Sunday February 16 16:00 – Sunday February 16 23:59 2020

20:00 A typical evening, ideally suited to 2 old crows, begins for us with a Channel Five documentary dealing with the question of why Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty collapsed with the death of Queen Cleopatra.

Channel Five's many documentaries are always a little suspect in our opinion - often about 10 minutes of solid material is padded out with reconstructions and other fillers etc to last 1 hour, including commercials, etc. And this programme is no exception, I have to say.

Unfortunately, I manage to fall asleep during the important part, which is a bit of a shame, to put it mildly. Luckily Lois starts making some notes after she fails to wake me by her usual method of shaking me violently.

It seems that the collapse of the dynasty was accelerated around 44-43 BC, when the annual flood of the Nile River failed for two consecutive years, leading to famine, riots and the like.

For the first time, in recent years, researchers have been investigating ice cores from the North Pole and the South Pole, and they have linked the years when Nile's flood failed with major volcanic eruptions. Both poles show traces of a gigantic eruption in 44 BC, so scientists suspect that the volcano in question was somewhere near the equator - the best candidate being some volcano in Nicaragua, it seems.

(just a reconstruction haha!)

Poor ancient Nicaraguans!!!! They had to suffer a massive volcanic eruption, and the world's media did not get wind of it, even though it led to the collapse of a 300-year dynasty !!!! What a crazy world we live in !!!!

As usual, in the many documentaries in which historian Bettany Hughes participates, Lois and I like to classify the extent of her cleavage as either small, medium, or large. Tonight is only medium size, we think, but the jury’s still out on that one.

21:00 We switch off the television and listen to the radio, an ideal program for two old crows to go to bed on - the Melbourne-born comedian Barry Humphries' Forgotten Musical Memories.

Barry says that back in Melbourne, starting from an early age, he began to feel an attachment to the songs of George Gershwin. And not long ago, he saw advertised a second-hand copy of the George Gershwin Songbook, published in 1934, the year Barry was born.

This songbook was pretty expensive, but the seller said it was cheaper than normal because someone had scribbled something on the book’s fly-leaf.

Barry bought it without being able to see it in advance, and when he got the book, he saw that someone had indeed scribbled something on the book's cover page and done what appeared to be  a crude self-portrait. But it was Gershwin himself! So Barry now has a special unique copy of the songbook of one of the 20th century's great composers.

My god, what madness !!!!

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

One of my periodic blog breaks starts tomorrow, to give me time to fix some of the tasks on my to-do list, which has now grown to 100 miles or thereabouts - yikes !!!! See you in a few days.

Danish translation:  søndag 16. februar 16:00 - søndag den 16. februar 23:59 2020

20:00  En typisk aften, egnet til 2 gamle krager, begynder med en Channel Five-dokumentarfilm, der handler om det spørgsmål, om hvorfor Egypts ptolemaiske dynasti kollapserede med døden af dronning Cleopatra.

Channel Fives mange dokumentarfilm er altid lidt suspekt i vores mening – ofte er der omkring 10 minutter solid materiale fyldt ud for at vare 1 time, inklusive reklamer osv. Og dette program er ikke nogen undtagelse, det må jeg nok sige.

Desværre lykkes det mig at falde i søvn under den vigtige del, hvilket er lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt. Heldigvis går Lois i gang med at lave nogle notater, efter at hun ikke når at vække mig ved at ryste mig voldsomt.

Det lader til, at dynastiets sammenbrud blev fremskyndet omkring 44-43 f. Kr, da floden Niles årlige oversvømmelse mislykkedes to år i træk, hvilket førte til hungersnød, optøjer og lignende.

I nylige år for første gang har forskere undersøgt iskerner fra Nordpolen og Sydpolen og de har forbundet de år, hvor Niles oversvømmelse mislykkedes med større vulkansk udbrud. Begge poler viser spor af en gigantisk udbrud i 44 f.Kr, så forskere formoder, at den pågældende vulkan var et eller andet sted i nærheden af ækvatoren – de bedste kandidat er en eller anden vulkan i Nicaragua, ser det ud til.

(bare en rekonstruction haha!)

Stakkels antikke nicaraguerer!!!! De måtte lide et massivt vulkansk udbrud, og verdens medier fik ikke nys om den, selvom det førte til sammenbruddet af en 300-årige dynasti !!!! Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Som sædvanligt, i de mange dokumentarfilm, hvor historikeren Bettany Hughes deltaler, kan Lois og jeg lide at klassificere omfanget af hendes kavalergang som enten lille, mellemstor, eller stor. I aften er det kun mellemstor, synes vi.

21:00 Vi slukker for fjernsynet og lytter lidt til radio, et ideelt program for to gamle krager at gå i seng på – den Melbourne-fødte komiker Barry Humphries ”Glemte musikalske minder”.

Barry siger, at tilbage i Melbourne begyndte han, startende fra en tidlig alder, at føle en hengivenhed for sangene af George Gershwin. Og for ikke længe siden så han annonceret en brugte kopi af George Gershwin Songbook, der blev udgivet i 1934, det år, Barry blev født.

Denne sangbog var temmelig dyr, men sælgeren sagde, at den var billigere end normalt, fordi nogen havde kradset et eller andet ned på bogens forsatsblad.

Barry købte den uden at kunne se den på forhånd, og da han fik bogen, så han, at nogen faktisk havde kradset noget ned på bogens forsatsblad og lavet et groft selvportræt. Det var selve Gershwin! Så derfor har Barry nu et unikt eksemplar  af sangbogen til en af det 20. århundredes  store komponister.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng. Jeg læser omkring 20 sider af min sengetid bog, før jeg glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!

Én af mine periodiske blogpauser starter i morgen, for at give mig tid til at ordne nogle af opgaverne på min gøremålsliste, der nu er vokset til 100 miles eller deromkring – yikes!!!! Vi ses om nogle dage.