Sunday January 27th I hovered between activities. The only wholehearted engagement came with an Inside the Actor's studio programme celebrating the professional life of Don Cheadle, best known for his role in Hotel Rwanda and Crash. Allowing for his performance on the programme and his reputation for undertaking meticulous research and preparation for all his roles, he communicated as a human being who continues to give to the world, much more than he takes. Although a black American he admitted to having never visited Africa or felt concern for the plight of its citizens until going to South Africa to make the film Rwanda. The programme was a timely reminder of continuing genocide as it was shown on Holocaust Day or the day after, and within a couple of days of seeing the film on the life of Solomon Perel and learning of the life of Alex Kursem.
I had hoped to make better progress on the kitchen floor but I selected the wrong piece of wood to complete on of three areas where special cutting is required. In any event I failed to master using the battery driven hand saw and the cut was not of sufficient width, and when I tried again the batteries needed recharging so I left until later this morning after watching the next episode in the last week of Lost series three. However I did complete further work on the surround and used the wood filler to good effect which gave confidence that I would be to make the overall appearance more professional looking than anticipated, but it will take two or three more days.
It continued to be windy, but was bright enough for me to venture out for some milk, providing opportunity to check the roof. Everyone appears to have survived although our properties are as close to the top of the hill as any, so that they can be attacked by violent wind from any direction, but there is protection being a terrace and among close packed rows of properties, unlike the former home which had an open front to the North Sea and the salted wind created havoc with the wood framed windows as well as knocking down aerials and slates. However the greatest damage had not come this way but from a tornado type blast which had come south west down the hill behind the house demolishing fencing, a neighbour's shed and the end of the roof in one instance, and on another had raised the summer house a few inches from its base, which backed on to the garden shed and then when it dropped had left a small gap all the way round from its former position. I had been away visiting my mother and aunt at the time and only realised what had happened a couple of months later on the first visit of the season to the garden shed and noticed that all the contents on the shelves adjacent to the Summer House were spilt over the floor as if someone had entered and aimlessly ransacked the building. The Summer house was a shed like structure about twelve feet in length and six feet in width, similar in fact to the garden shed except that it had a glass door and large windows on the one side overlooking the garden, sideways facing up the hill and with two smaller glass windows to the sides. I had a large white table, with is now part of my patio garage at which I would work with my laptop on summer days as well as using for meals when it was not warm enough or too windy to eat outside. Originally it was used for the parent of a previous owner who reached over 90 years. The property would be visited by the painter Lowry when he came to Seaburn, staying at the nearby Hotel from where he would walk the beach and riverside, which he also painted from time to time and where some of the canvases are shown at the Sunderland Art gallery. He met the former owner, a baker, and would visit for tea. He telephoned once in the first year of buying the property in 1974 and I provided the telephone number of the former owner. Afterwards I kicked myself for not inviting him to visit. I would sit in the summer house and speculate if he ever there and looked out at the beautifully landscaped garden with a manicured flawless lawn, (at the time of the purchase ) gently sloping upwards to the back of the garden, with six oval shaped beds full of large rocks for shrubs and all season flowering bulbs, heathers and the like.
It was only later that Spring that I realised what had happened as to one side, nearest the house there was a gap overhang over the base which formed a two foot stolen wall to this side. In order to realign the structure with the wooden floor it would have been necessary to hire a giant crane from the roadway over the house to lift the structure and realign, a cost several times its worth. I did a patch up job with lengths of three by one fitted inside to the floor. There had been one other mini tornado situation where it was possible to trace the line of destruction down the hill. Three times in the decade since a neighbour had cut down a giant tree which had covered the greater part of his garden. Living on the coast, witnessing the waves crashing over the promenade some ten feet or more above the beach, listen to the wind battering the house from all directions one learnt something of the power of nature. But the past two years have been years of more frequent extremes, intense heat and cold, torrential continuous rain, saturated streets and prolonged violent winds. It may be a natural quirk of natural origins. It is difficult to convince that the way we exploit and abuse our environment has contributed.
I forgot to put the chicken out to defrost overnight so it was a mid evening meal watching the Dancing on Ice series and fro lunch there was chicken soup with rolls and a small prawn salad. I opened the day after some writing watch Match of the Day at a point when Alan Shearer appeared to be explaining why he was staying as a match analyser for the BBC. I also watch Tottenham at Manchester United early afternoon, where 20 members of the Havant and Waterloo football club had been given tickets by Manchester United to mark their performance at Liverpool the previous day. Manchester United were awesome and along with Arsenal are the two teams of this season. I cannot believe it was a day without film although I see Lark Rise to Candleford before feeling very tired an going to bed around ten pm.
I had hoped to make better progress on the kitchen floor but I selected the wrong piece of wood to complete on of three areas where special cutting is required. In any event I failed to master using the battery driven hand saw and the cut was not of sufficient width, and when I tried again the batteries needed recharging so I left until later this morning after watching the next episode in the last week of Lost series three. However I did complete further work on the surround and used the wood filler to good effect which gave confidence that I would be to make the overall appearance more professional looking than anticipated, but it will take two or three more days.
It continued to be windy, but was bright enough for me to venture out for some milk, providing opportunity to check the roof. Everyone appears to have survived although our properties are as close to the top of the hill as any, so that they can be attacked by violent wind from any direction, but there is protection being a terrace and among close packed rows of properties, unlike the former home which had an open front to the North Sea and the salted wind created havoc with the wood framed windows as well as knocking down aerials and slates. However the greatest damage had not come this way but from a tornado type blast which had come south west down the hill behind the house demolishing fencing, a neighbour's shed and the end of the roof in one instance, and on another had raised the summer house a few inches from its base, which backed on to the garden shed and then when it dropped had left a small gap all the way round from its former position. I had been away visiting my mother and aunt at the time and only realised what had happened a couple of months later on the first visit of the season to the garden shed and noticed that all the contents on the shelves adjacent to the Summer House were spilt over the floor as if someone had entered and aimlessly ransacked the building. The Summer house was a shed like structure about twelve feet in length and six feet in width, similar in fact to the garden shed except that it had a glass door and large windows on the one side overlooking the garden, sideways facing up the hill and with two smaller glass windows to the sides. I had a large white table, with is now part of my patio garage at which I would work with my laptop on summer days as well as using for meals when it was not warm enough or too windy to eat outside. Originally it was used for the parent of a previous owner who reached over 90 years. The property would be visited by the painter Lowry when he came to Seaburn, staying at the nearby Hotel from where he would walk the beach and riverside, which he also painted from time to time and where some of the canvases are shown at the Sunderland Art gallery. He met the former owner, a baker, and would visit for tea. He telephoned once in the first year of buying the property in 1974 and I provided the telephone number of the former owner. Afterwards I kicked myself for not inviting him to visit. I would sit in the summer house and speculate if he ever there and looked out at the beautifully landscaped garden with a manicured flawless lawn, (at the time of the purchase ) gently sloping upwards to the back of the garden, with six oval shaped beds full of large rocks for shrubs and all season flowering bulbs, heathers and the like.
It was only later that Spring that I realised what had happened as to one side, nearest the house there was a gap overhang over the base which formed a two foot stolen wall to this side. In order to realign the structure with the wooden floor it would have been necessary to hire a giant crane from the roadway over the house to lift the structure and realign, a cost several times its worth. I did a patch up job with lengths of three by one fitted inside to the floor. There had been one other mini tornado situation where it was possible to trace the line of destruction down the hill. Three times in the decade since a neighbour had cut down a giant tree which had covered the greater part of his garden. Living on the coast, witnessing the waves crashing over the promenade some ten feet or more above the beach, listen to the wind battering the house from all directions one learnt something of the power of nature. But the past two years have been years of more frequent extremes, intense heat and cold, torrential continuous rain, saturated streets and prolonged violent winds. It may be a natural quirk of natural origins. It is difficult to convince that the way we exploit and abuse our environment has contributed.
I forgot to put the chicken out to defrost overnight so it was a mid evening meal watching the Dancing on Ice series and fro lunch there was chicken soup with rolls and a small prawn salad. I opened the day after some writing watch Match of the Day at a point when Alan Shearer appeared to be explaining why he was staying as a match analyser for the BBC. I also watch Tottenham at Manchester United early afternoon, where 20 members of the Havant and Waterloo football club had been given tickets by Manchester United to mark their performance at Liverpool the previous day. Manchester United were awesome and along with Arsenal are the two teams of this season. I cannot believe it was a day without film although I see Lark Rise to Candleford before feeling very tired an going to bed around ten pm.
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