Monday January 6 2020

0900 Lois and I get up but can't get involved in anything - our daughter in Australia has promised to talk to us on whatsapp, and her usual time is 9-10am. But 9am and 10am, and then 11am come and go - waiting for Sarah's weekly whatsapp call is one of our most frustrating experiences each week, but I’m going to let that one slide because we two old crows get so much enjoyment out of the calls, if and when they finally come about.

We sit and wait, but sometimes potter around the house - it's January 6th, so we take our Christmas tree down, along with our Christmas decorations and stuff them into cardboard boxes - I'll lug them up the loft ladder later in the week and store them away in the attic until next year.

11:30 Sarah’s call comes through - and Sarah's 6-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie, want to see Lois’s little soft-toy dog jerking its head back and forth, while singing the pop group Wizzard's old Christmas hit from the 1970’s, "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day”. 

Lois yesterday danced and sang along with her little dog on YouTube, a clip which the twins have already seen. How cute they are though !!!!

Yesterday was January 5th, so Lois celebrated Christmas for the last time this year by dancing and singing along with an excerpt from the old Wizzard hit, in time with her soft-toy dog's classic head-turning performance, which was nice.

Flashback to yesterday: Lois sings and dances on YouTube

in time with her little soft-toy dog (left)

Unfortunately, however, Lois' video clip failed to "go viral" for some reason, which is a bit disappointing, to put it mildly – my goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Sarah's family is very busy at the moment. They plan to move in a few weeks' time from Ocean Reef in the northern suburbs of Perth to a new rental house out in the country, in Lower Chittering. The new house is empty at the moment and the owner has allowed Francis, Sarah's husband, to start moving their furniture and belongings over there - Francis is driving over there every day, with his car full of this and that. Busy busy busy !!!

12:00 The call ends - a lot of fun as usual, but our unproductive morning is now over and we have lunch. Afterwards, I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 4 pm and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea and a mince pie on the couch.

17:00 I sit down with the computer and read another 3 pages of Anna Grue's Danish crime novel, "The Further You Fall", which is our U3A Danish group's current project.

Anna Grue's Danish crime novel, which is

our U3A Danish group's current project.

Two roomies, Lilliana and Sally, have been killed in two separate murders, but roughly at the same time, but by different murderers, which is weird. Lilliana, a cleaning assistant, gets garrotted in the evening at the advertising agency where she worked. And her roomie Sally was murdered somewhere out in the wilds.

Tonight I read a little about Lilliana, the cleaning assistant. She was having an affair with the advertising agency's film director, René. But unfortunately, the couple had no common language - Lilliana was an Estonian and René was a Dane of course, and I read that they communicated in sign language.

It is interesting to guess how René got Lilliana into bed with him for the first time, so I do some research on the web. Needless to say there is sign language ​​for every suggestion you might want to put forward, though I still think it must have been very awkward to begin with, to put it mildly - good grief !!!!

18:30  Lois and I have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television. "University Challenge" is on, one of our favourite TV quizzes, where Lois and I try, as always, to compete with the  quiz’s student-participants, trying to prove to our own satisfaction that we are not yet suffering from dementia. But our performance tonight is not all that impressive, I have to admit.

It is nevertheless true that we succeed in coming up with the correct answers several times, but sadly only 3 times when the programme participants get it wrong.

Lois and I however think it's a little surprising, for example, that these 4 Trinity College Cambridge students didn't know the word "steppe". What do young people learn about in schools today? ha ha ha !!!

What madness !!!!!

21:00 We continue to watch a little television, one of three programmes that form the BBC's tribute to Clive James, the Australian-born writer and critic who sadly died last year.

Tonight we see a repeat of Clive's "Postcard from London", first aired in 1991 or so. We see him interviewing  Michael Caine and talking about London, the city that they both loved so much, and why they loved it.

Caine says very high-rise condominiums are still relatively rare in London, compared to New York for example. In London, he lives in an apartment on the 11th floor, but he can see for miles, he says.

This interview, however, took place nearly 30 years ago - and Lois comments that London probably looks a lot more like New York than it did back then. But I'm not entirely sure. The jury is still out on that one.

And Caine does not agree with all the French people, he says, who think London is cold and wet, compared to Paris, where ”the sun is always shining” and the city is packed with young couples strolling under the chestnut blossoms, kissing and cuddling in the open air and that kind of thing. He has done a little research - London has 22.5 inches of rain a year, he says, while Paris actually has 22.9, he protests.

Lois and I recall the years we spent in Maryland USA 1982-1985 when the locals used to comment on how wet a country we had come from. I did some research and I found that England gets approx. 30 inches of rain a year, while Maryland got 40. But Lois and I used to say the locals were actually quite right. Maryland gets more rain, but it comes in the form of very concentrated showers, which do not last very long. In England, you can get extremely light drizzle that lasts all day, day after day - yikes!

It's a little strange, to put it mildly, when you think how much the weather you get actually depends on where you live. What a crazy planet we live on !!!!!

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

Danish translation: mandag den 6. januar 2020

09:00 Lois og jeg står op men kan ikke blive involveret i noget – vores datter i Australien har lovet at tale med os på whatsapp, og hendes sædvanlige tid er kl 9-10 (engelsk tid). Men kl. 9 og kl 10, så kl 11 kommer og går – dét at vente på Sarahs ugentlige whatsapp-opkald er én af vores mest frusterende oplevelser  hver uge, men det springer jeg over, fordi vi to gamle krager finder så meget nydelse i opkaldene, hvis og når de kan lade sig gøre.

Vi sidder og venter, men af og til vimser rundt i huset – det er den 6. januar, så tager vi vores juletræ ned, sammen med vores juledekorationer og propper dem ind i papkasser – jeg vil slæbe dem op ad loftstigen senere på ugen og gemme dem i loften indtil næste år.

11:30 Opkaldet starter – og Sarahs 6-årige tvillinger , Lily og Jessie, har lyst til at se den lille plyshund, der rykker hovedet frem og tilbage, og synger popgruppen Wizzards gamle julehit fra 1970’erne, ”I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day”, som Lois i går dansede og sang i takt med på YouTube, hvilket tvillingerne allerede har set. Hvor er de dog søde!!!!

I går var den 5. januar, så tog Lois og jeg fejrede Lois jul for sidste gang i år ved at danse og synge et uddrag fra den gamle Wizzard-hit  i takt med sin plyshunds klassiske hovedrykkende præstation, hvilket var rart.

Tilbageblik til i går: Lois synger og danser på YouTube

i takt med sin lille plyshund (til venstre)

Desværre mislykkedes Lois’ videoklip imidlertid at ”gå viralt” af en eller anden grund, hvilket er lidt skuffende, for at sige mildt – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

Sarahs familie har meget travlt for tiden. De planlægger at flytte om et par ugers tid fra Ocean Reef i byen Perths nordlige forstæder til et nyt lejehus ude på landet, i Lower Chittering. Det nye hus er tomt i øjeblikket, og ejeren har givet Francis, Sarahs mand, lov til at begynde at flytte deres møbler og ejendele derover – Francis kører derover hver dag, med bilen propfyldt af dette og hint. Travlt travlt travlt!!!

12:00 Opkaldet slutter – meget sjovt som sædvanligt, men vores uproduktive formiddag er nu forbi, og vi spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.  Jeg står op kl 16 og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te og en mince pie i sofaen.

17:00 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og læser endnu 3 sider af Anna Grues danske krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”, som er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.

Anna Grues danske krimiroman, som er

vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.

To roomies, Lilliana og Sally, er blevet dræbti to adskilte mord, men i grove træk på samme tid, men af forskellige myrdere, hvilket er underligt. Lilliana, en rengøringsassistent bliver garrotteret om aftenen i reklamebureauet, hvor hun arbejdede. Sally blev myrdet et eller andet sted ude i naturen.

I aften læser jeg lidt om Lilliana, rengøringsassistent. Hun var i gang med at have en affære med reklamebureauets filminstruktør, René. Men desværre havde parret intet fælles sprog – Lilliana var ester, og René var dansker selvfølgelig, og jeg læser, at de kommunikerede på tegnsprog.

Det er interesseret at gisne om hvordan René for første gang fik Lilliana til at gå i seng med ham, og jeg gør lidt forskning på nettet, og unødvendigt at sige, der er tegnsprog til alt, man muligvis kunne have lyst til at udtrykke, selvom jeg imidlertidigt synes, det må have været meget akavet for at sige mildt – du godeste!!!!

18:30 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser ”University Challenge”, én af vores yndlings-tv-quizzer, hvor Lois og jeg prøver, som altid, at konkurrere med quizzens deltagere for at bevise til vores egen tilfredssstillelse, at vi ikke endnu lider af demens. Men vores præstation i aften er ikke særlig imponerende – det må jeg indrømme.

Det er sandt, at det lykkes os at komme med det korrekte svar mange gange, men kun 3 gange, hvor programmets deltagere får det forkert. Men Lois og jeg synes det er lidt overraskende, at disse 4 Trinity College Cambridge-studerende ikke vidste ordet ”steppe”. Hvad lærer unge i skolerne i dag ? ha ha ha!!!

Sikke et vanvid!!!!!

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, ét af tre programmer, der danner BBCs hyldest til Clive James, den australsk-fødte forfatter og kritiker, der desværre døde sidste år.

I aften ser vi Clives’ ”Postkort fra London”, først sendt i 1991 eller deromkring. Vi ser ham interviewe Michael Caine og tale om London, den by, begge to elsker så højt, og hvorfor de elsker den.

Caine siger, at meget høje etageejendomme stadig er forholdsvis sjældne i London, i sammenligning til New York for eksempel.  I London bor han i en lejlighed på 11. sal, men han kan se i miles, siger han.

Men dette interview fandt sted for næsten 30 år siden – og Lois kommenterer, at London sandsynligvis ligner New York meget mere, end dengang. Men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på. Juryen er stadig ude om det.

Og Caine  er ikke enig med alle de franskmænd, siger han, der synes London er kold og våd, i sammenligning med Paris, hvor solen altid skinner, og byen er propfyldt af unge par, der spankulerer under kastanjeblomstrerne, kysser og krammer i det fri og den slags. Han har gjort lidt forskning – London har 22,5 tommer regn om året, mens Paris faktisk har 22,9, protesterer han.

Lois og jeg mindes om de år, vi tilbragte i Maryland USA 1982-1985 og de lokale indbyggere plejede at sige hvor vådt et land vi var kommet fra. Jeg gjorde lidt forskning og jeg fandt ud af at England får ca. 30 tommer regn på året, mens Maryland fik 40. Men Lois og jeg plejede at sige, at de lokale havde ret. Maryland få mere regn, men det falder i form af meget koncentrerede byger, som ikke varer ret lang tid. 

Det er lidt underligt, for at sige mildt, hvor meget vejret faktisk afhænger af, hvor man bor. Sikke en skør planet vi lever på !!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!