1677 The Observing Traveller

For most of my life when I commenced a journey my concern was to reach the destination quickly and safely. I can remember little of what occurred during the travel. Between 1999 and 2004 when I travelled first to help support my birth and care mothers in their home and then to visit my mother in the residential home where she had been placed, making the log journey to outer London from the North East and back at least once a month, I grew weary of the hours spent driving focussed on the behaviour of other motorists and of the hours spent on the M25 nose to bumper for mile upon mile, I broke the journey with an overnight stop at a Travel Lodge, especially when the firm started to offer amazing concessions at certain times of the year but available at the least popular locations.

The stop over mean that I could start the day leisurely and go the cinema en route before making the stop over, having a good meal, and then the following morning also make a visit, perhaps to the property of National Trust or English Heritage.

It is only since deciding to write about my experience on a daily basis that whatever kind of journey is being made, I find myself always on the alert, observing, listening, making notes which I can sometimes read back, thinking about what I am seeing or hearing and trying to draw conclusions which anyone else faced with the same situation would also make. The extent of random coincidence always interests, as well as situations which have a similarity those which have been experienced several decades earlier.

The weather was unkind but the journey by car last Thursday was surprisingly good, having slept well and risen early and packed everything the night before. I had also simplified the usual mixed packing arrangement. I use medium size soft rectangular bags with a carry handle rigid base. In one I placed some reserve tined, a jar of olives, some decaffeinated tea and coffee and the carton packed croissants and Danish pastries. The second contained the two lap tops, one to watch DVD’s and the other for the internet and writing, The intention had been to use the internet on the DVD use but I forgot to bring my code for the spectrum registration which is automatic on the older laptop. There is also the digital radio and clock and my camera, plus map, guides, reading book, and DVD’s. There third is for clothes. The Marks and Spencer’s Cold bag has the milk, large salad box mixture and made up salad for journey, two packs of ham and two of salami, two packs of grapes, and three of fruit salad. There is a compartment at the back for the utensils and sheets of kitchen roll. The rucksack contained a flask of coffee, notebooks, tissues and a tea towel. There was also a hand towel loose at the back of the car and a spare pair of shoes.

There were heavy showers from the start and I regretted not having delayed for a coffee and croissant. The first change of mind occurred as I drove towards the AIM via the John Reid Road and Newcastle Road and could see a significant traffic build up at a stand still. I reversed directions at the roundabout and headed into the Whiteleas estate and Bolden and with a sun burst I turned off into the Azda car parking area and on to outside the Cineworld for the coffee and croissant. The croissant was good but the coffee was lukewarm. A puzzle which suggested perhaps the kettle had not been allowed to boil. I poured it onto the already wet surface and set off, driving without stopping down the A19 and then M1 to the Wakefield service area to eat lunch. As I went to the toilet I was accosted by a man on crutches who claimed he was a diabetic and wanted a lift to Leicester. I declined The situation did not look right, no coat, no luggage, I looked for a TV camera. I was polite but firm and he was angry and abusive which confirmed the wisdom of the decision.

I stopped again for a cup of coffee mid afternoon within half an hour of the M25 junction. There I again saw the same man soliciting drivers of parked vehicles, The M1 has been winded to four lanes and the heavens opened and rain fell sheeting reducing visibility and driving speeds. I dread the M25 as it is rare when one does not have to slow down to standstill for mile upon mile during the stretch from the M40 to Oxford, Heathrow Airport, the M4 and M3 junctions. This time I had a clear run, but traffic was close to standstill for miles in the opposite direction. My route on paper appeared simple. Through the time of the M25 I had usually taken the M25 to the Purley, Croydon junction which is also the start of the M23 to Brighton and on to Wallington or to the Premier Inn at Waddon, or the Innkeeper’s at Purley Oaks. Occasionally I took the route through central London or along the North Circular passed Wembley to the Ealing and the South Circular, Tooting and Mitcham.

This occasion I had to take the next junction (six), where the Travel Lodge was located at South Whyteleafe with a railway station a few meters away. This part of Surrey is full of wooded hills and long valleys, including one called Happy Valley. The Travel Lodge was easy to see on the other side of a dual lane highway with a central reservation but a right turn exit into the entrance of a once farm but is now a large complex of ugly institutional looking apartment blocks with the turn into the Travel Lodge car parks immediately to the right. The building has three floors and about sixty rooms. The Lodge is similar to that at Croydon central with its own food and bar facility. I unpacked and was soon ready for bed although it before 9.30. The consequence was that I woke with the dawn and was able to write then.

I had set aside the Saturday for a visit to central London, unaware until just beforehand that this was a day which the environmentalists had set aside for a march and rally in support of Government’s taking stronger measures in advance of the G 20 meeting next weekend. They were assembling on the embankment and going to Hyde Park. The forecast bad weather could affect the situation in either way.

I had earlier in the visit crossed over the main road and walked the few metres to the railway station to work out that this was on the mainline via Purley Oaks, my sometime place of stay and then on to East Croydon where it was of advantage to change trains to the a fast one from the south coast stopping only at Clapham junction before Victoria. There was only one more station to the end of the line at Caterham, with in the other direction, Whyteleafe central a straggling town, then Kenley, with its small airport for private flying, and Purley, where my former independent Catholic school is located and where the south coast trains branch off to Brighton, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis. Do they also go in the other direction to Newhaven, Eastbourne and Hastings? I must check out of curiosity. From Purley there is Purley Oaks and South Croydon before East Croydon and from there three overlapping routes to either Victoria or London Bridge with for me the most familiar route Selhurst, Thornton Health Streatham, Balham (for entry to the London Underground system and the Oval Surrey County Cricket ground), Wandsworth Common, Clapham Junction, Battersea Park and Victoria, having come from Wallington, Waddon and West Croydon, a route travelled throughout my life with the first trip the day after the V E day parade when the most of London took to the streets. I did travel a few months when I was 19 years on the London Bridge Line when I worked for British Olivetti with our office in the City but I cannot recite the names of the stations on visualise them in the same way. Now there is a train from Brighton to East Croydon which goes to London Bridge and then over the River Thames to St Pancras and if wanted onward to Luton.

Next to the railway station there is a bus stop going into Purley, Sutton and Croydon and a petrol garage which I used on the Friday morning where there is an excellent store attached which includes fresh rolls and cakes and a coffee and snack outlet as well as the usual range of sandwiches and other food supplies. So although the Travel Lodge is out of town there are all the essential services within a few metres and with restaurants and a fish and chips take away in Whyteleafe itself

Although I was going to bed and sleep early I was also managing to sleep on after the dawn for me I was also sleep through so that it just before 10 am when I was ready to go for arraign into London on the Sunday, The ticket office appears to be closed on a permanent basis but there is an automatic machine which takes cash and cards so I purchased a one day all zones travel card for £7.50 which entitles one to travel all day throughout greater London and is exceptional in its value just as the ability of those over sixty to travel free throughout the system and use trains, the underground system buses.

Apart from enjoying seeing familiar places from the comfort of a train seat once more my attention taken up with how two ticket checkers dealt with a young man who claimed he had a student concession to justify his ticket but could not produce the concession card and claimed he had no money and no credit card. I suspected he was an anarchist en route to the demonstration and whole believed his commitment and concerns meant that he did not have to work, claim benefits, or pay for his travel and other aspects of his lifestyle. He said he lived with his mother and that she would pay. He would given a note to give to the ticket collector guard at the end of the line. I wondered what the outcome would be and if it was true he was travelling to London without any cash on him.

This dependence on a parent was reflected very differently in the next overheard conversation after I changed trains at East Croydon and sat behind a Spanish young man and the young woman with whom he had a difficult conversation in which she was doing her best to engage, sympathise and understand his negative and pessimistic viewpoint which he insisted was realistic but which masked a disturbed, hurt and bitter young man where he needed such a companion partner but she would be wise to steer clear of him me thinks he would betray her in the same way he argued that everyone one else had betrayed or would betray him.

Just before Victoria Station a new block of flats is in the process of construction hidden from view by a covering and appearing to advertise a new luxury development, but I wonder if the sales literature makes reference to being close to one of the busy stations of London?

There was plenty of time before the film and with rain again I made by way again since the hastily arranged visit for the funeral of a relative to the seating at one end of the floor of the restaurant and fast food outlets and where I passed another meeting taking place before a lap top. This reminded that on the afternoon coffee stop on my journey to London I had also encountered a meeting at a adjacent table between three men who appeared unconcerned that their conversation could be head by me and another man who was also sitting closer to them. I learnt how one of the three had set a new business with others after some failure or problem with a previous enterprise. One of the three posed the questions. I speculated was this a secret millionaire; was he a venture capitalist or considering a take over or partnership in the business. I was reminded of some twenty five years before when I was privy that a Take over bid had been agreed at a motorway service area meeting. Perhaps the view is that in such a public place media attention, competitors or others who could benefit from the knowledge of meeting was unlikely.

I could see outside from my location and although I was tempted to write more notes as soon as the rain stopped and skies commenced to clear I decided I needed to do some walking and made my way across to Victoria Street to where Billy Elliot the musical was showing at the Palace Theatre. I was tempted and added this to the list of possibilities for the day if I changed my mind from the morning plan. It was at the road junction close to Catholic Westminster Cathedral on the other side of the road that I was stunned by the new glass edifices that had risen since my recent visits.

I have known this area for fifty five years. Between 1955 to 1957 I had walked from the station to a bus along the Vauxhall Bridge Road to Middlesex House where I worked and which is now Random House the publishing company, now within view of the iconic intelligence building but then around the corner from the Tate. Some lunchtimes I would make my way on foot to Victoria Street returning via Horseferry and Masham or vice versa, sometimes just for a walk, sometimes to visit the Cathedral or to the Army and Navy stores where once I had said hullo to Sir Leonard Hutton and bought a signed copy of Just My Story. I had continued to visit this way, sometimes on foot when I attended committee meetings at the Home Office in the 1980’s or by car making way through central London from the North East along the across the Vauxhall Bridge on way to Wallington. I had seen conventional tower blacks of flats rise up but these new buildings are something special and worth exploring although a further rain shower was in the offing.

There are four new buildings with three main glass covered walkways to a central street level glass covered Piazza. There are several fashionable restaurants and with fashionable prices. Two of the new buildings are offices and but the third with some twenty storeys high is apartments. There is also a Mark and Spencer’s with a roof level Piazza of stone and grass and which is reached by the upward of two escalator and where there is a large oriental restaurant and an empty art gallery and other office type facilities plus behind this further interesting looking apartments. It was evident that the development had been designed for yesterday’s economy, so what was the position to day and in the immediate future?

It rained again so I made my way to nearest bus stop stopping off at Trafalgar Square. Along Whitehall there was considerable police presence among the usual weekend tourists. The queue to visit Westminster Abbey was considerable. While the Cathedral remained a place of Christian worship, the Abbey has become a tourist attraction along with the Vatican.

I had debated visiting the Cathedral out of respect for my birth and care mother, but to do so would have raised an issue which I did not want to consider and which was brought to my attention again as I passed by the offices of the Department of Health to the premature and preventable death of my care mother caused by a range of failures by a hospital authority, and community health authority and their individual officers together with a medical practice, regarding the premature and preventable death of my care mother in 2003. The failure to achieve justice will haunt me for the rest of my life.

A candlelight concert was taking place at St Martin’s in the Fields in the evening at 7.30 with two Brandenburg Concertos and other pieces. Tickets were reasonably priced but I wanted to avoid staying out so late after being out and about during the day.

A major refurbishment of Leicester Square is planed and is out for public consultation. A similar consultation is underway in Sutton and both Councils are proposing to change what has been a comparatively recent area restricted to pedestrian use by the reintroduction or increase in more trees and plants and less concentre. There is obviously government euro money available for what is essentially an environmental improvement and is probably similar to that used to upgrade civic parks. Will I try and find out?

Where has the Swiss Clock gone together with the Swiss centre? A new building is rising from where the old one was. The Trocadero building remains an odd concoction. The public toilets cost£1. If one walks a few yards on the same level along the classy underground passageway where now the trendy bars and stores have all closed and into the Piccadilly Circus underground there are large, clean, bright, supervised public toilets as good as any anywhere, for free.

Back at the Trocadero the external escalator to the Cineworld Cinema was not working and in order to get to the right level it was necessary to go down and around to then go up to reach the entrance. My memory was good for once in that after buying my ticket which only cost £5.90 because a concession for seniors still applied for midday showings on a Saturday, I was able to find myself a seat in the lounge area out of the view of the ticket desk and sweet pop corn, coke, hot dog seller in order to surreptitiously eat my mixed green salad with ham and fruit salad. Another old and single men also had brought sandwiches which he eat discretely at a table. There were signs offering a pop corn and drink deal for more that the cost of my ticket. There were no signs forbidding taking food which had not been purchased at the cinema into the waiting seat area as in some cinemas now, as more and more people buy there goodies at the nearest supermarket and save a fortune.

I was going to see Che Guevara Part 2 based on the Bolivian Diaries. There were four others who joined me, three young men and a young woman, all singles. More on the film another day

Outside there was sunshine again but moving clouds indicated a day of showers. Mama Mia was showing at a nearby theatre. I decided to walk back to Victoria station and consider options on the way. Along the Haymarket I was amazed to see that there is a stage production of On the Waterfront. Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen will appear here in May in a new production of Waiting for Godot. The following day on a visit to Brighton and Worthing I learnt that the National Theatre production was on national tour prior to the London performances and the two had appeared there earlier in the week.

Alas it was five minutes after the 3pm matinee had commenced and a few minutes earlier I would have bought whatever available ticket. There was also a trendy restaurant where a bowl of soup cost a fiver and the rest of the menu was upwards.

In Trafalgar Square a rally was taking place. It was a small one where the speakers was not using the natural platform of the plinth and where I had once stood alongside Lord Russell as members of the Committee 100. I went close to investigate and it was about autism and a man was speaking who still believed there were links between the disease and the vaccination programme.

Whitehall was closed to traffic although temporary barriers were being cleared and walking on the East side was difficult because of pavement improvements and work on the roadside underground services. I had wanted to take a close look at the monument to the contribution of women in wartime. It is a more striking and moving construction to the Cenotaph.

As a reached the end of Whitehall it commenced to rain again so I quickly went into Westminster underground entrance along the Embankment and discovered the significant improvements that have been made to the entrance hall and ticket offices. About time too.

The rain decided what I was to do. I would go to Clapham Junction by train and Wandsworth to the Cineworld Cinema to see film about the Life of Brian Clough. I caught a train immediately and then a bus arrived within minutes with a stop just by the entrance to the shopping mall. How I stop to look at the price of meals at an American steak restaurant where once a day it was possible to enter the steak challenge. If you eat four pounds of steak in an hour you did not have pay the cost of £59.95. This only took a minute or two thought.

On arrive at the cinema ticket centre there was a good queue but also several staff and to my frustration I found that I had noted the wrong times and I had probably missed the start of the film by a matter of minutes. Although I had a free admittance voucher I hate missing the start of a film. Instead I decided to see the second Clive Owen film in a matter of weeks (previously the International). This time it was Duplicity with Julia Roberts, a caper involving two former intelligence officers who decided to go private and make $40 million dollars to give themselves the lifestyle they had become accustomed. More on the film another day.

Afterwards with rain spots falling I was luck again to catch a bus back to Clapham within seconds of leaving the shopping centre and crossing the road to the bus stop. At the station entrance I visited the Sainsbury’s Direct for a small baguette. A soft light twist filled with chocolate and Danish pastry. I would have a feast back at in my Travel Lodge Room with salami and strong coffee. There was no train to Caterham listed one the departures board at the Station so I guessed I had missed one so I caught the first fast train to East Croydon and there had only to wait a few minutes for a train from London Bridge. There were more people on board than anticipated. Back in my room I enjoyed the feast and then watched the highlights of England’s game and Slovakia. At least I believe I watched most of it because I came over very tired and got into bed. I do not we scored four goals and had to keep changing the centre forward because of injury. I switch everything off without listening to the after match comments and went immediately to sleep.

1676 Meeting the Challenge

I am enjoying life too well. I would like to believe that this has been achieved through many years working hard and seeking redemption for sins committed, sins unintended, so that it is a state which will continue. I hope two major decisions taken over recent months have contributed. The immediate challenge is to tackle weight and fitness if there is to be any prospect of reaching eighty. Yesterday was a so so start to the new campaign. I had a croissant and a little coffee, then a portion of prawns with shells and fruit salad for lunch. A Danish with coffee mid afternoon. The coffee was £2.10 from a garage machine, after the Costa Coffee outlet said their machine had blown up earlier in the day and was Ok but I still baulk at paying more for an individual cup than a whole packet from the supermarket. For evening meal there was soup with a second croissant acting as a roll and a mixed salad with the second piece of salmon and slice of smoke mackerel followed by grapes.

The previous evening I watched an excellent one hour episode of Taggart with a contemporary theme. Two Polish Migrant workers are shot dead from close range in what first looks like a professional hit and then from a message to a radio station are said to be random assassinations against the influx of migrants from Poland in particular and central Europe.

For some of the team the phone call appears to confirm that the victims were chosen because of their nationality but others are not convinced especially when it appears that the telephone call is a made up relayed tape from a public call box where there are no CCTV cameras. It could be a false trail to take the police away from the actual motivation and culprit

The first victim is a comparatively recently arrived building worker who has openly criticised the way the hiring and placement firm operated and had joined forces with a young female lawyer and social activist with a Polish parental background. She is then professionally used by the detective team as an interpreter and her involvement becomes known to then hiring boss who is the prime suspect when her home is firebombed. This he admits but not the murders. The second victim has lived in Scotland for six years, works as hotel receptionist and is married to a native businessman she met while he was visiting Poland. There appears to be no connection between the two although as the hour long programme progressed it is first established that both attended Catholic mass on Sundays and then that the two were on the same flight from Poland to Scotland when the building worker first came to the UK. It is then found that the two are related and are cousins.

The husband is revealed as the killer because he had tried to eradicate all traces of Poland from her life and the arrival of the relative had changed the position, resurrecting feelings for her homeland. This is unusual motivation for murder but credible given the personality of the husband.

The sub plot in the relationship which develops between DI Robbie Ross played by John Mitchie, (whose grandparents were Italian interned during the second world war) and the Polish lawyer, activist cum interpreter. Romances, let alone serious relationship rarely if ever last in these series so it will be interesting to learn if this one has legs, especially as Robbie saves her life. In contrast to the two hour Lewis on Sunday this episode was believable and fully engaged the single hour.

The State Dinner is the seventh episode of the first series of the West Wing and is a classic example of inviting a head of state from a country whose regime one disapproves and then drawing attention to their shortcomings in official pubic speeches rather than frank but private discussions.

The White House Press are only interested in the details of the dresses and accompaniments to be worn at the dinner, whereas three other events become the concern of the President and his staff. This may be accurate as a reflection of public interest in froth rather than substance but was one of several question marks about authenticity. Two of the “situations” would attract instant 24 hour media attention in real life.

One is a hurricane which is heading for Atlanta where the grand parents of Charlie live, and who as established as the personal assistant to the President, he is promised help by White House staff to find what has happened to them. If you have got power which not use it for colleagues, an issue which occurs again later in episode and the series. The hurricane changes course and heads for where a fleet battle group has reassembled. President’s like everyone one else have to sit and wait, having no control over the conduct of nature’s forces.

The second situation concerns a siege involving a white separatist who brandishes a gun sold by the security services as part of an entrapment and where Mandy Hampton, Public Relations adviser, counsels caution, suggesting that a negotiator should be used. Unfortunately he is shot at first opportunity and is struggling for his life, which causes her distress, rightly for not listening to the more experienced. The third situation is an announced strike where the employers and union have failed to reach a settlement. The president is able to intervene and threatens to nationalise the industry and have the union members placed in the national service if they fail to reach agreement before the strike is due to commence. Apparently this approach previously resolved a real life situation. I have no means of checking but if ti happened it is further insight into how the USA ticks.

The main interest is on a private meeting between Toby and Josh, seeking the help of the Presidential aide, aid from the aide, for the release of a French journalist and friend. They are told to go to Hell after Toby’s drafted speech, in welcoming the President refers to the non democratic nature of the regime. The one weakness if this episode is why there is the state visit was arranged anyway as their appears to be nothing over which the two nations can bargain. There is a delightful vignette where it is necessary to use a kitchen hand who speaks the dialect of the visitor and a second language but has no English while the official interpreter can speak the second language of the kitchen hand and can translate into American.

Deputy speech writer Sam continues his relationship with the high class call girl who wants to graduate in law and leave her lucrative night job. They meet at diner for a snack. She has to go to get ready for her date, a wealthy man who books her when he is in town but she does not know where they are going that evening. He turns out to be a Democratic Party financial backer rewarded with invites to major social functions such as the state dinner and greets the three staffers Leo Josh and Sam saying what a great job they are doing and introduces his companion. While he goes off for drinks Sam tries to buy out the girl that evening for $10000 dollars as the wife of the President arrives. This is her first appearance, Stockyard Channing, who came to fame in Grease. Before then the girl asks Sam, what is it you do here exactly? He replie, It’s never really been made clear to me.

Enemies is the 8th and final episode on the first disk of the complete series. This is the first episode not written by Aaron Sorkin. I thought this worked well and proved to highly topical in that it concerned the efforts to pass a Banking Bill where the banking community is opposed seeking deregulation. At the last moment two senators attach a land use strip mining deal in order to scupper the bill knowing that the Presidential Team will not accept. Early on the President has kept Josh up until 2am showing off his knowledge of the 44 National Parkland areas and which he has visited. Josh has a last minute brainwave being a creative genius and advises the President that he can accept the Bill and then use the Antiquities Act to prevent strip mining by declaring the land the 45th national parkland under the legislation.

The Vice President is asked to set the Cabinet meeting off until the President arrives and suggests to the group that their first priority is to work with Congress to get things done. The President then immediately arrives and checks what the Vice President has said and chastises for not prefacing his remarks that their priority is to serve the interests of the American people and the clash is leaked to the media friend of C J who has started to take a personal interest in her. She prevents the leak widening by giving the journalist a half hour exclusive interview, the same length as Prime Minister’s Question Time, and half that of the Prime. Ministers monthly press conference. The Vice President is upset at being accused of being the leak which is traced to the secretary verbatim note taker. Later the Vice President asks the President why he is so hostile towards him and the President explains that he was forced to beg the Vice President to run and deliver the South to win the Presidential election after the President had beat him in the primaries for the Democratic Party nomination.

The most interesting aspect is that this was the first meeting of the Cabinet in six months and the third of the administration. The President is not convinced that any meetings are necessary, finding them mind numbing, Leo McGarry Chief of Staff reminds that they are constitutionally required. This may be the equivalent of the Privy Council to the Queen rather than the British Cabinet Government system which not only meets weekly but where there are several Cabinet sub committees ongoing and until Thatcher the Prime Minister was always regarded as the first among equals.

The minor plot is the relation between Leo, his wife and his daughter who he meets for breakfast at his hotel and where a cup of coffee is $6.50. He wants to know how his wife is and who has decided upon divorce. The daughter does not want to be drawn into taking sides or giving information out which her might not wish her to do so. She accepts the subscription opera tickets as his wife does not want to go and misses the fact that he was in effect asking her to go with him. She asks Sam the deputy communications director who is reluctant and seeks approval from Leo. Leo asks him to work on a Presidential birthday message for an assistant secretary of transport as a means of spiking the outing and the President twigs what is going on and asks Sam to put his personal imprint when he gets a staffer to produce and acceptable response. When she finds this out, the daughter blows up in the presence of the President and he goes through the list of activities her father has undertaken during the day including ensuring that the President has not broken the law and is about to be indicted. She goes to the second act with her father and Sam declines joining them for coffee in the interval as he is taken up with getting the message right and in this he is joined by his boss. They comment that they have difficulty in locating their talent but one explains to the other that it is somewhere in the building.

The programme is brilliant in communicating that these are exceptional men and women who deal with a multitude of important and varied issues of government and party every day 24/7 but who have the same behavioural issues as everyone else in terms of personal relationships, being bored and excessively involved, understanding and also blind when emotions are aroused. It is doubtful if anyone can function at the level required for more than a few years.

1675 My Guardian Angel

One touch of her hand than an eternity without ever having done so, it the best line from City of Angels, the Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan film of whimsy, the second within two days. Given my agnosticism about the concept of a human form of God. It will appear whimsical that I have felt the existence of a personal guardian angel pointing the way out of dark places that I have sometimes explored and generally indicating the way ahead. Today guardian angel was much in evidence, to an extent that I became anxious about what disaster lay immediately ahead. Whereas yesterday I had a sense of a lot to do and insufficient time to accomplish, today I kept asking why I felt so relaxed and why there seemed so much time available to accomplish the tasks in hand. Such was my concern at this wondrous situation that I went around checking to try and work out the obvious things missed which usually happens and so far the response has been zero.

I was expecting someone to call this afternoon and I wanted to be ready to go and needed to collect a book of stamps from the mantle to the fireplace and which involved stepping between two laden small tables and a pile of completed work volumes waiting to be photographed. On existing I stumbled caught my leg on the hard edge of the sofa which I felt onto, a soft landing as they say, which could have been a lot worse, remembering what happened when I went to explore a new corner shop earlier in the year, cut my nose laving and scar and having to spend several hours in hospital while they checked to ensure there were no serious after effects. By coincidence I after calling in at the newsagent I made my way to the post box which was opposite the said corner shop and as I turned away having completed the posting I stumbled on the uneven paving stone but this was slight and regained my balance without the risk of falling. So two down and one to go. I hoped I did have a guardian angel.


I had been out earlier to the supermarket earlier for salad (lettuce, tomatoes and cumbers) fresh fruit salad, a mixture of melon, mango and grapes, an ideal portion for me at £1 when on the go, but expensive given the number of portions which could be made up from buy grapes and melon separately plus a mango. I also bought croissant for breakfast and a couple of Danish pastries as treats. I enjoyed my food today with a Danish and coffee mid morning breakfast, a concoction for lunch stir fry of onion and green pepper with noodles and Thai made up sauce with added ginger and half a melon. Shell on prawns and decaffeinated tea mid afternoon. Tomato and basil soup and brown finger roll for evening meal, followed by a sald mix with a small piece of salmon and a larger piece of smoked mackerel followed the second half of the melon plus decaffeinated coffee.

Sewed button to front of trousers to secure the waist band, undertook a washing machine small load, dry and ironing. Paid credit card outstanding in full and checked account. Checked and responded to emails, some personal others general.

The Prime Minister is away addressing the European Parliament so Harriet Harman took on William Hague and Vince Cable. Harriet was well prepared and in a combative mode. The main strike against the government was to raise the recent public intervention of the Independent Governor of the Bank of England against a new, second or further Government intervention involving tax cuts or additional borrowings. This was followed today with the inability to sell all the Gilts available on offer. The Bank, probably in league with the Treasury are pulling the stops to prevent the Prime Minister forcing developments with which they disagree to make a voter friendly budget and win votes.

I have enjoyed the second series of Ballykissangel which has seen the departure of Father Clifford and Assumpta of Fitzgerald’s. He is away on a Retreat with Father Mac trying to prove he can operate the parish as well as his own and save the cost of the Curate while Assumpta is running a bar with a friend in Dublin. In this episode Brian Quigley has put all his financial eggs into his development programme for the village and which involves a deal with South Koreans for whom he plans a traditional authentic Irish experience. The shrewd managing director and chief executive plus interpreter arrive early, as is their want. in order to test the locals and things go badly until they stumble on a party at the former village hall and have a great time. Brian believe all his efforts are wasted as the decision is said to have already been made in favour and Glasgow area bid. I do not think this in the case, but will miss the episode tomorrow. Alas I was wrong and the deal is already made elsewhere and Brian is forced to sell his House and his car and lay off his two sidekicks. When he discovers that his son in law‘s mother, who he cannot stand, has money, he changes his approach, according to the notes on tomorrows edition.

The premise of the film, City of Angels, is that angels cannot feel or experience sensation as human beings. A premise I reject but without which the film falls apart. Nicolas Cage is a messenger taking people who die to heaven. They can be everywhere simultaneously where there is the possibility of death. He and the other angels, who amazingly appear to be all male and in human form, and allocated to The City of Angeles, Los Angeles, use the City Library as their base, but manage to assemble every dawn and dusk by the ocean to commune with God.

Nicholas is present when surgeon Meg Ryan desperately tries to save the life of a patient and gets very upset when she fails. For some reason because of her questioning God and his attraction to her, she gets sight of him and because of his interest and concern, a non feeling concern you understand, he is able to appear again and became directly acquainted. She is able to touch him but he continues to have no feelings. She invites him to attend the party of a patient she has saved and the man reveals that he too was an angel who wanted to have human experience and he realised that God had given angels free will along with human beings and that it is possible for angels to fall, that is, to become human, with human feelings and experience, including an eventual physical death. The man is married and become a grandparents with a tendency to over eat. When a photo is taken which does not show Nicholas, Meg becomes suspicious and later cuts his hand and find there is no blood so he reveals all. Understandably this blows her mind and she runs off and Nicholas is also upset by the predicament. There are two complicating factors. The first is that she has been having a good relationship with a colleague who sensing something has changed decides it is time to propose. The second is that the saved man who was an angels to her that if Nicholas is prepared to give up his role and immortality as an angel he can become human.

This something Nicholas decides to do and one of he best moments in the film si where eh experiences the normal feelings and sensation we are all accustomed to unless we have been deprived in some form. Getting to see Meg again is also hazardous and involves being mugged. Eventually they meet up and he finds that she has turned down the marriage offer so there is nothing preventing a union in which the earth moves. For the second film day in succession just when the joy has no boundaries, she is killed while out jogging and he learns the nature of human grief and loss. However when asked that question, his answer is that all human being s are able to give, except in those moment of despair, grief and loss, unless of course you were previously an Angel.

Did my guardian Angel prevent a third mishaps turning into a disaster. Alas not quite. More on that on the morrow.

1171 Apocalypto and Riddle films

I believe I understand concept of Limbo in its spiritual and psychological meaning as a condition of being between where we have been and know, and where we are moving to and wish for and but also fear. It may be better, more as we would like, but it may also be worse and a step before the abyss. It is therefore a place of uncertainty and tension. While the length and nature of the rest of my life is unknown and therefore uncertain, and I am frequently bewildered by the choices available, and while I am sometimes afraid when I contemplate some of the options, the possibilities, and the chains of inevitable consequences which some actions and decisions, or inactions and indecisions appear to bring, I am not in an overall state of tension. I feel at peace with myself and therefore with other human beings and with nature. Later I believe a better word is harmony

It has not always been so and I do not anticipate that it will continue throughout my remaining self awareness, nor does this mean an absence of strong emotions, or always being in an intensity of being and heightened alertness. I am frequently tired and I sometimes fight to experience more or to work on, but usually I know when to yield and when to not.

I would love to continue to sit and explore my present thoughts and feelings. I would like to finish off what I have been writing about beforehand and completing the background work required to reach the point when I feel able to move onto something new or something outstanding. I would like to walk in what appears to be a good morning. But having slept from 1 am, perhaps a little later, through until just before 10 am with two gettings up, both with dreams I continue to remember, and think I understand and returning immediately to a pleasantly remembered slumber, it is time to prepare a sandwich lunch, to but the Mail on Sunday if they are still available because of the unusual free distribution of an undistributed new film, and time to attend to my mother and her situation.

It is 5.49 pm and I returned home before 5 pm to get a wash underway, some sorting and some writing only to then remember that the Q E 2 was arriving at North Tyneside Dock around 5 and traffic was everywhere trying to park including the back lanes. Fortunate I found a space near to where I live. However despite the huge crows all that has happened so far is that the ship has circled along the coast. Perhaps the wind is too strong, perhaps it is now waiting for the evening sailing of the DFS North Sea Ferry sherry service to depart. The tugs are still there all four, plus the ferry boats packed with sightseers and a flotilla of smaller craft.

It has been that kind of day as I went in search of a Daily Mail fro a copy of a unreleased film Riddle with Derek Jacobi, Vanessa Redgrave and Vinnie Jones. There was none at Asda so I moved on to High Street and W H Smiths, was closed and Woolworths had a copy so on impulse I went to see if they had a recently issued double DC of the 30 best of Marc Bolam T Rex and while I was there I could not resist Amy Whitehouse Back to Back my first purchases of a CD's this year. Amy Winehouse has a jazzy voice full of feeling which is unique, perhaps because she is destroying herself, as several others have before, from excessive alcohol, drugs and self abuse, Janis Joplin the first to mind in what could be a litany. Recently her father in law pleaded that the public boycott as means of bringing her and their son to his senses before it was too late. I understand their position but she is paying the price of her gift her way. We cannot and should not attempt control the lives of our children but provide unconditional love, understanding and support. But in some situations this is difficult to impossible, especially in the glare of the mass media.

I had only been at the hospital for an hour when I realised that the Sunday Times was issuing free DVD's of Michael Palin's travel so I went in search and invested £2 only to find it was a single episode and not the one I had hoped for. Now I have a week's reading of newspapers.

England are Playing South Africa in the 20/20 and had a good start taking wickets and controlling the run flow and then everything goes wrong dropped catches, sixes and the game slips.

My interest over the past three days has been Apocalypto, Mel Gibson's second directorial journey using historical language, in this instance Mayan, to present his unique perception of universal truths was not a film I rushed to experience either in Theatre or on DVD. I found The Passion unbearable to watch such was the intensity and reality of the suffering, although acceptable because of its purpose symbolism and purpose. Apocalypto is essentially entertainment, a classic chase film, with an ending which reminds of the Bergman's film, The Seventh Seal, when at the end of a medieval plague, one simple, environmental nuclear family, survive in their form of garden of Eden.
In Apocalypto there never was a Garden of Eden. The hero is an experienced "savage" hunter who has to hunt and kill animals to survive and he needs all the street fighting skills imparted by his father and other tribe members to outwit the sophisticated Mayan city folk who engage in daily enslavement, rape and pillage, to keep the population happy with ritual public slaughter and live private video hunt games where the quarry are the surplus sacrifices.

However his loyalty after his father and brother warriors is to his wife and son who he hides in a precarious environment dependent on returning. This he accomplishes through a mixture of self belief and spiritual prophecy and the natural cleverness and luck of all the James Bond films rolled into one, and we all learn that his wife is more than worthy for his selfless commitment overcoming two body piercing which would have been lethal to anyone else, jumping off Niagara Falls, getting out of a quick sands swamp and out running and outwitting a cougar.

She survives imprisoned in the abyss, attends to her son when injured, gives birth, overcomes floods and retains an impressive tranquillity and faith in their redemption by her husband. However at they set off to a new beginning at the end of the film we know they are now in even greater period because the Christian banner waving Conquistadors have arrived. This enemy will bring disease and destruction, human exploitation and savage torture to equal and exceed anything the Mayans could produce.



James Barardinelli is my favourite film reviewer, an online film critic whose has never failed in his assessments and he sees the film as a partner to Braveheart than The Passion and the chase has having origins in Mad Max. I suspect Mel Gibson had deeper motives although I do not go along with my other dependable reviewers from Spirituality and Practice who always try and see great meaning and who in this instance begin with the question of questions: Are we living the end of times? Well only perhaps if we have to be obliterated to make way for a space super highway (Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy)but otherwise human being must be regarded as minor specie in the universe incapable of learning how to live without killing and exploiting each other.

The title, Apocalypto is designed to indicate a story about a civilization in decline, the Mayan, at the hand of the Conquistadors. A subtext is about overcoming fear although the message that if you take on bullies you will win in the end is a false one and misunderstands the Christian and Muslim messages, and maybe Judaism and other religions, which is about how you live, how you deal with fear, how you die, and other issues of conscience and morality irrespective of the consequences or the implications for others. The writers of the review claim that Mel Gibson is on a mission to "help us own up to human savagery and to realise how desperately we need peace and love to counter balance it."
Reference Frederic and Mary Brussat
www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films. Fro O.F.C.S site
In order to test out this statement as actually representing Gibson's intention it is necessary for me to view the Director's commentary again to night although priority will be Sunderland's win at home on the day the club said goodbye to Ian Porterfield, who died from cancer and whose is remembered for scoring the goal that brought Sunderland glory when the beat Leeds to win the FA Cup in 1973, a game I saw on TV never realising that I would buy a house within walking distance of the club and become a season ticket holder 1974-1990, 2007-?

The reason why I have not immediately watched the commentary is that Durham were on the TV during the day and I returned home to see the end of the game and find out if they beat Glamorgan and achieve promotion to the division 1 of the pro 40 over championship with an out side chance of going up as champions and the second piece of silverware in one year after over a decade of nothing. And WOW they have done both. Compensation for not getting to Sunderland and this would have involved being away for four hours. I will watch an edited version of the game at 10.15.

My evening meal tonight reflected a positive mood. A glass of red wine, a 2005 Rioja Bodegas Primicia from North East Spain, smoked salmon on crackers with fresh lemon juice, stuffed shoulder of mutton with petite corn of cobs and garden peas, followed by fresh pineapple. There was time for part of the X factor preliminaries before the evening visit where my mother was having a peaceful evening and the only event was coping with a daddy long legs which freaked one of the staff who came to prepare my mother for the early part of the night.

This morning I had a dream which echoed several images from Apocalypto. And then became busy, ironing, washing up, vacuuming the entrance passage, stairs to half landing and the toilet, preparing a salmon salad for lunch, defrosting food for evening meal, preparing the pineapple and then deciding on a two egg ham omelette for breakfast.

I watched a little of Independence Day before the Sunderland Reading game on Sky. We now have a strong and fast centre forward who can shoot, a rare combination, but he should have scored two more than the opening goal. There were several other incidents which could have changed the match for both sides, although the excerpts of the interview given by the manager of Reading was a model for not hiding behind questionable refereeing decisions or the poor run of the green, but concentrated on the overall performance of the team over the first part of the new season. Then the final moments of Independence Day and the Mel Gibson commentary. What a disappointment.

Perhaps I was wrong to expect some insight into what he hoped for his film other that clever well acted and produced entertainment. Certainly he gives unlimited to praise to the indigenous actors and extras, some given speaking parts, to the make up team and camera crew. There are lots of in jokes which they share but overall this is Gibson and his co producer an enjoyable buddies look back at what they did and how they did it, but not why. It was the most weird film commentaries I have experienced.

1170 Prayer for Mabel

One of my earliest memories is my mother saying the rosary with her sisters during air raids. Because the V1 flying bomb was launched in daylight I remember seeing one over head, its engine cutting out later as we disappeared into the shelter. Today both memories became underlined for very different reasons. This afternoon I watched the first part of Operation Crossbow which covered the trials of the V1 through to the launching of the V2 and the work on the V3 with the power to reach New York from Europe.
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In the early part of the afternoon I said the Hail Mary for my mother with a priest as he performed the anointing and absolution of her sins. She gave him what I can only describe as a radiant smile of recognition. It is usually difficult for me to say words, aspects of which I cannot accept, as being true or appropriate. There was no such difficulty

The previous day my mother nearly ran out of clean nightdresses as with the move from a four bedded ward to a single room and the decision to place her on the "pathway" I had forgotten to check the position so there were four to immediately wash and dry. For a moment there was a little sickening feeling when the dryer refused to work although the on button was lit, so I opened and then shut the door more firmly and it did its required job. I was not inclined to iron until this morning and after the work was completed I decided to travel immediately to Sunderland after preparing lunch.

In the rush I forgot to dry the prawns and the lettuce and realised too late that the rolls would be soggy and inedible by the lunch time. I dried everything, the prawns, the lettuce and the rolls, putting the lettuce and prawns in a container. and the dusted mild olive oil spread rolls in a tin with a good lid, for later, after they had dried on kitchen tissue. One I had earlier this evening with soup and a second in a moment with two slices of cheese and a cup of coffee while watching the second part of the film which was on TCM2 after returning from my evening visit, Fortunately I had bought 3 packs of 4 rolls for £1 so made up two more for the lunch which I took separately adding a banana and small bottle of cold water. There was only time to eat some fresh pineapple for breakfast although later from M and S I bought a cinnamon whirl which was devoured in the car park as tenses. The purpose of the visit to Marks and Spencer's was to purchase pretty night dressers, three to add to those which were now ready and avoid any further crisis during what was expected to be no more than days. A matron of mature years appeared curious that I was examining the female nightwear so I smiled and held one against my frame. "Ooh you are wicked."

I usually wear black shirts, not to identify me as a Goth or a member of the Toon army but to hide the full impact of a 16 stone rounded tum. However in the circumstances these were no longer appropriate and on checking the wardrobe the only suitable shirts were short sleeved. I selected a pale blue for £10 and then saw a packet of three for £15 which should see me over the next few days given that I am washing, drying and ironing every two or three. The Sunderland Branch of British Home Stores was closed and follows the Sunderland closure of Woolworths and Littlewoods although other stores have taken the place of the latter two. It is odd because Woolworths survives at South Shields and in Jarrow, and only within the past two years has a BHS branch opened in South Shields.

When I rush I create a good sweat, and usually carry a spare shirt and towel. Fortunately I had parked the car on an upper floor with a few vehicles before stripping to the waist, drying and deciding on the pale blue after consuming the pastry. There has been a significant price differential between this car park next to the cinema complex and with the Casino in one corner and the other multi-storey car parks closer to the shopping centre although there distance is small. To day I found an increase from 60 pence to 80p an hour although you get three free hours if you sue the cinema and twenty four is using one of the remaining restaurants built as part of the development. Two have already been closed. This makes even more odd the speculative opening of the theatre restaurant in a block of older buildings all available renting and looking the worse for outside wear in the road leading from the shopping centre to the cinema casino car park complex. The new development has a small entrance with only a normal shop front although this has been replaced by contemporary glass depicting a theatre scene and there are two large lighted chandeliers visible. The advertisements offer a meal with songs from the shows for £35 per head, (I think remember from an add), and reminds me of the all in entertainments and meals offered on the Spanish Costa's, although this seems to be on a much smaller scale. In contrast to style someone has pasted large lettering to say that bookings for this Friday and Saturday are now available. The venture is bold and unlike Sunderland and I will make the effort to check any reviews and wish it well. There has been a large vacant space next to car park which is now being developed with a two storey structure emerging so far. I believe there will be a master plan for this area with the new penthouse tower block on the Bridge riverside with a unoccupied office/shops/whatever included on the road level floor, the riverside development student and private accommodation and the Old Town improvements further east towards the docks and the commercial older buildings, former town houses I assume, lots of lawyers, and some cobbles to the south. I also make a further note that the town's stage school also looks closed. There will be time to find these things out if I remain interested, later

I arrived at the hospital before eleven. This evening over a meal of the soup, a ready made pasta bake and the rest of the fresh pineapple there we as time to watch some of a recording of England 20/20 world cricket competition. There seems to have been just about time for the team to have said goodbye to their families before catching the plane to where (South Africa?) after that excellent win at Lords to take the one day series against India 4.3. Petersen, Flintoff were both playing again and despite a brilliant start by the opponents who yesterday shocked the cricket world by beating Australia Yesterday evening Scotland beat France 1.0 in Paris, a brilliant goal and world class goal keeping from Sunderland's £9 million summer signing. I also enjoyed England's 3.0 win at Wembley over Russia but the news is grim for farmers with a second outbreak of Foot and Mouth near Ingham in Surrey and I listed to an ex warrior talk of what happened to him after being wounded and returning home. He gets flashbacks. These I know can be more frightening that the real experience. I had one once immediately after I returned home from six months in prison to a welcome from my mother and her sisters as if I had been away on some work trip or holiday. We never spoke of where I had been or why and I talked myself out of what appeared to be happening to myself psychologically and emotionally. I never had a flashback again. One was enough, bit like going to prison. I wonder if all recruits who will see active service are psychologically screened these days. Not to do so is negligence of the highest order, criminally negligent I would add. However I suspect it is impossible to make 100% predictions of how individuals will behave when put to the test. You have to recruit killers who will stop killing when you decide and expect them to live with what they have done and seen afterwards.

" Dear Mary Magdalene, I hope you are continuing to enjoy heaven and sorry for not having been in touch much recently. I would send texts but my stumpy fingers are hopeless with small keys and I have to correct and correct the typing and word forms.

I am writing to ask that you help Mabel who is starting on her pathway. Although she is well prepared for the trip my instinct tells me the going will get rough and while her mental determination and stamina remains as tough as ever, the body is getting weaker, nature's way I guess. As you know Mabel was hit with a double whammy because the illness not only churned up her concepts of time and place but increasingly during this year, since her one hundred birthday, has mixed up and stopped some of the signals from the brain to the body so she might get even more confused and lose her way a bit. Having said that if anyone can find where you all are hanging out these days, it is she.

My favour is that you locate the present whereabouts of all her sisters and brothers, as well as her parents and grandparents and other relatives and let them know she is on her way. You will remember she drove everyone crazy by reciting their names over and over again when she first went into care in January 2003 and while I am able to go through something of their lives with her it is difficult to know how much she is able now hear and her focussing has become very limited.

PS I was glad to hear last time how well Judas is doing given his subsequent bad PR, something you will know only too well about. Bye for now. Joseph."

1169 Churchill's Bodyguard

A requirement of political leadership is the ability to take a long term view. Yesterday evening there was a documentary about the involvement of Churchill's personal security officer in an incident which underlined the reality of the task of those holding high political office.

In 1943 Churchill had undertaken several journeys across the Atlantic and also to North Africa. At one point his journey home was delayed and afterwards there was a report that his personal security officer had deliberately and secretly taken action to prevent the departure of the plane. Walter H Thompson was Churchill's bodyguard in two spells between 1921 and 1945 recalled from semi retirement to act privately for £5 a week in August 1939 and then officially on behalf of Scotland yard when Churchill rejoined the Cabinet. The involvement of Walter Thompson who became a close confidant of Churchill only became widely known some two decades after his death with the publication of his memoirs in 2003, and an official autobiography in 2005 which also coincided with a BBC TV series originally shown in November and December 2005, and now available on 13 DVD's.

What emerged in last night's episode is that following the breaking of the code governing all German communications a moral dilemma arose of the highest difficulty because in order to ensure that the knowledge remained secret from the enemy it was important not to reveal the advantage by altering plans in a conspicuous way. This meant that many German operations which led to significant loss of life among the allies had to be allowed to progress unless there was a way of altering or intervening without arousing enemy suspicions.

In the incident in the episode repeated yesterday Churchill delayed his departure because of a technical problem where the evidence emerged after the war that Walter Thompson had removed a key component. This did not mean he knew the Code machine had been cracked or why he had been asked to prevent the plane from flying that day. But it is known that government intelligence was aware of an attempt to kill Churchill and that the enemy believed for a short time that they had got Churchill when the civilian airplane was attacked and shot down.

It is known that one false trail was that Churchill might return home using a civil airliner and it is interesting that one passenger had a Churchill sounding name and a good resemblance and that the film actor Leslie Howard who looked like the body guard was listed in the passenger list next to the Churchill look alike. That this was more than coincidence has two sources, one fact and one fiction. The factual example is 'I was Monty's double,' where the recruited actor, visited Gibraltar, hence my special interest staying with the Governor and attending a dinner at which a suspect agent was invited and then made a tour of the front in North Africa, while Churchill was elsewhere. I cannot remember the fictitious series which was more likely to have been Foyle's War than Poirot, but I believe that the in the fictitious story the actor died whereas Monty's double lived to tell the tale According to information to-date Walter Thompson was involved in preventing thirteen attempts on Churchill's life.

If the official sacrificing of a few to save the greater number is justified in total war of a conventional nature why is it not justified in relation to terrorist advocating a fundamentalist obliteration of all those who dissent?

Today as been long with eight hours at the hospital. On return home for the second time I dried the washing but left the ironing and washing up till the morrow. My DVD club has sent The Greatest Story ever told and I stayed up tired but not exhausted thanking to be reminded of something greater than the situation and my life. I have seen the film before but had no recollection and tonight it was more background as I checked my space communications and was immediately interested in a new request to be included as a friend. I had forgotten that the film is full of tableaux and the tone of the script is appropriate although some contemporary Americanisms find their way. I am very tired and will stop the film and go to bed after posting this as it is. I bought a salmon and a prawn sandwich to take with me and then a beef with noodles, onion and peppers stir fry for the evening meal, having acquired a stir fry pan of sufficient size. My weight was down a few pounds this morning.

I said Catholics prayers on behalf of my mother. Last Autumn I set about rereading the Old Testament, the Worldwide Master Catechism of the Catholic Church and Catholicism for Dummies but I ran out of the available before work in relation to my mother's 100th birthday. I hate leaving things half done especially if they could have an important bearing on my future years. I did not feel what I was doing was hypocritical or without meaning because what I said was on behalf of someone who until the illness took hold appeared to possess a lifelong faith without question or doubt. An intermission curtain has dropped down on the film so it is a good time to stop. Last night in part because I slept for half an hour before midnight I could not sleep on going to bed and needed to get up and write a little. The prayer to St Joseph was appropriate for more than one reason.

1168 Rick Rescorla

This has been slow Sunday in September. Dispiritied overtired, overeating. I have seen too much of myself and of others and then I saw a programme about the life of Rick Rescorla. The man who foresaw 9/11, lived and died his boyhood dream.

First public reasons for the mood. The sun don't shine any more and a cold wind commenced to blow. It look like rain but held off. I reattached the sleeves to my jacket. Previously the sun came has come out once more when I did this and they had to be quickly unzipped again. Today I think they are on for the rest of Autumn and soon it will be necessary to attach to the coat. Was this pessimism or realism? My forecasting of disaster has always been good.

It was not a morning for walking but I needed to ensure that a letter arrived for the 11th. At the Post Office a small sticker covered the Sunday posting information and the smaller print announced an end to Sunday collections from October. Another example of losing public support. OK the business post was collected Friday Saturday and the majority of human beings in the technologically dominated world prefer to communicate by email, especially as one can also include documents and photos. The majority of the population in the world will not know what I am talking about. There are 200 million profiles on Myspace wow.

I decided to try and resolve the issue of the relocation of Asda. Previously there was a report that the company wanted to relocate because of the limited space at its present location, although it is ideal for those like me living on the Lawe Top to the Flagg Court area who can walk back with small purchasers or use the car on our way back or for a combined visit elsewhere in the town centre. However from the company's viewpoint genuine car shoppers are put off by the limited car parking at peak times, since the manned barriers had to be removed and with it the requirement to show a receipt with the length of stay governed by the purchase. I understood that in order to continue to reduce or maintain prices, volume sales have to increase in competition with other supermarkets. The proposed relocation was along Coronation Street. Placing a supermarket in a street dedicated to the Monarch struck me as another symbolic step towards elevating the role of the Prime Minister and side lining the future Monarchy to a highly commercialised tourist attraction.

There had been a signboard at the existing site saying that a development would shortly take place and according to the press the atrocious and unused multi a storey car park by the old station was demolished to make way for a temporary car park while the existing site was redeveloped. The signboard has now disappeared along with the eyesore, but although this would make a good car park for station, and town centre, it remains fenced.

There is gasometer at one end of Coronation street opposite the new upmarket shopping development which destroys the tone of the proposed development area. There are two municipal car markets both underused, one set back so conversion to free supermarket car parks will not cause to great loss of revenue to the local authority from this source. The site is limited by a rise in ground to the site of the former St Hilda's colliery. There are new signs covering both car parks indicating a food retail development but not who for. There are derelict industrial use buildings adjacent and grassed banking behind which is a site used for travellers. This area has also been sealed while a different company is responsible for sewage work on behalf of the water authority. This will mean always taking the car and although a slight detour, it is on the way to or back from the residential home and now the hospital. However it is unlikely I will still be travelling in this direction when the new store opens. One advantage is that there will be a café restaurant. The extra walking will do be good. Always look on the bright side of life.

I am studying the official Riverside development plan which includes a proposal to develop recreational activities at Mill Dam, extending activity from Market Square down to this area and the Ferry. There is desperate need already to create a safe pedestrian crossing from the Market Square, Coronation street roadsides go the Ferry crossing and Mill Dam as there is often continuous traffic as families, couples and individuals rush to catch the ferry.

Weekends at hospitals have the same problem as at residential homes. OK British workers, especially professionals have got used to the concept of the five day week and they need time off to spend all their extra money. However residents and patients, cannot alter their conditions and needs on the basis of weekdays and weekends. Against expectation relatives and friends visit less at weekends than they do at weekends.

Once upon a time 3pm Saturday afternoon was the time when professional football was played. The FA Cup was also played on Saturday afternoons with replays midweek Then came the live televising of First Division/Premiership matches and the doorway was opened for televising Cup/ European Competitions and World Competition. For several years it is possible to regularly watch the Spanish and the Italian League once British players were recruited. Now the number of Saturday afternoon 3pm games has reduced with some games played at midday and other others early evening, and then on Sundays at midday and at 4pm. There was regularly a Monday evening game with European and other Cup games played Tuesday to Thursday. We have to change our lives to watch football because of the power of Television. The price of tickets continues to increase beyond the rate of inflation as do players wages and transfer fees. But all this happens because of public demand and willingness to pay whether to travel to watch matches lives or the additional fees for Satellite and Cable.

The better paid the doctor the more he controls when and how he works and public needs and demands are considered irrelevant.

The treatment of those with severe memory loss illness is also changing. When my mother was first diagnosed and the question of residential care arose I was told that there were no establishments which would take those with this psychological and those whose condition was primarily physical, although over time those with the psychological develop physical problems which overshadow the psychological and those who enter care because of physical problems also develop psychological. The distinctions become blurred. The situation in the home were my mother was resident, I begin to use the past tense, is that those with physical problems inhabit the ground floor and those with psychological the top but there has been some planned mixing for special events or in use of the garden and external smoking area.

In hospital there are two problems, as there has always been in relation to the elderly. Mixing those who are going to get better with those who are not and mixing those with major psychological problems with those who do not. Sometimes there are no solutions which meet the needs of everyone

So I eat too much, I did insufficient exercise, I played around with a communication, dissatisfied with what I had said and what I had not, perhaps it will not be sent at all. There are piles of work to be sorted to be made into sets grows, and correspondence issues, some could save money lay unattended. There are various jobs around the house to do or organise, some involve getting help. The battery charging unit on my digital camera is playing up again.

The day turned evening and dissatisfaction with myself became stronger especially as I missed the beginning of the man who predicted 9/11. I watched the rest of the programme and became even more dissatisfied with how I had spent my day and my life

I watched 9/11 as it happened. I was visiting my mother and her sister after they had a full lunch and I light one because of going out for a celebratory meal in central London that evening. The television was turned on for them and when the first plane crashed I thought the burning tower was part of the afternoon disaster movie. I had arrange a cable channel which was as much for me and for them so when I realised that the scene was on going I switched quickly between ITV and BBC and then to 24 hour News, BBC, ITV, Sky, and the USA news services, CNN and Fox and realised that this was a live happening and switched back just in time to witness the entry of the second plane. What did I do, watch on with the sound which would considerably upset my aunt, although seven then I was not certain how my mother would respond as she would often become upset without apparent external cause and unaware of situations which would have in times past, or find something else for them to see. I thought the event too important to not watch and continued to experience with them until it was time for me to walk to the railway station and make the forty minute journey into London.

The mood of travellers was difficult to gauge as it is always is in London at rush hour times as mostly people do not know each other or want to. Usually it is only if one travels at a time when children are going or returning from school, a family is making an outing or tourist visitors are onboard that one is able to overhear conversations. Today a sense of what was happening outside, and its impact, was obtained when two young women, school girls, but on a mission of some kind arrived and one was in constant use of a mobile phone sharing information with the other. The conversation was centred on the purpose of their visit but there was also references to the impact of events in New York and Washington on the centre of London, with reference to the banning of flights above the capital and then rumour that London was being closed.
The restaurant arranged for the meal is usually very lively full of talk but that evening it was notably quiet. I watched the TV for the rest of the visit and then when I returned home and the event had the same impact as when I switched on the news one morning ten year ago and learnt that Princess Diana had been involved in a serious accident, and then of her death. I was devastated by both events, more than I had been by then by some personal experiences in my life beforehand. I understood that the grief was also for those situation previously unexpressed but after 9/11 it was for all those involved, and it has remained so.

A wound that remains to be healed and where I hope for the future of humanity it never is, along with the reality of Stalinism, Fascism and Pol Pot, of Rwanda and, and, and the list is endless. Of course those directly affected must find the way to live on purposefully and enjoyably because otherwise individual self sacrificing would have had no point. What upset me now is that that I did not know the story of Rick Rescorla before. I have yet to settle on a list of 101 heroes of my time and those already added since the first brief list are all recent discoveries. Rick Rescorla is one more

He was born only two months after me as Cyril Richard Rescorla in the town of Hayle, Cornwall. I have visited Hayle and its long and wide beach of sand dunes, known as Towans staying for a fortnight in a cottage. Thirty years ago were a large number of holiday homes on stilts not encountered elsewhere until visiting Gruissan Lanuedoc-Rousillian, Southern France.

In 1943 Hayle became the headquarters for the 175 Infantry regiment the US Infantry Division and Rick came to idolise the visitors as they prepared to free Europe from Nazism and the War and the experience of the US allies affected him greatly.

It is only to this point that our lives had connections because Rick who hated the name Cyril, I also wonder if he also Casablanca as a child, was a good sportsman and an avid Boxer. I wanted to join the school boxing club after my first and only fight in the inter school House competition. I was hit hard and noted that this was OK and was upset when the fight was stopped in the second round of three and thrilled when the House captain suggested that I join in the school club and very disappointed when my aunt in particular said no. I went to some Boxing club matches to lend support but this only reinforced the feeling of a missed opportunity. It is not stated if Rick attended a professional match between a British and USA Heavy Weight but he is recorded as having supported the American contender.

Rick joined the British Army in 1957 training as a paratrooper with the Parachute regiment and surviving with an intelligence unit in Cyprus and a paramilitary police inspector in Northern Rhodesia. He joined the metropolitan Police after service which I assume was part of the National Service, where as I failed the medical.

Rick met the man who was to become his best friend, Daniel J Hill, an American while serving in Northern Rhodesia where Hill is said to have worked as a Mercenary having a background of service in Hungry, the Lebanon an was also involved in the Bay of Pigs mission.

The two men enlisted in the US Army in 1963 with a view to combat in Vietnam and he graduated an officer as a Platoon Leader in the 7th Calvary participating in the 1965 Battle of La Drang described in the book and film We Were Soldiers once, and Young he is the soldier on the front cover. He is also mentioned in a book about involvement in the battle, called Baptism by Larry Gwim and there is a chapter entitled Rescorla's game. He was awarded a Silver Star, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, a Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
The TV programme highlights that what in fact marked out Rescorla from other men was not his personal bravery but his involvement with his men. He knew all about them, their families and their former lives, and he viewed any injury and loss of life as his personal responsibility and failure. It is said by his friends that the loss of men was at the core of how he reacted on 9/11.

After Vietnam he seized the opportunity to become a US Citizen and participate GI Benefits of a university education gaining a Batchelor's and Master's degrees in Literature at Oklahoma, moving to South Carolina where he taught criminal justice for three years and published a textbook on the subject. He continued to serve in the Army reserve retiring as a Colonel in 1990. He married and had two children moving to New Jersey to join the financial services firm Dean Witter as their security director. When the firm merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997 he became the director of security at the Morgan Stanley HQ at the World Trade centre with the firm occupying about 20 floors at the top end of the building. His marriage ended in the mid 1990's . He then developed prostate cancer meeting his future second wife Susan Greer in 1998 and when the cancer went into remission he sand the Cornish Ballad, the White Rose sending her white roses every week. The couple were married in Florida in 1999. This is the background to one of the most extraordinary of men in relation to events at the World Trade Centre.

In 1992 Rescorla had warned the owners of the World Trade Centre on the possibility of a truck bomb attack on he pillars in the basement garage. No action was taken and when Islamist used this method in the1993 attack he was instrumental in evacuating the building and was the last man to leave.
It is at this point that his story becomes shockingly surreal because he and Dan Hill prepared a report for the Trade Centre Owners on the possibility of crashing civilian plane into one the towers. No action was taken. Rescorla suggested that his employers leave the building as a consequence but although it is said the suggestion was taken seriously the company were committed to a lease which did not expire until 2006. At his insistence all members of the company, including senior executives practiced an evacuation of the building every three months. As employees at all level stated on camera he instilled in everyone the message at the first indication of a problem you immediately leave the building.

On September 11th 2001 Rick was not scheduled to be at work but covered the shift of a deputy who was going on holiday and attended a lunchtime meeting to discuss a Morgan Stanley lawsuit against the site owners regarding security lapses which led to the 1993 attack. Rick should have been preparing to attend the wedding of his step daughter in Italy.

It is recorded fact that officials of the building owners not only asked those in the other buildings to remain where they were after Tower one was attacked but request everyone to return in Tower 2 when they commenced to follow the orders of Rick to leave according to the company approved security plan. The reasoning behind the his request was that the mass departure would hamper the rescue work in Tower 1 and those involved did not expect a second attack or that the building would collapse, both realistic assumptions and the problem of departing numbers getting in the way of rescue operations was a real one.

It is also recorded testimony and Rick who loved to sing after insisting that the 2800 employees in tower 2 and 1000 and a separate building on the complex leave in an orderly fashion remembering they were Americans and everyone will be talking about you tomorrow, Sand God Bless America, military and Cornish songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as hey left the building. One song was an adaptation of Men of Harlech.

On my recent visit to the Theatre Royal I climbed up and then down four flights of stairs and this takes time and careful effort. At Football matches I so experience he problem when a mass of people all want to exit at the same time and the number of stairways is limited. At the WTC tower 2 some Morgan Stanley staff had to descend 75 floors to ground level. On six of the Morgan Stanley employees did not survive 2794 did and that number is worth remembering. Moreover because of ongoing telephone communication Rick is known to have been on at least the 72 floor checking that it had been cleared and he was on the 10th when the building collapsed. He also needs to be underlined that his managerial responsibility was restricted to Morgan Stanley and not the lower forty floors. He could have left when he had done his job. It is established that Rick continued to feel strongly that he had failed the men under his command who died, and those who knew him well say now that it was not in his blood to have left before he was certain all those who could had left and that while he would have wanted to leave and return to his wife, family and friends, he would not have wanted his death to have been otherwise.

James B Stewart has written his biography Heart of a Soldier and the documentary I watched last night was created in 2005. In 2006 after a campaign led by his wife a statue to Rick was unveiled at Fort Benning in Georgia

As his wife points out in her web site rickrescorla.com there are countless others who merit similar attention for their bravery and self sacrifice that day especially his deputies Wesley Mercer, Jorge Valesquez, and Godwin Forde who followed him back up the stairs of the burning building to check the situation and perished with him. Remember all of them.

See had hear Rick in interview in 1999

http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/voice_prophet

1167 Jarrow Town Hall

The sun continues to shine, creating a warmth absent for most of the summer, so the inclination is to abandon plans and enjoy. I had some unease arising from a prior enquiry about my visit to Jarrow Town Hall but in fact the occasion proved memorable because of the contact re-established.

Jarrow was first created as a local authority only in 1875 by Queen Victoria, having been created a town by the decision of Charles Palmer to bring a shipyard and the workers from Ireland and Scotland to the banks of the Tyne. The first election was held on 10th August 1976 and Mr Palmer, having been elected to the South Ward become the first Mayor. Without St Paul's and the Monastery it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Jarrow would been renamed Palmerstown.

It was not until 1899 that the decision was taken to build a town hall and the foundation stone was then laid by ten Sir Charles Palmer MP in 1902 and the present building was completed in 1904 at a cost of £12000 The building is classical renaissance style finished with red terracotta and red brick. The main staircase is of marble with oak panelling. The Council chamber at the front of the building on the first floor is of fumed oak and red morocco and the stained glass windows were gifted by Lord Northbourne, Sir Charles Palmer and the Town Clerk. The building also housed the County Court reached by a separate entrance. The Town Hall Clock was only added in 1951 at a cost of £1000.

The building is present used by council department providing direct services to the public and by Councillors representing Jarrow wards and the Mid Tyne Parliamentary constituency. From 1974 the chain of office of the Jarrow Mayor has been worn by the deputy Mayor of South Tyneside. I did not make enquiries as to whether the resentment at losing separate municipal status along with Hebburn and the Boldens which also covered Whitburn and Cleadon as second tier authorities to Durham County Council has changed over time, but there is no question that the development of private housing will change the political complexion in the future, but hopefully not the outlook where political representatives are regarded by the public as servants to get things done or put right 365 days and nights a year.

After the visit and a cup of coffee there were more photos to be taken, having been reminded that the 65 town centre pubs had been reduced to half a dozen and then a visit to the Supermarket after a second and more leisurely look at the shopping centre which has a greater range of shops and stores including Woolworths and Wilkinson's, but not a McDonalds or similar, but at least one Italian bistro with one line of well used outside tables. The Old Ellison's has become a bingo centre and I did learn that the new Ellison's retains a male only room while the Community Centre has full stage performance facilities.

My anticipation that Morrison's would meet my food shopping needs better than that at Sunderland together with Azda near my home was more than justified and I had stayed up the previous evening ensuring that the freezer was defrosted and ready for restocking. The purchases were mixed between those designed for healthy eating and controlling weight to self indulgence. One love is stuffed shoulder of lamb which even when crisp has lots of edible fat. I have resisted for almost a year in which my weight has maintained at 16 stone and along way from the target of 14. Another is the kipper and a pair caught off the North East Coast would do for tea, as did an experiment of mussels. I have enjoyed the modest winkle since childhood but these like peanuts are best heavily salted and which has become taboo, but the mussel like the oyster has never appealed. They were the most expensive of fish buys and were OK but nothing special or justifying the price. Perhaps I will have a go at oysters, but not immediately. I did have a snack of some parcels of cream cheese with smoked salmon on crackers, also costing more than the kippers, trout bought fresh and frozen, or the lamb. Other buys which should have been resisted included chopped beef in a rich peppercorn sauce, one portion eaten for Saturday lunch, some chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and cheese and a penne bake in more rich sauce. There will have to be a lot more compensatory walking

There was an exciting afternoon before the television as the English cricket team bowled out India for under 200 runs and then after a shaky start in which two quick wickets were lost the match was won and I was able to set off to visit my mother for late afternoon and evening and the vital European finals qualifying game against Israel at Wembley. I was able to watch this at my mother's bedside and then during the evening meal for the patients after which they were prepared for the night, I moved to the day room where some patients and other relatives required to vacate wards enjoyed parts of the second half of a game which was won 3.0 with some great goals and several bad misses.

The evening was spent writing including a draft letter to the author of a New Work, play in progress.

1166 Theatre Royal Newcastle

My career as a stage performer was a disaster. As a preparatory school child I appeared on a formal stage three times. As a running around elf wearing a borrowed pair of girls brown knickers which humiliated when I was told that this was so by the girl in great glee; as a pianist who made mistakes with the piece I decided to play rather than the couple of bars which the tutor intended; and as a policeman wearing a real helmet which a friend of Aunty Harriet provided. This brief walk on was a success because there was no embarrassing disaster. There was also the nativity play where I was part of the supporting cast. Later as a local taxation motor vehicle licences finance clerk I performed on a washboard as part of a Skiffle group with was of the entertainments after the annual NALGO branch dinner.

A career as a creator of plays was a possibility after writing a play at the age of 21 which the readers of a major contemporary theatre group in London, the Royal Court, thought the writing was interesting and asked to see more, but instead I went to Ruskin College, Birmingham University and child care social work and social administration.

I attended theatrical performance over the next four decades of all kinds, from Royal Shakespeare Company ,of most of, if not all of his plays, and various classics with the ten play Tantalus one of the highlights to full production musicals with Miss Saigon competing with Les Miserables for the most moving spectacular, to modern drama's such as the Long and the Short and the Tall, Shadowlands and Singer, to verse plays such as The Cocktail Party and Under Milk Wood and pantomimes and family orientated stage reproductions of popular TV shows such as "Hi Di Hi", "Are you being served", and "Hullo Hullo."

It was not however until two years ago with the reopening of the Northern Playhouse and its recreation of three theatre spaces that I commenced to be interested in how plays are produced as well as written, culminating in my first back stage tour this morning of an international standard musical production after the second major overall development of one of the great presenting theatres in the United Kingdom, after last night watching the eleven biological men of the RSC in a new work, play in progress.


This morning an added bonus was a half an hour talk with slides on the history and development of the theatre in Newcastle. The earliest record presented was of publicity in 1656 over a proposed performance at the Flying Post which antagonised Cromwellian Protestants and which was as much anti Catholic as anti theatre. For a few years around 1735 there were theatrical performances in Castle Yard and then for forty years at the Turks Head Long Room in the Big Market. It was not until 1784 that a purpose built theatre was created as the Theatre Royal and continued until 1836 when it was necessary replace the theatre as part of the Richard Grainger development in central Newcastle, one of the finest collection of building facades anywhere confirmed by the highest concentration of grade one listed buildings anywhere in the UK. The present external building was completed 10 months later at a cost of less that £1000 over the building it replaced. Unfortunately there was a major fire in 1899 associated with a performance of Macbeth hence the subsequent theatrical tradition of the play being called the Scottish play, because this was not the only fire associated with play performances, and which is about to be performed by the RSC at the Playhouse next week. The auditorium was devastated. The fire safety curtain which must be tested sometime during every performance is designed to protect one part of the theatre from the other and at the Theatre Royal, friends have contributed £15000 for a special painting to cover the screen.

Between 1986 and 1988 there was a major redevelopment, the costing 6.5 million, probably double today, and the new marble and chandelier four floor staircase cost £2 alone. The area before the theatre was transformed so there is a bar/coffee and seating facility at every level. Such is the height of the "Gods" that seats are above the proscenium arch and there are allegedly two phenomena at this level with one seat always found in the sitting position by cleaners each morning, and a female figure, reputed to be the victim of a love affair, who through herself over when abandoned by her actor lover.

The theatre has just reopened after a further period of redevelopment lasting nearly two years at a cost of another £7 million. The main improvements and changes are to the stage and theatrical facilities, partly achieved by acquiring the premises of a former bank to one side of the theatre. There have been five improvements as consequence. The main problem had been the absence of an adequate stage wing for major props and to allow dancers the ability to exit in motion. In the previous situation the walls had to be padded to avoid damaging collision, remembering that in order not to affect the onstage performances the walls are painted black with only a "blue" light permitted.

The second addition is a new performance area with seating to be used as a participation teaching studio to encourage the disadvantage, those at school and the elder citizens to have increased interest in theatre. The Olivier suite, opened by his son yesterday, has leather chairs set out for the slide show, but can be adapted for various functions, forming a dining facility, or meeting room, and at the end of which are spectacular glass doors depicting Olivier in one of his major roles. Below this there is the new open plan box office with a separate street entrance and with the former box office area closed. On the same level as the box office and replacing the former order at the counter café there is a bistro, the Café Teatro, and stalls bar, which aims at quality food as it run by the same man who developed the bistro at the English National Opera base in London. The 750ml bottle wine list commenced at £13.95 to £53 for Verve Cliquot Yellow Label. Moet Chandon Brut Imperial was £45 providing an indication of the style and charges. One consequence of this change is that the former basement bar, seating areas and cloaks has become office space.

This reminds that in addition to a set lunch and evening menu at the Playhouse Bistro has some 50 Spanish Tapas, offered at reasonable prices, ideal for bringing a party and sharing a selection. There is also a public lift at the front of house, not in the intended location because a buried bank vault door was found at the original location. The same approach of burial was adopted for the existing vault door as this was less expensive than moving by road transport.
The most important development, designed to attract the highest level of production standards by world class companies is a new fly tower, following on from that created at the Empire Theatre Sunderland, and which enable sets and scenery to be moved around more effectively. There is now nothing to prevent any theatrical production, and given the quality and range of developments it increasingly becomes more mysterious why Liverpool was chosen over Newcastle/Gateshead as the 2008 City of European Culture.

For me the main interest was the behind stage experience where for the present production one can only describe the situation as chaotic and hazardous. The used stage area for Aspects of Love appeared small and difficult and the working conditions for the assistant stage manager prompt was equally challenging. It is evident that for productions of this nature those responsible for sets, props and lightening are as important as the actors. It is a very different situation from the average contemporary production at the Playhouse where the written work and the acting are to the fore and set scenery supplemental.

The behind stage organisation for dressing rooms, green room, rehearsal and other company members, dress, wigs etc was also interesting. There are only two dressing rooms on the ground level one marked David Essex was nearest the stage door and opposite the "Green room" which was disappointing. The theatre has adopted the traditional approach of lights around a mirror to reproduce on stage lighting and heating, with the modern convenience of individual ensuite shower facilities. Other principals have their rooms on the first floor ascending to other levels according to status in the company. The rehearsal area at the top of the theatre building and which we overlooked from a balcony is the same space as the stage. A link between this area and the former bank building is to be added and it was admitted that other development work was still to be completed. The experience, following on from New Work, in Progress, the previous evening has given me a new dimension to the role of the playwright from the minimalist stage at the Playhouse for New Play work in progress, where the eleven actors sat on seats at either side of stage 2 clutching their scripts.

One footnote is that our tour party was joined by someone visually impaired and a mother with a child in a pram, as well as an elderly gentleman wearing a hat and a tie and from their behaviour I suspected this was some disability friendly testing although it they may have been encouraged by the theatre to signal the new inclusive policy reminding of the wheelchair dancers and other disabled participants performing with able bodied to celebrate the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall.

Another footnote is that I learnt the origins of being in the limelight, the avoidance of any whistling and several other theatrical terms

The previous evening I had set off to Newcastle, leaving my car at Heworth and found the city quiet, despite the Thursday late opening. I collected my ticket for the early morning tour noting the new box office and but was told that the ticket for the night's performance would be at the Playhouse. It was not and had to be handwritten. There were fifty seats sold although the impression was of fewer, but a good audience for stage 2. It was a warm evening so beforehand I treated myself to an apple and pineapple drinks in a very tall glass full of ice. I then elected to sit on the front row with my feet on the performance area and was rewarded by being engaged in conversation by a party of four who sat to one side, and by two individuals who I later learnt were the author and an RSC Assistant Director.

I have not seen a work by the writer director Anthony Neilson before whose work is already substantial with, Year of the Family 1994, The Night before Christmas 1995 However Bag 1996, the Censor, 1997, Dirty Laundry, the Düsseldorf Ripper, Edward's Grants Amazing Feats of Loneliness 2002, Stitching 2002 The Lying Kind 2002, Heredity, Twisted 2003, the Wonderful World of Dissocia 2004, The Menu 2006, Home 2006, Penetrator, Realism 2006, Welfare My Love, and White Trash. The dates are known years of first production

In response to my after show question the RSC commissioning director explained that as part of the present touring season of two versions of Macbeth the company are performing The Penelopiad based on what happened to Penelope when Odysseus went off to fight the Trojan War, originally a book by Margaret Atwood who provided the play script performed by the thirteen female members of the travelling company. This left the eleven men of the touring company with either a spare couple of evenings at each of the touring theatres or to perform a work intended for men, This was the brief given to Anthony Neilson. You have 11 biological men, produce a work for them. It was not stated how soon the idea occurred to defer the writing of the work until he had opportunity to get to know the actors over a three week preparation period, although my understanding is that the approach taken is to know the actors and then adapt any prior ideas and work structure to them. Instead of creating one work for performance, the concept of a play in progress is developing in which the response of the audience is being considered and the work adjusted, if appropriate, as well as from the continuous interaction with the actors.

However it was immediately evident that Neilson likes a script rather than a framework in which the actors improvise, and that he likes overall control by being the director as well as writer. The work remains his vision and responsibility which he underlined in the introduction given to the performance. The final work is to be performed at Christmas which explains why the opening interaction between two actors is a variation on the Christmas Carol story and a number of subsequent interactions use this "coat peg", but it is only a coat peg for the deeper theme of communication, in this instance between biological males and which is very different from biological females. The temptation to create a work about men's attitude towards women, when they interact together without the presence of women, is resisted although an early piece is about what happens when a relationship is ended only by one of a couple. Because of my own experience on the internet of having frank and sometimes intimate conversations with strangers who turn out to be not what they first appear to be, I was interested in one sequence where an exchange was reproduced as it happens including the sending of a photograph which then transposes from a female form into a male. It was interesting to hear from the author in relation to the question from another that he is interested in communication conducted from a computer anywhere with anyone anywhere at any time.

Apart from the final interaction the play comprises interactions between two actors, I hope I have remembered this accurately, and this is an interesting decision, because he has not been tempted to explore the same concept using two, three or more actors, to demonstrate how the same individuals in the same set of circumstances react differently when there is one other individual in communication or several.

Ever since that first reopening production of Exquisite Pain. Sophie Calle's performance Art Work in Stage 2 at the Playhouse I have thought about and played about with her basic concept of reconsidering the same event over and over again through the changing perspectives as we layer new experiences upon older ones and in this instance a traumatic one. In Exquisite Pain Calle juxtapositions her revised perspectives, over 20 perhaps 30 stretching over several months to a year, with the accounts of different relatives and friends of their individual experiences of pain physical, mental and emotional. I was interested that the performing company did not consider seeking permission to change the order of these counterpoint experiences to reinforce what I thought the point being made that however traumatic an experience is for one individual it should be viewed against the reality of what happens to others, and that the view of the individual will change over time as will their view of the significance of their experience in relation to that of others.

Because of my short term memory problem and not making notes I was not able to digest sufficient of the work to make any judgement about its overall coherence or to comment on individual components, but I did come away with a sense that I would have liked to have experienced more. My solution would be to repeat the same sequence of interactions three times, repeating first the finale and then ending with the Christmas Carol, recommencing with a Christmas Carole and ending with the "second life" finale, but using a different pair of actors or changing at least one of the actors for the second series and then changing the number of participants for the third series and using the same sequence as the first.

Earlier I mentioned that the Theatre Royal slide show covered something of the history of theatre in Newcastle. Because I was only able to make scribbled notes and so far have not found a comprehensive history of the theatre in Newcastle on the internet these remain preliminary notes and queries for further consideration.

In 1786 reference was made to a Theatre, I think, at Drury Lane Newcastle, named after the famous Drury Lane Theatre in London An information note is that when the 1837 Georgian Theatre Royal was created on its present site the Royal Mail Coach to London took 33 hours.

There was reference to the Gaiety Music Hall at which Charles Dickens performed. The one source of information so far covering vanished theatres is from www.arthurlloyd.co.uk and he makes reference to Grainger Music Hall built in 1838 which became the New Tyne Concert Hall in 1879 and was renamed the Gaiety but it is not said when Arthur Lloyd performed at the theatre in 1862 and 1863. Balambra Music Hall was built and opened in 1848 as a room in the Wheatsheaf pub, renamed the Royal Music Hall, 1859, returning to the Wheatsheaf Music Hall 1864 and the Oxford Music Hall in 1865. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1899 and a new building opened in 1901 and this building was converted to become the Balambra Music Hall in 1962, and is now a pub.
There are said to be only 5 grade one listed theatres outside of London and two of these are in Newcastle. The second has become the Journal Tyne Theatre with a capacity from 100 to 1100. The building was created and opened in 1867 as the Tyne Theatre and Opera House and its external frontage remains today much as it was. And structurally the auditorium also remains substantially the same. There was a serious fire in 1985 over Christmas which gutted the fly tower and there were fears for its future with constant threats of closure, now protected to an extent by its listed one building status as in 2002 developers cast their eyes on the site and English Heritage gave it an at risk status. There is a 15 year lease and the theatre appears to be mainly used for tribute bands. Arthur Lloyd performed in 1887. Ultimately it will be the public who will determine if the building is to continue as a performance theatre in the longer run. One issue is whether the musical hall, the variety show will ever regain its popularity

The Newcastle Hippodrome was built in 1909 as a skating rink with a large white dome at the top and therefore known at the White City. In 1901 it was reopened as a Cinema but the management of the cinema next door objected so it became the Dreamland Ballroom De Luxe and lasted until 1912. It then became a variety theatre known as the Hippodrome with the dome removed. It was closed in 1933 and it is said a Pizza Palace stands on the site Frankie and Benny's with a car park above.

The Moss Empire Theatre in Newgate Street was built in 1890 and rebuilt in 1903 by Frank Matcham who also had great influence on the internal structure of the Theatre Royal. The theatre was demolished in 1963. The site is next to the Rose and Crown in Newgate Street.

The Palace Theatre was built in the Haymarket in 1895, rebuilt in 1940's and then demolished in 1961. There are now single story utility shops such as Oxfam on the present site which suggests site development was planned.
The provider of much of this information and the web site is Donald Autry who worked at the Palace Theatre as a stage manager before national service in the 1950's.

I have previously covered the development of the University Theatre into the Playhouse with its Gulbenkian studio and its transformation into the home of the Northern Theatre Company. It has become my theatrical spiritual home, in much he same way as others of a young generation found the Live Theatre, on the Quayside, formed out of a 16th century warehouse in 1856, showcasing contemporary and experimental work, promoting local talent coupled with a Hot Club and a popular eaterie. After closure coinciding with the reopening of the Playhouse the Live Theatre is reopening in September after a £5.3 million extension and redevelopment.

Thirty Years ago when the RSC commenced to visit Newcastle it used the People's Theatre which is near Jesmond Dene on the coast road out of Newcastle. Recently it to has been refurbished to create a 500 seat auditorium and a 90 seat studio and is now recognised as the premier amateur theatre in Northern England with the objective of staging a new production each month.

The Bruvers has been a community theatre group in Newcastle for thirty five years taking performances to schools, community centres, nurseries, youth clubs, play scheme sites, pubs, clubs, village halls, church halls, day centres, sheltered housing accommodation, hospitals and care homes and colleges. Now it is to have a home at a new theatre, in the round, seating 180 people at 34 Lime Street Ouseburn Newcastle, and which opened in July. There are therefore six theatrical spaces identified in Newcastle in 2007. The Theatre Royal, the Northern Theatre Company Playhouse. Live Theatre, The Journal Tyne Theatre, the People's Theatre and the Bruvers Theatre in the Round. I also assume the two universities will have their own theatrical spaces and earlier in the year, or was it last year lunch time plays were put on at a city restaurant.