Thursday January 23 2020

09:00 Lois and I tumble out of the shower cubicle.

Lois has so far today exhibited a great deal of agility and suppleness, and does not appear to have any physical problems as a result of her activities on Tuesday:  driving a car twice, also for the first time taking part in a physical exercise class with Fran, her friend.

Later today, however, she unfortunately begins to complain of aches and pains in her back and hip – poor thing! As usual, however, we have a problem identifying the exact source of her pain - there are too many possible causes for them, dammit!

Before lunch, she goes for a walk on the local football field - still no physical problems and everything seems to be going well.

flashback to January 2019:

Lois and I take a walk on the local football field

14:00  I go to bed to take my usual gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 4 pm and hop on my exercise bike. I work on my 2 New Year's resolutions by cycling 6 miles and at the same time listening to some basic Danish conversation lessons on my tablet: I can read Danish novels, etc. without any hassle, but if a Dane approaches me, or wants to talk to me, I fall in a heap on the floor, which is a bit of a shame, to put it mildly.

I cycle my usual 6 miles and jump down. I take a look at my smartphone and I see that Alison, our daughter in Haslemere, Surrey, has posted a charming photo up on "Insta", showing the family's two cats sleeping quietly side by side on the carpet: Dumbledore, the family's Danish ex-street cat, which they acquired during their 6-year stay in Copenhagen, and Otto, their new English kitten, a Christmas present to Josie, Alison and Ed's 13-year-old daughter.

Our daughter Alison has posted a charming photo on "Insta":

the family's two cats sleeping quietly side by side on the carpet

- how cute they are though !!!!

Alison was a little worried at first about whether Dumbledore would accept a strange cat in the household, but luckily everything went well - no language problems: I suppose Dumbledore speaks English well, like all the Danes haha!

A bit of a shame that the photo came too late to persuade all those UK voters who voted for Brexit a couple of years ago, that it is possible to live in peace and harmony with our European neighbours haha!

16:30 I come down the stairs and unfortunately I find that Lois is now suffering from aches and pains in her back and hip – poor thing!

It's a bit of an ongoing problem, but we're both in our 70’s now - anno domini, as my mother used to say. It sounds like it will most likely be me driving her when she wants to go here or there, which is also frustrating for her, as well as for me, because she likes to take part in a lot of her sect's activities, meetings, services, seminars, etc. Oh dear! But we will see - it may be that we have become a little too pessimistic.

20:00 After dinner, which includes one of Lois' fruit crumbles (yum yum!), we spend the rest of the evening watching some television, an interesting documentary about Danish art. The programme's host is the charming Andrew Graham-Dixon.

An interesting programme, despite Graham-Dixon's frequent, somewhat strained allusions to the stories of Hans Christian Andersen:  commenting repeatedly that, during its long history, Denmark felt like a duckling longing to become a swan. Or that the Danish king was like the emperor who strutted around the European scene wearing his “new clothes", even though (unbeknownst to him) he was actually stark naked.

You know, you can say those kinds of things a bit too often, Andrew!

And Andrew speaks to Soren Malling, a Danish actor who seems to be involved in all the Danish series we watch on TV in England. They discuss the year 1864, when the Danish army was comprehensively defeated by a more numerous and better armed Prussian army, a traumatic event in Danish history.

But it is nice and nostalgic for Lois and me to see again the famous Ordrupgaard art museum, located not far from the house our daughter Alison and her family lived in during their 6 year stay in Copenhagen.

Andrew visits Ordrupgaard Art Museum

flashback to May 2013: Lois and I visit the museum for the first time

Unfortunately, our first visit to the art museum, in 2013, was overshadowed by the fact that about 20 minutes after these photos were taken, Lois and I were walking back to Alison's house and crossing a busy highway, when my cellphone started vibrating. 

I had a phone call from England: a policeman  sitting at his desk in Oxford's main police station was calling me to tell me my younger brother Steve had been found dead in his apartment: he was calling me in my capacity as Steve's next of kin, he said , and it was all a bit of a shock, to put it mildly.

Fortunately, Lois and I visited the museum several times subsequently during our many visits to Denmark, so not all of our memories of the place are sad. It certainly houses a remarkable collection of Danish and foreign art, no doubt about that.

Lois and I like the pictures by Vilhelm Hammershoi, painted in the last decade of the 19th century, because the pictures are so wonderfully bleak, to put it mildly!

some of Vilhelm Hammershoi's wonderfully bleak images from the 1890's

And we tend to admire Hammershoi's quiet, calm and gloomy studies more than we do Eckersberg's penises and vaginas (not his personal ones haha) in the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, although these are also a bit bleak, I have to say.

Fortunately, Andrew also shows us a more cheerful pair of genitals, happy to see each other (copyright Mae West haha), depicted inside a cigar box from the Enlightenment.

But even here Andrew comes up with another one of his strained allusions: to the famous Danish scientist, also from the Enlightenment, Hans Christian Orsted, who discovered electric magnetism, and created several theories about the attraction of the two opposite magnetic poles, a theory which he said inspired the picture in the cigar box.

Please, Andrew, give us a break hahaha!

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

Danish translation: torsdag den 23. januar 2020

09:00 Lois og jeg vælter ud af brusekabinen. Lois har hidtil i dag udvist en stor grad smidighed og synes ikke at have nogle fysiske problemer som resultat af sine aktiviteter i forgårs: dét, at køre i bil to gange, også deltage i en motionsklasse sammen med Fran, sin veninde. Senere på dagen imidlertid begynder hun desværre at klage om ømhed og smerter i ryggen og hoften – staklen! Som sædvanligt imidlertid har vi et problem med at identificere den præcis kilde på hendes smerter – der er for mange mulige årsager til dem. Pokkers!

Før frokost, går hun en tur på den lokale fodboldbane – stadig ingen fysiske problemer, og alt synes at gå godt.

tilbageblik til january 2019:

Lois og jeg går en tur på den lokale fodboldbane

14:00 Jeg går i seng for at tage min sædvanlige gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 16 og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg arbejder på mine 2 nytårsforsæt ved at cykle 6 miles og lytte samtidigt til grundlæggende danske samtalelektioner på mit tablet: jeg kan læse danske romaner osv uden besvær, men hvis en dansker henvender sig til mig, eller har lyst til at snakke med mig, falder jeg i en bunke på gulvet, hvilket er lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt.

Jeg tilbagelægger mine 6 miles og hopper ned. Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone, og jeg ser, at Alison, vores datter i Haslemere, Surrey, har lagt et charmerende foto op på ”Insta”, der afbilder familiens to katte sovende stille og roligt side om side på gulvtæppet:  Dumbledore, familiens danske eks-gadekat, som de skaffede under deres 6-års ophold i København, og Otto, deres nye engelske kattekilling, en julegave til Josie, Alison og Eds 13-årige datter.

Vores datter Alison har lagt et charmerende foto op på ”Insta”:

familiens to katte sovende stille og roligt side om side på gulvtæppet

- hvor er de dog søde!!!!

Alison var i begyndelsen lidt bekymret over, om Dumbledore ville acceptere en fremmed kat i husholdningen, men heldigvis er alt gået godt – ingen sprogproblemer: jeg formoder, at Dumbledore taler engelsk godt, som alle danskere haha!

Lidt af en skam, at fotoet kom for sent til at overtale alle de britiske valgere, der stemte på Brexit for et par år siden, til at det er muligt at leve i fred og harmoni med vores europæiske naboer haha!

16:30 Jeg kommer ned ad trappen og desværre opdager jeg, at Lois nu lider af ømhed og smerter i ryggen og hoften – staklen!  Det er lidt af et igangværende problem, men vi er begge to i 70'erne nu – anno domini, som min mor plejede at sige. Det lyder som om, det højst sandsynligt vil måtte være mig, der kører hende, når hun gerne vil at tage her eller der, hvilket også er frustrerende for hende, såvel som for mig, fordi hun godt kan lide at deltage i en række af sin sekts aktiviter, møder, gudstjenester, seminarer osv. Oh dear! Men vi får se – det kan være, at vi er blevet lidt for pessimistiske.

20:00 Efter aftensmad, der inkludere en af Lois’ frugt-crumbles (yum yum!) bruger vi resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om dansk kunst. Programmets vært er den charmerende Andrew Graham-Dixon.

Et interessant program, på trods af Graham-Dixons hyppige , lidt anstrengte allusioner til fortællingerne af Hans Christian Andersen:  især dét, at Danmark i løbet af sin lange historie, følte sig som en ællinge, der længtes efter at blive til en svane. Eller dét, at den danske konge var kajseren, der spankulerede rundt på den europæiske scene ifærd ”sine nye tøj”, dvs (uden sit vidende) splittenøgen. Du ved, de slags tinge kan du sige lidt for mange gange, Andrew!

Og han taler med Soren Malling, en dansk skuespiller, der synes at medvirke i alle de danske serier vi ser på tv i England. De diskuterer året 1864, da den danske hær blev omfattende besejret af en mere talrig og bedre bevæbnet preussisk hær, en traumatisk begivenhed i danske historie.

Men det er rart og nostalgisk for Lois og mig at se igen det berømte Ordrupgaard kunstmuseum, der ligger ikke ret langt fra det hus, vores datter Alison og hendes familie boede i i under deres 6 års ophold i København.

Andrew besøger Ordrupgaard kunstmuseum

Tilbageblik til maj 2013: Lois og jeg besøger museet for første gang

Desværre blev vores første besøg på kunstmuseet overskygget af, at omkring 20. minutter efter disse fotoer blev taget, og Lois og jeg tøffede gående tilbage til Alisons hus og var i gang med at kryse en travlt hovedvej, brummede min mobil og jeg fik et telefonopkald fra England: en politimand, der sad og arbejdede ved sit skrivebord i byen Oxfords hovedpolitistationen, ringede mig for at fortælle mig min lillebror Steve var blevet fundet død i sin lejlighed:  han ringede til mig, i min kapacitet som Steves nærmeste pårørende, sagde han, hvilket var lidt af en chok, for at sige mildt.

Heldigvis besøgte Lois og jeg museet flere gange derefter under vores mange besøg på Danmark, så er ikke alle vores minder om stedet triste. Det huser en bemærkelsesværdig samling af dansk og fremmed kunst, ingen tvivl om det.

Lois og jeg kan godt lide billederne af Vilhelm Hammershoi, malet i 19.århundredes sidste årti, fordi billederne er så vidunderligt dyster, for at sige mildt.

nogle af Vilhelm  Hammershois underligt dystre billeder fra 1890’erne

Og vi har tendens til at beundre Hammershois stille, rolige og dystre studier fremfor alle Eckersbergs penisser og vaginaer (ikke hans personlige haha) i det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi , selvom de her også er lidt dystre, det må jeg nok sige.

Heldigvis viser Andrew os også et muntrere par kønsorganer, glade for at kunne se hinanden (copyright Mae West haha),  skildret  inde i en cigaræske fra Oplysningstiden.

Men endda her kommer Andrew med endnu én af sine anstrengte allusioner: til den berømte danske videnskabsmand også fra Oplysningstiden, Hans Christian Orsted, der opdagede  elektriske magnetisme, og skabte flere teorier om tiltrækkelsen af de to modsatte magnetiske poler.

Du godeste, Andrew, giv os et break hahaha!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!