Sunday January 12 2020

09:00 Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia calls us on whatsapp, her regular weekly call. But it is her 6-year-old twin daughters, Lily and Jessie, who hold the cell phone in their hands and talk to me, asking me “How’re you doing, Poppa?”.

My goodness - they are growing up fast, no doubt about it, and they are so much more self-confident! They sit and talk to me from there in the back seat of the family car while Sarah is in the front, behind the wheel - she and the twins are driving home after a shopping trip and a visit to the area the family will be moving to next weekend, Lower Chittering, which is 30 miles away from their current rental home in Ocean Reef.

I sit on the couch here and talk to the girls - I've got dressed and have eaten breakfast, but Lois is still upstairs in the bedroom. She hurries down the stairs as soon as she hears me talking on the cellphone.

I am very interested in languages, accents and the like, so have the habit of analysing the twins' accents while talking to them - a bit like Prof. Higgins in "My Fair Lady" ha ha ha, though I do it on a strictly subconscious level. It would be unacceptable and very rude and not good form if I just listened to them and didn't interact with them at the same time, like a good grandpa ha ha ha!

Lily still speaks just like her mother, even after 4 years in Australia, but maybe that's not surprising because Perth has a lot of British immigrants and many of the twins' classmates have British parents, I have to say. On the other hand, Jessie has adopted a couple of elements of the local accent, especially what we “experts” call the vocalization of the letter 'L', that’s for sure.

I do some research at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-vocalization, and I see that this vocalisation is widespread in London (Cockney), the so-called estuary English in the areas surrounding London, but also in New York, New Zealand, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Australia – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

"Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?"

Prof Higgins (Rex Harrison) teaches Eliza (Audrey Hepburn) how to say

"The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plain" in “My Fair Lady”

10:00 Lois and I have to leave. She wants to attend her sect's two worship services taking place today in the Tewkesbury  library. She has suffered from back problems recently and she has asked me to drive her over there. I drop her off in front of the library and drive home.

I have some alone time and get started doing some more experimenting with the tablet I bought 6 months ago but have hardly used - I do not like Windows 10 and I do not like the tablet's tiny keyboard, but now I face a situation where Windows 7, the system on which our other computers run, has suddenly come under threat, as Microsoft stops maintaining it - damn it !!!

Almost before I even realize it, it's time to drive back to Tewkesbury and pick Lois up again – my goodness, busy busy busy !!!

20:00 We spend the evening watching some television, a documentary about wildlife in the state of Hawaii. It's Lois' choice: wildlife documentaries aren't my bag, but this one turns out to be fascinating, I have to admit.

It gives hope to all the world's "old crows" to hear about "Wisdom," the world's oldest breeding bird, which has successfully bred 37 times, or so. 

She is an "old crow", actually an old great-grandmother-albatross, 67 years old, almost 30 years older than the species's average life expectancy - scientists have ringed her and have been monitoring her since 1956. And the researchers provided the BBC camera team with the information they needed to identify Wisdom's latest (4 month old) "baby" amongst a sea of ​​birds on the island of Midway.

Wisdom herself is not with her chick – she could be 1000 miles away out to sea, looking for fish or squid for her baby. When she flies back, she will only stay a few minutes before she has to fly off again - my god, what madness!!!

At the end of the programme, we see Wisdom finally fly home

and feed her chick.

A heart-warming story that proves that great-grandmother albatrosses can still mate and give birth, and Wisdom evidently makes a great effort to stay in shape, healthy, and attractive.  

Lois and I speculate a bit about whether Wisdom's "partner" or “partners” are the same age or whether she has a string of "toy-boys" she can call on. But that’s something we're not quite sure about - the jury is still out on that one.

21:00 We continue to watch some television, the fourth episode of an interesting drama documentary series about the model Christine Keeler and the Profumo scandal that hit the headlines in the UK in the early 1960’s when Lois and I were young teenagers. Keeler had an affair with the then Secretary of War in Harold Macmillan's conservative government, John "Jack" Profumo.

Stephen Ward, the high-society osteopath who was friends with a number of important personalities in government and others in high social positions, used to invite his high-class friends to parties where they met models such as Christine Keeler, and other beautiful women ready to go to bed with them in exchange for expensive gifts, a luxury jetsetting lifestyle and suchlike.

But as soon as Profumo was forced to resign as Minister of War and the scandal hit the headlines, Stephen Ward suddenly found himself isolated and shunned by his former rich and powerful friends. And his wealthy patients began cancelling their osteopathy appointments with him. Not The Establishment’s finest hour, to put it mildly.

The authorities and the police wanted to “get” Ward, and pressed Christine and others to provide evidence that Stephen was living off "immoral earnings", a ridiculous charge: he just believed that sex was not a sin, it seems.

Stephen Ward chatting good-humouredly with Christine Keeler

Ward was a harmless and good-natured man, there seems no doubt about that.

It stimulates Lois and me to try and look into the affair more closely - we were quite young when it was all going on. For instance, why were the police so anxious to "get" Ward and charge him with something or other, especially considering he had a lot of potentially embarrassing information to make public about important figures in society?

But perhaps the final episode (next Sunday) will answer some of our many questions.

22:00 We go to bed. I read about 20 pages of my bedtime book before I drift off to sleep - zzzzzzz !!!

Danish translation

09:00 Sarah, vores datter i Perth, Australien  ringer til os på whatsapp, hendes regelmæssige ugentlige opkald. Men det er hendes 6-årige tvillingedøtre, Lily og Jessie, der holder mobilen i hånden og taler med mig, og spørger mig, hvordan går det. Du godeste – de vokser op hurtigt, ingen tvivl om det! De sidder og snakker med mig på bagsædet, mens Sarah sidder bag rettet – hun og tvillingerne er ved at køre hjem efter en indkøbstur og et besøg til det området, familien skal flytte til næste weekend,  som ligger 30 miles væk fra deres nuværende lejehus i Ocean Reef.

Jeg sidder og snakker med pigerne her i sofaen – jeg har klædt mig på og spist morgenmad, men Lois er stadig oppe på soveværelset. Hun skynder sig hurtigt ned ad trappen, da hun hører mig tale på mobilen.

Jeg interesserer mig meget for sprog, accenter og den slags, så har for vane at analysere tvillingernes accenter, mens jeg snakker med dem – lidt som Prof. Higgins i ”My Fair Lady” ha ha ha, selvom jeg gør det på et strengt taget underbevidst niveau. Det ville være nederen og meget uhøfligt og ikke god tone, hvis jeg lyttede til dem bare, og ikke interagerede med dem samtidigt ligesom en god morfar ha ha ha!

Lily taler stadig ligesom sin mor, selv efter 4 år i Australien, men måske er det ikke overraskende, fordi Perth har en masse britisk indvandrere, og mange af tvillingernes klassekammerater har britiske forældre, det må jeg nok sige. På den anden side har Jessie adopteret 1-2 elementer af den lokale accent, især vokaliseringen af bogstave ’L’ – det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om.

Jeg gør lidt forskning på https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-vocalization, og jeg ser, at denne vokalisering er udbredt i London (Cockney), det såkaldte estuary engelsk i de områder, der omgiver London, men også i New York, New Zealand, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia og Australien – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

”Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?”

Prof Higgins (Rex Harrison) lærer Eliza (Audrey Hepburn), hvordan hun skal sige

”The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plain”

10:00 Lois og jeg skal af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts to gudstjenester, der finder sted i dag i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek. Hun har lidt af rygproblemer for nylig og hun har bedt mig om at køre hende derover. Jeg sætter hende af foran biblioteket og kører hjem.

Jeg har lidt alenetid og går i gang med at eksperimentere lidt mere med det tablet, jeg købte for 6 måneder siden, men næsten ikke har brugt – jeg kan ikke lide Windows 10 og jeg kan ikke lide tablettets lillebitte tastatur, men nu står jeg overfor en situation, hvor Windows 7, det system, vores andre computere kører, pludselig er kommet under trussel, idet Microsoft er ved at holde op med at vedligeholde det – pokkers!!!

Næsten før jeg selv er klar over det, er det på tide af køre tilbage til Tewkesbury og hente Lois – du godeste, travlt travlt travlt!!!

20:00 Vi bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en dokumentarfilm, der handler om dyreliv i Hawaii-delstaten. Det er Lois’ valg: dyrelivdokumentarfilm er ikke mit nummer, men denne viser sig at være fascinerende, det må jeg indrømme.

Det giver håb til hele verdens ”gamle krager” at høre om ”Wisdom”, verdens ældste ynglefugl, som har nået til at yngle succésfuldt 37 gange, eller deromkring. Hun er en ”oldemoder”, 67 år gammel, næsten 30 år ældre, end artets forventede livtid - forskere har ringmærket og monitoreret hende siden 1956. Og forskerne gav BBC-kameraholdet de oplysninger, de havde brug for for at identificere Wisdoms seneste (4 måneder gamle) ”baby” blandt et hav af fugle på øen Midway.

Selv Wisdom kunne være 1000 miles væk, ledende efter fisk til sin baby. Når hun flyver tilbage, vil hun forblive kun et par minutter, før hun skal flyve af sted igen – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

ved slutningen af programmet ser vi Wisdom endelig flyve hjem

og fodrer sin baby.

En hjertevarmende historie, der beviser, at old4mødre stadig kan parre sig og føde, og Wisdom gør åbenbart en stor indsats at holde sig i form, frisk, rask og attraktiv. Og Lois og jeg spekulerer lidt på, om Wisdoms ”partner” er jævnaldrende, eller om hun har en række ”toyboys” måske. Men det er vi ikke helt sikre på – juryen er stadig ude om det haha.

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, den 4. episode i en interessant dramadokumentarserie, der handler om modellen Christine Keeler og Profumo-skandalen, der ramte overskrifterne i Storbritannien først i 1960’erne, da Lois og jeg var unge teenagere. Keeler havde en affære med den daværende krigsminister i Harold Macmillans konservative regering, John ”Jack” Profumo.

ChristineListing

Christine Blurb

Stephen Ward, den fornemme osteopat, der var venner med en række vigtige personligheder i regeringen og andre i høj sociale positioner, havde for vane at invitere dem til fester, hvor de mødte modeller såsom Christine Keeler, og andre smukke kvinder klar til at gå i seng med dem i bytte for dyre gaver og et luksuslivsstil og den slags.

Men så snart Profumo blev tvunget til at sige op som krigsminister, og skandalen ramte overskrifterne, befandt Stephen Ward sig pludselig isoleret og skyet af sine tidligere rige og magtfulde venner. Og hans rige patienter begyndte at aflyse deres aftaler hos ham. Ikke ”establishments” fineste time, for at sige mildt.

Myndighederne og politiet presserede Christine til at komme med beviser på, at Stephen levede af ”umoralske fortjenester”, en latterlig sigtelse: han troede bare på, at sex ikke var en synd, lader det til.

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

22:00 Vi går i seng. Jeg læser omkring 20 sider af min sengetidbog før jeg glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzz!!!