Monday 11 November 2013

0031 Daily Notes 2013 Sunderland and Newcastle have amazing wins as Downton Abbey season ends


Yesterday was the first Remembrance Day for a decade when I was not emotionally affected by past events concentrating on the present or at least the recent present, catching up on the television missed the previous evening, watching Newcastle and Sunderland play back to back Premiership games, exercising for just under an hour and then more television with Saturday’s Montalbano, Surprise Surprise and the last Downton Abbey of the present series until the Christmas special, having also watched last week’s episode in the afternoon. More on yesterday in a moment while I come to a decision about today.


I am going to the Metro centre Gateshead for the 2.40 performance of Gravity, my first experience of Imax cinema and where I am combining the visit with a check on winter coats and Ikea for boxes. My uncertainty is whether to go after lunch for the cinema and then attend to other matters thus avoiding the rush hour to and from Newcastle between five and six or go early and risk it. I will check on store times although having just woken from a nine hour sleep I am more in the mood to stay and write than get up and go. As with Newcastle which opens late there is a 9pm finish week days which will do me so the decision is lunch time after eating at home which I will prepare around 11.30.

I have experienced a general inner resistance to writing the everyday over recent days as I want to devote more time to something more substantial. I also need to send off the application for Wimbledon Tickets and for the renewal of my passport plus get some stamps in for Christmas. The weather outside is damp and grey with heavy rain forecast in the South. I am flitting between subjects reflecting my lack of a relaxed mood. I should also do half an hour of exercise as the I am failing to accomplish an hour in one session.

The last dream upon waking has returned to me vividly and covers being at work again but as retired. Sometimes this is as a senior local government man but earlier I was back selling, out to prove that I could but as before as a 20 year old, sitting there with nothing to do an no calls to make, but also the management were satisfied because of the way I conducted myself and recognition hat there was a problem with the product which in this instance remains unknown.

Yesterday was a remarkable day for the two North East Football clubs with their matches, Newcastle away to Spurs shown at 12 and then Sunderland at home to Champions of two years ago Manchester City at 2pm. I was not aware that SKY was showing these two games back to back as well as the Manchester United versus Arsenal game, Last years, champions but struggling against current in form Premiership leaders Arsenal, in what looked a must win game for David Moyes with Alex Ferguson watching on in the stands.

Not realising that all three games were being televised I assume the 11.30 Sky start meant the match commenced at 12.30 and switched on to find that Newcastle had a 1.0 lead with a goal by Remy after a significant pass from Gouffran as play maker with Ben Arfa left on the bench likely to give away the ball in the wrong place and time in away games against the better teams. The main feature of the rest of the game, and I understand also a feature of the first third of the game which I missed was the goal keeping saves of Tim Krull who is said to have made 14 good to great saves although the total included one where he did not manage to hit the ball away far enough and he had to save the shot back from the opposition. In another incident his great block from close range looked as if the momentum would take it into the net but another defender scramble it away. I have watched this kind of game at Newcastle many times where the home side dominate but cannot score and usually it is the away side that sneaks a goal and then hangs on.

Newcastle had been able to relay on just three goalkeepers of proven ability over the past two and have decades which must some kind of record commencing with Northern Ireland International Shay Given supported by his team mate Steve Harper who was with the club until recently for 20 years, taking over as number 1 when Shay went to man City and staying on as reserve to Krull when he demonstrated his class.

Usually it is the goal scorers who get all the attention but rightly the day belonged to Krull although his after the match comments and bottle of champagne getting had to be viewed on Sky Sports news such was the pace of the switching between games yesterday.

The losing of the Derby game against Sunderland appears to have kick started the Newcastle season as the win took them to ninth in the table just below the rest of the big boys with only Southampton among the eight above them and with eighth the most likely position for the club at the end of the season unless one or more of the others falter. I have booked a ticket to see Newcastle play Norwich, a game on paper which they should win, in two weeks time, getting the single aisle seat available in the stand opposite e main one although not at the centre where I once had my season.

Despite the win against Newcastle at home and the win in the League Cup against Southampton no one in the wildest dream expected Sunderland to do other than lose against Man City, a team that ahs scored 14 goals in their last two games. However the omens were good in two respects. City had lost to Sunderland on their last three visits to the ground 1.0 and City had also lost two of their three defeats in the season so far when they played on the Sunday after an important game in the European Championship Cup where they are desperate to reach the knock out stages for the first time in their history..

Defender Phil Bardsly looked to me as if he pushed away a City defender but which the referee ignored and then steadied and sent a shot curling past the goalkeeper from almost the goal line on the left side to score the only goal of the game as City, much like Spurs poured on the pressure, especially throughout the second half without success.

There were also replays of an over the top tackle which should have sent a Sunderland player to the dressing room which the referee failed to see but to add much salt into the player victim who was caught leaving his foot into a Sunderland play he was given the yellow card. It was not going to be City’s day who had a chance of going third as Chelsea with 22 points alongside Southampton as Chelsea had failed to win their game at home, only getting a draw with a fake penalty dive as the game came to an end. It was one of the worst refereeing decisions of modern times and one must assume that his sight went blank for some reason as it was evident to everyone else watching that the Chelsea player had dived after pushing himself into the defender who attempted to get out of the way having seen it coming. Jose has talked about getting rid of the dive and anything less than fining his player and making a public apology to West Brom will reveal him as a hypocrite and lacking genuine sportsmanship, he is yet to find his best side in a Chelsea showing frailty at the back, as is Man City. Southampton demonstrated that they have become a very good side by beating Hull at home 4.1. Hull have had a good start in their return to the premiership.

Returning to Sunderland their win against the odds takes them off the bottom whey languished for the early season with only 1 point, they now have 7 as my boyhood club, and also looking doomed as they will appoint yet another manager later this week managed a 0.0 draw against good start of he season we can manage without you Everton. Pace now only have four points, With three clubs on 10 points and one on 11 and two on 12, Sunderland now have a fighting chance as their next game is away to Stoke and with a chance of a draw. Later Manchester United won also by the single goal from former Arsenal hero van Persie in a game which commentators said was something of anti climax although I decided I could not cope with a third game in succession and went to exercise.

Just discovered a full performance of Tosca from La Scala on You Tube which I will have as a sound background while I write more. Downton Abbey picked up as the series progressed with still much predictability and nothing shocking as the Christmas time death of Mathew the legitimate heir to Downton an husband of lady Mary the eldest daughter, or the death of her sister in childbirth the previous season and so on. So what is going to happen next?

Nothing has happened much to his lord and ladyship although his lordship in part our of protectiveness for his daughter saw the opportunity to regain control of the estate, something which Mary eventually found the courage to challenge and continue what the husband had started in the reform of the estate to match changing times. He has to go to the USA to help a relative at the requests of his wife’s mother and this poses a problem for his Valet and the valet’s wife. She had been raped by the butler of a suitor to Lady Mary. When Mary rejected the offer of marriage the man had gone off and continued with the engagement he had previously entered into thus removing the rapist from the household, seemingly for ever.

The wrong woman had wanted to keep the incident secret knowing that to have revealed what happened would have created a situation in which he husband was likely to take the law into his own hands and having only recently been released from prison following the suicide of his wife faked as murder, he was likely to end on the gallows this time without much ado.

Eventually she confides in the housekeeper and the husband find out but the story appears to be accepted that the rape was carried out by a stranger .So when his Lordship is summoned across every effort is made to persuade his lordship to leave the Valet behind and take the obnoxious chief footman and deputy personal valet instead. This involves the housekeeper revealing to lady Mary the situation and she persuading the husband to take the deputy much to his bewilderment. This proves just as well as the manservant returns with his master one more time. The wrong woman copes and lady Mary decides to have a secret meeting with the Lord to persuade him to dismiss his manservant, someone who he had not taken to anyway. However this only fuels the potential fire as the Lord returns to report to lady Mary and strangely his valet meets with an accident falling from the placement in front of a bus in central London. This adds to her concern as the husband of the raped woman has asked for a day off to York as his master was away and he was under employed

Lady Mary consulted another of her potential suitors. A childhood family friend is given hospitality with his boss as they visit estates to advise the government( coalition) on the future of the great home and lands of the aristocracy. The boss is rather contemptuous of the nobles and their inability to manage the estates appropriately to the changing circumstances and finds lady Mary cold and aloof. One of the ventures she has been persuaded with the help of the estate manager to taken on pigs and she accompanies the inspector on an after dinner visit to see how they are getting on, only to find the new pig man has not checked and the creatures are in a sorry state having knocked over the water trough and dehydrated with one almost dying. The to then spend several hours almost through the night drip feeding the pigs with water carried from the nearest barn. She makes then scrambled eggs on return before going to bed as the first staff arrived to commence morning preparations. This established a friendship between the two. I mention this development because when the coincidence of the accidental death of the rapist is advised together with the husband of the wrong woman having the day off and returning home late she asks the inspector for advice without being specific on the morality of saying or doing nothing in such a circumstance. His advice is to be remain silent but we the audience know that this is unlikely to be the end of the matter.

There were three other above stairs stories one which is best described as half and half. Mary’s young cousin has taken up with the black band leader singer encountered at the club in London who she goes to see on a visit to London boating on the Serpentine and then meets in a tea room at York when he has an engagement in the vicinity. She announces she is to marry and Mary appreciates that this is intended more to shock the girl’s mother than from any appreciation of what she is getting involved in. Mary goes to London to see the singer who announces he is not going ahead because he does not want to subject the girl to what is expected given the era. Mary is impressed with him.

The younger sister has not heard from the editor lover supposed in Germany gaining citizenship so he can divorce his mentally ill wife and marry, but has disappeared after leaving his hotel soon after arrival. She is pregnant after their one night of passion and confides in her aunt who reluctantly accompanies her to a back street doctor abortionist but she backs out. The decision is for the two to go on a long trip to Switzerland to have the baby and place for adoption, ostensibly to learn French, however the grandmother, played by Maggie Smith susses them out and offers to pay for the trip. She continues to finds insufferable the bereaved mother of Mary’s dead husband because of all her do gooding but softens a little after getting bronchitis and is nurses to health. As a sort of reward she is invited to lunch with her God son also widower whose company she does not always enjoy. He takes a shine to the guest accompanying her home and later sends a huge bouquet of flowers to the amazement of Maggie Smith.

The half above stairs is that before illness struck Matthew’s mother had invited the widowed husband of the third daughter who died in childbirth to attend a political meeting in York with the local Coalition liberal candidate. He goes alone and encounters a young woman school teacher ( South Riding territory). Later he encounters her at the village fete which the family runs for charitable good causes and than aids when the car breaks down, he was the family chauffer and one suspects he will now abandon his idea of going to the USA for a fresh start. He is also being encouraged to stand for the local council.

The there are two below stairs stories.. Kitchen maid Daisy who was loved by a footman and agreed to marry him when he returned from the first World war dying, had a pash for one of the footmen with ambitions to become a chef and who has got a place at a famous hotel in London The Ritz I think and who in turn developed a pash for another of the kitchen staff who flirted with him as much to annoy Daisy as from wanting him. He comes back to visit his seriously father and wants to stop at the Abbey but is put of by the Butler who puts him up at the local Inn explaining that they have flu at the House. He still calls in before leaving to say hullo to the girl of his dreams. After hi father dies and is returning North for the funeral he writes wanting the girl to move to London and to marry him something she does not wish to do. To avoid a scene Daisy is given the day off to visit the father of her former husband with whim she has become close and has confided, As it is unlikely the young man will ever have cause to come north again, Daisy is counselled to say good by rather than leave things at a jagged edge. They return to find that the young man has been rejected and is appreciated that he is able to part with Daisy who he recognises had his welfare always at heart as friends. The cooks says how proud she is of the girl and one left into thinking this may not be the end of the story. A good place to stop although there are still sub plot stories to unfold.

 
Surprise Surprise featured reuniting a member of the Tank Corps who had his service medal stolen reunited with his comrades and a replacement medal issued. I watched the recording of the X factor big band week in which Abbie the girl support by Morrison’s with a qwerky singer voice plays guitar with strong glasses has a make over and does a great vocal, her father also a musician favourite but later I learn she has been voted off. Louis has all three boy singers, of varying abilities but popular with the lasses. There are two great young female singers, one surprisingly was in the sing off the previous week, Simon is down to one group Rough Copy who he is pushing although they are not great. Sharon also only has Sam Bailey who puts in another remarkable performance who the judges all reckon, rightly is the one to beat but I do not expect her to get the young public vote.

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