Friday 4 September 2009

1793 Woe weather, I am Cuba and Troy Cricket Live and on TV and project work progress

It appears to have rained continuously for 24 hours and the from the look of the skies another 24 hours could follow. It is nasty weather and cold at night, not freezing cold meriting the heating system but uncomfortable. I remembered why I stopped getting a season ticket for the football. I imagine feeling obliged to go out in this. It is the disadvantage of the season ticket for any activity because it means you lose out overall if there are too many instance when you are unwell, something more important arises or the inclination for the activity is just not there.

There has also been little inclination to write during the period. The relationship with the weather condition has been a significant factor, but not the only one. There is also the feeling of the birthday party year having ended and autumn and winter are at hand. It is depressing and disheartening and it has been difficult to rouse myself to anything other than play games I can win against the computer and eat, Even the former has not been successful. Too many drawn games and one defeat at chess is appalling given the extent to which the outcome of every game can be controlled. There has been just as unsatisfactory a performance at the patience games but some enjoyment from the shootem game which involves eliminating triples of the same colour.

There was much slaughtering of soldiers from flights of arrows in Troy, which the critics did not like but I enjoyed again last night before sleep time.

I do not remember Greek legends and have never read the Iliad of Homer or Virgil’s Aeonid and other such works although I promised that I would some day.

Paris(Orlando Bloom) and his older Brother (Hector)go on a good will mission to Sparta where Menelaus rightly complains about accepting hospitality and then stealing one’s wife, Helen, she whose body launched a thousand ships. In this version of the legend she wants out from her parentally arranged husband as well as sexual love with a faithful younger man than her lecherous slave and dancing girl husband. Having run off with lecherous Paris who cannot fight and is a coward at heart, she becomes full of angst realising all the blood, widows and rapes she causes. Priam King of Troy(Peter O’Toole) is presented as a thoughtful and caring ruling and Hector is son as a reluctant warrior who would rather spend his days with his wife and newborn son. However both men were prepared to sacrifice the lives of their people rather than send her pacing, although Priam was right in as much that Menelaus was able to call on his brother Agamemnon who wanted to use the taking of Helen as the excuse to bring Troy into line with the rest of Greece in accepting him as their superlord protection on payment of sending their armies to fight as the superking wanted. Played by Shakespearean actor Brian Cox he promoted the traditional view that history is about the lives of kings rather than individual soldiers. Troy falls because of the beware the Greeks who bear the gifts Trojan horse ploy which the gullible Trojan King took into the city rather than burn. However this epic has a twist in that it features Brad Pitt as a homicidal maniac with a sense of honour about other homicidal maniacs but which does not extend to priests and their assistants, with the exception of the then Vestal Virgin Princess daughter of Priam. He is the ultimate super fighter seeking the glory of historical destiny. Sean Bean plays the wise friend of Achilles Odysseus the King of Ithaca. Achilles has his heel of course and is deaded by Paris who comes good in the end.

The bad weather arrived Wednesday afternoon despite the morning looking promising with large blue patches over the hill when I parked the car outside in the roadway before 8am in readiness to got to the Riverside ground for what I hoped was going to be a decisive day in the County Championship. I made a flask of coffee and prepared half a sweet melon together with the smoked mackerel to go with the salad already in a container in the refrigerator. Then I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken for the two breakfast sandwiches, sliced sausages, egg and bacon for £2.29 which I eat the car with the coffee. It was a good start to the day, and although I had made ready early I arrived at the ground only moments before play commenced.

Given the forecast I made my way to the new stand corner, higher than usual and within a couple of rows of shelter should the weather change. While Durham struggled to overtake the Somerset total of 174 and who produced some of their best bowling of season for accuracy and pace we were all given a batting master class by Shiv Chanderpaul, a man of small build but with brilliant timing and who through a combination of wrist and footwork is able to send the ball to any part of the ground and when he wants to do so with considerable force. He was not out when the innings closed for 117. Durham reached 272. a lead of 98, which I felt was not sufficient to bowl Somerset out again and then gain the necessary runs for victory, given the likely disruption in play over the next two and a half days. That this total was gained was also due to the contribution of Liam Plunket with 30 after Blackwell was out of a duck and Mustard for 2. Chanderpaul had looked invincible and with better partners I am confident the addition 50 to 100 runs necessary would have been achieved.

I returned to the car at the luncheon break for the melon but left the salad as I was still full from breakfast. The wind had been cold and for the first time since April I had worn both the coat and inner jacket and in the warmth went to sleep for half an hour returning to the ground in need of coffee just after 1.30. I could not get going again and continued to feel tired. In the lounge I spoke at some length with one person I knew and said hullo to another and prior to this been joined at the table by several people who knew each other and was included in their conversation. The reason for the influx was a sudden heavy shower but which did not hold up play for long but I stayed until the tea break.

For the second Somerset innings I sat on the first row of the Durham stand still tired from the unusual midday sleep. Somerset survived a good spell from both Harmison and Onions, the latter has been nominated with Captain Strauss on the ICC shortlist for cricketer of the year. Then the skies darkened and with another 90 minutes of play scheduled Somerset accepted the offer of bad light to retreat to their dressing room. I came home along with a third to a half of the spectators. It looked as if only five balls of an over was possible before the day was ended. There has been no play on Thursday and the prospects for Friday are also not good but the rain stopped on Tyneside around 1 pm on Friday so there could be some play if the ground has not become waterlogged. Early afternoon the game was called off as a draw. I have attempted to recalculate the options as Somerset cannot now win the championship even if Durham lose their remaining three matches and Somerset within theirs. The crucial match is now next week’s game between Durham and Nottingham where a draw should be sufficient for although the difference would be thirty points, even if Durham lost their remaining two games and Notts won theirs, Durham would have to get less than ten bonus games, for Notts to be in the running.

The was also not a ball bowled in the second 20 20 game between England and Australia as Manchester lived up to its reputation. On Thursday I enjoyed a day night Pro Forty competition between Essex and Hampshire. Hampshire looked to have a commanding position after their young batsman Vince narrowly missed a century, supported by Dawson not out with 69 and Essex appeared to struggle to keep up with the required run rate. England’s opener Cook then made 104 and young Chopra was not out at 101 saw Essex win with seven balls to spare. Then this evening England needed to score six of the last ball to win the first of the 50 over one day events against Australia. Both sides have recognised that it is the spin bowlers who can contain the number of runs if because of the condition of the pitch they are unlikely to get the batsmen out. There was a great effort by Luke Wright who made a mistake on no ball to be run out and by Rashid, who had bowled exceptionally well in his first proper International one day, supported by Sidebottom. But it proved to be too late. Bopara in particular anxious not to fail in the match as he had done in the Tests with the consequence of being dropped for the last match, failed to keep up with the required run rate. The crowd got their money’s worth as the excitement mounted over the last hour.

I am Cuba is a Russian film about the Cuban revolution. where Che Guevara is not mentioned. The film appeared designed for the uneducated peasantry but was accurate in terms of showing the main components for the corrupt Batista regime supported by the Mafia and USA capitalism. The problem is that each issue was underline with repetition, prolonged camera shots and prolonged musical emphasis. It was interesting,

On Thursday I went early to collect the printer from the Post office as there was an attempt to deliver by parcel post the previous day. It was not at the undelivered post centre but in the main counter where I had to produce evidence of who I was and sign both by name and. It was well packed as a box within a box and I had wisely parked across the road and brought a large carry bag. I had difficulties setting up and this morning decided to uninstall the previous edition and reinstall again from the supplied disk. It has worked well except when I forgot to plug back the USB lead after using the same connection for transferring photos from the memory stick to the desk top. I had a similar moment of self inflicted, oh not again, when I could not get the camera battery charger to work. I then realised that I had only used the second battery briefly and it was fully charged. There was no problem with the second battery which was almost empty and appeared to charge fully more quickly than previously.

The main panic of the day was when the TV screen went black on both the terrestrial and satellite channels. I put off contacting the repair insurance while I worked and listened to the radio commentary, When I had a mind to so I tried again and there was no problem so I was able to watch the England innings and then Rebus. I have worked reasonable well photographing all the completed Creative work files and registering the most recent followed by print out the list of completed works pages 76 to 82 of sets 5000-to 10000 having reached 8550 but still not half way. I will get back into stride once the cricket season ends although I will need a new supply of card where the standard price had reached a level which IO find difficult to justify.

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