1477 Art for Artists My Space

I usually have no difficulty in knowing what it is I want and am able to say, and sometimes the ideas commence to queue, sometimes in orderly fashion and sometimes anarchic. When this happens I just write and see what the outcome is and then review after a gap of hours, usually overnight. Sometimes, when sufficient research for the subject has been undertaken, the amount of change is small, but as has happened with the writing for Tuesday, it has been necessary to rethink and then rewrite the entirety because of the information which became available and time taken to reflect on the issues under consideration.

Usually when the idea flow, the connection between them are tenuous and only occasionally the connections, if they exist, are clear or emerge through the process of the writing, reflecting and rewriting.

The subjects which from the core of this writing will appear unconnected- the organised return of the British Olympians to their original and sometimes continuing home areas was covered extensively by national and local TV and to less extent by the national media. The Conservative Party through their spokesperson on sport attempted to get in on the act with critical speech on government policy and practice, significantly underestimating the mood of the nations and causing his party untold political damage. Rightly the media gave way to the two more important matters of the day, The actions of Russia faced with an organised attempt to isolate the country from its neighbouring states as they are encouraged to join NATO and become part of an expanding Europe. The issues here are complex and not what they appear on the surface, but how any western country can appear to support the actions of Georgia in bombing and setting upon its allegedly own people needs to be emphasised. The other issue is where in the simplest of terms America will vote a Blackman as President, the Democratic party by the narrowest of politician machinations having set on this course instead of the first woman Presidential candidate.

Then there has been the coincidence of two new MySpace Friends -Art and Artists and hmmm Creative Partnerships from the Arts council of England Exciting minds, both of which have been added to my list of Top Friends with the latter having the potential of greater significance for the future of British society than the Olympics 2012 and their legacy.

With such an agenda plans for Wednesday were abandoned except for watching Sunderland at Notts Forest on Sky hoping the club will be able to repeat the Friendly win on the first day of my recent visit to Nottingham for the first day of Championship game between Durham and the County. I will also need to comment on last night's win by Newcastle at Coventry and England's thrashing South Africa at cricket also at Tent Bridge Nottingham, looking forward to a weekend where the next two the five game series is to be played, Newcastle is at Arsenal also on Sky and where I will be going to see the second home game of Sunderland where I would be surprised if the city's first ever Olympic Medallist was not introduced to supporters sometime during the afternoon.

Art and Artist is a curious but interesting site run by an artist from Germany which at present only includes interviews with three new artists yet with 4500 friends and approaching 1000 comments. Invited to comment on the Blogs my attention became focussed not on the three artists whose work is of interest to me in so far as it is ever possible to experience visual artwork through this medium, but on the response of some 50 members to the Question What is Art? Oddly although everyone is given the opportunity to comment on the individual comments of everyone else, no one until the approach to me has chosen to do so. What does not surprise is the limited view and understanding of Art expressed by artists and those interested in art in their published public comments.
Almost everyone has attempted to define art as an earth planet human activity and only a few showed any understanding of Art as a separate force from earth humanity and which can only be defined once you have understood and accepted the infinite nature of space and time. Obviously there are those who genuinely believe that it is only possible to define Art as am earth human being activity but such views are at a similar level as those who argue that Christians, the Jews and the Muslims are followers of the only true religion.

There were also contributors whose vision appears restricted to defining the difference between professional and amateur artists, as if this has anything to do with the significance of individual art works, and those who appear more concerned with defining what is good or bad art or real and unreal art rather than the encompassing breath and depth of art. The aspects on which most contributors are in agreement is that most artists are compelled to do what they do irrespective of the level of food, shelter and things acquisition which the doing provides, or does not, and that most also hope that their work will have an impact on others individually and society in general as a force for good often associated with love, truth and beauty a la Moulin Rouge, the film whereas the reality is that art also encompasses hate, deceit and ugliness.

I hope to show the connection between this and what is happening in relation to Georgia and Russia and the American Party and Convention system later.

Perhaps because I did not identify myself as a creative until in my mid forties, and only then began to understand the significance, and that I was not able to begin to be an artist and produce artwork until I was sixty four, five years ago, I have moved beyond the hope that my work will impact on individuals and affect society and I am content with just doing what I am driven to do, although this is not also to say that I hope my work when it is completed or when I am no longer able to work, it will have a life independent of me for like human beings art tends to be happy art if it is recognised as art. There is a role for unhappy art and unhappy human beings but I cannot cope with too much unhappiness at anyone time.

It is a fortuitous coincidence that within a day of being contacted by the new friend with a preoccupation about the nature of Art and of the Artist I was also contacted by Hmmm, a new Arts Council My Space Site on Creative Partnerships which is a flagship government sponsored creative learning programme designed to develop the skills of young people across England and designed to transform teaching and learning across the curriculum.

The aim is to forge inspiring partnerships between creative professionals and young people across a wide range of projects. The project support thousands of innovative long-term partnerships between schools and creative people, from architects to scientists to multimedia developers and artists.

They cast the net wide in projects as they believe creativity is not a skill bound within the arts, but a broader ability to question, make connections, and take an innovative and imaginative approach to problem solving. It immediately struck me that this programme has the potential for a more important and lasting significance than the success of the Beijing Olympics and that hoped for in 2012.

My personal interest among my range of many interests is that schools should be asked to measure their intakes, (I prefer measure, to testing), for creative personalities, and then provide the understanding, help and support necessary to enable such children to find satisfying and socially beneficial outlets for their creative energies instead of what often now happens if they become destructive, often self destructive and anti social. This poses a challenge for those in government and social planning and development because every society needs a level of anti social behaviour, especially at points when societies have become locked into negative situations and understandings. A balance has therefore to be achieved between meeting the needs of the society and the needs of the individual creatives especially when they become teenagers. This is also true for political and religious questions. The one aspect of Marxism which I have continued to uphold and which he took from Hegel, is the dialectic, the concept that an equilibrium can only be achieved as a consequence of the process during with opposing forces, sometimes extreme forces become fused. The cynical in me could argue that you have two individuals one black and one female who wants to be president of the USA and therefore has to become the party candidate so they fight an intense, bitter and personal campaign in which they attempt to foster their own standing and attack the standing of the other until one is able to claim victory over the other and hen the concentrate on a creating a unity behind the successful of the two and repeat the process with this time as heads of the two power political organisations and then having divided the nation, the victor announces that the first task is to unite the nation and set aside political differences to achieve the common good.

The government and the British Olympic authorities are handling the unexpected success of the team brilliantly, attempting to immediately establish the successful athletes as icons and trend setters in their local communities, with the triple aims of encouraging as many as possible to engage in sporting activities at a level appropriate for their age and physique and which will have health and other social benefits as well as individual ones; of mobilising the public, especially those living around where 2012 events will be held, giving support to what is and will happen in their communities, and becoming volunteers, and thirdly to attract as many young people as possible to as many different sports, especially those where there has not been much interest to-date, to ensure that we have a range of competitive young people across the board at the 2012 event, and subsequent ones. A fourth by-product is that it should have become easier to encourage more commercial enterprises to sponsor and become financially involved in 2012 and supporting teams for the various events.

Measuring the legacy of all this will be nigh on impossible and the tendency will be to concentrate on the future use of new buildings, both the competitive arenas and the accommodation facilities. The immediate product of revolutions is rarely if ever beneficial to the existing population but visionary change can more easily be stifled or sent off course down a blind alley. Conservatives are more likely to achieve radical change than Liberals who are usually forced into supporting the status quo in order to survive.

Of course we will not be able to progress developing British societies through sport and creative activity if the economic situation continues to deteriorate and we are thrust into ongoing confrontation with Russia. Unravelling what has happened in Georgia and the true positions of Russia, and the other members of the eight top economic powers club requires the time which I have not chosen to allocate so far. My present understanding is that the decision of the other powers to accept the unilateral declaration of Kosovo led Russia to escalate it moves for the Georgian provinces to seek their independence, to the extent that it provided all those wishing to have Russian citizenship in addition to those who already possessed Russian citizenship and had previously moved into the satellite and neighbouring countries.
There are obvious parallels between the behaviour of Russia with, Britain and France for example in relation to their former empires. Britain and France are now attempting to play a leadership role trying to prevent the escalation of what has happened and Britain in particular through my local Member of Parliament David Miliband needs to avoid appearing to defend Georgian action and attacking the Russian position outright. My understanding is that it was Georgia that used bombs, rockets and arms against people within its own stated border, many of whom were long standing as well as recent citizens of Russia. What would we or America done if we had been in the same position?

I originally wrote this watching the tens of thousands of citizens of Edinburgh greet the open bus carrying Chris Hoy and the three other Scottish medallist through the streets of the Royal mile and I did not see one Union Jack being waved throughout the hour long journey and everywhere there was flying the National Flag of Scotland. The only indication of a British Team was the track suits worn by the Athletes. There is no doubt that the move for a separate Scottish Team in 2012 will grow apace. It was also interesting that during the opening ceremony a Scottish band of pipers was used and that Scotland the Brave was heard at least half a dozen times, and at the time I wondered who and what was behind that. Before the bus journey there was a carefully orchestrated reception at Edinburgh Castle for the four Medal winners with Sport Scotland in the Chair and Wendy Alexander the Deputy First Minister welcoming and congratulating them on behalf of the Scottish Government, mentioning that the first Minister would hold a reception at the Parliament building in mid September. This and the pre arranged questions was well done.

One could never envisage a British government using troops and their weaponry against the Scottish people, especially in a situation where the overwhelming majority voted in favour of independence such as is my understanding of what happened in part of Georgia. There is also the problem of our dependence upon Russian oil where forty percent is provided although in turn Russian needs the revenues to develop its own economy. And I do not want to hear about election fixes by those who forget how George Bush first came to power. I have previously commented that whereas once there were over 50 coal mines in the North East there are now only Museums but at the Port of Tyne here in South Shields there are mountains of coal reserves brought in from Russia. So are we really going to do more than words whatever Russia does in relation to Georgia and other countries on its borders where there are significant populations of Russians.

One of the reason why perhaps Georgia and Russia felt able to use weapons in an attempt to settle their conflict is the commitment of American, Britain and Europe in varying degrees to Iraq and Afghanistan, and potentially to Pakistan, already a nuclear power and which is now the target for militant Muslims to take control. It is interesting that the Democratic line is that American troops should be used in Afghanistan and not Iraq a similar argument being used by the Conservatives, thus confirming the problem for democracies having to appear to go with the public flow regardless of principles, values and what one believes to be right.

The biggest uncertainty is over the future Foreign policy of the U. S. A. as the country moves into the final phase of the Presidential election process and I will return to this issue having watched the Democrat Party Convention over the past two days. It has been an amazing and at time a sickening

Other notings

What was the public reception for the Rebecca Adlington motorcade on Tuesday and that given to Welsh medallists at Cardiff? How far was that in Scotland organised by the Scottish National party?
I enjoyed the evenly matched League Cup game between Newcastle and Coventry but what is going on behind the scenes in relation to Milner and Owen. I enjoyed the quip of one cycling medallist that where was the media when the team was winning world championship medals - and then answered the question focussing attention of Joey Barton going to Prison.. There are just a few days left in the summer transfer market for the big surprises to occur. I tried to become an online member of Newcastle's member's club as a means of buying individual tickets but the internet site is hopeless. Now I have received an application through the post. It is interesting to learn that for the first time in a decade the stadium was not sold out for the opening home match of the season and at last it looks as if people are going to more selective and not given unconditional support regardless of performance and achievement.

The way England fast bowlers demolished South Africa after they had won the toss and elected to bat was also amazing but the supporters who had paid their £35 for an afternoon and evening of cricket went home content but after seeing less than half the normal hours of the 100 over game as the match was over after 37 overs with 63 unplayed. It was good to see the Trent Bridge again but I wondered what the Nottinghamshire members who had met on my visit felt about the situation. Was a one sided victory in a third of the time allocated what they really wanted to see but it was great for the British morale.

1476 Olympic celebrations and Braindead

The return of the most successful British Olympic team in 100 years, and because the 1908 London Games include only two dozen nations and competitive preparations was in their infancy, it can be argued this has been the most successful team of all time. Some thirty individuals have gold medals because of quartets, trios and duos and some seventy individual brought back a medal to their part of the United Kingdom.

This should have a profound effect on Britain's involvement in the 2012 Games and on participation in sport in general. It could have positive consequences for the political and social landscape.
For once all the ingredients came together, individuals with the dedication and drive to win and push themselves beyond their previous limits to do so. There was Shanaz Reade getting off the plane on crutches, obviously angry with herself for trying to win in the only way she knew and that momentary miscalculation when her dream of Gold and nothing but Gold ended. She had crashed twice beforehand, and badly injured but pressed one. No medal then but a model for hundreds of thousands of young people. There was 14 year old Master Daley getting of the plane trying to take everything in and getting a great hug from Tessa Jowell and the warmest of smiles from the Prime Minister because of his courage but more because of the way he conducted himself on TV and also become an icon for the youth of the nation. There was also Ms Cooke who had nipped back to Switzerland where she is now based to enjoy the triumph with her friends and sponsors, and then quietly letting slip that she had gone back into training last Tuesday in preparation for her next world competitive event in September, before joining her fellow competitors at Heathrow for the photocall and press conference and then going on to Wales to join her team members for the reception at Heathrow before travelling to Wales for an open topped bus ride around Cardiff before returning to her parental home village in the Welsh Valleys, challenged by the disappearance of coal mining and where a third of the working population now have to live as the minimum national income.

The second ingredient was government funding which enabled the elite athletes to concentrate full time on preparations and competing, as well as the funds for equipment and for training facilities and to encourage new generations to join in and for some to replicate the achievements.

The third has been the administration, coaching and support staff able to work together effectively and create a sense of a team, and one should not forget the patents and the relatives who made sacrifices in time and money to give support over the years before the national funding became available. There is a momentum which should continue forward to 2012

The return home was well planned and orchestrated with the Athletes in their team GB outfits and medals parading down the steps of the plane after The Princess Royal, Lord Coe and other passengers had quietly left determined that for once the attention should be focussed on the athletes before they had their press conference where the media appeared for once in awe and wonderment, trying not to ask any question which might spoil the moment, although it was evident that that those attending the conference had been well prepared.

There were three aspects which caught my attention. The wise advice from one former Olympian the swimmer Sharon Davis who at the time could not hide her jubilation as the main poolside BBC commentator that the successful athletes would be overwhelmed by the public attention, and then there would a great sense of anti- climax as the media moved on, and they and their team mates had to decide if to begin another four year cycle with the incentive of winning at home, embarking on the rest of their lives, trying to hold on to the memory of one unbelievable moment in time.

The second was that already the two leaders of the pack had been identified. Chris Hoy because he had won the more medals at any one Games since the 1908 London games and who represented maturity and the ability to become a major ambassador for 2012. He had confirmed that he would be competing in 2012 and responded with great diplomacy at the decision to close the indoor cycle centre at Edinburgh and the new Glasgow centre emerged. On one hand the vicious is that the best athletes need to live and work together in their preparations and before those from Scotland should have one place of their own rather than concentrating everyone in Manchester. However had he not had the opportunity to just go along and try out the sport and young person without setting his sights on international competition he might not have developed into the success of today. Then he was given the question which could have spoilt the party, was he happy about being part of a British team at the games rather than a Scottish. Yes he was proud to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth games but he was also proud to be part of the British team because he was proud to be Scottish and British. If there was any doubt that he will become Sir Chris Hoy, either now or after 2012, then he flattened them.

For Becky Adlington aged 19 she was asked for her reactions to the news that a pub was to become the Adlington Arms. No she did not know about that although she did know about the Swimming Pool, and yes she was looking forward to the shoe, and no she has no intention of sharing them with her sister, who fortunately had a different size. She was proud to come from her small town of Mansfield and to represent them and anything else was a bonus. She showed indications of having every intention to remain herself but also to follow in the footsteps of all the few others who are able to remain the centre of public attention beyond their sports or other specialist activities. She could be destroyed in terms of the continuing effort required for a second round of Medals and as a normal, girl next door human being that young people will want to identify with, in contrast say to Amy Winehouse and other rock stars, football prima donnas and personality celebrities without any other achievement.

The media has the most important a part to play with the natural tendency to now look for skeleton in the cupboards of the individual concerned and in their families. However I thought they did well in terms of the families who where invited to assemble at a Thames side. Here members of families of athletes who had participated without medal success were interviewed and able to demonstrate how proud they were for being related to someone who had been part of the team and their joy at being able to see them again. One medallist who had returned early to be with his family reminded that what was important to his son was not the medal but that he was able to read him a bedtime story. There were also nice reminders that partner had been separated so that all the right images were available for the TV and morning papers.

Of course this is only a few days when the nation can take its mind away from financial concerns, wars and famines, and not everyone was giving their full attention to the Olympics whatever the success stories. There were other sports commanding attention with the start of the football season, Rugby union and rugby league, the Motor racing Formula One events and the US Tennis Open championships. Hopefully the public will now switch in vast numbers to the Olympic success sports, but the majority will not.

Gordon Brown and Tessa Jowell adopted a low key approach by not giving live interviews but greeting the returning competitors on behalf of the government and nation. As if on cue the following day the Conservative Sports Minister expressed concern about the whether the government was doing enough to involve young people in Sport and ensuring that there was a good legacy in terms of the effective use of the facilities once the games are over. This was unnecessary and inappropriate and a political mistake although one can understand the panic among the opposition within and outside the Labour Party as it looked that the Government led by Tony Blair had adopted a policy and programme which brought general acclaim and were now handing the present unplanned success intelligently and with understanding. There was also a nasty article in the Independent newspaper top day arguing that France had deserved to get the games more than Britain because of having a better public sport participation structure than in the UK.I have no means of knowing if this comparison is valid but assuming it is, then the counter argument is that if France has such a good system and provision and Britain less then The Olympic committee made the right decision because we would benefit and progress more.

It will be interesting to see how Scotland handles the official reception following the comments of Chris Hoy and an example of how it is possible for those with different and conflicting agendas to work together constructively is the Northern Ireland power sharing Executive. I watched the recording of the June meeting yesterday when the new chief and deputy Ministers were appointed by the majority parties to office at the Assembly, following the retirement resignation of Ian Paisley. Moderate political leaders reminded that for the grater part of forty years Mr Paisley had said no and for the previous 18 months he had said yes to the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland and consequently they were able to wish him well in retirement. The new Unionist Chief Minister emphasised his party's continuing opposition to the aims of the Republicans but the willingness to make the all Ireland committees work and to concentrate with the Republicans on improving the situation of everyone in Northern Ireland and similar commitment was given by Martin McGuiness the reappointed deputy chief Minister. It struck me that if this was possible then a way had to be found to create a great British football team for 2012. If not then I would hope that the World and European federations will step if there the democratic power of the majority to do so.

There are 100000 and more volunteers registered for he games when less than that number will be needed. I had thought the reason for the TV screen at Middlesbrough because they were hosting a preliminary game or two, but according to the excellent 2012 internet site, it is Newcastle because of its size, with Villa park in the Midlands, similarly Manchester United and the Millennium Stadium Cardiff as well as Hampden Park with the final at Wembley.
There are ambitious plans to get all the visitors to Olympic Park by public transport with a new seven minute rail link from St Pancras connecting with the underground net work there used by both St Pancras and Kings Cross, with Euston nearby this will enable visitors from the North East, North West and Midlands to travel to central London and to the games and directly from Europe by train. This will mean that only official vehicles will be allowed onto the site with competitors and the support teams housed in the village adjacent to the stadium where apartments will be equipped with the latest technology.

Later on I decided to watch Braindead one of the Peter Jackson's horror films before Heavenly Creatures and Kate Winslet. This a funny film with unbelievable horror in which the most grotesque looking beings cannot be killed until the hero decides to use a rotary lawnmower and his adoring girl friend a blender to reduced several dozen of the creatures to go before this is all burnt. The plot centres on a monkey that was raped by a rat on the island of Sumatra and who now tears into any human or animal flesh with gusto. The creature also has the problem that any transferring of blood will result in an immediate transformation of the being in question, turning them instantly into a blood seeking grotesque monster who will tear into flesh with their hands. Set in fifties New Zealand the film made by Peter Jackson with his lifelong partner Fran Walsh gives an insight into their character, but for most adults the film should not be viewed after a meal or before going to bed. Wiser to stick to dreams about being an Olympic champion however unrealistic this is.

1475 Closing ceremony 2008 and Olympic pops

Sunday 24th August was the official end of the Beijing Olympics and the official day that London became 2012 Olympic city for the third time in its history.

Once upon a time the Olympics was the opportunity for talent young people to compete against each other in a variety of competitions to prove who was best at that moment in time. The was a good idea for the events to be held in different countries to promote cultural understanding and to enable different people to experience the competitions not as participants but as supporters, Special stadiums and other facilities had to be created to enable competitors to perform at their best and for as many supporters as possible to participate which in turn involved ensuring there was appropriate transport and accommodation available for the relatives and friends of the participants and for those with a general interest the different sports. At one level this is still the situation.

Then politicians and country leaders appreciated that winning events had significant benefits for the nation in terms of its status in the world and their own and enabled them to achieve a cohesion through public support for successful members of the team. It was the 1936 Games held in Germany which provided Hitler and the Nazi regime to use the games as a major propaganda event, the 1948 Games as the 1951 Exhibition provided the opportunity for Britain to show that it had survived the war and was looking forward to the future. The Atlanta Games in the USA enabled to the country to demonstrate the progress being made in combating its inherent racism and tribalism, the Sydney games provided the opportunity for Australia to dispose of its XXXX image and to mark the first stages of recognising and apologising for its horrific record towards its indigenous people. The Spanish games was an important step to show the progress since its fascist decades and Athens was a brave attempt to remind of the original objectives and values.

And then came China with echoes of 1936 Berlin.

Where were the Chinese people? Glued to TV we were lead to believe marvelling what their nation was achieving and preparing them for the sacrifices ahead as tens of millions are forced to change their lives from peasant farmers into working in the new state dictated industrial economy. They built some iconic performances areas with the bird best stadium, the swimming pool and the Ling Ling media tower, iconic memorials to the vast fortune of some 25 billion dollars devoted to creating the month of events. The won over 50 Gold medals and 100 in total. In one event there were blatant examples of a bias in favour of the hosts and yesterday a similar suggestion made about the diving although it was not won by someone from the host nation. Our youngest competition aged 14 Tom Daley acquitted himself well coming 7th in the ten metre board final. Tom Daley is not the youngest ever competitor or would have been the youngest medal winner had he succeeded in the synchronised swimming event and has a comparatively long history of participation in national and international events to some of the British competitors. His event required courage as well as skill and to finish 7th out of thirty qualifying competitors is a significant achievement. I was also impressed by his interview this morning along side to Gold Medal winners. It is to be hoped that everyone will allow him to practice and compete and to grow up without being spoilt by eh fan adulation and media interest.

Later in the Party in Mall celebration to mark the 2012 start day, the USA eight Gold Medal winner in Beijing Mark Phelps stopped over in London, his first visit to say hullo and to confirm his intention to return for 2012. His recent interview confirmed that he is a much better ambassador for the USA that my first impressions. He is still a freak human being along with Usain Bolt from Jamaica. These are two very different personalities. Phelps appears to have the made up his mind to run an international corporation or become a presidential candidate whereas Bolt could feature in the Hollywood story of his life and become one of the playboys of Caribbean world.

The closing ceremony had lots more fireworks and spectacular wow features but the tradition of the athletes breaking ranks and creating their own sense of a party was firmly resisted by the Chinese authorities, presumably with the blessing or even encouragement of the Olympic authorities. It will be interesting to see the London approach. The first indication of this was the eight minute come to London feature at the games. This comprised a Beijing to London red bus which opened up to show a London skyline made from green hedging. Former East Londoner David Beckham kicked his football and in an earlier interview mentioned that it was his father who encouraged him to practice rather than go out and to drink orange juice, Leona Lewis also a Londoner, looked gorgeous and an arrangement of a Led Zeppelin number about a whole lot of love. Having dancers with umbrellas was a good warning for visitors but I am not sure if the former band member Jimmy Page meant anything to the world wide audience and one could have used one of a dozen former or current rockers to end the message, It will be interesting to see how the media respond to the style of the segment although everyone should be pleased by the two verse well sung version of the National Anthem. The two hour closing ceremony was sandwiched between excellent BBC reviews of the Games event and their significance for London 2012, including an interview with Sebastian Lord Coe. Everything said by those directly involved suggested that Britain would be concentrating on the legacy of the games for the population in general and on promoting multiracial good sportsmanship. The first test was the party in the Mall.

The amount of organising and funding for this event only became apparent as I watched the TV event unfold. In addition to the main location outside Buckingham Palace there were some thirty screens erected around the country where there is to be direct participation in Olympic events, The closest to the north east was Middlesbrough which is one of the Football venues. This clearly demonstrated the political behind the scenes influence as Middlesbrough has the poorest crowd and local population involvement of the three teams in the three Premier teams in the North East. There were said to be 40000 to 50000 assembled in the Mall which omens well given the counter attraction of the Notting Hill carnival, sporting events including football.

After watching the event live I also listened to the radio two broadcast which had a different feel, omitting the recorded inserts of well known athletes talking of their experience and expectations. There were also only a few of he on stage interviews when the guests were impressive and the interviewers moronic. Before and in between the live acts there were more back stage interviews with the artists and some additional material, including "Keep on running", Junior Walker, "Keep on running," Bruce Springsteen, "Born to Run", "Nowhere to run to Baby- Martha Reeves. 1951

Afterwards there was a special top of the pops featuring number ones at previous Olympics beginning with

Australia 1956 Johnny Ray Walking in the Rain very appropriate for London ;

Rome 1960 Apache with the Shadows;
Japan 1964 Tokyo Melody which admittedly only got to number one in the charts but was the BBC theme tune for the games. This reminds that the Chinese their own pop number called Beijing Beijing. For the Japan games 1964 the number was Roy Orbison and Pretty Woman, (also reminding that the Chinese had scoured their nation to present the beautiful, slim and tall ladies to the world but the British presentation included someone in a wheel chair and I hope this aspect will become a major feature of the opening of the Games in 2012.

Mexico Games 1968 the official British team song, was Mexico, sung by Long John Baldry, amazing given his jazz blues background. Mary Hopkins Those were the Days had been number one and continued for throughout the Games.

Munich 1972 was Rod Stewart and You wear it well. Some 700 athletes form 120 counties and 190 off medal events was the biggest until that time, but is now remembered for the terrorist horrors committed against the Israeli Team.

Montreal 1976 All- Kiki Dee and Elton John, Don't Go Breaking my Heart.;

Moscow 1980 Xandu Olivia Newton John was the number 1;

Los Angeles 1984 Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Two Tribes go to war;

Seoul 1988 He aint Heavy, He's my brother;

Barcelona 1992 Jimmy Nail I want no body else;

Atlanta 1996 Forever Love Garry Barlow;

Sydney 2000 Maria Carey and Westlife It's against all odds:

Athens 2004 Natasha Beddingfield These Words.

But what was for 2008? Given that the Games are spread over a number of weeks not all the number ones in the UK were features and it would be interesting to hear what was top of the Pops in the cities and countries where the games were held.

It emerged that the organisers had invited the artists on the basis that they would agree to perform one of the iconic songs associated with sport and performance. This resulted in Katherine Jenkins doing Nesum Dorma associated with the World Cup, and a composite rock band starting off the event with We will rock you and We are the champions of the world which have become Icon numbers of the I was there Live Aid concert at Wembley 2008.

The dancers reminded of Hair and the Gay group whose name I cannot remember but who dressed up in butch fancy dress with the hit song YMCA. This time the dancers represented youth cultures and their contemporary dress wear. The next singer, unknown to me performed Nobody does it better. James Morrison was the most negative pointing out that if the organiser wanted karaoke they should just have had karaoke and decided on an authentic performance of Imagine adding his unique voice. The Feeling felt challenged by doing a version of David Bowie's Hero for a day, and the interview with the lead singer. McFly appeared genuinely delighted to have been asked and by the audience response singing The Winner Takes All Another group Scouting for Girls did London Calling and the end of show stopper was Heather Small Proud where the twelve year old Trombonist Young Musician of the Year. Later I watched the decision programme of Last Choir Standing which was outstanding and where the Welsh Youth Choir sung for their lives and came through, I had worked this out as the three successful choirs contesting the final also performed in the Mall which must have been their greatest thrill to-date and for their families.

While Radio 2 concentrated on the music and interviews with the performers the TV show had live interviews some of the most successful athletes of times past with my favourite was Sally Gunnell who I have seen perform live at Gateshead. Now married with three sons she was thrilled to be back before the Camera and admitted that she did not usually watching the Olympics from the TV couch but had done so with her family who had been inspired. Mary Peters was there with a girl being fast tracked for Fencing while the mother of another teenager said her daughter was being fast tracked for diving which suggests that we have already identified those most likely to be able to compete at the required level. There was also evidence of the long term preparation as a water polo team were being trained for a sport where we had previously no entries or interests but were entitled to include a team as the hosts. This suggests other ventures such as baseball, beach volley ball and the like. It will be interesting to see how much of this activity is keep away from the media in the build up to the games and how far the government and the organisers will be able to keep the momentum generated by the Games to be maintained and progressed over the next four years.

I kept one eye on Teletex during the afternoon and evening as Durham progressed to a major win in the Pro Forty competition and moving to second in the Table with a game in Hand. It looked as if they could go top at one point at Middlesex appeared to have the upper hand over Hants, but they then collapsed and lost so Hants are now top of the pile which makes the four day and pro forty meeting there that much more important. My original intention to watch a replay of the Euro Grand Prix where our now Swiss based lad second to Phillipe Massa but widened his gap as top driver to six points. Rather than watch this or match of the day I had decided to write and listen having watched last week's and this week's of episode of Spooks code 9 where the story line is a good one but the script and acting pathetic. I also watched a early episode of Regan the Sweeney series in which featured the late John Thaw and his sidekick George Cole's Minder. I went to bed at midnight tired but content.

1474 Olympic troubles

What a day. It commenced with the anger and frustration of the shenanigans of the Taekwondo competition involving a Chinese entrant where two of the four judges went blind when the British competitor scored a clear winning kick to the head. Their unscrupulous behaviour nearly cost the opportunity for a medal and it was not surprising that given this situation and the short period given between reversing the decision and the holding of the semi final that the British competitor lost to someone she has beaten on two previous meetings. Whoever went on to win the gold and bronze they have won because of an attempted cheat. Later a disqualified competitor kicked the referee and he and his coach achieved an instant lifetime ban. Together they made a mockery of the intended spirit of the Olympic games.

The sixth Olympic sport alphabetically is Boxing where the professional sport is generally regarded as corrupt with fights fixed and where the activity is much supported by villains. The British Amateur Boxing Association is known for setting high standards and few believe the spin put on the decision to send the best prospect for gold and a current world amateur champion home because he had failed to reach the required weight for his competition. At least they admitted they were sending home a second boxer because of media reports about behaviour in Britain sometime ago. The team needed good performance by the remaining members of the team to counter the feeling that Boxing was not a true Olympian event and its continuing participation is open to question.

This afternoon a British competitor, James deGale, aged 22 from London won the first Boxing Gold Medal for forty years in the middle weight class. As a Southpaw he established himself as a boxer rather than a fighter and until Beijing he had won silver medals in Europe 2007 and 2008 and Bronze at the 2008 Commonwealth games. To win the Gold he had five contests of four two minute rounds which he won 13-4. 11-5. 8-3. 10-3, and 16.14. In the final he was bitten by his Cuban opponent who fought a dirty in other ways, holding on and wrestling as he became more desperate. The Olympics is regarded as a ticket to Boxing professionalism and when asked if he would remain an amateur with the London Olympics in view he replied perhaps if he could have a flash car and more money.

Two other British boxers achieved a bronze. Tony Jaffa Jeffries aged 23 comes from Sunderland where he has struggled to achieve success and has had difficulties maintaining his position as membership of the British team. His progress to a bronze meal is therefore a major achievement for him and the city. Hopes were raised for super heavyweight David Price, the six foot seven 25 year old from Liverpool when he knocked out his second round opponent who was favoured for the Gold Medal, He had a hold medal at e Commonwealth Games in 2006 and had progressed well in the 2007 world championship having to withdraw with injury, He was unable to produce his form in the semi final and was automatically awarded a bronze. But if there are question about Boxing what can be said about athletics where enhancement performance drugs became the norm.

Both Stephen Cram and Sebastian Coe put a brave face on the inadequate performance of British Athletes in the blue ribbon events. They admitted the fact that there are athletes achieving a significant position, let alone a medial potential, in the middle and long distance events of 800 metres 1500, 3000, 5000, 10000 and marathon. And there was a similar problem with the throwing events of Javelin where we once had Steve Backley and others, and the discuss and the hammer. Although a vast sum, some 260 million had been used to support and promote Athletics the team had come to Beijing with a modest target of five medal which they had failed to achieve. My criticism centres on two aspects. The speed athletes at 100 and 200 metres tend to be over confident exhibitionists and as with the US the inability to complete the basics of baton passing is unacceptable. The second problem is the inability of the administration to create a sense of a team for which there is no excuse, except perhaps the athletes have been allowed to focus too much on their separate financial careers. There is also the problem of climatic conditions in the UK.

There is continuing embarrassment is that the only British Gold Medallist was Christine Ohuruogu who was banned for a year for missing three out of competition drug tests in succession. I can understand a competitor missing one but three? She was also banned from competing in the Olympic games as a British Athlete for life. She appealed against this ban and was successful after saying publically she would run for another country if this aspect of her punishment was not lifted. She nearly lost the British relay team a place in the final by an inept performance in the semi final and she underperformed in the opening leg of the relay, failing to provide the team with the start which would have been necessary if they team were to have a chance of a medal. Her victory has to be qualified and it is significant that former Olympic athletes such as Steve Cram always makes a point of mentioning the background and the reactions of other athletes on how she has been able to continue to run quicker than previously. There was also a double edge sword in the comments of Jonathan Edwards about the triple jumper Phillipe Idowu, aged 30 from Hackney, reminding that he showed him no respect during the years when their careers overlapped. One suspects that the dyed red hair, the Bling and the over confidence about his own performances is borne of growing up the son of a vicar, being successful at school in basketball and American football and early success when he switched to the triple jump. In Athens 2004 there were high hopes for him but he failed to record a legitimate jump in the first three and thus was unable to continue with final three jumps. However he won the 2006 Commonwealth games and the world indoor championships earlier in 2008 and came to Beijing confident of the Gold. He was narrowly beaten into the Silver admitting he was disappointed and had hoped to participate in London 2012 as the reigning champion. I hope is performance then will prove my assessment wrong. Athletes can become personalities, but only after they have achieved something remarkable.

Heather Fell, continued British success in the women's Modern Pentathlon since its introduction to the Olympics in 2000 when British women won the Gold and Bronze and where a Bronze was won in 2004. The event is called Modern because none of the five sport were part of Olympics in Athens. The basis of the events tends to attract upper and middle class entrants with shooting, horse riding and fencing forming three of the sports together with swimming and a cross country run. Although in China the latter was run on a flat surface in a stadium which would have been ludicrous had it not been for a twisting course. One disappointing worth mentioning is that Kelly Sotherton from the Isle of Wight aged 32 in 2000 moved to the Midland to train with Dame Kelly Holmes. She has never been in the world front rank of the seven event heptathlon (100 metre hurdles, 200 metres and 800 meters , High Jump, Shot put, Javelin and Long Jump) However I medal was expected after a bronze in Athens, a Gold at the Commonwealth games and a silver at the World Indoor championships in 2008. In the heptathlon the medals awarded for accumulative points from each event, in the Pentathlon the points in the first four events are turned into seconds for the cross country so that Heather Fell commenced the final event 19 seconds after the leader at that point and had to finish before the successful medallist to deprive her of the position. She summoned up the attitude of British involvement, work hard and play hard

For me the star of the Athletics team was thirty year old mother Tasha Danvers. She is one of those athletes who promised much at earlier ages failing to reach the final of the World Championships in 1999 and then when reaching the 2000 Olympic final she went out too fast and finished last. She then had a child in 2004 which prevented participation in the 2004 games and when she qualified of Beijing no one expected her to win a medal,. Not only did she get a bronze but looked as if with a few more metres should could have passed the silver medallist. With this achievements she was expected to announce her retirement but with a glint in her eye she spoke of trying to do better in 2012. There were nearly 150 medals to won in the Athletics events , with 42 of the 220 nations winning at least one bronze. Only five nations won more than one Gold, the USA with 7, Russian and Jamaica with 6, Kenya 5 and Ethiopia 4. To be impressed by one and partly impressed but another does not justify the money and attention which should be switched to other sports which are not tainted and where the sense of participation and commitment to excellence meets the Olympic Ideal. One suspects big and small p political considerations will govern what happens in practice.
David Beckham featured in the eight minute segment of the closing ceremony as the Olympic flag was passed by the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London and one of the main BBC commentators could not resist commenting that it was hoped the dreadful football team would do better in 2012. The reality of football, the British national sport, hence the involvement of David Beckham and the passing to him a football by a young Londoner to kick into the crowd, is that the four football associations of England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland cannot agree the basis for a British team which would enable participation in the Olympic Games in 2012 and in the future. However the demise of British football excellence on one hand is more than matched by the majority of the players in the English Premiership who are some of the best players from Europe and South American, and with the exceptional talent from Africa, Asia and from the antipodes.

Last Sunday I watched Newcastle's first game in which they held Manchester United to a draw when losing 6.0 in the same fixture lasts season. Yesterday I first listened to the live home match and then watched the highlights of the 1.0 win against Bolton, which had been the disappointing first game of the return of Kevin Keegan to St James last year when I had returned for the first time in the greater part of a season. I also listened live on the radio to Sunderland's away victory and Spurs where the winner was scored by the colourful French International striker Dijbril Cisse, on loan from Olympique de Marseille, who has also become the Lord of the Manor of Frodsham through buying a property when he played for Liverpool. I watched the full Sky replay between 10.30 and midnight and bought an online ticket for the next home game.

I continue to be impressed by the Last Choir Standing and the growing professionalism of the remaining four who are clearly loving every moment with the special clothes, hairdo's and make up as well being able to perform to such a large audience. Their performance, the final three choirs, in the Mall outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon as part of the London 2012 party reflected their growing professionalism as well as natural talent. I watched the BBC i player of the decision show and for once concurred with all three judges who said they thought the performance of the youth choir from Wales was extraordinary in that everyone appeared to be singing as if it was for their lives, which in one sense they were

It was also a week since visiting the Royal Albert Hall so before the football I watched and listened to the National Youth orchestra make some amazing music in the Saturday Prom on BBC 2. It has been a coincidence that on a weekend when youth endeavour is celebrated that the national Youth orchestra were contracted to play and that one of the Last Choirs is full of young people still at school while another represents the multicultural aspect of rapidly changing Britain.

Because of the nature of day I decided on Friday night to have roast chicken for lunch and a Stir Fry for Sunday lunch. I had also intended to have roast potatoes but became so involved with the watching the TV that I forgot to put them in oven in sufficient time especially as the chicken was cooked ready earlier than anticipated. For the evening there was salmon salad. Alas there was no email or phone call to say I had won either the great jackpot in the European Lottery or the double roll over in the national. Theer was little project work. Sunday is the closing ceremony and a celebration of London 2012, the Formula One race from Spain and some cricket and football. On Monday there is the return of the successful Beijing competitors so it will not be Tuesday until the house is cleaned and I go for the new spectacle, Wednesday will be in tray day and so it will be Thursday before marking the end of Summer with a return to full working, although there will be cricket days, especially if the weather improves.

1473 Olympics Highs and cheats

There was an unprecedented situation in the Olympic games on Saturday morning British Time as for the second day in succession it was evident to professional and lay berserkers that at least two of the judges were grossly negligent or worse, the later there is no evidence except that they did not see as clear as ever anything can be clear a winning score by the British competitor. This was worse than the situation regarding the British male competitor who also came up against a Chinese competitors. The situation was sufficiently grave that if I had any say in the matter I would have declared the sport void for the purposes of allocating Olympic medals and refused to recognize the international body for the 1021 Olympics and led the call all for a new international body to be formed. The British team submitted a protest but no one expected the protest to be upheld. It is understood that the judges examined the video and photographic evidence and reversed the decision thus eliminating the Chinese competitor and current Olympic champion at Taekwondo. Although the decision was reversed and understood to have been accepted by the Chinese federation what happened leaved a very nasty taste and if I was involved I would insist on a full independent and potentially criminal investigation. That this involved two Chinese competitors and host for the games thrown a major doubt in my mind at the value of any other medals won by the Chinese which involved individual judgments rather than being first past the post, or other forms of scoring independent of human judgment. I emphasize that I have no evidence of corruption or unscrupulous intervention by the Chinese government or sporting authorities but we know of only too well what happens when the stakes are so high whether it is national pride or individual ambition.

It is not surprising that Sarah Stevenson could not get her act together for the semi final match where she lost badly to an opponent she has previously beaten twice. She still has a chance to win the bronze but it would be surprising if she is able to perform such is the damage created by the disgraceful and unacceptable behaviour of those which turned the competition into a farce. At this moment the bronze medal match is under way and I am pleased that the commentators are not leaving the matter alone referring to what happened earlier as shenanigans. I am so pleased to say that she won well and therefore will have a bronze medal although she will have to learn to live that she was cheated our of the silver or gold and for once I find it difficult to forgive whose responsible. Amazingly Wikipedia had this information on line with seconds.

I believe that twenty nine different sports have been included in the 2008 Olympics in China.

Alphabetically Archery was one of the sports where only a small number of medals were available 5 x 3 a total of three but where British expectation was high because three medals had between won at the world championships. The highest position gained was fourth in one of the five events. South Korea was the dominant force with two Golds and five Medals in total. China managed three medals, one in each category and Ukraine the other Gold. Six nations shared the medals.

Athletics is second where cheating through the use of drugs became the standard and where its place in the games should be relegated in terms of public and media attention until there is confidence that the problem has been overcome. Britain's performance has deteriorated in the middle and long distance races since the emergence of the African nations butt here ha been some exceptional individuals with Jonathan Edwards the most notable because of his behaviour on and off the track. The full report will be later.

There was hope more than expectation of a medal in Badminton (3) as the mixed doubles partnership of Nathan Roberston and Gail Emms was ending after the games. The couple had surprised everyone with a Silver Medal in Athens. The couple have had success at the Commonwealth and European competitions but their greatest success was to win gold in the 2006 world championship. Gail retires at the end of the Games. All the Gold medals were won by Asian Countries with China 3 (8 in total) and the others going to South Korea and Indonesia who each also won a silver and a bronze. The only other medal a Bronze went to Malaysia. Badminton along with Squash are popular games played in Britain for recreation and fitness

1472 We are sailing and a film

Two Olympic sports have been completed with two further medal successes, one Gold and one Silver.

It is perhaps natural but never inevitable that there would be success on the water in sailing vessels. Britain is one main island and hundreds of others, with Northern Ireland part of the second largest land mass. Along the entire coast there have been ports and harbours throughout the ages and as our rivers have lost their industrial uses, the nation has turned to the small boat with yachts of all sizes and motor cruisers. The British love to go on rivers, and continue use the cross channel ferries as well as go on holiday cruises. The Royal Navy remains one of great sea forces of the world and although sea transport had changed radically with the use of container ships and fishing has been severely constrained so as to preserve European fish stocks, British young men and women still love to go to sea,
However before savouring the most successful sailing Olympics of all time from the British viewpoint it has to be remembered that perhaps only 100 individuals can expect to earn a living as competitive sailors and that some of out best well known sailors earn their livelihood abroad and that there are less than half this number sponsored to compete in the Olympics and world championships. The major problem remain that of sponsorship and that television does not like the sport because of the difficulties of showing events and the lack of interest among the general public which rightly regards sailing as still the province of the middle and upper classes. Having said that I have seen one article which suggests that over two million people own boats in Britain and that several million more will take to water in a vessel in some form each year.

This Olympics, the British team achieved their objective of four Gold Medals, added to which was one silver and one bronze, six in total and the best result ever for the British Team. Three young women, named three blondes in a boat after the famous book Three men in a boat ,won the Yingling class. Sarah Ayton aged 28 years from Ashford in Middlesex was awarded the MBE for her gold in the same class in Athens 2008. She now adds a second Gold. Pippa Wilson aged 22 from Southampton was the second member of the Crew and is a professional sailor. Sarah Webb is the oldest member of the winning team at 31 from Ashford in Middlesex and received the MBE as a member of the same crew as Sarah Ayton who joined the Royal Yachting Association's Youth Squad competing in the world youth championships in 1995 and 1996

Whereas little information is available about thee three blondes Ben Ainslie along with Chris Hoy of cycling is regarded a one of the best at his sport in the world, a view for once shared by sailors around the globe. Aged now 31 from Macclesfield in Cheshire, but brought up in Cornwall. he was taken into sailing by his parents at the age of 4 and commenced to compete in races at the age of tem. His father was a professional sailor who participated in the first Round the World Race in 1973. Ben has already had an extraordinary career and it will be interest to see if he now retires with the 2012 Olympics now in view. He has a long history of success gaining a Silver Medal at the 1996 games in Atlanta and has now won successive Gold Medals in 2000, 2004 and 2008. He is destined to be among those knighted for their achievements as a consequence of the success of the 2008 games.

The most exciting of finishers in any of the sports at the Games was that of Paul Martin Goodison, also a life long sailor now aged 30 years from Sheffield. He was in second position as the final medal race approached and after a week often becalmed waters which held up races, the race was fought out on choppy seas where previous experience and developed skill was required to find the best route between markers. The result was in doubt up to the finals seconds and such was the delight of the British team, including Ben Ainslie that Paul was lifted in triumph still in his boat out of the water.

Iain Percy aged 32 from Southampton has had mixed fortunes at the Olympic games having first won a Gold Medal in Sydney in 2000 but was only able to come sixth in 2004. He recovered from this disappointment to with bronze in the 2005 Championships and then Gold in the European of the same year, He was awarded and MBE for Sydney. This time he won Gold again with Andrew known as Bart Simpson, as crew. Bart also aged 32 from Chertsey but now living in Dorset.

Nick Rogers and Jonathan Joe Glanfield aged 29 recovered brilliantly from a disastrous start in their final Medal race to win Silver in the 470 class, having won the same Medal in the same class at Athens.

The sixth winning event produced Britain's first ever medal, a bronze in wind surfing which requires continuous upper body strength and stamina as well as sailing skills. Bryony Elizabeth Shaw is 25 years old and was born in Wandsworth. A feature of the sailing events is that unlike many athletes, sailors are expected to participate in a long series of races. Bryony who tends to be called Britney commenced windsurfing in the South of France in 1992 when 15 years of age, her father was an academic lecturer at the second University at Oxford and went to school near Headington, where I lived for over two years. She commenced to race competitively at a reservoir near Oxford and left university early in 2004 to concentrate on the sport, ranked 12th at the world championships in 2007 and 8th in 2008. She had a bad patch in the race series after starting well with 4th and 3rd positions and then finished 11th twice 6th and 5th. This was followed by a third, a first and a second which brought her to third overall in terms of the points awarded to that time. Although she came fourth in the final race this was sufficient to gain the bronze. She lives with a another wind surfer Greg King, near Weymouth where the sailing events are to be held in 2012.

Eighteen nations shared the 33 medals awarded in the sailing sport with only Australia winning more than one medal(2) and two nations winning three medals. Australia and France against the British six.
Having reported on cycling hopes of a ninth Gold medal were dashed when Shanaze Reade crashed in the final of the BMX bike race. The pressure and drive of this young woman to win after becoming world champion was such that she picked herself up in the settings races after her first crash where she took a lump from her elbow. She then got through to finish second overall which meant that she had the best position in the second of the two semi finals. Then horror of horrors she crashed again in the first race of the semis and appeared to be badly shaken as well as hurt. However she managed not only to finish second in the second race but to win the third which meant she had qualified in a good position for the final. She commenced the final in the lead but as they race commenced its final segment a French competitor who had won all three semi final runs as well as the setting races nipped passed her by changing direction. As they approach the final bend Shanaze instead of reconciling herself to second position and a silver medal, attempted the same manoeuvre and crashed after clipping the rear wheel of the French rider. On one hand I though this was the result of having attempted to ride to close to the rival and that she should have settled for a medal as part of the British team. However she was remarkably brave in continuing after two falls and the drive to win and be first and not to settle for second, may be uncritical, but is the kind of attitude which changes an also ran into a winner.

A similar level of frustration and disappointment was shown by the 17 year old Taekwondo competitor who had to fight four times in the course of the morning. He first become interested in the sport at the age of five after watching the Power Rangers cartoon. He joined a local club to the family home and then won the British Championship at the age of seven and then the world junior championship at 15. Selected to join the elite training squad based in Manchester his parents moved home and work to Manchester to help and support him. He won his first bout easily with the match stopped when the margin of points reached seven. The second contest was more difficult and then he was in the semi final he was narrowly beaten in the dying seconds after coming back three times for a point deficit. However it is inevitable that there will be an enquiry into what happened in the final when the judges repeatedly failed to confirm his scoring. including a hit to the head of the opponent which should have scored two points. To be charitable the judges may have been influenced by the crowd, and youth of the young man. In other circumstances one could make stronger allegations with considerable justification. It is hoped that the international association of this sport will conduct an enquiry and take appropriate action to ensure the judges do not officiate again.

Yesterday was a making up day as far as food was concerned with pasta parcels filled with spinach for lunch, a little salad and olive pasta for evening meal, some cereal and some toast during the day, strawberries, liquorice allsorts and lots of tea. The sore throat did not become the problem anticipated but when I coughed it was from the chest indicating that there was a problem.

I watched one poor film, the free with the Mail on Sunday DVD of Gene Hackman as a deputy district attorney attempting to persuade Anne Archer to leave her hideaway and return to testify against a bug time crime boos who she had witnessed present when his hitman murders the lawyer she met for the first time as a blind date arranged by her best friend who has been siphoning funds for his own use. Having witnesses the incident she takes to the hills she resists the plea of Hackman who unintentionally plays a dumb and irresponsible character who nearly gets himself as well as the woman played by Anne Archer killed several times in this would be thriller which has little credibility. It is worthwhile listing the mistakes which would have led him to being sacked if I had anything involvement. By luck he finds out there is a witness to someone who ahs evaded justice for years and where it is self evident given this is the USA the criminal will have workers in the justice system on the payroll. In such circumstances you do not disclose to anyone where you know the witness is in hiding and make sure that you are followed and then you ensure that you take without sufficient officers to ensure you can bring the witness if she agrees in safety. As she is located across the border in another country one presumably arranges local support as soon as the individual agrees to help and you ensure that you will have adequate communication throughout. The operation needs to be conducted as one would a military undertaking in its planning and its execution.

The thrill element rests on being in a position to escape the first attack and get on a train more by food fortune that planning. When I make a trip I always check out the various forms of public transport available beforehand and what happens if I or the public service breaks down in terms of drink, food, clothing break down. This is basic common sense even when travelling alone so the responsibility is greater when one is responsible or has dependents accompanying.

The second aspects which stretched the credulity is that while Hackman quickly becomes aware that two individuals have got on the train who are obvious villain he slowly works out there is third, although how this individual managed to get on the train remains an unanswered puzzle. There are two possible characters who could be the third villain and it is evident to everyone except Hackman who the individual is. His greater stupidity is not to assume that either or anyone else could be the third individual. Having realised that there were only two people who were aware of his mission he assume that one of these rather than the other is the guilty party whereas common sense dictates that you assume that either could be in on the conspiracy and got outside the system for assistance. He appears never to have heard of the FBI or the Canadian government. His next act of stupidity is to behave in such a way that he identifies to the criminals who the woman is when they would have no immediate way of knowing which of the other passengers she was By all means act as decoy but the best way in the circumstances would have been for her to act as any other passenger and sit with the other passengers who do not have a private compartment on the train. Amazingly the witness in question agrees to give evidence after surviving several near death experiences thus putting herself, her son and any other members of her extended family at grave risks for the rest of their lives from the crime boss and his friends. This is a film to avoid Narrow Margin unless of course you are too tired to do or watch anything else.

1471 Some Olympics a French film and Sherlock Holmes

Throughout Wednesday the hints of a sore throat the previous day grew more stronger and I suspect the usual approach of warm and cold drinks and Scotch whisky would not prove a remedy, I went to bed expecting to have a rough night.

The day had been devoted to the Olympics, watching, researching and writing until early evening. We did not win another Gold Medal so there was a sense of anti climax, but in fact there were several good moments as two British young women came second and third in the long two hour swim which they led until the last few metres and in the 100 metre hurdles an older athlete Tasha Danvers aged 30, a mother with a four year old and coming to the games without great expectation ran the fastest performance of her life to win the bronze medal which nearly catching the silver medal runner in the final stages.

For me the moment of the day came in the BMX bicycle competition as the women competitors made to individual runs of the course with the fastest of the two runs determining their position at the start of races in which eight riders competed in one race over the course where the slightest error can result in a crash and injury. In this instance the British world champion, a twenty year old young woman fell on first run and took a lump out of her arm. When I was about the same age I had been thrown up into the air and down on a hard surface but because I had been prepared for the possibility of the experience, I did not experience pain or injury and it was only later that I realised I was badly bruised and felt any effects. This contrasted with the recent experience of the fall in the local shop when I hit my head and damaged my nose. Yesterday the young woman picked herself up and continued to complete the course, then gathered herself to make the second run with the consequence that she was able to chose the second racing position for the semi finals which were to be held on Thursday, although because of rain the event has been postponed.

There was a time until past decade or two when all International Football matches played by England and the other home countries would be shown live on BBC television. Then Sky Satellite entered and other channels bid for friendlies and the BBC lost its monopoly. Last year Satanta Sports, an Irish based company gained a foothold on televising Premiership matches having gained control of the Scottish premiership previously. This year it has widened its involvement with some 80 premierships games live and last night the friendly before two of the World Cup qualifying rounds matches over the next three weeks, Although the game was drawn two goals each it was one of the worst and most discouraging displayed for decades, and there have been some bad ones. In the week where Britain is holding its head high with the results in the Olympics I can image the chorus of disapproval which will greet the performance in the morning newspapers.

I was able to undertake preliminary work with material from my recent visit to London, on the Olympics and other work areas which continued through the recent week and was able to develop over the past two days since returning home. I also watch two films. The first 100 days in the Jungle was loosely based on a true event when workers for an oil company were taken hostage on the Ecuador- Columbia border area and demanded twenty million dollars ransom for the seven Canadians and one US Navajo. They were taken on a forty day march through the Amazon jungle before arriving at the insurgent camp. The Canadian Embassy was sceptical about the situation and slow in promoting negotiations between the old company and the captors. Eventually money was paid and the men released and according to the film were able to return to their homes in time for Christmas in 1989. There is also a book about the event which I understand happened although I have been unable to locate a news report.

Earlier I watched one of the original Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce which was produced in 1942 and set in wartime England involving a battle over possession of a bomb sighting device after Holmes had brought the device and its Swiss inventor to London, the inventor is kidnapped by arch enemy Professor Moriarty, long believed dead by Inspector Lestrard of Scotland Yard, played by Dennis Hoey for the first time. The film,

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon uses the Dancing Men code originated in Conan Doyle story, the adventure of the dancing men although apart from the code there is no other relationship between the two stories.

I also watched a French film about the relationship between two teenage girls, one of whom loses her father while the other commences to experiment with relationships with young men. The film has a profound twist at the end which whether intended or not makes the point that teenage emotions can lead to explosive and devastating consequences. I did not make a note of its name except that it was shown on the World Movie channel.

I had no worked hard although I had worked and the energy level dropped rapidly as the day progressed. I had the fresh sardines, baked, for lunch, and these were not a success. I enjoyed more the salad with salmon in tomato. I had both a port with ice and a Scotch with ice for medicinal purposes and eighteen hours later it still had had some positive effect on the sore throat.