Sunday, 6 June 2010

1936 Last week in May 2010

Everywhere the news was no play because of rain. Not one first or second division county game was able to start on time, similarly the Test Match at Lords was delayed. There was no rain until the afternoon when it also became chill again, and more like autumn than high summer. It is dispiriting. This was Thursday of the last week in May, ten days ago and it was early on Tuesday when I commenced to write and the first Sunday in June when I finished drafting. It was also forecast as a chill and wet day with continuous rain for long periods but then a good and long spell of summer weather is anticipated. We shall see. The summer weather came but only lasted from Wednesday to Saturday evening

May has been a disjointed month with scratching at the installation project for most of the month until recent days when I created, processed and completed twice as many sets as last month although in both instances a long way short of the necessary target to complete the work in my lifetime, perhaps this is as it should be, working with an end object until the end.

On the last Friday of May day started well for after taking my car for the MOT test I walked back through the town centre and saw a delightful pot plant for sale in the square outside the TSB Bank across from the market. The plant was well developed with several crimson flowers among its deep green leaves and ideal for the large green pot in one corner of the outside windowsill. I wish I knew its name. With the hot fine weather of the previous week the plants had commenced to grow with the indications of flowering which emerged more fully in the week that followed..

The car only need replacement windscreen wipers and the cost was lower than what I had expected to pay just for the MOT because of the half price voucher. On the way to collect the car I bought about a pound and half of cherries. There were not of the best quality but provided two portions. The treat of the day was the decision to call in at the Woudhave for a small coffee and bacon toll for the good price of £1.19, some 30 pence cheaper than previous enjoyed in the pub in the centre of town. Excellent value but in fact I did not have to pay anything as the assistant had been given a voucher to pass on which was free. Having picked up a copy of the Metro paper I had an enjoyable break. Later I successfully experimented using the lap top to show the Test match cricket on the Sky sport channel in the patio using a cardboard box to provide a shield from the sun light. This means that I will be able to write here when thee weather is better. The Cricket was not of the first class with Bangladesh poor opposition. The weather conditions then changed over the holiday weekend although bank Holiday Monday was bright and dry. I needed to attend to house washing the front door and clearing flowering growth from the below the font steps which I had let spread from a neighbour, finding root between wall and concrete base and providing a carpet of purple flowers at this time of the year for a short period.

The rest of the ground floor and bathroom has been give a thorough clean and I would not be embarrassed to entertain a visitor or two.

I have found it difficult to undertake concentrated work on one subject over the past days although I have completed over 60 atman glitter cards in one session. I am slowly getting back on top of my work schedule after several weeks of limited activity. Several of the projects need hours of attention searching for what meets the requirements of the overall project.

The great disappointment of the past week was the public decision in the USA not to vote for Crystal Bowers ox not to become the last American Idol with Simon Cowell on the Panel. The two hour finals special, when the contest between the final two was spread over an hour on the previous night was not an anti climax those with several good surprise performers and the appearance of several past American Idol winners and popular contestants.

I enjoyed an early Robert Mitcham film(1958) called Thunder Road in which he plays the son of a family of bootleggers in a southern county area where bootlegging had become a way of life, but where the authorities were clamping down hard because of the emergence of major criminal involvement. Until this development and the attempt of the crime boss to take over the rural enterprise Mitcham had established a kind of satisfactory life, undertaking potentially dangerous work which could lead to prison if caught, protecting his younger brother and family and with a girl friend who he only see periodically. Given the chance to break free by helping the authorities to capture the crime boss and stop his enterprises the underworld code prevents him and his sense of independence that he also resists the offers to accept an overlord. When first a friend is killed, along with a government agent, in mistake for himself, and then there is an attempt to involve his young brother he see red, but pays a personal price for bringing the crime boss down.

I did catch a episode of what is billed as the last season of a contemporary American Mafia story in which crime, politics and business intervene featuring two brothers, one a ruthless murderer and the other attempts to do good and becomes a junior politician, quickly finding of the reality of corruption. I do hope American cities are not like this although the persistence in which Hollywood and TV cover the subject suggests there is more than a smattering of truth.

This contrasted with Surrender Hill based on the story of Brigadier General Donald Blackburn who first came to attention during World War Two in the Philippines where prior to the war he was a special advisor to a battalion of the Philippine Army. Cut off after the fall of the island of Bataan, he undertook guerrilla warfare on the island of Luzon using tribes people to form what became an Infantry regiment and a regular unit in the army after the War. The main purpose of the film is to portray the heroism and self sacrifice of the people of the people of the Philippines where there Japanese were ruthless in killing whole communities of women, children and old men because of the activities of the young men organised by the then young enlisted officer. This sacrifice is given an individual significance with a young boy who acts as a look out until shot saving the female interest who is first hostile to the office after the death of her brother because of his activities. She becomes a ruthless a courageous companion providing the romantic interest. She also perishes.

The film does not cover the rest of the Don Blackburn’s life. He held various military positions in the rest of the 1940’s and 50’s serving with NATO for a time until becoming an adviser in Vietnam after becoming responsible for special forces in South East Asia and then quickly became Deputy Chief of Staff and the Director of Special Operations in the early 1960’s and then as Director of Plans and Programmes in the office of Research and Development until his retirement in 1971. Between 1971 and 1977 he worked as Vice President of the US supplier of technical military equipment Braddock Dunn and McDonald. He lived for another thirty years until 2008 when he had reached the age of 92.

Britain’s Got Talent has been running in the UK featuring Simon Cowell along side American Idol for the past two months. The programmes condenses the period between the those selected to perform at the auditions with 180 acts and several hundred performers then invited to London where the judges assisted by their staff select less than quarter to form the five semi finals with 8 acts performing over a 90 minutes show and then a half hour results show shown on consecutive nights, quickly followed by the final. The two successful acts last night then have a week to perfect their performance for the final while those on Thursday and Friday have less. The objective of each show is variety with the inclusion of novelty acts such as a middle aged man chopping wood with great dexterity but a professional wood chopper no less! There is the usual banter between, Amanda and Piers Morgan. It is evident that a great deal of time and expenses goes into creating the live variety performances and where the audience response is predicable. They are sympathetic to children, animals and old people with exceptional special talents. They also like singers and dancers in general. Comics, magicians, quirky or amusing oddities also do well. Last year it appeared evident that Susan Boyle would win, but she broke down after her amazing audition and came second but still managed to make a career for herself as have the street dancer who are no appearing in a 3D film called Street Dance. Yesterday I favoured, as did the three judges and group of Bollywood Dancers who created a contemporary music hybrid but alas they did not make the top three, nor did a 14 year old song bird with brace as the judges preferred an individual creative dancer after the public vote.

The English Football team has not performed well in either of its warm up matches before thee world cup and world cup fever is being promoted hard by the advertisers. They won both games, after trailing Japan for the greater part of the game on Sunday afternoon. Andy Murray also crashed out of the French Open Championships as is clearly in poor physical shape as well as form in the run up to Wimbledon. As when he lost in the USA Open he appears to take time to recover from a major defeat when he lost in the final of the Australian Open.
The English Cricket Team had a harder ride in the first Test than expected after scoring over 500 runs in the first innings with Warwickshire’s Jonathan Trott getting 226. Bangladesh came within half a dozen runs of avoiding the follow on and also batted well in second innings and for a time yesterday it looked as if they might bat long enough to prevent England have the opportunity to win, However Captain Strauss, Petersen and Trott gained the required runs in quick time to finish at tea.

The unexpected sporting achievement of the weekend was the Turkish Grand Prix when the two Red Bull cars collided towards the end of the race as second man Vettel tried to overtake his championship leading colleague who refused to yield with Vetell then having to retire. This left the two British world champions as first and second and for one lap as the race end approached it look as if there was to be a repetition of what had just happened.

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