It is my intention to complete at one of the two pieces of writing commenced before setting out on my latest trip to the midlands to watch cricket, Durham at Derby is the third last match of the 2013 season and crucial to both teams with Durham presently heading the championship table by a good margin of points and Derby one the teams likely to be relegated to the second division. Before setting off I was aware that the weather forecast for the region and indeed for the cricket playing countries involved in the battle for the championship, for relegation and promotion from Division II was not good with the most likely outcome being draws all round. This placed greater emphasis on gaining bonus point and also meant that I needed to plan for what to during rained off time.
I had one advantage on this occasion having booked accommodation at the Days Inn, within the cartilage of the Derby Cricket Ground although the Motel and the adjacent huge Virgin Active centre are on land either sold by the council or let by the Council, and the club are tenants of the local authority and as I was to learn on the first day of the cricket, the future location of the club was in question with a potentially crucial meeting to be held on Friday afternoon. Having room so close to the ground, especially with a view over the ground although the greater part of the wicket and grounds closest to me was obscured by the only covered public stand .
I commenced write the original work at 17.45 on Tuesday 10th September 2013 while enjoying some small rolls baked before setting off with Leerdammer light cheese and drinking lemonade from the flask before watching England’s vital game in the World Cup qualifying competition although intending to switch over at half time to watch New Tricks if not fully engaged by the football.
Earlier at the regular stop Midland’s I was in no mood for chicken and bacon salad and tempted by sticky barbecue chicken I tried a new dish of a chicken breast with a mushroom and Madeira sauce and stuffed with bacon and something else plus new potatoes in skins and peas which was delicious.
I prepared well on Monday, or at least I though I had done so fitting in to the Freeman hospital for a replacement Sleep Apnoea Treatment machine face mask. However I did not check the petrol and only spotted the empty light as I was in the Tyne Road Tunnel with no petrol garage on the way except when travelling in the opposite direction of the dual carriageway and uncertain if there was a petrol station at the Sainsbury situation near the Hospital.
Heading for the second public car park I was confused by another visitor who pointed to the large notices warning that only staff with permits could use the park. As another visitor clarified this meant that staff could not use the visitor‘s park unless they had a permit to do so and not that the car park was restricted only to staff with permits if you what I mean.
It took less than a minute for a technician to exchange the posted mask for the correct one and before departing the building I made my way along internal corridors through the crowded standing only out patient areas to the main reception entrance for a cup of coffee £1.20 at the refreshment counter run by the WRVS.
Still anxious about the lack of petrol I was relieved to see a notice just before then entrance to Sainsbury that petrol was available and at under 140 pence a litre. I filled up £46 and having increased the credit on the Tyne Tunnel pass fixed to the inside of the windscreen within the past couple of months I sailed through noting the standard charge is now £1.40 with using the pass a reduction of at least 20 pence. I had hoped to m using the Tunnel again in the evening to watch a relay of the Carmen Opera from the Sydney Harbour Bridge but the Odeon Silverlink was not listed or any other Odeon within each reach. I did for get to purchase a pint of milk and this would provide a challenge later.
Over the past two days I have organised a visit for the boiler service although I thought this was undertaken on the repair visit for the water system and ordered a replacement Tesco card and the transfer of the available points. I have also restocked on tins and some frozen foods and including some fried onions which I forgot to try on Sunday saving the second helping for Monday. Had a barbecue ribs dish with jacket potatoes and some veg from Saturday which proved too much so I left and binned rather than over do which I thought good although I hate wasting food.
The main activity has been registering completed sets commencing events which took some time after I made mistakes with the numbering. I then needed to reorganise the content of creative sets before registering and then list the titles of Blogs and printing out the list as well printing out the list of sets in sequential order of completion. I still have to update from the data loss the Record Record and confidential sets as well as completing to more Development sets which I hope to register on my return although with the Notts game and then the visit to Sussex getting back up to date may have to await my return although then the priority becomes the great work about which confidence grows.
Another activity completed yesterday was to create a diary of arranged and possible activities for the rest of September through to December where apart from my trip to Croydon and Sussex towards the end of the month I have no further away trips until Christmas when I back in the midlands. There are plenty of good football matches coming up on Sky and for those on BT and those not on Sky which interest and held during the day I may go out to Newcastle and Sunderland if I cannot find somewhere in Shields. There are several live relay cinema showings of interest with the Habit of Art and Tosca the most look forward too.
There is an excellent programme of public lectures and concert at Newcastle University but so far no repeat has been announced of the Sunderland series which I missed for various reason last year. I did see news of the BBC 3 Thinking weekend series of programmes at the Sage with tickets becoming available with the final programme later this month. There is also great progress in the riverside park site in South Shields but no announcement about the opening of the new sea front leisure centre. But as I say my priority for October onward is writing and the associated research.
Having visited the cricket ground last month the only aspect which concern was the way into Days Inn site and this proved no problem as it next to the Virgin Activity centre. There were plenty of parking spaces and I was able to use one close to the Reception entrance. I did note that a square of spaces had been closed off with cones and these are presumably for the Cardamom Club which is on the car park side of the hotel but an integral part of the building. The club boast fine and gourmet food and appears to have 100 tiered seats for when there is entertainment and a champagne and Cocktail bar suggesting £100 a person standard nights out.
My room is compact but excellently furnished with a quality finish from matching bedspread and curtains, two contemporary wall print blocks, telephone, armchair as well as desk chair, good changing, clothing and baggage storage and the a bathroom with style with an interesting bath shower unit. There is a large fan and a hair dryer, The location of the hotel on a busy main road means there is traffic noise even overlooking the cricket ground when the window is open.
In the evening I part watched the England game away to Ukraine which ended a 0.0 draw and a good result which means we should head the table by winning the last two games. Instead of watching the second half I turned to New Tricks which proved another excellent episode covering the political victory of New Labour in 1997 and the death of a researcher who was running away to a new life with the young wife, a Bosnian horror refugee, who businessman husband was genuinely supportive of the girl he had met at a gentleman’s club with membership £10000 annually providing young partners from Eastern countries whose organiser ensured the young women continued to pay for their rescue. The killer proved to be the politicians senior aide and now Labour party big wig, manslaughter covered up and the girl produced an adolescent boy to the mother of the murdered man, her grandson.
The weather forecast suggests outbreaks of rain but in the afternoon with the temperature better depending on the level of cold wind. I shall rise at least by eight and investigate if I can secure a seat in the member’s pavilion from 9 and also the meal plan for the day .
It is just before 7 on the 12th anniversary of 9/11 and my Sleep Apnoea use was just 8 hours and I am back to 8.1 hours for the month after reaching a low of 8.0 yesterday. It is 9/11 and I reflect on two recent documentaries seen on Channel 4. One involved 14 individuals including a black woman where two firemen remained in the building knowing they needed to get out and back to their families but who stayed to help her down as she became slower and where she pleaded them to leaver when she needed to rest but they stayed and lived to tell the tale when others who continued to exit were crushed. In another instanced mentioned in the documentary a senior officer went back into the building when he realised one of his men had not exited with all others who were still there and he ordered them to remain and get away while he went back inside but they refused and followed and all also survived when the building collapsed as floors came down with the increasing domino effect but somehow they survive in the central stairwell and moreover when hours later the dust commenced to clear they could see a shaft of sun light which presumable also them to get out a mayday signal. The story was also told through the eyes of two women one a girl friend who had been warned to get away from the area and who went to his fire station for news, anticipating the work and then learning of his survival. Of course there were after effects, briefly referred to. The interviews were shot in the comparatively small flat of one of the survivors who persuaded all the others to return and tell their story, a story they had been unwilling to share until now.
The second story was a correction to the Hollywood film World Trade Centre which I saw in theatre and which tells the story of the mystery man who with subsequent help was responsible for finding two other firemen alive who were buried in the rubble after the collapse of the second tower The films follows the lives of the two firemen as they commenced their day and left their families.
Ten years later a man who had moved away from the area with his family saw the film and realised it was his story. He had not spoken to anyone about his role that day and the reason for coming forward after seeing the film is that unlike the film he was black and also a US marine who gone to help out if could after learning that the US had been attacked. The documentary shows him meeting up with the two men and their families after the revelation and mentions the apology from the film director for not disclosing information which they had known to be accurate.
It is 3pm in September 11th and I am back in my hotel room with no play since just after the luncheon interval and little prospect of play over the next hour at least and possibly longer. Durham won the toss on what looked a greenish wicket in overcast condition and captain Collingwood no doubt hoped for early success. Apart from one opener bowled by Rushworth the Derbyshire batsmen appeared little troubled by Durham who in general were not bowling at their best after discovering they were getting little help from the wicket. The home side were 99 for1 when the rain came.
After breakfast in the car comprising cereal with milk purchased last night I contemplated going into Chaddesden for rolls and margarine just after 8 am but the traffic around the roundabout especially back from Chaddesden was such that I returned to my place in the Days Inn car park. I reconsidered a trip ay lunch time but by then Durham supporters who had driven up early for the cricket had filled the car park so again I decided against moving the car and took the short work to the local store where I purchased the margarine and a loaf of bread for just under £3. And will make up salami sandwiches with olives for this evening and pate bread spreads to morrow. I will review what I do for Friday. I had a late lunch to day if sausage, chips and beans for £4.25 around 2pm after the main lunchtime rush had cleared in the ground tea rooms as they are called.
Over lunch I listened to part of the interview between Radio Derby and the Derbyshire Cricket club chairman who discussed the ground development proposals and the possibility of moving the club to elsewhere in the County unless the City Council became more supportive over development proposals with a meeting with city officials this coming Friday. He dismissed talk of a proposal for the early season championship game to be played in France because of better weather conditions and presumably to also encourage the development of the game across the channel. The issue has not been discussed with the Chairman of clubs.
I had positioned myself on the member’s balcony just by one of the entrances and had conversations with Derby members on both sides who after their performance at the Emirates feared the worst, especially as they had been put in. As I commented at the lunch break they could enjoy the period having survived the morning and likely the first day, the weather given what it was likely to be. On return to the room I had further problems with the key card until I worked out the green light only came on and the door released when by inserting and immediately removing. Silly me, Just as well as I needed to leave the room to go tot eh car for the bread and margarine to make salami sandwiches and to return the margarine and boxes to the vehicle as well as later go for an iced Pepsi the salty salami having created a great thirst after droning the rest of the lemonade last night and this morning and not venturing far because of the continuous and unpleasant rain. I am thirsty still and tempted to venture
down stairs again for some plain iced water<
At present I am unaware of what has happened the other important county championship games as there was no reference on 5 live and 5 live extra stopped broadcasting after the third England and Australia gamed needed after the England innings of 15 overs at 55 or so for 3 with the rain and the game was abandoned. I did manage it to briefly get the internet on line to check the email but then cut out.
The highlight of the evening was Do you think you know who you are South Shields Sarah Milligan who forged a nationally recognised career for herself after her marriage broke up and wanted to know if her family had always lived in the north east and she discovered two to great great ancestors. The first born Whitstable on the South East Coast is shown to have been a diver and this leader her finding that he was one the first divers anywhere in world which commenced at Whitstable and led him to join an expedition to Holly Island where there had been a major sinking and loss of life off Holy Island involving a passenger steamer from Hull. Sarah was initially concerned that her ancestors had profited from raising belonging of those who died at the going rate of 40% but a notice in the Shields Gazette reveals that he brought up belongings free so they could be sold to provide for children orphaned in the tragedy.
The man had stayed in The North gaining secure and respected employment on River Tyne locating wrecks and other underwater threats to shipping. He had married and had five children but there was no money as thought at one time within the family.
The second relative was born in the Orkney islands and had then accepted a five year contract as a labourer with the Hudson Bay Fur company in Canada but because if competition had been sent across country in winter 350 miles to an outpost at Albany but because local fishing failed to provided enough food the ancestor and been sent back only for the man to found almost dead and with severe frostbite by an indigenous local. However it was necessary to sever both feet to save his life. He had eventually returned to Britain where he married and had children. Both men had triumphed over great adversity and both men were shown to have had good hearts, married and raised children, with good messages for Sarah to be proud of.
I have noticed a new direction in the most recent editions of this excellent series where the basic information about a family tree is found out in advance by a professional genealogist rather than showing or encouraging individuals to undertake this aspect themselves and thus reducing business for this growing profession as a consequence of the programme although as from my experience the professional genealogist can make mistakes, especially if they are acting for someone at a distance.
The programme is now concentrating on individuals within family trees who offer the prospect of recorded occupational or other information such as travel information of interest which is of interest to the subject and will make good programme viewing. In the instance of an Asian Indian whose family had been an Kenyan Asian the subject about whom I missed the introduction and therefore knew nothing of his celebrity nature. The programme went first to Kenya to learn why his grandparent had come to England and also to India to learn something why the move was originally made to Kenya. The majority of those of Indian nationality came to Kenya when recruited by the British to build a railway and where the work was such that an very high percentage were killed or severely injured and only a small proportion elected to stay when their contract ended. His grandparent had become an early general shop keeper in on the new towns that had sprung up along the railway line. When the country gained independence the Indian population were given the opportunity to stay and become full citizens of the new state, giving up their British passport or losing their ability to own property and occupational status, Many chose to come to the UK and many if not the majority opened the local all hours corner store as well as the Indian food restaurant and Indian food supply provisions that play such an important role in our community today, although many of their generation have progressed into all aspects of the employment society. Back in India he went to the village of his roots bringing him a better sense of identity and understanding of the courage and effort of his ancestors. In the instance of his mother/grandmother he learned that her mother had been a child bride at the age of six to a boy of ten and that although she borne many children only 2 survived, unusual even for India likely because of the very young age when she was likely to have commenced giving birth.
It is now Thursday September 12 and we shall see if it is to be a cricket day let alone a good cricket day from the Durham viewpoint.
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