Saturday 22 June 19

Our daughter in Perth, Australia, has her 42nd birthday today. I well remember seeing her being born in Cheltenham maternity hospital, now closed: births now take place in a department of the town’s general hospital.

1977: Alison (2) at the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in Pittville Park

Flashback to august 1977: little Sarah sleeps and cries through the

Queen's silver jubilee celebrations in Pittville Park - happy days !!!!

Lois with Sarah

Me with Sarah and Lois with Alison (2)

10:00 We talk a little on whatsapp with Sarah - she is driving  her soon-to-be 6-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie, home from a get-together with two of her former work colleagues and their young children. Francis, Sarah's husband, has installed a hands-free kit in the car.

Yesterday, the twins, along with all of their classmates, were allowed to go to school wearing the colours of their favorite Australian football team. And I'm surprised to hear how much they know about the sport in Perth. Most children there support the West Coast Eagles - their colours are blue and orange, Jessie says. Other children support the Eagles' great rivals, the Fremantle Dockers.

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

Lily and Jessie in West Coast Eagles colours – 

near the front extreme right, in dark blue

The twins are very hyperactive after the day's excitement – my god! They tell us about their week at school. The school's annual sports day took place a few days ago, and Lily finished third in the big race, despite having to run back to the start halfway through the race, to pick up her hat that had been blown off by the wind. And Jessie finished fifth, despite having to keep her hat on with both hands, so the wind wouldn't blow it off.

What a saga. And good grief, what madness !!!!

Lily takes 3rd prize - after running half the race twice

I wonder if Lily could become a great athlete when she is older - she is tall and incredibly competitive. Lois and I saw this quality in her from an early age, when we used to loo after the twins every Monday and Friday, in the good old days.

And they are both growing up so quickly now - no doubt about that. We miss them a lot.

Lily's performance reminds me a lot of Blanche's performance in the "Did You Evah" song from the movie "High Society".

"dear Blanche" in "Did You Evah"

11:00 Lois goes into the backyard and picks tons of gooseberries and raspberries, but unfortunately she decides to give a share of them to our neighbour, Bob. She's so warm-hearted - if only I could be more like her!

The gooseberries Lois has picked today, or rather,

what is left after our neighbour Bob has taken

his "share" - Lois is so warm-hearted ha ha ha!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3:30 pm and we relax with a cup of tea and a biscuit on the sofa.

17:00 Alison, our elder daughter, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey, calls us. One of her two daughters, Rosalind, has her 11th birthday party tomorrow - the actual birthday is Tuesday, June 25th. The party theme is cake baking - yum yum!

Ed, Alison's husband, has not yet found a permanent job. The family moved back to England last year after nearly 6 years of residence in Copenhagen, and Ed has been working on temporary jobs since then, while waiting for his "dream job" to appear. Next week, he is attending a conference in Oxford on some legal topic – Alison is not entirely certain about its exact focus.

18:00 We have dinner, a Fray Bentos pie, and spend the rest of the evening watching some television. The 6th episode of an interesting series is on, a series all about some of Britain's historic cities. This 6th episode is about the town of Stirling, in particular in connection with the Stuart kings who had Stirling as their power base.

The programme's host is Alice Roberts, a university professor in her 40’s and mother of 2 children, but she likes to dress up as a "biker-chick", but I’m going to let that one slide because she is so kind-hearted, which is the most important thing ha ha! The world of TV hosts is very competitive and there is always a bit of a danger that the TV channels could decide that some host "looks too old" or "looks too middle-class" – my god, what a crazy the world we live in !!!

Alice Roberts

Stirling was a small town built on a steep hill: the richest people lived near the top and the more you moved down the streets, the poorer became the residents. People dumped human waste into the street, where the council could collect it once a week, but rainfall meant that the waste tended to end up in the streets of the poorer citizens at the bottom of the town anyway.

That’s why Stirling had a street at the bottom of the town that was called "Dirt Row"; Dunfermline had its  “Foul Vennel” street, and Glasgow its "Shitwynd".

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!  [Isn’t it your bedtime? – Ed]

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

Danish translation: lørdag den 22. januar 2019

Vores datter i Perth, Australien, har sin 42. fødselsdag i dag. Jeg husker godt at jeg så hende blive født i Cheltenham barselshospital, nu lukket:  fødsler finder sted nu i en afdeling at byens almindelige hospital.

tilbageblik til august 1977: lille Sarah sover og græder igennem

dronningens sølvjubilæum-festival i den nærliggende Pittville Park – lykkelige dage !!!!

Lois med Sarah

Mig med Sarah og Lois med Alison (2)

10:00 Vi taler lidt på whatsapp med Sarah – hun er i gang med at køre sine snart 6-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie, hjem fra en sammenkomst med to af sine tidligere arbejdskollegaer og deres 5-6 årige børn. Francis, Sarahs mand, har installeret et håndfrisæt i bilen.

I går var tvillingerne, sammen med alle deres klassekammerater, tilladt til at komme i skole iført farverne af deres yndlings-australske fodboldhold. Og jeg er overrasket over at høre hvor meget de ved om sporten i Perth. De fleste børn støtter West Coast Eagles – deres farver er blå og orange, siger Jessie. Andre børn støtter Eagles’ store rivaler, Fremantle Dockers.

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

Børnene er meget hyperaktive efter dagens begejstring – du godeste! De fortæller os om deres uge i skolen. Skolens årlige sportsstævne fandt sted for et par dage siden, og Lily  sluttede tredje i det store løb, på trods af, at hun måtte løbe tilbage til starten halvvejs i løbet, for at hente hendes hat, som var blevet blæst af af vinden. Og Jessie sluttede femte, på trods af, at hun måtte holde sin hat på med begge hænder, så vinden ikke ville blæse den af.

Sikke en saga. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Lily sluttede 3., på trods af alting

Jeg spekulerer på, om Lily kan blive til en stor atlet, når hun er ældre – hun er høj og utrolig konkurrenceagtig. Lois og jeg så denne egenskab i hende fra en tidlig alder, når vi passede på tvillingerne hver mandag og fredag i de gode gamle dage.

Og de vokser begge to hurtigt op – ingen tvivl om det. Vi savner dem meget.

Lilys præstation i løbet minder mig meget om Blanches præstation i ”Did You Evah”- sangen fra filmen ”High Society”.

"dear Blanche"

11:00 Lois går ud i baghaven og plukker tonsvis af stikkelsbær og hindbær, men desværre beslutter hun at give en andel af dem til vores nabo, Bob. Hun er så varmhjertet – hvis bare jeg kunne ligne hende mere!

De stikkelsbær, Lois har plukket i dag, eller snarere,

hvad er tilbage efter vores nabo Bob har taget

sin ”andel” – Lois er så varmhjertet ha ha ha!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15:30 og vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i sofaen.

17:00 Alison, vores ældste datter, der bor i Haslemere, Surrey, ringer til os. Én af hendes to døtre, Rosalind, har sin 11. fødselsdagsfest i morgen – selve fødselsdag er tirsdag, den 25. juni. Festens tema er kagelagning – yum yum!

Ed, Alisons mand, har ikke fundet et permanent job endnu. Familien flyttede tilbage til England i fjor efter næsten 6 års ophold i København, og Ed har beskæftiget sig med midlertidlige jobs siden da, mens han venter på, at sit ”drømmejob” dukker op. Næste uge deltager han i en konference, der handler om et eller andet juridisk emne – den præcise fokus er Alison ikke helt sikker på.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad, en Fray Bentos pie, og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det 6. afsnit i en interessant serie, der handler om nogle af Storbritanniens historiske byer. Dette 6. afsnit handler om byen Stirling, i sær i forbindelse med ....

Programmets vært er Alice Roberts, en universitetsprofessor i 40’erne og mor til 2 børn, men hun kan godt lide at klæde sig ud som en ”bikertøs”, men det springer jeg over, fordi hun er godhjertet, hvilket er det vigtigste ha ha ha! Verden af tv-værter er meget konkurrencemæssig, og der er altid lidt af en fare, at tv-kanalerne kunne beslutte, at en eller anden vært ”ser for gammel ud” eller ”ser for borgerlig ud”  – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Alice Roberts

Stirling var en lille by bygget på en stejl bakke: de rigeste folk boede nær toppen og jo mere rykkede man ned på gaderne, jo fattigere blev de indbyggere. Folk dumpede menneskelig affald ud på gaden, hvor kommunen kunne indsamle den en gang om ugen, men regnvejr betød, at affalden havde tendens til at havne i de fattigere borgeres gader i bunden af byen.

Stirling havde en by i bunden af byen, der hed ”Dirt Row”; byen Dunfermline havde en gade, der hed Foul Vennel og Glasgow en gade, der hed ”Shitwynd”.

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

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!

Friday 21 June 2019

Midsummer morning, and even though we often complain about how much time we spend on gardening, it is still a joy to get up early, between 4 and 5 in the morning, and see the sky so light, and look again at the lovely back garden we have looked over for at least 33 years, I have to admit. How lucky we are!

our dear back garden: midsummer morning at 4:50 or so

We will miss this garden when we die, that’s for sure! [That's simply untrue factually - Ed]

This is the garden our two dear daughters grew up with.

flashback to the summer of 1986: our first summer in this house,

and our daughter Alison's 11th birthday party

Happy days!!!!!

10:00 But today gardening is again number 1 on our to-do list - damn! I start by mowing our remaining lawns – the ones you can't see from the house.

In the meantime, Lois has decided to give up on some of the seeds she sowed a few weeks ago that seem to have come to nothing: carrots, lettuce, parsnips - damn (again) !!! She sows new seeds to replace the old ones.

Lois starts sowing new seeds to replace the ones

that haven’t come to anything - damn it!

Afterwards she starts collecting all the raspberries that are ready to be harvested. It is a bit of a shame that our gooseberries are now on the point of being ready, now that we are going to be away from home for some days: the birds will make sure there will be almost nothing left when we come home again, no doubt about that - damn (for the 3rd time) !!!!

Lois starts picking all the raspberries

that are ready to harvest

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois goes around the corner to the local library to help library staff organize and manage the weekly "Baby Bounce & Rhyme" session for young children (and their mothers).

15:00 I get up and open the two packages that were delivered this week: our shiny new printer and our shiny new laptop, but I have no time to set them up now - damn! Busy Busy Busy! That will all have to wait for another day.

15:30 I sit down with the computer and I devise a Danish vocabulary list, which I want our U3A Danish group members to memorize before the group's next meeting, which takes place on 4 July. I'm so demanding ha ha ha!

The right answers to the test spell out another of the stand-up comedian Tim Vine's famous one-line jokes: - I went into a pet shop. I said, “Can I buy a goldfish?”. The guy said, "Do you want an aquarium?" I said, "I don't care what star sign it is".

Not one of his best, in my opinion, but I’m going to let that one slide because he's a mostly good-hearted fellow ha ha.

a typical pet store where goldfish are obtainable: this one is in Melbourne, Australia,

but there are similar businesses around the world, we believe

Tim Vine, our favourite stand-up comedian

16:00 Lois comes back from the library and we relax with a cup of tea and a piece of cake on the sofa. We listen a little to the radio, an interesting program in the series "The Last Word".

Lois and I have got into the habit of hearing this program every week because we want to find out if anyone in the past 1-4 weeks has died or not (I have noticed that most weeks there are only 4- 5 deaths, which is a little comforting, to put it mildly). The host of the program is the charming Matthew Bannister.

Franco Zeffirelli, the Italian film director, recently died unfortunately, and we hear from some of his former work colleagues - Franco's first priority was always to make his productions beautiful, it seems, and his theatrical productions were so lavish and elaborate that it always took a hell of time to change props and scenery between acts. After a performance by the opera Rigoletto in London, a local critic estimated that the total time taken up by all the intervals was actually longer than the opera itself.

My god, what madness !!!!

Franco had a massive ego, needless to say, and he knew all of the world's "rich and powerful" figures. He had a sideboard that was groaning with framed photos of just some of “the great and the good" that he knew, everybody from Pope Paul VI to Barbara Bush, who had sent him a photo of the family dog, ​​ autographed with a paw mark in felt-tip ink.

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

Franco’s  "Romeo and Juliet" is considered the most romantic film version of the story, partly because of the young age and relative inexperience of the film's two teenage stars, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting.

Lois and I watched this film in a cinema in Sheffield, where I was a student, just after we first hooked up, so it has good vibes for us.

Flashback to 1969-70: Lois and I visit

an snow-covered old village in the Cotswolds,

right after we first hooked up

Happy days !!!!!

17:30 We have dinner, and afterwards we stand outside for some time, watching all the hot air balloons that come floating over the roof tops from the local racecourse, where a midsummer hot air balloon festival is taking place this weekend.

We watch all the hot air balloons that come floating

over the roof-tops from the local racecourse,

where a midsummer balloon festival is taking place this weekend

21:00 We spend the rest of the evening watching a bit of television. A celebrity edition of "Gogglebox" is on, a fun program where various TV viewers look at some of the week's programs and comment on them from their sofas and armchairs etc.

For us, the only disadvantage of this program is that programme participants usually do not watch the kind of programs that Lois and I typically see, but I’m going to let that one slide because they are mostly good-hearted people ha ha ha.

We have another problem tonight - that we do not have the faintest idea who the majority of these "celebrities" really are: many of them are a mixed bag of D-list celebrities, soap opera actors and reality TV "stars".

Also, their comments are not as much fun as the non-celebrities, perhaps because they are part of the same world as the programmes that they are commenting on. The ordinary people in the non-celebrity version are very good at pricking  the bubble of pretentiousness that television celebrities live in. But tonight, the commentators are just as pretentious as the performers they are commenting on.

The programme's participants are again harshly critical of Jeremy Wade when they see yet another programme in his deadly serious series "Dark Waters" where Wade goes on the hunt for reported sightings of mythical monsters worldwide.

Wade has heard rumours of a mysterious creature spotted in a river in South Africa - he speaks to a native woman who says the creature’s top half is a woman, and the lower half is a fish. My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!

The show's celebrity-viewers are fairly quick-witted and realise that the native woman is talking here about a mermaid, a creature that has long been regarded as purely mythical. This would be a bit of a sensation, to put it mildly, if Wade could find it and maybe transport it back to England so people could see it in circuses or in some zoo or other.

Unfortunately, the final outcome is a bit of a disappointment again, as in a lot of Wade's documentary series, I have to say.

The Gogglebox show's celebrities are a bit disgusted over the whole episode, but I myself feel a little bit sorry for Wade - he is good hearted, which is the most important thing.

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

Danish translation:  fredag den 21. juni 2019

Midsommermorgen, og selvom vi brokker os så ofte over hvor meget tid vi bruger på at lave havearbejde, er det stadig en glæde at stå tidligt op, mellem kl 4 og kl 5 om morgenen, og se himlen så lys, og  se endnu en gang den dejlige baghave, vi har kigget ud over i mindst 33 år, det må jeg indrømme. Hvor er vi dog heldige!

vores kærlige baghave: midsommermorgen kl 4:50 eller deromkring

Vi kommer til at savne denne have, når vi dør, det ved jeg med sikkerhed. [That’s simply untrue factually – Ed]

Den her er den have, vores to kærlige døtre voksede op med.

tilbageblik til sommeren 1986: vores første sommer i dette hus,

og Alisons 11. fødselsdagsfest

Lykkelige dage!!!!!

10:00 Men havearbejde er igen nr. 1 på vores gøremålsliste – pokkers!  Jeg går i gang med at slå vores resterende græsplæner – dem, man ikke kan se fra huset. I mellemtiden har Lois besluttet at opgive håbet om, at nogle af de frø, hun såede for et par uger siden, som synes ikke at være blevet til noget: gulerødder, salat, pastinakker – pokkers (igen) !!! Hun så nye frø for at udskifte de gamle.

Lois går i gang med at så nye frø for at udskifte dem,

der ikke er blevet til noget – pokkers!

Bagefter går hun i gang med at samle alle de hindbær, der er klar til at høstes. Det er lidt af en skam, at vores stikkelsbære er lige nu ved at blive klar også, nu hvor vi er ved at være væk hjemmefra i nogle dage: fuglene vil sørge for, at der kommer til at blive næsten ingenting tilbage, når vi kommer hjem igen, ingen tvivl om det – pokkers (for 3. gang) !!!!

Lois går i gang med at samle alle de hindbær,

der er klar til at høste

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden går Lois rundt om hjørnet til det lokale bibliotek for at hjælpe bibliotekets personale med at organisere og styre den ugentlige ”Baby Bounce & Rhyme”-session for unge børn (og deres mødre).

15:00 Jeg står op og åbne de to pakker, der denne uge blev leveret: vores spritnye printer og vores spritnye bærebare, men jeg har ikke nogen tid til at installere dem nu – pokkers! Travlt travlt travlt! Det må blive en anden dag.

15:30 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og Jeg udtænker en dansk ordforrådsliste, som jeg vil have vores U3A danske gruppes medlemmer til at lære udenad før gruppens næste møde, der finder sted hos os den 4. juli. Jeg er så krævende ha ha ha!

De rigtige svar til testen staver endnu en af standup komikeren Tim Vines berømte én-linje vittigheder, “ I went in to a pet shop. I said, ‘Can I buy a goldfish?’ The guy said, ‘Do you want an aquarium?’ I said, ‘I don’t care what star sign it is’. 

Ikke én af hans bedste, efter min mening, men det springer jeg over, fordi han er for det meste godt-hjertet ha ha ha.

en typisk kæledyrenes butik, hvor guldfisk fås: denne er i Melbourne, Australien,

men der er lignende forretninger verden over, tror vi

Tim Vine, vores yndlings-standupkomiker

16:00 Lois kommer tilbage fra biblioteket og vi slapper af med en kop te og et stykke kage i sofaen. Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Det sidste ord”.

Lois og jeg er kommet i vane med at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om nogen i de seneste 1-4 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste uger kun sker 4-5 dødsfald, hvilket er lidt trøstende, for at sige mildt). Programmets vært er den charmerende Matthew Bannister.

Franco Zeffirelli, den italienske filminstruktør, døde desværre for nylig, og vi hører lidt fra nogle af sine tidligere arbejdskollegaer – Francos første prioritet var at gøre sine forestillinger smukke, lader det til, og hans teaterforestillinger var så overdådige og udførlige, at det altid tog en helvedes tid til at skifte rekvisitter og kulisser mellem akter. Efter en forestilling af operaen Rigoletto i London beregnede en lokal kritiker, at den samlede total af alle intervallerne var længere end selve operaen.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Franco havde et massivt ego, unødvendigt at sige, og han kendte alle verdens  ”rige og magtfulde”. Han havde et sidebord, der bugnede med indrammede fotoer af nogle af de ”store og gode”, alle fra Pave Paul 6 til Barbara Bush, der havde sendt ham et foto af familiens hund, der var blevet autograferet med et tuscheret potespor.

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

Hans ”Romeo og Juliet” er betragtet som den mest romantiske version, dels på grund af den alder og den forholdsvisse uerfaring af filmens to teenage-stjerner, Olivia Hussey og Leonard Whiting.

Lois og jeg så filmen i et biograf i Sheffield, lige efter vi først fandt sammen, så den har gode vibes for os.

Tilbageblik til 1969-70: Lois og mig besøger

en gammel snedækket landsby i Cotswold-bakkerne,

lige efter vi først fandt sammen

Lykkelige dage !!!!!

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter kigger vi i et stykke tid på alle de luftballoner, der flyder over tagtopperne fra den lokale væddeløbsbane, hvor en midsommer luftballonfestival finder sted denne weekend.

Vi kigger lidt på alle de luftballoner, der flyder

over tagtopperne  fra den lokale væddeløbsbane,

hvor en midsommer luftballonfestival finder sted denne weekend

21:00 Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en kendis-afsnit af ”Gogglebox”, et morsomt program, hvor forskellige tv-seerne ser på nogle af ugens programmer og kommenterer dem i deres sofaer og lænestole osv.

For vores vedkommende er den eneste ulempe ved dette program, at programmets deltagere sædvanligt ikke de slags programmer, som Lois og jeg typisk ser, men det springer jeg over, fordi de for det meste er godthjertede folk ha ha ha.

Vi har endnu et problem i aften – at vi ikke har den fjerneste anelse om, hvem størstedelen af disse ”kendisser” virkelig er:  mange af dem er en blandet landhandling af B-liste kendisser, sæbeoperaskuespillere og reality-tv-”stjerner”.

Også er deres kommentarer ikke så morsomme, som de ikke-kendissers, måske fordi de er en del af samme verden, som programmerne de kommentarer. De almindelige mennesker i den ikke-kendis version, er meget dygtige til at punktere boblen af prætentiøshed, som tv-kendisser lever ind i. Men i aften er kommentatorerne lige så prætentiøse, som dem, de kommentarer.

Programmets deltagere er barsk kritikke overfor Jeremy Wade, da de ser endnu et andet program i hans ramme alvorlige serie ”Dark Waters”, hvor Wade går i søgen efter rapporter om mytiske monstre verden over.

Wade har hørt rygter om et mystisk væsen, der er blevet spottet i en flod i Syd-Afrika – han taler med en indfødt kvinde, der siger væsenets øverste halvdel er en kvinde, og den nederste en fisk. Du godest, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Showets kendisser er kvikke og indser, at den indfødte kvinde taler her om en havfrue, et væsen, der i lange tid er blevet betragtet som rent mytisk. Dette ville være lidt af en sensation, for at sige mildt, hvis Wade kan finde den og måske transportere den tilbage til England, så folk kan se den i cirkusser eller i en eller anden zoologisk have.

Desværre er det finale udfald lidt af en skuffelse igen, som i en masse af Wades dokumentumserier, det må jeg nok sige.

Gogglebox showets kendisser er lidt foragtige over for hele episoden, men jeg har selv lidt ondt af Wade – han er godthjertet, hvilket er det vigtigste.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!