December 31st was a day of shopping madness in the land of variable pricing but I had been in quite a state since rising at 3am bright as polished tunic button the previous day after a good but short sleep and feeling wide awake, I started to write and continued for several hours deciding that I would try to sleep again with the first hints of dawn. It was approaching 1 pm when I woke after a long vivid dream which I have continued to remember factual aspects as well as its feelings. This is unusual. Moreover the sleep had been uninterrupted. During the remainder of the day I completed sixty artman signature cards and tomorrow, New Years Eve, I will commence the completion of the otherwise finished sets followed by making the photographic record. This will take several days. I watched several films while I worked and remembered one I had not previously mentioned, inconsequential as it was.
This morning after going to bed at 1am I stayed in bed intentionally having read the opening chapters of a Christmas gift novel where the opening was set in the town of Perth which I have visited several times. It was 10.30 before woke again feeling a tiredness and lethargy which lasted until driving myself to get into the car going on a short trip to the new Lidl which had promised coloured A4 size ring binders from 79p the size I wanted would cost 99p. The roads and car parks were full of cars and everybody seemed to be on the move. The new Lidl was disappointing with none of the offers I wanted on display so I had a bright idea. I was convinced that there was another branch on the way to the home where my mother had been resident. I joined the route with a mini market in one of two directions and I opted for the one towards the Home rather than back to my home and bingo I had chosen correctly although I got the entrance to the car park wrong and had to reverse, encountering the continuing build up at one of those traffic lights where the lights alternate between every roadway, a wise municipal decision given the awkwardness of the junction and the amount of traffic at the best of time.
The decision proved a brilliant one as one of the first finds was a mountain of boxes each holding 18 Torta Spanish Almond cake better known as Turron. There was also the supply of ring binders eight of the size I wanted coloured red. There were also simple wood boxes containing 600 grams of smoked salmon for £4.40 alas the best eat date was January3rd and I had already acquired a 200 gram back on Saturday which with the smoked ham would see me well into the New Year. However I also bout a lettuce, some rolls and new high powered bottle opened which I thought was priced £12 but with a device which cut through foil however on the receipt it was under £8. It looks forbidding and it will be tomorrow when will I try it as I am drinking water today. I may also invest in a kit of replacement top for fizz drinks as well as wine as the one I use has served its time.
However the surprise bargain of he day and many others was small tubes of acrylic paint 12 colours and six of each colour 72 tubes for under £8 or 11 pence each.
I had not planned New Year's eve other than to be in and had noted a showing of the Girl with a Pearl earring, but as I have the DVD this ca be viewed on an otherwise blank day. It was not until just after 6.30 that I switched from an uninterrupted all music channel on Sky to the programme options and discovered that there was a showing of the last Tina Turner concert at the old Wembley. It has been my privilege to experience two of her live concerts placing her along with Bruce Springsteen three times, and also only the Live Aid appearance of Queen as the three great on stage exceptional value over 100% give all performers that make you thrilled excited drained and exhausted. The presentational aspect of the Wembley concert remains extraordinary. The Biography channels was trumps tonight because of Tina there was Queen at Budapest and then Live Aid concert remembered.
As planned my work of the day concentrated on adding the dried Artman signature cards to otherwise completed volumes and then photographing twice, each card individually and then as double spreads,. First were 10 sets in five volumes of My Space writings 5493. However it was only when I was adding the photos to the 200000-300000 listings with 262000 entered as this note is completed that I worked out that I had made the registration card 5493 5395 cards 131809 131856 twice and that a new card had to be created, and this was followed somewhat later various diversions by the seven sets about Mabel reaching 100 and her life.
Two days ago I provided another example of this being the land of variable pricing having paid £9 for a Travel Lodge double bedded room with TV and coffee and tea making facilities, with £15 and £19 for room which can be booked for £29, £39 and £49 outside the cities with the highest noted £105 shot notice booking in the centre of London at Covent Garden.
Sunday night I watched a celebration film introduced by Sir Richard Attenborough marking the three years in which Jose Murinho led Chelsea two Championship titles and in 2007 to winning the League Cup at the Millennium stadium Cardiff and the return of the FA Cup final to Wembley. Despite losing key players this achievement was not enough and early on in the present season Murinho parted company to return to his homeland. For the three seasons the majority of Chelsea supporters have lived in dreamland and for the rest of us the concern has been at the ability of one man to buy success through his bottomless cheque book. I have a history with Chelsea Football club in that in 1980's after two visits to the ground I experienced horrifying violence around me. On the first occasion on leaving the ground shortly before the final whistle in a drawn match I encountered about 100 men lounging in a nearby roadway in groups of two and three when suddenly with the noise of away supporters leaving the ground, an umbrella was raised and the men formed into ranks and moved off silently at the double in the direction of the departing away supporters.
A few minutes later there was the sound of police cars and a group of men were running escorted by police on horseback. I kept out of the way in the entrance to a shop until the street quietened. Eventually about an hour after the match ended I found an underground station at which I was later told the London branch of the away supporters club were escorted by police on to the train where they merged with Saturday shoppers and those going into central London for the evening. At two stations before Earls Court the platform was crowded the length of the platform on the lookout for the very young men who boarded the train, and some managed to get on the train and a vicious fight broke out in the next compartment with the attackers armed with knuckle dusters and strong books. They used the leather holding loops to swing into opponents hitting and kicking some senseless. I managed to help some young men escape through the door separating compartments and they left the train at the next station, while others entered the compartment through the platform door to get into the adjacent compartment. I prevented one individual who appeared to me to be no more than a child barely an adolescent from joining the affray and when questioned he said with hate that he had to get at the fellow Londoners who supported a different football team. A couple of years later after a near riot within the ground because the away team I was supporting won the match, I had a similar experience, although in this instance, West Han supporters smashed their way out oft eh train, having been to a match at Wimbledon, in order to get into a fight with Chelsea supporters who were being prevented by the police from entering the station. Thus the police found themselves in the middle of a conflict between two groups of men whishing to try and kill each other. In both instances the trains were so badly damaged that they were taken out of service at Earls Court. My enquiries revealed that this was a regular occurrence within the capital.
These days the football authorities have made strenuous efforts to eliminate such violence within grounds and in the surrounding areas. The warring factions now arrange to do battle at different locations and fights are arranged according to tribal issues, and the territories are no longer a football club, owned by Russians, Americans or other foreigners, and where there players all come from different countries and continents, but an artificial geographical location such as a post code. On previous visits to Chelsea the extent of open recruiting by extreme right wing organisation outside the ground was evident. I once had an interesting correspondence with the then Chairman of Chelsea Football club Ken Bates about the subject and also with Sir Jimmy Hill. My previous experience has nothing to do with the present Chairman and Board, or the players and I have made several visits to the modernised ground without incident. It now costs an astronomical sum to be come a season ticket holders and even greater sums are required for those who have parking spaces and like to dine and wine friends and fly to similar facilities in clubs in other parts of Europe. For some supporting the club has become their way of life, The British game has been weakened by the departure of Mr Murinho and until, this season the Premier League was dominated by four Clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool from the North West and Arsenal and Chelsea in London. 2008 could be the first year in over three decades that I do not have a season ticket.
Travelling by train in the UK also has as great a variable pricing structure varying from £20.40 two singles usually booked two months in advance from Newcastle to London 300 miles to an open second class return of £269 and £379 for first class. Talking of trains!
This morning after going to bed at 1am I stayed in bed intentionally having read the opening chapters of a Christmas gift novel where the opening was set in the town of Perth which I have visited several times. It was 10.30 before woke again feeling a tiredness and lethargy which lasted until driving myself to get into the car going on a short trip to the new Lidl which had promised coloured A4 size ring binders from 79p the size I wanted would cost 99p. The roads and car parks were full of cars and everybody seemed to be on the move. The new Lidl was disappointing with none of the offers I wanted on display so I had a bright idea. I was convinced that there was another branch on the way to the home where my mother had been resident. I joined the route with a mini market in one of two directions and I opted for the one towards the Home rather than back to my home and bingo I had chosen correctly although I got the entrance to the car park wrong and had to reverse, encountering the continuing build up at one of those traffic lights where the lights alternate between every roadway, a wise municipal decision given the awkwardness of the junction and the amount of traffic at the best of time.
The decision proved a brilliant one as one of the first finds was a mountain of boxes each holding 18 Torta Spanish Almond cake better known as Turron. There was also the supply of ring binders eight of the size I wanted coloured red. There were also simple wood boxes containing 600 grams of smoked salmon for £4.40 alas the best eat date was January3rd and I had already acquired a 200 gram back on Saturday which with the smoked ham would see me well into the New Year. However I also bout a lettuce, some rolls and new high powered bottle opened which I thought was priced £12 but with a device which cut through foil however on the receipt it was under £8. It looks forbidding and it will be tomorrow when will I try it as I am drinking water today. I may also invest in a kit of replacement top for fizz drinks as well as wine as the one I use has served its time.
However the surprise bargain of he day and many others was small tubes of acrylic paint 12 colours and six of each colour 72 tubes for under £8 or 11 pence each.
I had not planned New Year's eve other than to be in and had noted a showing of the Girl with a Pearl earring, but as I have the DVD this ca be viewed on an otherwise blank day. It was not until just after 6.30 that I switched from an uninterrupted all music channel on Sky to the programme options and discovered that there was a showing of the last Tina Turner concert at the old Wembley. It has been my privilege to experience two of her live concerts placing her along with Bruce Springsteen three times, and also only the Live Aid appearance of Queen as the three great on stage exceptional value over 100% give all performers that make you thrilled excited drained and exhausted. The presentational aspect of the Wembley concert remains extraordinary. The Biography channels was trumps tonight because of Tina there was Queen at Budapest and then Live Aid concert remembered.
As planned my work of the day concentrated on adding the dried Artman signature cards to otherwise completed volumes and then photographing twice, each card individually and then as double spreads,. First were 10 sets in five volumes of My Space writings 5493. However it was only when I was adding the photos to the 200000-300000 listings with 262000 entered as this note is completed that I worked out that I had made the registration card 5493 5395 cards 131809 131856 twice and that a new card had to be created, and this was followed somewhat later various diversions by the seven sets about Mabel reaching 100 and her life.
Two days ago I provided another example of this being the land of variable pricing having paid £9 for a Travel Lodge double bedded room with TV and coffee and tea making facilities, with £15 and £19 for room which can be booked for £29, £39 and £49 outside the cities with the highest noted £105 shot notice booking in the centre of London at Covent Garden.
Sunday night I watched a celebration film introduced by Sir Richard Attenborough marking the three years in which Jose Murinho led Chelsea two Championship titles and in 2007 to winning the League Cup at the Millennium stadium Cardiff and the return of the FA Cup final to Wembley. Despite losing key players this achievement was not enough and early on in the present season Murinho parted company to return to his homeland. For the three seasons the majority of Chelsea supporters have lived in dreamland and for the rest of us the concern has been at the ability of one man to buy success through his bottomless cheque book. I have a history with Chelsea Football club in that in 1980's after two visits to the ground I experienced horrifying violence around me. On the first occasion on leaving the ground shortly before the final whistle in a drawn match I encountered about 100 men lounging in a nearby roadway in groups of two and three when suddenly with the noise of away supporters leaving the ground, an umbrella was raised and the men formed into ranks and moved off silently at the double in the direction of the departing away supporters.
A few minutes later there was the sound of police cars and a group of men were running escorted by police on horseback. I kept out of the way in the entrance to a shop until the street quietened. Eventually about an hour after the match ended I found an underground station at which I was later told the London branch of the away supporters club were escorted by police on to the train where they merged with Saturday shoppers and those going into central London for the evening. At two stations before Earls Court the platform was crowded the length of the platform on the lookout for the very young men who boarded the train, and some managed to get on the train and a vicious fight broke out in the next compartment with the attackers armed with knuckle dusters and strong books. They used the leather holding loops to swing into opponents hitting and kicking some senseless. I managed to help some young men escape through the door separating compartments and they left the train at the next station, while others entered the compartment through the platform door to get into the adjacent compartment. I prevented one individual who appeared to me to be no more than a child barely an adolescent from joining the affray and when questioned he said with hate that he had to get at the fellow Londoners who supported a different football team. A couple of years later after a near riot within the ground because the away team I was supporting won the match, I had a similar experience, although in this instance, West Han supporters smashed their way out oft eh train, having been to a match at Wimbledon, in order to get into a fight with Chelsea supporters who were being prevented by the police from entering the station. Thus the police found themselves in the middle of a conflict between two groups of men whishing to try and kill each other. In both instances the trains were so badly damaged that they were taken out of service at Earls Court. My enquiries revealed that this was a regular occurrence within the capital.
These days the football authorities have made strenuous efforts to eliminate such violence within grounds and in the surrounding areas. The warring factions now arrange to do battle at different locations and fights are arranged according to tribal issues, and the territories are no longer a football club, owned by Russians, Americans or other foreigners, and where there players all come from different countries and continents, but an artificial geographical location such as a post code. On previous visits to Chelsea the extent of open recruiting by extreme right wing organisation outside the ground was evident. I once had an interesting correspondence with the then Chairman of Chelsea Football club Ken Bates about the subject and also with Sir Jimmy Hill. My previous experience has nothing to do with the present Chairman and Board, or the players and I have made several visits to the modernised ground without incident. It now costs an astronomical sum to be come a season ticket holders and even greater sums are required for those who have parking spaces and like to dine and wine friends and fly to similar facilities in clubs in other parts of Europe. For some supporting the club has become their way of life, The British game has been weakened by the departure of Mr Murinho and until, this season the Premier League was dominated by four Clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool from the North West and Arsenal and Chelsea in London. 2008 could be the first year in over three decades that I do not have a season ticket.
Travelling by train in the UK also has as great a variable pricing structure varying from £20.40 two singles usually booked two months in advance from Newcastle to London 300 miles to an open second class return of £269 and £379 for first class. Talking of trains!
Some weeks ago I remembered an occasion in Italy when I attended the gala evening of the Sorrento film festival and saw Von Ryan's Express or was it after a deluge at the coastal resort of Rimini after visiting Venice, but wherever ti was the film was in German with Italian sub titles. It was years later that I saw the American and English language version and it was only on Sunday night that I saw the film again and began to remember the story and its ending.
In the last days of Italian involvement in World War Two Frank Sinatra is shot down near a coast in southern Italy is taken prisoner becomes the de factor head of a P.O.W by reason of rank although it is full of a captured British regiment with the remaining senior officer, played by Trevor Howard. Given the stated information that they have bee incarcerated for two years I assume they had been ordered to surrender in North Africa for their aim has been to escape and continuing the fight with every man volunteer career soldiers. Sinatra is a 90 day wonder having been a commercial flyer the rank was gained on completion of training. A clash of attitudes is inevitable and Sinatra's decision to give up the latest tunnel in exchange for decent clothing, red cross parcels, hot water and delousing powder earns him the epithet Von to his surname of Ryan. This is reinforced when the men having left the camp after the Italian surrender are recaptured because of his decision not to execute the camp commander. The prisoner are put in a cattle truck train to Rome and on to Austria. However they manage to capture the train and devise a way to reach Italy. This is an escape adventure film in which many die and both leaders come to respect each other and their different approaches. It is of no consequence except that it was seen in Italy as part of an adventure travelling through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France.
On New Years Evening Day I saw the last Peter Sellers film made in 1979 to be released before his death and which led to an Oscar nomination in 1979 and won several awards 1980/1981 in both the Uk and America.
Peter Sellers plays a middle aged man who has spent his adult life tending the garden at the home of a wealthy man without any outside contact except for what he gains from TV watching. When the Old Man dies he is forced to leave the home on a wintry night and while watch TV in a shop window steps back and his leg is injured by the vehicle of another very wealthy and influential man who is dying with a young wife played by Shirley McLaine. Sellers introduces himself as Chance the Gardener which is misunderstood as Chauncey Gardener when invited to recuperate at the home of the couple who are anticipating a visit from the President.
Being slow witted and his experience only that of the garden and what eh has seen on TV Chance talks slowly relating everything in simple fashion to the seasons of growth and decay and this is interpreted by the great and good and the great and not so good as profound especially after the President quotes something said to him on the private visit in major televised speech and over night Chance becomes a political and media sensation turning the fortunes of the President. When his new benefactor dies he is the choice of the board. The reality is recognised by the benefactor's doctor who keeps quiet because of the positive effect Chance has in the last days of his patient.
The charm and significance of the film is the way Chance is critically examined by the great and not so good. The CIA cannot find any record an conclude the cover up of the past could only have been achieved by a former agency, one of them and the FBI come to a similar conclusion but this time it is a former FBI agent. The President goes off Chance when he sees him as a threat, especially when the political elite conclude he would make a better prospect instead of a second term President, because all the opinion poll and media evidence is that the general public regard the man as brilliant. In the final scene Chance is seen as appearing to walk on water. Being There proved to be the oldie of the year
On the same day I saw The Good, the Bad and Ugly again remembering how much I had forgotten. And the Worst film of the year was undoubtedly How to Lose a guy in Ten days, although I enjoyed it. Got no taste, Got no class, Ain't got no.
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