Torsdag den 27. april 2017 kl 16:30 fredag den 28. april 2017 kl 16:29

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn og lytte til radio, et interessant program, der handler om forholdet mellem poesie og pensionering. Programmets vært er den dystre 74-årige skotske digter, Douglas Dunn.

Sjovt spørgsmål: går de fleste digtere på pension? Dunn minder os om, at Rimbaud, den teenårige franske digter, opgav poesie på 21 år, og blev en rejsende forretningsmand – du godeste, sikke en ændring af tempoet – yikes!!!!!

Douglas Dunn har ikke bare været en digter – han blev for det meste i et rigtigt job, indtil han gik på pension på 65 år. Da hun var yngre, arbejdede han i Hull Universitets bibliotek, og Philip Larkin, den berømte digter, var Dunns chef. Tænk, at Larkin var hans chef – du godeste! Jeg elsker Larkins digte, men som chef ville han have været et komplet mareridt – ingen tvivl om det!!!

Det værste ville have været den årlige samtale med chefen, som danskerne kalder en MUS (medarbejderudviklingssamtalen). Uden tvivl må den have været noget, der bare skulle overstås. En samtale ”under fire øjne” (som danskerne siger), eller i Larkins tilfælde, en samtale ”under 6 øjne”, i betragtning af Larkins skræmmende briller!!!!

en typisk årlig samtale med en chef, ikke Philip Larkin

i dette tilfælde – hænderne er for bløde, selvom Larkin

var kendt for sin brug af Dove.

Både Larkin og Dunn hører til de slags mennesker, der kan klassificeres som ”dystre”, og Dunns årlige samtaler må have været smertefulde at være vidne til. Hvis begge parter er dystre, er det hele helt sikkert noget, der bare skulle overstås. I sammeligning med Dunns samtale, ville Keiths session med David Brent i ”The Office”, dokumentaren om moderne arbejdspladser, have været mindre pinlig: det var Keith, der skrev ”regnskaber” som sin største styrke og ”eksem” som sin største svaghed, på samtalens forberedelsesmaterialer – du godeste, sikke et vanvid.   

Keiths ”pinlige” årlige samtale med hans chef, David Brent

Vi hører lidt om, hvad Dunn kan huske om Larkin. Det er rart at høre, at Larkin, som mig, syntes, at Katy i Susan Coolidge’s ”Hvad Katy Did” skrev verdens bedste dagbognotat nogensinde, da hun skrev ”Glemte, hvad jeg gjorde” i sin dagbog. Men i en ældre persons dagbog kunne dette udtryk kunne blive til en indrømmelse af senilitet  – det ved jeg med sikkerhed. Måske ville det være noget, som en kvalificeret læge bør dukke ned i, når det sker?

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!

04:15 Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet.

07:45 Jeg lunter ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op i soveværelset og hopper op i sengen til Lois. Vi drikker téen og står op. Vi spiser morgenmad.

09:00 Vi kører over til Bishops Cleeve, en lille by, der ligger lidt nord for Cheltenham. Vi kigger ind i den lokale isenkræmforretning for at købe en sjat mellemstrygning, pensler og terpentin, så jeg kan blive færdig med at male den nye poststolpe, som Bob, vores nabo, i går installerede.

På vej hjem smutter vi ind i Waghornes, den lokale slagterforretning, og købe brød, kød og ost. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en gigantisk eftermiddagslur – zzzzzzz!!!!

15:00 Jeg står op og kigge lidt på nettet. Jeg ser, at Alison, vores datter i København, har oplagt et charmerende billede af den 10-årige Josie, sin ældste barn, på Instagram. Josie går højt op i rugby for tiden. Hvor ser hun dog sej ud !!!!

Josie, vores 10-årige barnebarn i København.

Hvor ser hun dog sej ud!!!!

Jeg kigger igen på flyselskaberwebsteder for at tænke på vores optioner, når vi flyver til Australien i marts. Qantas tilbyder en nonstop direkte flyvetur, der varer 15-18 timer. Flyet afgår fra Heathrow lufthavn kl 13: 30 med ankomst i Perth kl 13:15 den følgende dag. Men 15-18 timer er lang tid at sidde på et fly.

Man kan også flyve fra Birmingham, hvilket er venligere, men det tager længere (20 timer) og man har besværet med at skifte fly i Dubai osv. Du godeste! Beslutninger, beslutninger – hvad er svaret???!!!!!

16:00 Jeg kigger på www.theonion.com, den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedswebsted. Jeg ser en betryggende og hjertevarmende nyhed, der handler om de tusendvis af kanadiske progrockere, der nu er for gamle og svage til at blive stående under deres 19-minutters introer, eller huske teksten af deres gamle sange fra fortiden. Omsider har nogen besluttet at forbarme sig over dem, og den kanadiske regering har givet et tilsagn om at betale for deres sundhedspleje. Ros til landets premierminister, Justin Trudeau. Hil dig, Justin - du holdt os ud af krigen!!!

English translation

18:00 We eat dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television and listening to the radio, and we hear an interesting program dealing with the relationship between poetry and retirement. The host of the program is the dour 74-year-old Scottish poet Douglas Dunn.

Fun question: do most poets retire? Dunn reminds us that Rimbaud, the teenage French poet, gave up poetry at the age of 21, and became a travelling businessman - my god, what a change of pace - yikes !!!!!

Douglas Dunn has not just been a poet - he mostly held down a proper job until he retired at 65. When he was younger, he worked in Hull University Library, and Philip Larkin, the famous poet, was Dunn’s boss. Imagine, Larkin was his boss - good grief! I love Larkin's poems, but as a boss he would have been a complete nightmare - no doubt about it !!!

The worst thing would have been the annual appraisal interview with the manager, which the Danes call an MUS (medarbejderudviklingssamtale - yikes!!!). Without a doubt, it must have been something that just had to be got through. A conversation "under four eyes", as the Danes say, or in Larkin's case, a conversation "under 6 eyes", in view of Larkin's scary glasses !!!!

A typical annual appraisal interview with a boss, not Philip Larkin

in this case - the hands are too soft, even though Larkin

was known for his use of Dove.

Both Larkin and Dunn belong to the kind of people who can be classified as "dour" and Dunn's annual appraisal interviews must have been painful to witness. If both parties are dour, the whole interview is definitely something only to be got over with.

In comparison to Dunn's interview, Keith's session with David Brent in "The Office", the documentary about modern workplaces, could be seen as having been less embarrassing: it was Keith who wrote "accounts" down as his greatest strength and "eczema" as his greatest weakness, on the interview preparation form - good grief, what madness.

Keith's embarrassing annual appraisal interview with his boss, David Brent

We hear a little about what Dunn can remember about Larkin. It's nice to hear that Larkin, like me, thought Katy in Susan Coolidge's "What Katy Did" wrote the world's best diary entry ever, when she wrote "Forgot What Did" in her diary. But in the case of an elderly person's diary, this expression could become an admission of senility - I know that for sure. Maybe that would be something that a qualified doctor should delve into, when it happens?

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

04:15 I get up early and take a little look online.

07:45 I amble into the kitchen and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and hop into bed with Lois. We drink the tea and get up. We eat breakfast.

09:00 We drive over to Bishops Cleeve, a small town located a little north of Cheltenham. We look into the local hardware store to buy a drop of undercoat, brushes and turpentine, so I can finish painting the new gate post which Bob, our neighbour, installed yesterday.

On our way home, we pop into Waghorne's, the local butcher's shop, and buy bread, meat and cheese. We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

12:30 We eat lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap - zzzzzzz !!!!

15:00 I get up and take a little look at the web. I see that Alison, our daughter in Copenhagen, has posted a charming picture of 10-year-old Josie, her eldest child, up on Instagram. Josie is very into rugby at the moment. How cool she looks!

Josie, our 10 year old granddaughter in Copenhagen.

How cool she looks!

I look again at airline websites to think about our options when we fly to Australia in March. Qantas offers a nonstop direct flight, lasting 15-18 hours. The flight departs Heathrow Airport at 13:30 with arrival in Perth at 13:15 the following day. But 15-18 hours is a long time to sit on a plane.

One can also fly from Birmingham, which is friendlier, but it takes longer (20 hours) and you have the hassle of changing flights in Dubai, etc. Good grief! Decisions, decisions - what's the answer ??? !!!!!

16:00 I take a look at www.theonion.com, the influential American news site. I see a reassuring and heartwarming news item about the thousands of Canadian progrockers who are now too old and weak to stay standing during their 19-minute intros, or to remember the lyrics of their old songs from the past. At long last someone has decided to take pity on them, and the Canadian government has committed to paying for their health care. Hats off to the country's prime minister, Justin Trudeau. 

Hail to thee, Justin - you kept us out of the war!

Onsdag den 26. april 2017 kl 16:30 torsdag den 27. april 2017 kl 16:29

18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad og derefter skal Lois af sted. Hun ønsker at deltage i en bibelklasse, der finder sted i aften i hendes kirke i Tewkesbury. Alf, vores ven, skal køre hende derover – hun er ikke tilladt at køre bil for tiden på grund af grå stær.

19:30 Jeg har lidt alenetid, og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio, et interessant program, der handler om den 73-årige digterinden, Diana Hendry, og hendes tanker om glæden ved alderdom osv.

Diana har skrevet et nyt digt om glæden af alderdom, inspireret af en strofe i Philip Larkins digt ”De gamle fjolser”, hvor den 52-årige Larkin spekulerede om de ældre mennesker, han så omkring sig. Hans reflektioner var for det meste ikke ret venlige eller gunstige – du godeste, det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om !!!

Men i den 3. og 4. strofer tænker Larkin på, hvorfor ældre mennesker nogle gange er så fraværende og så ofte ”går i hi” i 2-3 minutter. Larkin spekulerer om, at gamle mennesker har ”belystede rum” inde i hovedet, hvor venner eller slægtninge fra deres fortid, den ene efter den anden, kommer ind i et par minutter, ligesom en skuespiller kommer på scenen, gøre noget eller andet, og så forlader scenen (måske forfulgt af en bjørn, men sandsynligvis ikke!!!!). 

Diana har skrevet et digt, hvor hun lister dem, der kommer ind i sine ”belystede rum”: for eksempel, sine børn, da de var små, en ven, hun ikke i årevis havde set, sin svigerbror, der i fjor døde, en pige, hun kendte på skolen osv. Det er en af glæderne ved at være gammel, siger hun, at man kan nyde både nutiden og fortiden. Og hun glæder sig til at kunne selv måske komme på scene i andres "belysede rum" nu og da.

Det giver jeg Diana ret i  - det er én af glæderne ved at være gammel, at kunne mindes og tænke på mennesker og steder fra vores fortid. For mit vedkommende har jeg desværre også en masse pinlige minder, som jeg kommer i tanke om – pinlige minder af, dumme ting jeg har sagt eller gjort, og jo mere man bliver gammel, jo mere pinlige oplevelser der er, at fortræde - pokkers!

I min erfaring er der kun én måde, at gøre disse pinlige minder til at gå væk på, og det er at fremsige halvhøjt ud i luften så mange eder og forbandelser som jeg kender – det er som om, jeg lider af Tourettes syndrom, men det virker sindssygt godt– det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!! Sikke et vanvid!!!!!

22:00 Lois kommer hjem og jeg går i seng. Men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare lidt ned efter aftenens stimulerende bibelklasse, og hun ser lidt fjernsyn.

23:00 Hun vækker mig ikke, da hun kryber under sengen til mig – zzzzzzz!!!!

04:00 Jeg står tidligt op og laver én af mine rutinemæssige danske ordforrådtest.

08:00 Jeg lunter ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op i soveværelset og hopper op i sengen til Lois. Vi drikker téen og går i bad. Vi står op og spiser morgenmad.

10:30 Vi går ud i baghaven og luger lidt mellem frugtbuskene. Vi er nu næsten færdig med at gøre hele området ukrudtsfri – hurra!

12:00 Vejrpigen siger, at det kommer til at regne senere på eftermiddagen. Jeg skynder mig ud i forhaven og maler den nye poststolpe, som Bob, vores nabo, i går installerede, med en sjat grundmaling. Den gamle poststolpe var rådden.

                                                                                                                    

derfor har jeg tjent mit gode navn som

mestermaler – ingen tvivl om det!!!!

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!!

15:00 Jeg står op. Både Sarah, vores datter i Australien, og Francis, Sarahs mand, har sendt mig beskeder i dag om de første nonstop flyveture mellem England og Australien, der starter den 24. marts mellem London og Perth, ifølge i dags meddelelse af Quantas/Emirates. Lois og jeg vil måtte begynde at kigge på vores optioner nu!

Vi bliver nødt til at planlægge vores næste besøg mere alvorligt, end det forrige. Problemet er, at Sarah arbejder fem dage om ugen, og måske i marts vil Francis også være udarbejdende, og derudover vil tvillingerne gå mindst 2 dage om ugen, måske mere, i vuggestuen startende fra næste januar.

Det er helt sandsynligt, at Lois og jeg bliver nødt for det meste til at underholde os selv i hverdagen, og vi har allerede set de fleste af byen Perths seværdigheder – du godeste! I weekenderne vil vi få det sjovt alle sammen, ingen tvivl om det. Men i hverdagen er det lidt dumt at rejse til den anden ende af verden for at tilbruge dagene på caféer, i biografer og i indkøbscentre – du godeste !!!!! Hvad er svaret?

15:30 Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te og en stykke brød med hjemmelavet marmelade – nam nam!

16:00 Jeg kigger lidt på nettet, og på www.theonion.com, den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedswebsted. Jeg ser en betryggende og hjertevarmende nyhed, der handler om en meddelelse i dag af USAs gadefejrere og sanitetsarbejdere, at hele landet nu efter mange års arbejde endelig er fulstændigt rent. Arbejdernes repræsentanter, i en presskonference, bad offentligheden om at prøve nu og fremover meget ihærdigt at holde landet rent til evig tid.

Sanitetsarbejdere annoncerer, 

at USA er nu pletfri – hurra!

Der er en smal gyde, der ligger ikke ret langt fra vores hus. Lois og jeg går ned ad denne gyde mange gange om ugen, og vi har for vane at opsamle affald, som folk har smidt. Vi mærker, at hvis gyden er rent og affaldsfri, har folk mindre tendens til at smide mere.

Det er hårdt arbejde – ingen tvivl om det, så vi sympatiserer med de amerikanske gadefejere og sanitetsarbejdere: de må have arbejdet sokkerne af, for at opnå dette resultet! Ros til dem, siger Lois og jeg. Og vi håber sandelig på, at den amerikanske offentlighed ikke fucker landet op igen – det ved vi med sikkerhed!!!!

English translation

18:00 Lois and I eat dinner and then Lois has to leave. She wants to attend a Bible class taking place tonight at her church in Tewkesbury. Alf, our friend, is going to drive her over - she is not allowed to drive a car at the moment due to cataracts.

19:30 I have a little alone time and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio, an interesting program about the 73-year-old poet Diana Hendry, and her thoughts about the joys of old age, etc.

Diana has written a new poem about the joys of old age, inspired by a verse in Philip Larkin's poem "The Old Fools", where the 52-year-old Larkin speculated about the older people he saw around him. His reflections were mostly not that friendly or favourable - my God, that's something I have no doubts about !!!

But in the 3rd and 4th verses, Larkin thinks about why older people are sometimes so distant and so often seem to "hibernate" for 2-3 minutes. Larkin wonders whether old people have "lighted rooms" inside their heads where friends or relatives from their past, one after another, come in for a couple of minutes, just like an actor comes on stage, does something or other, and then exits (perhaps pursued by a bear, but probably not !!!!).

Diana has written a poem where she lists those who come into her "lighted rooms": for example, her children when they were small, a friend she had not seen for years, her brother-in-law who died last year, a girl she knew at school etc. It is one of the joys of being old, she says, that you can enjoy both the present and the past. And she looks forward to maybe being able to appear herself in other people's "lighted rooms" now and then.

I agree with Diana about all that - it's one of the joys of being old, to recall and think about people and places from our past. Unfortunately, in my case I also have a lot of embarrassing memories that come into my mind - embarrassing memories of stupid things I have said or done, and the more you grow old, the more embarrassing experiences there are to regret - damn!

In my experience, there is only one way to make these embarrassing memories go away, and that’s to recite under my breath as many oaths and curses as I know - it is as if I am suffering from Tourette's syndrome, but it works amazingly well - that's something I know for sure !!!! What madness !!!!!

22:00 Lois comes home and I go to bed. But Lois needs to relax and wind down a little after the evening's stimulating Bible class, so she watches a little television.

23:00 She does not wake me up when she creeps under the covers with me - zzzzzzz !!!!

04:00 I get up early and do one of my routine Danish vocabulary tests.

08:00 I amble into the kitchen and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and jump into bed with Lois. We drink the tea and go in the shower. We get up and have breakfast.

10:30 We go into the backyard and weed a little between the fruit bushes. We are now almost finished making the whole area weed-free - hurrah!

12:00 The weather girl says it's going to rain later in the afternoon. I hurry into the front yard and paint the new gate post that Bob, our neighbour, installed yesterday, with a drop of primer. The old gate-post was rotten.

this is why I have earned my good name as

master painter - no doubt about it !!!!

13:00 We eat lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take an afternoon nap - zzzzzz !!!!

15:00 I get up. Both Sarah, our daughter in Australia, and Francis, Sarah's husband, have sent me messages today about the first nonstop flight between England and Australia, starting on March 24 between London and Perth, according to today's announcement by Quantas / Emirates. Lois and I will have to start looking at our options now!

We will have to plan our next visit more seriously than the previous one. The problem is that Sarah works five days a week, and maybe in March, Francis will also be going out to work, and in addition, the twins will go to the kindergarten at least 2 days a week, maybe more, starting from next January.

It's quite likely that Lois and I will have to mostly entertain ourselves in the week, and we've already seen most of Perth's sights - my God! At the weekends we will have fun all together, no doubt about it. But during the week it's a little stupid to travel to the other end of the world to spend days in cafes, cinemas and shopping malls - good grief !!!!! What is the answer?

15:30 Lois and I relax with a cup of tea and a piece of bread with homemade jam - yum yum!

16:00 I look a little online, and at www.theonion.com, the influential American news site. I see a reassuring and heartwarming news item about an announcement today by US street-cleaners and sanitation workers, that after many years of work, the entire country is finally completely clean. The workers' representatives, in a press conference, asked the public to try and keep the country clean forever and ever, from now on.

Sanitation workers announce

that the USA is now spotless - hurrah!

There is a narrow alley that is not very far from our house. Lois and I go down this alley many times a week and we have a habit of picking up litter that people have thrown down. We find that if the the alley is clean and litter-free, people have less tendency to throw more down.

It's hard work - no doubt about that, so we sympathise with US street cleaners and sanitation workers: they must have worked their socks off to achieve this result! Hats off to them, Lois and I say. And we truly hope that the American public does not fuck the country up again - that's one thing we know for sure !!!!

Tirsdag den 25. april 2017 kl 16:30 onsdag den 26. april 2017 kl 16:29

17:30 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad lidt tidligere, end normalt, og bagefter skal vi af sted. Lois ønsker at deltage i en bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek, og hun er ikke tilladt at køre bil for tiden på grund af grå stær – hendes aftale med hospitalets specialist er bestemt til den 31. maj.

Jeg kører hende over til Mari-Ann og Alfs hus i Hatherley og sætter hende af foran huset. De skal køre hende over til Brockworth.

På vej hjem kan jeg ikke modstå fristelsen at køre forbi vores datter Sarahs gamle hus i Leckhampton. Sarah og Francis, hendes mand, og deres små tvillinger, flyttede for 16 mdr siden til Australien – Lois og jeg besøgte dem i 3 mdr sidste år, og vi planlægger at besøge dem en anden gang, måske i marts 2018.

tilbageblik til marts 2015. En flyttevogn

tager Sarah og Francis’s møbler væk og transporterer dem

til Australien – uha, hulk, hulk!!!!

Vi talte i søndags med Sarah og Francis på Skype. Jeg mærker, at Sarah oprindeligt ville have os til at besøge dem i oktober (2017), men Francis foretrækker, at vi venter til marts (2018). Han præsenterede denne idé (marts) som ”bedre set ud fra Lois’s og min perspektiv”, men jeg mærker, at det vigtigste er, at det snarere er bedre fra hans perspektiv!!! Det har han tendens til at gøre, synes jeg!!! Du godeste! Men det er sandt, at de ekstra 6 måneder kan give os chancen for at få renoveret vores gamle køkken, så er det ikke helt dårlige nyheder.

19:00 Jeg kommer hjem igen og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Jeg ser en interessant dokumentarfilm (2. del af 2), der handler om universets ende. Det første del handlede om universets fødsel. Jeg optog de to dele for 4 uger siden på vores spritny Plusnet tv-enhed, men jeg beslutter at se denne anden del først, hvilket synes lidt underligt: for det første, universets ende, og senere universets fødsel, men det har jeg min egne gode grunde for! Programmets vært er den charmerende teoretiske fysiker, Jim Al-Khalilli (sindsygt navn, sindsyg fyr!!!!).

Jeg kan mægtig godt lide at se programmer, der handler om universets ende, fordi jeg vil gerne finde ud af, om David Gates virkelig havde ret, da han skrev sin berømte sang, ”If”, med dens rørende klimaks: ”Én efter én, ville stjernerne alle gå ud (så ville du og jeg vil simpelthen flyve væk osv)”.

David fortolker sin sang, ”If”

i England, på Roger Whittaker Show

Før i tiden kunne jeg godt lide idéen, at universet ville en dag holde op med at udvide sig (gradvist decelererende på grund af al det mørke stof og dets tyngdekraft) og ville kollapse tilbage igen i et Big Crunch. Og jeg formodede, at Big-Crunchet kunne blive fulgt af endnu ét Big Bang, så vi ville have Big-Bang, Big-Crunch, Big-Bang, Big-Crunch osv i én uendelighed: det kunne være, at vores nuværende univers allerede var version nummer 189028399.0 eller mere, for eksempel, tænkte jeg  – du godeste!!!!

Men desværre er denne idé (Big-Crunchet) nu blevet droppet, fordi universet faktisk udvider sig hastigere og hastigere på grund af universets ”mørke energi”, som ingen virkelig forstår. Pokkers!!!

For tiden kan vi allerede se kun én lille del af universet, fordi universet er kun 14 millioner år gammelt og lyset fra fjernere galakser ikke har haft tid til at nå til os. Men hvis universet fortsætter med at udvide sig hastigere og hastigere, formoder jeg, at der vil være færre og færre stjerner og galakser, som vi kan se – pokkers (igen)!!!

For tiden lader det til, at David Gates havde ret, og stjernene faktisk vil alle uden tvivl gå ud, når hele universets helium er bleve forbrugt. Hvor var han dog klog, den David Gates! Er det for tidligt at starte en kult med Gates som det centrale element? Eller er det bedre at vente til han er død???? Det er jeg ikke helt sikker på!!!!

21:30 Lois kommer hjem igen – Mari-Ann og Alf sætter hende af foran huset. Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en morsomt program (3. del af 6), der handler om Victoria Wood, den afdøde stand-up komiker.

Det er meget rart at mindes om den afdøde Victoria Woods brilliant karriere som stand-up komiker og hendes forfriskende syn på sex og parforhold. Hun syntes, at sex var for stressende – til sidst vil myndighederne blive tvunget til at fase det hele ud, sagde hun, så det bliver noget vi ser på i fjernsynet, men som vi ikke længere prøver, som for eksempel at lave en banan-

souffle.   

22:00 Jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare lidt ned efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar. Jeg anbefaler, at hun ser et gamle afsnit af The Man From Uncle,  med David McCallum, som hun sværmede for, da hun var teenager.

23:00 Lois vækker mig ikke, da hun kryber tilbage under dynen til mig. Zzzzzzzz!!!!

04:45 Jeg står tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet.

07:45 Jeg lunter ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op i soveværelset og hopper op i sengen til Lois. Vi drikker téen og står op. Vi spiser morgenmad.

10:00 Bob, vores nabo, smutter ind hos os. Han går i gang med at reparere vores havelåge, og vinduet i vores ældste datter, Alisons gamle værelse, hvor vi har et mistænkte fugtproblem.

10:30 Scillas U3A oldnorsk gruppe holder dens regelmæssige møde i eftermiddag. Jeg blader igennem den 6. og 7. kapitler af ”Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu”, en saga på oldnorsk, der blev skrevet sidst i 13. århundrede, men udspiller sig under regeringstid af den engelske konge Ethelred II den Rådvilde (968-1016).

 12:00 Lois og jeg spiser frokost, og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage mig en kort eftermiddagslur – zzzzzz!!!

13:30 Jeg kører ind i byen og den parkeringsplads, der ligger lige bag byens bibliotek. Scillas møde starter kl 14 i bibliotekets ”afslappede” område, og i dag er vi 4 i alt: Scilla, Joy, Kath og mig.

Det er meget sjovt at læse om Gunnlaug, den hidsige 18-årige islandske skjald, der har forladt, Helga, sin smukke forlovede, i Island og er sejlet til det nordvestlige Europa for at finde ud af, hvordan folk i andre lande lever.

Gunnlaug besøger Ethelred II, den engelske konge, og der er straks god kemi mellem de to mænd.

Mens Gunnlaug er i London, udfordrer han Thororm, en aggressiv lokal sørøver, til en duel. Da

Ethelred hører om denne kommende duel, forærer han Gunnlaug  et ”specielt” sværd, men Ethelred fraråder ham at vise Thororm dette specielle sværd før duellen.

Sørøveren har kun et almindeligt sværd ha ha ha! For det meste, når det kommer til en duel mellem en sørøver og en digter, ville man vædde på sørøveren, men i dette tilfælde bliver kongens specielle sværd til Gunnlaugs hemmelige våben, lader det til! Du godeste! Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

16:00 Gruppens møde slutter, og jeg kører hjem. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.

English translation

17:30 Lois and I eat dinner a bit earlier than usual and then go out. Lois wants to attend a Bible Seminar taking place this evening in Brockworth library, and she is not allowed to drive a car at the moment due to cataracts - her appointment with the hospital specialist is scheduled for May 31st.

I drive her over to Mari-Ann and Alf's house in Hatherley and drop her off in front of the house. They will drive her over to Brockworth.

On my way home, I cannot resist the temptation to drive past our daughter Sarah's old house in Leckhampton. Sarah and Francis, her husband and their little twins, moved to Australia 16 months ago - Lois and I visited them for 3 months last year and we plan to visit them a second time, maybe in March 2018.

flashback to March 2015. A moving van

takes away Sarah and Francis's furniture and transports it

to Australia - oh dear, sob, sob!!!!

We spoke on Sunday with Sarah and Francis on Skype. I feel that Sarah originally wanted us to visit them in October (2017), but Francis prefers us to wait until March (2018). He presented this idea (March) as "better from Lois's and my perspective", but I find that the most important thing for him is that it is better from his perspective !!! He has a tendency to do that, I think !!! My God! But it is true that the extra 6 months could give us the chance to get our old kitchen renovated, so it's not all bad news.

19:00 I come home again and spend the evening watching television. I see an interesting documentary film (2nd part of 2) that deals with the end of the universe. The first part was about the birth of the universe. I recorded the two parts 4 weeks ago on our brand new Plusnet TV device, but I decide to see this second part first, which seems a bit strange: first, the end of the universe, and later the birth of the universe, but I have my own good reasons for that! The host of the program is the charming theoretical physicist, Jim Al-Khalilli (crazy name, crazy guy !!!!).

I really like watching programs about the end of the universe because I want to find out if David Gates was actually right when he wrote his famous song, "If", with its touching climax: "One by one , the stars would all go out (then you and I would simply fly away, etc) ".

David performs his song, "If"

in England, live on the Roger Whittaker show

In the past, I liked the idea that the universe would one day stop expanding (gradually decelerating because of all the dark matter and its gravity) and would collapse back in a Big Crunch. And I assumed that Big Crunch could be followed by another Big Bang, so we would have Big Bang, Big Crunch, Big Bang, Big Crunch, etc. endlessly: it might be that our current universe was already version number 189028399.0 or more, for example, I thought - my God !!!!

But unfortunately, this idea (the Big Crunch) has now been dropped because the universe is actually expanding faster and faster because of the "dark energy" of the universe, which nobody really understands. Damn !!!

Currently, we can see only one small part of the universe because the universe is only 14 million years old and the light from distant galaxies has not had time to reach us. But if the universe continues to expand faster and faster, I suppose there will be fewer and fewer stars and galaxies that we can see - damn (again) !!!

At the moment, David Gates appears to be right, and the stars certainly will all go out when the whole the universe's helium has been consumed. How wise he was, that David Gates! Is it too early to start a cult with Gates as the key element? Or is it better to wait till he is dead ???? I'm not entirely sure !!!!

21:30 Lois comes back home - Mari-Ann and Alf drop her off in front of the house. We carry on watching television. A fun program is on (3rd part of 6) all about Victoria Wood, the late stand-up comedian.

It is very nice to recall the late Victoria Woods brilliant career as a stand-up comedian and her refreshing views on sex and relationships.

In a nutshell she thought that sex was far too stressful - in the end, the authorities would be forced to phase it out completely, she said, so it becomes something we watch on television, but no longer care to attempt, like making a banana souffle .

22:00 I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and wind down a little bit after the evening's stimulating Bible seminar. I recommend that she see an old episode of The Man From Uncle, with David McCallum, whom she fancied when she was a teenager.

23:00 Lois does not wake me up as she crawls back under the covers with me. Zzzzzzzz !!!!

04:45 I get up early and take a little look online.

07:45 I amble into the kitchen and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and hop into bed with Lois. We drink the tea and get up. We eat breakfast.

10:00 Bob, our neighbor, pops in to see us. He goes ahead with repairing our garden gate and the window in our oldest daughter, Alison's old room, where we have a suspected damp problem.

10:30 Scilla's U3A Old Norse group is holding its regular meeting this afternoon. I browse through the 6th and 7th chapters of "Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu", a saga in Old Norse, written in the late 13th century, but set in the reign of the English king Ethelred II, the Unready (968-1016).

12:00 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap - zzzzzz !!!

13:30 I drive into town and the parking lot right behind the town's library. Scilla's meeting starts at 2pm in the library's "relaxed" area, and today there are 4 of us in total: Scilla, Joy, Kath and me.

It is a lot of fun to read about Gunnlaug, the fiery 18-year-old Icelandic bard, who has left Helga, his beautiful fiancee, in Iceland, and sailed to northwestern Europe to find out how people in other countries live.

Gunnlaug visits Ethelred II, the English king, and immediately there is good chemistry between the two men .

While Gunnlaug is in London, he challenges Thororm, an aggressive local pirate, to a duel. When Ethelred hears about this upcoming duel, he gives Gunnlaug a "special" sword, but Ethelred advises him not to show Thororm this special sword before the duel.

The pirate only has a regular sword ha ha ha! Usually when it comes to a duel between a pirate and a poet, one would bet on the pirate, but in this case the king's special sword becomes Gunnlaug's secret weapon! My Goodness! Gunnlaug kills him. What a crazy world we live in !!!!

16:00 The group's meeting ends and I drive home. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch.

Mandag den 24. april 2017 kl 16:30 tirsdag den 25. april 2017 kl 16:29

17:00 Lois og jeg kigger lidt på nettet og vi ser, at Josie, vores 10-årige barnebarn i København, har sendt os et charmerende billede af de tre børnebørn i færd med at designe små figurer på spisebordet, ved hjælp af de kunstværksmaterialer, der blev tilført gratis med de tidsskrifter, vi sendte dem.

vores 3 børnebørn i København:

Josie (10), Isaac (6) og Rosalind (8)

Det er meget dyrt, men det er også én af de store nydelser af vores liv, som et par gamle krager, at kunne købe disse slags tidsskrifter og sende dem af til vores 5 børnebørn i Danmark og Australien, og tilføre dem dermed en forbindelse til ”det gamle land”.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad. Jeg føler mig lidt slået ud efter min oplevelse hos tandlægen tidligere på dagen. Lois har lavet et pragtfuldt, men ganske ”blødt” måltid, så jeg ikke behøver at bide for hårdt – du godeste!

19:30 Jeg tilbringer aftenen foran computeren. Jeg er medlem af Scillas U3A oldnorske gruppe, og Scilla er ikke ret god til at organisere masserne af papir, hun uddeler  til medlemmer – det må jeg indrømme!  Jeg få det hele i orden på computeren ved at samkøre halvsider med halvsider osv.

Gruppens seneste projekt er ”Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu”, der blev skrevet sidst i 13. århundrede, men udspiller sig under regeringstid af den engelske konge Ethelred II den Rådvilde (968-1016),

Jeg læser til enden af kapitel 7 og oversætter til engelsk, og skriver notater i min notesbog. Gunnlaug, en 18-årig islandisk skjald, har forladt, Helga, sin smukke forlovede, i Island og sejler til det nordvestlige Europa for at finde ud af, hvordan folk i andre lande lever.

Gunnlaug forlader Helga, sin smukke forlovede, i Island,

og rejser til udlandet for at finde ud af, hvordan folk i andre lande lever.

Han rejser først til Norge, og så til England, hvor han mødes med kong Ethelred og dræber Thororm, en aggressiv sørøver i en duel ved hjælp af kongens ”specielle” sværd.  Sørøveren har kun et almindeligt sværd ha ha ha!

De to sprog, oldnorsk (oldislandsk) og engelsk (angelsaksisk) var dengang så lignende, at folk af de to lande kunne forstå hinanden uden besvær. Derfor kan Gunnlaug komponere og fremsige sine digte foran Ethelred, hvilket for mit vedkommende er lidt af en skam.

Digtene i sagaen er de sværste dele af teksten, når det kommer til at oversætte til engelsk. Når jeg læser kapitler, bønfalder jeg konstant Gunnlaug om ikke at fremsige endnu et digt, men desværre ignorerer han mig og går i gang med det, når som helst han har lyst til det – pokkers! Slem Gunnlaug!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!!

04:00 Jeg står tidligt op og lytter lidt til radioen, et interessant program, der først blev sendt sidst i går aftes, og som handler om forfatterer (især digtere) og alderdom. Programmets vært er den charemerende 74-årige digter, Vicki Feaver.

Hun siger, at ældre mennesker, set ud fra de fleste folks synspunkt, altid er lidt af et problem, især når det kommer til deres brug for helbredspleje osv (du godeste!), mens tværtimod kan digtere, der har tendens til at beskrive ældre mennesker, og  se på dem som individuelle personer, der kunne have levet interessante liv.

Udover digtere, har børn også tendens til at interessere sig for ældre mennesker, nogle gange ud af, nogle gange ud af kærlighed (hvis det drejer sig om bedsteforældre), og nogle gange ud af nysgerrighed.

Digteren Vicki Feaver (til højre)

Da Vicki var skolelærer, plejded hun at bede sine elever om at skrive digte om deres bedsteforældre eller ældre slægtninge/venner, og hun gav dem Norman Mackaigs digt ”Tante Julia” som et eksempel. Som barn plejede Maccaig at besøge sin tante på den skotske ø Harris. Digtet har et typisk barns klarsyn, siger hun.

Et andet eksempel var William Carlos Williams digt, ”Sidste ord af min engelske bedstemor”. Den unge digter hjælper sin bedstemor til at tage på hospitalet og ledsager hende i ambulansen. På vej kigger hun på vejtræer – det viser sig, at hun nu er godt træt af træer. Jeg kender følelsen, men det lyder lidt barsk som sidste ord, synes jeg!!!!

Andre eksempler:  ”Min bedstemor” af Elizabeth Jennings, også ”Bedstefar” af Derek Mahon.

 

Elizabeth Jennings bedstemor drev en antikvitetsbutik

Derek Mahons bedstefar arbejdede i Belfasts skibsværfter.

Ligesom mig var han en morgenmenneske, men jeg foretrækker

at lære fremmede sprog frem for at dyrke lidt tømrerarbejde ha ha ha

Det er lidt anderledes, hvis man skriver fra den ældre persons synspunkt. Det ligner at være en krigskorrespondent: nogle gange er der sejre, og nyheden er god. Andre gange er den ikke ret god - yikes!!!!

Thomas Hardy skrev mange digte til sin langdøde første kone. Men Vicki synes, at Hardys ”Når jeg kigger i mit spejl” er det mest trøstesløste.

Stakkels Hardy!!! Selvom han skrev digtet sidst i 50’erne, og han var 88, da han døde (i 1928). Kom så, op med humøret, Hardy!!!!

Vicki Feaver har fundet ud af, at alderdom faktisk er til fordel for os. Da hun var yngre, så hun sit liv som en stribe fejl og forkerte valg, men nu i alderdom ser hun det som en krønike af overlevelse.

I sit digt "Gammel kvinde i en forsythia busk",  sad Vicki i en forsythia busk og kiggede på unge lam springende som balletdansere, og mindedes dengang hun var ung, og en usynlig dukkefører lod hende dingle, udfordrende hende til at smide bh’en og undertrøjen for at fejre foråret.

Nu, hvor hun er gammel, kan hun være tilfreds med, at dukkeføreren har slæbt hende gennem de lange gange af endnu en vinter, så hun kan sidde mellem buskene i solskinnen. En sand krønike af overlevelse.

Kom så, Vicki, du er en af livets vindere - ingen tvivl om det!!!! Men måske ville det være bedre at holde bh'en på - og husk det gamle udtryk: skift ikke klud, før maj går ud!

08:00 Jeg drøner ind i køkkenet og laver to kopper te. Jeg tager dem med op i soveværelset og kryber tilbage under dynen til Lois. Vi drikker téen og går i bad. Vi står op og spiser morgenmad.

10:00 Min ven, ”Magyar” Mike, komme, og vi lærer ungarsk i en time. Lærebogen vi bruger i år er lidt gammeldags og morsomt også. Den blev skrevet i 1960’erne under kommunismen, da ”mænd var mænd og kvinder var kvinder”.  Da de tre kvindelige studerende (ungarske Kató og Irén, og tyske Helga) besøger deres veninde, Anna, føler de sig tvunget straks til at tjekke i spejlet og arrangere håret og påklædningen – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

11:00 Mike skal af sted. Vi kører over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. Vi kommer hjem igen og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

12:30 Vi spiser frokost. Bob, vores nabo, der er en pensioneret bygningsarbejder, ringer på døren. Vi beder ham om at reparere vores havelåge, også vinduet i Alisons gamle værelse, hvor vi har et mistænkt fugtproblem. Han siger, han vil undersøge problemerne i morgen.

15:00 Vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.

16:00 Jeg kigger lidt på nettet, og på www.theonion.com, den indflydelsesrige amerikanske nyhedswebsted. Jeg ser en bekymrende nyhed, der handler om den 86-årige bedstemor, Shirley Delahunt. Hendes familie synes, at hun for nylig har set skidt ud, selvom Shirleys mand har det rigtig godt. Jeg kender ikke Shirley, men jeg har set fotoet, og jeg er enig med familien i, at hun ser absolut skidt ud. Jeg kan ikke forstille mig, hvad der er sket med hende. Du godeste! Hun ser ud som lort – det kan jeg ikke argumentere mod! Stakkels Shirley!!!!

Stakkels Shirley!!!!

English translation

17:00 I take a little look online and I see that Josie, our 10 year old granddaughter in Copenhagen, has sent us a charming picture of the three grandchildren at work designing little figures on the dining table, using the artwork materials supplied free of charge with the magazines we sent them.

our 3 grandchildren in Copenhagen:

Josie (10), Isaac (6) and Rosalind (8)

It is very expensive, but it is also one of the great pleasures of our lives, as a pair of old crows, to buy these kinds of magazines and send them off to our 5 grandchildren in Denmark and Australia, thus providing them with a connection to "the old country".

18:00 We eat dinner. I feel a little washed up after my experience with the dentist earlier in the day. Lois has made a wonderful, but quite "soft" meal, so I do not have to bite too hard - good grief!

19:30 I spend the evening in front of the computer. I'm a member of Scilla's U3A Old Norse group, and Scilla is not very good at organising the masses of paper she distributes to members - that's something I have to admit! I get everything in order on the computer by combining half-pages with half-pages, etc.

The group's latest project is "Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu", written in the late 13th century, but which plays out during the reign of the English king Ethelred II the Unready (968-1016),

I read to the end of Chapter 7 and translate into English, and write notes in my notebook. Gunnlaug, an 18-year-old Icelandic bard, has left Helga, his beautiful fiancee, in Iceland and is sailing to northwestern Europe to find out how people in other countries live.

Gunnlaug leaves Helga, his beautiful fiancee, in Iceland,

and travels abroad to find out how people in other countries live.

He first travels to Norway, and then to England, where he meets King Ethelred and kills an aggressive pirate in a duel using the king's "special" sword. The pirate only has a regular sword ha ha ha!

The two languages, Old Norse (Old Icelandic) and English (Anglo-Saxon) were at that time so similar that people of the two countries could understand each other without difficulty. That's why Gunnlaug can compose and present his poems in front of Ethelred, which is a bit of a shame as far as I’m concerned.

The poems in the saga are the hardest parts of the text when it comes to translating into English. When I am reading chapters, I am constantly urging Gunnlaug not to present another poem, but unfortunately he ignores me and starts doing it whenever he wants to - damn it! Bad Gunnlaug!

22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzz!!!!

04:00 I get up early and listen a little to the radio, an interesting program that was first broadcast last night, and which is about old age and writers (especially poets). The host of the program is the charming 74-year-old poet Vicki Feaver.

She says that older people, from the perspective of most people, are always a bit of a problem, especially when it comes to their need for healthcare, etc. (good grief!), Whereas contrariwise, poets who tend to describe older people look at them as individual people who may have lived interesting lives.

Besides poets, children also tend to be interested in older people sometimes out of affection (in the case of grandparents), and sometimes out of curiosity.

Vicki Feaver (right)

When Vicki was a school teacher, she used to ask her students to write poems about their grandparents or older relatives / friends, and she gave them Norman Mackaig's poem "Aunt Julia" as an example. As a child, Maccaig used to visit his aunt on the Scottish island of Harris. The poem has a typical child's clear vision, she says.

Another example was William Carlos William's poem, "The last words of my English grandmother". The young poet helps his grandmother to get to the hospital and travels with her in the ambulance. On the way she looks at the roadside trees - it turns out she is now heartily sick of trees. I know the feeling, but it sounds a bit harsh as last words, I think !!!!

Other examples: "My grandmother" by Elizabeth Jennings, also "Grandfather" of Derek Mahon.

Elizabeth Jennings's grandmother ran an antique shop

Derek Mahon's grandfather worked in Belfast's shipyards.

Like me, he was a morning person, but I prefer

learning foreign languages to indulging in a little carpentry work ha ha ha

It is a little different if one is writing from the older person's point of view. It is like being a war correspondent: sometimes there are victories, and the news is good. Other times it's not so good - yikes !!!!

Thomas Hardy wrote many poems to his long-dead first wife. But Vicki thinks that Hardy's "When I Look Into My Glass" is his bleakest poem.

Poor Hardy !!! Although he wrote the poem in his late 50's, and he was 88 when he died (in 1928). Come on, lighten up, Hardy !!!!

Vicki Feaver has found that old age is actually beneficial to us. When she was younger she saw her life as a series of mistakes and wrong choices, but now she sees it as a chronicle of survival.

In her poem "Old woman in a forsythia shrub", Vicki sat in a forsythia bush and watched young lambs jumping like ballet dancers, remembering the days when she was young, and an invisible puppeteer was dangling her, challenging her to throw off bra and undervest to celebrate spring.

Now that she is old, she can be pleased that the puppeteer has dragged her through the long halls of yet another winter so she can sit between the bushes in the sunshine. A true chronicle of survival.

Come on, Vicki, you're one of life's winners - no doubt about it !!!! But maybe it would be better to keep the bra on - remember the old expression:  ne’er cast a clout till May be out!

08:00 I zoom into the kitchen and make two cups of tea. I take them up to the bedroom and crawl back under the covers with Lois. We drink the tea and go in the shower. We get up and have breakfast.

10:00 My friend, "Magyar" Mike, comes and we learn Hungarian for an hour. The textbook we are using this year is a bit old-fashioned and amusing too. It was written in the 1960s under communism, when "men were men and women were women". When the three female students (Hungarians Kató and Irén, and the German, Helga) visit their girlfriend Anna, they feel immediately forced to check in the mirror and arrange their hair and clothing - good grief, what madness !!!!

11:00 Mike has to leave. We drive over to the local Sainsbury's supermarket to do the shopping. We come back home and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

12:30 We eat lunch. Bob, our neighbor, a retired construction worker, calls at the door. We ask him if he could repair our garden gate, also the window in Alison's old room, where we have a suspected damp problem. He says he will investigate the problems tomorrow.

15:00 We relax with a cup of tea in the sofa.

16:00 I take a little look online, and at www.theonion.com, the influential American news site. I see a worrying news item about 86-year-old grandmother, Shirley Delahunt. Her family thinks she has recently looked like shit, even though Shirley's husband is very well. I do not know Shirley, but I have seen the photo and I agree with the family that she looks like absolute shit. I cannot understand what has happened to her. My Goodness! She looks like crap - I cannot argue with that! Poor Shirley !!!!

Poor Shirley !!!!!