This morning I received a special email from the Catholic Advisory service to announce that the Pope had suddenly called a meeting of his Curia without indicating the subject. Catholic Rome was in great excitement. One thing for uncertain Pope Benedict is not going to announce that he has or has not new proof of the existence of God. Not everyone will know that when Pope John Paul II set up a Commission to prepare a new edition of the Latin text of the international master Catechism in 1993, the Commission of Cardinals and Bishops was chaired by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. I have the English 904 page English Translation and the masterwork is used by each national church and its cardinals and bishops to create various versions appropriate for its clergy, parishioners and for children. It is my aim to complete my study together with that of the Old and New Testaments and the Koran and other religious texts before my end of days.
The local weather forecast was of the hottest day of the year so instead of working on as I was inclined I decided to go out for a constitutional walk, at first regretting because there was a coldish breeze coming off the sea as I walked into North Marine Park and decided to make some first notes sitting in the Chinese Pagoda on a little hill overlooking yachts in the harbour with children and their families playing in the mock galleon outline behind me. I could see in the distance a man on a bench looking into the empty bowling greens which seemed an odd place top sit and think unless you wanted to be undisturbed. A young couple walked up the hill and stood about for several minuets, I guess this was their favourite spot and they wished I would go, I was not ready, and they went. Life can be cruel. A father and his daughter and their dog came up the hill and down again behind me to the galleon, when they could have gone around. A boy came up the stairs and then went down again, well it is a free country, but why did he do that? I don't think he came to look at me because ever since I cut my hair I have become more anonymous. Perhaps he wanted to prove he could make the climb wearing roller skates and I happened to be there.
Although the air is best described as crisp it is another wondrous day and surely this did not just happen out of chaos. Surely there was some form of planning creator and unlike the hitch hikers guide I cannot accept that it was mice?
I decide to walk the sea front to the information kiosk part of the covered walk way to find out if the free summer season entertainment schedule has been published, but I will meander to take in the sights. There is mist over the end of the pier walk and one has to be in the mood for that walk anyway. There is little novelty in watching 100 fishermen watching 100 fishermen waiting to catch a fish.
I visit the amusement park, passing by Dunes, .South Shields, not Dunes Las Vegas, but it has it own array of slot machines, pool tables, bar restaurant and lanes and lanes of bowling alleys. In the park there is a queue of young takers for the Buzzin ride, a giant arm which swings vertical and down taking the four seat, two sided, baskets at each end to hand upside down. All the favourites are here, the dodgems, the crazy and the haunted houses, two kinds of slides, one tubular, the various other rides for the adventuresome, and if I am not mistaken some of the win me prize cuddly animals are even bigger than last year.
Every occasion, I enter the amusement park on the way to the beach roadway, I am reminded of the event four decades previous when I was challenged by a foster mother, encountered at a country fair, to take her two foster sons on the big wheel. I could not refuse although I then dreaded heights, (later I climbed a mountain and used a scaffolding unit to repaint a three story home every half a dozen years) but was so glad that I did because although it made the occasion more difficult there was also some comfort, that I had agreed, when I went to tell their father, than one son had drowned in a boys being boys accident, and then stood with him and the foster parents at the graveside grieving. Was there a human interventionist God? Perhaps there is when later I was able assist in the return of the other son to live with his father. Never doubt that each time a policeman, a service chief, a medical officer or an occupational manager has the task of breaking bad news, the event lives when them, and with the bereaved families and friends of the individual for eternity.
The local council has created a hard play area for young the young. The space has been created from the wide stretch of beach beyond the pleasure park. The area contains several separate activity areas and open hard space. About a dozen were playing football in one space, a couple of dozen were using the skate boarding ramps, while others roamed on bikes and roller skates. There were another group playing basketball and several kicking a ball about while waiting to use to the special court. There was one mother and one girl friend but everyone one else was male from around 12 to 25. I find that depressing. It contrasted with the crowd at Sunderland, the previous afternoon where there appeared to be as many women and children as there were many and while I was one of the older, I was one of several.
I then took the beach road which is only used by public service vehicles. Here the beach for 100 yards is covered by large sand dunes which are excellent for sun bathing, while between this road and coastal Road there are car parks and two restaurants. The second used to comprise just railway carriages, but has now been extended at the back with two tiers of outside seating, the lower from newly constructed decking. I assumed this was to counter the inside smoking ban which takes place in the Summer, but on the way back along the coast road, I discovered that the restaurant has been taken over by the same company which operates the Roker Hotel and is now offering more up market Italian so that a three course meal with wine for two is over £50.
After this restaurant there are the Beach chalets. These were basic simple structures which were nevertheless in high demand, but now they have been improved and command over ten times the weekly rental cost. There are just two groups of six and the majority are taken during school holiday periods. There is then an imaginative series of structures which the Local Council created from European funding measures. There is a small water area below a small café/ ice cream outlet and which at weekends is the haunt for bikers to assemble, some 50 to-day including a 30 to 40 year old with pink hair. However I am yet to encounter Goths during the day, although they can be seen heading to Newcastle evenings. Adjacent to the café is an amphitheatre where on Sunday throughout the summer there are bands, sometimes a jazz band hired by the Council to entertain. There are also live groups two evenings a week in June with one night reserved for local groups. If the weather is wet the bands can play under the roof of the walk way which is open to coast road but is formed from large glass panels separating from the beach and covering the fifty or yards between the two sections of the beachside road. You can also walk on the roof and gain panoramic view of the beach. Then there are car parks behind fifty yards of a fountain display which has now been converted into tiered flowerbeds. One of my favourite restaurants is here part of chain serving the same basic menu through the UK and where you can sit at tables with large picture windows to watch beach life. The road begins again and the Leas also the start alongside the Gypsy Green running stadium, once used for Queen Elizabeth to be entertained on her 25th anniversary.
Mohammed Ali also visited the town in the same week and I witnessed catering staff and female councillors of mature years go weak at the knees as he came by every dinner table to shake hands and kiss the ladies. The crowds were wilder and thicker for him than for the Queen, it has to be recorded. He undertook a marriage ceremony at the local mosque.
You can walk the breach road to where the cliffs begin and I had considered going up to the World War 2 restored gun emplacement, a reminder that the twin towns at of North and South Shields at either side of the River Tyne were a prime target, what is now over half a century ago.
However after collecting a dozen bookletsowever from the tourist kiosk I stopped to read and then realised I would have to return for a quick tea before visiting my mother.
There is a new publication listing the thirty metro stations with works of art. I must use a couple of days to go and experience them, taking my camera. I have a travel pass which costs £12 a year and provides unlimited use at weekends and after 09.30 on weekdays. Several more days will be required to visit all the public area works of art which have been sponsored along both the Rivers Tyne and Wear. There are 20 on the Wear although three quarters are part of the ancient church of St Peters Sculptures project. There are 47 projects on both banks of the Tyne with ten of these in Newcastle part of a sculpture trail. My favourite in Shields is the Conversation Piece by Juan Munoz, a score of Humpty Dumbty type figures just off the beach within the harbour mouth of the Tyne, although running a close second is a hilarious piece in what used to be a notorious nite spot by the entrance of the former red light district of ship yard and harbour pubs. The work comprises circular bar tables around poles on which are metal sculptured handbags, mobile phones and drinking glasses. The free events list will not be out until the end of the month, but there was opportunity for several updates of local theatre programmes.
On the way back I passed the small Westhovian Theatre and for a moment puzzled over the fresh flowers tied to the end seat. I was horrified with myself for not remembering that a vehicle with teenagers crashed and demolished the end of the building with one fatality. There are so many senseless deaths to remember
Alas they were all forgotten for a while as I had my quick tea of smoke salmon on crackers, a cup of tea and a small bottle of water, after changing my drenched shirt from the rush back up the hill in which had become a very hot afternoon, when sheltered from the sea breezes. My visit to my mother was just over half an hour as she was soundly sleeping throughout. Afterwards there was time for a meat and veg dinner, fresh pineapple with grapes but more water. The next bottle of red remained unopened. And then, two programmes on TV, one of an hour, and the second of two, commanded my attention, although I was able to do some other work at the same time. The first was on Rome, the Tivoli gardens and Villa d'Este and Naples and I was back to what was happening at the Vatican. I have only spent three days in Rome over an interval of 35 years, yet the City and the Vatican state has governed the greater part of my life and that of my mother. Whatever it was I was going to talk
The local weather forecast was of the hottest day of the year so instead of working on as I was inclined I decided to go out for a constitutional walk, at first regretting because there was a coldish breeze coming off the sea as I walked into North Marine Park and decided to make some first notes sitting in the Chinese Pagoda on a little hill overlooking yachts in the harbour with children and their families playing in the mock galleon outline behind me. I could see in the distance a man on a bench looking into the empty bowling greens which seemed an odd place top sit and think unless you wanted to be undisturbed. A young couple walked up the hill and stood about for several minuets, I guess this was their favourite spot and they wished I would go, I was not ready, and they went. Life can be cruel. A father and his daughter and their dog came up the hill and down again behind me to the galleon, when they could have gone around. A boy came up the stairs and then went down again, well it is a free country, but why did he do that? I don't think he came to look at me because ever since I cut my hair I have become more anonymous. Perhaps he wanted to prove he could make the climb wearing roller skates and I happened to be there.
Although the air is best described as crisp it is another wondrous day and surely this did not just happen out of chaos. Surely there was some form of planning creator and unlike the hitch hikers guide I cannot accept that it was mice?
I decide to walk the sea front to the information kiosk part of the covered walk way to find out if the free summer season entertainment schedule has been published, but I will meander to take in the sights. There is mist over the end of the pier walk and one has to be in the mood for that walk anyway. There is little novelty in watching 100 fishermen watching 100 fishermen waiting to catch a fish.
I visit the amusement park, passing by Dunes, .South Shields, not Dunes Las Vegas, but it has it own array of slot machines, pool tables, bar restaurant and lanes and lanes of bowling alleys. In the park there is a queue of young takers for the Buzzin ride, a giant arm which swings vertical and down taking the four seat, two sided, baskets at each end to hand upside down. All the favourites are here, the dodgems, the crazy and the haunted houses, two kinds of slides, one tubular, the various other rides for the adventuresome, and if I am not mistaken some of the win me prize cuddly animals are even bigger than last year.
Every occasion, I enter the amusement park on the way to the beach roadway, I am reminded of the event four decades previous when I was challenged by a foster mother, encountered at a country fair, to take her two foster sons on the big wheel. I could not refuse although I then dreaded heights, (later I climbed a mountain and used a scaffolding unit to repaint a three story home every half a dozen years) but was so glad that I did because although it made the occasion more difficult there was also some comfort, that I had agreed, when I went to tell their father, than one son had drowned in a boys being boys accident, and then stood with him and the foster parents at the graveside grieving. Was there a human interventionist God? Perhaps there is when later I was able assist in the return of the other son to live with his father. Never doubt that each time a policeman, a service chief, a medical officer or an occupational manager has the task of breaking bad news, the event lives when them, and with the bereaved families and friends of the individual for eternity.
The local council has created a hard play area for young the young. The space has been created from the wide stretch of beach beyond the pleasure park. The area contains several separate activity areas and open hard space. About a dozen were playing football in one space, a couple of dozen were using the skate boarding ramps, while others roamed on bikes and roller skates. There were another group playing basketball and several kicking a ball about while waiting to use to the special court. There was one mother and one girl friend but everyone one else was male from around 12 to 25. I find that depressing. It contrasted with the crowd at Sunderland, the previous afternoon where there appeared to be as many women and children as there were many and while I was one of the older, I was one of several.
I then took the beach road which is only used by public service vehicles. Here the beach for 100 yards is covered by large sand dunes which are excellent for sun bathing, while between this road and coastal Road there are car parks and two restaurants. The second used to comprise just railway carriages, but has now been extended at the back with two tiers of outside seating, the lower from newly constructed decking. I assumed this was to counter the inside smoking ban which takes place in the Summer, but on the way back along the coast road, I discovered that the restaurant has been taken over by the same company which operates the Roker Hotel and is now offering more up market Italian so that a three course meal with wine for two is over £50.
After this restaurant there are the Beach chalets. These were basic simple structures which were nevertheless in high demand, but now they have been improved and command over ten times the weekly rental cost. There are just two groups of six and the majority are taken during school holiday periods. There is then an imaginative series of structures which the Local Council created from European funding measures. There is a small water area below a small café/ ice cream outlet and which at weekends is the haunt for bikers to assemble, some 50 to-day including a 30 to 40 year old with pink hair. However I am yet to encounter Goths during the day, although they can be seen heading to Newcastle evenings. Adjacent to the café is an amphitheatre where on Sunday throughout the summer there are bands, sometimes a jazz band hired by the Council to entertain. There are also live groups two evenings a week in June with one night reserved for local groups. If the weather is wet the bands can play under the roof of the walk way which is open to coast road but is formed from large glass panels separating from the beach and covering the fifty or yards between the two sections of the beachside road. You can also walk on the roof and gain panoramic view of the beach. Then there are car parks behind fifty yards of a fountain display which has now been converted into tiered flowerbeds. One of my favourite restaurants is here part of chain serving the same basic menu through the UK and where you can sit at tables with large picture windows to watch beach life. The road begins again and the Leas also the start alongside the Gypsy Green running stadium, once used for Queen Elizabeth to be entertained on her 25th anniversary.
Mohammed Ali also visited the town in the same week and I witnessed catering staff and female councillors of mature years go weak at the knees as he came by every dinner table to shake hands and kiss the ladies. The crowds were wilder and thicker for him than for the Queen, it has to be recorded. He undertook a marriage ceremony at the local mosque.
You can walk the breach road to where the cliffs begin and I had considered going up to the World War 2 restored gun emplacement, a reminder that the twin towns at of North and South Shields at either side of the River Tyne were a prime target, what is now over half a century ago.
However after collecting a dozen bookletsowever from the tourist kiosk I stopped to read and then realised I would have to return for a quick tea before visiting my mother.
There is a new publication listing the thirty metro stations with works of art. I must use a couple of days to go and experience them, taking my camera. I have a travel pass which costs £12 a year and provides unlimited use at weekends and after 09.30 on weekdays. Several more days will be required to visit all the public area works of art which have been sponsored along both the Rivers Tyne and Wear. There are 20 on the Wear although three quarters are part of the ancient church of St Peters Sculptures project. There are 47 projects on both banks of the Tyne with ten of these in Newcastle part of a sculpture trail. My favourite in Shields is the Conversation Piece by Juan Munoz, a score of Humpty Dumbty type figures just off the beach within the harbour mouth of the Tyne, although running a close second is a hilarious piece in what used to be a notorious nite spot by the entrance of the former red light district of ship yard and harbour pubs. The work comprises circular bar tables around poles on which are metal sculptured handbags, mobile phones and drinking glasses. The free events list will not be out until the end of the month, but there was opportunity for several updates of local theatre programmes.
On the way back I passed the small Westhovian Theatre and for a moment puzzled over the fresh flowers tied to the end seat. I was horrified with myself for not remembering that a vehicle with teenagers crashed and demolished the end of the building with one fatality. There are so many senseless deaths to remember
Alas they were all forgotten for a while as I had my quick tea of smoke salmon on crackers, a cup of tea and a small bottle of water, after changing my drenched shirt from the rush back up the hill in which had become a very hot afternoon, when sheltered from the sea breezes. My visit to my mother was just over half an hour as she was soundly sleeping throughout. Afterwards there was time for a meat and veg dinner, fresh pineapple with grapes but more water. The next bottle of red remained unopened. And then, two programmes on TV, one of an hour, and the second of two, commanded my attention, although I was able to do some other work at the same time. The first was on Rome, the Tivoli gardens and Villa d'Este and Naples and I was back to what was happening at the Vatican. I have only spent three days in Rome over an interval of 35 years, yet the City and the Vatican state has governed the greater part of my life and that of my mother. Whatever it was I was going to talk
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