2552 Daily Notes Dec 2013 Sam Bailey V Susan Boyle after day writing on Borgen and Montalbano

Sunday 14^th December 013 was a blank at first to me only four days later until I remembered it had been Borgen and a Montalbano’s world day, Demark and Sicily indeed worlds apart, watching again the final two episodes of Borgen and completing the writing as well discovering I was unable to view again the last two episodes of Montalbano although I had some notes somewhere and finished reading the 12^th book that I had purchased together earlier in the year,

Lunch was chicken although it was not ready until after 2pm before it was roasted with vegetables. Later the remains were broken up for a stir fry and a curry. In the evening without salad which I have gone off fancying I enjoyed some freshly boiled pasta with a packet sauce mixed in some chopped salami. I have stopped exercise and weighing given the two pressures one from the present the greater priority and one from the past when I assumed I had done all it was possible for me to do in 2003.

My ability to do anything which involved concentrated reflection and attention was also affected by attempting to keep in touch with the Test match in Australia during the night with the third Test commencing at around 2.30am.

The political battle lines for the next General Election have been drawn between Labour and the Tories over the economy. Positive figures on economic growth and future forecasts with reductions in levels of unemployment have buoyed up the Coalition on the rightness of their attack on the pubic sector and stimulation of the private. However this has been achieved by the creation of zero hour contracts and part time employment in general thus reducing individual and family incomes while the cost of living rises. Labour is therefore concentration on the rise in the cost of living and the lowering of incomes in real terms. Given that the banks squandered around £3000 in the average family income it appears the Government decided that the majority should meet this in terms of lower living standards. There is a great sense of injustice about this.

In the evening I did watch part of the results show for Strictly and then skipped through most of the second X factor final show except for the two performances of Sam and the other contestant where the gulf between them widened especially with the respective renditions of the chosen first single released and home for Christmas number one. The performance of the other contestant was passable while that of Sam was extraordinary with a depth of emotion and vocal of outstanding world wide ability. I am surprised that she gained more than a million votes of support and had the two female panel members in tears with Sharon Osborn speechless with emotion and Gary and Louis in awe and unqualified admiration., Later she had been the audience choice in eight of the ten weeks of live performances and with Luke, who only came third topping twice.

In the past couple of weeks I have seen two documentaries about the Britain’s got Talent older success story Susan Boyle with the second programme on ITV the more interesting. Over a year ago he decided she as ready to go on tour although her manager remainder apprehensive given her high anxiety level. The big change occurred because she had received a psychological and psychiatric(?) assessment which discovered that she had nor been brain damaged at birth as she had been led to believe but had an autistic range and this had led to a reappraisal of performance preparation, relaxation and other actions to combat panic attacks and excessive nervousness and fear of failure as well as disappointing those who had come to see her. In this she was aided by the artistic/performance coach supporter director for want of a better description, a comparatively young man who appeared to fully understand Susan.

She commenced with a performance run through before a small invited audience, before undertaken several shows in Scotland where the home audience was expected to give her unconditional support should problems arise. In the event the mini tour was a great success in two ways. She sang the score and more of numbers in 90 to 100 mins show with interval but she anyway had the audience sympathetic empathetic and willing her to succeed. There was then a big leap to test her ability to performance to an even larger audience flying to the USA and Texas in a 17000 plus sweater stadium. She had arrived and a comprehensive UK tour was then planned followed by an International one. It is one of the amazing entertainment stories of my time.