Wednesday, 2 September 2009

1792 Luxor, Football, Cricket, Wallander, The Fixer, the Blackwater Lightship

Monday August 31st, a bank holiday in England and Wales to make the end of summer holidays and the commencement of the school terms commenced for me as my weekend had been so far. I remember having more sleep, wakings and dreams. I played a few of my standard games, chess, hearts and spider patience and then checked the TV for the day, confirmation hat Newcastle’s game was on Sky this evening late, the fourth occasion in a month compared to Sunderland once. I noted that there was a showing, yet again, of the first episode of Brideshead Revisited. Watching without the emotional involvement or reflections on my Oxford experience as a student and then in my first work after qualification, I was able to consider more the prose and that every word and every scene was carefully drafted to have a point, an effect as well as contributing the whole. I then watched part of Mr Deeds goes to Town to remind myself what the film is about and having remembered the story I was able to move on.

I was ready for some physical activity and returned the volumes ready for photography to the work room lounge from the front lounge. I then the cleared the three Christmas plants and the surrounding carpet strewn with the dead and decaying leaves and vacuumed the entire floor and the room is ready once more for the unexpected visitor and after a drink of diet coke and making these notes I was ready to commenced the final stage of the kitchen floor before luncheon I did not complete the task until later afternoon and a visit tot eh supermarket. On one hand that I did not need to but additional wood to surround is an achievement. The tears to the surface and the uneven aspect in a couple of areas is unfortunate but acceptable in the circumstances.

The evening I watched Newcastle entertain Leicester with a patch up side which include a young striker who rightly was given a standing ovation when taken off just before the end. He was confident and thoughtful, able to hold on to the ball as well as distribute the players with a better opportunity to score which in general they failed. New Newcastle scored the only goal of the match a thundering drive from distance after which they were largely in command although Leicester continued to fight and had opportunities. As a consequence of the win Newcastle are now two pints clear at the top of the division

Contrary to weather forecasts, Tuesday morning was sunny bright with some cloud when I woke in time to put out the general rubbish bin and the environmental box. I then moved to car on to the street to ensure access for an important day at cricket. I lingered longer than I should playing a shootem game called Luxor where my goal is to score over 500000 points having achieved 450000. Some notice up over 1.5million to I am still a beginner although I use a mouse rather than a joystick. I cooked some chicken wings for lunch, and prepared some crackers filled with the rest of the smoked salmon with fresh lemon. There was a pack of melon slices bought from Asda the previous afternoon and freshly made coffee where I had a quarter of a cup before departing having had a cereal mixture of muesli and cornflakes.

I arrive at the Riverside just as the players reached the field but missed the first ball where hero of the last games Thorp put down a difficult chance of the first ball from Graham Onions. Plunket had catch put down as did Ian Blackwell. However despite an excellent start from the Somerset openers, another extraordinary spell from Ian Blackwell 5 wickets for 7 runs saw the ten wickets fall for under 100 and as the visitors were all out for 174. Somerset appeared to have a great start when DiVenuto who fit two first off the first two balls was out for 20 and then captain Will Smith was out within a couple of balls. However Chanderpaul gave an exhibition of how to bat in such situation supported by Coetzer although her latter was out in the penultimate over with the total of 110 for the three wickets with Shiv Chanderpaul not out on 49 joined by former captain Benkenstein. I was joined on the boundary fencing during the morning by a Somerset photographer and we had a great chat lasting an hour which she took dozen of shots from her knew super digital camera. During the afternoon when I went to the Members lounge for tea and the watch the final moments of the transfer dealings in the Premiership, Ian Blackwell wife cam with her baby to greet one of the group of supporters from Somerset who over the tea interval had been offered a tour of ground as it is. The scheduled Member’s meeting was cancelled until the final one of the season at the end of September, Only the bad weather forecast wills top Durham from winning this match unless there is a batting collapse in the morning or Somerset find a way of combating the Durham bowling where in addition to the return of Harmison and Onions, Liam Plunket was on his best form of the season. I felt sorry for Davies who found himself as 12th man with Claydon and Stoneman having to make way for a full first team. However they are all part of the first eleven squad whose combination has brought the club to the verge of greatness.

Last night I watched an unexpectedly good British film which dealt with the subject of Aids and its impact on one family called The Blackwater Lightship, based on a Booker prize short listed novel by the Irish writer Colm Toibin. The story is about the relationship between three generations of women with the married sister of he Aids victim played by Gina McKee and the grandmother played by Angela Lansbury who received an Emmy for her performance. The sister who is a successful school Principal returns to her family community for the first time in over a decade to spend time with her dying brother at the home of the grandmother, and they are joined by the parent who a devout Catholic who cannot accept the homosexuality of her son and his homosexual carer. While the film covers the last days of life of the son its focus is on the relationship between Gina and her mother and what happened when they were placed in the care of their grandmother while their mother cared for their dying father. Gina has resented that their mother did not visit them during the period and had no other contact. In fact she had been advised to do so given the impending death. She had written daily however to the grandmother with passages for the children but this as not been mentioned by the grandmother who in turn has decided the children should be kept in ignorance of the situation and they had also not been allowed to attend the funeral, something which the son had resented. The son has returned to be cared for at the home of the grandmother because he feels she is less rejecting that his mother. The film ends as the son in his last moments turns to his mother and then daughter allows her mother into her life. I did not work out the significance of the film title except that Gina does a walk on the sea edge with a light house across the bay. We all see our experience from a particular perspective and the lighthouse with its all round beacon sees everything.

Someone with the name Tamzin Outhwaite was destined to be an actress. She made her national name in Eastenders when at the age of 28 she held the screen as the wife of Steve Owen played by Martin Kemp. She already had a successful career on the London stage when she appeared as a teenager, in other TV productions and film. She was given her own series Red Caps when she left and now as she approaches her forties I caught an episode of a series called The Fixer in which she supports licenced to kill operator who works along side the official police and security forces undertaking work for the government which the official bodies cannot handle. In the first of a two part series the main story concerns the growing trade in children across Europe and world wide for sex often involving violence. The British end is run by a man from his prison cell and his outside agent is a black gangster who uses his Barber’s shop to distribute drugs protected by paying the local police protection from prosecution money. He has a gang of young gun touting hoodies who think nothing of killing anyone who betrays or wishes to leave the community and Tamzin and the girl friend of one young man who wants to break away narrowly escape a bottle of thrown acid. The episode lacked credibility about a subject which should be of international concern.

The episode contrasted with the latest Wallander which has so far been unfailing in story content and acting. This time the crime concerned a recluse who lived simple with his dogs in a small cottage having sold his surrounding land for 20 million krona about £1.75 million or $2.75 million dollars. When the bank stops issuing pass books he withdraws the sum in cash which he buries under the dog kennel. He is murdered with the dogs as their food has been injected with a deadly substance used in cosmetic surgery and beauty treatments(Botox) The chief suspect is a cosmetic surgeon who is having an affair with the wife of the bank manager and who was in the bank on the day the money was withdrawn. When they are and their son are also murdered in the same way the suspect becomes the bank manager. However Wallander’s daughter believes her husband and her former police boyfriend are wrong and responsibility lays elsewhere. The focus moves to a young divorcee who works at a local store and operates as a skin care adviser who has lost her baby daughter in a cot death and who is given the care of the deceased family’s baby daughter where she is the god mother. She also acts as a paid babysitter undertaking the various jobs in order to pay for the apartment in the luxury block. The team recognise that she is a disturbed women but this does not prevent her attempt to poison the friend of the killed boy who discovers the three deaths when he visits in the morning but cannot disclose his finding to his parents until later in the day. He had the sense of someone else being in the apartment at the time. The disturbed young woman is tricked by Waller into confessing her crimes and the location of the money. His concern is to solve the crime accepting that the woman is in need of prolonged psychiatric help, possibly for the rest of her life. As with others in the series it is possible to highlight story fitting which would not be the situation in real life but the basics are authentic as is Wallander and police team. One issue is the ability of the Swedish police to interview suspects, albeit on tape but on their own and without the suspect being offered the attendance of a lawyer. It was a good day after a less than satisfactory weekend.

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