Tuesday 2 July 2019

10:00 I start cleaning up the house and vacuuming everywhere, because Mark, our friendly local IT expert, has promised to drop by this afternoon to help me with some of my current IT problems, including help with configuring our shiny new printer and shiny new tablet - yikes! And I try to make a list of all the problems, so I don't forget to explain them all to him - yikes (again) !!!!

12:00 We have lunch a little earlier than usual, so I have time to go to bed and take a mini afternoon nap before Mark arrives. While I’m sleeping, Lois goes out into the backyard. She digs out our pruning shears and cleans up by hand the 7 foot tall hedge I pruned yesterday - the one between our backyard and our neighbour Bob's backyard.

Lois tells me that the ongoing "pruning controversy", first started by Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State in 2006 (source: Onion News), has not been resolved yet – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

....

....

Onion News' breaking of the original news-story, with the ticking

time-bomb of the unresolved "pruning" controversy

And yet here we are now in 2019, on the eve of the US national holiday, and it seems extraordinary that this long-standing "pruning" debate is still raging between the United States and the underwater kingdom of Rubba Dubdub:  it seems even worse than that stupid Brexit-madness, to put it mildly !!!!

14:00 Mark, our friendly local IT expert, calls at the door and he starts connecting my brand new printer wirelessly to my brand new tablet, which I failed to do the other day. He found out that Canon's downloaded installation file was missing the desired process - and he had to copy their CD onto a memory stick to read it into the tablet: modern computers do not have any CD-ROM facilities. Good grief - what madness !!!!

Mark, our friendly local IT expert

Mark says that Windows 10 has its own built-in virus program, so I don't have to upgrade my Norton license - hurrah! And he downloaded a free version of Word - Apache Open Office - so I can do word processing on the tablet without paying £100 a year (or thereabouts) to Microsoft - hurrah (again) !!!!

We notice that WIndows-10S, which has been installed on the tablet, always tends to try to prevent the user from downloading non-Microsoft apps when there is some Microsoft equivalent - my god, how crazy !! !! The system encourages me very aggressively to use the Microsoft Edge web browser, for example, but Mark reassures me that downloading Google Chrome, a program I am very used to using and which I like, is completely okay.

16:30 Mark has to leave, and Lois hurries into the kitchen and starts dinner, a little earlier than usual, because she wants to attend her sect’s weekly Bible seminar taking place tonight in Brockworth's town library . The current semester is all about the Gospel of Mark.

flashback to last month: a typical session in the sect's Bible seminar program

17:30 We have dinner and afterwards Lois has to leave. I now have some alone time and spend the evening listening to the radio and watching a bit of television.

First I hear an interesting episode in the series "Inside Health". The host of the programme is the charming Mark Porter. The episode is all about an increasing trend for "de-prescribing", where doctors encourage patients to try stopping taking some of their medications.

An interesting programme. Of course, elderly patients in particular  tend to end up taking multiple medications. In the 1990’s, only one in eight older patients took more than 5 medications: today the figure is 1 out of 2 - yikes!

There are various problems with this approach - dangerous interactions between multiple medications, pills to treat side effects of other pills and suchlike. Most elderly patients tend to have multiple problems each treated by a different specialist. So patients tend to accumulate more and more medications, each prescribed by different specialists: it is always easy to start a course of medications, but more difficult to stop. Patients are afraid of the possible consequences of doing without  a certain pill, and ordinary doctors hesitate to stop a treatment that has been prescribed by a specialist, etc. My goodness, what a nightmare!

A new trend has begun in Canada and Australia whereby doctors embark on a review of each elderly patient's treatment and their typically multiple medications, and consider whether patients could experiment with stopping taking some of the bunches of drugs on their list. And Britain's health system is now trying to follow the Canadian and Australian initiatives.

One problem is that there have been very few clinical trials about what happens when a patient stops taking a certain medicine. Pharmaceutical companies are mostly interested in clinical trials about starting a course of medications, not about stopping it, which is understandable but also a bit of a shame to put it mildly.

At this point I feel that I have to be relatively lucky - I do not take any medications regularly, although I took a low dose of blood pressure pills between 2009 and 2018. But I am not the norm - a few years ago, one in five older people took no regular medications, but today it is only one in 13 - yikes !!!!

For now I'm the lucky one. But I expect I will get punished before long for my good luck - no doubt about that ha ha ha!

21:00 I turn off the radio and see a little tv. The first episode is on in a new series about the annual Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. The programme hosts are the charming Joe Swift and the DJ Jo Whiley.

We see a bunch of "lifestyle gardens", which is nice. Pollyanna Wilkinson's "Nature Craft Garden", a garden designed for a woman, says Pollyanna, specifically for a woman who has "heathen" or “pagan” tendencies and an interest in witchcraft, herbs, natural medicines, and all that stuff.

Pollyanna's "garden for witches" includes its own old witch’s cauldron, which is nice.

 Pollyanna (right) has filled her garden with witch-themed symbols,

celebrating apertures and nature's cycles, also femininity in general

Kudos  Pollyanna - I like your style!

I am particularly interested in the "Back to Nature" garden, because Lois and I have talked about transforming one of our lawns into a "mini-meadow" with a lot of uncut grass, poppies, dozens of wild flowers etc, that kind of thing, which will be a refreshing change and also good for the insects.

The lawn of ours that we have in mind for the project is completely surrounded by high hedges so it will be "our secret" and will not bother our neighbours who might perhaps think we are just too lazy to keep it "nice and tidy" ha ha ha!

the programme presenters stroll through the "Back to Nature" gardden

the Duchess of Cambridge with schoolchildren, in the "Back to Nature" garden

our current "secret garden", in other words,
our upcoming mini-meadow ha ha!

Last month we visited our friend, Fran, and saw her "meadow-garden", which impressed us a lot.

flashback to June 6 - we visit our friend, Fran (left),

and admire her "mini meadow-garden".

22:00 Lois comes back from Brockworth. I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and unwind after the evening's stimulating Bible seminar - she stays up and sees a few episodes of the old sitcom "Dinner Ladies". She doesn't wake me up when she hops into bed with me at 11 pm or so - zzzzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation:  tirsdag den 2. juli 2019

10:00 Jeg går i gang med at rydde op i huset og støvsuge overalt, fordi Mark, vores venlige lokale IT-ekspert har lovet at smutte ind hos os i eftermiddag, for at hjælpe mig med nogle af mine nuværende IT-problemer, herunder hjælp med at konfigurere vores spritnye printer og spritnye tablet – yikes! Og jeg prøver at udfærdige en liste over de der problemer, så jeg ikke glemmer at forklare dem alle til ham – yikes (igen) !!!!

12:00 Vi spiser frokost lidt tidligere, end normalt, så jeg har tid til at gå i seng og tage en mini-eftermiddagslur, før Mark kommer. Mens jeg ligger og sover, går Lois ud in baghaven. Hun graver vores beskæresaks og rydde op i hånden den 7 fods høje hæk jeg beskærede af i går – den, der står mellem vores baghave og vores nabo Bobs baghave.

Lois fortæller mig at den igangværende ”beskæringsstrid”, først startet af Condoleeza Rice, den amerikanske udenrigsminister, i 2006 (kilde: Onion News), er ikke blevet løst endnu – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

....

....

Og her er vi nu i 2019, på tærsklen til USAs nationale hellidag, og det virker ekstraordinært, at denne langvarige beskæringsdebat stadig hærger mellem USA og det undersøiske rige Rubba Dubdub: det er endnu værre, end det der dumme Brexit-vanvid, for at sige mildt !!!!

14:00 Mark, vores venlige lokale IT-ekspert, ringer på døren og han går i gang med at tilslutte min spritnye printer trådløst til min spritnye tablet, hvilket det mislykkedes mig at gøre forleden. Han fandt ud af, at Canons downloadede installationsfil manglede den ønskede proces – og han blev nødt til at kopiere deres CD på en hukommelsesstik for at læse den ind i tabletten: moderne computere har ikke nogle faciliteter til CD’er. Du godeste – sikke et vanvid!!!!

Mark, vores venlige lokale IT-ekspert

Mark siger, at Windows-10 har sit eget indbyggede  virusprogram, så er jeg ikke nødt til at opgradere min Nortonlicens – hurra! Og han downloadede en gratis version af Word – Apache Open Office, så jeg kan gøre tekstbehandling på tabletten uden at betale £100 om året (eller deromkring) til Microsoft – hurra (igen) !!!!

Vi bemærker, at WIndows-10S, som er blevet installeret på tabletten, har tendens altid til at prøve at forhindre brugeren i at downloade ikke-Microsoft apps, når der er en eller anden Microsoft-ækvivalent - du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!! Systemet opfordrer mig meget aggressivt til at bruge Microsoft Edge-webbrowseren, for eksempel, men Mark beroliger mig, at det er helt okay at downloade Google Chrome, et program, jeg er meget vænnet til at bruge, og som jeg godt kan lide.

16:30 Mark skal af sted, og Lois skynder sig ind i køkkenet og går i gang med at lave aftensmad, lidt tidligere, end normalt, fordi hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek. Den nuværende semester handler om Marcusevangeliet.

tilbageblik til sidste måned: en typisk session i sektens bibelseminarprogram

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal Lois af sted. Jeg har lidt alenetid, og bruger aftenen på at lytte til radio og se lidt fjernsyn.

Først hører jeg et interessant afsnit i serien ”Inside Health”. Programmets vært er den charmerende Mark Porter. Afsnittet handler om en stigende trend for ”de-ordinering”, hvor lægere opfordrer patienter til at holde op med at tage nogle af deres mediciner.

Et interessant program. Selvfølgelig er det i sær ældre patienter, der har tendens til at tage for mange mediciner. I 1990’erne tog en ud af 8 ældre patienter flere, end 5 mediciner: i dag er tallet 1 ud af 2 – yikes!

Der er forskellige problemer med den her tilgang – farlige interaktioner mellem multiple mediciner, piller til at behandler bivirkninger af andre mediciner og den slags. De fleste ældre patienter har tendens til at have multiple problemer og at blive behandlet af multiple specialister. Og patienter fortsætter at samle sig flere og flere mediciner, hver ordineret af forskellige specialister: det er altid nemt at starte en række mediciner, men sværere at stoppe. Patienter er bange for at undvære en eller anden pille, og alminderlige lægere tøver med at stoppe en behandling, der er blevet ordineret af en specialist osv. Du godeste, sikke et mareridt!

Den nye trend er begyndt i Canada og Australien til at lægere kaster sig ud i en gennemgang af hver ældre patients behandling og deres typisk multiple mediciner, og overvejer, om patienter kunne eksperimentere med at holde op med at tage nogle af de bunkevis af mediciner på deres liste. Og Storbritanniens sundhedssystem prøver nu at følge den kanadiske og australske initiativ.

Ét problem er, at der har været meget få kliniske prøver om, hvad der sker, når en patient holder op med at tage en vis medicin. Farmaceutiske selskaber er for det meste interesseret i kliniske prøver, der handler om at starte en række medicin, ikke dem, der handler om at stoppe den, hvilket er forståeligt men også lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt!!!!

På dette tidspunkt føler jeg at jeg må være forholdsvis heldig – jeg tager ikke nogle mediciner regelmæssigt, selvom jeg tog en lav dose af blodtrykpiller mellem 2009 og 2018. Men jeg er ikke normen – for et par år siden tog én ud af 5 ældre mennesker ingen regelmæssige mediciner, men i dag er det kun én ud af 13 – yikes!!!!

Jeg er heldig for tiden. Men jeg forventer, jeg inden længe kommer til at blive straffet for min gode lykke– ingen tvivl om det ha ha ha!

21:00 Jeg slukker for radioen og ser lidt fjersyn. De viser det første afsnit i en ny serie, der handler om den årlige Hampton Court Palace havefestival. Programmets værter er de charmerende Joe Swift og dj-en Jo Whiley.

Vi ser et bundt ”livsstils-haver”, hvilket er rart. Pollyanna Wilkinsons ”Nature Craft Garden”, en have  designet for en kvinde, siger Pollyanna, en kvinde der har ”hedenske” tendens og en interesse for hekseri, urter, naturlige lægemidler, og alt det der lort.

Pollyannas ”have til hekse” inkluderer sin egen gammel heksekedel, hvilket er rart

Pollyanna (til højre) har propfyldt sin have med heks-tematiserede symboler,

åbinger og cirkler, der repræsenterer naturens cykler, også femininitet og kvinders cykler osv.

En ros til dig Pollyanna – jeg kan godt lide din stil !

Jeg interesserer mig meget for ”Tilbage til natur”-haven, fordi Lois og jeg har talt om at omdanne én af vores græsplæner til en ”mini-eng” med en masse uklippet græs, valmuer, dusinvis af vilde blomster osv, og den slags, hvilket vil være en forfriskende forandring, og også godt for insekterne. Denne have er fuldstændigt omgivet af høje hække, så den vil være ”vores hemmelighed”, og vil ikke genere vores naboer, der kunne synes, at vi bare er for dovne til at holde den ”pæn og ryddelig” ha ha ha!

vores nuværende "hemmelige have", med andre ord,

vores kommende mini-eng ha ha!

Sidste måned besøgte vi vores ven, Fran, og så hendes ”eng-have”, som imponerede os meget.

tilbageblik til den 6. juni – vi besøger vores ven, Fran,

og beundrer hendes ”mini eng-have”.

22:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra Brockworth. Jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare ned efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar – hun bliver oppe og ser et par afsnit af den gamle sitcom ”Dinner Ladies”. Hun vækker mig ikke når hun kl 23 hopper ind i sengen til mig – zzzzz!!!!

Monday 1 July 2019

10:00 I dig out my electric hedge-cutter and start pruning the rest of the 7 foot high hedge between our back yard and our neighbour Bob's backyard: the remaining 60 feet. To achieve the perfect result, I need to complete the work in hand with our pruning shears, but that will have to wait for another day.

Meanwhile, Lois goes out to our fruit garden and picks even more raspberries and gooseberries so the birds can't "steal" them all - hurrah!

the approx 8 lbs of gooseberries that Lois has picked this morning

- yum yum!!!!

So far, our raspberry and gooseberry harvests have been above expectations, which is nice. And in particular, our raspberries have proved to be even more delicious than usual, to put it mildly, as promised by God 20 years ago (source: Onion News).

HEAVEN - In an effort to counteract a fall in worldwide raspberry consumption, God announced on Monday that starting March 1, the great taste of raspberries will be "even more berrilicious". "Get ready for a whole new taste experience," God said. "Soon, raspberry will be bursting with so much outrageous fruity flavours that you’ll want to call them 'razzle-dazzleberries' ".

And if raspberry consumption fails to increase, there are other changes in the pipeline, including "magic colour-changing berries" available on bushes for a limited time next spring. "Slam that great fruity taste in your face," God urged.

It is really vital not to become too complacent in today's rapidly changing fruit market conditions – that’s for sure. And one must constantly be in search of new products - if not, the nightmare of bankruptcy is never far from the horizon - no doubt about that! And it's good to be reassured that God, in his role as the world's largest fruit producer, has his finger on the pulse, as always!

12:00 We grab a quick lunch and afterwards we head over to our new medical centre in the middle of town - Lois has to take her annual blood test: she suffers from a slightly elevated cholesterol levels and takes statins every night at bedtime. We come home and I go to bed for a gigantic afternoon nap.

15:30 I get up and experiment a little with my brand new tablet after "signing on" using my fingerprint (yikes!) - I have asked Mark, our local IT expert, to pop in here tomorrow afternoon to help me with the many IT problems that are currently plaguing me. And the tablet uses Windows 10, which I am not used to, to put it mildly - our laptop and desktop both use Windows 7, which Microsoft will stop "supporting" next January - damn!

I "sign on" with my fingerprint - yikes,

a scary experience for an old crow like me !!!!

I have a lot of problems I want to ask Mark about. For example, I'm not completely sure if I can use my existing word processing and virus program licenses on the tablet or whether I have to pay out even more money. Damn!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio and watching a bit of television. We catch up with the third episode of a new documentary series about the Thames, first aired a couple of weeks ago. The host of the programme is the charming Tony Robinson.

An interesting programme, and Lois and I learn a lot we didn't know before.

We see a centuries-old herb garden (the so-called "Physic Garden") next to the river. It seems that for centuries people thought that bad smells spread diseases, so in the 16th century, for example, they used to carry small bags of marjoram and thyme with them everywhere they went, to protect themselves from bacteria, etc. How crazy !!!

But even the doctors also believed this myth at that time - and when they treated patients, they wore masks with long noses, that were stuffed with herbs – my god, pure madness !!!

This herb garden was one of the first to use greenhouses, and many different tropical plants and trees were cultivated, from which they could, for example, extract quinine. Quinine started as a drug for malaria, but it has a very bitter taste, to put it mildly.

In the two world wars, British soldiers in India and Southeast Asia were treated with quinine, mixed with soda, sugar and a few drops of gin, to encourage them to drink it. It is believed that this was the origin of my personal favourite drink, gin and tonic.

In the good old days before buttons were invented, people used to fasten their clothes with pins. And we see Tony, the programme's charming host, on his knees with amateur archaeologist Nicola White, picking up hundreds of these pins on the river foreshore - many of the pins were dropped by the dozens of prostitutes working in the many brothels that were once open for business in the area.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

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

Danish translation: mandag den 1. juli 2019

10:00 Jeg graver min elektriske hækklipper frem og går i gang med at beskære resten af den 7 fods høj hæk mellem vores baghave og vores nabo Bobs baghave:  de resterende 60 fods. For at opnå det perfekte resultat, trænger det til at jeg fuldfører arbejdet i hånden med vores beskæresaks, men det bliver en anden dag.

I mellemtiden går Lois ud til vores frugthave og plukker endnu flere hindbær og stikkelsbær, så fuglene ikke kan ”stjæle” dem alle – hurra!

de ca. 8 pund stikkelsbær, som Lois i morges har plukket 

- yum yum !!!!!

Hidtil har vores hindbær- og stikkelsbær-høst været over forventningerne, hvilket er rart. Og i sær har vores hindbær vist sig at være endnu meget lækre, end normalt, for at sige mildt, som lovet af Gud for 20 år siden (kilde: Onion News).

HIMLEN – I et forsøg på at modvirke et fald i verdensomspændende hindbærforbrug, meddelte Gud mandag, at startende fra den 1. marts vil den flotte smag af hindbær være "endnu mere berrilicious". "Gør dig klar til en helt ny smagoplevelse," sagde Gud. "Snart vil hindbær briste med så meget skandaløst frugtagtig smag, at du vil kalde dem 'razzle-dazzleberries' ".

Og hvis hindbærforbrug ikke øges, er der andre ændringer i vente, herunder "magiske farveskiftende bær",  der skal få på buske i en begrænset periode næste forår. "Stik den store frugtagtig smag i dit ansigt," opfordrede Gud.

Det er absolut nødvendigt ikke at blive for selvtilfreds i nutidens hurtigt skiftende frugtmarkedsvilkår – det ved jeg med sikkerhed. Og man må konstant være på jagt efter at komme med nye produkter – hvis ikke, er mareridtet af konkurs aldrig langt fra horisonten – ingen tvivl om det! Og det er godt at vide, at Gud, i sin rolle som verdens største frugtproducent,  har fingeren på pulsen, som altid.

12:00 Vi snupper en hurtig frokost og bagefter kører vi over til vores nye lægehus midt i byen – Lois skal tage sin årlige blodprøve: hun lider af et lidt forhøjet kolesteroltal, og tager statiner hver aften ved sengetid. Vi kommer hjem og jeg går i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

15:30 Jeg står op og eksperimenterer lidt med min spritnye tablet, efter at jeg logger ind ved hjælp af mit fingeraftryk (yikes!) – jeg har bedt Mark, vores lokale IT-ekspert, om at smutte ind hos os i morgen eftermiddag for at hjælpe mig med de mange IT-problemer, der for tiden plager mig. Tablettet bruger Windows 10, som jeg ikke er vænnet til, for at sige mildt – vores laptop og desktop bruger Windows 7, som Microsoft vil holde op med at ”støtte” næste januar – pokkers!

Jeg logger ind med mit fingeraftryk - yikes!

En skræmmende oplevelse for en gammel krage som mig!!!!

Jeg har en masse problemer jeg ønsker at spørge Mark om. For eksempel er jeg ikke helt sikker på, om jeg kan bruge mine eksisterende tekstbehandling- og virusprogram-licenser på tabletten, eller om jeg må betale endnu flere penge. Pokkers!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio og at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det tredje episode af en ny dokumentumserie, der handler om floden Thames. Programmets vært er den charmerende Tony Robinson.

Et interessant program, og Lois og jeg lærer en masse, vi ikke vidste før.

Vi ser en århundreder-gamle urtehave (”Physic Garden”) ved siden af floden. Det lader til, at i århundreder troede folk, at dårlig lugter spredte sygdomme, så i 1500-tallet for eksempel plejede de at medbringe små poser med marjoram og timian, hvor som helst de gik, for at beskytte sig fra bakterier osv. Sikke et vanvid!!!

Men lægerne også troede dengang denne myte – og når de behandlede patienter, bar de masker med lange næser, propfyldt med urter – du godeste, rent vanvid!!!

Denne urtehave var en af de første til at bruge drivhuse, og de dyrkede mange forskellige tropiske planter og træer, som de for eksempel kunne udvinde kinin af. Kinin startede med at blive et lægemiddel til malaria, men det har en meget bitter smag, for at sige mildt.

I de to verdenskrige blev britiske soldater i Indien og Sydøstasien behandlet med kinin, blandet med sodavand, sukker og et par dråber gin, for at opmuntre dem til  at drikke den. Man tror, at den her var oprindelsen af min yndlingsdrik, gin og tonic.

I de gode gamle dage, før knapper blev opfundet, plejede folk at faste sine tøj med nåle. Og vi ser Tony, programmets charmerende vært, sammen med amatørarkæologen Nicola White, samle hundredvis af disse nåle på flodens forstrand – mange af nålene blev tabet af de dusinvis af prostituerede, der arbejdede i de mange bordeller, som engang var åbne til forretning i området.

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

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!