A quiet lockdown sort of a day. The morning’s activity is dusting
the downstairs rooms – our daughter Alison, plus Ed and their 3 children, are
visiting us on Sunday from Haslemere and are staying overnight in two tents in
our back garden. The plan is that they treat it as a camping trip – more exciting
for the kids and safer for us, but we want the house to look respectable in
case of some unforeseen emergency that leads them to have to come inside – what
madness!!! But fair enough, on reflection.
Ed, Josie (turning 14 next week), Rosalind
(12), Isaac (10) and Alison
on a pub outing two weeks ago. They spent 6 years in Copenhagen
from 2012 to 2018
14:00 I have a short afternoon nap and take a look at the media on
my smartphone. I see that this year’s version of the ITV reality show “I’m A
Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” (which in Denmark is called “Robinson Crusoe”, I
believe) will take place not in the jungles of New South Wales as it always has
been, but instead in the vicinity of Abergele in North Wales.
ITV's "tropical jungle" reality show will take place in North Wales
this year instead of New South Wales, Australia, because of lockdown.
What madness !!!!
What madness! I hope they keep the exact location secret. It’ll
spoil things a bit if Abergele locals turn up at the site and start taking selfies with
the contestants. Also we don’t have much in the way of poisonous snakes or
insects in Britain – don’t the organizers know that?
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
14:30 We start our local U3A Danish group’s fortnightly meeting on
Skype. Scilla, our Old Norse expert, cannot take part until her son sorts her
out with a better hearing-aid, which hopefully will happen before our next
meeting on September 10th. Jeanette, our only genuine Danish member
admits that she already has a hearing aid in both ears, although they must be
quite discreet, we think. We’ve certainly never noticed them. And Jeanette and her partner,
like Lois and me, always watch TV with the subtitles switched on. Like us,
she’s noticed that actors today tend to mumble a lot.
And Joy says that she and Dave are always asking each other to repeat what the other has said, just like Lois and I do.
These are the kind of problems that tend to get discussed in a
seniors’ group – oh dear!
The group is currently reading a Danish crime novel, “The Further
You Fall” by Anna Grue. An Estonian cleaning lady and former prostitute has been found garrotted (spelling?) in the kitchens of a
Danish advertising agency, and now her roomie, another prostitute, this one
from Nigeria, has just been found dead on a beach – a local teenager, Benedikte
was walking her dog in the area and the dog found the body, unfortunately
taking a bite or two out of it before he could be dragged away. Yikes –
unpleasant!!!!!
Still, we old people like a bit of sleaze with our language studies, no doubt about that!!!!!
Anna Grue’s crime novel, “The Further You Fall”,
which is our U3A Danish group’s current
project.
20:00 We settle down in the living-room to watch some TV, an
oddity from the 1990’s: the actress Joanna Lumley (then 48), "Patsy" in "Absolutely Fabulous", takes an Army Survival Course
with the Irish Guards, and then gets flown to a remote island off the coast of
Madagascar, to spend nine days there being a Girl Friday, building a hammock
and frame, fending for herself, building a fire, foraging for food etc.
Except that she isn’t exactly alone during the day, because a film
crew is following her at a distance, but they leave her there alone at night and retreat to their
boat anchored offshore.
First we see Joanna in England, in full make-up and hair-do, being driven on her
way to train with the Irish Guards. But it’s a not a surprise later to see her, all "natural" without her make-up, when she’s living on the island - but still talking her usual "Patsy" way!
Joanna, in full makeup and hair-do, being driven to her
survival training course
in England, with the Irish Guards
Joanna (right) erecting her hammock frame in front of her film crew
It’s surprisingly rainy a lot of the days on the island, so Joanna mostly sleeps in a
cave, but as the floor of the cave is hard, she makes some makeshift shoes, what she calls her "36A sandals", out
of the insoles of her boots, and the cups of her bra. Simples!
She has ensured that she has a couple of treats with her for
times when she needs a lift. She was served whisky on the plane flying down
from England, and she kept it in a washed out honey-jar (also served on the
flight). And after she has settled herself on the island, one of her film crew takes pity and leaves her a cigarette – my
goodness, luxury!
I suppose nine days is not too long, and although she says at the
end that she hasn’t missed civilization you’ve got to wonder whether she really
could do a longer stint. I don’t think Lois and I would last five minutes – oh dear!
Still we are 74, so fair enough, we think.
22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzzz!!!!
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