08 45 20.09.2012. Almost nothing was written in the Diary yesterday such was the day of intense reflection and writing which dominated everything else and once drained from the effort I watched much on TV and read a little, did less physical activity than I had hoped for but kept food intake under control.
09.05 Completed two games of chess at level three with run now at 23 games. There has been good use of sleep Apnoea machine over past two nights with 6.7 hours followed by a deep sleep until 08.30 yesterday morning and 7, 3 last night again with another hour to hour and half hour of deep sleep following with overall average of 6.9 hours making 7 within reach although this is not yet a goal, rather the combination of good hours and further good free sleep.
09.10 I had the stir fry chicken and noodles as the main course on Tuesday and fish with vegetables yesterday and today a chop with vegetables. There was a quiche on its own, soup, grapes, mushrooms and tomatoes and cereal in addition with yesterday a prawn salad instead of the quiche.
09.25 I have invested £20 in Time Magazine for the next 12 months as a way of gaining a New World perspective on events although this was achievable by switching through news channels I have always liked the Time (Warmer) take on things owning the Time Life series on cities with their gorgeous photos and serious essays plus the important series on ancient civilizations. I have completed game 25 at chess.
09.45 Benedictus from Armed Man by Karl Jenkins which will be played live at the 20th Anniversary Concert of Classical FM which I switch on the Internet after checking emails for the morning and completing the daily GFK Media view survey. I am still in a hazy state that I forgot to include the most important programme watch during the day, a Channel Five Live special on Hillsborough the Truth. This was the powerful and emotional rendering case against the police and ambulance service over the failure to deal with the situation which emerged leading to 41 individuals who could have survived with the proper attention dying. There was also the organised cover up by senior officers of the police action on the day involving the altering of police statements wither by threats or without their knowledge. The calls for a new Inquest and criminal proceedings grows louder. There were scenes of the present Liverpool away supporters visiting Sunderland where the crowd response was disappointing. I guess the hone side without wins for nearly a dozen games did not want too much sympathy for the visitors although sharing in their anger and concern about what had been revealed. A major contributor was the doctor who was present with his sons now Professor John Ashton and who clearly is one of the important behind the scenes figures pressing for truth and justice over the past two decades.
09.50 The killing of two police women becomes more and more murky as the man being hidden at the house was wanted re murders and on police bail because the evidence was not available to hold him in custody to be charged, so why did they initiate the call which led to two unarmed policewomen attending. This has brought a general sympathy to the police again after Hillsborough revelations and the way the policeman who killed the news vendors has been let pensioned off after the criminal trial jury appears to have been fixed in the way the prosecution service handled the case. What Hillsborough revealed is that anything is possible if senior police officers get together although I suspect it is easier to get away with it when the Ministerial department and the Managerial and professional bodies involved also participate or condone. While a Minister hands may be kept clean, the Party Political machine, including the whips office and even a branch of the security services, including those other nations may become involved without individuals ever knowing the full story.
10.10 Going for my mushroom and tomato breakfast brought me face to face with the sweet pepper plants now filling the breakfast room table and I also have a container and individually potted plants in the front leisure library room. I am hoping to bring them into the warmth will help them to complete their cycle to fruition this year or continue over the winter into next season. I am also preparing for getting someone to come and attend to the roof problem which is to bring water over my working desk when there is fierce rain or a combination of rain and wind. This reminds that I will contact Northumbria water tomorrow if there is no action in the Back Lane today. The good utility news was to learn that I am £400 in credit on the Gas and Electricity accounts and that I used more electricity than gas in terms of expenditure over the so called summer. The credit should mean able to use heating throughout autumn and winter without concern.
10.45 Breakfasted but I could do with a cup of coffee and am out of milk and not inclined to got some last night using what was left a cereal bowl. After playing some 800 games of fee cell patience I have decide d to undertake 1 to 100001 games in sequence. Last time I achieve this magnificent task I was not concerned with lost games when I found I could not complete a game abandoned and started again. This time I will continue hoping to achieve a grater run of 3000 games achieved during the present series of over 8000 games with the latest run approaching 1000, the third time this will have been achieve during the present series..
10.50. I will attempt to dismantle the two mock leather desk armchairs at 11, or at least begin the task hoping it will be possible to combine one top with one base to achieve a complete usable chair. I am presently using a padded hard base armchair from the original table and chair set purchased for my first home and where I could not move the table from the old house to here without getting it through the window. The Chair set includes two arm chairs for each end plus four straight back which I have kept together with the four kitchen table chairs, using the kitchen table as my desk here and four padded base chairs from my birth and care mothers. There are also two padded bedroom chairs and one of the two armchair purchased for them when they found a settee was too low for getting up out of on their own. I shall also wash and shave and then after lunch go for another small shop as I am using down the fridge for a defrost.
12.50 An excellent period of activity close two hours which did not start well as I could not find the key to unlock the screws on the chairs in order to see if I cobble one good chair from two with problems. Before I had a thought as to where a key might be located I decided to reorganise the tools boxes. I have to s contained with two compartments and carry handles and a wooden box belonging to the mothers. I had screwdrivers in all three as well as other items with no rationality so this has now been changed.
I then had an idea where a key might be in the kitchen back cupboard and found one which fitted both chairs. I have been able to transfer one side to the chair with a working base for them the chair where one of the feet broke off. I therefore have a useable chair and dismantle the other so that there are possible useable parts if needed in the future.
I then did further sort out work in back and will make enquiries form next Monday after checking on the position of the back lane tomorrow and arranging the flu jab, possible the latter this afternoon after lunch although I also want to visit Morrison at Seaburn and also fill the car with petrol
13.40 Enjoyed a spiced up pork chop which carrots, peas and broad beans. Now attending to the kitchen sink plug holes which became slow running. There has been steady rain outside.
I also enjoyed last nights Who you think you are with Alex Kingston. Just about to celebrate her 50th birthday she remains a sexually attractive woman who divided herself as going through a period of instability in her life diving time between the UK and the USA. She is separated from her second husband with whom they have a daughter who lives in the US and she was previously married to Ralph Fiennes the classical actor with whom they lives for ten years since student fays before marriage. He left her for the Francesca Annis another heavenly creature who I would say is similar to Kingston in terms of her physical appearance and performance persona. She is reported to have taken the break up of their marriage badly.
She has never made the top as a film actress and is mostly known for TV roles with ER in the States and twelve Dr Who appearances and counting here with a long range of other TV series including the remake of Upstairs and Downstairs this years Marchlands 2011, Law and Order and Hope Springs 2009, The Knock in 1996 and 4 episodes of the Bill in 1988. We were back to World War and Passechendaele for the first investigation for a great grandfather a photographer who started as a magic lantern slide maker, She did not know what a magic lantern was which I found extraordinary given her age. There was a moving moment when she was able first read a brief account of the death of the relative in a book about the role of Engineers in relation to detecting the location of enemy guns by recording the sound waves on film and later identifying the death in the official record of the engagement although his individual military papers is one of the hundreds of thousands lost through World War II bombing
However it was the second investigation which as she admitted established both the Jewishness of part of her background and also the whore. Her words I emphasise. An early relative was widowed young in the early 1900 around 1824 with four children under 10 years and was found in a census running a lodging house in a row of lodging houses all run by single woman as owner occupiers in an era where all the property of a married woman belonged to her husband. The suggestions were therefore these lodging houses were of ill repute. There were two newsprint items which indicated this was so when early on she was brought to magistrates and found guilty for keep a lewd house and then there was suicide by poisoning which referred to a property owned by her but where she was not mentioned.
Her Will revealed that she owned a large number of properties which she left in trust to her grand daughter thus preventing them going to her son who sounds a wastrel or to any future husband of the daughter. That she grown from being a widow without pension to owning the property suggests the success of her occupation and that by also moving up in terms of location she may have achieved protect via her clients and which accounted that she was not referred to in the later incident. This tickled Kingston pink rather than the red of her golden red curls
14.05 I had planned to shave and go out after checking TV for the rest of the day and discovered that at 20 20 game against South Africa was being shown again in 3D. One of the disappointments this year was the lack of cricket in 3 D so was delighted to see this. As here is World Cycling a 4 and 6, men then the ladies, coinciding with Newcastle away in their first Euro League game I am revising the plan to go to Seaburn for petrol and instead go nearby for the milk. Enjoying a cold drink. I am catching up TV in chronological retrospect.
15.05 I made the mistake of watch the first episodes of the second series of Romanzo Criminale without refreshing my memory about the first which was developed after the successful 2005 film.
The fictitious crime drama series does follow actual events in Rome’s crime history and the role of corrupt politicians. The Crime gang whose history is featured in the two series was in fact a combination of two gangs of young men who dreamed of becoming big time and eventually controlled drug distribution throughout Rome, leading the high life of fast cars and gambling but also attempt to establish themselves through financial investments.
The first series ended with the leader of the combined group known as Lebanese who was rejected by his mother because of his criminality and is gunned down by two brothers, why I cannot remember. The first two episodes deal with the aftermath of the killing. Towards the end of series Lebanese had become wild and unstable and with the second in command attempting to go straight because of a serious relationship with a young woman who had previously been the girl friend of his brother who he had worked hard to keep in college and out of trouble. The impact of the girl turning to Freddo led the brother to dropping out of higher education and taking drugs.
The death of Leban and the instinctive need for revenge results in Freddo abandoning plans to leave Rome with Roberta and to become unofficial leader. The gang are not members of the Mafia but have an arrangement as they have with right wing political gigues and their placed men in position of power in the police and judiciary. They want to give authority to Dandi, a young man with a liking for fine things especially Patrizia originally a high class beautiful whore but now runs a whore house for him with the help of her male gay companion
The complication is that the young police detective Commissario Scialoja has a grand passion for her and she had shown interest in him. His hands are not clean and is regarded as a Communist sympathizer because his sister was part of a communist action group and who arranged to leave Italy when she was about to be arrested.
17.00 after going to Morrison’s Shields (see later) In these two second series episodes the vultures gather over what appears the breaking up if the gang, They kill one man for boasting he was responsible for the Lebanese’s death and then one of the two brothers thought to be responsible.
The Commissioner then picks up Freddo’s brother and holds him in jail knowing that there will be an attempt to get to him by enemies of the Freddo and that Freddo will be forced into action. Freddo’s attempts to protect his brother in jail while he gets his lawyer to seek the release fails and the young man is beaten up and susceptible to pressure from the Commissioner and agrees to wear a wire and attempt to trap his brother. This does not work and Freddo sends his brother packing.
17.45 ( Came over tired and hungry and decided on a Thai Soup with noodles and King Prawn Wanton (4 pieces) followed by making prawn salad and bringing in the Carton of grapes for afters, watching the men’s World Cycling Time Trial without Bradley Wiggins injured and then to the ESPN Newcastle versus Maritomo Madera Island Euro competition,, Liverpool playing later are putting in a second team in effect with the priority the Premier League and have Man U on Sunday, Newcastle have made changes because of injuries and playing on Monday but team not yet announced and similarly Spurs also with changes from the Premiership)
Freddo is also at sixes and sevens with Roberto infuriating her when he abandon the trip away but she then gives him alibi for the killing of one of the brother thought responsible for Libanese. Later when she appears to waiver he sends her away knowing what he has to and the likely implications, especially with the Commissioner hot on his trail.
The second series opened with a flash back to how Libanese and two other formed the nucleus of their gang as boys. There is anger when they discovers that Libanese’s cars have gone and when they discover they have been taken by his father he is given the opportunity to save himself not by getting back the expensive ones but the Mini which they used in the early days. This is then pushed down a mountainside so that no one else can use the vehicle.
They also insist on the immediate liquidation of his assets in order to provide a funeral fit for a king but his mother rejects the money and one of his closest friends steals the coffin which he places in the best available so he and the other have a wake. They do this with special food and drink before returning the coffin to the mother and attending the formal funeral where the Commissioner also attends.
The police take the other brother to stop him being killed by the group and to test for evidence of his guilt but the secret power group delay returning the findings but let Freddo see a copy in order to enable the group to get their revenge and settle things. Freddo then agrees that Dandi as the driver and two other should undertake the assassination of the other brother once he is released from custody. When this starts to go wrong Dandi freezes from putting himself in the firing line to pick up the under fire other two one of whom is wounded. Dandi returns to Patrizia to lick his wounds having been approached to take over the gang by other interests. However he may not have bargained that one of the two others getting away by taking a hostage.
Freddo also tracks down to person who sold the brother the drugs and finds that she is a feisty female who points out the brother was an established addict in need and that she is best local distributor than all the others. Freddo’s makes enquiries and puts her in charge of the area previously managed by the Libanese much to the anger of another of the hangs with whom the Roman group had previous problems.
19.30 I missed England’s last 20 20 game with South Africa which because of bad weather in the afternoon was reduced to 11 overs under the flood lighting at Old Trafford. The commentary team suggested that 10 runs an over was the benchmark target but which looked unlikely until Somerset’s pint sized wicket keeper batsman Josh Taylor started the 10th over and his 30 runs with three sixes, two fours, and two twos in an over which had two no balls and where his 31 was made while facing 10 balls. South Africa had no one to match this and finished 28 runs short at 90 for 6. Kieswetter scored 50 from 32 opening the innings.
The Newcastle game was frustrating because despite the heat of 29 degrees and a rock hard uneven pitch which created problems with the ball bounce and a poor start over the first 15 minutes Newcastle had many chances with two ball strokes hitting goal posts and half a dozen if not more good opportunities during the rest of the first half and the greater part of the second half. However it was the home side that came close to scoring in 81st minute. Alan Pardew has little European experience and given that the team played on Monday night have an away game against Norwich and then a mind week League Cup game away to Manchester United
Liverpool also with their junior side had had exciting game against the Young boys, taking the lead three times but for the home side to equalise. However they scored their fourth and fifth goals late on to return home with all three points justifying the decisions of the manager.
22.05 Watched the Sky Atlantic film on the Sky Team winning the Tour De France. It was great to relive the experience plus several previously unbroadcast interviewed and comments on issues which arose including the position of Froome and Cavendish. Given what happened with the Olympics and Paralympic one forgets the enormity of this team success. Measuring this against the winning of the USA and an Olympic Gold medal by Andy Murray and the winning of the 5000 and 10000 metre my Mo Farah make the choice of Sports person of the year impossible and what of Denise Lewis, Ellie Simmonds and Nicola Adams together with David Weir should make the top ten short listed.
22.45 Also watched one of series The British which focussed the importance of Caxton and the establishment of printing more significant that the Internet and on making English the universal language. Henry VIII and the printing of the Bible in English with himself on the frontispiece establishing the schism with Rome and Catholic Europe.
The role of Francis Drake as a James Bond Adventurer for Queen Elizabeth 1st stealing from the Spanish to finance the creation of the Royal Navy and its significance in matching and defeating Spain and commencing the establishment of the British Empire with Jamestown. The development of the cannon made from iron The role and impact of Shakespeare. The development of Puritanism and the schism between Parliament and the King and the Civil War.
I was fascinated to learn that September 11th is a national Holiday in Spain and a million and half people are reported to have gone on the streets seeking Catalan independence.
There was also an interesting article explaining that Mitt Romney has had to dumb down and appear right wing to get the Republican nomination with the the support of the Tea Party pressure group and the grudging support of Fox news and Murdoch. I can also understand the Militancy among teacher union in the UK after learning that the Chicago Teachers are striking because of the offer of 16% pay rise on top of their average salary of £75000 involved some changes to condition of service including better performance standards.
23.15 The main article of the week concerned the way the crowd attacks on USA Embassies has been orchestrated and with varying response from national leaders particularly unhelpful by Egypt‘s Muslim Brotherhood‘s President. The article notes the various other events which caused action by the fundamentalist and those using religion politically with the publication of the Satanic Versus 1989. It is also noteworthy that Romney’s response has been to attack Obama demonstrating again that the man will do anything for power and is as bad as other Presidents and Presidents elects in their uselessness at Foreign relations given his unforgivable attack on our holding the Olympic Gamers
Andrew Morton’s new book on the background to the Diana book appears exploitation of the worse kind with the advertising cringing.
23.25 I still am unsure about The Recruit which I saw again on yesterday or the day before, the film with Al Pacino as a CIA trainer with 25 years of experience in the field, at the Training centre The Farm and at Langley HQ. He recruits the excellent Colin Farrell who I will always associate with In Bruges. We are then taken through the training programme as we have in the past with military intakes, squaddies and Officers. Those paying close attention will note that he appears set up with another Recruit, the embryonic Marta Hari - Bridget Moynahan. On one venture he is part of a group asked to get a girl to go to bed with them at a bar and he abandons his quest to help Bridget who says she has been cut from the training and is drunk as a consequence. It is revealed that her assignment is to stop him completing his task.
He then turns the tables when appointed the questioner as she undertakes a lie detector and retina test. She is pained when watching him undergo a physical and psychological interrogation which he believes is a test after he and the young woman are kidnapped an he is kept in isolation in a container like prison. He is then cut from the course for ostensibly breaking down in front of the class who are looking on through a one way system.
It is only then that the plot emerges in that he is appointed by Pacino to a low level post within Langley to spy on the young woman is said to be a sleeper agent, shown that her official background file is false. Pacino says that he lasted longer than anyone over the previous 15 years in the test and that everyone breaks so the general lesson is not to get caught.
He says the girl is taking out an official computer programme. He is to befriend and become her lover as means of fining out who she is working for.
He kills one of their associates in the underground areas of the metro system in a chase when he finds that she has passed part of the programme to him. When he confronts her she says that she was undertaking the work for Pacino to test the inability of employees to take confidential material out. She was passing to her contact who was working detached from Langley. He lets her go and contacts Pacino realising that he has been set up in some way. The idea of such tests which include braches of the law is nothing new. As far back as World War II special recruits were given tasks such as being dropped off at a point in the mainland without money or identification and told to return to base or get into and out of a secure building. After all if they were to do this in enemy territory then practice at home was essential and I suspect remains so.
We learn that Pacino has been using the young woman to take out the programme which he is selling for $3 million as an immediate pension fund although I would be surprised if over actual retirement the amount of the pension would the same or greater. He is therefore taking an unwarranted risk. The way he has set up both recruits to take the fall is clever just as the finale in which he incriminates himself falling to a bluff by Farrell who takes him up on one of his assertions that is everything is never what it first seems. Pacino dies in a hail of bullets and Farrell is taken off to be debriefed and no doubt have an ongoing relationship with the girl. Stretched the grey cells a little but a good way to wind don after a during day emotionally writing
23 50 have been writing listening to two programmes on Arts Channel featuring Roy Orbison and Friends and then in Concert which I must have seen at least half a dozen times but never tire of. There are few performers that I can say this about.
30 game run of level three chess completed and 1 to 15 in sequence of Free cell. Had a good shop going for the milk, mushrooms, tomatoes, more £1 carton red grapes, a quiche, smoked mackerel and a carton of prawns in shell. They also had restocked with cheap batter packs at 14p which provide to helpings. There was also a pack of sprats which I divided into two, one for Saturday and another to keep the three month stock rotated. Although I am running down the freezer for a defrost a couple packs of frozen vegetables to keep me going over the week while I run the meat and fish. I also added a pack of liquorice and of hard boiled sweet butter mints. They still had the 50p packs of four soups so I added 6 to the 6 previously purchased and the three Ainsley which I found when looking through the low cost store where I bought the canes at a quarter of the price elsewhere, when I posted the letter yesterday afternoon. Mot managed a £1 cheese and pickle baguette but my treat tonight was the Thai Soup as previously mentioned.
Final thought received a new code for a Credit Card which explains why the current one was not accepted as they gave decided to issue a new one because of the previous problems. Will read a little in bed rather than finish the Orbison programme.
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