Tuesday 19 October 2010

1488 Rain, Football and Tennis and rubbish late night film

It commenced to rain around tea time on Thursday and it rained all day Friday when the skies were wintry and the temperature was low. It spelt the end of hopes of Durham winning their game which could have placed them back at the top of the cricket's first division. It was raining when I went to bed and a brief look outside around eight am showed that although it had stopped, the rain had continued for most of the night and skies revealed that more was to come. It started again as anticipated just before I was going out . It was the most unpleasant of shops. There is an art getting out of car and opening an umbrella without getting wet. I am yet to learn. My mind was on those caught out in such weather without shelter; whose homes were savaged by wind and swamped with water and the powerlessness against the forces of nature.

First shop was at Halford's, the vehicle accessories store where I was able to get a battery, £2.90 not the nine pence which the manager at the garage door firm had suggested but the assistant had no idea how I was to open the remote unit where the battery was needed. Still I will have a got myself. Later during the afternoon I managed to open the second remote control, insert the battery and reassembled. It was only later when I found the garage fully open that I realised it had opened when I had pressed to ensure a signal was emitted and for some reason I had not heard the heavy door rise, several metres through the window and the car across the patio area and garage.

The next stop was Lidl where I hoped to acquire an inexpensive digital thermometer. They had not come in. I bought a seed loaf, some bacon and pot of prawns and crayfish tails in brine. Later I was to make an enjoyable salad of with some for the evening meal and to use some of bacon with bread for a breakfast .

Before the shops I posted the Night of Sunflowers back to the DVD loan company, and after to Lidl's I crossed the road for copies of the Daily Mail which included a Spandau Ballet's CD "True." The paper carried a story also in the sun that the billionaire was spending 220000 dollars on champagne at 7500 dollars a bottle during a party held at the pink Elephant Club in New York. From now on until he sells the club the full attention of the media will focus on his behaviour twenty hours seven and on Chief Executive Derek Llamblas and Technical Director Denise Wise. I also bought the Daily Telegraph for a DVD on the life of Queen, the first of a nine part series where the centre page review article is headed, the year without a summer.

The headline on sports page is the success of Andy Murray of Scotland who has reached the semi final of the US open but has to play later to day the new world number Rafael Nadal of Spain. Rightly their focus is also on England's game against Andorra, one of the joke tams of football, in the first round of the World Cup qualifying matches.

There is an article Newcastle which confirms that owner Ashley is a coward, refusing to come back to sort out the situation while he parties in New York and confessing that he could never return to the stadium again because of what happened. Now we all wait for the next step of selling the club to someone who will sack the chief executive and Denis Wise and bring in Alan Shearer as coach and Kevin Keegan as chairman! A situation not dissimilar from that at Sunderland although I cannot see Keegan being comfortable with a chairman's role. I was disappointed when on return I was able to the see full Alan Shearer interview and which was only a few seconds longer than that shown on TV. I also enjoyed the Five live quiz show while I was driving a round town as someone suggested that Denis Wise as the Ghost of Christmas present and Alan Shearer, the Ghost of Christmas tomorrow, with Kevin that of Christmas Past.

I had then journeyed to the waste disposal centre to get rid of the damaged desk chair and some cardboard cartons and to the others nearby Lidl where they too did not have the digital thermometers. While there I noted some tins of anchovies and bought three and a large jar of queen olives unstoned

The rain continued to pound the garage roof so on return home after unpacking I decided to have a day of self consolation. I put the defrosted chicken in the oven and decided to hold a wake on the summer that never was. II opened a tin of the anchovies which were whole and placed them on crackers, only to find they were not as tasty the those bought from Asda. They were in tins packed in Greece so I was unable to learn where they were fished. Accompanying the starter I drank the first two glasses of Asti Spumanti from Italy, kept for a special day for the greater part of year but seemed appropriate at that moment. It could have been caviar and champagne, but I double if it had been so I doubt if I could have enjoyed more.

While I would have gone to the Riverside had Durham played with a hope of winning the game, there was a greater attraction in the afternoon with the opening ceremony of the paraplegic games. I hopes the media will respond as they did last month as Britain hopes to become second in the gold medal table improving on the 31 Golds won at Athens. While I do not expect to attend live performances at the standard Olympic games in 2012, I hope to attend the Paralympics

The opening ceremony was a much more fun affair although started with fireworks and humorous display but then quickly went on the arrival of the participants from 140 countries which still took a couple of hours, meantime I was able to watch the qualifying runs for the Belgium Grand Prix where Louis Hamilton gained the pole position for the race tomorrow lunch time

While the athletes were entering the stadium I poured over the newspapers and poured myself a third glass of the Asti., The first section was travel and although I have written about the oddity of taking cruises where one spends only a few hours in one country I was attracted by the offer of two round the world cruises in 2010 500 or a 104 day cruise around the world 2010 where because of the length one spent a reasonable amount of time in a number of countries. The first was 104 with a minimum of £20000 for a single cabin outside cabin which includes 3 nights Barcelona, 2 Greece 5 Egypt 5 India 4 Vietnam 5 Hong Kong and three for Being, Hiroshima Osaka and Okinawa, nearly two weeks in Australia including birthday before going on to Singapore, Thailand, South Africa, St Helena, Madeira and back home to Southampton, However I was more attracted to the 94 days across the Atlantic to the West Indies, through the Panama to Mexico and San Francisco before New Zealand and Australia and which includes Rome on the way back as well as Athens. I also took a look at the Homes page where there was a feature of the cost of properties at Sandbank on the South Coast where a small plot costs several million. I had hoped for a share of the £92 million on offer this weekend in the Euro lottery which was won by two people around £45 million each. I would have bought a country house with a stretch of fishing river in Northumberland which would have house all my work and which could then have been opened to pubic/privately arranged viewing. This is presently going for £2.5 million with presumable up another million spent on making it as was needed to fulfil the concept including an on line internet station. To this I would have bought a London riverside penthouse flat for a similar amount with the remainder of a third for running costs, a third for the family and a third to be given to good causes. Oh well there could be another day,.
There were two highlights in the opening ceremony of the paraplegic Olympic games in Beijing. A one legged young girl who had seen her ambitions to become a ballet dancer dashed was the start of a display in which the able bodied used hands as feet and where the girl performed beautifully sitting in a wheel chair. This was moving but the most inspiring moment was the athlete in a wheel chair who had to hoist himself on a pulley to the top of the stadium with the torch attached to the chair which was then removed and sued to ignite the large torch which had been used in the standard Olympics two weeks ago.

One innovation was that the athletes were brought into the stadium before the hour long ceremony celebrating the development of disability sport. There are more disabled people in China than there are able bodied in the British Islands and only until China succeed in winning the games eight years ago did the hierarchy attempt to change the culture where disability was something you hid away. Even three years ago Dame Tani Grey-Thompson was unable to use the underground in Beijing. However the games not just marked the massive effort to ensure wheelchair users could get about Beijing but a campaign to transform public attitudes. There were the fireworks and the large numbers of dancers filling the centre of the auditorium including humorous jellybeans and tiny tots with the ability to stand on their heads. Overall it was balanced and fun and went a long way to convincing that the Chinese had become more relaxed once the standard games were over and certainly the audience appeared be genuinely enjoying themselves.

Andy Murray went two sets up against Nadal in the New York open although went to a break against him in the third before the rains came and the play was abandoned for the day so that the semi final will continue tomorrow and the final on Monday. This could work well for Murray in order to regroup and come back fresh and fighting after the break.

After that it was downhill all the way, with Wales scrapping a 1.0 win at home in the last ten minutes having missed a penalty, Scotland lost 1,0 away as did Northern Ireland, but the Republic of Ireland had a good win away and England beat Andorra 2.0 have been held to a draw at half time and the performance far from encouraging.

Newcastle then retaliated against all the saying that Keegan knew he would be answerable to a Director of Football and to the Board and that they did not interfere with his management of the team. Of course there is no denial that they sold a players and attempted to sell others and recruited others without his agreement. They are also cowards unwilling to face media questioning and further giving themselves away by saying they wanted to keep the situation private. The nature of the statement shows an arrogant disregard for the views and feelings of the supporters and a major miscalculation over supporter, public and media reaction. I await for what Kevin has to say through the Football Managers Association.

The flooding situation moved from Wales to the North East down as far as Catterick, although as yet not a major problem although there have been five deaths attributed in the country at large.

I had not intended to watch a bedtime film but the opening torrential rain of Hitters was irresistible even though rubbish 101 version Mafia infighting where the moral was if you cannot beat them join them and what ever you try and do if you father is a villain a villain you will be.

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