Ocean Reef into a new rental house, about 35 miles north of Perth, in Lower Chittering. Currently, their existence there is a bit like a camping holiday: the washing machine has not been fully installed yet and there is no wifi yet.

A week ago, the family moved from their old rental house in Ocean Reef

into a new rental house, about 35 miles north of Perth, in Lower Chittering

In addition, there are no curtains or blinds to cover the windows - yikes! But the homeowner is "on the case" apparently - yikes (again) !!! And Sarah says they're surrounded by trees and they can't see the neighbouring houses anyway.

I just hope these problems turn out to be temporary, and will not still be an issue later in the year when Lois and I are visiting.

the family's new rental home in Lower Chittering

On the plus side, the local primary school is holding an open day on Friday, where the twins will have the opportunity to meet their new teacher. The school year starts in February in Australia after the annual "summer break".

The twins will be in 2nd grade, but Sarah thinks there will be a number of other new students in the class, because there are a lot of newcomers around. People who have just moved into the mostly newly built houses in the area around the school. Also Lily and Jessie always have each other to hang out with to start with, which is nice.

10:00 The whatsapp call ends and I discuss it a bit with Lois about our visit later in the year. It will be a little weird in comparison to our last visit in 2018, to put it mildly. The twins will be in school most of the day and the house is far away from the sea and from shopping malls and the like. How are Lois and I going to spend our days?

We are going to have a rental car, but Sarah says that until the new "fenced" highway is complete, we will have to drive very carefully and slowly on the old road, in case some kangaroo or other suddenly decides to hop across the road in front of the car. Good grief, kangaroos aren't much of a risk in Cheltenham, I have to say that, and Lois and I aren't used to being on the lookout for them, I have to admit haha.

a typical Australian "look out for kangaroos" road sign

11:00 I sit down with the computer and start doing some research on flights from Perth to Adelaide: we have decided not to travel there by train. During our visit with Sarah's family in Perth, Lois wants to spend a week in Adelaide with her cousin Stephen and Stephen's wife, Diane. And Lois and I discuss a bit about who we should ask to look after our garden while we are away from home. My god, busy busy busy !!!!

16:00 After lunch and a gigantic afternoon nap, we relax on the couch with a cup of tea and a piece of home-grown, homemade greengage marmalade - yum yum!

I sit down with the computer and read 4 more pages of Anna Grue's Danish crime novel, "The Further You Fall". Our U3A Danish group is holding its first group meeting since the Christmas break on Thursday here, and this crime novel is the group's current project.

Anna Grue's crime novel (no. 2 from left, back row)

which is our U3A Danish group's current project

The hero of the novel is Dan Sommerdahl, an advertising man and amateur detective who is trying to help local police solve two murders: Lilliana, an Estonian cleaning woman who worked in Dan's advertising agency, and Sally, Lilliana's Nigerian roomie.

The three main characters in the novel:

advertising man and amateur detective Dan Sommerdahl (right)

with his best friend, Police Detective Flemming Torp (left),

and Dan's wife, Marianne, a doctor, whom both men are in love with - yikes!

Both the murdered women had become involved in Denmark's sex and porn industry. And when police examined Lilliana's body, they found that she had given birth "vaginally" a few months earlier, though none of her work colleagues seemed to realize she was pregnant. But she was a cleaning woman after all, so maybe had a habit of showing up for work wearing something not very tight-fitting or revealing, but that’s something I'm not entirely sure about - the jury is still out on that one.

Dan, the novel's self-styled amateur detective, has discovered that Lilliana's baby had been adopted by a woman named Regitze, in fact one of the doctors in his wife, Marianne's medical practice, even though Marianne doesn't seem to have the remotest clue about all this.

My goodness, what a coincidence! But Denmark is a much smaller country than the UK with a much smaller population, so maybe some such things happen  there from time to time.

Our daughter Alison, who lived in Copenhagen for 6 years (2012-2018) with Ed and their 3 children, used to  describe Copenhagen as an international hub with a "small town" atmosphere, which she found very attractive and cosy.

flashback to June 2018: Alison, Ed and their 3 kids on a farewell tour

of some of their favourite Copenhagen locations in preparation for

leaving the country and moving back to England

In the pages I read today in the crime novel, the author reveals that Lilliana's baby was adopted by Regitze and her adult daughter Nanna for a particular reason - Nanna suffered from Turner's syndrome, which apparently inhibits young people’s growth. Regitze, a doctor, had Nanna pumped from an early age with growth hormones, and also sex hormones, so she would grow up to be reasonably tall and able to have sex with her boyfriends, although she still wouldn't be able to give birth , Regitze said. And that's why she adopted Lilliana's baby on her daughter Nanna’s behalf.

My goodness - that's why I love this crime novel so much: it's so full of interesting information about the kinds of topics I haven’t the faintest idea about!

18:00 Lois and I have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television. We have a new policy now,  to try as far as possible to limit ourselves to relaxing or fun programmes after 9 pm, and watch the more serious programmes earlier in the evening so that Lois doesn't have too much trouble falling asleep when we collapse into bed at ten o'clock.

An interesting documentary is on, all about the Profumo affair that first hit the headlines in the 1960’s when Lois and I were young teenagers.

Yesterday we saw the 6th (and last) section of a drama documentary series about the affair. But tonight we see the affair from the point of view of Tom Mangold, one of the young journalists who covered the scandal at the time and who got to know some of the key figures in the case, including Stephen Ward, the distinguished osteopath, who was at the centre of the scandal.

Ward was friends with a number of important personalities in government and others in high social positions. Ward made a practice of inviting his high-class friends to parties, introducing them to models such as Christine Keeler, and other beautiful women ready to go to bed with them in exchange for expensive gifts and a luxury lifestyle and the like.

the real life Stephen Ward with Christine Keeler

at one of Ward's pool parties at Cliveden House in the early 1960's

flashback to March 1963: at first the newspapers hesitated to print stories

about Ward's sex parties at Cliveden House and the like,

but finally it was Tom Mangold's newspaper, the Daily Express, that first broke

the press’s silence, later exposing all the prostitutes, models and VIPs involved.

(an adjoining story and picture reports the 'disappearance' of  Keeler,

although the paper couldn't yet link the 2 stories for fear of being sued).

Lois and I discover that we are not learning much new tonight, given that we have already seen the drama documentary series, which must have been largely based on Mangold's memories and research. But it is interesting to see Mangold and his guest experts debate a bit about the crucial issues.

It's crystal clear that "The Establishment" must have been absolutely desperate to find a scapegoat for the scandal because they repeatedly broke all the rules to get Ward convicted of something, no matter what.

There was an instance of political control of the police, for example, which is usually an absolute no-no: Home Secretary Henry Brooke pushed London police to make every effort and to exploit all their sources, to find a charge, no matter how foolish, that they could pin on Ward.

Police pulled out all the stops to obtain the damning evidence they were looking for, mainly from evidence provided by the models Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, and the prostitute Ronna Ricardo, using various questionable methods: threats of possible prison sentences, and repeated, lengthy interrogations around the clock and that kind of thing.

And the judge's conduct of the trial, and his manipulation of the evidence and the jury, is now considered a total scandal, which resulted in what many legal experts believe was the greatest miscarriage of justice  in British legal history.

It is possible that if Ward had not committed suicide, he would have won an appeal, but Ward himself was pessimistic, and in fact had no confidence in the appeal court judges - he thought they would also support their friends in "The Establishment" and uphold the original judgement. We will never know that now of course.

My god, enough said haha! What a shameful story! But on the positive side, it was the end of an era for "The Establishment" – that’s for sure !!!

20:30 We then watch a couple of fun programs to wind down, and then go to bed in a relaxed mood haha ​​- zzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation: den 27. januar 2020

09:30 Lois og jeg taler lidt på whatsapp med Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien. I dag er en helligdag – landets nationale dag, Australia Day.

Lily og Jessie, Sarah og Francis’ 6-årige tvillinger kan høres i baggrunden, men de er meget trætte. De blev oppe senere, end normalt, i går aftes, for at se fyrværkeriet nede ved havnen, og de har brugt dagen i dag på at gå på indkøb og lege med nogle af deres unge kammerater fra deres balletklasse. Hvor er de dog søde!!!

tilbageblik til i går aftes: vores svigersøn Francis tog disse billeder

nede ved havnet, hvor et fyrværkerishow var i gang.

For en uge siden flyttede familien fra deres gamle lejehus i Ocean Reef ind i et nyt lejehus, omkring 35 miles nord for Perth, i Lower Chittering. I øjeblikket er deres tilværelse lidt som en campingferie: vaskemaskinen er ikke blevet fuldt installeret endnu, og der har ikke wifi endnu.

For en uge siden flyttede familien fra deres gamle lejehus i Ocean Reef

ind i et nyt lejehus, omkring 35 miles nord for Perth, i Lower Chittering

Derudover er der ingen gardiner eller persienner til at dække vinduerne – yikes! Men husejeren er ”on the case” tilsyneladende – yikes (igen) !!! Og Sarah siger, at de er omgivet af træer, og de ikke kan se nabohusene.

Jeg håber bare på, at disse problemer viser sig at være interimistiske, og ikke vil plage dem stadig senere på året, når Lois og jeg er på besøg.

familiens nye lejehus i Lower Chittering

På den positive side, holder den lokale folkeskole en åben dag på fredag, hvor tvillingerne vil få lejlighed til at møde deres nye lærer. Skoleåret starter i februar i Australien efter den årlige ”sommerpause”.

Tvillingerne vil i 2. klasse, men Sarah synes, at der vil være en række andre nye elever i klassen, fordi der er en masse tilflyttere, der har flyttet ind i de for det meste nybyggede huse i området omkring skolen. Også Lily og Jessie har altid hinanden til at hænge ud med i begyndelsen, hvilket er rart.

10:00 Whatsapp-opkalder slutter og jeg diskuterer det lidt med Lois. Vores besøg senere på året. Det vil være lidt underligt i sammenligning til vores sidste besøg i 2018, for at sige mildt. Tvillingerne vil være i skole størstedelen af dagen, og huset er langt væk fra havet og fra indkøbscentrer og den slags. Hvordan skal Lois og jeg tilbringe vores dage?

Vi kommer til at have en lejebil, men Sarah siger, at indtil den nye ”hegnede” motorvej er færdig, vil vi være nødt til at køre meget forsigtigt og langsomt på den gamle vej, for det tilfælde, at en eller anden kænguru pludselig beslutter at hoppe over vejen foran bilen. Du godeste, kænguruer er ikke meget af en risiko i Cheltenham, det må jeg nok sige, og Lois og jeg er ikke vant til at være på vagt efter dem, det må jeg indrømme haha.

et typisk australsk ”tag på udkig efter kænguruer”-vejskilt

11:00 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og begynde at gøre lidt forskning om flyveture fra Perth til Adelaide: vi har besluttet ikke at rejse med tog. Under vores besøg hos Sarahs familie i Perth, ønsker Lois at tilbringe en uge i Adelaide hos hendes fætter Stephen og Stephens kone, Diane. Og Lois og jeg diskuterer lidt om hvem vi skal bede om at passe på vores have, mens vi er væk hjemmefra. Du godeste, travlt travlt travlt!!!!

16:00 Efter frokost og en gigantisk eftermiddagslur, slapper vi af i sofaen med en kop te og et stykke hjemmedyrket og hjemmelavet reineclaudemarmelade – yum yum!

Jeg sætter mig med computeren og læser endnu 4 sider af Anna Grues danske krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”. Vores U3A danske gruppe holder dens første gruppemøde siden julepausen på torsdag hos os, og denne krimiroman er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Anna Grues krimiroman (nr. 2 fra venstre, bagerste række)

som er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Romanens helt er Dan Sommerdahl, en reklamemand og amatørdetektiv, der prøver at hjælpe det lokale politi med at løse to mord: Lilliana, en estisk rengøringskvinde, der arbejdede i Dans reklamebureau, og Sally, Lillianas nigerianske roomie.

De tre hovedfigurer i krimiromanen:

reklamemanden og amatørdetektiven Dan Sommerdahl (til højre)

sammen med sin bedste ven, politidetektiven Flemming Torp (til venstre),

og Dans kone, Marianne, en læge, som begge mænd er forelskede i – yikes!

Begge kvinder var blevet involveret i Danmarks sex- og porno-industri. Og da politiet undersøgte Lillianas lig, fandt de ud af, at hun havde født ”vaginalt” nogle måneder tidligere, selvom ingen af hendes arbejdskollegaer syntes at være klar over, at hun havde været gravid. Men hun var trods alt rengøringskvinde, så måske havde for vane at dukke op til arbejde  iført noget ikke særlig stramtsiddende eller tætsiddende, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på – juryen er stadig ude om det.

Dan, romanens  amatørdetektiv, som han kalder sig selv, har opdaget at Lillianas baby blev adopteret af en kvinde ved navn Regitze, faktisk én af lægerne i hans kone Mariannes lægepraksis, selvom Marianne ikke virker ikke at have den fjerneste anelse om det. Du godeste, sikke en sammenfald! Men Danmark er et meget mindre land end Storbritannien med en meget mindre befolkning, så måske sker der sådanne nogle ting fra tid til anden.

Vores datter Alison, der boede i 6 år (2012-2018) i København med Ed og deres 3 børn, havde for vane at beskrive København som en international knudepunkt med en ”lille by”-stemning, hvilket hun fandt meget attraktivt og hyggerligt.

tilbageblik til juni 2018: Alison, Ed og deres 3 børn på en farvelturné

af nogle af deres københavnske yndlingstilholdsstede i forberedelse på,

at forlade landet og flytte tilbage til England

I de sider, jeg læser i dag i krimiromanen, afslører forfatteren, at Lillianas baby blev adopteret af Regitze og hendes voksne datter Nanna, fordi Nanna led af Turners syndrom, som tilsyneladende hæmmer folk i væksten. Regitze, som er en læge, fik Nanna pumpet fra en ung alder med væksthormoner, også kønshormmoner, så hun ville blive vokse op til at være rimelig høj og i stand til at have sex med sine kærester, men hun kommer ikke til at kunne føde, sagde Regitze: og derfor adopterede hun Lillianas baby på vegnen af sin datter Nanna.

Du godeste – det er derfor kan jeg elsker denne krimiroman så meget: det er propfyldt af interessante oplysninger om de slags emner, jeg ikke har den fjerneste anelse om!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Vi har en ny politik, dét at prøve så vidt som muligt at begrænse os til afslappede eller morsomme programmer efter kl 21, og se de mere seriøse programmer tidligere på aftenen, så Lois ikke har for svært ved at falde i søvn, når vi kollapser i sengen klokken ti.

De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm om Profumo-affæren, der ramte overskrifterne først i 1960’erne, da Lois og jeg var unge teenagere.

I går så vi det 6. (og sidste) afsnit i en dramadokumentarserie om affæren. men i aften ser vi affæren fra synspunktet af Tom Mangold, én af de unge journalister, der dengang dækkede skandalen, og som lærte nogle af sagens nøglefigurer at kende, inklusive Stephen Ward, den fornemme osteopat.

Ward var venner med en række vigtige personligheder i regeringen og andre i høj sociale positioner. Det var Ward, der havde for vane at invitere sine højklassevenner til fester, hvor han præsenterede modeller såsom Christine Keeler for dem, også andre smukke kvinder klar til at gå i seng med dem i bytte for dyre gaver og et luksuslivsstil og den slags.

den virkelige liv Stephen Ward sammen med Christine Keeler

til én af Wards poolfester på Cliveden House

tilbageblik til marts 1963: i begyndelsen tøvede aviserne med at printe historier

om Wards sexfesterne på Cliveden House og lignende,

men endelig var det Tom Mangolds avis, Daily Express, som brød

pressens tavshed om alle de prostituerede, modeler og VIPs involveret.

Lois og jeg opdager, at vi ikke lærer ret meget nyt i aften, i betragting af, at vi allerede har set dramadokumentarserien, som må være blevet baseret i høj grad af Mangolds minder og forskning.  Men det er interessant at se Mangold og hans gæsteksperter debatere lidt om de afgørende spørgsmål.

”The Establishment” må have været absolut desperat efter at finde en syndebuk for skandalen, fordi de brød alle reglerne på gentagende gange for at få Ward dømt.

Politiske styring af politiet, for eksempel, som normalt er en absolut no-no: indenrigsminister Henry Brooke pressede Londons politi til at gøre sig umage og udnytte alle deres kilder for at finde en sigtelse, uanset hvor tåberlig, som de kunne hænge på Ward.

Politiet satte alle sejl til, at få det fældende bevis, de var ude efter, ud af Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies, og Ronna Ricardo, benyttede forskellige tvivlsomme metoder: trusler om mulige fængselsstraffe, og gentagede, lange afhøringer døgnet rundt og den slags.

Og dommerens førelsen af rettsagen, manipuleringen af beviserne og juryen, er nu betragtet som en total skandale, som resulterede i dét, mange juridiske eksperter mener, var det største justitsmord i britisk juridisk historie.

Det er muligt, at hvis Ward ikke havde begået selvmord, ville han have vundet en appel, men Ward selv var pessimistisk, og  faktisk havde ikke nogen tillid i appelsdommerne – han troede, de også ville støtte deres venner i ”The Esta blishment” og stadfæste den oprindelige dom. Det kommer vi aldrig til at vide nu.

Du godeste, nok sagt haha! Sikke en skammellg saga! Men på den positive side var det enden på en æra for ”The Establishment” – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!

20:30 Vi ser så et par morsomme programmer for at geare ned, og går så i seng i afslappet humør haha – zzzzzzz!!!!!