Thursday, 25 June 2009

1747 Sunday sun at South Shields Armadale and Wal-E

Sunday morning was glorious, sunny and warm. There was no inclination to continue with the unpacking and sorting out. The new plantings had not only survive the absence of watering for a week but looked established and beginning to flower. I enjoyed the examination and added the repainting of the walls as an important task before the next trips, possibly, I commenced some writing but my attention went to the Women’s 20 20 Final at Lords. The team has benefited from a professional support structure and the provision of national contracts. The team has two or three seasoned professionals and number of younger woman in their early twenties.

Winning the toss England elected to field and the New Zealand ladies found themselves no match and were dismissed for 85 runs. The total was reached with three overs to spare and the loss of only four wickets. It was pleasing to see some of the old men of Lords sporting their ties and some their blazer clapping enthusiastically. I am no fan of Durham’s Paul Collingwood who has not performed well for either Country or County Club over the past two years and I hope he and his team mates were watching the ladies show how to be world champions. Moreover this is no fluke as they became one champions earlier in the year. This Summer they also face the Australians and can be expected to put a better showing then the men. I meet even go to see them if they are appearing in Yorkshire. Alas the closest game is at Derby.

After the food extravaganza of the previous days it was back to cereal and coffee for breakfast and three rolls with salami and coleslaw for lunch. It was then time for the Formula ! Race at Silverstone. Although there was a hundred thousand crowd there was an air of disappointment. Lewis Hamilton continues to struggle with his car this year and had failed to make the first cut in the times trials and was therefore relegated to the last five on the grid. This was not unexpected, The real disappointment was that Jenson Button was having difficulty with his car and the tyres in particular, He could not make the first two rows of the grid and was down in sixth, the position in which he finished the race gaining only three points but still has an excellent lead over his team mate Barichello who finished in their position and gained 3 points on his team mate. The Red Bull team came first and second and therefore improved their position in relation to the World Driver’s championship with Vetell now only 2 points behind in third position.
It had been my intention to go for a walk in the afternoon as it was such a fine day but I came over tired and relaxed and then remembered that it was the final apart of the radio adaptation of the Wilkie Collins dramatic adventure story Armadale. I had heard the second part on the Sunday afternoon while travelling to Oxford after my lunchtime stop. Wilkie was a friend and collaborator with Dickens and gained an international following for his writing, 27 novels, 15 plays and one hundred other pieces of non fiction as well as short stories. His best known works are The Moonstone and The Woman in White. Twenty five film versions of the two books have been created in the UK, the USA, Russia, France, Italy and Germany.

Armadale is a convoluted tale. It si the story of two cousins who in law are in fact called Allan Armadale although this is never known to either oft hem and where the life of both becomes threatened and one dangerously so by the behaviour of a scheming adventuress Lydia Gwilt who acts as the narrator of the story in the radio adaptation and who is honest about her Machiavellian nature and her ability to use her beauty and sexual allure to bend most men to her will. That the work was published in 1866 and is therefore extraordinary because of its portrayal such a scheming and fundamentally evil woman, although she meets an appropriate untimely end..

I therefore did not set off for my walk until 4 and fund that the Durham Light Infantry Band had appeared at the Amphitheatre between 2 and 4. I walked back beach side have cut through the park. The small railway was doing good business with 25 customers at £1 a time for the double circuit around the lake. The bikers continue to take over the kiosk cafe and there was much evidence of young men in small fast cars trying to attract the attending of the pairs of young woman also out on the prowl. Some enterprising person or group has established a bicycle rickshaw type of service charging £1.50 a journey with the marketing approach of being Eco Friendly. It is not clear what this compromises because in addition to going back and forth the length of the beachside roadway open only to local authority vehicles and those using the Beach holiday chalets the two drivers were seen taking parties through the park and long Ocean Road. I decided not to linger as I wanted to watch the end of the Men’s Twenty Twenty final.

In the evening I watched a DVD of Wall-E the 2008 computer animated science fiction film about a robot left on earth to help clear up the junk left behind as humans have set off in a giant space cruisers in the hope that the earth becomes habitable again one day.

The entire population become satisfied with their life on the cruisers not realising that the plan of to clean up earth had filed and that they are destined to spend their future on board and do so for generation after generation for 700 years until the 22nd millennium is approaching. Wall E as the last robot is able to regenerate himself with spare parts he collects through his work as well as creating an Aladdin’s cave of reminders of past human life including a solar powered TV playing video’s of musicals. From which he learns about the relationships between human being and hankers for not being alone.

Periodically a space cruiser lands back on or near earth and sends out a probe to test for sign s that human life can be sustained and in this instance the probe is essentially a feminine creation and when Wall E rescues her from a dust storm into the truck he uses as shelter and store and shows her the plant he has found. She Stores this to take back but the impact deactivated her which distresses Wall-E, When the probe ship returns to collect her Wall clings to the vessel which returns to the Flagship liner. Wall E gets upset when he thinks she is being hurt rather than repaired and he also rescue the plant when it is take by the robot computer which directs everything had reminds of Hal in 1001 who is programme to act in a way eventually destructive to the humans in preventing them from returning to earth. His defence is however well intentioned because they having become obese from and endless and continuous life of being moves around automatically without walking and an artificial food diet which had weakened their bone structure. Fortunately their captain has grit, of the character kind not that which has overrun earth and together with Wall E and Eve, Eva the Robot is defeated and the plant is used to stimulate everyone into abandoning their life style and beginning the process of adapting to earth with a breathable atmosphere in which they can grow plants and farm.

It is therefore a film designed add tot he education of young people about the need for a healthy life style and to protect the natural resources of the planet. However I think it is a difficult film for young people to understand and enjoy. It a sound effects masterpiece as well as visual studio creation.

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