2246 Oscars 2012, American Beauty, The Company Men, State of Grace and the Seeker

I decided against staying up to watch the Oscar ceremony live in the early hours of last Monday morning and instead rose around five as the telecast was ending and fast tracked through the recording to the bits which most interested, cutting out the inane Sky studio team who performance was among the worst of all those inane studio teams of previous years. I avoided the red carpet interviews which some find entertaining although the frocks appear only a more expensive cut than those worn in the better class of brothel and presumably intended to attract the attention of the present and future film contract. Its show business folks, or as Ethel Merman sang, There’s no business like show business.

I was pleased with outcome in that the awful but much hyped Tinker Tailor with Gary Oldman in for best male actor came nowhere as at he Baftas and Meryil Streep deservedly gained her third Oscar for the performance as Mrs Thatcher. One hostile critic argued that this was a mimic performance which indicates his ignorance or dubious bias or both. She paid due credit to make up who also got an award.

As also forecast the Artist got Best Picture, Best Direction and Best male artist plus two others, five of the ten nominations and although I have stubbornly refused to view the film in theatre, I look forward to the televised production in a year’s time. Similarly I will view the Help which gained the best supporting as at the Baftas together with the Descendents where George Clooney has been much praised and Brad Pitt for Moneyball about baseball which I have never taken to although made several efforts, The Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris and Hugo are also on the list and perhaps Warhorse and Extremely Loud and Incredibility Clear.

Apparently despite the hundreds of millions reported to be viewing the event world wide the USA audience finished last year to just above the Emmy’s at around 40 million so for this season every effort was made to make the show more attractive and hold viewers. There were several innovations with instead of photographs and excerpts for In Memoriam were simple cards although departing members of academy were given more attention. There appeared to be fewer movie snap shots ands these were grouped with the awards. There was tribute to the history of film and to three previous recipients previously unable to be present who sat together in a side box.

The nice award of the evening went to Christopher Plummer who beat Max Von Sydow (who got the Bafta) for best supporting actor in a male role and who commented that there was only a couple of years between him and the years of the Oscars with both in their 80’s. Max is only a year or to younger and the two men have over 150 years of life experience. Three cheers for the oldies.

Now to my recent film viewing and first a repeat of film seen in theatre in 1999 and since on TV: American Beauty with two actors who never fail to give A class performances Kevin Spacey and Angela Bening. The film won Oscar Best Picture, Best Direction for Sam Members Best Actor of Spacey, Best original Screenplay and Best cinema photography.

First my take on the film which I regard as a fair and good account of that point in a marriage when periodic sex, however good, is not sufficient cement to prevent both partners remembering and wanting to recapture past experience, assuming it was better or panicking that they will miss out on what they believe others imply is better. In addition and argued more important is when one or both lose respect for the other and the values they have developed.
Bening has become a consumer queen, protective of the expensive goods she has surrounded herself to advertise who she was and critical of Spacey’s failure to want and achieve more. She is a property real estate agent and admires the local Mr Success man despite the fact that he is a class A shit. Eventually she balls him to her great personal satisfaction and then is distraught when he finds the excuse to reject her all too common experience which goes on in many a marriage, almost unnoticed. However this is a side show to the life Kevin leads.

Kevin Spacey is Lester a middle aged magazine writer a job he has come to loathe. When he about to be sacked he is able to blackmail his way to a $60000 pay off which buys him time to work out what to do. (The subject of what happens to high earners when they are laid off will be covered at an entirely different level of seriousness in Company Men which is to follow and which was also the subject of the George Clooney film Up in the Air where he flew around America getting rid of executives).

When Lester’s cash begins to run out and he becomes bored with doing nothing he remembers how much he enjoyed working at in a fast food restaurant but has to talk himself into getting a job because of his age and previous job levels. He is very satisfied by the work which leads him to finding our about his wife’s infidelity when she arrives in the drive in lane with the lover.

However Lester’s attention is elsewhere. He is persuaded to attend his daughter’s high school where she is a cheerleader basketball game he is attention is caught by the sixteen year old best friend of his daughter who is clearly glittered by his attention. She is sixteen to make it legal for most USA and Western audiences but in reality n she could have been any age from fourteen to twenty to make the same point.

She gives the impression of being highly experienced sexually, attracted to older men and ridicules the virginity of the daughter who is a young woman with low self esteem. The two frequently spar over the subject and the daughter Jane who becomes the subject of interest to the son of a retired Marine Colonel who has moved in next door, finds the way her father and friend interact as gross.

Lester begins to lust after the beautiful creature which the camera is always surrounding with bright red rose petals to emphasise the romantic as well as sexual attraction (I know it also a take on the suburban concept of American Beauty). His interest is fired when he overhears a conversation between daughter and friend in which Angela says she would be interested in him if only he worked out and got into better shape. This provides Lester with a mission so he starts to work out.

Lester also makes friends his daughter’s friend who although on probation for alleged drug use is in fact the neighbourhood supplier of good stuff marijuana. Ricky only deals to provide funds for his hobby which is film and photography and the room is filled with tapes with his favourite which he views on TV that of a white plastic bag floating and which he shares with Jane.

Unfortunately as it transpires he unintentionally films Kevin working out naked that his father sees and then when he goes over to the gym to provide a new supply of stuff, his father misjudges what he can see as a gay relationship. When he confronts his son, the son who is fed up with living at home does not deny the charge as a means of being thrown out and providing the impetus for his ambition to go and live in New York. He has no difficulty in persuading Jane to go with him.

Jane has criticised Angela for her interest in Lester and Ricky tells her that she is ordinary. Angela is left alone in the house with Lester and makes a play for him. On the bed ready to give her she discloses that she is a virgin and hopes he will not be disappointed. This jolts Kevin into the reality of the situation and although she feels she is being rejected he is able to comfort in a fatherly way and the two bond despite the gulf in experience and perspectives.

The problem is that the Marine Colonel is closet gay and full of passion comes over to Lester and kisses him. Rejected he returns home in a disturbed state.

We are told early on in the film that this is night when the life of Lester ends and in the film is his all of life flashback in those self aware moments before death. We see him in a pool of vivid blood and hear him saying that he has no regrets as to how his life ended. The film is ambiguous over who shoots Lester with the most likely the colonel as we see one of his guns missing while the wife who is just as disturbed after her rejection is also returning home with a gun placed in the glove compartment.

So from my perspective American Beauty is film which should be judged as a glossy story with good acting and great photography set in suburban middle class America but others have elevated to a different level about notions of beauty, romantic and parental loves as well as sexuality. It is also about the impact of consumerism and materialism and alienation which many come to feel in middle age coming up and immediately after retirement, plus ways of achieving self liberation and redemption. In fairness it is all the latter dressed up and softened in such a way to provide weekend entertainment and challenge rather than attack its audience with perhaps the Middle America tea party value that even to lust after something or someone has a price in the present as well as the afterlife.

The focal point can be said to be the sequence of the paper bag. It is only in a comfortable middle and upper class society that a mini film about a floating paper bag can be considered art or entertaining when for billions of people in the world the challenge and is sufficient food and water, avoiding mortal sickness and the rape and slaughter by ones neighbours or government.

The company man is about the effects of ruthless corporate capitalism in the changing global economy and recession. The Chairman/Chief Executive manages to take home $22 million in the year in which he is required to down size in order to raise the share price in the face of a take over threat. He gives the impression of wanting to stay on at the head of the company he has built with right hand man and deputy, Gene LcClary played by the great Tommy Lee Jones. When all his down sizing fails and the company is acquired he nets $600 million from his stock options.

Tommy Lee helped build up the company from the ship building and repair division which take the brunt of the initial cost cutting because it is an area where the world market had changed, Among those who go in the first tranch is head sales man Bobby Walker played by Ben Affleck.

He is as self confident and often distant from his wife and children because of the requirements of the job, enjoying his fast car and condescending towards his brother in law who runs a small four man businesses repairing buildings. When he is suddenly told he is laid off with a severance package which involve placement with a job finding agency he is sufficiently self confident to tell his wife (who immediately understand the implications) that they can continue with their lifestyle and that the news should be kept from their children, his parents and her brother. He slowly learns the reality of the position and eventually is driven to accepting a labouring job with his brother in law and to moving in with his parents. He is humiliated and depressed but his wife comments that when he comes home now he is with them and he is able to spend time with his children, The film depicts something of the life led by those with the job search agency and the bond which develops between them. The brother in law is played by an aging Kevin Costner who had his own problems keeping the business afloat working all hours but this is normal way of life made more difficult because of the recession. Affleck does get an offer out of the blue, takes time off and raises the money for the flight only to find the appointment is arranged for the following week and the film gives the impression that for this and other reasons he gives the interview a miss.

The position of Tommy Lee Jones is different. For him the issue is not one of money or lifestyle as such or having a job per se but the end of something which he had made his life’s work and which provided incomes for a large workforce. It is evident he has become detached from his wife and family and prefers the company of his mistress who work as the Human Sources Director and it is her job to work out who should go in as fair a way as possible within he financial parameters and need to retain those who are able to take the organisation forward.

Jones put up a fight for another older colleague in his 50’s who he has no since working together on the shipyard floor. When the man is unable to cope and commits suicide it brings home to everyone the cost of what is happening and significantly the CEO does not attend the funeral. Eventually his mistress also arises to advise him of his own separation package as further cuts are made and the impact of this is for him to leave home and move in with his mistress who is still employed by the corporation,
It after the funeral that Jones takes Affleck to the site of the original but now derelict ship yard and administration offices and talks about the past. Once he realises his share capital which presumably also runs into the hundreds of millions he established his own company with and appropriate front office but we then see Affleck leaving for work in the old yard offices with a small team all colleagues from the job search bureau telling them to hire 100 of the former team trade union consultations and in the harbour a tug is moving in a vessel for refit and repair.

The film could be said to provide in dramatic form the reality of the recession and changing industrial and manufacturing condition but also the messages that if you have any job you should be grateful and accept whatever conditions and restrictions are imposed and that if you work hard and are prepared to risk capital then the American dream lives on. In effect it is an endorsement of capitalism and corporate behaviour rather than a condemnation. I have in mind the original Wall Street in this respect.

There were aspects of State of Grace that I remember from before, and is the film which I suggest made Sean Penn an international star and which also featured Ed Harris and Gary Oldman.

The clever opening of the film gives the impression that Terry Noonan born in New York’s Hells kitchen is forced to return from Boston where he had acquired a gun and is involved with a shoot out killing two gangsters in a drugs and money venture. Later we learn that the drug sellers were police wearing vests and with gun firing blanks. The third party at the scene guaranteeing that the authenticity of the incident will be passed on within the criminal underworld.

Terry returns to his roots and re-establishes contact with his childhood friend Jackie played by Gary Oldman whose elder brother (Ed Harris) runs the local Irish Mobsters and their sister Kathleen with whom they were young lovers and where he is surprised she remains unmarried and living in the district.

She has distanced herself from the criminal life of her brothers and is disappointed to find that Terry is involved with them again although their original love is rekindled. This poses a problem for Terry who is in fact undertaking an undercover assignment as member of the police. When under pressure he reveals his identity the girl reacts with horror appreciating that his purpose is to place her brothers in prison.

Jackie, the young brother is a hot head and ambitious to prove himself. Jackie is horrified when a friend is murdered and he believes by the Italian Mafia although in fact it is his brother who carried out the killing in order to make peace with the Mafia. When Jackie encounters three members of the Mafia in a bar one evening there is a fight in which he kills all three. This leads to a sit down meeting between the two heads of families and Frankie (; the gang leader takes the precaution of having the rest of the gang on standby. The deal is for Frankie to kill his brother.

Terry accompanies Jackie to collect $25000 which the brother has requested because he senses that Jackie is under threat. When they are sent to a different location to that where Terry had ranged back up forces Jackie is killed by his brother unseen by Terry who is trying to phone for help.

Much of the film centres on the build up to the annual St Patrick’s Day parade and the sister is left to watch the parade on her own while Frankie and the gang learn that Terry is an undercover cop at a bar. Terry arrives and there is a shoot out when finally Terry and Frankie confront each other. Frankie is shot dead and Terry is shot three times and falls. The film ends without knowing if he survives.

I was impressed by the performances of all three principal actors especially Gary Oldman.

The Seeker, the Dark is Rising is fantasy film involving young people based on the second of five book series by Susan Cooper. The films is self contained so that knowledge of the books would have added to enjoyment but is not essential.

Will Stanton believes he is the youngest of six sons and a sister in a family who live in an unusually designed house in a country town. just outside greater London. He, his sister and older brothers are excited as they leave school for the start of the Christmas holiday which is also the time of his birthday.

He notes a girl on the bus who appears interested in him and when she leaves the bus without scarf he tries to attract her attention and failing this takes hold of the scarf. The girl appears older. All the members of the family are reunited with the exception of one son who is in the Navy and who contacts via the internet video link. The return of another son results in Will being sent up to the attic as a temporary bedroom. The brothers are normal young men. His father appears self absorbed and troubled.

On their way home the Lady of the Manor and her assistant (Ian McShane) invite the young people to a Christmas Party and two local farmers who are undertaking some work on a building comment about the weather while appearing to be keeping the boy under surveillance.

His little sister is the only one of the siblings to provide him with a good birthday present so he goes to the local shopping centre to buy her a gift and buys an unusual stone pendant for her. He is approached by two men dressed as security guards who claim he has stolen the item and they quickly emerge not to be what they seem but somehow he manages to escape their clutches with the emergence of latent powers which make him feel odd and different. When he tries to explain his concerns to his father these are dismissed as adolescent problems which he should discuss with his older brothers.

At the Christmas party at he Manor House Will sees the girl from the bus and is upset when an older brother cuts him out and arranges to date the girl. There is discussion between the Lady of the Manor, McShane and the two farmers whether it is time to explain to Will his position and destiny. They decide to hold back as the boy is troubled but when he leaves he is chased by two ferocious black dogs and a rider on horseback, played by Christopher Eccleston of Dr Who fame and also the classical theatre actor.

The four from the Manor have followed and intervene. The Dark rider demands possession of objects which he believes Will has and which could prevent him rising to great power in the world within five days. The four escort Will through time to what is a great Hall and in present time the Church which the family worship. They explain that they are the last of the old ones. Will is the last of the Old Ones and the one who can stop the Rider as the seventh son of the seventh son.

I knew a family of seven sons of seven sons as well as my own ancestors one of whom the grandfather of my mother was the sixth of seven sons all born in succession. The family I knew were political and I have his painting of Durham Cathedral in my home created by one.
In the film and book Will explains that he is the youngest of six and not seven, a fact which he establishes is not so when he returns home and learns that he had a twin brother who disappeared and which the parents have been unable to talk about since.

The four explain to Will the nature of powers as the trheyr commence on his fourteenth birthday and in order to stop the Dark he must quickly locate the six signs which the Dark is also after to stop him. Will falls and twists his ankle on returning home the doctor who calls is none other that the Dark demanding the Signs and threatening the rest of he family if he refuses to join him.

Will is instructed in the extent of his powers which include summoning great strength to combat forces assembled against him and which involves control of light and fire, telekinesis, time travel and the ability to decipher an ancient text, The Book of Gramarye.

He returns to Great Hall to learn the nature of the Signs, one of which is the pendant he acquired for his sister on the visit to the Shopping Mall and which the men from whom he escaped were after. It is around this time that we learn that the girl on the bus and who became the girl friend of an older brother is in fact a witch working for the Rider in exchange for her remaining a youthful beauty. Will has to use his powers to prevent the influence of the witch over his family. Eventually despite his emotional attachment to the witch in the form of the girl he is able to break her power and she becomes her true age and appears to disintegrate.

As the struggle between the two intensifies the Rider launches an attack on the village and the family home with a great blizzard and extreme cold. Will then faces his greatest challenge as the Rider impersonates his father and mother and offers to reunite with his twin if he surrenders powers. In addition to the pendant he has worked out that that the second is a skull of the creator of the signs inside the church/great Hall from the 14 century. There is Viking Shield used to attack village which he is able to acquire by trading the watch given to him by his sister for his birthday. The is a feather on the sign of the local Inn which dates from the late 17th century and when the Manor is underwater when the snow turn to water and he ends the life and power of the witch. The final sign is the power within himself his soul.

Having understood the signs he becomes untouchable and is able to rescue his twin brother who the Rider had mistook for Will and imprisoned in glass sphere and which in turn Will now imprisons the Rider, returning to his family with his twin brother.

I have no information if there are to be other films. It is noteworthy that there are similarities between Will and Harry Potter with both boys unaware of their powers and their destiny against he forces of the dark until had there childhood and adolescences is over. Both have supernatural powers as the forces aligned against them and both have those who, understand and support. However the way the stories have been brought to life, and the level of acting and the concept of using the same trio of Harry and his two friends is difference between on become an internal legend with incredible financial success and the other comparatively unknown.

Talking of Harry Potter it is noteworthy that the completion of his film series failed to get recognition at him Oscars in the same way that recognition was given to the Lord of Rings. And talking of the Lord of the Rings the first of at least two Hobbit films appears on screen later this year in time for Christmas and in 3D.

2245 Death in Paradise (1)

In the country of France, in the region of Provence, in the Department of Var, a black, cold, eerie, stillness enveloped the village of Three Hills.
The occupants of the picturesque, but decaying, old village, had been abed for several hours.
Even the new road, which connected the village to the nearest city and coast in one direction, sweeping the eastern outskirts and then inland to join the motorway in the other, was silent.
It was so quiet, and the darkness so dense that a rodent broke covers and searched the pavement edge of the T junction heart of the village. This was normal for the season, just as it had been earlier, at midday, for old men to pavement sit, gossiping, remembering, and hoping that the monotony of their experience would be broken by the bump of a tourist vehicle coming up the hill, and turning across traffic without knowing that locals continued to take the original right of way.
It was cold enough for everyone to have closed both window and shutter, but on the outside, noise carried from street to street, and area to area.
No one in the old village subsequently reported to having been awoken by the gunshots, and even those living in the quixotic shaped buildings leading up to the landmark summit of the principal hill had been undisturbed by unnatural activity. From the top western slopes, the dwellings overlooked the second hill, and beyond to the unpopulated side of Little Hill from where the shots had come.
Two communities occupied the second hill.
On the lower east and south slopes there was a small post war development of public housing, including prized accommodation for the elderly, overlooking terraced municipal grounds, with safe play for young children, two tennis courts, a kickabout plot, a scatter of shrubs and simple seating.
None of the occupants of this distinctly working class appendage were disturbed by the bangs, but a few souls had stirred, unaware why, in the private, middle class modern properties on the western upper slopes of the hill, bordering the single tarmac road which wound round into the place known locally as Newlands valley.
The dozen homesteads of Newlands had also been created after 1945. In the back to nature climate and prosperity of the sixties, the owner of this fertile, sheltered land, had grasped that idealistic townsfolk would pay well for a comparatively small area of land to build a home, and as a sideline, run a few chickens, and grow vegetables and fruits, including the grape.
All the residents had once been newcomers to the village and were still collectively branded as strange folk for their way out choice of living place rather than any known quirks of behaviour. They were not considered to be villagers and were treated as only slightly better than the commuters and those who owned the holiday lets.

Newlands residents woken by the shots returned to sleep without concern. Any outside playing child’s laughter, or cry, a dog’s bark, or the bang of a door, could be heard across the valley during the active part of the day. Such was the constant solitude that it was common for casual visitors to lower voices down to whispers once they realised that sound flowed until it bounced back off the surrounding wooded hills.

One resident subsequently told enquirers that he had assumed the cause of the unscheduled awakening had been the backfiring of a car, somewhere, most likely on Little Hill, arriving late, or setting off early. It was an acceptable consequence of the holiday trade located on the hillside farthest away from the village centre.
The only other exit from the valley was a single pot holed track which cut across a wooded plateau before joining the tarmac road created when holiday villas were built on the undeveloped Little Hill.
Several woodland tracks branched across the plateau and one of these led to the villa, the Little Paradise. Although secluded and apart, everyone in the village knew the English owner Paul, and that from early spring to late autumn he entertained parties of young women. Once a fortnight he would bring guests to the only hotel for a meal, and unlike those using the holiday homes, or the commuters, he used the village stores, and out of season, he employed locals to upkeep the property, and he contributed financially to both church and village developments on a regular basis.
There was genuine shock and disbelief at the subsequent revelations.
On this early autumn, midweek night, all but one of the nine holiday villas, with their individual pools, on the upper South and East slopes of Little Hill were unlet, or empty. Even the secretive, middle aged Parisian couple, with their year round flow of friends and loud late night parties, had made one of their rare returns to the capital. Occupying the villa nearest to Little Paradise they stayed away from the subsequent media interest, returning only to clear possessions before placing the property on the market.
The only people in residence were an English couple, the Hancock’s, who were having an extended holiday to mark the husband’s retirement from a life of behind the scenes public service in a government department.
Mrs Hancock was a light sleeper. She had sat up startled, expecting her husband to immediately explain why.
`Something on one of the farms was a response which failed to satisfy Mrs Hancock’s insatiable curiosity.
Bill Hancock had spent many an hour contemplating the rest of his life while pretending to study the assortment of fruit and vegetable growers who filled the coast road plain below Little Hill. It was rare to see something different so concentration on the future would only be broken by the sudden escape of noise. Daytime sounds hung in the air, begging to be noticed, but at night they were unwelcome, disturbing his latest fantasy, built up from a close encounter with a topless nymph on an expedition to a blistering beach at the end of Summer.
No person therefore, was subsequently able to express certainty over the number of shots fired, or at the times they occurred.
This was to prove significant, although the Hancock’s were adamant that there had been a single ricocheting crack sometime after they had been first roused. Mrs Hancock’s widely televised interviews on this point were crucial to media acceptance of subsequent official reports.
With his seasoned understanding of the way the world worked, Bill considered the event funny peculiar, and his instinct was to say nothing in public and make a hasty return to their modest suburban home at Carshalton, in Surrey. However, Irene, Mrs Hancock, argued that after years selflessly accepting the anonymous life required by his work on civil emergency planning, she was entitled to a few seconds recognition on the media stage. She would then readjust to remaining a devoted, loyal wife and mother, furthering and protecting the welfare of her extended family, and enabling Bill to relax and enjoy her retirement gift of life membership to the Oval. The latter would get him out of the house between April and September, and challenge his ambition to move permanently to Southern France. All she had to do was to rekindle his boyhood support for Crystal Palace and she would be safe from his plan. She had been left to bring up the children and make a social life of her own, and now she had no intention of changing routines or relationships, because he wanted to reinvent their lives.
While British media exploited Mrs Hancock’s meagre knowledge, the French and the mainland Europeans, concentrated on Peter Medeme, or more precisely, Medeme`s dog, whose persistent barking continued until Peter went outside his Newlands home to discover what was upsetting the animal. Whether the owner resembling “Chubby Chops” has been affected by the smoke and flames retching above the Little Hill plateau, or something unrelated, never mattered, because immediately Peter looked up, he acted, and within seconds of his phone call, the village siren summoned households into feverish activity.
Apprehension mingled with excitement among the inhabitants of the old village as many had relatives and friends in areas likely to be affected by any woodland fire.
Squads of civilian volunteers made their way to assembly points outside the Town Hall, in the market square, and to the visitor’s car park adjacent to the floodlit boule pitches which were the envy of the Department. At these points they were asked to wait while official services investigated the blaze, and decided if, and how, they would be deployed. After a surprisingly brief period they were advised to return home as the fire only involved the buildings of Little Paradise, and not the woodland.
Thus the quick response of Peter Medeme and Chubby Chops made them instant celebrated heroes.
Meanwhile there had been fear rather than panic in the middle hill properties, and in Newlands valley.
It had been an exceptionally bad year for fires in the region as the scarred landscape along parts of the A.8 testified.
Precautionary preliminaries were commenced by those living closest to the woods before the siren sounded the end of the alert.
Uninformed agitation best describes the reaction of some of the commuters living on estates on the far side of the Three Hills village, along the new bypass road. They could see nothing, and no one took time to contact and explain the succession of fire, police, medical, media and other less conspicuous public vehicles suddenly coming and going along the highway in the middle of the night. Many were unaware that three intermittent blasts on the siren, repeated twice at night, signalled the potential risk of spreading fire in the neighbourhood and called for a general preparedness, and volunteer assembly.
Although, following what Bill recognised from his national service as a gunshot, he had persuaded Irene to return to bed, the sound of the siren provoked both to partially dress, go downstairs and for Irene to make tea while he went outside to investigate, having under her administration, first smothered all bare skin with anti mossi lotion.
Once on the veranda he could see and hear the blaze soaring over the brow of the hill. Although unaware of the specific meaning of the sirens he may have been the only person who made an immediate connection between the gunshots and the fire.
This was the third and final month of the Hancock’s once in a lifetime holiday. After the first two weeks on their own they had been joined in succession by their two married and one unmarried children, together with the three grand children, one belonging to Christine, the eldest, and David’s two, their younger son.
During the first of these family visits they had been persuaded to walk up the hill, along the main track road and discovered Newlands valley, and then the road down middle hill which enabled them to return to Little Hill or go on to the village centre. They had seen the offshoot tracks, but although each family group had re-discovered the valley, they had no knowledge of the Little Paradise villa.
Irene would gain years of vicarious enjoyment from the reported goings on within half a mile of an experience which apart from family visits she had considered a waste of time and money.
Coinciding with venturing outside, Bill had witnessed the passage of the village fire tenders, and then a number of other vehicles. He considered this odd because the quickest way from the village centre to the Newlands valley properties was up middle hill where the road was wide and made up all the way. Perhaps the gunshot and the fire were not connected, but in any event it was not time for speculation
His first reaction was to summon Irene to make an overnight pack while he gathered travel documents and currency, and prepared a flask of coffee.
Experience, based on countless behind the scenes reports of major civil incidents, had forced him to accept the unpalatable conclusion that in a real communal emergency, plans and guidance manuals were of little use. You needed the right people with the right training and both were rare.
The first unwritten rule of emergency planning, therefore, is “there will be chaos,” and which will become worse the greater the number of different agencies involved.
The second rule is, “look after you and yours.”
Just when they were ready to leave the siren sounded again and the passage of vehicles ceased. He then decided that Irene should remain ready while he went to take a look.
Bill liked to make notes. These could not be described as a diary. Before he went back to bed and tried to sleep, he wrote, “The flames quickly changed to smoke, the siren sounded again, an all clear? Roadway quiet again, for a time. I wanted to take a look.” Later he added “in the same way that everyone slows down on the motorway when there is an accident on the other side of the road.”
Irene was so surprised by his decision that she made no effort to restrain him.
His exploration did not get very far, for a manned police barrier blocked the track at the point it branched to Little Paradise. This surprised and made him very curious. After a work time of always having to be sure that his precise whereabouts were known, his first act on arriving at the villa had been to report his presence to the police. He had found a closed part time office. The event brought home the implications of retirement. No one cared anymore about him on a day to day basis. He included his wife and children in this thought.
His French was competent and the officers were not impressed by the explanation that he had a professional interest in emergencies. He was told to wait. Bill became anxious that the length of his absence would worry Irene.
He did learn that there were fatalities, and that he and his wife would be interviewed about what they heard, later that day.
`Their refusal to let me progress was not surprising, `he told Irene, attempting to soften her frustration at being left behind by appearing to recount everything he had said, and had been said to him.
`You know those tracks off into the woods; one of them leads to a large house. The fire has destroyed the buildings but did not spread to the woodland. `
`Was anyone hurt? `
He side stepped the anticipated question using the Whitehall honed technique which avoided having to lie.
`Someone is going to call round with the latest information. `
For thirty years Irene had tolerated his alleged official secrets act evasiveness, but was damned if she was going to put up with it in his retirement.
`There were people then, at the house. Any children? `
`No children, ` giving a partial answer.
`There is nothing for you to worry about. Let’s see if we can get some sleep before its time for me to go for the bread. `
He knew more than he was telling her. He always did, but she did not press further. That was not her way.
When he announced what they were to do, or made a judgement about a matter which she did not share, she never responded, but painstakingly chiselled away until she thwarted his intentions, or better still, got her own way. He knew this and schemed to get his way on something else.
His original plan for the holiday was to find somewhere beachside and cosmopolitan; a taste of sophisticated living and the daily opportunity to look at almost naked female bodies. She had selected this quiet rural setting and accommodation which enabled the family to visit. The concession was the swimming pool and occasional visits to a public beach. He would have time to adjust to the life she had planned for them.
When Bill woke he felt he had not slept.
After years of a sharp, unnatural, waking to catch the 7.29 and which left no time for day dreaming, he now enjoyed returning to bed after a pee, reflecting on the previous day and debating how to use the freedom now available. He had survived Whitehall by keeping careful notes, precise minutes of what he did and said, who was present, who was not, but which offended no one. Invariably when he was subsequently challenged over an issue, however minor, he was able to refresh his memory with the appearance of an accuracy which usually convinced.
In his new situation he could be more open with his opinions, but he maintained the previous approach. He knew that that when out of their home, Irene carefully inspected everything of his. He knew she resented that he had a private world. He understood and still cared for his wife. He remembered the young girl who had given herself completely to him, he remembered the childbirths, the illnesses, and the hours spent helping the children with their home work, attending school activities. He did not resent the life she had created for herself, and wished to maintain.
But he also had no intention of sacrificing whatever life he had left, for her, or for the children.
He wanted more.
There had to be.
Bill had been very good at his job, collating information, preparing reports in the form requested by the upper echelons that got younger as he aged.
If only the young could see the old as having been young, and if only the old could remember when they were.
He did not resent their rapid rise, sweeping in waves around and over him, insisting on the latest staff college, or MBA credo, as much as he did their free life style. Because of his specialist role he rubbed shoulders with service chiefs, those who ran so called voluntary organisations, the cynical men who kidded others they ran local government, and those responsible for the emergency services. He spent a lot of time at committees and in role plays observing the interaction of people and afterwards over lunchtime sandwich, or evening drink, he learnt something of the lives led outside the work role
He had seized the opportunity to retire early on a full pension although he was fully aware that his wife significantly differed in how they should use the time which became available to him.
He wanted a taste. He would settle for a taste of fruit forbidden. Regarded with suspicion by work colleagues as the man who never lost his head Bill was becoming desperate to do so.

The next morning had commenced with a clear, crisp sun, although tinges of smoke lingered.
Bill was not the only regular whose visit to the bakery was late.
The place was full to the door and those who completed purchases struggled to get away. Everyone was intent on buying and going home, but a sombre reserve replaced the usual banter.
News of the grim tragedy had rapidly spread. A man presumed to be Paul, the owner of Little Paradise, together with three young girls, had died in the fire. There was no mention of gunshots, but that the four had been found together in the remains of a bedroom.
Ever since his last visit to the beach Bill had found himself increasingly preoccupied with the sense that he had allowed life to pass him by.
Irene had insisted on sitting in shade to read a Catherine Cookson. He stretched out in the full sun, and after only a short period he had become hot enough to leave the mat and take a long swim.
When he returned he was stunned to find that a young topless creature and her male partner were inexplicably stretched out on their backs in unusual proximity, so that it would be impossible for him to stretch out his left hand without touching some part of her body.
He smiled to himself, and at her, as he lay down but there was no response.
He held breath as he watched from the corner of an eye, her breasts move with natural breathing.
He became the shy adolescent, afraid of girls.
He also became fixed in position and only relaxed when the couple ran into the sea. As casually as he could, he looked over to Irene, but if she had observed the development she showed no indication, concentrating on the book.
Thus he spent the rest of the afternoon. They returned. Sometimes she lay on her tum, sometimes on her back; sometimes she went for a dip alone. Bill became so hot that he decided he had to have another swim even if this meant they had departed by the time he returned.
At first he thought this fear had been realised, as when he got back there was only one mat and towel, by his own, belonging to the male. She must have gone but he wanted to be sure.
Irene came to say she was tired and wanted a drink. He lied and said he wanted so spend a little longer and did not want a drink,
`You go, ` he prayed, and she had.
He would not be long, he would come over and they would go back.
He was rewarded; it was the girl who had been for a dip.
Bill prayed again. Again he was answered.
She lay down on her back, wide eyed.
He could not resist looking at her, not directly, not confrontational, but he knew, she knew, he was looking at her.
Her breathing became stronger while he held his.
He wanted to say, something, anything. He failed.
He went to find Irene and drove to the villa in virtual silence.
The event disturbed him and continued to do so.
He speculated on what might have been.

The news was that a man, perhaps even older than himself, had been found in a bedroom with three young women, disturbed him more than their deaths. This reaction disturbed him even more.

He told Irene about the deaths, pretending he gained the news at the bakery, but he waited till they breakfasted before admitting that the police were coming for a statement about the gun shot. This provoked a morning of conversation, but Irene’s chatter failed to erase images of the girl on the beach, despite the reality that old men with young girls usually ended in disaster.
It was not until they were clearing away the remains of lunch, eaten on the outside table, that the officials arrived: a full car load, three men and a woman, none in uniform.
While Bill had demonstrated his ability to converse in French, the spokesperson, the female, explained that the written statements were to be taken in English and she introduced a bilingual colleague who would assist.
The woman intrigued Bill. For once he did not assess the nature of the flesh under the smart, body shaped cloth.
Who was she?
Why had she really come?
Questions he asked himself but failed to answer.
She had given her name and those of the others, and said what they did, handing her photocard for him to check, but she had effortlessly engaged him in conversation before her details had fixed in his memory. Subsequently he could only refer to her as `the woman,’ which made her even more interesting and mysterious.
He was surprised that after confirming their knowledge of the events of the night, they were required to provide the facts of the holiday visit, including who else had stayed with them, their home details and if any of them could have had contact with the occupants of the villa. The `woman’ also requested information about their lives in England and clarified his former work status especially that he was not permitted to disclose further without prior clearance.
Even before the woman returned with representatives of the English speaking press he had warned Irene to be cautious, but she was not for listening, especially as at the point of departure `the woman’ had revealed the contents of the official statement.
“The bodies of three young women, and a man in his late forties, were discovered in the remains of the master bedroom of the burnt out property….”
“Each bore fatal bullet wounds.”
“The preliminary evidence is that the man killed the women, set fire to buildings and turned the weapon on himself, in a premeditated act.”
`The woman’ had continued: “The identities of the four people are not being released until the relatives have been contacted, but three came from England and one Scotland.
When the woman`left Irene cried. She always did at news of tragedy, but this time he felt her pain. He was also ashamed of his previous response.
The proximity to real death made Irene feel sick.
She missed not being able to share the experience with her daughter and her sister. Bill wished he had not got them involved and wanted to end the holiday. However once the world’s media had assembled and created international interest in what Irene had to say, she relished the celebrity status.
For thirty six hours there had been nothing much for the media to do other than the interviews with Irene, photographing Chubby Chops and scouring the village for gossip, about which the village was initially reserved. The less said the sooner the circus left.
The media obeyed the order not to breach the three meter high, wire mesh fencing, which protected the ground of Little Paradise from chance walkers in the surrounding woods, and they made no attempt to use the helicopters or light planes from the nearby airfield. They obeyed because of a commitment of full access to the site and the promise of information which made heard it all before editors utter oaths of pleasure.
It was not in fact the allegations of a crime of passion or Paul’s antecedents which surprised the professional scandal vendors, but the unconventional behaviour of the authorities with their openness and candour about who the people were, what appeared to have happened, and what they had been up to. For the rest of the month both universal tabloids and the serious broadsheet feasted from official disclosure.
And that should have been, and would have been that, except for the doing up and selling of old village properties as prices rocketed with the municipal decision to change Three Hills from a quite village with a few holiday properties, into a major tourist stop along with St Tropes and the Mayle trail. Public fascination with the macabre and with the sordid, and with those who act out dark desires and fears guaranteed an endless stream of visiting voyeurs. Most of the villagers absorbed and exploited the instant media created legend without question.
Irene’s notoriety continued for a while after they returned to their Carshalton home with its Wallington address. Bill avoided the limelight but supported his wife’s obsessed interest by collating all the available public information. Long after everyone else had stopped discussing the event, Bill had questions, which he did not share with Irene. One of these was why it had been necessary for the French authorities to make direct contact with his children and take statements confirming that they had no contact with the Little Paradise and its occupants.
Seven years later Bill met me in chat room and in the way strangers can quickly talk freely about their past as well as present lives and our respective failure to believe the official story of the deaths at Little Paradise created a bond and renewed determination to uncover the truth.

2244 Sopranos Luck and Montalbano TV of the week

The fifth season of the Sopranos commenced a week after the concluding episode of the fourth in which Tony separates from his wife Carmela. It has been coming for sometime under pressure from Catholic priests to move away from living off the proceeds of crime and in the knowledge that her husband used the women he employed as well as prolonged flings with other women she had snapped when the simmering infatuation with Tony’s hard man factotum, Furio, disappeared back to Italy after deciding that he could not face the implications of making a move on the wife of his boss.

In Two Tonys, two years after the separation, Tony has come to realise realises that he needs the anchor of playing the family man and he also misses the sparring with Dr Melfi. Carmela has established a new life and formed a cinema club using the home cinema Tony created in beach house. There are mixed reactions to a viewing of Citizen Kane which starts with the warning about copying and illegal showing of films. Afterwards they talk about their relationships and Janice discloses that her new husband Bobby Bacala has not yet found her Rosebud. Tony then spoils the party by arranging to remove the projection and sound mechanism when he finds that she is beginning to cope without him.

It also a film, The Prince of Tides which re-ignites Tony’s interest in Dr Melfi. This is the film where the son of a dysfunctional family travels to New York to help his suicide tendency twin sister and establishes a relationship with her psychiatrist played by Barbara Streisand.

Tony sends a giant bouquet of flowers and calls at her office to invite to dinner. Dr Melfi is in a dilemma understanding that this may be Tony’s way of wanting her help again although also aware that his interest is potentially dangerous and tries to let him down without rejection but in the end is forced to do so and he storms out of the office swearing at her.

When son AJ discovers a bear has entered the grounds he is terrified. Carmela calls the authorities who explain their difficulty in taking action with the bear having attacked someone or caused significant damage. When Tony hears about the problem he arranges 24/7 security as and takes a shift as a means of regaining a foothold back in the family setting. Carmela has learned that Tony has been ringing around Italy to locate the whereabouts of Furio having learned about his wife’s infatuation from Meadow. He openly admits to putting out a contract if he can find where his former employee is located. AJ and Meadow do not play significant roles in the first episodes.

His sister Janice has married Widow Bobby Bacala and become the step mother of his two children and is expected to provide Sunday lunch for Tony his son and daughter as well as Uncle Junior and the other sister and her husband who live in New York. On one of these events the news announces that a number of local associates imprisoned in the 1980’s are to be released including a cousin of Tony also called Tony Blundetto who had grown up with him as a brother and then Michele Feech La Manna the former Capo of the defunct La Manna crew.

At his coming out party after 20 years inside Feech explains how he survived by picking on the man who looked toughest when he arrived and beating him up. While he has a bakery to run as his day job he announces that he wants to be back in the rackets and the first he chooses is to provide environmental services through a relative selecting an area which is not already controlled.

The symbolic victim is Sal Vitro who he advises is no longer required in an area where fortunately for him he cuts the lawn and is kind to the aunt of Pauli Walnuts. She intercedes when Sal is beaten up and has his arm broken by Feech. Fortunately Tony’s Cousin prevents more damage as they are both on parole. Pauli now intervenes and visits Feech at the bakery to say that he is not entitled to anything because he has been to prison. Feech points out that what is Pauli’s is Pauli’s but anything else is open. Pauli returns to site and hits relative of Feech on the head with a spade causing the other guy to fall from a height from a tree. He takes cash which they have in hand and the lawn mower until they meet all the hospital bills of Sal and also agree to pay him a percentage for taking over his territory. Pauli and Feech have a sit down with Tony and agree that the Sal and the nephew should have half the disputed area. Sal is effectively no longer free and is part of the mobster’s empire.

There is also Phil Leotardo a captain in the Lupertazzi Family, and Angelo Garepe who was the Consigliere for the family. Tony has a celebratory lunch with Garepe, his boss Carmine and New Jersey resident under boss Johnny Sachs when Carmine has a heart attack and later dies. Tony contacts his son Little Carmine who he visited last season in Miami which brokered the peace deal the and brought to a halt the Carmine execution which Johnny Sacks had encouraged and which Christopher arranged but then had to kill the assassins when the deal was made

At the Funeral there are heated words between Little Carmine and Johnny Sacks over his decision to place an Opus Dei rosary in the hands of his father as the son regards these as representing a fundamentalist cult which his father would have not been involved with.

In Where’s Johnny it is Phil Leotardo who attempts to move on two loan sharks who pay dues to Little Carmine in Florida. They pull a gun on Lorraine Calluzo and shoot her but placing a phone directory over her chest to absorb the bullet. Lorraine takes her concerns to Tony who tries to act as a peacemaker. Lorraine feels she is being pulled three ways as in addition to Leotardo and Little Carmine she believes Johnny Sachs wants her to fund him exclusively. Tony suggests that Johnny and Little Carmine be recognised as territory bosses together with Angelo and divide the business tribute accordingly. Angelo says he is in semi retirement and wants to enjoy his grandchildren. Tony tries to resolve the situation at a meet with Christopher at his side who he has told not to intervene but Christopher cannot keep quiet and afterwards Tony tells him off perhaps signalling a new rift between the two.

The rivalry between Christopher and Pauli heats up when Pauli not only makes Christopher pay for special dinners but makes a point of over ordering and giving away drinks to strangers with the consequence that Christopher finds himself with $1000 dollar bills The situation comes to a head when forced to cover another night out Christopher only gives $16 dollars to round up the bill to $1200 instead of the usual 10%-15%, The waiter comes out after Christopher to protest and calls them fucking arseholes. Christopher throws a brick and wounds the waiter and Pauli shoot him to shut his potential mouth up, They two men realise things have gone too far and split the tab as a means of burying the hatchet.

Christopher’s woman Adriana continues to report overheard talk or disclosures from Christopher to the FBI but she is not alone. One evening the contractor for the recent apartment development calls with a farewell present for Tony, a contemporary painting of the Rat Pack which is the title of episode 54. Unbeknown to Tony he has been “persuaded” by the FBI task force to wear a wire in his baseball cap and quiz Tony about his contact with corrupt officials pretending to be interested in another important job tender coming up which he would like to undertake in another deal with Tony.

Tony is alerted to the possibility that the contractor is another in the line of FBI spies when Patsi Parisi comments that their earlier meeting was under surveillance. Tony arranges a meeting with Prime Suspect Massarone giving him a frisk during a warm embrace unaware that the device is in the cap. He therefore is uncertain and his comments to his associates are ambiguous. The man is found in the trunk of his car although who killed him is not disclosed. Meanwhile Adriana is becoming more concerned about her position and nearly spills the beans to the wives at the next film society met when they are forced to talk because Tony has disabled the system. Mention is made of the husband of Angie Bonespiero who they believe is in witness protection.

Adriana has developed a relationship with FBI agent Sansevrino who explains what happened to her sister who was killed by a bullet from one of the hand guns made by her criminal boyfriend. Adriana is shocked to learn she could be asked to continue her present role for as long as ten years. She uses this relationship to rat on Tina Francesco, previously her best friend, after she had noted the woman makings eyes at Christopher and talking dirty innuendo. She reveals the woman has been fixing the books from her boss at the clothing store providing her with a second income.

Tony has been looking forward to the release of his namesake from prison for a crime which Tony was to have been directly involved, On release Tony (uncle Al) as he was known to identify him from Tony (Uncle Johnny), declares that he is not interested in getting directly involved in crime again and has been training to become a masseurs and that in the meantime he wants to take a regular job, which understandably bugs his cousin. Tony nevertheless gets him a job collecting laundry. The owner of laundry advises Tony that he is not satisfied with the work and proposes to dismiss his cousin and Tony agrees but is angry at being put in the situation.

In fact Tony is becoming angry with everyone, his wife, Dr Melfi, Christopher and the New York interests. He also become angry with Uncle Junior who at a Sunday gathering appears to ignore what Tony tells him. Tony goes off angry. However Junior is showing all the signs of paranoia dementia. He watches TV thinks he is on screen and is being mocked. He slips out one evening, in bathrobe and slippers, takes his car and goes to his old neighbourhood to the house where is brother lived. Finding him not there he visits a building where he once had slot machine to find it is a church with a youth group. He forgets where he has his car.

He sits on a bench and a homeless woman sit with him appearing to know who he was and offers him sex but Junior goes off in search of his car. He is picked up by police officers who disbelieved that he is Corridor Soprano but they get him to his house where Janice shows his driving licence. Janice and Bobby recognise that Junior is developing Alzheimer’s. They visit Tony who is staying at Livia’s old house now that Janice is married and living with Bobby. Tony says Junior is dead to him.

He reminds of her record of trying to help people in the past, her drug habit and life on the road. There is a brawl as Tony gets angrier and Janice goes off in distress with Tony telling Bobby to control his wife!

On the golf course the neurologist treating Junior explains what is happening may be due the mini strokes and that it is important Junior takes his medication. Tony visits Junior to make peace and Junior advises that Feech is angry that Tony ruled against him in relation to Sal Vitro. Tony is upset that Feech went to Junior but Junior reminds that he is officially head of the family. Tony wants to know why Junior is always saying bad things about him and they both sit quietly getting upset.

The week also saw the commencement of a new and well advertised series which appears to concentrate on the criminal aspect of horse racing titled Luck. The series also has a major Hollywood A lister in the main role Dustin Hoffman as Ace Chester Bernstein. Immediately after the pilot showing in the USA in December a second series was announced with ten episodes from 2013. In addition to the pilot another 8 programmes are included in series 1 of which the second was broadcast back to back here in the UK.

Hoffman is released from prison after serving three years of a sentence for some drug violation where he has taken the fall to protect his son who was resident in his New York apartment when found in possession although the quantity of drugs belonged to his former business partner Mike, played by another former A lister the British actor Michael Gabon. And who had secreted them their without permission. Mike is therefore indebted to Ace who it quickly becomes apparent is out to break him.

Ace also makes it plain he trusts no one which given the goings on in the Sopranos is a wise philosophy for any one involved with crime families. He has someone who has looked out for him while away and who now is to become his front man as well as personal driver, This is Gus played a familiar face Dennis Farina. His first job is to act as the owner of a horse called Pint of Plain which is being trained by the Latin Turo Escalante a respected straight trainer who nevertheless has kept the potential of the horse under wraps until his outing to mark the release of Ace. This is one of the horses which a group of trackside gambling bums have in their syndicate betting to win the six race accumulator in which the winnings from one race become the bet on the second and so on.

Meanwhile we learn that the main plan of Ace is to gain control of the race track at Santa Anita Park which has the space and the potential to gain a licence for a Casino, which is his main goal as a means of breaking those who betrayed him but where honour prevented him from getting out of the prison rap. The Santa Anita track in California is regarded as the most prestigious in the USA because of its beautiful mountain background setting and quality of the racing during the Winter and Spring

Ace owns a legitimate investment company and he holds a board meeting in which he commences his plan by ordering a purchase of shares in the track and takes an interest in a young pushy securities trader who he decides to spearhead his revenge. He meets up with his suspicious former business associate who Hoffman does his best to reassure he carries no grudge but seeks his help in gaining control of the racetrack with a view to the Casino development.

He also takes an interest in a young woman who is seeking financial support for former racehorses rather than have them immediately put down when they break a limb as we witness with one horse on the race day. Ace is genuinely interested in giving support but also interested in the young woman in what appears to be primarily a male fronted series.

The series also follows the fortunes of the trackside “bums” a disparate collection of characters. The brain of the group is Jerry who has devised the system of accumulative betting. The plan usually involves betting on three horses in each race with any winnings placed in the races successively and then betting on every hose in the last to guarantee the big pay out. They appear to make sufficient money to finance their other interests or have other means to fund their 24/7 involvement with the track, the local trainers and the inside knowledge wherever it comes available.

Jerry has picked up the info that Escalante has been hiding the potential of a horse called Mon Gateau and persuades the group to place all their accumulated money from the first four races on the fifth in which Mon Gateau is running. Escalante is angry when he hears about the winning bet because this indicates that the jockey has been talking.

After the win of $2.6million the group book into a suite of rooms with interconnecting doors so they can keep an eye on each other until claiming and distributing the prize money because of concerns. The track is wanting to publicise the win, its biggest of the kind to attract future business whereas the syndicate do not want media interest of to be identified less inquiries about their information are made and exiting enjoyable life style is changed. One of the group wheel chair bound has is life revolving at the track and his regular spot available for wheel chair users. However two of the group are behaving in such a way to threaten his approach.

Jerry has started to play cards for bigger pots and loses although in the second episode he comes good with a major win against the man he has previously lost to. Another of the syndicate the older Marcus is flattered to find he has become the sexual interest of two women insurance agents. then finds himself the potential victim of the women who have taken out insurance on his life and set about killing him after a sex session. He is rescued. He has a kindly heart and has a plan to buy Mon Gateau in what we call a Selling Plate (in the USA a claimers stake), where the winning horse is sold. In the USA version there are sealed bids with the best bid taking the horse unless the bids are equal in which instance there is a lottery. Marcus uses a contact to front his bid until the gains a trainers licence. He hopes the purchase of he horse will help to keep Jerry from losing all his winnings in Poker as well as upgrade the role of his friends from gamblers into owners as he proposes to give a piece of horse to each of them. Unfortunately another trainer has also spotted the potential of the horse places the same bid and wins in the lottery suggesting some kind of fix.

A third horse being followed is trained by another Hollywood A Lister Nick Nolte as an aging training from Kentucky who is quietly bringing on a horse sired by the famous Delphi which could have won the famous Derby. Nolte had trained the horse only to have his hopes and ambition dashed when the owner died and the family arranged the accidental death of the potential champion in order to claim the substantial insurance money. Gettin up is showing all the potential of a champion and his female training rider is pleased when she is allowed to let him go during the last quarter of the morning gallop.

Nolte agrees to an established jockey being given the ride under pressure of a Jockey’s agent who is wanting to get his client a good win because the man is on the slide from drugs and drink. Fortunately the jockey is sidelined for medical reasons but this leaves Nolte with the dilemma of using an apprentice who like the horse has not raced before or getting someone who does not know the horse. He decides on the young who is boxed in by more inexperienced jockeys but manages to break through going on the inside rail and wins the race.

Thus we lean that there is no such thing as Luck in the business and it is all a fix.

Balancing up crime from the perspective of the criminals was the third episode of Inspector Montalbano Shapes in Water, which in fact is the title of the first published book. I forgot to record until well into the programme so had to watch the first part on the BBC I player until reaching the recoded final section.

I can understand why the first book has becomes the third in the series because of the “softer” approach to criminal activity protecting the reputation of individuals.

A well known politician is found to have died in a heart attack while being serviced by a prostitute in a notorious beach spot frequented by the lowest level of whore, one of whom an illegal immigrant witnesses the arrival of the vehicle and disappearance of the female whore.

The story which Montalbano uncovers is complicated. Because of the man’s political position the establishment of presiding judge, local bishop and other interests want the death quietly buried in order to protect the widow and her son. There is something about the situation which rouses the Inspector’s natural instinct to get to the bottom of what happened.

A gold diamond encrusted necklace has been found by one of two “street cleaners” who had held on to the find wanting to pawn to gain the funds to take their sick son away for specialist treatment which could save his life and which was urgently required. Montalbano tracks down the man and his wife through blagging his way into the home of the other cleaner who discovered and reported finding the body. After hearing the story of the sick child the Inspector gives a receipt for the necklace on the basis that it was handed in on the day of its finding and makes sure the news of finding is out there.

This has the desired effect because a lawyer the political fixer of the dead man comes forward to claim the necklace with a cock a bull story about it came be lost.

Now that I come to write I have not grasped some of the essential elements and I am to busy to watch the programme again. He alleges that a wife had persuaded her husband to go down to the site to observe the life having worn the necklace at a social function earlier. The implication is that they had got out of their vehicle to have sex among the dunes and the necklace had not been noted as being lost until later. What with the death it was publicity the family did not want. (The bit I am not sure about is that the wife, a six foot woman from Sweden regarded as a free spirit was married to the man’s son),

Montalbano agrees to return the property on the understanding that the man who found the necklace said to be worth 70 million lire (only about £30000 before the euro) to pay the finder a reward of 10 million and he then advises the family to immediately make arrangements to take the child for treatment and leave as soon as the money is paid. This appears to have taken place without a hitch.

When Montalbano revisits the site he find a hand bag clearly belonging to the wife from Sweden, and the witness to the event describes the woman in the car as tall, not one of the regulars and having left he car made her way to the roadway. The witness also reveals that oddly the woman was immediately picked up by a car as if by prior arrangement. Montalbano turns a blind eye to her illegal status because of her help.

He then visits the widow to pay his respects and finds her a fine woman but no illusions about her husband except that she does not understand the circumstances of his death as he has a cottage by the sea which he used for his affairs. The photo in the car shows that he was wearing his underpants pants inside out something about which he was fastidious and would never do.

Montalbano visit the cottage and finds it is a large villa where they are women’s clothing and a hand gun in a side drawer.

Her gets to know the daughter of the man’s son and her story helps him understand what has happened. It is true that the daughter had been seduced by her father in law who had shown a violent streak and had bullied her into further sex. He had a tendency to tear off her clothes which is why she had clothing at the villa. However she had not been with him the night he died. She had lost the necklace but previously, and she had also lost a bag which had her initials

When the Inspector the widow he had noted the beautiful and distressed nephew who had a petit mal occurrence he was present. Eventually the Inspector is able to establish that the boy had become the lover of the politician and had been with him at the villa on the night of the heart attack. He had called on his uncle’s lawyer for help and the lawyer had seen the opportunity for advancing his own political fortunes within the Party by discrediting the family and in particular the husband of the woman he tried to frame. He had arranged for a contact who was a cross dresser to come out and drive the dead man from the villa via a river bed onto the beach and to the spot where the car was found. He had dumped the necklace and bag hoping that the combined publicity with ruin the political reputation of the family.

The Inspector had taken the Swedish wife to the villa to test out that a car could be driven from their off road to the site where the body was discovered. She is a fast driver of fast cars. She stumbles and hurts her ankle at one point and gets Montalbano to rubs some ointment. She takes off her skirt and comments he is a gentleman when he does not take this as an invitation. When he decides to close the case as requested covering up various aspects she offers herself but again as in the previously episode he is tied to mistress more than he appreciates.

The lawyer is found shot and the Inspector realises that the murder weapon is the one he found at the villa, and left there. The nephew is then found dead having gone off the road at a bend high on the cliff side. He therefore closes the case much to the delight the establishment but without disclosing or recording all that he knows. He has confided in his mistress who is surprised that he has behaved out of character. On reflection despite another messed up weekend with him she appreciates that he was being kind to various people rather than cow towing to the establishment.

2243 Patio and Garage work, 101 work and relocations, Food, The Eagle and Murphy's War and chest clinic appointment arranged

It is the last Friday of February 2012 and as usual the week has flown by although in fairness to myself I have kept more to targets than usual with the addition that I want to rework my previous attempt at writing a successful and satisfying novel, About ten years ago I reconsidered the work originally drafted in 1992/3, I reached over 100 pages in when I said no to myself this will not do, I am not convinced and stopped. I am yet to reach the same position because of sticking to the my programme for the week although as stated yesterday I am only midway through reading the Russia House because I wanted to reflect and write about a small section of some 50 pages over a period of several days while I also attended to other things.

The main personal event of the week was the arrival of the invitation to attend a respiratory clinic. As an indication of the way the Health service has modernised in South Tyneside I was given a choice of hospitals and dates and was able to select a suitable date and time online having been given an identification number and log on password. The appointment is in just over a month’s time after I have seen Madam Butterfly in 3 D and made my first visit trip of the year as well as seeing the new musical on the life of Susan Boyle, I had a dream, in Newcastle at the Theatre Royal and where she is scheduled to make a stage appearance. It is the closest she is getting to being on tour. After that the cricket season commences.

The cactus and sweet pepper seedlings have shot up in the heated germinator this week and have required transplanting into pots occupying the day room table until I hit on the bringing down presently unused display shelving arising from the checking and reorganisation of the boxes on the first and second floors and which also achieved several good sweats, so that by the end of the week I had removed all the extra pounds added.
Even with one three Shelf unit there are more seeds in growth than space although there is also the germination unit itself once all the seeds have taken. I managed to reorganise further and to use a second display unit. The tomato plants may or may not have commenced as the immediate appearance between the cactus and the Pepper plants is the same.

I intend to make use of the existing plants on the tables under cover in garage as well the space in the open patio area and also get rid of the inherited plant. I fancy growing some runner beans on the adjacent wall with a neighbour but the crop most interested in attempting three on four plants is the broad bean. There is also the possibility of sweet peas over the wall space.

I was impressed to find vegetable and tomato patio growing containers for only £1 in the local pound store although there were also larger sizes for £1.99. There is also inexpensive compost which I will need. At present there are piles of the stuff in at least two other stores in town in addition to B and Q,

It was not until Sat that I went to investigate Wilkinson and immediately regretted that I had not done so before. I am shortly to commence the reorganisation of the Patio and garage space as a consequence. It’s just before three in the afternoon and I have had an enjoyable and creative physical day, Wilkinson were selling four shelf mini green houses, self assembly with four shelves and the two seed trays per shelf with a plastic cover. I have invested in five of these for £50.

They are easy to assembly with a plastic tube frame and light metal net like shelves I have two in the day room for the seedlings instead of the white plastic three shelf units which are now the side wall of the garage although I will change the position of one located near the garage door because of the risk of catching a wing mirror on the way in and out.

The other two have been position against the wall of the neighbour close to the window, I have moved the table further out with the intention of putting third inside the garage on the other side of the table but on further reflection if there is space of three units to be place side by side in the open I will try this tomorrow further inside., The other two will go against the house in in the corner between my window and the day room and the other between the day room window and the door. The removal of the plastic covers at an appropriate time will provide five top shelves for tall plants.

I have purchased some broad bean seed pods which I hope will create now 12 plants putting three each in four of the larger containers on the table on the top shelving The remain containers will take the Tomatoes and Sweet Pepper plants. Another year I will stagger the plantings to also stagger the crops but this year is something of a trial and error experiment. I will try and stagger plant growth some out before others and some in the open air others in the garage space and so on. I impressed at the spend of germination and growth using the heated seed tray

There are two large depth plastic planters and two long low planters which total should provide for 8 plants. I also purchased a pack of bizzie Lizzies. I will have something like fifteen shelf areas for plants which do not grow more than a foot with something like six potted plants per shelf. Give than I will need flowers for the Ten hanging baskets I will consider some others. The climbers either beans or sweet peas idea has been abandoned because of the mini greenhouses development.

Tomorrow I will therefore reorganise the table again and also remove the aspidistra type plant which has filled one of the containers in terms of root ball but where the plant no longer thrives or is attractive to view. Thus the two inherited plants go with only the cactus left which I have nurtured from a few inches to close on two feet over the past seven years.

I have ran short of blue lever arch files and also went in search locally as well as seeing what Staples had to offer, Recently Staples have posted to made £5 discount code to use in store or on line but I delayed a purchase when the inexpensive in blue were out of stock. Yesterday, perhaps the day before, a 15% code discount arrived as well as my at the £10 cash back with my discount card. With the blue folders back in stock and with free next day delivery I purchased three packs of ten for a total of £40 inclusive of VAT. I needed therefore to stay in on Friday to receive the three boxes. Arrived late morning. Brilliant.

I have nearly completed the process of relocating all my non family communication records that have been processed to one six shelf double door cupboard at the top of the house. This has freed one display unit on the top floor for new Culture experience volumes. The majority are in the half landing between first and second floors.

I have also reorganised the two large plastic display units on the first floor landing and now included all the family history public files. This has freed one of the small display units in the first floor single bedroom which I am now using for Leveson Inquiry files which in turn has freed space on the one of the tall wall units in the same room. The confidential family history files are now in one to the built in mirror fronted cupboards in the first floor work room which also houses four of the four draw black filing cabinets and one open display unit.

I also went through the uncorked boxes in another cupboard in search of a hardback book which I know became separated from the rest of the library and am there somewhere. I had intended to go through other stacks but decided I need to divide those in the first double cupboard between contents that can be readily translated into project volumes and that which cannot. I also need to transfer some of the contents which will remain into better quality of boxes getting them from the loft space. I will make a start as part of my hourly physical activity sessions each day.

I intend to fit in this activity despite the restart of Module 2 of Leveson concerned with the relationship between the Police and the Media. My plan is to only watch and listen live to some of the relayed hearings and read the rest in transcript and evidence. I will continue to print out what becomes available although as with the first Module it is impossible to comment in comprehensive depth on everything which interests at the time. There was an interesting exchange at Prime Minister’s Question Time when a Conservative Member, I believe, asked him if he shared the observations of the Education Secretary, Mr Goad, that Leveson was having a Chilling Effect on the printed Media. The Prime Minister appeared ambiguous in his answer confirming that he had established the Inquiry with the full support of the Cabinet. He half joked that at times he felt it was good that the Inquiry was effective in this respect although he added that it was important that press Freedom was maintained. Without seeing a transcript of the Education Secretary’s statement it is difficult to know if he was declaring this as a positive development or not. My impression is that he was being critical, possible under pressure from the industry.

I have not been commenting on the dreadful situation in Syria where thousands are being bombed to dead and submission in a situation does different to that in Libya. Because there is no International unity with Russia and China not prepared to join in the recent calls for the Dictatorship to stop and because of the strength of the army and other factors which will prevent Europe and the other Arab nations from intervening direct through arms. A British female foreign correspondent was killed and a French female photographer badly injured, but the emphasis must remain on the slaughter of non combatants.

In domestic politics the Labour Opposition has placed itself firmly with the major representative bodies in the National Health Service condemning aspects of the current legislative proposals under consideration and with three Conservative Cabinet Ministers reported to have aligned themselves with the Lib Dems is saying that major changes are necessary. The government will stick firmly with their present Health Secretary will not mind if the trouble areas are change during the passage through the Commons. There has been similar strong reservation about aspect of the Welfare Bill legislation particularly over the proposed cap on the provision of benefits to any individual households.

I will write separately on the first three episodes of the Sopranos season 5 and the Gangster Movie State of Grace but I must first comment on the reported statement of Sean Penn the star of the film that Britain should negotiate the future of the Falkland Island with Argentina which has another belligerent politician at its helm and who has been fuelling opposition to the present position as well as enlisting support from the rest of South and middle America. As with Gibraltar the Government had insisted it will not commence negotiation on any transfer of authority unless it becomes the wish of the over whelming majority of the small population of the islands, presently recorded at just over 3000. The government has sent a modern naval ship on patrol and the eldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth is undertaking a tour of duty as a search and rescue helicopter pilot. A Government Minister is also reported on his way. This time the British intelligence and Foreign Offices appear to have been doing their job well while the Government has made it plain that the Argentineans can rant and rave as much as they want whether because of political necessity or genuine ambition but make no mistake any attempt to regain control of the islands by force will be met by the full might of Britain and with the full support of its people.

Talking of having the full support of its people Andrew Marr, who is on his way to becoming Sir Andrew Marr has spent 18 months trailing the Queen, Prince Philip, her children and grand children in preparation for a three part eulogy, each one hour in length to mark her sixty years since her accession and formal coronation in which she dedicated her life as all monarch’s do to the service of the people. The programmes looked at the recent history of the monarchy, how she came early into office and the impact of this on her and her husband with the most positive statement coming from the grand children including of Sara Phillips and Andrew’s daughters that as they are approaching a similar age and what impact it would have had on their lives to have been in her position. Similarly they were seeing their grand mother in a new light have previously regarded her as their grand mother.

The programmes did cover some of the black periods in her life with the unhappy first marriages of three of her children and the public and media reaction to the death of Princess Diana. This seems to have been more of shock than previously judged in that there appeared to be genuine concern about how the public would react to the national and regional events which commenced next month with highlights in June. I have no fears on that score as the 50 year celebrations and the wedding of her grandson exemplify. She will receive the support and the respect from the overwhelming number of the population including those like me who regard the continuation of a heredity head of state as an anachronism. I also suspect a grateful nation is about to re-instate a Royal Yacht as gift to mark the event. Given she is go along he Thames a splendid barge Cleopatra style accompanied by a 1000 vessels of all kinds, the climax of board a new yacht sounds good to me.

It was noticeable that careful editing brought to prominence grandson second in line and other popular figures such as Sara Phillips. I cannot remember if Prince Charles appeared in the first two programmes other than as child and young man at school and then in relation to Diana. Camilla was not mentioned once. In the final programme did not appear to make any assessment of the Queen and her reign except for the inclusion of a statement which was sub titled 2008. This may be an indication of the future. The Queen appears in continuing good health and there is no prospect of retirement. While she remains in office members of the Commonwealth like Australia will continue to accept her as head of state. Interestingly there is no news of Kate’s pregnancy which may be something they have waited until after they have conducted their touring on her behalf later this year.

I need to defrost the freezer so hopefully with the threat of a prolonged snow and ice Winter receding there is no need to keep will stocked and I have therefore run down by having the second of the whole chickens with the third planned this weekend. This provides three of seven meals in the week. I have bought in some plain white fish a piece of which I had on Friday with the last of the fish cakes and fresh vegetables from a Morrison pack where my only disappoint was the inclusion of one small onion. I have a fish in batter and a lamb steak for other meals with beans and tinned tomatoes. Breakfast have switched from mushrooms and tomatoes to porridge with cereal some days when with early rising I have felt the need. Teas have alternative between quiche, smoked mackerel and prawns with lettuce, pickled onions gherkins and olives. Must add a variation as a fourth meal although sometimes have small tins of sardines and have some salmon tins and white meat crab for a Sunday special.

The latest episode of Blue Bloods was acceptable although not memorable. There were two stories with the sub story a policeman accused of brutality however the VT had been doctored create a false impression as the original unedited was to reveal and an achievement for the chief who backed the officer after hearing his story and ordering appropriate inquiries.

The main story concerned the assistant DA daughter who had persuaded a trade union activist who had stopped work on a site because an employee had died through lack of appropriate safety measures and who is then gunned down when celebrating an anniversary with his wife. The wife who had known about the decision accused Erin for being responsible for the death of husband and she is devastated by the situation given that she had reassured him that he would be protected. What emerges is that she was having an affair with the manager/owner of the construction company and she had revealed that her husband was reporting to the police on lawful practices. He arranges for a punk to kill her husband for $10000 and in turn after the man is identified and tracked down he is leaned on for a life deal rather than the electric chair if he gives up the person who hired him and fortunately there is sufficient evidence for a conviction.

Now for three films. The first The Eagle offers another view of the Ninth, the Roman Legion which disappeared in Northern Britain in the second century AD, The general view is that it was probably defeated in Scotland and that the remnants took wives and became local.

In the film the Centurion son of the commanding officer of the Ninth has volunteered to take charge of a northern fort which has become complacent. He ensures that the defences are up dated and rouses the men quietly when he accurately predicts a night time attack. The combination of these two decisions is that although there are some casualties these are only a small compared to what could have happened.

A patrol has been captured and are being systematically put to death. The young man leads an assault to rescue the survivors and bring back the bodies killing the chief but being badly injured himself. He is acclaimed but retired with honour and is taken to recover with a relative at Silchester in Southern England.

There his uncle entertains some Roman friends including a young politician/diplomat who is scathing about the father and the loss of the Ninth and its Eagle. There are rumours that the Eagle, their symbol of Rome and their honour has been seen flaunted north of Hadrian’s Wall designed to protect Roman Britain from the northern tribes.

The uncle has given Marcus Flavius Aquila a young slave, someone who Marcus insisted should not be ritually slaughtered after refusing to fight in the arena and is badly knocked about. This is Esca the son of the Brigantes Chief whose father killed his mother to prevent her being made into a sex slave for the Roman troops before he himself was slain. Esca feels indebted to the particular Roman but this has not affected his general hatred of the way the Romans have behaved towards the indigenous people.

Marcus takes Esca North, through the Hadrian’s Wall gateway to the wasteland of Northumberland and Scotland where they are advised to go over the mountains to the Forests where a former Roman soldier lives. He now has a wife and family as others who survived and he explains that the Eagle was capture by the Seal People and race of warriors and hunters with the stamina to track down those trying to escape horseback.

Encountering these people Esca convincingly pretends that Marcus is his slave, to an extent that Marcus begins to believe he has turned on him. However at a drunken festival initiation ceremony for young men to be recognised as adult warriors the Eagle is paraded and in the middle of the night Esca arouses Marcus to go and take the Eagle and then take flight. They are helped by a young boy who allows then depart without raising the alarm.

After a great trek they reach the remnants of the Ninth who decide to stand and fight against the advancing horde of the Seal People. They witness the boy who helped them being executed and the majority of the remnant are killed in the battle but they win out and return to Silchester to present the visiting Romans the Eagle. Having retrieved the honour of the family Marcus is declared a hero and reinstated in the army while Esca is given his freedom and the two leave for further adventuring together. The film is based on a 1950’s novel. Given the proposition that Scottish Independence should be put to the vote before next General Election in Scotland the scenario of the border country comparatively few miles from where I live, could again become the land for the smuggling of goods and people.

Although the historical setting is some 1900 years later there are similarities between the Eagle and Murphy’s War, the 1971 Second World War Film with Peter O’ Toole as Murphy and Sian Phillips as a Quaker doctor in a film which could be said to have been a remake of the 1951 African Queen with Boggart and Katherine Hepburn. Murphy’s War is based on 1 novel by Gary Paulson. The African Queen was in turn based on a 1930’s novel about the Great War. The former a German war ship comes up a South American River to hide and repair while in Murphy’s War it is a submarine.

Murphy is rescued after his merchant ship was destroyed by the U Boat at the mouth of Orinoco in Venezuela and where the action takes place and was filmed. He reveals that the U Boat slaughtered fellow sailors in the water as they abandoned their sinking craft.

In addition to the good and virtuous doctor he befriends Louis who lives on a floating crane barge and whose job was to care take the premises of an Oil exploration company, a job for which he has not been paid for four years and survivors as do the villagers from fishing and crop growing. The medical station has a radio which the doctor uses to keep in touch and arrange supplies. She reports the arrival of O’Toole and his story that the submarine had gone up river which she declares is fanciful. Someone else arrives at the water’s edge in a critical condition. He is a young British flyer of a mono sea plane.

While Toole and Louis go in search of the plane, the Germans pick up the radio broadcast and head for the station where the blow up the transmitter and kill the flyer who the doctor pretended is the O’Toole of the merchant ship.

The middle portion of the film covers O Toole using the available machinery of Louis and the company to repair the plane and then test it although O’Toole has no experience as a pilot and his first flight is thwart with difficulties he successfully returns having identified what he believe is the camouflaged submarine but is in fact their up rive base The consequence is that when he destroys the base and a number of German sailors the submarine is intact and returns to the village to destroy the plane and half the village. They go in search of O’Toole who has successfully hidden himself away.

He persuades Louis to let him use the barge in what appears likely is a fruitless and fatal attack on the submarine although he improvises plan B which works.

When they set off the news on the vessel’s radio announces the German surrender. He smashes the radio to prevent the mission being aborted. The good doctor hears the news and seeing the barge on its way up river take to a canoe with two villagers in pursuit to tell the good news. At the submarine base the crew are celebrating going home and then they hear the noise of the approaching barge. The murderous war crimes captain appeals to O Toole that the war is over that alerting Louis to the development. Realising that he the barge is pressing g on to ram the submarine in headlong collision he dives escaping below by a matter of feet.

O’ Toole puts plan B into effect which is get the submarine to fire a torpedo which misses and lands on the beach without exploding. The submarine has hit a sandbank so O Toole takes the barge as close as possible to beach to use the crane to raise the unexploded torpedo. The peaceable Frenchman decides he no longer wants to be a party to what appears to be the slaughter of Germans who have become sitting ducks and goes off along the river bank back to the village.

O’Toole is successful in getting the torpedo over the submarine but following the explosion he is pinned under the crane and is lost along with the barge and submarine. There is a kind of justice reality whereas in the African Queen the two survive to be picked up by a British vessel and after destroying the German vessel. The crane barge was used to lift Tanks ashore and the plane was display in an Ohio Museum. The Submarine was Venezuelan. The three films have in common one man against the odds.

I have decided to leave the third film for a separate writing as I have also not recorded a viewing of American Beauty. It is Oscar Night and with Leveson on Monday I need to write at least one more piece today if not two.