I commenced to write on Monday December 10th 2012 There were lots of things I should be doing and lots of things I want to do but by 11 am I was drinking my first cup of coffee at the start of an important week for getting things done, or not. It came over very dark just but passed quickly with blue sky and fluffy clouds of different sizes and densities.
It is now approaching 8 pm on Tuesday the 11th and I will switch between Bradford Quarter Final league Cup game with Arsenal and a Chanel Four Programme on the Weather, has it changed?
This reminds to mention the death of the Astronomer Patrick Moore, an eccentric man with a monocle (a word I struggled to spell correctly) who did so much to bring the reality of the heavens to modern man, woman and child.
I have been trying to create a cocoon around myself from the reality of the world outside and its political disappointments. On Sunday I watched four James Bond films with Roger Moore while I checked and registered over 100 new work sets but there are another 200 to complete this month if my new monthly target is to last more than one month.
Earlier this evening I watched on the i player the second of three programmes about Claridges where although it is possible to get a room for £300 a night the hotel features those at the upper end which appears to average around £4000 with the best suite at just under £7000 and which should even make eyes of most Premiership footballers water. The pleasant manager of German background admitted that prices were those of the market for luxury rooms in London and other similar locations according to size, facilities and personal services.
The management company have gutted and recreated a dozen new suites at around £4000 to £4500 a night at a cost of £400000 a room although they should recoup this in under 3 years to 5 years according to my reckoning. They are also planning to raise the height of the building by two floors. Maintaining the outsider fabric of the existing building is to cost £3 million with hand cut bricks.
Among the guests featured this week were the Emperor of Japan and his wife plus entourage who occupied 24 rooms. The Emperor is one of only two surviving heads of state who attended the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and the King of Yugoslavia who was born in room 212 when his parents became exiled in London during World War II. Other personalities including Joan Collins who pressed the need for everything to be perfect, the cost of luxury. Stephen Fry an over rated personality in my estimation commented that he would not mind living in the hotel when he got older in preference to an institution for the elderly, adding if he could afford it..
Another feature of the series in the life of the staff with in this episodes the half a dozen staff members who have worked for the hotel for thirty years and more. There was also a new young man of Italian background starting as a dining room waiter. There are some 400 staff roughly one per room. One of the former Doormen returned with his children and grand children to mark his 70th birthday with tea at £50 a time but dos include a glass of champagne. Another East End former villain comes for his breakfast most days ever since he popped in one day when his wife ran a shop around the corner. I cant wait to witness the revelations of the final programme when perhaps we might get some admission of the comprehensive nature of personal services arranged.
I have been keeping one eye on an important programme about weather conditions in the UK in the context of world changes in arising from the increase in sea temperatures because of the increases in man made gasses. What I had not previously understood is that with such a comparatively small increase, and an increase which is forecast to continue over the coming decade. The impact is on more moisture in the atmosphere which in turn creates additional energy which in turn fuels more extreme weather, so that while we do have the condition for small tornadoes, around 30 a year it is only recently these have become more intense such as the one that cut through a Birmingham suburb last year.
The increased moisture was caused this year. The wettest for 100 years, by the Northernmost Trade Winds from West to East shifting southwards for the greater part of the summer than its usual location to the north of our islands and for a reason why is yet to be explained. In terms of water movement from the south via the gulf of Mexico passing along our West Coast and which helps to make the UK warmer in Winters than Scandinavia this also appears to be changing although whether this is temporary or longer term change and of what nature remained to be determined. This could bring Scandinavian style Winters to the land. There is also evidence of the more prolonged intense heat waves similar to that about five years ago. This is all not good. This all sounded ominous to my ears.
At last the 2011 census information has been provided England and Wales and for individual local authority areas. The most significant change is in London where under 50% of the population (45%) describe themselves as part of white groups compared with 86% in the UK. 37% of usual residents in London were born outside the UK compared to 5% in the North East. The total population of England and Wales has increased by just under 3 million with the overwhelming percentage of the increase coming from migration. I have kept the site reference and will take another look in the New Year.
The changes were discussed on news night, welcomed by a Professor from Oxford and Bonnie Greer who lives in Oxford Street, while a young academic tried to make sense of the information and a youngish representative of Toryism tried to sound the protest of middle England without sounding racist. He made the valid point that the changes had taken place despite the main political parties saying they were taking control of immigration. One additional piece of information is that the number of people from Poland has increased from 50000 to 500000 and where the majority were now living outside of inner London. A different stat emerged from the news over the day that only half the available visa to live and work because of having a skill urgently required had been taken up.
It is just after 8 am on Wednesday I hate the mess that is around me in this room with piles of paper which does not quickly fit into one volume. I will force myself upstairs after completing one put off task to get me going to get the material and then shift the bed piled high with boxes from one side of the room with built in floor to ceiling cupboards on three sides for the clothes and possession of the previous owner and which continues to serve me so well. I need to get hold one cases as I need additional for the travels. I may change my mind and finish the Christmas cards and letters.
I have the Harry Potter film to write about although I am including the second film at the end of this piece. I have started on the Olympic and Paralympics DVD’s having watched the Paralympics Opening Ceremony again on Monday night and sporting event highlights yesterday morning followed by the closing ceremony which I attended this afternoon. I was more impressed with the closing ceremony than at the time because the sound was better and close ups provides a better appreciation of the action. I also understood why the three Paralympians included in the nominees for Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday were selected-David Weir, Ellie Simmonds and Sarah Storey while others were not, although these are destined to be honoured in the Queens New Year lists. I switched away from the football on Sky last night as Newcastle went down again, to Fulham away, although I liked their style of play and will be amazed as well as disappointed if they go down while I fear the worst for Sunderland. However last night Sunderland won their against Reading 3.1 which took them out of the relegation zone. I missed this event watching Arsenal lose on penalties to Bradford which is now a Second division team and who reached the semi final of a Cup competition for the first time in their history.
Violence from the football terraces erupted over the weekend as Manchester United scored the winning goal in extra time on their visit to the Manchester City Stadium. Those involved are being dealt with by the club and the police. The Players representative is calling for protective netting in key parts of the ground. This is an over reaction and he should instead have criticised the Manchester players for going over to celebrate directly in front of the City fans. Players provoking the crowd in this way is also not excusable.
And there are the political tracts to write and the Leveson report to read and The Winds of War reading and writing. all have been abandoned together with the George Smiley writings on the radio plays as I flit, float is a more appropriate expression, from one choice and inclination to another.
At least the discipline of the CPAP use continues at 7.5 hours a night average for three and half months although maintaining the level remains a constant struggle. \On Monday after drinking the coffee I had intended to go upstairs and bring down the work required to complete the 500 new sets target of Artman Artwork for the month, However by the time I deleted 56 of the 57 Spam file as for some reason the Shields gazette daily notice gets put in this file. Together with dismissing 14 other emails from the new file without reading and completed my GKF media report for the day, my mood changed and I started to write Christmas card, deciding on who should get the 10 best cards from the 25 purchased from Clintons who always have an excellent selection of distinctive boxes at this time of the year.
My GKF media report covered an excellent programme on BBC 1 on how Satellite technology is revealing the location of a great deal more of how Rome controlled its World Empire. The main finding is evidence that along the 15000 mile great wall in North Africa the evidence that this comprised a series of forts perhaps with 100 men with the wall marking the difference between uncultivated land to one side and hundreds of new communities springing up on the other with perhaps 20000 people occupying one large valley. One archaeologist had spent thirty years looking for such evidence while the most exciting find was the discovering of the foundations of the great Lighthouse known to have existing at the entrance to the Alexandria and which was discovered underneath a vehicle knackers dump close to an airport outer runway land, again something which has been searched for in vain for decades.
I also watched James Arthur from Saltburn and the Boro win the X Factor on Sunday and The Andrew Marr show was disappointing mainly because I did not like the messages and I decided not to watch the Manchester Derby apart from the closing moments. I did watch Merlin on Saturday and just the two songs by the three X Factor Finalists as they were reduced to two for last night. I enjoyed the visits to their home towns. I gave Strictly a miss but may catch up on the I Player along with the Antiques Road show although the way the week is shaping up i doubt if I will have the time. It is now time to give attention again to J K Rowling’s Harry Potter.
The second Harry Potter, film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was, as the first, a self contained film which can be enjoyed in isolation from the first and subsequent films by is also an integral part of the master story as well as a chronicle of growing up feeling different from the majority of humanity, an experience with which I can identity although unlike Harry I missed out to a significant extent on sharing my experience with those in a similar situation. True I did have some Muggle friends for a time during my adolescent years, but it was only as a young adult that i enjoyed the regular company of those with a similar interest, traditional jazz and then as part of the non violent direct action movement against weapons of mass destruction. For Harry Potter the world was also divided between good and evil and a fight to avoid domination and potential total destruction,
As with the first film we find Harry at home with his Muggle relatives, the Dursley’s isolated all summer as he has had no contact with either Ron or Hermione or others from the school, not even one letter.
He then finds a number of unexplained happenings which he learns are caused by a House Elf Dobby intent on stopping Harry returning to Hogwarts school because he knows an attempt will be made to kill him. House elves are to be found the homes of the established households of Wizards and Witches and in effect House slaves who much obey every command from their masters and can only become independent if their master present them with clothing. Their lives in service is monitored by a special branch of the Ministry of Magic which has issued guidelines on their treatment and has a unit which allocates elves to individual homes and will organise their reallocation.
In this instance it is only later in the film that we lean that Dobby is the House elf to the Malfoys and therefore his behaviour is not only unusual but dangerous for him risking the severe rest punishment for disloyalty and disobedience. The film does not explain why Dobby is acting in this way, something which may happen in the book. The impact of Dobby’s well intentioned but misdirected behaviour has the impact of making Harry’s life at the Dursley’s even more difficult than usual, especially when his uncle is entertaining a potential business client. The consequence is that Vernon takes decisive action to prevent Harry leaving their home for Hogwarts, locking him in his room and placing bars on the windows.
It is Ron who drives up across London in the flying car with his elders brothers to rescue Harry attaching the car to the bars at the window to pull them off and to load Harry and his trunk and then takes Harry to the family home, the Burrows. This is an extraordinary creation on several floors in a countryside setting which I understand to be Devon, effectively run my the matriarch figure of Molly played by Julie Walters with her adventurous husband, an unassuming man played by Mark Williams. The Burrows becomes Harry’s second home where he establishes a friendship with Ron’s younger sister Ginny who is to commence in her first year at the school as Harry Ron and Hermione commence their second.
During the stay they visit Diagon Alley to re stock on supplies using Floo powder which looks like fire ash and which involves entering the fireplace below the chimney but because Harry is nervous his flight is slightly off course and is separated from others and ends up in a store selling black magic products and spots the father of Draco Malfoy there who boasts his support for Voldemort. Harry also attends the book signing of the famous Gilderoy Lockhart played by Kenneth Branagh who appears as something of self interested showman and who is to become the new Professor of Defence against the Black Arts at Hogwarts.
When Harry accompanies the Weasley’s to Kings Cross Station for Platform 9 ¾ they find they cannot enter so Ron uses the flying car to try and catch up the train arriving at the school they land on to one of the Whomping Willows, an aggressive tree which attacks anyone coming within its orbit and their arrival is witnessed by Snape to declares they should be expelled for using the vehicle and being late. Profession McGonagall supported by Dumbledore argues that as head of the House she is responsible for discipline and the punishment will be detention.
In this second film the opportunity is taken to present more the schools activities. However before this Ron receives a Howler from his mother. A feature of letters in the series usually delivered by an owl is that they contain oral and visual messages in this instance a hologram of Molly berating her son for taking and wrecking the car with the missive delivered in front of all the students at Breakfast.
The first lesson involves Herbology(Professor Sprout!) where in a green house they learn how to transplant the Mandrake plant, a plant which is not only living but with human aspects and a personality, The plant has important properties when mature and which has a crucial role later.. The second class concerns Transfiguration beginning with changing the shape of objects although the process also applies to humans (Shape Shifting was a feature of Star trek and other fantasy books and films. Ron has problems because his wand was broken in the car crash and it is repaired with magic tape with good and bad consequences The third class is with Lockhart who seizes the opportunity to increase his publicity by attaching himself to Harry. Ginny Weasley who has a crush on Harry is also a member of his fan club.
The next development is Quiddich practice for Griffindor but they find that Slitherin has also been sent out to practice with Draco now a leading member after his father has equipped the team with the very latest competition broomsticks. Draco insults Hermione calling her a Mudblod and Ron tries to put a curse on Draco but because of his damaged wand it misfires and it he who starts to vomit in uncontrolled fashion slugs. (Because of the wet summer it has been an extraordinary good year for slugs who have flourished). Ron is taken to Hagrid for the spell undone.
These are all preliminaries to when during detention Harry becomes aware of a voice, threatening, and ice cold and Hermione finds a message on a wall announcing that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. The legend is that when Salazar Slitherin graduated he provided the Chamber as a gift which when opened would release a creature capable of destroying students who were of Muggleblood to which he and the those in the House became opposed.
Caretaker Filch’s cat has also been petrified, a dark form of transfiguration and Filch finding Harry with the animal blames him. McGonagall and Dumbledore intervene and we learn that only an heir to the founder of the House of Slitherin has power to open the chamber, and Harry is convinced that this is Draco. The teaching staff emphasise that this is only a legend and that they have searched the school many times and no trace of he Chamber has been found. Soon as the attacks continue everyone changes their minds
The Trio believe that there is a Chamber and that Draco is responsible for the opening because of his hostility towards Hermione and those like her. To try and prove this Hermione, the brains of the trio, especially in relation to potions, suggests they create a Polyjuice potion which enables them to transform themselves temporarily into someone else and to trick Malfoy and his associates to revealing their secrets. The potion will take a month to prepare and some of the ingredients have to be taken from Snape’s controlled store.
During the month a Quiddich match between Gryffindor and Slitherin takes place with Harry and Draco fighting it out to catch the snitch. During games all the players have to avoid another flying object called the Bludger but in this instance it attacks only Harry suggesting someone has intervened. Harry triumphs again. However his arm is damaged and Professor Lockhart offers to fix it but manages to remove all the bones from the arm. This is treatable but Harry finds himself in the school hospital again. The skill of Lockhart is first questioned.
A new feature in the school this year is the establishment of a duelling involving the use of wands and spells, under the auspices of Lockhart and Snape and where the key match is between Harry and Draco. Draco conjures a snake and Harry uses his ability to communicate with snakes to pacify. Hermione discloses that this was something applicable to the founder off Slitherin which has the unintended consequence that the rest of the school believe Harry is the Heir and responsible for the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. The trio get their opportunity to use the Polyjuice potion during the Christmas holidays when they find that Draco and his henchmen are staying in school so Harry and his friends also sign up to stay. The plan misfires because they find that Draco is not the Heir involved in creating the opening.
In order to make the potion the trio had used one of the girl’s toilets which is not entered by anyone because it is also the location of a young ghost, Moaning Myrtle who screams and rants about her lot. She was killed by Slitherin‘s creature on orders of Voldemort, why I not certain although I assume because like Hermione she was born of two Muggles. Myrtle had also become isolated and teased at he school because of her appearance which included the wearing of spectacles. It is in the lavatory that Harry discovers a book, an enchanted book, from fifty years before belonging to one Tom Riddle and it is this book which appears to incriminate Hagrid as the true Heir and therefore responsible for the opening of the Chamber some fifty years before and it is assumed more recently.. Shortly after this development the Minister of Magic arrives accompanied by Draco Malfoy’s father who is a leading member of the school Board to announce that Professor Dumbledore is being suspended and that Hagrid is to be arrested and taken to the prison centre of Azkaban, an Island in the North Sea where those imprisoned are guarded by black spirit creatures called Dementors who cause suffering and drain their victims of all happiness. By this time other school members have become petrified with the last person Hermione which understandably causes Harry and Ron great distress. The school is threatened with closure.
Before Dumbledore leaves he tells Harry to follow the spiders to discover the truth. Harry has noted spiders leaving the school every time there has been an attack which leaves someone or thing petrified. Given that Ron hates spiders that he agrees to accompany Harry, this is a measure of his growing attachment to Hermione. First Ron and then Harry enters the underworld of the Forest where they encounter a giant spider creature which fifty years before had been involved with Hagrid in incidents which led him to be accused of Opening the Chamber of Secrets. The creatures declares that Hagrid was not in fact responsible and that although the Credit was taken by Tom Riddle for naming Hagrid this was false.
However far from enabling the boys to leave and make use of this knowledge, the creatures decides that they will become food for all its offspring and their families, The boys are only able to escape by using Ron’s car which has survived the confrontation with the Whomping Tree.
On return there is a further turn for the worse in that they find that Ron sister Ginny Weasley has disappeared, presumed into the Chamber while a piece of paper clutched in Hermione’s hand reveals that the Chamber is guarded by a snake like creature, a basilisk, Professor Lockhart, responsible for the Defence against the Dark Arts is expected to deal with the situation but he says he needs to first return to his room.
When Harry go to provide the information found in the possession of Hermione they find the man packing to make a quick get away as he is forced to admit he is a fraud having used memory erasing charms to pinch the ideas of other Wizards and Witches to form the basis of his published writings.
Harry had previously commented to Moaning Myrtle that the first incident of the petrified cat had taken place outside the lavatory and Tom Riddle’s memoir had also been found there, the scene also of her death by the creature subsequently. From this Harry concludes the entrance to the Chamber is in this area and force Lockhart to accompany them who loses his memory after using Ron‘s broken wand in attempt to use the spell on them.
The truth emerges that Tom Riddle exists as a memory in the book and is in fact the young Voldemort who now in the Chamber summons his creature to attack Harry but when all looks lost Dumbledore’s familiar arrives, a Phoenix, and gives Harry the Sorting Hat under which is the sword of the former founder of Gryffindor which Harry uses to kill the creature but who before this manages to get a fang into Harry’s arm and poison him. Harry takes the embedded fang which he sticks into Riddle’s Memory diary, an act which destroys its creator, and Ginny regains consciousness to witness the dying Harry being rescued by the curative tears of the Phoenix. The Phoenix is able to also rescue Harry and Ginny from the Chamber where they join Ron and Lockhart whose memory loss has become permanent.
With this development the immediate threat of school closure is averted and Dumbledore is reinstated in a coup against Malfoy senior with the assistance of the other governors. This because they that Malfoy senior had given the diary to Ginny via his son as a means of opening the Chamber as part of his plan to get rid of the head and Hagrid, and close the school. Ginny was unaware of all this until regaining awareness.
Dumbledore arranges for Hagrid to be released and while this is cause for everyone to celebrate, Harry growing concern about his position dominates and he queries with Dumbledore if he should be in Slitherin and not Griffindor. The Professor explains that only a true son of the Gryffindor would have the power to summon and use the sword.
When Malfoy seniors plans are thwarted Dobby, the Elf is at his side and Harry understand why the creature was so intend on stopping him returning to Hogwarts. Realising that the creature had the best intentions and is now in deep trouble he tricks Malfoy into giving Dobby a small item of clothing which is all that is needed to free him from servitude thus Harry gaining his eternal gratitude which is to have an important consequence later.
Hagrid arrives back at the end of year Feast and embraces Harry meanwhile back in Diagon Alley Lockhart’s latest book ins on sale with the title Who am I? Featuring the man in a strait jacket suffering from total memory loss. As with the first film, it ends on a high note, making the audience feel hood despite the black deeds, sounding alarms and information about what is to come that has been introduced,
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