Wednesday February 12 16:00 – Thursday February 13 16:00 2020

19:30 Lois and I spend the first half of the evening with Margaret Thatcher’s former minister Michael Portillo on the latest leg of his train journeys through South East Asia, following the 100 year old British “Bradshaw’s Guide”.

Tonight we see Michael visiting a puppet factory – Islam doesn’t allow the depiction of the human form in art etc, so muslim clerics wanting to teach the local population about their religion resorted to using puppets to tell the stories they wanted to promulgate from the Koran.

Michael tries his hand at “working” some of these puppets while putting on appropriate voices – scary voices for the bad guys and that kind of thing. He doesn’t scare Lois and me however – pretty much all of the puppets we see (who are all very spindly) remind us cruelly of Olive Oyl from the Popeye cartoons, which is a bit of shame. What madness! 

Included for comparison: Olive Oyl (right) with her boyfriend, Popeye.

flashback to the 1980’s – Michael Portillo in happier times:

as a member of Maggie Thatcher’s government.
The days when you couldn't (legally?) be prime minister
if you were also an idiot haha!

We see the grand railway station at Solo, built by the Dutch and named after the Dutch king Willem 1, who came to the throne in 1815. The Dutch built a lot of railways in Indonesia but they wouldn’t let the natives use the trains, which seems a bit ungenerous.

Solo station, built by the Dutch in the 19^th century

By chance a cute little pair of tots cross the platform – let’s hope their mother knows that they're out! Indonesian children love railways, apparently, and the British cartoon films about steam engines, “Thomas and Friends” and “Chuggington” are wildly popular over there. My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

a couple of cute little kids cross the platform at Solo Railway Station.
Let's hope their mother knows that they're out haha!

Indonesian children love British cartoon film series about steam engines, it seems

21:00 We carry on watching tv – an interesting episode in the series, “Easy Ways to Live Well”. The programmes presenters are the charming ex- tv chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (crazy name, crazy guy) and news presenter Steph McGovern.

An interesting episode. The presenters take two groups from Humberside Police – the 999 emergency call-centre guys and the HR guys, both groups doing  extremely sedentary jobs - and see if they can get them moving more. Sedentary jobs are known to be bad for blood pressure, and increase the likelihood of the  build-up of fat around vital organs.

The 999 emergency call-centre guys have to do 10 minutes of “motion exercise” every hour – eg sitting on balls, working steppers and suchlike.

The HR guys have to give up communicating with each other by email, text etc, and actually go and see the person and talk to them. And meetings have to be standing and walking affairs.

At the end of the trial, the HR guys were found to be clocking up an average of 4492 steps during their working hours, compared to an average of 2699 before the trial started.  And the 999 emergency call centre guys tally of movement was 31% up. Both groups see a drop in their blood pressure.

One of the show’s 2 presenters, Hugh is around 50 years of age, and is told it’s important to maintain your muscle power, as you get older.

Hugh finds that a programme of squats, press-ups, sit-ups for 20 minutes 3 times a week for a short trial increases the power in his legs  by 6%, and his press-up performance increased by 50%.

I ought to be doing this too, but I’m not sure I can be bothered. Oh dear!

Three guinea-pigs with a poor sleep performance try a portion of CBD oil (up to 5 drops a night), before going to bed, to see if they sleep better. CBD is derived from cannabis, but is not addictive and doesn’t give you a high. It works for 2 of the three but the jury is still out on CBD as a whole. Hugh thinks it’s worth giving it a try.

I go off to sleep like a light around 10pm but tend to wake up about 4 am, which is a bit annoying, to put it mildly. But I don’t know if they stock CBD oil at our local Badham’s – I’ll have to take a sneaky look, Lois suggests.

Oh dear, how many more of these fitness-and-health tv programmes do Lois and I have to watch before we start trying any of the suggestions? What madness!!!!

22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzz!!!!

06:00 I get up early because I have an appointment at our new doctor’s surgery at 8:50 am for blood tests and ecg. I fainted for about 5 seconds a week ago, but my doctor doesn’t think it’s a cause for concern, although he’s ordered these tests to be on the safe side. As it happens the surgery ring us at 7.30 am and say that the nurse assigned to me has called in sick. I arrange another appointment for Tuesday. It’s a bit annoying because the doctor told me it would make sense to avoid driving till the test results are known, so poor Lois has to be my chauffeur.

09:00 Lois goes off to the local Sainsbury’s supermarket to buy our Valentine Day’s goodies and treats for tomorrow tea-time.

Our tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day lunch will be at the Kings Arms, which was recently re-opened by tv-chef Raymond Blanc after an extensive refit. This is the day we’ve been looking forward to since the pub was reopened at the start of the year.

Flashback to last November – work has begun on

refurbishing the pub and staff are being recruited.

While Lois is out I sit down at the computer and design my Valentine Day’s card to her. I always try to make them topical, so I play on the theme that she’s now my personal chauffeur. Let’s hope she doesn’t take that the wrong way haha.

10:00 We spend the rest of the morning tidying up the house because our U3A Danish group is meeting here this afternoon.

16:00 Group members arrive, and as usual they’re much more enthusiastic about chatting about their aches and pains, than about studying Danish. I am hoping to keep my recent fainting fit quiet, but somehow they wheedle it out of me – damn! I think they can just smell it if any of us has had an ache or a pain over the previous 2 weeks – what madness!!!!  I call them the “Danish Inquisition” haha.

Danish translation: Onsdag 12. februar 16:00 - Torsdag 13. februar 16:00 2020

19:30 Lois og jeg tilbragte den første halvdel af aftenen med Margaret Thatchers tidligere minister Michael Portillo på den seneste del af hans togrejser gennem Sydøstasien efter den 100 år gamle britiske ”Bradshaw's Guide”.

 Michaellisting

q1 / q2

I aften ser vi Michael besøge en marionetfabrik - Islam tillader ikke skildring af den menneskelige form i kunst osv., Så muslimske præster, der ønsker at lære lokalbefolkningen om deres religion, tyr til at bruge dukker til at fortælle de historier, de ønskede at promulgere fra Koran.

Michael forsøger at "arbejde" nogle af disse dukker, mens han lægger passende stemmer - skræmmende stemmer for de onde fyre og den slags. Han skræmmer imidlertid ikke Lois og mig - stort set alle de dukker, vi ser (som alle er meget spindelt), minder os grusomt om Olive Oyl fra Popeye-tegneserierne, hvilket er en smule skam. Hvilken vanvid!

r1-6

Med til sammenligning: Olive Oyl (til højre) med sin kæreste, Popeye.

flashback til 1980'erne - Michael Portillo i lykkeligere tider:

som medlem af Maggie Thatchers regering

Vi ser den store jernbanestation på Solo, bygget af hollænderne og opkaldt efter den hollandske konge Willem 1, der kom til tronen i 1815. Hollænderne byggede en masse jernbaner i Indonesien, men de ville ikke lade de indfødte bruge togene , hvilket virker lidt unødigt.

s1 / s2

Solostation, bygget af hollænderne i det 19. århundrede

Tilfældigt krydser et sødt lille par tots platformen - lad os håbe, de havde deres forældres tilladelse! Indonesiske børn elsker jernbaner, og de britiske tegneseriefilm om dampmaskiner, "Thomas og venner" og "Chuggington" er meget populære derovre. Min godhed, hvilken skør verden vi lever i !!!!

s3

et par søde små børn krydser platformen ved Solo Railway Station.

t1-4

Indonesiske børn elsker britiske tegnefilmserier om dampmaskiner, ser det ud til

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se tv - en interessant episode i serien, “Easy Ways to Live Well”. Programmets præsentanter er den charmerende ex-tv-kok Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (skør navn, skør fyr) og nyhedspresentant Steph McGovern.

EasyListing

EasyBlurb

En interessant episode. Præsentanterne tager to grupper fra Humberside Police - de 999 nødcallecentre og HR-fyre, begge grupper, der udfører ekstremt stillesiddende job - og ser om de kan få dem til at bevæge sig mere. Det er kendt, at stillesiddende job er dårlige for blodtrykket, og øger sandsynligheden for opbygning af fedt omkring vitale organer.

u1 / 2/3

De 999 nødcallecentre fyre skal gøre 10 minutters “motion motion” hver time - fx sidde på bolde, arbejde steppers og lignende.

y1234

HR-fyre skal opgive at kommunikere med hinanden via e-mail, tekst osv. Og faktisk gå og se personen og tale med dem. Og møder skal være stående og gående anliggender.

Ved afslutningen af ​​retssagen blev det konstateret, at HR-fyre gennemsnitligt 4492 trin i deres arbejdstid var i sammenligning med et gennemsnit på 2699, før retssagen startede. Og de 999 nødopkaldscentre, hvor antallet af bevægelser steg 31%. Begge grupper ser et fald i deres blodtryk.

En af showets 2 præsentanter, Hugh er omkring 50 år gammel og får at vide, at det er vigtigt at bevare din muskelkraft, når du bliver ældre.

v1

Hugh finder ud af, at et program med squats, press-ups, sit-ups i 20 minutter 3 gange om ugen for en kort retssag øger kraften i hans ben med 6%, og hans press-up-ydeevne steg med 50%.

Jeg burde også gøre dette, men jeg er ikke sikker på, at jeg kan blive generet. Åh gud!

Tre marsvin med en dårlig søvnydelse prøv en del af CBD-olie (op til 5 dråber om natten), inden de går i seng, for at se, om de sover bedre. CBD er afledt af cannabis, men er ikke vanedannende og giver dig ikke noget. Det fungerer for 2 af de tre, men juryen er stadig ude på CBD som helhed. Hugh mener, det er værd at prøve det.

Jeg går i søvn som et lys omkring kl. 22.00, men har en tendens til at vågne omkring kl. 04.00, hvilket er lidt irriterende, mildt sagt. Men jeg ved ikke, om de lagerfører CBD-olie på vores lokale Badhams - jeg bliver nødt til at kigge lidt, foreslår Lois.

x4

Åh kære, hvor mange flere af disse fitness-og-sundheds-tv-programmer skal Lois og jeg se, før vi begynder at prøve noget af forslagene? Hvilken vanvid !!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng - zzzzzzzz !!!!

06:00 Jeg rejser mig tidligt, fordi jeg har en aftale på vores nye lægekirurgi kl. 08:50 til blodprøver og ecg. Jeg besvimte i cirka 5 sekunder for en uge siden, men min læge synes ikke, det er en grund til bekymring, selvom han har beordret, at disse test skal være på den sikre side. Idet det sker, ringer operationen os kl. 7.30 og siger, at den sygeplejerske, der er tildelt mig, har kaldt syge. Jeg aftaler en anden aftale til tirsdag. Det er lidt irriterende, fordi lægen fortalte mig, at det ville være fornuftigt at undgå at køre, indtil testresultaterne er kendt, så stakkels Lois skal være min chauffør.

09:00 Lois går videre til den lokale Sainsburys superma rket for at købe vores Valentine Day's godbidder og godbidder til morgendagens te-tid.

Vores morgendags Valentinsdag-frokost vil være på Kings Arms, som for nylig blev genåbnet af tv-kok Raymond Blanc efter en omfattende ombygning. Dette er den dag, vi har set frem til, siden pubben blev genåbnet i begyndelsen af ​​året.

(2 billeder) Flashback til november sidste år - arbejdet er startet

renovering af pubben og personalet rekrutteres.

Mens Lois er ude, sætter jeg mig ved computeren og designer mit Valentinsdagskort til hende. Jeg prøver altid at gøre dem aktuelle, så jeg spiller med det tema, at hun nu er min personlige chauffør. Lad os håbe, at hun ikke tager den forkerte vej haha.

10:00 Vi tilbringer resten af ​​morgenen med at rydde op i huset, fordi vores U3A-danske gruppe mødes her i eftermiddag.

16:00 Gruppemedlemmer ankommer, og som sædvanligvis er de meget mere begejstrede for at chatte om deres ømhed og smerten end at studere dansk. Jeg håber på at holde min nylige besvimelse i form stille, men på en eller anden måde trækker de det ud af mig - forbandet! Jeg tror, ​​de bare kan lugte det, hvis nogen af ​​os har haft smerter eller smerter i de foregående 2 uger - hvilken vanvid !!!! Jeg kalder dem "dansk inkvisition" haha.