2056 A dubious new TV series,one dubious and one awful fim and some good cricket

It is another glorious April morning without the hint of shower after a misty start with the shipping warning horns sounding. The poll was busy on arrival so I waited, read the paper and a little more of New Lives for Old before having the pool to myself for over half the 50 length swim challenge.

I then had one of my moments in that I filled up the car with petrol and then realised that although I had brought with me the replacement credit card for the one mislaid and reported missing, I had not brought the new code and only had a twenty pound note for the £41 bill. The only thing I could think of was to leave the car, get the bus and return with the cash using the bank card. However the manager of the petrol station was able to key in the number old style and I only had to sign and therefore everything was fine.

I return home, got the information, and had a cereal breakfast, having started off the week with a kipper and therefore marking the start of no bacon rolls, sausage and mash or cooked breakfasts for the rest of the spring and summer. At Asda two of the credit card machines did not provide for the change of pin but the third one did. I decided to stock up on two made salads £3, two cartons of sliced melon £2 and 2 apple turnover pastries £1.40 for food for Wednesday and Thursday £6, 40 supplemented by coffee and soup. On return it took time to set up the computer because of two new updates and effect of new Window Explorer 9 is to slow everything down to less than snail pace.

In frustration I went out into the back did some more clearing of the flower boxes, baskets and pots until 11 and coffee time. I will do the from this afternoon and more of the back for in addition to possibly four days championship cricket there is also the first one day game against Scotland on Sunday and then a break of only one day before another 4 day championship two days before a repeat of four days championship followed by another 40 over game on the Sunday and then a break of a week before a third home championship game in succession.

I have made good progress on getting the patio ready for plantings in three session of about a hour during the day I have to complete clearing to hanging baskets, washing the main table and clearing some grass and other material from a guttering that is within reach. There are to areas of wall which need some work with one an eye saw from where I sit. I also made preparations for cricket, repairing one sun hat, getting out the white blazer and repairing one of the cloth bags for life. I have also undertaken the weekly wash and dry.

The annual statement of income and tax paid as well as the new 3.1% pension upgrade also arrived and I did some checking on tax coding and while there are issues on balance it is not worth pursing.

In the evening tired from two levels of activity which revealed the extent that I am overweight I became very tired and slept through the opening minutes of Newcastle’s home game against Premier Championships Manchester United. United were never able to get into their top gear, in part from the excellent preparation and tactics of the home side who could have taken the lead from a golden opportunity early on in the second half. I struggled to stay with the game which ended 0.0, shortly after which I was in bed and asleep.

I enjoyed a large piece of fish for lunch with new potatoes, baked beans and tinned tomatoes with herbs and in the evening a spicy soup, a half quiche with bacon pieces, the rest of the salad selection and three plums. Overall I was satisfied with my day but need to radically improve my body and energy stamina without taking fatty foods. I had been looking forward to a new USA Sky Atlantic import called Game of Thrones which someone has described as the Sopranos in Middle Earth, because it featured Sean Bean in a major role, representing the House of Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North in the land of Westeros with his family who all feature in this first episode of what is said to be a faithful reproduction of the first of book of the same name 807 pages published in 1996 under overall title of A song of Fire and Ice. Three other volumes have been published since in 1998 969 pages, 2000 1128 pages and 2005 with 978 pages, the fifth planned for July of this year and two others to follow.

My first impression of head of house Eddard or Ned Stark (Shaun Bean) is that he is a realist as well as a man of honour and loyalty. He is also satisfied with his role in what appears to be a cold and barren landscape with a loving wife and six children, one of whom by another woman. He is a devout follower of the Old Gods, Gods of the first men, those who live in the forest and the original inhabitants of the Kingdom.

He is a friend of the King with whom he was brought up at wards of a Lord who was ordered to kill the young men after which they launched a rebellion and the Lord is now the chief adviser to King

The series opens with three night guards leaving the city and finding a scenes of violent in the forest which appears to have been caused by White walkers, a kind of undead, and one of the guards flees with the other two are killed. He is then captured by the Bean’s men who severed head for desertion in order establish the law. Although. Although there are signs of wild killings of animals after the other bodies have disappeared, the account of the re-emergence of the undead is not believed, as according to Bean it is thousands of years since they terrorised the living. One of the animals, a wolf has six cubs and there are taken for the children and my understanding is that the creatures will have significance.

Bean insists that his ten year old middle son witnesses the execution. The boy appears not very good at learning to shoot arrows while the youngest daughter appears an expert, tomboyish and a scamp. Not much has registered about the older brother but the illegitimate son does feature as someone brought up within the household but always an outsider in terms of recognition and position (I know that feeling well).

Bean’s series wife arrives at one of his favourite spots to announce that a raven has delivered a message from the Kingdom’s capital to say that the man who raised them both has died and that the King with his family is on his way to visit. The Queen’s oldest brother suggests he should be the adviser but he says this is not a job he wants. The King and his retinue arrives, greeting each other’s members of the family with the exception of the younger brother of the Queen who has made his way directly to the nearest brothel where he engages in visible sex. The king announces that he wants Bean to be his adviser and later admits he is also concerned at the way their father figure died and other threats to his rule. This persuades Bean to go but leaving his wife and family with the eldest son taking on the role as Warden of the north.

The king also suggests that the 11 year old daughter of Bean, Sansa, who in response to a question from the queen says that she had not yet bled, should become betrothed to the Kings son. The young people like each other and the daughter pleads for the marriage to be agreed so that one day she will become Queen. So far so good.

The scene switches to another kingdom where an effeminate claimant to a throne, Viserys Targaryen whose family once riled the Kingdom, is a guest which his 13 year old sister who has recently grown into womanhood after her body is inspected by her brother and where the family have a tradition of incest line perpetuation. He announces that Daenerys is marrying the head of a race of warriors with a force of 40000 who will be used to regain the former lands. He tells the girl he would have given her to all 40000 to be enjoyed if this was needed to regain the kingdom. There are scenes of debauchery and killings at the wedding feast and the girl is graphically taken by the warrior leader.

The ten year old son, Bran, has one skill, that of climbing the walls of the castle much to the horror of his mother who tries to make him promise to stop. Knowing that he has no intention of doing so. The first episode ends with boy undertaking another climbing venture to watch the departure of his father with the Kind. For some reason the rest of the family stay behind and thus the boy catches sight of the Queen and her brother in a comprising situation and she demands that action is taken because they have been seen. The brother pushes the young boy off the wall, presumably to his death, commenting the things ones does for love!

Thus it is a tale of paedophilia, incest, rape, execution without trial, families plotting to take power against each and within families, demons and so on. I can understand why the books became popular and the description of the books as the Sopranos in Middle Earth. I shall view more.

Also about magic of a more human kind, was the film A Touch of Hope, also based on a book about a Healer given the name Dean Kraft to protect his identity and location. The end notes admit that the facts of the story have been changed but the individual does exist and is helping hundreds if not thousands of patients to recover or improve from serious and medical conditions. The man is possessed of energy which if he directs towards a particular patient, embracing their pain and suffering he can bring about sudden dramatic “cures”. The film portrays his struggle to accept his power and the implication for how he will spend the rest of his life. Because of the reaction of a male work colleague on disclosure he does not talk about what is happening to his girlfriend or family, but does agree to participate in formal testing trials when approached by a doctor exploring the effectiveness of alternative medicines.

Although he has great success with a patient with a degenerative condition which prevents her walking the inability to save his father who experiences a severe heart attack and a stroke leads him to reject his powers and abandon participation in the trial until approached by a mother who daughter has remained in coma since being temporarily trapped in icy waters until rescued. It is then revealed that the girl is the daughter of the Medical Director of a hospital which authorised the investigation of alternative therapies after standard medicine failed to revive the child. All the previous investigation failed after raising hopes so the M D refuses to give permission for the man to experiment with his daughter despite the intercession of his wife.

The man is convinced that he is able to control the force within him sufficiently to help the girl although in doing so his own heart stops beating and he has to be revived. As sub stories there is the relationship between the man and the girlfriend and this is said to end happily ever after and the failure of the man when a child to save his younger brother in a swimming accident, Whether any of this is true is another story, except that there is an individual with curative powers through the use of his hands and the focusing of mental strength somewhere in the USA and how much of this is faith healing or some measurable energy is also an open question.

A nonsense, pass the time, film is Con Express whose ingredients are over familiar. A middle manager customs official in Northern Alaska is tipped off of the arrival of big contraband which turns out to be ordinary looking metal barrels filled with a chemical or biological weapon. The successful finding involves the capture of the Russian behind the operation and a Soviet agent determined to bring the man to Justice in the Soviet Union. A small detachment of US soldiers arrive to accompany the dangerous cargo on train journey through Alaska and presumably Canada rather by special military plane which in fact is what is used to transfer the Russian villain the Soviet and USA agents and the custom’s man who is required to go by his boss. The villain engineers a mid air escape with inside help and the Custom’s man survives the plane’s crashed landing with the help of the Russian agent. They then are able to make their way to the train as does the villain and his men who are all on hand. The US military on the train and defeated but the train becomes a runaway and is only stopped by creating a major avalanche in a ravine and bringing the dangerous cargo and the villain in millions of tons of snow. The customs man has jumped of the train at the vital moment but the Russian agent does not appear to have done so!

Back home the Custom’s man has worked out that in fact his boss is the real villain and has switched the barrels which he is selling of multi millions to the original purchaser. He is stopped with the money as are the Northern Korean/Chinese looking purchasers in their plane which begs my original question. The story is ludicrous, the acting is pathetic and my impression is that cuts were made to make the film available for children’s viewing. A waste of time but I was in one of half awake spells

1937 Visting Durham,a summer concert by the beach and cricket on a summer's day and Carmen from Covent Garden

Thursday June 6th began and ended as glorious a warm and sunny day as Wednesday. But by Sunday the weather had reverted to its recent summer norm, wet and cold. Thus the four days encapsulated my present life as it has become.

On Thursday morning I took the Park and Ride from just off the AIM on the 690 road from Sunderland into the City of Durham. A field has been converted into two huge car parks just off the junction roundabout and where there has been built an attractive waiting area and automatic ticket. There is a single Decker bus every ten minutes taking the short circular route into the city stopping close by the paying multi-storey car park which has been used since it was built for visit to the city, although during those early years in the 1990‘s when Durham played cricket at Durham Riverside I usually managed to park within the grounds or along at the Rugby ground within view of the infamous Durham jail, now considerably extended to cope with the overall rise of the prison population.

There is now a congestion charge to enter the area of the Market Square and continue up to the Cathedral where there is also the former castle and the university Library. The park and ride ticket, usually £1.70 but free for concessions can also be used on a second single Decker bus to take one up the narrow winding road to the Cathedral, with shops, inns and restaurants and rooms used for university and student activities. Durham University is Colligate but with the 14 colleges spread in the city and to the southern parklands, and at Stockton where there are two colleges.

It will be fifty years since first going to the adult Education college situated at Oxford and with special links to the university and undergraduate life. Given my life immediately prior to arrival I was ill equipped to make best use of the experience in terms of the academic and social life available as then I did not understand the nature of my learning difficulties and knowledge retention. In fairness I did throw myself wholeheartedly into the experience which at times was overwhelming, at others lonely, challenging throughout as I took to notion of academic truth with great enthusiasm and then to the potential power of social case work for making fundamental changes to the lives of individuals. It remains a regret that I did not have the normal route of sixth form and undergraduate experience before jumping into the deep end of a course where all but five others of course students were first and second class honours graduates.

I am guessing that the Durham undergraduate experience is close to that at Oxford and Cambridge and other colligate universities where the student is able to participate in several levels of academic and social experience. The individual college is a total life system during term time, with the appointment of a college tutor to see them through their individual courses as well as the tutorial system, seminars and lecture system provided by the University through its faculties and departments. The college provides accommodation and food and college facilities such as a gym and bar common room, sporting teams, musical and dramatic and other social and interest activities depending on the culture and bias of the college and its size. Each college has its own budget and staff

However the undergraduate has also to be registered with a department of which there over a score within three faculties, at Oxford they are called Schools. These provide the structure, teaching and study framework as well as assessment and examination process in the chosen subject. The University is a large organisation with 15000 students of which a fifth come from overseas, and 3500 are undertaking post graduate work. There are over 3000 staff with some 40 separate administrative and organisational staffed functions, an annual budget of £160 million to cover its functions which as had been mentioned emphasised are separate from those of the individual colleges.

In addition to social and sporting activities provided by individual colleges there are a large number of university wide sporting and social activities which each having officers and a committee usually made up of representatives of the individual colleges. There is also a student union which offers information and support services as well as social. In addition some students like to participate in the life of the local community whether it is to attend a church or faith group, hang out a local bar or nightclub, undertake voluntary work, or join a political or other social group. It is easy for some who become sidetracked away from their studies although much depends on why they have come to university and if they know in advance what their occupational activity is going to be afterwards. Looking through the on line features of the university and its colleges I noted that one is now offering two scholarships for ex service men and women.

I must do some work comparing student life today and fifty years ago and whether anything has changed other than costs and student loans. My two years at Ruskin were fully paid by Surrey County Council as was the 12 month Child Care Course at Birmingham University by the Home Office, although the grant meant I was on survival rations during practical work placements outside of term time with the consequence that I was able to start work without inherited debts. To day around £8000 is required to cover tuition and live in cost during term time although there is overprovision for the provision of accommodation without food at other times.

The focus of my visit was the great Cathedral about which I wrote at length after making the first visit after several years last twelve months ago. The Cathedral is one of the most welcoming along with Beverley and Southwell Minsters and I am always affected by the sense of history, spirituality and repose. I had forgotten where the audio visual commentary is located and was just as impressed and moved. Later in the space between the Gala Theatre and cinema there is the sculpture of the monks carrying the remains of St Cuthbert after they fled Lindisfarne from the rampaging Nords and eventually settled for 100 years at Chester Le Street after going as far as the Cumbrian coast to the west. I enjoyed a four seasons pizza at an Italian restaurant just over the Elvet Bridge before making my way to Marks and Spencer’s in the hope there were some summer trousers in my size. There were not.

I then walked over the Framwelgate Bridge where the two course lunch at the Cafe Rouge was prices at close on £11, two to three pounds more than London Victoria or the Metro centre at Gateshead. Further along towards the bus station there is a Wetherspoons and a Yates Lodge both offering meal deal at a fraction. I debated taking the bus to Sunderland and then the fast service back to Shields, but it was such a fine day and feeling relaxed I mistakenly settled for the bus to South Shields, which took all of 90 minutes, thirty to reach Chester Le Street, 30 to reach Washington bus station and another 30 to Shields.

I have only taken this bus route once before and could not remember the detour just outside of Durham, close to the village of Pity Me where a new shopping development has been created with the usual mix of stores restaurants, including giant Sainsbury’s supermarket, a Frankie and Benny’s and McDonalds. In Washington the bus takes a detour to the huge government office complex and to the Nissan car plant.

In the evening I walked to the amphitheatre for the first of the season’s evening concerts with a two young female singers and then a boy band. The Council are laying a new coloured concrete designed path on the beach roadway way parallel to the coast road and continuing past the amphitheatre and covered walkway. It continued to be a fine evening and I estimate that about a thousand people attended bringing continuing custom to the fish and chips outlets, the beachside pubs, the amusement park and car parks.

The fine weather continued on Friday when in early afternoon I prepared for the first 20 20 cricket match of the new format season at Durham Riverside. By the time I returned home the ground had been renamed the Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground. There were several bursts of fireworks to mark what should have been a special day in the history of the cricket club. Given the weather I had a cooked meal at midday and then prepared some rolls and fruit for later and set off to arrive some two and half hours before the scheduled start anticipating a full house and a traffic jam as every one attempted to arrive having left work as early as possible.

It was also half term which added to those spending time at the riverside park. Anticipating the evening would cool I prepared coffee but I also filled the small cooler bag with a can of Pepsi, the bottle of tap water and a pint container of milk plus an ice pack. Alas I then left the small cool bag on the kitchen work surface only realising I had done so after I had undertaken a vigorous walk to other end of the park and back.

As also anticipated is was nearly a full house and the largest crowd for a 20 20 game experienced with a greater number of young people and young adults, especially young women, drinking Pimm’s, in summer frocks and two with a flower in their hair and four near me who had hysterics when Claydon came on to bowl, could they have been related?

The moment Lancs won the toss I sensed disaster, especially as Morkell gave away nine runs in the first over, but others were even more expensive setting Durham the task of scoring no less than nine runs an over to win. As the skies became full of cloud and Durham lost two quick wickets and the writing was on the proverbial wall when after scoring 1 and facing a couple of balls import New Zealander Taylor tried to open his account with a six and was caught at the boundary. Great day, pity about the cricket. I did some walkabout and shopping on Saturday as well as viewing the Test Match and catching up on the whose got Talent semi finals before watching the final. The outcome was unpredictable with an unfancied dance troop who Simon originally disliked winning the prize. Another dance act came second.

I did not check the weather forecast for Sunday until just before bedtime so I was not surprised by the overcast start but the extent to which the temperature had lowered was disappointing. Checking the hour by hour forecast for Chester Le Street there was a sixty percent likelihood of rain from mid morning until late evening. Originally I had planned to take a picnic lunch to the Riverside park and have a good walk before the start of the first of two games which commenced at 2.30. The first, the second 20 20 match against Worcestershire to be followed by a special game led by Steve Harmison as part of a Tribute day for our forces now on active duty and those who have returned injured and the families of those whose blood now makes up a foreign field.

I decided early on making a hot lunch of two pieces of juicy steak and tined vegetables and then filled rolls and some fruit in the event that play was possible at some point in the day. It remained dry although the gloom appeared settled and it was colder than for several weeks. I got as far as the roundabout before the AIM and decided to take the road to Sunderland as the rain commenced, a drizzle which soon, became heavier and continued until late evening. It was the right decision as there was no play at the Emirates Durham with refunds advertised today less administrative costs. The decision to go towards Sunderland rather than a full retreat homeward was taken because there was the showing of Bizet’s Opera Carmen from Convent Garden at the Bolden Cineworld. This did not communicate as a live performance to the same extent as Metropolitan Opera Relays but I have to admit proved to be a more inspiring production than that from the Met which I watched at the beginning of the year, when Robert Algna proved too gentle a Don Jose for my liking and Placido Domino in an earlier Met Production viewed on the i Player too senior and experienced for the role. Bryan Hymel is ideal as the young Don Jose, entirely convincing as the soldier and as an obsessed young man capable of murder in a moment of passionate disappointment. I was also impressed by the other debut performance in the role by Aris Argiris as Escamillo, Christianinos Rice was also voluptuously wicked and credible as Carmen. Although the singing and acting of Maija Kovalevska was of the highest quality, it is still difficult to accept to someone over 30 as an innocent 17 year old village peasant girl. I have previously reported on the history of my experience of this opera in the writing 862 1862 in January of this year. I was ready to get back to work for the rest of June.

1415 Summer sports

It is that time of the year when there is a surfeit of sporting splendour. There has been Royal Ascot which is not so much an important event in the calendar of the racing of thoroughbred horses but the occasion when ladies wear the most bizarre and expensive of outfits to catch the eye of an camera, It is an absurd English event.


There is the continuation of Formula One motor racing every two weeks with the British Grand Prix over the first weekend of July at Silverstone. I have been twice. The first occasion when I was living at Oxford around 1967 and then at the early end of the last decade. I am presently too lazy and engrossed with tennis at Wimbledon to work out when. The location was on the far side of the course away from finishing line and the Pits but it was nevertheless interesting watching a procession of cars flash past. It occurred to me that it was much better watching on TV unless you were able to overlooking the start and finish and have the full hospitality package which could be purchased for around £2000. The drive there was not as bad as the drive back where you have to allow hours.

The immediate highlight is Wimbledon. Two weeks of day and evening viewing which commenced with listening games on the radio and then watching on the TV. Fortunately there have been a number of good British players to command patriotic support Christine Truman, Angela Mortimer, Anne Hayden Jones , Virginia Wade. For men the whole hope never making it at Wimbledon has been Tim Henman who I have seen play in a quarter final match on Court One after queue up in the early dawn, one advantage of the former home of mothers being on a railway line that ended at Wimbledon station via Sutton and where is also now a tram to Croydon.

I have also obtained tickets twice through the postal ballot, once on a final's day for Court one, where alas there were only other competitions going on but nevertheless it was a special occasion where one could nip out from time to time and watch what was happening on the centre court on the Big Screen. Today is rather a special day or British Tennis as in addition to Mr Murray appearing on the centre court in round two, a British born young woman to Asian parents who settled here, is now playing against Venus Williams and where after losing the first to games of the first set she has broken back, and is 4 games all at this point of writing. She has the surname of Keothavong so I will refer to her by Christian name of Anne. There is also a new British kid on the block who has caused a stir by the manner of his first round win and who is to appear later in the day. Anne, the British number one gave a could account of herself in the first set and could have caused an upset against the current women's champion Venus Williams but fell away on the second unable to cope with the power play. Chris Eaton entered Wimbledon through the preliminary competition, ranked over 600 in the world he made the front pages by winning his first game in a confident manner but meeting someone ranked just below the top 100 was going to be beyond his present abilities at the age of 20. His local club and community had raised £30000 to enable him to go on a international circuit playing in minor competitions where his records was not exceptional winning six matches against 13 loses. He out up a reasonable performance in the first set although he was always struggling prevent his opponent breaking his serve. He lost in three sets although he and the crowd appeared to enjoy themselves.

This should have also been a time for wall to wall watching of football with the European Championship taking place in Austria and Switzerland but England or the other countries making Britain failed to qualify which is a national disgrace and rightly led to the sacking of the hopeless at Manager, Steve MaClaren. I have watched bits and pieces of matches from time to time and celebrated Spain getting tot eh semi final. I have not been a fan Turkish Football given the aggressive nature of their home crowds. However they did not deserve to lose against Germany last night

And then of course there is cricket luvely cricket. This year one days and 20.20 games have proved of greater interest that Test Matches and the County Game. Ever since the glory days of Surrey of Peter May, the Bedser twins and Locke and Laker I have longer to watch a good team play and win. For a decade and a half Yorkshire as the nearest county was my adopted team although visits were occasional. Then I enjoyed becoming a member of the new Durham County and at one point nearly took out Life Membership. Now they have the makings of a great team on an attractive ground where the Members have been voted the best of all 18 first class counties by the Bible of Cricket Wisden's. This is because of their sporting good behaviour.

On Tuesday evening after a pleasant cay the clouds gathered and it looked like rain. Droplets commenced to fall as I set off towards Chester Le Street and continued until about the Washington Motorway Service area and my spirits were raised as the sky ahead looked brighter and less overcast. I had set off later than planned and arrived at the Member's veranda not expecting to find an unbooked seat, I was successful with one at the end of the front row nearest the management and player's veranda. I had brought with me soup and coffee and one sandwich. An announcement explained that Sky TV I assumed in association with Newsnight were making a film and supporters were asked to collect in one area near the players area so that a crowd seen could be filmed. Mainly children responded to the call and the film crew did their best to capture this faked moment. I understand this is because there are rules about taking photos for commercial purposes without prior permission of individuals. The Durham all stars were filmed doing their full routine and during the interval there was a display of martial arts by a display group who appeared on Britain's Got Talent. There were also the fireworks as the Durham opening batsmen took to the field of play but they were not in evidence after the interval as the clouds gathered again, and rain commenced to fall continuously. Given the forecast and the darkening skies as the game progressed it was something of a surprise that Yorkshire chose to bowl first. The Durham innings progressed satisfactorily with Mustard making 49 but Morkel disappointed and the final score of 162.8 was respectable and similar to that at Headingley, but not outstanding. There was drizzle very quickly after the start of the Yorkshire innings which Durham dominated with fine bowling and the scores were 9 for 2 then 29 for 4 and 39 for 5. The situation was such that Yorkshire had to continue playing because to have accepted the option of stopping for rain or bad light was likely to mean the end of the match. This is what happened at ten over although the game was not called as ended at that point although most of crowd in the open stadium went home. Those under shelter retreated tot eh lounge where an amazing event was taking place as Essex all rounder Graham Napier hit an amazing 152 off 68 balls with a record of 16 sixes and 10 fours.. This was the second highest such innings anywhere and the highest in England. The win was duly declared and made my way home to watch the end of the Essex game and the accolades flow for Mr Napier.

Lancashire won their game against Notts last night to close the game while the Durham game which started late was held up because of the late sun shinning in the eyes of players. However Durham who batted second and who had a shaky start with the openers both out for no score quickly took control especially after Morkel came tot eh wicket with Captain Blenkenstein and an 100 partnership saw the opponents total achieved with overs to spare in a reduced over match to 18 as sixes and four clattered around the ground from both players. This meant that Durham are the first qualifiers from the Northern Group and will continue to head the table even if they lose to Lancashire tomorrow. This should entitle them to a home draw and be one game away from the finals in Hampshire in July, I have never been to Hampshire's ground, the Rosebowl, near Southampton. Now there's a thought. The number of mini trips this summer commence to mount up

1875 Work, Simon Boccanegra, Super Bowl. Pickup on South Street

I have been giving myself a good and hard talking to at becoming self indulgent regarding my work and my existence in general. I devoted a great part of the weekend to researching, reflecting and learning about the TV series Lost at the expense of many others things, although I became fully engaged and produced thoughtful work and found my own approach to understanding what had had happened in the past with some indication of what mysteries are to be resolved, and questions answered, over the next three months. In part, learning which characters will have a role in the final series, and which characters, to-date, will not, could prove an important clue.

Having written the above late on Monday evening I embarked on two hours of activity which required physical exertion, a bonus. My first decision is to proceed with boxing completed work and making sure I know, what was where, from that already boxed. Now of course I do not mean taking up fisticuffs to my work but placing it in small reinforced cardboard boxes retained from the move, which amazes me is over five years ago.

I will allocate one to two hours a day for this from tomorrow, Tuesday February 9th, 2010 dividing the time between boxing completed work already on display, or laying loose on the floor, to make room for new work to be placed in the space then available, and sorting out what is where in the two kinds of boxes being used.

There are two kinds of boxes. The first are display boxes in Black for creative work, Blue for events and Red for confidential. The second are those used for the move and which will hold lever arch files containing six to ten sets of completed work covering a theme or area of interest. These are functional and can be stacked within storage areas and I have settled on the small attic room with fitted wardrobe to one side and floor to ceiling shelving on the other for this. Organising this room ked to the overdue task of sorting old clothing, keeping some as part of the project to reveal my changes in weight and past choices and giving the remainder to charities. About once a fortnight since arriving a charity has left a collection bag at every house on the hill, almost as frequently as a leaflet advertising a meal delivery service. I have kept a record and todate 54 different firms have circulated their latest offers and menu and several provide updates on a regular basis. I decide to keep a record of the charities requesting clothing. I also have a supply of blankets and bedding which will be reviewed.

There was an ulterior motive behind the sort of everything on floor of my downstairs work room as three items had gone stray. Two have been recovered. A wireless mouse which I use for the lap attached to the TV. My original intention was to spend the latter part of this evening watching any Portillo Great British railways series programmes from his fourth journey. Alas I discover that all but one is left and this of an earlier series already covered, so that ends that. Is there a DVD set in the offing me thinks?

The second item is a small memory card of 64 MB which can hold 12 mins of film or between 100 and 300 photographs depending and their quality. The third, and so far, still to be found item, is the other chargeable battery for the camera. I use the camera to photograph completed work as well as to record places and experiences, and as the recording of work is boring I tend to do in batches while watching TV, so having two batteries has been useful, but not the end of the world if I cannot find the latter, but it irritates me as the loss occurred in one room at home. Its whereabouts remains a puzzle.

My preliminary sort out covering all three floors of the house led to another decision to junk decided to junk a pile of catalogues, travel brochures and such like where I like to keep the latest. This proved not straightforward, because I need to retain a cover, and some of the contents to form part of the work project in the development sets. If I die tomorrow or when the work is completed sufficiently to put on exhibition, should I choose to do so during my lifetime, the catalogues will indicate interest aspects of my personality and experience at this period of my life and therefore to throw out the catalogues without listing them would removed the attempted completeness of what I am doing. I am so resolved by undertaking this activity albeit late into the evening that I confident it will be carried through the days and weeks until Spring and early summer. Now to the rest of the weekend review

I have had three long days in succession. Saturday 6th February commenced with a reasonable start although the night before had been interrupted. The morning and early afternoon was devoted to work on Lost and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen in preparation for a service visit for the central heating system and the cooker on Monday. The bathroom got a deep clean and I remain pleased with the effort and outcome. The kitchen less so but the floor got a wash and the work surfaces well cleaned.

I had intended to leave earlier than I did for my evening out and decided not to visit the main supermarket for cooking oil and Wilkinson to see if they had restocked of Black display albums. Then on impulse I so put the oil back and went along Fredericke street which as street parking on one side and called in at an Asian store just before closing and purchased a small bottle of olive oil to use with the ready made up vegetable stir fry which I planned to use with some lamb chops for Sunday lunch. I then forgot some stir fry sauce so had to use a little ginger until calling in at the supermarket on Monday afternoon for postage stamps and salami. I used the rest of the stir fry to accompany pork chops for the evening meal on Monday with a packet of spicy oriental sauce to which I added some ginger. All this talk of food makes me hungry and I will have a bowl of Muesli cereal rather than salami slices in crackers. But then relented on opening the fridge for the milk!

As the area to the west of Fredericke Street and the river is being redeveloped with the former Plessey factory site cleared Fredericke is getting a face lift with some of the derelict shops being brought back to life although between a third and half the street is still to be brought back into use.

I arrived at the Heworth car park outside the metro and bus station around 5.15 pm, staying in the car to drink soup from a flask and salami rolls with mustard. I parked next to the ticket machine with required fee on the dashboard. I then saw not one, but two, ticket wardens coming over to check the windscreens of the few cars parked around me so I got out and was about to put the money in the machine when one of the two called out to say there was no charge if I was remaining sitting in the car. I explained I was having a meal before going to a theatre in Newcastle by the Metro. I completed the purchase of the ticket and placed on the dashboard. as it was not one those which you attach to the windscreen, and thought nothing more of it until return just before 10pm to be alerted by two of the taxi drivers in the nearby rank that I had been given a parking ticket. The £50 fine reduced to £25 if paid within 14 days was issued because a correct ticket was displayed. I had left the ticket upside down. I assume this was from a different warden as the fine notice was timed just before eight pm when the payment period ended. A complicated two stage appeal process is listed on one side of the ticket which I will follow.

The purpose of my visit to Newcastle was to see a relay of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, production of Simone Boccanegra with the internationally renowned tenor, Placido Domingo, in the title role, using his baritone registers, and with James Morris playing his Nemesis.

I must admit that I did not enjoy the evening. It was exceptionally hot in a packed auditorium so I quickly became tired and had to fight dozing off. The seats in Classics stall are not as comfortable as those in the Circle and do have full backs and head rests and have no space between seats or pairs of seats so one has to take care not to take the space of neighbours. None of this would have mattered if the work had been entertaining with memorable songs and a visual spectacle in support.

The sets and clothes are sumptuous, richly textured and designed in reds and browns, and the scenery used to create the palace reception room for the Doge and the courtiers, is amazing, because of its size, and the impressive decorated ceiling. The singing of the principals - two baritones, a tenor and a soprano, was brilliant and the emotional performance of Domingo extraordinary and exceptional. The music is powerful and there are moments of passion and tenderness but not one memorable tune. The performers all spoke of their enthusiasm for the Opera and I can see why it is the choice of singers and musicians and I can say I have attended a live performance of an opera with Placido Domingo, but it is not an opera I would wish to pay good money to see, although I will view a production on the Met Player at sometime, although there are others I wish to experience beforehand.

The plot is complicated. Boccanegra is a young upstart who has fathered a child with the daughter of the Doge, played by James Morris and who he wishes to marry but whose father has locked her away and regards Boccanegra with enmity.
The Doge has become unpopular with the courtiers and the people and two of the courtiers plot to remove him and place the popular hero Boccanegra in his place believing he will be able to become the power behind the throne, however over time Boccanegra becomes his own man.

Early on Boccanegra’s lover dies before they can marry and her father pleads to be able to bring up his grand daughter, Boccanegra refuses and the girl is brought up away from Boccanegra and hidden from her grandfather thus increasing his hatred for the usurper.

The first act is described as the prologue with an interval after thirty minutes of thirty minutes because of the need for the main characters to age by twenty five years and the major change of set required from outside to inside the Palace. The next act described as the first lasts for an hour with a short interval mid way, followed by the second long interval of 30 mins. I made my way up the stairs to the second floor for the gents and then to the third to the bar for a glass of Merlot while watching the scene change projected on the wall with the running down time clock, leaving when there were two minutes to go and getting into my seat with only 20 seconds to spare.

During the first interval Placido and Morris joked about the difficulty of pretending they were young men and this is achieved through a dark haired wig and make up. He and James Morris have been playing rivals and enemies for thirty five years!

The story develops that Boccanegra’s daughter brought up separately had in fact been brought up by the former Doge under his assumed name of Grimaldi away from Genoa, but this fact is unknown to both father and grandfather. Moreover the former Doge, the daughters fiancée and Paulo Albiani a goldsmith and the courtier who had brought Boccanegra to power are all involved in a complicated plot to bring him down with Gabriele Adorno, the finance, one of two assassins. The complication is that having been reunited with her father, Paolo suggests to Gabriele that she had been abducted and seduced by the Doge.

There is then a period which unfortunately from my viewpoint Gabriele reveals himself to be a chauvinistic pig as well as an assassin. He demands to know if the Doge has taken his fiancée by force or seduction, proclaiming that if this is so, he will having nothing more to do with her. This should have wrung alarm bells with the young woman and abandoned the rat. Instead she reveals herself as cunning and manipulative attempting to achieve the best of best worlds by finding a way to maintain both relationships and bring the two men together. The problem is that Paulo has poisoned the drink of the Doge which produces a long painful death with stretches almost throughout the last act. Paolo gets his just deserts and Adorno and Boccanegra are reconciled to the extent that the couple are able to marry with his blessing and Boccanegra insists that Adorno is appointed the next Doge at his death. Moreover the former Doge Jacopo Fiasco who has reappeared in Genoa is also brought to a new understanding and is entrusted in ensuring that Boccanegra wishes for his son in law are respected and brought to fruition. The brilliance of Placido Domingo is that he able to make the story, and his role, believable.

The highlight of the weekend was however Super bowl XLIV in which the New Orleans Saints, attending the contest for the first time and as champions of the National Football League, defeated the American Football League Champions, the Indianapolis Colts by 31 points to 17, having come from a 10.0 lead at the end of the first quarter. I had not intended to watch the event live which meant staying up until 3am but I shared the view of the majority of people in the USA, outside of Indie fans who wanted New Orleans to win for three very different reasons. The foremost is that the city, the state of Louisiana and the south east oft he UDA is still recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The second reason is that the Saints have only recently become a good team had never been to a superbowl and were regarded as the underdogs and now a great team and the third that the owner of the Colts transported them overnight from Baltimore to the new prestige Lucas oil stadium which is to hold the Superbowl in 2012 with the 2013 event to be held in New Orleans at the very stadium which was use to house hurricane refugees. The background of the two teams was the difference with one professionals with a great offensive team led by what many consider to be one of the great quarterbacks of all time while New Orleans was also a team of professional, but with a mission beyond furthering their individual careers or team, but aware that the morale of a city, a state and a region was at stake.

I first came to enjoy American football in the 1980’s when whole games were shown live on TV. I made two visits to Wembley stadium in London to see pre season warm up games and visited Gateshead who, and may still have a team in the British league version which existed for a time and may still do. I supported the Chicago Bears in part because of a defensive player called the Fridge and also the San Francisco 49ers after being given one of their shirts as a Christmas present. I learnt more about the sport after getting a computer game played and fro a time it rivalled my interest in football. Over the past five years I having been preoccupied in my work and competing programmes to watch many live games during the season and then the playoffs involving the two separate leagues

Because of the national interest the games was watched by an audience of over 100 million in the US alone, the largest TV audience in the history of that country and also shown in some 30 other countries including China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Russia and the UK as well as Canada and Mexico Brazil and Chile,

For the third year in succession the national anthem was sung by a winner of American Idol- Carrie Underwood, Jordan Sparks and Jennifer Hudson. Queen Latifah sang an odd version of America is Beautiful and The Who provided the half time entertainment. Jerry Rice and Emmett Smith two of the 2010 Hall of Fame new entrants participate in the pre game coin toss. $100 million dollars of merchandise was pre-sold to indicate the extent to which the event is the biggest sporting event in the US Calendar, greater than Baseball and Basketball.

The highlight of the game came in the fourth quarter when just as the commentators were remaking about the overall lack of mistakes and turnovers Tracy Porter intercepted a pass from manning at the 26th yard to run the 76 yards to gain a touch down and force the Saints to get two touchdowns and conversions to go into extra time. For a few minutes it looked as if this might be on as the Saints drove all the way to within three yards. However there was then disaster because with pass interference they were pushed back to 10 yards and their last effort went through the hands of the receiver incomplete. At that point there was nothing more to do than to let the lock run down the remaining time and accept defeat. Then the celebrations commenced and the people of New Orleans were out on the street starting the Mardi Gras over a week early.

Having got up early the gas man did not come until midday but stayed longer than anyone giving the cooker the boiler a thorough clean and arranging for an electrician come and check the downstairs switch which had become temperamental, due to a loose wire. The visits were a bonus in two ways because I learnt that it was wise to keep the light on as in severe weather the boiler is designed to switch itself on to avoid freezing. The visit also provided an opportunity to get the ceiling light fixed in the day room although discovered that it looks as if the tube was a dud after replacing the starter. I will leave the tube until Wednesday when I get a 10% every little helps discount.

This brings me to a Richard Widmark film whose title I noted somewhere and hope to find. ( Pickup on South Street 1953). He plays a pick pocket just out of jail for the third time and facing life if he is caught. He makes the mistake of then take the purse of a woman whose dominating male partner has got her to pass micro film of a valuable formula to the enemy and who was under a surveillance, hoping to find out who the main culprits were. The girl takes a shine to Widmark and tries to help him keep to the straight and narrow as well as break free from her boyfriend, Widmark is a kind villain who does not carry a gun compared to the boyfriend who is a nasty villain and who does but both are recidivist criminals. The dividing question is Widmark also a traitor to his country in other ways. It can be argued that being a criminal is being a traitor to one’s country although not as damaging as selling or giving secrets away. This is typical of USA film making at the time and an obsession to this day that it is better to be dead than red and that anything which is true Christian or is social motivated is quasi communist and must be defeated.

Almost to the last moment the character still finds it difficult to give up making a small fortune from having got hold of the microfilm. What tips the balance is when the girl is beaten up and nearly killed and that she held out to protect him. Finally he gets he message and puts himself in arms way to help the Feds capture the next villain up in the spy chain. He wins the girl but the city cops reckon it won’t be long before he offends again and gets life inside. Great fun but a good performance from Widmark.

1785 Moral imperatives v Government Responsibilities

I want to write about sport and some good things but instead I feel duty to record the new horrors in Iraq which appear to have arisen directly from the withdrawal of USA forces to their basis and handing over responsibility for internal security to the Iraq government. Thus the US, the British and the rest of world that is opposed to terrorist states and terrorist religions have been outmanoeuvred again through a combination of media and public ignorance and sentiment. Of course it is horrible that young American and British soldiers are dying in a foreign land where a percentage of the population does not want them there. and it is no more horrible that the slaughter of Iraqi by Iraqi and the deaths of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi non combatants who have died during the former regime and a direct consequence of the USA British intervention.

However as I head one young sounding Muslim woman say on the radio while I got myself ready for the day, we are in the era of the Muslim inquisition such as was experienced by Catholics over the world until some enlightenment came to the Catholic church and to the countries where it had become the dominant force in government and society. There will be some Catholics who even today would welcome the return of the Inquisition in relation to their faith, just as there are closet racists and white supremacists who will hold and pas on their prejudices what action government take. Intervention in Iraq may have been motivated by oil interests, perhaps capitalist interests, or political gesturing abroad to cover political inadequacy and incompetence at home and such like reasons but for me it was about opposition the religions and political inquisition.

Once the British and USA troops were restricted to a presence behind bases, the religious and political fanatics of Iran and Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world saw the green light to organise terror in their efforts to achieve their aim of a fanatical Muslim state. There was an added problem because according one expert on the situation. the US government had been paying up to 100000 individuals around $300 dollars a month to provide them with information and keep on their side, that is $30 million month and $360 million a year.

I have started to read a history of the CND movement in Great Britain and the work commences with a chapter about what are nuclear weapons and what happened followed the detonation of two atomic bombs on the civilian population of Japan in 1945. It shortened the war and significantly reduced the number of allied casualties fighting an enemy that saw death in battle as honour and surrender and defeat as meriting suicide. It was the Japanese that made honourable the suicide bomber.

The insurance company who provided replacement money for the lost glasses asked if I had a criminal conviction so I said I had and they asked for an explanation which I then had to repeat to a senior officer so that it could be accurately noted to the database which is shared by insurers world wide. I explained what I did, the element of choice and that while I hated every moment of being in prison I did not regret having expressed my opposition to the use of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, biological and such like whether aimed exclusively at a battlefield army or indiscriminately at a population. There is no moral justification, as there was no moral justification with sending millions of men over the trenches in the First World War knowing that the majority would be slaughtered or injured for life, or fore the bombing by the allies of German cities out of revenge. I accept that there no such thing as honourable combat and I have always accepted that Governments have duties and obligations and that these will cause them to do all kinds of things which are morally unacceptable. This does not negate my belief that ends and means are synonymous and that the majority of those who live by the sword also die by it.

I was also interest by the proposal, I am not sure where, that those writing on the internet about political, religious and such similar matters should be required to put all sides of any argument is much the same way as public broadcaster are required in the UK or at least signal that the writing is biased in favour of one religion or anti religion one party or against one political party. I am in favour of the latter but only if it applies to everyone all the time. This means that the media should also disclose on the internet the original piece of writing or script and the editorial changes made and the political and religious affiliations of all those contributing to the final work published. It is all very well having principles and policies but applying them effectively every day is more an art.

So to sport and Durham Cricket and weather permitting the game against Warwickshire at the Riverside could be the one that effectively settles the championship for Durham. The day did not look promising weather wise until after lunch when the sun came out in long burst and the temperature was hot. I had unintentionally timed my arrival to coincide with the umpires coming to the wicket and the news that Warwickshire had elected to bat.

After two overs Smith changed the bowling bringing on Thorp for Davies. In the early afternoon I was standing at the boundary fence when I was joined by a regular member just as Davies was coming over and who he greeted obviously having spoken to him before, he explained that her had a problem with his bat and although he could bowl again, he was not required given the performance of his colleagues. Thorpe took five wickets for 49 runs an amazingly former captain Dale Beckenstein who came on when the third pair had put on close to 70 and looked if they were settling in had Ar Botha caught when he was 23 and followed this up with Frost for 19 and Surrey for 0. Warwickshire were quickly doomed and despite some resistance by Tahir for 10 were all out for 135 with Sussex who followed Surrey in the batting order. Getting top score of 35.

Durham did not have it all there own way in their first innings with Di Venuto going with Stoneman when the score was 43, Di Venuto was looking exceptionally dangerous having thumped the first three balls on the innings for 4 and was 40 when dismissed with Stoneman getting the other 3. Smith went the score was 87, and Chanderpaul who still one of the great batsmen in the world playing today still finds the English County Game difficult and after scratching around was out for a zero thus taking Durham to 97 for four. It was at this point Benkenstein took on his main role as a batsman and took the score past that of Warwickshire before the day closed, He was joined by Ian Blackwell and both reached their fifties the following morning. The game started 45 minutes late because of rain and there was only about 40 minutes with lunch taken early. Durham had progressed the score to 219 for six with both Beckenstein and Blackwell out. It will be surprising if the lead does not progress beyond 100 so with Warwickshire unlikely to get over 200 in their second innings, only continuing bad weather will prevent Durham having their 7th victory of season getting 18 or 19 points and taken them to 185 points. Hampshire, second from bottom in the table are going exceptionally well at second from the top Notts so even if Notts get a draw this will widen the gap with Durham further. Sussex are nearly 500 for three weeks against Somerset so that game looks like a draw given the pitch or a Sussex win who are again no threat to Durham whereas Somerset are presently third. This only leaves Lancs with outside chance against Yorkshire savouring their first win batting carefully to reach 236 for 7 by this morning when rain has stopped play, so a another draw looks the likely outcome leaving Durham almost impossible to catch up. However I still remember the 12 point lead of Newcastle at the top of the Premiership which Manchester United overcame to take the title.

Newcastle also had a win at home the previous evening. Shola Ameobi scored his fourth goal of the season early on and but for goalkeeper would have had two more. However Newcastle’s frailties are still there and they were lucky to avoid an equalizer for as the second half progressed Sheff Wednesday looked more and more likely to gain the honours from the match, Newcastle held on and finished the evening equal 1st with 7 points and fourth because of goal differences. The interesting fact is that there was a bigger crowd at Newcastle over 43000 than at Sunderland to watch their defeat against Chelsea 41000. This confirms my belief that the people appreciate it is better to watch a team fighting for the Championship than trying to avoid relegation in the Premiership.

The event of the night was Burnley beating Manchester United 1,0 at their first home game at Turf Moor for over three decades. I think I shall say that again. Burnley beat the champions Manchester United by one goal to nil last night. There was dancing in the Kings Road.

I have watched one film, The Human Jungle made in 1954. A policeman passes his law exams and looks forward to spending more time with his wife and avoiding the periods of his job. He is persuaded with little difficulty to take over a precinct where the force has become inward looking allowing the local crime organisation to flourish. The death of one of the girls from the local strip joint 50’s style is the focus of the film and it is inevitable that the police solves the crime, despite the efforts to blacken the name oft he force by the crime boss and obtain his removal.

I enjoyed a previous edition of Torchwood having been interested by the recent series called the Children and which is a cross between the X files and Dr Who. In this episode a number of children are time and dimension disappeared into a rift, it was not explained why it was children and not all ages who disappeared in this way. The female member of the team discovers that her boss knows what has happened and is caring for those who have returned. The focus is the son of a woman that the Torchwood woman is asked by her policeman friend to investigate . The former children are being cared for in an old dilapidated underground wartime facility on an island. Although the boy has only been missing for months he has aged 40 years and is grossly disfigured. Against advice the Torchwood member brings the mother to meet her son who at first cannot cope with his appearance but then realises it is her child and wants to take him to look after him. Then the two realise the impossibility as the former child lets out an ear shattering scream which continues for the greater part of each day. The mother presses the girl not to put other parents in the same position. The truth is not always the best solution for everyone.

There was an element of this about the final Do you Think you are? Present series. Martin Freeman is an actor who starred in the comedy series the Office which brought fame to Rickey Gervais. I did not think he or the series was funny, amusing or entertaining. I can understand why the investigation of the paternal background of Martin Freeman is included in this series but not as the final episode unless it is to give a further warning to family historians that there are skeletons in more family cupboards than heroes and heroines.

The interest was his great grandfather and mother. His grandfather had died at Dunkirk as part of the Ambulance service and Martin was moved to find a plaque at the regimental Headquarters as well as documentation on the incident which caused the death. He was interested how the great grandparents came to Hull and discovered that the great grandfather had been an Organist and blind from birth and attended one of the national schools placed their by his parents who wanted him to have a better life than they could give him and their other children.

The programme revealed that after this education he had become a piano tuner in the Worthing area and played the organ at a local church, He had also become a supplier of piano and organs, married and had a large family of seven children. For some unstated reason it appeared he had been asked to leave the church although the implication was some kind of scandal. There was a gap in what then happened to him although it is then established that he was married two further times, having a child by the second wife and then a dozen children by his third wife six of whom had died in early infancy in succession. This led to the revelation that his wife had inherited a sexually transmitted disease from her father and that one consequence is that it affects the birth of children with miscarriages, followed by death in infancy and then early childhood from inability to thrive. This explained that the couple then had six more children. The great grandmother outlives her husband by several decades being twenty years younger than he on their marriage and she went on to marry twice. To reassure that the revelation was not as special as might be considered, the programme was at pains to point out that in Victorian days one in ten of the population were believed to be carriers of the disease which tends to raise questions about the emphasise suggesting that people had become more promiscuous and prone to sexually transmitted diseases as one outcome of the swing sixties.

I cannot end this piece without also mentioning that there was a lack of appropriate concern on the part of officialdom about the abuse of female blind young people in specialist institutions in the past and by specialist workers in the community. Hopefully the failures of the past have been remedied.

1755 The Ice Age, Federer 15 and Lords in view

I begin the day with a feeling of mild irritation at having overwritten the outline of my writing for yesterday, but it became such a good day overall that the usual sense of frustration and failure did not occur. The day was marked by two bouts of good sunshine followed by lightening thunder and torrential rain. You cannot kid me that this is cyclical and not a fundamental change in the British pattern of weather for the summer.

The consequence of this and other competing attractions is that I did not get to see the free Toyah Wilcox in the Park concert, supported by Carol Decker of T -Pau who has appeared here before, and Sinead Quinn.

The first competing attraction was the semi final of the Friends Provident Trophy between Sussex and Gloucestershire at Hove. The heat wave on the south coast continued for another day after a successive week of such days and which has left the outfield brown and lightening fast. The visitors won the toss and decided to put Sussex in to bat on what was regarded and as a fast scoring and rue wicket which had been used before and glued with resin to stop it from breaking up during the day.

Sussex started well with a good flow of runs preferring to hit fours than take individual runs. At 62 Nash missed the line of a slower ball by Dawson and was bowled off stump. Luke was true to character and also played for the big hits making 36 before being caught on the boundary. It was then left for Joyce to continue his solid start with Murray Goodwin and they doubled they more than doubled the score to 263 when Goodwin was out for 60, Joyce having reached his century. However at this point the momentum of runs ended Smith and Hamilton Brown going for 6 each and Yardy 11 and then Joyce run out for a magnificent 146. The innings ended at 326 for 7 about 25 runs short for safety, given the wicket and the conditions.

At this point I went out for a quick shop at Asda fir milk, coffee, some Milano cut salami still £1.08 100 grams compared with £1.37 vacuum packed, some strawberries and sliced melon. I resisted more rolls and pastries but remembered some small tomatoes for salad.

As the sky had darkened with rain in the air I abandoned the idea of going to the Park concert and returned to watch the cricket and the men’s single’s final at Wimbledon. The cricket became a concern as Gloucestershire took a different approach going for every individual run possible but keeping to the run rate of 6 and over which brought them very much into contention as they also did not lose wickets after an early loss at 8 Gidman with Marshall added over 150 before the second wicket. It began to look as if the visitors had made the right decision to make Sussex bat first. However Sussex held their nerve and bowled well and the last six weeks fell for forty runs so that Sussed won by 34 runs in the 48th over with the last two wickets in two balls.

Meanwhile over on the centre court before some of the greats of the past thirty years, especially Pete Sampras an epic struggle unfolded as Federer could not break the Roddick service and all four sets going to a tie break and ending 2 sets each. Te the final set followed the same pattern although there were opportunities for both to reach match point. 66-6 became 10 10 and 14.14 and the players were effectively in their seventh set. It was here that Federer won his serve and then got to match point and the became the winner 16-14. It was his 15th major title beating Pete Sampras who had held 14.

The tickets for the Friends Provident Final will be available from Sussex from Tuesday or direct from the ECB depending upon the take up by the competing clubs. I hope to be there.

In the evening i watched Ice Age 2 brought to the TV screen with Ice Age 3 now in the cinemas. The film is subtitled the great flood and follows the flood causes by the melting of the ice age. As before it follows the adventures of a motley collection of creatures including a Mammoth who believes he may be the last, but finds a mate as well as a herd. Harmless family entertainment preaching individualism, loyalty to others and collective action for survival. It is also a tribute to the creative odd balls in our midst.

I did some washing and ironing and eat reasonably with gammon and roast potatoes for lunch with cherries and melon slices plus the remaining rolls with salami. There was not as much walking activity as I should or work.

There was much game playing where I am unable to progress more than 16 consecutive wins against the computer at chess but achieved 1234 wins at hearts and had been progressing with spider but with a run of over 50 until accidentally closed a game at the wrong time. Drats.

1753 A sporting day of two halves

The first Friday of July 2009 proved a day of two distinct and contrasting halves. I was not surprised to find that the sea fret ground level cloud had returned over the hill as I rose to greet another day. The greater concern was the forecast of heavy and persistent rain which could ruin the opportunity of Durham County Cricket club winning their fourth championship game in a row and with the prospects of Nottingham drawing, to open sufficient of a gap to make their game in hand less of a problem.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find on arrival at the ground that the sun was bright and warm and the sky cloudless as I parked the car around 10.15 and enjoyed an early salami roll and cup of coffee before making my way to an end aisle seat backing the media suite and within easy reach of the stairs to lower deck of the corner stand should protection from the sun or rain become necessary. I engaged in conversation the two other members one in the same row and the other at the front. I optimistically forecast we would get the runs by 12.30 forgetting that 120 were needed rather than 90. What a forecast this turned out to be in the circumstances.

It was evident that the Durham batsmen and Worcestershire fielders were only too well aware of the weather forecast as the Durham set about the task with positive aggression and risk. This included Michael De Venuto who with a 143 to his name this season went on to complete his fiftieth first class 100 scoring precisely that. He achieved this with a single that tied the scores and the winning run was scored by Mustard with five wickets to spare. On another day the win would have been by more wickets but with rain pending the team result took precedence.

It was a brilliant innings and a brilliant win. I made my way to the car and into Chester Le Street Town centre as the first proper drops of rain commenced to fall. I took a different route from the roundabout heading towards the station and then taking the road which led directly tot he large car park near Wilkinsons and the new Morrison’s in the making. It was just a quick nip through the small shopping precinct to the High street where I tried a cherry at the nearby greengrocers, but it was not a patch on those brought form the other side of he road a little way up the hill. I was no disappointed as they had a further supply of the same large and sweet cherries. I bought close one four pounds worth in money as well as weight.

It commenced to rain more heavily as I returned to vehicle and made for home. I detour became necessary as a road sign indicated that the branch into Newcastle was closed and all three lanes were full of traffic competing with this and the road works. On the d radio I heard there had been a major accident and the air ambulance was on its way. I headed off the motorway into Washington and Sunderland to Morrison’s for a petrol refill. The firm has introduced two of the new pay at the pump stations, but although intending to have a go I was put out when I could not find my credit card. I had taken the light brown jacket with me and though I had checked this thoroughly. On return home I checked everything and everywhere and it was only making a second check before ringing the company to cancel that I found the card where it should have been, in the brown jacket.

I had eaten all three rolls, two with salami and coleslaw during the nervous excitement of the morning and made an early afternoon salad while watching Roger Federer demolish his opponents in three straight sets. It was then time for the first appearance of Andrew Murray in a Wimbledon Semi Final. His opponent Roddick was not going to make the same mistakes in previous contests between the two and the guidance from his new coach had great effect coupled with his extraordinary ability to his great first serves, converting many into aces. Murray had no answer at first but then successfully put all his effort into breaking the service in the opening game of the second set which he managed to hold to square the contest one set each. However the effort appeared to drain him and he was quickly broken against so that Roddick was 5.2 up and serving for the set, which he lost and Murray, with the help a crowd in frenzy took the game to the set tie break and then missed an easy chance to go one point up with his two serves to follow. He failed and lost the set and after that there was an inevitability about what then happened. He has the ability and mental strength together with youth to fight for another day but he is unlikely to have had such a great chance of reaching the final although Federer was awesome.

The defeat was unsettling and I could not concentrate on anything further flipping channels, playing games against the computer. I went to bed early for the third night in succession

1749 Durham win through

I am almost back into the groove in that writing has become a greater priority than many others. But on this day two weeks from setting off for the Isle of Wight and week since the walk to the sea from here in South Shields in the late afternoon I am still governed by other things. The first is sport in that this afternoon Durham play Leicestershire at Leicester in the decider as who from the Northern Division definitely goes into the next the quarter finals. It is sudden sporting death for Durham because if they lose or the game cannot take place because of the weather they have accumulated too few points to qualify as one of the two highest placed teams from any of the three divisions. I will listen on the radio from 2.30, having prepared for a roast chicken dinner at around 2 pm with the game commencing at 2.30.

I had considered driving there and back in the day but an eight hours drive even if we won, let alone lost was too much, especially as I wanted to stay up to watch the Boss on his first visit to Glastonbury, more on that and on Glastonbury weekend later this week. I am developing the format of writing to include accumulations over a short period of time, thus today will cover the build up to the important cricket game. I must also conserve finances and get the situation in the what it will be after this special year. It has brightened up again after several dreadful days of low lying cloud, drizzling rain, sometimes harder.

I think I have resolved what to do about the printer and converter of slides into CD and DVD format. I have settled for using the Brother obtained via IJT direct and bought the equivalent for four sets of cartridge for £30 from the shop in the King Street to add to the three in stock and those already in use. On Monday I will attempt to negotiate the return of the Epson 640 cartridges in stock about £100 and use the credit for additional 640 Cartridges. I will then buy a slide converter machine separately. I have attempted to get one through EBay but have been outbid twice but will continue later in the week. I have commenced the task of prints accumulated from the past three weeks, Yesterday I have done 95% of that related to Blogs but will also need to do the registering and transferring to disk. Work for later today. The printings related to the Isle of Wight visit, Oxford and Portsmouth are also done but with a further check required before sets are created. It is a pity there are no photographs but I will return and retrace the experience, hopefully in a better circumstance.

I am listening, with occasional peaks to the Brice Springsteen video on the BBC I would have like to go for a walk while it is fine but will press on and see what it is like later. I will miss the bandstand performance again and have not attended the rock shows at the Amphitheatre. When the camera is returned I have a mountain of sets to photo. There is an accumulation of household chores and correspondence. will attend to some while listening to the cricket

I had roast breast of chicken and potatoes for lunch with roast potatoes followed by strawberries.

The background to this game is that Durham an atrocious start to the competition for four reason. They had signed the specialist young Australian who was then called into the Australian World Cup Squad although not used. They lost three games in the last over with the most notorious the game where Collingwood was put on to bowl the last over and the opposing side had to score 7 from the two balls and scored a six and a four. There were problems with some of the bowlers who are not good in this format and they did not have the rub of the green. They could not complaint about the weather or the wickets. Durham were left with having to win all of their last five games with three at home and two away and where the last four commenced this week. Om Monday there were two unexpected results with Leicestershire beating Lancs who had won all their games until then and Notts beating Yorks.

Durham did not play until Tuesday when they held the home side Derbyshire to 154 for 4 on a challenging wicket and a lot lying sun as the evening progressed. This was the first appearance of David Warner who showed his intentions with a quick fire 50 demonstrating his reputation of being able to hit hard and far, Mustard appeared to thrive with his new partner, taking a back seat and then reaching a half century himself. The result appeared to be certain but the scoring slowed as Durham lost both openers and two together before captain Smith with Blackwell saw the victory with two overs to go. I listen to the game on BBC radio Newcastle.

Notts then beat Leicestershire which was to have significance as the week progressed as Durham entertained Yorkshire in the first of two home games. This proved to be an extraordinary game. I miscalculated the time and only arrived with half an hour to go caught up in the rush hour and some works around the Washington Service Station although I by passed this going into Washington and down to the next motorway exit. It was hot and warm so I made my way to the area behind the wicket to enjoy the weather. It was a difficult and boring Durham performance as they struggled to what appeared to be a very gettable 131. No individual batsman distinguished themselves with only Mustard scoring more than 20. Given the size of the crowd one felt the disappointment especially when Warner who looked promising was out for 19.

The weather then changed dramatically as I went for an ice cream and then decided to move closer to the exit for the car exit and if necessary cover in the Member’s lounge. I was able to find an aisle seat to the back which provided excellent viewing what then happened, Naved was run out in the first over when the score was 0. Brophy was caught behind off Claydon and the score was 1 and then the third wicket fell with only four or the board as Gayle was also run out. Warner was showing that he was also brilliant in the field as well as with the bat. It became 19 for 4, 23 for 5, 30 for 6, 46 fro 7 52 for 8 and 62 for nine. I decided to beat the rush and made my way home listening on the car radio. While there was no hope of winning the last two showed the rest how to defend and added 28 runs before the close at 90 for 9 and Durham had achieved a win which could mean quarterfinal qualification, On Thursday I watched Flintoff score and amazing 90 for 30 or balls as Lancs scored 220 for 5 off their 20 overs.

Then came Friday when Durham faced Lancs and it started to rain and rain and the cloud came to ground level creating limited visibility. I thought there was no prospect of play and after establishing that the local computer service could not fix the printer I went to the Epson agents at Gateshead where they moved to the ground floor of the building at the back. It was explained that the repair would involved new pads some £40 and two to three hours labour, about £80 to £100 and one could get a new computer for less than that.

On the return I noted it was brighter towards Durham do decided to go to Chester Le Street and the riverside ground. As I approached the turning off the motorway it appeared to have stopped raining and visibility was good and this proved to be the situation at the ground where already many others were arriving. Some 6500 tickets had been sold There was an announcement that the umpires would inspect the wicket once the rain stopped and the covers removed which would take about 15 minutes. There was much brighter sky south of the ground but a light drizzle had recommenced and continued. Around 7 I gave up having enjoyed a plate of chips on arrival an a cup of coffee and then two prepared rolls. I went to PC World to check out the availability of printers with slide converters. I went home and later learnt that the match was declared off at 8.30 and it was impossible to play even to reduced over innings for a result. Each side gained appoint ans the other results of the evening Durham would have to win this Sunday.

I decided against travelling and found listening to the radio a nervous experience but things went well from the start.

The game has commenced with Killeen bowling the first over for only 2 runs and a possible stumping chance. Liam Plunket is playing again after injuring his groin earlier in the season. Leicestershire won the toss and elected to bat. Mitch Claydon only gives three runs away in his first over so 5.0 for 2. The pitch was said to be playing true and Leicestershire have two good spinners which meant the home should make a good total and then the slower bowlers make it difficult for Durham to get away and at the back of everyone’s mind was the possibility of a thunder and rain storm later afternoon.. The pitch should yield plenty of runs and Leicestershire hoping that the weather will intervene later and Durham find it difficult to keep up with Duckworth Lewis Formula Rather a disastrous third over by Liam Plunkett with two fours off his first ball and a total of 12. There have been two risk shots but did not to anyone’s hand. Allenby hits Ben Harmison for 6 and then gets the danger man Allenby who chips ball to extra cover and is caught so it is 24 for 1 but the run rate has risen to six. Not Good. But I am ahead of myself by a wide margin. But Killeen has come back after the disaster of Plunkett’s first has taken the second wicket bowling Du Toit with five who had hit Killen for four with his first ball. 31 for 2. 32 for 2 at end of fifth, still a run rate of 6. The rest of the over was good so 35 for 2 after 6 and less than 6. A much better over from Liam. 42 fo2 after 7 so a better over from Liam. Blackwell comes on for the 8th and with an average of seven runs which is good for this form of cricket 52.2 at end of 8th so risen to over 6 once more. I eat more when I am nervous but will be strong.

The 9th over was excellent with only 3 runs from Claydon’s second. 56 for 2 after 9 60 for 2 after 10 another excellent over from Breese. Captain Will Smith then takes a brilliant catch for the third wicket taking opener Boyce for the first ball of Harmison, his second wicket. 63 for 3. However Plunket back on gives a four of his first ball. 69 for 3 for 12 so under 6 again so far very good.76 for 3 after 13. 86 for 4 after 14. Dippenar is beginning to motor with a 6 and a 4.91 for 4 Paul Nixon goes just when a wicket is needed and Breese takes catch off Harmison. 108 4 after 16. I disaster of an over from Plunkett takes the run rate to 6.75. Fine over from Killen going for 5 runs 113.4 lowers run rate- 6.67. Claydon some tight bowling take the wicket of the new so 114 for 5. Claydon York Claydon first ball so 115 for 6 off 18 6.3 the revised run rate. 126 for 7 after 19 Break in transmission and Dippenar was out before reconnection. 133 for 8 wickets with a catch by captain Smith second of the day Mitch Claydon 4 overs 3 wickets for 15, brilliant.

So now it in the hands of the batsmen. For and a near catch off first ball. Warner score six off third ball. 12 for 0ooff fist over with one eye on the changing weather expected and the Duckworth Lewis. Warner scores a boundary off the first call of next over and then a single 19 off two so 9.5 and over and ahead of the Leicestershire score rate with another three overs to go for the DL rate to apply if there is a storm and no more play. 25 for 3 after so the rate falls again 8.3. Mustard gets away with first ball of next over with 4. Mustard another 4 so 8 of the over so far. Mustard another 4 so 12 of the over. Another 4 is 16 runs and 2 others so 18 for the fourth over. 53 during the fifth with a couple of fours. 54 from 5 so they are ahead on DL and we can relax all round. 54 against 33 DL rating and has started to rain. 60 for 0 after 60 run rate 10. 75 in the 11th with two sixes and is then caught on the boundary 75.1 after 7. 10.7 is the rate and the clouds thicken.

Disaster strikes with Phil Mustard given out on a dodgy LBW and then Coetzer out soon after also LBW which narrows the DL rate. Blenkenstein and Blackwell bring calm so that Durham concentrate on getting the runs at a reasonable level with 97 for 3 in 12th and ends at 99, a rate of over 8. 110 for 3. 114 for 3 after 13. 127 for 3 with 5 overs to go. Blackwell goes for winning four and is caught.

The draw was made on Sky and Durham are away to Kent during the last week of July, hopefully not the Monday when I will be returning from London by coach.