Bill, Mum & Dad

I have been thinking about Ars and this song all day, so let me share it with you all. I have posted it once before, but that was during this blogs Swedish era.

"Bill"
lyrics P. G. Wodehouse & music Jerome Kern

I used to dream that I would discover
The perfect lover someday.
I knew I'd recognize him if ever
He came 'round my way.
I always used to fancy then
He'd be one of the God-like kind of men
With a giant brain and a noble head
Like the heroes bold
In the books I've read.
But along came Bill
Who's not the type at all,
You'd meet him on the street
And never notice him.
His form and face,
His manly grace
Are not the kind that you
Would find in a statue,
And I can't explain,
It's surely not his brain
That makes me thrill -
I love him because he's wonderful,
Because he's just my Bill.

He can't play golf or tennis or polo,
Or sing a solo, or row.
He isn't half as handsome
As dozens of men that I know.
He isn't tall or straight or slim
And he dresses far worse than Ted or Jim.
And I can't explain why he should be
Just the one, one man in the world for me.
He's just my Bill an ordinary man,
He hasn't got a thing that I can brag about.
And yet to be
Upon his knee
So comfy and roomy
Seems natural to me.
Oh, I can't explain,
It's surely not his brain
That makes me thrill -
I love him because he's - I don't know...
Because he's just my Bill.

Helen Morgan completely owns this song and makes it all her own, in every little gesture, note and tone of voice. The excerpt is from the film musical "Show Boat" (1936).
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Now an update on my mother.

She is still in the hospital because the doctors decided it would be better to check where she is slowly bleeding from before sending her home. They suspect an ulcer or something in the gastrointestinal tract. This examination will take place on Monday, so we are all hoping she gets released from hospital on Tuesday.

All in all she is doing much better, even if she gets winded when she exerts herself. She is bored with the hospital routines and misses my father badly. Although my parents have talked with each other over the phone at least 3-4 times a day my father had only visited with her twice during these two weeks.

Every time I have asked father if he wants to come with me to visit her, he has said that his bad knees and feet were hurting him too much. My father was a very good soccer player in his youth, this career resulted in many injuries to his feet and knees which are unfortunately punishing him severely now.

So yesterday I meddled and told father that she misses him a lot. He answered that he misses her very much also but that his knees were hurting him really badly. Anyway, we agreed that I would take him there on Sunday, because we had a christening in the family today and I had to go there.

When I arrived for my visit with mother today after the christening, you can imagine my surprise to find my father already there. He had sneaked away behind my back and taken a taxi there while I was at the christening. They were both happily chatting away and both of them had roses on their cheeks and were in a really good mood.

It was good to see them. The love between my parents has always been visible and very strong. Through out my childhood and adulthood I can always remember seeing them light up when they saw each other. Their love made us, their children, feel safe and loved also. All was good in the world and would remain good as long as that love was there.

When I took my father home after his four hour visit, he was happy although he had severe pains.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2011

The Norwegian Parliaments Nobel committee today announced that the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (center), the Liberian civil rights champion Leymah Gbowee (right) and the Yemeni Tawakkul Karman (left) for their work for peace in Africa and the Arab world.

After the initial shock, that their laird had once again been overlooked, the announcement was followed by cries of jubilation and joy on the Southern Charm sim for the acknowledgement of the three women´s great, tireless and successful efforts for peace and democracy in their communities, countries or regions.

Rumors: Nobel Peace Prize to Bock?

As the week has gone by the McMillan household has ticked off the prizes as they have been awarded.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry NO
Nobel Prize for Physics NO
Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine NO
Nobel Prize for Literature NO

Of course the declared recipients are all well chosen and worthy, but are they really more worthy than the universal genius The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls.

The laird - as we all know and recognize - is a man well known for his extraordinary mastery in several different areas of human endeavor as shown through his works and accomplishments?

The disappointment in the household was particularly large today as many had set their hopes on the prize for Literature.

Hopes are now mounting that the Norwegians tomorrow will show more insight than the Swedes have done and award the laird the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian travails and feats in both the virtual and the real worlds.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

With your brilliant innovations you changed us and how we perceive our world.

Quasicrystals

The Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to Israeli researcher Daniel Shechtman for his discovery of quasicrystals. Quasicrystals are regular but non-repeating patterns of atoms and were discovered already in 1982 but it was a long time before their existence was widely accepted.

According to The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "the discovery fundamentally altered how chemists conceived of solid matter, since previously they had believed that all crystals consisted of entirely regular, repeating configurations of atoms."

After reporting his ground breaking findings Professor Shechtman was forced to leave his work and was med with ridicule and scorn from his colleagues, but 29 years later he receives the Nobel Prize.

Galileo Galilei said, "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”

Cinnamon Rolls and More

"The Cinnamon Bun Day" must be one of the most successful campaigns ever in Swedish advertising history.

October 4th in Sweden means we have all stuffed ourselves with, or been stuffed with, the pastry anywhere and everywhere we have gone. 

No decent employer has forgotten to serve the staff with this traditional pastry. Any visit with a friend or to a cafe without a damn bun would be considered a complete failure. 

I had three of them today and now I don´t want to see another for three months at least.

For a recipe of this traditional Swedish pastry see my post last year, Swedish Cinnamon Bun Day.

As the good son I sometimes try to be I brought along a couple of buns to my mother today. She looked at me tiredly and then told me "I have already had one and that was quite enough, thank you very much!". I told her to give them to the night staff.

The problem is if I hadn't brought them along the hospital staff would probably have looked on me as an utter failure as a son, probably my mother also.

Beside that it was a good visit. My mother was very chatty and in a great mood and had been without the additional oxygen supply the whole day.

On Joe Jervis´s ever watchful blog Joe.My.God. I read that "Anonymous" is planning to take down the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from the Internet in a concerted attack on Monday the 10th, "Anonymous to Wall Street: We Will Take Down Stock Exchange On October 10th".

There is a video declaring their intentions and their motives for the raid, see it.

I cannot really comprehend how creating more disturbances and unrest for the International banking system will accomplish their goals. It seems to me that the only ones who will suffer from more unrest in the economic markets are the 99% "Anonymous" claims to act on behalf of. But who am I to judge, people say I am too judgmental anyway.

Mothers

"Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist´s Mother" (1871)
by James McKneill Whistler

In the early evening on Sunday, as I was getting ready to visit with my mother at the hospital, I got a phone call from my father.

He told me he had just had the strangest conversation with mother. She had claimed that my brother in-law had visited her that day with his granddaughter and during the visit said the most awful things to her in front of the girl. When my father started questioning her about if this really could be true since she had always had a good relationship with my brother in-law, she got very angry with him and hung up the phone in his ear saying "Well you can believe it or not, but I know what happened!"

My mother and I have some similar traits. We are both usually quite even tempered but sometimes blow up. To be completely honest, neither of us are the most patient of people, although of course everyone tells us we are just that - repeatedly.

When I arrived at the hospital ward she was still upset, but now because after thinking about it she had realized that it had been a very vivid and realistic nightmare. So together we called my father on the phone and settled things to his great relief. For some reason, she also felt the need to call my sister and brother in-law and tell them about her terrible dream and tell them she was sorry she had actually thought it had really happened.

Somehow this incident told me - more than any doctors could - that my mother was getting better, even if she is still weak and tired her passion is back. She is of course still on her antibiotics but can now be without the additional oxygen most of the time.

We have started planning for her return home and the help and support she and father may need the first four weeks  and in the long run - to cope with living at home. Hopefully this will all sort itself out during the days to come. She is longing for her own comfortable bed.