I have been in rebellion against myself since the sun commenced to shine. It is a week since I commenced to write a bog and although the weather changed dramatically on Monday and it is now Wednesday again. The sun is shining but there is a fierce wind and it is cold. In the patio my broad bean plants need individual attention which they receive later afternoon after I went to B and Q for some plant string and ties, I bought 24 Petunia plants and 6 Geraniums with £1 off discount card.
And one of the six Valouris pottery wine goblets is broken having been blown onto the concrete. I have about ten films to review, lots of television and some sport. I have been preoccupied with other things.
Last week was all about making the most of the weather and after the two hour effort on Tuesday the walk last Wednesday was something of an effort. Again there were not as many people doing likewise as I had anticipated, three separate small parties of young boys with school teachers, the majority senior citizens and some grandparents and few others. Aware that I might not be up to the walk uphill at the end of the outing I took the car to the bottom of the hill beside the park and then crossed over alongside South Marine into the almost deserted Amusement Park and through to the walk by the all weather sports area onto the sands which were spacious and clean. I was not in the mood for sand walking so returned passed the pub restaurant along the new promenade now weathered since it was laid down last summer.
There is further work this year to build up the dunes. For the first decade on arrival in South Tyneside there was an inherited contract with the Council for removing sand from the beach which continued until its conclusion was negotiated.
The Marsden Rattler, two converted railway carriages plus additional space and outside beach terrace has become an expensive Italian restaurant where a steak main course or a whole Lobster will set you back £20. If you attend nine Sunday lunches or buy nine bottles of wine the 10th meal or 10th bottle is free.
I continued walking on the sand side of the walkway but decided against going further than the Sand Dancer, a former beachside chain restaurant now specialising as a venue attracting the younger surfer style clientele. I came back along pavement noting that the flower beds across the way are still awaiting planting. The double extension to the Minchella ice cream kiosk and coffee morning tea time snackerie is completed and was doing a good trade since it became a friendly venue for the older bikes as well as those walking the promenade.
The way visitors walk up and down on warm sunny Sundays reminds of Mediterranean life and that described by my care mother and her brothers and sisters in Gibraltar. I returned home satisfied with myself.
I repeated the walk on Thursday in part taking the car to the bottom of the hill but crossing through the park and going to the Sand Dancer before returning.
On Friday morning it was time to join the queue for petrol at Morrison’s Seaburn. The government had caused panic buying through its Minister Francis Maude advising people to fill their car and also store in jerry cans. This is bad advice with the consequence that one woman in Wakefield storing fuel for one of her daughters set herself on fire and is now fighting for life with 40% burns. The bastard ought to resign but I doubt there will be a legal case for damages against the Minister, unfortunately. This has been a bad few weeks for Cameron as Parliament is in recess for Easter and I assume the May Elections, Queen Speech and all that. Miliband has done well in the political sparing without delivering any knock blows the improved performance should have been reflected at the ballot Box.
There was a by-election on Thursday where the controversial former Labour Member George Galloway and now of the Respect Party contested having previously held a seat in East London. There is a strong Muslim community in Bradford which George could expect support given his opposition to the War in Iraq as well as disaffected traditional Labour who had previously shown support for the extreme right. George achieved one of the most important election shocks in past century, especially for Labour, overturning a 5000 majority where the candidate was Asian into a 10000 majority for himself. It is evident that the public are saying a plague on all your houses. The Liberal Democrats are going to be crushed into oblivion at the next General Election at this rate.
The government quickly reacted to what happened in Wakefield and the Trades Union said there was no intention to arrange call a strike before Easter and that negotiations with Management were continuing.
On Sunday I visited the Durham County Cricket Ground for the new Season. The club opened its doors with the Members lounge opened and available arranged for throughout the two days. Having not visited part of the existing stadium and anxious to see if the upper tier of the extension was now open I signed up and participated in the first available commencing at 11 am and which lasted an hour.
Understandably the emphasise was on showing the facilities available for people to hire or spend money but those on the first tour, apart from one young man did not appear the kind to spend a lot of money. There was no regular food provision in the Member’s lounge with an emphasis on Austin’s the separate and open to the public all year restaurant. They do a main course roast for just under £9 and a three course meal for around £15 although the menu is interesting and compared favourably with that experienced at the Theatre Royal Nottingham recently.
We then visited the Board room and the Vice President’s lounge which caters for VIP visitors, and an individual sponsor’s room table seating for 12 with balcony outside. There was opportunity to view the two lounge hire facilities. On the ground floor there is to be a public bar reminding of the Shed in Yorkshire but at a very different level of ambience and facilities. It was set out for a Christmas party as was the upstairs where there is also seating and suggesting hospitality packages for internationals and special matches with the lower area available for non members on rainy days.
On one hand compared to football the hospitality packages are better value in terms of the hours of play offered for County Cricket including the pro 40 competition held on Sundays. That offered for 20 20 games is more questionable. For the county games and the 40 overs the options are a private room for 12 with the cost is around £75 plus VAT per head and for this there is Tea Coffee, ground entry, hot Breakfast Roll on arrival, scorecard 2 course lunch and after noon tea or no breakfast roll and 3 course meal with afternoon tea for the 40 over Sundays. The individual price for lounge hospitality is £10 more.
With ground entry at £15, the breakfast roll and coffee at £3.50. Scorecard £1 and a three course meal at Austin’s £15, one is paying double for a balcony view which can be distant and out of the sunshine depending on the pitch and time of day. The cost of the 20 20 game is exorbitant at £137.50 plus VAT per head for 12 for this only a two course meal and tea or coffee on arrival. The individual pays £120 plus VAT. There is no mention of parking.
What proved the most interesting was the visit to the education centre where schools can send pupils struggling with their spelling and arithmetic? Upstairs the Sky studio is also used by young people around the year for media work. The best view in the ground belongs to the handful of cricket reporters. There is a huge two story window the width of the whole playing surface the is needed because the commentators are able to sit directly above and over the wicket whichever pitch is used. There is a separate room for the scorer who controls both electronic boards as well making a written record and an announcer who is a volunteer.
On the walkabout I we were shown the completed transformer unit for the floodlighting system which remains to be installed and the bushes on the banking by the fencing before the riverside have been cleared to make way for the hotel which will have parking on the ground floor and have two floors for the rooms with sixty on each floor.
As for the cricket Durham won the toss and had a good day at the wicket because of another great century by opener Di Venuto with 143 out of the total of 337. Stokes, Borthwick, Collingwood, Mustard and Plunkett all had good little knocks in the 20’s and 30’s, Smith 4 Stoneman 12 and Muchall did less well. With Braithwaite and Breeze playing I assume Steve Harmison did not... His brother has moved to Kent. Rain interrupted the play on the cold Monday and I wonder how many spectators braved the conditions. Durham remain coy about the details of the play with York’s scoring some runs and Durham bowlers getting a limited number of wickets. I did see that all rounder Ian Blackwell got a century for the MCC out in Dubai against the championship winner Lancashire. It will have been galling for Yorkshire fans that this was the year which saw them relegated to Division 2 especially as Middlesex and Surrey have moved back up.
Having secured the title as the World number one Test side England lost all five Test Matches against Pakistan and the first of two against Sri Lanka. At present things look brighter in the second Test with home side out for 275 and England 154 for 1 with Cook going strong on 77 as day 2 ended Captain Strauss did make 50 which may silence sum of his critics. They will need to win the game to hold on to their number one spot.
In contrast to the Test match Performances the male and female teams have done well in their respective one day tours. The ladies beat New Zealand by 5 wickets out in Lincoln New Zealand in February with the home side dismissed for 233 and Edwards leading the Brits home with an opening knock of 88, They improved to a six wicket win in the first 20 20 game with Shrubsole taking 5 wickets for 11 as the home team struggled to 80 for 9 Taylor not out with 37 saw the team win in this low scoring game. Edwards 33, Taylor 45 and March 48 led the team to 166 for 7 in their innings in the second 20 20 game while four of the English bowlers took 2 wickets to remove the New Zealanders for 118 to win the second. The third game was more closely contested with Gunn the lead scorer at 30 not out setting a total of 108. New Zealand Openers made a good start but collapsed to 90 for 7 and 10 short of the revised Duckworth Lewis total as the game was interrupted by a violent rain storm. Both sides struggled to make runs in the fourth game with the highest individual score 29 but New Zealand had the star Bowler as Nielsen took 4 wickets for 10. However this was not good enough as England managed to get the required runs with 5 wickets in hand and 7 balls left.
The men had an excellent start in their first 50 over game because of Cook with 137 and Bopara’s 50. Ajmal took 5 of the 7 wickets as England made 260 and then Finn with 4 for 34 and Patel 3 for 29 destroyed Pakistan for 130 in 35 overs. Cook scored a second century in the second and closer game with England 250 and Finn 4 for 34 and Patel 2 for 51 as the official home team playing in Abu Dhabi were all out for 230 at the end of the 49th. The third game was extraordinary with Andersen 2 Finn 3 and Broad 3 wickets as Pakistan made 222. Cook 80 and Petersen 11 achieved a 9 wicket win with 16 balls to spare. It was an outstanding performance. Petersen who had failed miserably against spin rescued his place in the team. He then dismissed all the doubters like me with a second century 130 as England achieve the required 237 runs with 4 balls to spare. Dernbach 4 for 45 did the damage.
There was a short three match 20 20 series with Pakistan winning the first as batsmen failed to progress individual good starts so that there was a loss 8 by runs after Pakistan made 144. Swann 3 for 13 was the best of the bowlers.
England won the second game impressively with Bairstow not out at 60 and 150 in total; Finn 3 for 30 headed a team effort which had Pakistan all out for 112.
England then won the series because of a fine 67 run effort by Petersen and Pakistan only failing to make the required 129 by 5.
I decided to record the visit of Liverpool to St James Park on Sunday despite the game being in 3D. I was horrified on return to find I had not set up the recording as I believed and had to settle for the extended highlights in game which Newcastle won 2.0. I then watched the whole game again in 3D on Monday and most enjoyable it was. Although Chelsea and Arsenal had wins Newcastle are still in with a shout of a European place, especially if Chelsea go on to win the League. They play tonight. The new star at Newcastle is Ba’s compatriot Cisse. The comparison between him and Carroll was evident with Carroll sold for over three times as much and failing to impress. Newcastle have become a much better team with out him. Good riddance Carroll I say.
I waited until the evening’s extended highlights to watch Sunderland away at Man City. It was an extraordinary game with Sunderland 3.1 up until the last five minutes of official play and then losing to goals in seconds. Although the one point from the draw was welcome they should have won and even with the single point City are now 5 points behind United and their championship hope which appeared certain at one point may have vanished. Looks like Alec is going to do it again!
And one of the six Valouris pottery wine goblets is broken having been blown onto the concrete. I have about ten films to review, lots of television and some sport. I have been preoccupied with other things.
Last week was all about making the most of the weather and after the two hour effort on Tuesday the walk last Wednesday was something of an effort. Again there were not as many people doing likewise as I had anticipated, three separate small parties of young boys with school teachers, the majority senior citizens and some grandparents and few others. Aware that I might not be up to the walk uphill at the end of the outing I took the car to the bottom of the hill beside the park and then crossed over alongside South Marine into the almost deserted Amusement Park and through to the walk by the all weather sports area onto the sands which were spacious and clean. I was not in the mood for sand walking so returned passed the pub restaurant along the new promenade now weathered since it was laid down last summer.
There is further work this year to build up the dunes. For the first decade on arrival in South Tyneside there was an inherited contract with the Council for removing sand from the beach which continued until its conclusion was negotiated.
The Marsden Rattler, two converted railway carriages plus additional space and outside beach terrace has become an expensive Italian restaurant where a steak main course or a whole Lobster will set you back £20. If you attend nine Sunday lunches or buy nine bottles of wine the 10th meal or 10th bottle is free.
I continued walking on the sand side of the walkway but decided against going further than the Sand Dancer, a former beachside chain restaurant now specialising as a venue attracting the younger surfer style clientele. I came back along pavement noting that the flower beds across the way are still awaiting planting. The double extension to the Minchella ice cream kiosk and coffee morning tea time snackerie is completed and was doing a good trade since it became a friendly venue for the older bikes as well as those walking the promenade.
The way visitors walk up and down on warm sunny Sundays reminds of Mediterranean life and that described by my care mother and her brothers and sisters in Gibraltar. I returned home satisfied with myself.
I repeated the walk on Thursday in part taking the car to the bottom of the hill but crossing through the park and going to the Sand Dancer before returning.
On Friday morning it was time to join the queue for petrol at Morrison’s Seaburn. The government had caused panic buying through its Minister Francis Maude advising people to fill their car and also store in jerry cans. This is bad advice with the consequence that one woman in Wakefield storing fuel for one of her daughters set herself on fire and is now fighting for life with 40% burns. The bastard ought to resign but I doubt there will be a legal case for damages against the Minister, unfortunately. This has been a bad few weeks for Cameron as Parliament is in recess for Easter and I assume the May Elections, Queen Speech and all that. Miliband has done well in the political sparing without delivering any knock blows the improved performance should have been reflected at the ballot Box.
There was a by-election on Thursday where the controversial former Labour Member George Galloway and now of the Respect Party contested having previously held a seat in East London. There is a strong Muslim community in Bradford which George could expect support given his opposition to the War in Iraq as well as disaffected traditional Labour who had previously shown support for the extreme right. George achieved one of the most important election shocks in past century, especially for Labour, overturning a 5000 majority where the candidate was Asian into a 10000 majority for himself. It is evident that the public are saying a plague on all your houses. The Liberal Democrats are going to be crushed into oblivion at the next General Election at this rate.
The government quickly reacted to what happened in Wakefield and the Trades Union said there was no intention to arrange call a strike before Easter and that negotiations with Management were continuing.
On Sunday I visited the Durham County Cricket Ground for the new Season. The club opened its doors with the Members lounge opened and available arranged for throughout the two days. Having not visited part of the existing stadium and anxious to see if the upper tier of the extension was now open I signed up and participated in the first available commencing at 11 am and which lasted an hour.
Understandably the emphasise was on showing the facilities available for people to hire or spend money but those on the first tour, apart from one young man did not appear the kind to spend a lot of money. There was no regular food provision in the Member’s lounge with an emphasis on Austin’s the separate and open to the public all year restaurant. They do a main course roast for just under £9 and a three course meal for around £15 although the menu is interesting and compared favourably with that experienced at the Theatre Royal Nottingham recently.
We then visited the Board room and the Vice President’s lounge which caters for VIP visitors, and an individual sponsor’s room table seating for 12 with balcony outside. There was opportunity to view the two lounge hire facilities. On the ground floor there is to be a public bar reminding of the Shed in Yorkshire but at a very different level of ambience and facilities. It was set out for a Christmas party as was the upstairs where there is also seating and suggesting hospitality packages for internationals and special matches with the lower area available for non members on rainy days.
On one hand compared to football the hospitality packages are better value in terms of the hours of play offered for County Cricket including the pro 40 competition held on Sundays. That offered for 20 20 games is more questionable. For the county games and the 40 overs the options are a private room for 12 with the cost is around £75 plus VAT per head and for this there is Tea Coffee, ground entry, hot Breakfast Roll on arrival, scorecard 2 course lunch and after noon tea or no breakfast roll and 3 course meal with afternoon tea for the 40 over Sundays. The individual price for lounge hospitality is £10 more.
With ground entry at £15, the breakfast roll and coffee at £3.50. Scorecard £1 and a three course meal at Austin’s £15, one is paying double for a balcony view which can be distant and out of the sunshine depending on the pitch and time of day. The cost of the 20 20 game is exorbitant at £137.50 plus VAT per head for 12 for this only a two course meal and tea or coffee on arrival. The individual pays £120 plus VAT. There is no mention of parking.
What proved the most interesting was the visit to the education centre where schools can send pupils struggling with their spelling and arithmetic? Upstairs the Sky studio is also used by young people around the year for media work. The best view in the ground belongs to the handful of cricket reporters. There is a huge two story window the width of the whole playing surface the is needed because the commentators are able to sit directly above and over the wicket whichever pitch is used. There is a separate room for the scorer who controls both electronic boards as well making a written record and an announcer who is a volunteer.
On the walkabout I we were shown the completed transformer unit for the floodlighting system which remains to be installed and the bushes on the banking by the fencing before the riverside have been cleared to make way for the hotel which will have parking on the ground floor and have two floors for the rooms with sixty on each floor.
As for the cricket Durham won the toss and had a good day at the wicket because of another great century by opener Di Venuto with 143 out of the total of 337. Stokes, Borthwick, Collingwood, Mustard and Plunkett all had good little knocks in the 20’s and 30’s, Smith 4 Stoneman 12 and Muchall did less well. With Braithwaite and Breeze playing I assume Steve Harmison did not... His brother has moved to Kent. Rain interrupted the play on the cold Monday and I wonder how many spectators braved the conditions. Durham remain coy about the details of the play with York’s scoring some runs and Durham bowlers getting a limited number of wickets. I did see that all rounder Ian Blackwell got a century for the MCC out in Dubai against the championship winner Lancashire. It will have been galling for Yorkshire fans that this was the year which saw them relegated to Division 2 especially as Middlesex and Surrey have moved back up.
Having secured the title as the World number one Test side England lost all five Test Matches against Pakistan and the first of two against Sri Lanka. At present things look brighter in the second Test with home side out for 275 and England 154 for 1 with Cook going strong on 77 as day 2 ended Captain Strauss did make 50 which may silence sum of his critics. They will need to win the game to hold on to their number one spot.
In contrast to the Test match Performances the male and female teams have done well in their respective one day tours. The ladies beat New Zealand by 5 wickets out in Lincoln New Zealand in February with the home side dismissed for 233 and Edwards leading the Brits home with an opening knock of 88, They improved to a six wicket win in the first 20 20 game with Shrubsole taking 5 wickets for 11 as the home team struggled to 80 for 9 Taylor not out with 37 saw the team win in this low scoring game. Edwards 33, Taylor 45 and March 48 led the team to 166 for 7 in their innings in the second 20 20 game while four of the English bowlers took 2 wickets to remove the New Zealanders for 118 to win the second. The third game was more closely contested with Gunn the lead scorer at 30 not out setting a total of 108. New Zealand Openers made a good start but collapsed to 90 for 7 and 10 short of the revised Duckworth Lewis total as the game was interrupted by a violent rain storm. Both sides struggled to make runs in the fourth game with the highest individual score 29 but New Zealand had the star Bowler as Nielsen took 4 wickets for 10. However this was not good enough as England managed to get the required runs with 5 wickets in hand and 7 balls left.
The men had an excellent start in their first 50 over game because of Cook with 137 and Bopara’s 50. Ajmal took 5 of the 7 wickets as England made 260 and then Finn with 4 for 34 and Patel 3 for 29 destroyed Pakistan for 130 in 35 overs. Cook scored a second century in the second and closer game with England 250 and Finn 4 for 34 and Patel 2 for 51 as the official home team playing in Abu Dhabi were all out for 230 at the end of the 49th. The third game was extraordinary with Andersen 2 Finn 3 and Broad 3 wickets as Pakistan made 222. Cook 80 and Petersen 11 achieved a 9 wicket win with 16 balls to spare. It was an outstanding performance. Petersen who had failed miserably against spin rescued his place in the team. He then dismissed all the doubters like me with a second century 130 as England achieve the required 237 runs with 4 balls to spare. Dernbach 4 for 45 did the damage.
There was a short three match 20 20 series with Pakistan winning the first as batsmen failed to progress individual good starts so that there was a loss 8 by runs after Pakistan made 144. Swann 3 for 13 was the best of the bowlers.
England won the second game impressively with Bairstow not out at 60 and 150 in total; Finn 3 for 30 headed a team effort which had Pakistan all out for 112.
England then won the series because of a fine 67 run effort by Petersen and Pakistan only failing to make the required 129 by 5.
I decided to record the visit of Liverpool to St James Park on Sunday despite the game being in 3D. I was horrified on return to find I had not set up the recording as I believed and had to settle for the extended highlights in game which Newcastle won 2.0. I then watched the whole game again in 3D on Monday and most enjoyable it was. Although Chelsea and Arsenal had wins Newcastle are still in with a shout of a European place, especially if Chelsea go on to win the League. They play tonight. The new star at Newcastle is Ba’s compatriot Cisse. The comparison between him and Carroll was evident with Carroll sold for over three times as much and failing to impress. Newcastle have become a much better team with out him. Good riddance Carroll I say.
I waited until the evening’s extended highlights to watch Sunderland away at Man City. It was an extraordinary game with Sunderland 3.1 up until the last five minutes of official play and then losing to goals in seconds. Although the one point from the draw was welcome they should have won and even with the single point City are now 5 points behind United and their championship hope which appeared certain at one point may have vanished. Looks like Alec is going to do it again!
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