It is another glorious April morning without the hint of shower after a misty start with the shipping warning horns sounding. The poll was busy on arrival so I waited, read the paper and a little more of New Lives for Old before having the pool to myself for over half the 50 length swim challenge.
I then had one of my moments in that I filled up the car with petrol and then realised that although I had brought with me the replacement credit card for the one mislaid and reported missing, I had not brought the new code and only had a twenty pound note for the £41 bill. The only thing I could think of was to leave the car, get the bus and return with the cash using the bank card. However the manager of the petrol station was able to key in the number old style and I only had to sign and therefore everything was fine.
I return home, got the information, and had a cereal breakfast, having started off the week with a kipper and therefore marking the start of no bacon rolls, sausage and mash or cooked breakfasts for the rest of the spring and summer. At Asda two of the credit card machines did not provide for the change of pin but the third one did. I decided to stock up on two made salads £3, two cartons of sliced melon £2 and 2 apple turnover pastries £1.40 for food for Wednesday and Thursday £6, 40 supplemented by coffee and soup. On return it took time to set up the computer because of two new updates and effect of new Window Explorer 9 is to slow everything down to less than snail pace.
In frustration I went out into the back did some more clearing of the flower boxes, baskets and pots until 11 and coffee time. I will do the from this afternoon and more of the back for in addition to possibly four days championship cricket there is also the first one day game against Scotland on Sunday and then a break of only one day before another 4 day championship two days before a repeat of four days championship followed by another 40 over game on the Sunday and then a break of a week before a third home championship game in succession.
I have made good progress on getting the patio ready for plantings in three session of about a hour during the day I have to complete clearing to hanging baskets, washing the main table and clearing some grass and other material from a guttering that is within reach. There are to areas of wall which need some work with one an eye saw from where I sit. I also made preparations for cricket, repairing one sun hat, getting out the white blazer and repairing one of the cloth bags for life. I have also undertaken the weekly wash and dry.
The annual statement of income and tax paid as well as the new 3.1% pension upgrade also arrived and I did some checking on tax coding and while there are issues on balance it is not worth pursing.
In the evening tired from two levels of activity which revealed the extent that I am overweight I became very tired and slept through the opening minutes of Newcastle’s home game against Premier Championships Manchester United. United were never able to get into their top gear, in part from the excellent preparation and tactics of the home side who could have taken the lead from a golden opportunity early on in the second half. I struggled to stay with the game which ended 0.0, shortly after which I was in bed and asleep.
I enjoyed a large piece of fish for lunch with new potatoes, baked beans and tinned tomatoes with herbs and in the evening a spicy soup, a half quiche with bacon pieces, the rest of the salad selection and three plums. Overall I was satisfied with my day but need to radically improve my body and energy stamina without taking fatty foods. I had been looking forward to a new USA Sky Atlantic import called Game of Thrones which someone has described as the Sopranos in Middle Earth, because it featured Sean Bean in a major role, representing the House of Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North in the land of Westeros with his family who all feature in this first episode of what is said to be a faithful reproduction of the first of book of the same name 807 pages published in 1996 under overall title of A song of Fire and Ice. Three other volumes have been published since in 1998 969 pages, 2000 1128 pages and 2005 with 978 pages, the fifth planned for July of this year and two others to follow.
My first impression of head of house Eddard or Ned Stark (Shaun Bean) is that he is a realist as well as a man of honour and loyalty. He is also satisfied with his role in what appears to be a cold and barren landscape with a loving wife and six children, one of whom by another woman. He is a devout follower of the Old Gods, Gods of the first men, those who live in the forest and the original inhabitants of the Kingdom.
He is a friend of the King with whom he was brought up at wards of a Lord who was ordered to kill the young men after which they launched a rebellion and the Lord is now the chief adviser to King
The series opens with three night guards leaving the city and finding a scenes of violent in the forest which appears to have been caused by White walkers, a kind of undead, and one of the guards flees with the other two are killed. He is then captured by the Bean’s men who severed head for desertion in order establish the law. Although. Although there are signs of wild killings of animals after the other bodies have disappeared, the account of the re-emergence of the undead is not believed, as according to Bean it is thousands of years since they terrorised the living. One of the animals, a wolf has six cubs and there are taken for the children and my understanding is that the creatures will have significance.
Bean insists that his ten year old middle son witnesses the execution. The boy appears not very good at learning to shoot arrows while the youngest daughter appears an expert, tomboyish and a scamp. Not much has registered about the older brother but the illegitimate son does feature as someone brought up within the household but always an outsider in terms of recognition and position (I know that feeling well).
Bean’s series wife arrives at one of his favourite spots to announce that a raven has delivered a message from the Kingdom’s capital to say that the man who raised them both has died and that the King with his family is on his way to visit. The Queen’s oldest brother suggests he should be the adviser but he says this is not a job he wants. The King and his retinue arrives, greeting each other’s members of the family with the exception of the younger brother of the Queen who has made his way directly to the nearest brothel where he engages in visible sex. The king announces that he wants Bean to be his adviser and later admits he is also concerned at the way their father figure died and other threats to his rule. This persuades Bean to go but leaving his wife and family with the eldest son taking on the role as Warden of the north.
The king also suggests that the 11 year old daughter of Bean, Sansa, who in response to a question from the queen says that she had not yet bled, should become betrothed to the Kings son. The young people like each other and the daughter pleads for the marriage to be agreed so that one day she will become Queen. So far so good.
The scene switches to another kingdom where an effeminate claimant to a throne, Viserys Targaryen whose family once riled the Kingdom, is a guest which his 13 year old sister who has recently grown into womanhood after her body is inspected by her brother and where the family have a tradition of incest line perpetuation. He announces that Daenerys is marrying the head of a race of warriors with a force of 40000 who will be used to regain the former lands. He tells the girl he would have given her to all 40000 to be enjoyed if this was needed to regain the kingdom. There are scenes of debauchery and killings at the wedding feast and the girl is graphically taken by the warrior leader.
The ten year old son, Bran, has one skill, that of climbing the walls of the castle much to the horror of his mother who tries to make him promise to stop. Knowing that he has no intention of doing so. The first episode ends with boy undertaking another climbing venture to watch the departure of his father with the Kind. For some reason the rest of the family stay behind and thus the boy catches sight of the Queen and her brother in a comprising situation and she demands that action is taken because they have been seen. The brother pushes the young boy off the wall, presumably to his death, commenting the things ones does for love!
Thus it is a tale of paedophilia, incest, rape, execution without trial, families plotting to take power against each and within families, demons and so on. I can understand why the books became popular and the description of the books as the Sopranos in Middle Earth. I shall view more.
Also about magic of a more human kind, was the film A Touch of Hope, also based on a book about a Healer given the name Dean Kraft to protect his identity and location. The end notes admit that the facts of the story have been changed but the individual does exist and is helping hundreds if not thousands of patients to recover or improve from serious and medical conditions. The man is possessed of energy which if he directs towards a particular patient, embracing their pain and suffering he can bring about sudden dramatic “cures”. The film portrays his struggle to accept his power and the implication for how he will spend the rest of his life. Because of the reaction of a male work colleague on disclosure he does not talk about what is happening to his girlfriend or family, but does agree to participate in formal testing trials when approached by a doctor exploring the effectiveness of alternative medicines.
Although he has great success with a patient with a degenerative condition which prevents her walking the inability to save his father who experiences a severe heart attack and a stroke leads him to reject his powers and abandon participation in the trial until approached by a mother who daughter has remained in coma since being temporarily trapped in icy waters until rescued. It is then revealed that the girl is the daughter of the Medical Director of a hospital which authorised the investigation of alternative therapies after standard medicine failed to revive the child. All the previous investigation failed after raising hopes so the M D refuses to give permission for the man to experiment with his daughter despite the intercession of his wife.
The man is convinced that he is able to control the force within him sufficiently to help the girl although in doing so his own heart stops beating and he has to be revived. As sub stories there is the relationship between the man and the girlfriend and this is said to end happily ever after and the failure of the man when a child to save his younger brother in a swimming accident, Whether any of this is true is another story, except that there is an individual with curative powers through the use of his hands and the focusing of mental strength somewhere in the USA and how much of this is faith healing or some measurable energy is also an open question.
A nonsense, pass the time, film is Con Express whose ingredients are over familiar. A middle manager customs official in Northern Alaska is tipped off of the arrival of big contraband which turns out to be ordinary looking metal barrels filled with a chemical or biological weapon. The successful finding involves the capture of the Russian behind the operation and a Soviet agent determined to bring the man to Justice in the Soviet Union. A small detachment of US soldiers arrive to accompany the dangerous cargo on train journey through Alaska and presumably Canada rather by special military plane which in fact is what is used to transfer the Russian villain the Soviet and USA agents and the custom’s man who is required to go by his boss. The villain engineers a mid air escape with inside help and the Custom’s man survives the plane’s crashed landing with the help of the Russian agent. They then are able to make their way to the train as does the villain and his men who are all on hand. The US military on the train and defeated but the train becomes a runaway and is only stopped by creating a major avalanche in a ravine and bringing the dangerous cargo and the villain in millions of tons of snow. The customs man has jumped of the train at the vital moment but the Russian agent does not appear to have done so!
Back home the Custom’s man has worked out that in fact his boss is the real villain and has switched the barrels which he is selling of multi millions to the original purchaser. He is stopped with the money as are the Northern Korean/Chinese looking purchasers in their plane which begs my original question. The story is ludicrous, the acting is pathetic and my impression is that cuts were made to make the film available for children’s viewing. A waste of time but I was in one of half awake spells
I then had one of my moments in that I filled up the car with petrol and then realised that although I had brought with me the replacement credit card for the one mislaid and reported missing, I had not brought the new code and only had a twenty pound note for the £41 bill. The only thing I could think of was to leave the car, get the bus and return with the cash using the bank card. However the manager of the petrol station was able to key in the number old style and I only had to sign and therefore everything was fine.
I return home, got the information, and had a cereal breakfast, having started off the week with a kipper and therefore marking the start of no bacon rolls, sausage and mash or cooked breakfasts for the rest of the spring and summer. At Asda two of the credit card machines did not provide for the change of pin but the third one did. I decided to stock up on two made salads £3, two cartons of sliced melon £2 and 2 apple turnover pastries £1.40 for food for Wednesday and Thursday £6, 40 supplemented by coffee and soup. On return it took time to set up the computer because of two new updates and effect of new Window Explorer 9 is to slow everything down to less than snail pace.
In frustration I went out into the back did some more clearing of the flower boxes, baskets and pots until 11 and coffee time. I will do the from this afternoon and more of the back for in addition to possibly four days championship cricket there is also the first one day game against Scotland on Sunday and then a break of only one day before another 4 day championship two days before a repeat of four days championship followed by another 40 over game on the Sunday and then a break of a week before a third home championship game in succession.
I have made good progress on getting the patio ready for plantings in three session of about a hour during the day I have to complete clearing to hanging baskets, washing the main table and clearing some grass and other material from a guttering that is within reach. There are to areas of wall which need some work with one an eye saw from where I sit. I also made preparations for cricket, repairing one sun hat, getting out the white blazer and repairing one of the cloth bags for life. I have also undertaken the weekly wash and dry.
The annual statement of income and tax paid as well as the new 3.1% pension upgrade also arrived and I did some checking on tax coding and while there are issues on balance it is not worth pursing.
In the evening tired from two levels of activity which revealed the extent that I am overweight I became very tired and slept through the opening minutes of Newcastle’s home game against Premier Championships Manchester United. United were never able to get into their top gear, in part from the excellent preparation and tactics of the home side who could have taken the lead from a golden opportunity early on in the second half. I struggled to stay with the game which ended 0.0, shortly after which I was in bed and asleep.
I enjoyed a large piece of fish for lunch with new potatoes, baked beans and tinned tomatoes with herbs and in the evening a spicy soup, a half quiche with bacon pieces, the rest of the salad selection and three plums. Overall I was satisfied with my day but need to radically improve my body and energy stamina without taking fatty foods. I had been looking forward to a new USA Sky Atlantic import called Game of Thrones which someone has described as the Sopranos in Middle Earth, because it featured Sean Bean in a major role, representing the House of Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North in the land of Westeros with his family who all feature in this first episode of what is said to be a faithful reproduction of the first of book of the same name 807 pages published in 1996 under overall title of A song of Fire and Ice. Three other volumes have been published since in 1998 969 pages, 2000 1128 pages and 2005 with 978 pages, the fifth planned for July of this year and two others to follow.
My first impression of head of house Eddard or Ned Stark (Shaun Bean) is that he is a realist as well as a man of honour and loyalty. He is also satisfied with his role in what appears to be a cold and barren landscape with a loving wife and six children, one of whom by another woman. He is a devout follower of the Old Gods, Gods of the first men, those who live in the forest and the original inhabitants of the Kingdom.
He is a friend of the King with whom he was brought up at wards of a Lord who was ordered to kill the young men after which they launched a rebellion and the Lord is now the chief adviser to King
The series opens with three night guards leaving the city and finding a scenes of violent in the forest which appears to have been caused by White walkers, a kind of undead, and one of the guards flees with the other two are killed. He is then captured by the Bean’s men who severed head for desertion in order establish the law. Although. Although there are signs of wild killings of animals after the other bodies have disappeared, the account of the re-emergence of the undead is not believed, as according to Bean it is thousands of years since they terrorised the living. One of the animals, a wolf has six cubs and there are taken for the children and my understanding is that the creatures will have significance.
Bean insists that his ten year old middle son witnesses the execution. The boy appears not very good at learning to shoot arrows while the youngest daughter appears an expert, tomboyish and a scamp. Not much has registered about the older brother but the illegitimate son does feature as someone brought up within the household but always an outsider in terms of recognition and position (I know that feeling well).
Bean’s series wife arrives at one of his favourite spots to announce that a raven has delivered a message from the Kingdom’s capital to say that the man who raised them both has died and that the King with his family is on his way to visit. The Queen’s oldest brother suggests he should be the adviser but he says this is not a job he wants. The King and his retinue arrives, greeting each other’s members of the family with the exception of the younger brother of the Queen who has made his way directly to the nearest brothel where he engages in visible sex. The king announces that he wants Bean to be his adviser and later admits he is also concerned at the way their father figure died and other threats to his rule. This persuades Bean to go but leaving his wife and family with the eldest son taking on the role as Warden of the north.
The king also suggests that the 11 year old daughter of Bean, Sansa, who in response to a question from the queen says that she had not yet bled, should become betrothed to the Kings son. The young people like each other and the daughter pleads for the marriage to be agreed so that one day she will become Queen. So far so good.
The scene switches to another kingdom where an effeminate claimant to a throne, Viserys Targaryen whose family once riled the Kingdom, is a guest which his 13 year old sister who has recently grown into womanhood after her body is inspected by her brother and where the family have a tradition of incest line perpetuation. He announces that Daenerys is marrying the head of a race of warriors with a force of 40000 who will be used to regain the former lands. He tells the girl he would have given her to all 40000 to be enjoyed if this was needed to regain the kingdom. There are scenes of debauchery and killings at the wedding feast and the girl is graphically taken by the warrior leader.
The ten year old son, Bran, has one skill, that of climbing the walls of the castle much to the horror of his mother who tries to make him promise to stop. Knowing that he has no intention of doing so. The first episode ends with boy undertaking another climbing venture to watch the departure of his father with the Kind. For some reason the rest of the family stay behind and thus the boy catches sight of the Queen and her brother in a comprising situation and she demands that action is taken because they have been seen. The brother pushes the young boy off the wall, presumably to his death, commenting the things ones does for love!
Thus it is a tale of paedophilia, incest, rape, execution without trial, families plotting to take power against each and within families, demons and so on. I can understand why the books became popular and the description of the books as the Sopranos in Middle Earth. I shall view more.
Also about magic of a more human kind, was the film A Touch of Hope, also based on a book about a Healer given the name Dean Kraft to protect his identity and location. The end notes admit that the facts of the story have been changed but the individual does exist and is helping hundreds if not thousands of patients to recover or improve from serious and medical conditions. The man is possessed of energy which if he directs towards a particular patient, embracing their pain and suffering he can bring about sudden dramatic “cures”. The film portrays his struggle to accept his power and the implication for how he will spend the rest of his life. Because of the reaction of a male work colleague on disclosure he does not talk about what is happening to his girlfriend or family, but does agree to participate in formal testing trials when approached by a doctor exploring the effectiveness of alternative medicines.
Although he has great success with a patient with a degenerative condition which prevents her walking the inability to save his father who experiences a severe heart attack and a stroke leads him to reject his powers and abandon participation in the trial until approached by a mother who daughter has remained in coma since being temporarily trapped in icy waters until rescued. It is then revealed that the girl is the daughter of the Medical Director of a hospital which authorised the investigation of alternative therapies after standard medicine failed to revive the child. All the previous investigation failed after raising hopes so the M D refuses to give permission for the man to experiment with his daughter despite the intercession of his wife.
The man is convinced that he is able to control the force within him sufficiently to help the girl although in doing so his own heart stops beating and he has to be revived. As sub stories there is the relationship between the man and the girlfriend and this is said to end happily ever after and the failure of the man when a child to save his younger brother in a swimming accident, Whether any of this is true is another story, except that there is an individual with curative powers through the use of his hands and the focusing of mental strength somewhere in the USA and how much of this is faith healing or some measurable energy is also an open question.
A nonsense, pass the time, film is Con Express whose ingredients are over familiar. A middle manager customs official in Northern Alaska is tipped off of the arrival of big contraband which turns out to be ordinary looking metal barrels filled with a chemical or biological weapon. The successful finding involves the capture of the Russian behind the operation and a Soviet agent determined to bring the man to Justice in the Soviet Union. A small detachment of US soldiers arrive to accompany the dangerous cargo on train journey through Alaska and presumably Canada rather by special military plane which in fact is what is used to transfer the Russian villain the Soviet and USA agents and the custom’s man who is required to go by his boss. The villain engineers a mid air escape with inside help and the Custom’s man survives the plane’s crashed landing with the help of the Russian agent. They then are able to make their way to the train as does the villain and his men who are all on hand. The US military on the train and defeated but the train becomes a runaway and is only stopped by creating a major avalanche in a ravine and bringing the dangerous cargo and the villain in millions of tons of snow. The customs man has jumped of the train at the vital moment but the Russian agent does not appear to have done so!
Back home the Custom’s man has worked out that in fact his boss is the real villain and has switched the barrels which he is selling of multi millions to the original purchaser. He is stopped with the money as are the Northern Korean/Chinese looking purchasers in their plane which begs my original question. The story is ludicrous, the acting is pathetic and my impression is that cuts were made to make the film available for children’s viewing. A waste of time but I was in one of half awake spells
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