Usually when I sit down to write I know my purpose. The most basic level is to practice attempting to find a combination of words which will accurately communicate to someone else what I am thinking. It is only possible to establish the success or failure of doing this if someone else reads the words and indicates that their understanding is similar to my own. This creates the first problem because my understanding changes over time and this is only known to me or to others if I also publish every draft, both mental and written. The same process also applies to any other person who communicates in written words about what I have written. The process is simpler if the thought is emotionally neutral. If I write that 12 words are divided into 4 groups of 3 everyone reading the statement will have the same understanding once they have accepted the basics of number and division. It is not as simple when I ask the question : "what happens when I divide the number 4 by 3," because the factual answer 1.333 recurring does not directly communicate my intended purpose of raising the philosophical issue of what has happened to the missing portion of 4 as three times 1.333 is only 3.999 recurring? However it is still an emotionally neutral statement which requires a process of further thinking about to grasp.
Such writing is not intended to have an emotional reaction although it will have if for example a reader knows that some one else has previously written about the subject using the same or similar words and I have not made an appropriate attribution, or if the reader does not like me and therefore reacts whenever they encounter something that I have written. It is normal to react to what someone writes because we know of them and like them or we do not know them or like them. A reader is more likely to pay attention to writing which asks the question what happens when you divide 1 by 3,6, or 9 if they are interested in issues of number or philosophy or the use of language and I was able to add to the writing that I was a Doctor of Mathematics, Philosophy or Language or I had just won £50 million pounds in the European Lottery or the Big Brother House, become elected Prime Minister or engaged to be married to Prince Harry or William. Alas being none of such individuals no one will pay attention.
Sometimes when I sit down to write, I am a clear what it is I am trying to say but frequently I decide to concentrate on something very different because it is of greater interest to me or I realise that I have not thought enough or undertaken the research and that the effort required will take more time that I am willing to allocate because of other things I need or want to do. Today for example I had decided to start to write about the Jarrow Crusade for work, as I am in the process of reading the definitive work by Matt Perry of Sunderland University who published his work The Jarrow Crusade, Protest and Legend 2005, and which I purchased last year and decided to read as part of my walk to St Paul's and around the Jarrow town centre where I lived for six months when I first came to work in the North East in 1974. A week to day the Jarrow Town Hall will open its doors as part of Heritage weekend.
Now I will stop and lose my train of thought because there is the clearest of blue skies and ideal for walking. Yesterday it was similar but by the time I went out dark clouds emerged with a cold wind and I was at the hospital when it changed once more, and I wanted food, a rest and to experience the final moments of Big Brother House when for once I successfully predicated the order of departure, Jonty, Carole, Ziggy, Liam, the Twins and Brian the winner, although I hoped that Ziggy would be the first to depart of the seven.
Saturday 1st of September, the first day of Autumn and I set off midmorning with the intention to walk around Cleadon Village and its hill. I decided on a stop off at the town centre which involved investing 60p for a minute's walk go find that the bank was closed in order to check that a £20 note issued on August 17th is legal tender because if so it will be worth significant more because of nature of the potential mistakes rather than a fraudulent intentioned fake. Later I am told these are the new type £20 note and this is confirmed which I check on the internet.
It is not only sunny but warm I change my mind again and decided to try and work out what is planned for the Riverside development although I do not have the plan to hand. The area begins by the ferry landing which is opposite the Market square and former Town Hall building and where there is now an open space of grass and the beginnings of the proposed riverside embankment which presently ends outside the Customs House Entertainment and Arts Project at Mill Dam. The first question is to find out what is proposed for here? Restaurant bars, artist studios and workshops or the present open vista across and along the river in both directions?
Then them there is the important roundabout first with the Riverside Pub at the head of the road down to Mill Dam and then two roads with rub westward parallel to the river coming to an apex at the roundabout where once the La Strada night club stood but now a humorous work of contemporary art. There is also a road at right angles to the river parallel to market square and the King Street shopping centre which runs to a development of new upmarket brand stores
I first take the Commercial Road and stop the car in a side road leading down to the riverside. I have passed the new Law Courts on my left covering both Magistrates and County Courts. There is also the rear of the new police headquarters with its entrance off Station Road where there is a B and Q store, a Nationwide AA garage part of a retail store selling everything you may need for the car or bicycle. Across from this is remains of St Hilda's Pit as a tourist attraction, small business units and a couple of larger household stores. There are substantial sites in this quarter of a mile, half mile area without direct access to the riverside although close to the McNulty Yard at Middle Dock there is a small grassed area with a close up of the drilling platform to the left and of two North Sea Ferries across the river. Tuck away close to the river among dereliction and site clearance is an very attractive public house restaurant the Rose and Crown, a little away long the forlorn deserted Commercial hotel and then at an apex junction leading to the Port of Tyne Dock and Jarrow slake there is the attractively modern Trimmers Arms with its Lobster restaurant and across the way the more traditional looking Dolly Arms. It is presently difficult envisage how this will look in five to ten years time.
There is a second roundabout at the inland Station Rd junction Crossgates which leads directly to the splendid Victoria Town Hall which I first encountered in the late autumn of 1973, a lifetime before and the long Western Approach which marks the Eastern boundary to the development plan area. Along the first part to the next roundabout at Laygate there are blocks of flats which reflect the continuing sad facts of local life that over three decades the local authority has overall failed to progress from having the greatest level of unemployment and urban deprivation. Twelve of twenty of the local government wards are among the most deprived nationally with the second highest unemployment rate of 9%, and where there significantly fewer economically active adults 20-34 than the national average and significantly more older people 64-84.Mortality from circulatory diseases is 65% higher than in Europe and 30% above the UK average. Teenage pregnancy rates are 50% higher than the national average and there is below average educational attainment.
The situation which the borough continues to face is summed up in the area of my second walk after parking my car near the modern pharmacy health centre between the Western Approach and Frederick Street. In 1974 Frederick was a thriving shopping street which served local needs but which also had a range of specialist enterprises. Now only half the 100 premises continue to function with the majority at the southern end not only closed but showing quickening decay. At the Northern end is Laygate with what was then an attractive street, and a half, of colourful post-war shops with flats above. One side of street is being demolished to make way for a new supermarket development. Opposite this is Ahmed's international store which equals anything you will find anywhere for range of groceries, especially spices. However near by is a Public House where several decades ago I ventured and heard talk which suggested extreme right wing leanings with a short distance away a National Unionist Club and then the South Shields Mosque where Mohamed Ali held a marriage ceremony within a couple of days of the Queen's Silver Jubilee visit held at Gypsies Green and which is now to become a major hotel and conference centre. In between there is Laygate Assessment centre. Originally a traditional day nursery there centre has been developed over the years to provide an importance local resource for children and their families. Together with the Law Top area and Ocean Road the area is home to the small well established ethnic minority community although this has been significant increasing over recent years with the enlargement of the European Community and the expansion of the Marine, general technology and education College with its two centres in Shields and Hebburn.
Parallel and running almost half the length of Frederick Street is a large factory unit now deserted. This used to part of the Plessey empire, and then Viasystems and then the Electronics firm Circatex. There were some 750 jobs here five years ago, and 650 a year later. There were less than 200 with a management buy out from the Administrator three years ago. All is not gloom and doom however because next to the closed factory is an estate of manufacturing and other business which includes a substantial modern looking factory producing Asian frozen foods. Tucked away within the estate is an adult training centre for adults with learning difficulties intentionally located in an area where it was hoped there would be possibilities for some to transfer into more commercial enterprises. The move of this centre from the outskirts of Cleadon Village with open views of the Cleadon Hill will be covered as part of my walk around the village to hill overlooking Temple park to the west and the coast at Marsden and Whitburn to the east. Meanwhile I barely wait until next week to re-examine the ambitious riverside development plan with its3400 additional jobs and 2000 training places with 400 business enterprises.
I returned for a prawn salad before going to visit my mother in the hospital for the afternoon. She was asleep for the three hours of the visit so I was able to listen to Newcastle managing to miss a hatful of easy goals against the ten men of Wigan, although the curse was lifted when after nearly six months of failing to score a goal at home, Michael Owen was able to do so within seconds of the full time whistle. I was then able to return to watch the warm reception with Roy Keane received from over 70000 Manchester united supporters as he brought his Sunderland team to the city. Sunderland looked as good as they had in the first match of the season when they beat Spurs at home, which is just as well as he further signings brought his total of spending to £40 million in one year and to the purchase of dozens of players to gain promotion and to now survive in the Premier League. This time the team gave away a goal at the end of the match, but by the time of the next home game after the break for international Euro cup matches over the next fortnight, I am confident he will have created a survival force.
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