Friday September 2nd 2011 proved a frustrating day as my printer packed up following paper jam and after going over to the Brother repair agent at Killingworth, I was advised against. I had just ordered some cartridges but successfully arranged a return and credit as it was too late to stop their outgoing.
At least the journey provided the opportunity to go through the new Tyne Tunnel except that I had not expected to do so twice as having finished the one tunnel they are, perhaps understandably, bringing the second up to the same standards with re surfacing the roadway and adding a new lighting system which will enable travel in two in one direction or with tunnel to used for two way traffic. In fairness I do remember seeing signs which said the work would not be completed until 2012.
I had planned to complete three pieces of writing and settled for just one because of the upset. I have decided to try and make use of the all purpose Lexmark printer purchased last year but where the cost of the cartridges is beyond by current usage and means. However I have found some which works out at below half price so have purchased 4 four packs and will see how they go. I will dismantle one of the two Bother machines to see if I can then attempt to repair the other. I today I will try and make progress in the writing up missed over the previous two weeks while watching and listening to the cricket.
The life of June Brown Do you know who you are? Connected with the era when a Borgia was Pope Wow.
June Brown has become known to everyone in the UK though her long role as Dot Cotton in in the Eastenders; She has had a long and at times sad life. Born in 1927 in Suffolk to a large family she served as a wren in the Royal Navy towards the end of World War Two. She trained as a classical actress at the Bristol Old Vic and was married at 23 to a man who suffered from depression and committed suicide 1957. Then she married happily in 1958 Robert Arnold who was a star of Dixon of Dock Green the much loved soap about the life of a Policeman on the Beat producing six children although with Chloe dying after 16 days. A second daughter was also named Chloe and suffered paralysis for a time but later fully recovered. Her second husband also died on 2003 of Lewy Body dementia. She now lives on her in the family home; her children having their own lives and families. The sense of nothing no longer surprising was there in the Do you know who you are programme.
She went back three generations of grandfathers to learn something of life of a prize fighter who had reputation during the 19th century for participating in one of the longest fights held.
It was when tracing her Jewish ancestry something she was aware of unlike Larry Lamb, the interesting discovering was the trace back to North Africa at the time the Spanish decided to expel all Jews from their empire with the wealthiest being allowed by the Pope to settle in Italy while the others went on with her ancestor arriving in Holland and where she went to see a family burial site although few had marked slabs with no headstones at such. This was the only moving part of the programme and June had discovered that the woman had died soon after she lost the last of her children having also become a widow, something which she could identity herself with.
June remains best loved for her role at Dot Cotton first as “a sanctimonious and judgemental” character and single mother of Nick who was a thoroughly bad lot in contrast. She was written it of the series after eight years following a disagreement with the writers but then returned four years later remaining since and still the only actor who has been given the whole half hour of a Soap to a monologue looking back at her life. Along with Jean Alexander as Hilda Ogden she is the only actress nominated for a Best Actor award by the British Academy. She also gained Membership of the British Empire medal.
The other episode which failed to arouse a wow was that devoted to Seb Coe now Lord Coe, who won middle distance Gold Olympic Medals at the games in 1980 and 1984. He was part of the golden age of middle distance running with Steve Cram of Jarrow and the Gateshead Harriers and Steve Ovett, setting several world records in the process. After retiring Seb became a Conservative Member of Parliament and had looked set for another career until defeated in the 1997 General Election although he was made a Peer and appointed a chief of staff to William Hague then Leader of the Party and therefore likely to hold a Ministerial position in the next Conservative Government.
He was an obvious choice to join the Olympic Committee bid and he was the also the obvious choice to take over a chairman of the bid committee in 2004 and his leadership and presentation of the case for the 2012 London Olympics was crucial to its success. For a time he was part of the FIFA the Ethics Committee until joining the failed bid to hold the World Cup in 2018.
He is now in his second marriage having fathered two sons and two daughters from his first. The Who do you think you are revealed that he is part descended from a West Indian Sugar Plantation owner who typical for his ilk owned slaves in their hundreds, spending most his time in the capital city, gambling, drinking and womanising. In this respect he ran off with one young woman and then abandoned another but provided for his children from his various relationships. One of his ancestors also became British Governor General of New York when the city was swamp and disease infested.
Until the programme on Larry Lamb the episode which engaged and interested was the family search of JK Rowling who has become the most successful authors and the one of the wealthiest women in the world as the creator of the Harry Potter series of Books. I have not been tempted to read the books and have found the films formulaic and repetitive with the only real interest has been to watch how the three central young actors, first school children and grown into adults each with separate acting careers.
Having said that my admiration for JK Rowing as an individual human being continues to be enhanced. She guards her family privacy and has defended her position against intrusions by sections of the British Press. In addition to resenting her wealth there are elements in the British Establishment who resent her open support for the Labour Party, donating £1 million to help fight the last General Election and was a one time worker for Amnesty International. After University she struggled as a single parent literarily writing in spare moments from earning the family’s keep. It is the aspect as a strong single minded woman that she was to find in a memorable example of her family heritage.
I begin first with her great grandfather Louis Volent who the family believe had won the Legion of Honour. He had come to London as a waiter and had risen to the head wine waiter at the Savoy but as a French citizen he had joined the French army in World War One but was sent to the front line but to guard a bridge in a town not expected to become the front line. She had found that someone of the same name had won the Legion de Honour, an award also given to the her by the President of France because of her contribution to Literature. However the story which unfolded was remarkable in that the area in which he was posted became the front line with many casualties among his comrades and senior officers, he was awarded the Croix de guerre, the highest award for bravery given to those who are not officers. She was given a copy of the lost award and citation for her family. The sad moment was to find that he was buried in a cemetery which because of a lack of space had written to known grave owners of the intention to reuse and failing a response had with many others placed the bones in one general grave thus preventing her providing a new grave.
This led her to back to a further generation and the remarkable Salome Schuch. She had become pregnant at the age of 17 years but then found a husband who had given the child his name by marriage and with whom she had several other children. She had then become a widow and went to live in a village with the children in the contested area of Alsace with Germany because of the mixed nationality of the people. When Germany took over the village the French residents were given the option of either leaving everything behind and going to France or accepting German nationality which is what happened to Salome who felt she had no alternative but to stay rather than attempt to start again. However the direct line ancestor had gone to stay with relatives in France although technical now having a German mother, However when the area was regained new legislation meant that the direct line ancestor was confirmed as French thus preserving the French connection, give that Rowling is a natural French speaking woman.
There was also a nice twist at the end of programme because in addition to be able to view the grave of Salome she was introduced to several of her descendents and therefore cousins of the author. They as everyone else in the programme were tickled pink to find they were relatives of the Creator of Harry Potter and it was evident that all the experts and official considered meeting her one of the events in their lives. JK on the other hand remained a natural and unaffected by all the fuss confirming my belief that she is one of the remarkable individuals and female individuals of my era.
At least the journey provided the opportunity to go through the new Tyne Tunnel except that I had not expected to do so twice as having finished the one tunnel they are, perhaps understandably, bringing the second up to the same standards with re surfacing the roadway and adding a new lighting system which will enable travel in two in one direction or with tunnel to used for two way traffic. In fairness I do remember seeing signs which said the work would not be completed until 2012.
I had planned to complete three pieces of writing and settled for just one because of the upset. I have decided to try and make use of the all purpose Lexmark printer purchased last year but where the cost of the cartridges is beyond by current usage and means. However I have found some which works out at below half price so have purchased 4 four packs and will see how they go. I will dismantle one of the two Bother machines to see if I can then attempt to repair the other. I today I will try and make progress in the writing up missed over the previous two weeks while watching and listening to the cricket.
The life of June Brown Do you know who you are? Connected with the era when a Borgia was Pope Wow.
June Brown has become known to everyone in the UK though her long role as Dot Cotton in in the Eastenders; She has had a long and at times sad life. Born in 1927 in Suffolk to a large family she served as a wren in the Royal Navy towards the end of World War Two. She trained as a classical actress at the Bristol Old Vic and was married at 23 to a man who suffered from depression and committed suicide 1957. Then she married happily in 1958 Robert Arnold who was a star of Dixon of Dock Green the much loved soap about the life of a Policeman on the Beat producing six children although with Chloe dying after 16 days. A second daughter was also named Chloe and suffered paralysis for a time but later fully recovered. Her second husband also died on 2003 of Lewy Body dementia. She now lives on her in the family home; her children having their own lives and families. The sense of nothing no longer surprising was there in the Do you know who you are programme.
She went back three generations of grandfathers to learn something of life of a prize fighter who had reputation during the 19th century for participating in one of the longest fights held.
It was when tracing her Jewish ancestry something she was aware of unlike Larry Lamb, the interesting discovering was the trace back to North Africa at the time the Spanish decided to expel all Jews from their empire with the wealthiest being allowed by the Pope to settle in Italy while the others went on with her ancestor arriving in Holland and where she went to see a family burial site although few had marked slabs with no headstones at such. This was the only moving part of the programme and June had discovered that the woman had died soon after she lost the last of her children having also become a widow, something which she could identity herself with.
June remains best loved for her role at Dot Cotton first as “a sanctimonious and judgemental” character and single mother of Nick who was a thoroughly bad lot in contrast. She was written it of the series after eight years following a disagreement with the writers but then returned four years later remaining since and still the only actor who has been given the whole half hour of a Soap to a monologue looking back at her life. Along with Jean Alexander as Hilda Ogden she is the only actress nominated for a Best Actor award by the British Academy. She also gained Membership of the British Empire medal.
The other episode which failed to arouse a wow was that devoted to Seb Coe now Lord Coe, who won middle distance Gold Olympic Medals at the games in 1980 and 1984. He was part of the golden age of middle distance running with Steve Cram of Jarrow and the Gateshead Harriers and Steve Ovett, setting several world records in the process. After retiring Seb became a Conservative Member of Parliament and had looked set for another career until defeated in the 1997 General Election although he was made a Peer and appointed a chief of staff to William Hague then Leader of the Party and therefore likely to hold a Ministerial position in the next Conservative Government.
He was an obvious choice to join the Olympic Committee bid and he was the also the obvious choice to take over a chairman of the bid committee in 2004 and his leadership and presentation of the case for the 2012 London Olympics was crucial to its success. For a time he was part of the FIFA the Ethics Committee until joining the failed bid to hold the World Cup in 2018.
He is now in his second marriage having fathered two sons and two daughters from his first. The Who do you think you are revealed that he is part descended from a West Indian Sugar Plantation owner who typical for his ilk owned slaves in their hundreds, spending most his time in the capital city, gambling, drinking and womanising. In this respect he ran off with one young woman and then abandoned another but provided for his children from his various relationships. One of his ancestors also became British Governor General of New York when the city was swamp and disease infested.
Until the programme on Larry Lamb the episode which engaged and interested was the family search of JK Rowling who has become the most successful authors and the one of the wealthiest women in the world as the creator of the Harry Potter series of Books. I have not been tempted to read the books and have found the films formulaic and repetitive with the only real interest has been to watch how the three central young actors, first school children and grown into adults each with separate acting careers.
Having said that my admiration for JK Rowing as an individual human being continues to be enhanced. She guards her family privacy and has defended her position against intrusions by sections of the British Press. In addition to resenting her wealth there are elements in the British Establishment who resent her open support for the Labour Party, donating £1 million to help fight the last General Election and was a one time worker for Amnesty International. After University she struggled as a single parent literarily writing in spare moments from earning the family’s keep. It is the aspect as a strong single minded woman that she was to find in a memorable example of her family heritage.
I begin first with her great grandfather Louis Volent who the family believe had won the Legion of Honour. He had come to London as a waiter and had risen to the head wine waiter at the Savoy but as a French citizen he had joined the French army in World War One but was sent to the front line but to guard a bridge in a town not expected to become the front line. She had found that someone of the same name had won the Legion de Honour, an award also given to the her by the President of France because of her contribution to Literature. However the story which unfolded was remarkable in that the area in which he was posted became the front line with many casualties among his comrades and senior officers, he was awarded the Croix de guerre, the highest award for bravery given to those who are not officers. She was given a copy of the lost award and citation for her family. The sad moment was to find that he was buried in a cemetery which because of a lack of space had written to known grave owners of the intention to reuse and failing a response had with many others placed the bones in one general grave thus preventing her providing a new grave.
This led her to back to a further generation and the remarkable Salome Schuch. She had become pregnant at the age of 17 years but then found a husband who had given the child his name by marriage and with whom she had several other children. She had then become a widow and went to live in a village with the children in the contested area of Alsace with Germany because of the mixed nationality of the people. When Germany took over the village the French residents were given the option of either leaving everything behind and going to France or accepting German nationality which is what happened to Salome who felt she had no alternative but to stay rather than attempt to start again. However the direct line ancestor had gone to stay with relatives in France although technical now having a German mother, However when the area was regained new legislation meant that the direct line ancestor was confirmed as French thus preserving the French connection, give that Rowling is a natural French speaking woman.
There was also a nice twist at the end of programme because in addition to be able to view the grave of Salome she was introduced to several of her descendents and therefore cousins of the author. They as everyone else in the programme were tickled pink to find they were relatives of the Creator of Harry Potter and it was evident that all the experts and official considered meeting her one of the events in their lives. JK on the other hand remained a natural and unaffected by all the fuss confirming my belief that she is one of the remarkable individuals and female individuals of my era.
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