I do not like to feel the pressure of things I want to do but have not done and a seizing up computer does not help. Still if everyday was perfect then perfection would quickly become commonplace and lose its meaningfulness.
Today I enjoyed a good swim and then did a quick shop at Asda decided on a chicken breast dinner for Sunday lunch with a chicken curry to day, with salads for the other meal of the day although I enjoyed a hearty breakfast again of a small inexpensive breakfast platter with a cereal bowl and coffee, plus a prolonged read of the Telegraph weekend newspaper courtesy of the Marriot Hotel Sunderland Leisure facility.
The main news item is that the USA has provided confirmation that those arrested in the UK over a proposed Terrorist bombing plot to blow up Manchester City Landmarks at Easter 2009 were indeed working for Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda although there was insufficient evidence to bring about convictions at the time and there was considerable concern expressed on the part of some groups about the decision to arrest and hold without charges. The information is part of the goodwill build up to the visit of the USA President next. Amazingly as with several recent USA Presidents he has very distant relations in Ireland with the consequence of the Presidential visit to Eire, no doubt with one eye on the Irish vote in the elections next year.
The Liberal Democrat Coalition continues to suffer media displeasure no doubt orchestrated by Tory hardliners with news that the party leader has been told he can have a private meeting with the Vice President while the President will have a private meeting with the Official Leader of the opposition. The private lives of public figures continues to dominate with Minister Huhne into the double firing line with allegation of having had another extra marital affair as well as the issue of driving penalty points, The main story concerns the use of High Court Confidentiality Orders. A member of the House of Commons, a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament used Parliamentary Privilege to disclose that the former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland had obtained an order and this has led to accusations that that his lover within the organisation was promoted twice which led for various politicians to call for a formal inquiry only to be told that such an inquiry was already under discussion between the bank and the regulating authority. The other story is that of a footballer who is alleged to have had a relationship with a Big Brother contestant whose picture is all over the papers and who is being prevented from telling her story by an injunction with the footballer being named in Twitter. This has led the footballer getting an injunction against Twitter to provide information about those who had disclosed his name. However as Twitter is USA registered it will be necessary for legal action to be taken in the USA where this is less than likely, Meanwhile one woman has come to defence of former IMF chief Strauss Kahn while Tristane Banon 31, Aurelie Filioetti 37 and Piroska Nagy 50 have gone to press about their involvements and references to a general predatory sexuality continue.
These stories tend to be given prominence over the negative reaction of Israel’s Prime Minister to the President Obama‘s call for a two state Middle East settlement based on the pre 1967 borders. I thought the call was unrealistic and hiding the failure of the USA to exert meaningful influence over Israel because of the Jewish constituency among Presidential voters. Among other news I noted the death of the singer Kathy Kirby who was my age. The Queen returned from Eire and her son Andrew returned from his official visit to China and the Far East on behalf of British Trade while Prince Charles was in Bucharest and the Duke of Gloucester for Greece, Athens and then Crete.
The main interest from other sections of newspapers is the opening of a Barbara Hepworth Gallery at Wakefield where I have lived for several months before moving to a home between the city and Leeds to continue working for the West Riding County Council with its offices in the City 1969-1971. There Is also an article about Barbara Hepworth in the weekend review section?
I must also visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is also in the Wakefield area and I break off to check the continuing availability of £19 Travel Lodge Rooms and find that I will have no problem in planning a two day visit with an overnight stop over.
I then turned to the arts and TV review where there is reference to Bob Dylan turning 70 this year. There is a full two feature on Lady Gaga, you may well say who. She is an exhibitionist with no talent other than as an exhibitionist. The best way to view her work is a creative contemporary artist. I would like to see Anita Dobson and Greta Cache in a play about the lives of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, presently in a limited season until 25th June. I am not sure I could cope with the 20 young naked dancers who are to perform at Sadler’s Wells in new work for 18’s and labelled explicit adult material. The bonus with the paper is a full 7 day TV and Radio Listing and I must see How to Train Your Dragon which has a Sky premier next Friday and I might take a peek at Iron Man 2 this afternoon. However there is a surfeit of sport dominating the weekend on Television and the Internet. There was also an idle look over the sections on holidays with cruises to the Greek Islands and a full mastered sailing ship cruise to the West Indies added to the list things to do if I win a major lottery prize. The same applied to the property section with London and Gibraltar Flats and a Tyneside area Mansion to convert
Durham is performing significantly better than anticipated. Last Sunday I braved a very cold and overcast day to sit in the open air to watch the 40 over innings game against struggling Hampshire. I went to the Member’s room and on to the balcony on arrival as until reaching the Riverside I had driven with continuous rain spots on the car windscreen. The wicket had been prepared in the far distance so there was no alternative but brave the weather and I took the seat booked for the 20 20 innings series which begins next month. This has the advantage of an under cover tier just behind.
Hampshire won the toss and decided to bat a mistake in these games and with the total 59 for four wickets my initial reaction was proved right. Rushworth, Onions and Claydon did the damage with Claydon having his best match of the season taking three wickets for 16 runs in in 6.2 overs. The inconsistent Ben Stokes also had a good match taking 4 wickets for 29 from 7. There was a temporary stay of execution when Howell was joined by Dawson but when Dawson went at 127 one knew the Hampshire side were not going to last 40 overs and wickets then fell at 145,152,159 and 161, twice. Durham did not start their innings well because of the return of Dimitri Mascarenhas who had Mustard, Stokes and Coetzer out by 37. But that was that and Muchall 67 and Benkenstein saw the home side win with overs to spare.
Durham then played on the Monday against Scotland in Edinburgh. Unfortunately there was no live commentary so I had to rely on ESPN cricket information. This is a brilliant service with ball by ball information on one of three screen with the first covering all the matches being played on the day, the second a summary of the favoured match ands their the full scorecard which is updated. In addition to showing the current batsmen and bowlers, the summary shows every ball of the last half dozen overs which together with information on the overall run rate and that of the last ten overs provides a very effective way of keeping in touch with what is happening A fourth screen provides statistics on all the players in the game for the current season todate. It is therefore possible to listen to the a commentary while also showing the favoured scoreboard in domestic comfort, either giving full attention or working on other things or even have the TV on showing sport in silence as I am doing now writing this on the desk top, keeping one eye on the scoreboard of the game between Yorkshire and Lancashire at Liverpool and also the other eye on the TV showing that Wakefield and Castleford are 6.6 in a fifth round Rugby League Cup game on BBC 1.
In a delayed reaction I remembered I had not watched This Week and turned to the I player and was rewarded first with the appearance of Kate Hoey on the sofa with Michael Portillo, someone who should be there every week and then the gorgeous Kay Burley although I often disagree with the interview approach. The programme dealt with several of the subjects already covered including the visit of Queen Elizabeth where Fergal Keane plus Andrew, Kate and Michael shared in the view that this marked a remarkable historical event in relations between the Republic and UK but also marked a significant development in the role of the Queen Elizabeth who demonstrated with remarkable sensitivity the value of a head of stated without a party political affiliation. It confirmed my support for her but did not reduce concerns about the situation upon her death or decision to retire.
Kay Burley was present in part to publicise a fiction work about a Prime Minister and his two lovers but also to talk about the interaction between powerful men and women. I was impressed with what she had to say and with the level of discussion as should be said for the full programme.
This is a long detour from the 40 40 game on Monday in which Scotland wisely chose to field after winning the toss. It looked a good move when Mustard went for 5 with the total 9 but then Coetzer got his head down and carried his bat to end the innings 110 runs not out. He was supported by Stokes with 35 and then Muchall again with 63. There was also a dramatic slog at the end by Breese with 4 sixes and 3 fours who took the game beyond Scotland’s reach as Durham ends on 278 for 4. Scotland never looked as if they had a chance of reaching this total with wickets falling at 28 45 60 61 129 145 161 188 197 and 198. All Durham’s bowlers got between 1 and 2 wickets. The consequence of this is that Durham are now second in the table with 8 points as has Surrey above and Northants below but these two have played a game less. Durham at Warwick to morrow and it is essential that they win this game before break for the 20 20 series and they host Surrey in a Sky televised game on July 17th. I visited Worcester for the last game of the season at that club in a sub lit September staying at a Travel Lodge South of Birmingham. The game was a draw after Durham scored a mountain of runs
Durham then moved to Worcester for the County Championship game. I attended the game at the end of the 2009 season where Durham were declared championship winners during the game and Worcestershire went on to be relegated. Durham scored a mountain of runs with Chanderpaul scoring one of the slowest hundreds of all times. During several emails with the commentators I mentioned this and the explanation came back that the Durham players had been out celebrating and were in no mood field so they advised Chanderpaul to stay out there for as long as possible.
Durham won the toss and decided to bat in a first day rain affected day. They scored a massive 587 before declaring the innings on the second day with 3 wickets left. Gordon Muchall continued his exceptional form making a total of 175 supported by Ian Blackwell with 134 and captain Mustard who has had a torrid time especially in the one day games but added 101 to the innings. Borthwick added 67 in a stand of over 150 with Mustard. Faced with the total no one expected the comparatively new Worcestershire team to do well and this was so with no one reaching 50 they were all out for 217 over 200 runs short of avoiding the follow on. They put up a better fight the second time around with Solanki 58, temporary captain Ali 63, Andrew 50 and Scott 73, respectable scores in most circumstances with a team total of 345 but still 20 runs short of Durham needing to bat again. The match saw the return of Steve Harmison who only bowled 2 balls before injury in the first match of the season. His total figures of 7 for 151 are an excellent start. Graham Onions was recalled to the England A team playing the tourists at Derby, He is not having a good match out for 1 in the mammoth England first innings in which Owen Morgan made 193 and struggling to take wickets in a Sri collapse to 263 to the 493 with 3 for 138 as the touring team reached 392 for 6 at the end of the third day.
Durham should have ended the day equal top with Warwickshire on 91 points as the Roses game between Lancs and Yorks was set for a draw, Yorks collapsed after tea this afternoon leaving Lancs to get 121 in 20 or so overs. They got them in 14 with the loss of 4. As a consequence they now head the table by 5 points and a game in hand on the other two. Notts with two defeats in succession have fallen away. It makes next’s weeks game against Warwickshire at Edgbaston interesting!
For a break I watched Iron Man 2. As with Superman and Spider man, Iron Man the superhero has adversaries who prove challenging rivals and as with other in the genre the superhero suddenly finds his powers lost, taken or in abeyance and loses confidence and self respect. In this instance Iron Man was told that each time he used the power generation within his body he was slowly killing himself. Because there is no alternative source of energy he makes plans to hand over his technology to the Government and his company to his faithful assistant while he gets drunk and awaits his fate.
In this instance there are two adversaries, the alternative super villain and an alternative arms manufacturer with political ambitions. The arms manufacturer does a deal with the government to provide robotic soldiers wearing iron man type suits however they are programmed and armed in such a way to enable the super villain to take control. He has assumed that Iron Man was out of action or inferior in abilities to his creations. In the meantime Iron man is approached by the super organisation headed by Samuel L Jackson who provides him with a video which demonstrates that Iron Man’s father cared about his son and believed that he would find a way to solve the problem of the defective power source and defend the world against all comers. Of course he does this in full firework finale.
Robert Downey Junior plays Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow who is his assistant and who he makes company CEO and where the relationship became romantic at the very end- wow who would have guessed that. Scarlett Johansson plays a superwoman who works for Samuel Jackson but who is placed with Iron Man and his assistant to assess his potential for further work. Mickey Rourke plays the super villain and Sam Rockwell and Don Cheadle are other members of the all star cast. Great fun for early Saturday evening and immediately forgettable.
Today I enjoyed a good swim and then did a quick shop at Asda decided on a chicken breast dinner for Sunday lunch with a chicken curry to day, with salads for the other meal of the day although I enjoyed a hearty breakfast again of a small inexpensive breakfast platter with a cereal bowl and coffee, plus a prolonged read of the Telegraph weekend newspaper courtesy of the Marriot Hotel Sunderland Leisure facility.
The main news item is that the USA has provided confirmation that those arrested in the UK over a proposed Terrorist bombing plot to blow up Manchester City Landmarks at Easter 2009 were indeed working for Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda although there was insufficient evidence to bring about convictions at the time and there was considerable concern expressed on the part of some groups about the decision to arrest and hold without charges. The information is part of the goodwill build up to the visit of the USA President next. Amazingly as with several recent USA Presidents he has very distant relations in Ireland with the consequence of the Presidential visit to Eire, no doubt with one eye on the Irish vote in the elections next year.
The Liberal Democrat Coalition continues to suffer media displeasure no doubt orchestrated by Tory hardliners with news that the party leader has been told he can have a private meeting with the Vice President while the President will have a private meeting with the Official Leader of the opposition. The private lives of public figures continues to dominate with Minister Huhne into the double firing line with allegation of having had another extra marital affair as well as the issue of driving penalty points, The main story concerns the use of High Court Confidentiality Orders. A member of the House of Commons, a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament used Parliamentary Privilege to disclose that the former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland had obtained an order and this has led to accusations that that his lover within the organisation was promoted twice which led for various politicians to call for a formal inquiry only to be told that such an inquiry was already under discussion between the bank and the regulating authority. The other story is that of a footballer who is alleged to have had a relationship with a Big Brother contestant whose picture is all over the papers and who is being prevented from telling her story by an injunction with the footballer being named in Twitter. This has led the footballer getting an injunction against Twitter to provide information about those who had disclosed his name. However as Twitter is USA registered it will be necessary for legal action to be taken in the USA where this is less than likely, Meanwhile one woman has come to defence of former IMF chief Strauss Kahn while Tristane Banon 31, Aurelie Filioetti 37 and Piroska Nagy 50 have gone to press about their involvements and references to a general predatory sexuality continue.
These stories tend to be given prominence over the negative reaction of Israel’s Prime Minister to the President Obama‘s call for a two state Middle East settlement based on the pre 1967 borders. I thought the call was unrealistic and hiding the failure of the USA to exert meaningful influence over Israel because of the Jewish constituency among Presidential voters. Among other news I noted the death of the singer Kathy Kirby who was my age. The Queen returned from Eire and her son Andrew returned from his official visit to China and the Far East on behalf of British Trade while Prince Charles was in Bucharest and the Duke of Gloucester for Greece, Athens and then Crete.
The main interest from other sections of newspapers is the opening of a Barbara Hepworth Gallery at Wakefield where I have lived for several months before moving to a home between the city and Leeds to continue working for the West Riding County Council with its offices in the City 1969-1971. There Is also an article about Barbara Hepworth in the weekend review section?
I must also visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is also in the Wakefield area and I break off to check the continuing availability of £19 Travel Lodge Rooms and find that I will have no problem in planning a two day visit with an overnight stop over.
I then turned to the arts and TV review where there is reference to Bob Dylan turning 70 this year. There is a full two feature on Lady Gaga, you may well say who. She is an exhibitionist with no talent other than as an exhibitionist. The best way to view her work is a creative contemporary artist. I would like to see Anita Dobson and Greta Cache in a play about the lives of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, presently in a limited season until 25th June. I am not sure I could cope with the 20 young naked dancers who are to perform at Sadler’s Wells in new work for 18’s and labelled explicit adult material. The bonus with the paper is a full 7 day TV and Radio Listing and I must see How to Train Your Dragon which has a Sky premier next Friday and I might take a peek at Iron Man 2 this afternoon. However there is a surfeit of sport dominating the weekend on Television and the Internet. There was also an idle look over the sections on holidays with cruises to the Greek Islands and a full mastered sailing ship cruise to the West Indies added to the list things to do if I win a major lottery prize. The same applied to the property section with London and Gibraltar Flats and a Tyneside area Mansion to convert
Durham is performing significantly better than anticipated. Last Sunday I braved a very cold and overcast day to sit in the open air to watch the 40 over innings game against struggling Hampshire. I went to the Member’s room and on to the balcony on arrival as until reaching the Riverside I had driven with continuous rain spots on the car windscreen. The wicket had been prepared in the far distance so there was no alternative but brave the weather and I took the seat booked for the 20 20 innings series which begins next month. This has the advantage of an under cover tier just behind.
Hampshire won the toss and decided to bat a mistake in these games and with the total 59 for four wickets my initial reaction was proved right. Rushworth, Onions and Claydon did the damage with Claydon having his best match of the season taking three wickets for 16 runs in in 6.2 overs. The inconsistent Ben Stokes also had a good match taking 4 wickets for 29 from 7. There was a temporary stay of execution when Howell was joined by Dawson but when Dawson went at 127 one knew the Hampshire side were not going to last 40 overs and wickets then fell at 145,152,159 and 161, twice. Durham did not start their innings well because of the return of Dimitri Mascarenhas who had Mustard, Stokes and Coetzer out by 37. But that was that and Muchall 67 and Benkenstein saw the home side win with overs to spare.
Durham then played on the Monday against Scotland in Edinburgh. Unfortunately there was no live commentary so I had to rely on ESPN cricket information. This is a brilliant service with ball by ball information on one of three screen with the first covering all the matches being played on the day, the second a summary of the favoured match ands their the full scorecard which is updated. In addition to showing the current batsmen and bowlers, the summary shows every ball of the last half dozen overs which together with information on the overall run rate and that of the last ten overs provides a very effective way of keeping in touch with what is happening A fourth screen provides statistics on all the players in the game for the current season todate. It is therefore possible to listen to the a commentary while also showing the favoured scoreboard in domestic comfort, either giving full attention or working on other things or even have the TV on showing sport in silence as I am doing now writing this on the desk top, keeping one eye on the scoreboard of the game between Yorkshire and Lancashire at Liverpool and also the other eye on the TV showing that Wakefield and Castleford are 6.6 in a fifth round Rugby League Cup game on BBC 1.
In a delayed reaction I remembered I had not watched This Week and turned to the I player and was rewarded first with the appearance of Kate Hoey on the sofa with Michael Portillo, someone who should be there every week and then the gorgeous Kay Burley although I often disagree with the interview approach. The programme dealt with several of the subjects already covered including the visit of Queen Elizabeth where Fergal Keane plus Andrew, Kate and Michael shared in the view that this marked a remarkable historical event in relations between the Republic and UK but also marked a significant development in the role of the Queen Elizabeth who demonstrated with remarkable sensitivity the value of a head of stated without a party political affiliation. It confirmed my support for her but did not reduce concerns about the situation upon her death or decision to retire.
Kay Burley was present in part to publicise a fiction work about a Prime Minister and his two lovers but also to talk about the interaction between powerful men and women. I was impressed with what she had to say and with the level of discussion as should be said for the full programme.
This is a long detour from the 40 40 game on Monday in which Scotland wisely chose to field after winning the toss. It looked a good move when Mustard went for 5 with the total 9 but then Coetzer got his head down and carried his bat to end the innings 110 runs not out. He was supported by Stokes with 35 and then Muchall again with 63. There was also a dramatic slog at the end by Breese with 4 sixes and 3 fours who took the game beyond Scotland’s reach as Durham ends on 278 for 4. Scotland never looked as if they had a chance of reaching this total with wickets falling at 28 45 60 61 129 145 161 188 197 and 198. All Durham’s bowlers got between 1 and 2 wickets. The consequence of this is that Durham are now second in the table with 8 points as has Surrey above and Northants below but these two have played a game less. Durham at Warwick to morrow and it is essential that they win this game before break for the 20 20 series and they host Surrey in a Sky televised game on July 17th. I visited Worcester for the last game of the season at that club in a sub lit September staying at a Travel Lodge South of Birmingham. The game was a draw after Durham scored a mountain of runs
Durham then moved to Worcester for the County Championship game. I attended the game at the end of the 2009 season where Durham were declared championship winners during the game and Worcestershire went on to be relegated. Durham scored a mountain of runs with Chanderpaul scoring one of the slowest hundreds of all times. During several emails with the commentators I mentioned this and the explanation came back that the Durham players had been out celebrating and were in no mood field so they advised Chanderpaul to stay out there for as long as possible.
Durham won the toss and decided to bat in a first day rain affected day. They scored a massive 587 before declaring the innings on the second day with 3 wickets left. Gordon Muchall continued his exceptional form making a total of 175 supported by Ian Blackwell with 134 and captain Mustard who has had a torrid time especially in the one day games but added 101 to the innings. Borthwick added 67 in a stand of over 150 with Mustard. Faced with the total no one expected the comparatively new Worcestershire team to do well and this was so with no one reaching 50 they were all out for 217 over 200 runs short of avoiding the follow on. They put up a better fight the second time around with Solanki 58, temporary captain Ali 63, Andrew 50 and Scott 73, respectable scores in most circumstances with a team total of 345 but still 20 runs short of Durham needing to bat again. The match saw the return of Steve Harmison who only bowled 2 balls before injury in the first match of the season. His total figures of 7 for 151 are an excellent start. Graham Onions was recalled to the England A team playing the tourists at Derby, He is not having a good match out for 1 in the mammoth England first innings in which Owen Morgan made 193 and struggling to take wickets in a Sri collapse to 263 to the 493 with 3 for 138 as the touring team reached 392 for 6 at the end of the third day.
Durham should have ended the day equal top with Warwickshire on 91 points as the Roses game between Lancs and Yorks was set for a draw, Yorks collapsed after tea this afternoon leaving Lancs to get 121 in 20 or so overs. They got them in 14 with the loss of 4. As a consequence they now head the table by 5 points and a game in hand on the other two. Notts with two defeats in succession have fallen away. It makes next’s weeks game against Warwickshire at Edgbaston interesting!
For a break I watched Iron Man 2. As with Superman and Spider man, Iron Man the superhero has adversaries who prove challenging rivals and as with other in the genre the superhero suddenly finds his powers lost, taken or in abeyance and loses confidence and self respect. In this instance Iron Man was told that each time he used the power generation within his body he was slowly killing himself. Because there is no alternative source of energy he makes plans to hand over his technology to the Government and his company to his faithful assistant while he gets drunk and awaits his fate.
In this instance there are two adversaries, the alternative super villain and an alternative arms manufacturer with political ambitions. The arms manufacturer does a deal with the government to provide robotic soldiers wearing iron man type suits however they are programmed and armed in such a way to enable the super villain to take control. He has assumed that Iron Man was out of action or inferior in abilities to his creations. In the meantime Iron man is approached by the super organisation headed by Samuel L Jackson who provides him with a video which demonstrates that Iron Man’s father cared about his son and believed that he would find a way to solve the problem of the defective power source and defend the world against all comers. Of course he does this in full firework finale.
Robert Downey Junior plays Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow who is his assistant and who he makes company CEO and where the relationship became romantic at the very end- wow who would have guessed that. Scarlett Johansson plays a superwoman who works for Samuel Jackson but who is placed with Iron Man and his assistant to assess his potential for further work. Mickey Rourke plays the super villain and Sam Rockwell and Don Cheadle are other members of the all star cast. Great fun for early Saturday evening and immediately forgettable.
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