1815 Visit to Newcastle for pyjamas, deja vu computer problems and games

Sunday was a day I would have preferred not to have experienced and yet I am delighted to have had another day to experience and that there are hopefully many more days to experience with self awareness, full uses of senses and with memory

Later than planned I set off to Newcastle by the Metro to purchase an additional pair of pyjamas having been unable to find anywhere selling the traditional item in South Shields as neither Marks and Spencer’s or British Home Stores has departments catering for the adult male and the enlarged George as the Asda supermarket did not stock the item.

To lessen the boredom of the journey I took with me Summers with Durham, an account of the experience of watching Durham County Cricket from its inception as a First Class County up to winning the Championship title for the first time in 2008 by Tom Wellock the Cricket writer who has seen more days play, home and away than individual and that includes players and club officials. One day I shall get out my own records and then compare his selection of memories with my own. But having said that I doubt whether there will be an quarrel over the days I have also experienced.

At Newcastle I alighted at Monument uncertain if the Haymarket was again open on Sundays after two years of closure for major changes above and below ground. I walked through a budget price store on the same level at the Metro station Piazza then took the escalator to the pavement level, unsuccessful in the pyjama search there although I did notice a good selection of the coffee making, of the kind where hot water is poured over the coffee into a glass container and then a filter is inserted to separate the coffee dregs from that poured into cups. For a couple of years I had used a single cup vessel but once starting with regular attendance at the cricket I had found my three to four cup size appropriate for filling the large vacuum picnic flask when I found the smaller steel version were not as effective as I had hoped. Then I had dropped and smashed the glass on the kitchen floor before relaying the laminated covering of the stone tiles, I searched in vain for a time for a replacement, Wilkinson’s in South Shields and Sunderland were blank but I found one in Jarrow or was it Gateshead? one but at Jarrow or perhaps Gateshead I did. Then over the past couple of days the cap separating the coffee from the metal lid slipped making it difficult to pour and then when I tried to clean the filtering element I could not reassemble. However on return I took time and while I do not think I have put it back together as it was before it works and the coffee should not touch the concave lid

In Newcastle I made my way along the pedestrian thoroughfare passing Fenwick’s’ to Marks and Spencer’s’ where there was a stand with summer and winter pyjamas ranging in price from £10 to £30 for those of thicker material. I made an excellent buy of extra large size with elasticated waist in a dark blue for a price reduced from £13 to a few pence under £10. I am wearing them now and they are superior to the pair I had been using to avoid the oily cream placed on my body before bedtime from staining the bedding. I also needed to buy some cards and these were also in the store and then it time for a salmon sandwich pack and a regular Americano Coffee with a side of cold milk. I was lucky to find a seat at a table as the seats at a counter to one side and been replaced by racks of magazines. I then went on a explore of the prepared processed meats counters and the salad. On a social occasion earlier in the year when celebrating the 70th birthday I had shared a giant platter of meats, olives and salad items which I thought was said to have come from M and S. Previously I searched two stores in London, one in Oxford Street had failed so I was not optimistic of success in Newcastle I was right. It occurs that I should check the internet shop edition later.

I then went to see if the Haymarket Metro station was finished and open. Open it was but finished it was not. nearing completion though. Before entering the station I crossed over the main road where Newcastle University is spending £200 million on developments to match those already undertaken by the University of Northumbria also located in the city and offering 30000 places compared to 20000 for the older institution. Passing by the large university book store it was evident that the new University public access and student reception offices are completed although the there is still work required to finish of the impressive new stone steps to the university central piazza with the ancient student union building on the left and the Playhouse Theatre opposite. The stairs are not in daily use but work is still required on the walkway suitable for those in wheelchairs, with push chairs or who find steps difficult. I was tempted to explore further but decided to make my way home returning around 2pm. It was just as well that the outing was successful because frustration and uncertainty what to do took over for the greater part of the day until late evening.

Earlier the good function desk top computer after the recent crash fright was again exhibiting tantrums despite the down loading of the Vista service pack 2 which had taken ages. Now not one but both the wireless and the cable mouses were behaving oddly and ineffectively. Unfortunately it was sometime before I remembered that the cable unit had been misbehaving badly and forgetting this could have had disastrously consequences.


A couple of days before the security programme notified that it had blocked two programmes which were causing instability, adding they would be permanently deleted until I rebooted. I should have been more alert, found out what this was all about and taken action but I was busily engaged in whatever and forget the warning when I turned the machine for bedtime. Think this was responsible fort he problems which had now arisen I thought I was restore the computer to a previous position and then found that this was this was to when the Vista update pack 2 was downloaded, I did attempted to restore but was told it was not successful, just as well. A little later I was advised that I needed to upload the latest version of a programme which provide support for videos and graphics, I think and this also coincided with a new Microsoft update,

However I am in advance of myself because fearing the worst again as pessimism replaces optimism, reality replaces idealism, with the passing of the decades I decided to use the lap with a keyboard attached- that worked, the loudspeakers, that worked as well and the wireless mouse, which did not, a big clue me thinks. However before I could get going there were 14 vista updates to download and process and a wedge of the latest security latest improvements. Having realised there was a problem with the wireless mouse I checked the boxes of old mouses to find one to fit the lap top connection came across USB linked which to surprise was working and so this led back to the desktop as mouse problems appear to be a contributory factor. And while the wireless did not function the USB connect mouse does. And there are two new symbols on the control panel; page, one for Blue Tooth devices and the other for Nvideo. The net result is a fully function desktop.

Now to DeJa vu in that this morning I set off for a full English breakfast and coffee plus voucher for £1.99 before visit my GP to report progress in the skin condition which eh confirmed although the remedy will be continued over the next two weeks. It is an omen methinks for potentially worse to come although I hope to avoid some of the horrors which others experience.
The highlight of Sunday after was the unexpected win of the Formula 1 Grand Prix by Jenson Button in Brazil. Who because of atrocious weather conditions had sorted towards the back of the grid with his team and rival on the front, Early on in the race there were accidents involving five cars which meant a rapid improvement in his position and this was sustained throughout the rest of the race. His Brazilian team was unable to sustain the lead and worse was to follow because as the race finished he had a type blow out which meant a pit stop and finishing seventh to Jenson fifth position and Lewis Hamilton, the champion last year on the podium third. There is one championship race to come in the oil rich state of Abu Dhabi and no one can gain the points to overtake Jenson which gave him the championship title. Given the failure of Lewis Hamilton’s car earlier in the season his rapid rise up the table was just as remarkable and omens well for rival between the two British based teams next season. In the evening I enjoyed the third episode of Emma which I shall report on when the series has concluded. Saturday’s X factor show suggested the group is not as strong as previous year but South Tyneside’s Joe Edderly pit in another cracking performance although he has several rivals, two in the camp of Simon Cowell, whereas Louis Walsh’s groups are awful with one rejected the first week and one cannot sing but entertain and are young good looking and popular so could survive for a few weeks more and he other a makeshift group of three better than average singers made up into a group and this shows.

Finally I come to games play where my attention has switched from the chess and patience games played against the computer to the shoot them balls of two Luxor games and Mah-jong tile pairing game also set in Egypt and involves a journey across the land collecting artefacts.

I continue to play chess but relaxed rather than the intense attempts to score 101 games at each level. At the moment I am concentrating on level 2 with a current stretch of 50 wins and 67 the maximum with some 800 games played whereas at level 1 the run was 114 games with 654 won out of 670. The maximum run at level 3 is 46 and level 4 50 with 282 and 312 games won respectively. In the first patience game, Free Cell where I once completed the first 10000 games in succession I have won 2018 of 2028 games played with an opening run of 850 and in Spider Spider to indicate a web structure the best run remains 242 with 1096 games from 1121.

And now to Luxor and Luxor rising which are games of multiple levels each at a different location and where there is opportunity to acquire points, lives and assistance to slow the movement of the balls in various colours, the number of which increases with levels, red green, blue level and purple to begin and then white and then black so far, In order to end a level and the sub games within each level making between 80 and 100 games to complete each game, one has to achieve chains of three balls of teh same colour in which instance one can gain a symbol 29of which leads to an additional life or one of additional aids. These have to be collected by falling into the mechanism which releases the coloured balls and where it is possible to switch colours by pressing the right mouse button sometimes. Chains of balls flow across the screen travelling pathways, through tunnels and other obstructions heading towards and exit which reached results in losing a life. With a little practice and attention to what is happening, coupled with the ability to concentrate as they approach the exit, and at the arrival for new chains provide the opportunity slow down the flow and blast away dangerous accumulations, so one eye has to be collecting the aids, it is possible to complete the series of games at the various level until reaching a game with specific levels where its construction is such that one loses multiple lives unless you are able work out how to overcome the obstacle by quick wittedness without making mistakes. The original Luxor game has proved the more difficult because only once have I managed to survive level 5.4 and went onto level 6.6. In terms of points I accumulated over 2 million points by level 5.4 but less when going further which is odd. My main achievement is with Luxor rising where I have been able to proceed to level 7,4 with great regularity acquiring 3 million points, but unlike the original game I have a way to move forward and presently have reached level 10 of the 14 and accumulated 7 million points but I suspect I will not progress further as the number of lives is reducing rapidly. The games are a good way to relax and for mastering a challenge from the comfort and security of home. It does not compare to the five year old child who with his older family members and their parents have completed all the 243 described walks of Wainwright, since the age of two. This appears hard to accept but apparently the family goes walking every weekend which the weather permits and there are photographs at the high spot of each walk to prove the achievement.

1814 Aspects of a week

I need to fill in the gaps between the long sessions reading and writing about the assassination of Kennedy, a subject which was least on my as I walked down to the health centre to see my GP about the aggravating skin condition and where I had tolerated the itchiness for several days, not taking the relief cream since it had become responsible for the extension of the rash to other parts of my body since starting at the back my neck within the hairline.

On my way home clutching a large bag contained a moisturising relief cream and two boxes of another intended to treat the complaint along with the Loratadine, I changed direction and headed for a voucher breakfast costing £1.99 and which covered two slices of bacon, two hash browns, an egg, a sausage, large mushroom slice and baked beans with a black coffee and a side of cold milk. As with the previous visit the meal was exceptional well cooked and arrived sooner than before so there only time to flip through the copy of the Daily Mail I had purchased while making the detour. It was mid morning by the time I return home and undertook further catch up work with set making, registration and photographing while working out the new regime of creams and the tablet, and changing clothes and bedding more frequently than before as a consequence.

It was that I came across Executive Action my interest in the Assassination of President Kennedy ignited.

I believe it was in the early 1980’s that I acquired a book written after the House Committee on Assassinations had published its final report and significant different from the Warren Commission and in so doing exposing it as cover up emanating at the highest levels. I had lent the book to a colleague at work and when he had died prematurely in his early sixties I decided not to ask the family for its return,

For many years I had believed that I was on a college trip to Sweden when the death of Kennedy was announced and only with the past five years did I work out that it could not have been, nor was it the speech Ich bin ein Berlinner which was made in June of that year, yet I retained the image of being out on a walking explore while staying at a Folk High School and we had been on a wooded hillside resting when the new of something dramatic reached us and we commiserated with a young American who was also staying at the High School at the time. Oh memory and its failure.

I have been again diverted from my writing, this time by a recording on Biography channel of a Mark Knofler concert (Dire Straits the former local band from Whitley Bay whose music I continue to play constantly followed by the Amy Whitehouse Performance at a French music Festival in 2007 when she was at the top of her form, looking great and singing her now well known numbers from the then recent album - Back to Back. She is rarely mentioned these days and only occasionally replayed. I also diverted myself to undertake the washing up reminding that there was more ironing to complete and the bed to remake as 4pm Thursday afternoon approached. It has remained a miserable weather day but the temperature good, approaching 60 degrees and the highest for October in this area and more generally although on the sixth over 60 degrees was reached in the midlands the mid west and on the coast south of London.

I commenced the ironing last night while watching the last English International in the World Cup preliminaries. It was not a great match but England won 3.0 and James Milner and David Beckham hit the woodwork on either side of the goal posts in the last seconds. England won 9 of its ten matches with the one loss on Saturday and of the 9 teams which immediately qualified from Europe after heading a group of 6, England came second to Spain who had a perfect 10 out 10 in their group which included Turkey, and ahead of Germany who although undefeated had 8 wins and 2 draws. Others already qualifying are Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia Switzerland and Slovakia. Russia, Portugal, France and Norway are among the eight teams who will hold a two leg playoff to join the 9 already through.

Sunderland had a great win against Liverpool on Saturday afternoon. I listened on the watched part of the replay on Sky before switching over to the BBC for match of the day. It was the second following Aston Villa who beat Chelsea. Sunderland’s goal should have been technically disallowed because a Liverpool supporter having thrown a beach ball balloon on to the pitch which the goal keeper and the Liverpool players did not remove, a Sunderland play had the opportunity to score and the ball cannoned off the beach ball into the net with the goal keep appearing undecided where to go for the ball or the balloon. He appealed and the referee consulted the lineman and the goal was allowed although technically the rules state that if the ball hits a foreign object within the field of play the referee should then have stopped the game and restarted with both sides being given the opportunity to gain possession. However what happened was justice in the circumstance and If I was Liverpool I would ensure that the offending spectator caught on camera was banned from football grounds for life. Liverpool were in poor spirits because they had lost their two keys players and others were rested having got of the place from the Argentine after celebrating and unexpected qualification in the World Cup. However this does not take away from a significantly improved Sunderland side under Steve Bruce who had bought well and organised the team with new belief and resolve and at present they look like competing for a top six place which means they are playing to the level of Manchester United who they nearly beat at Old Trafford, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City and Aston Villa who are also doing well so far. The crowd was said to have 50000 just below the ground maximum for the first time in several seasons and on the overall play Sunderland should have won by a 2 or 3 goal margin, a view which everyone including the Liverpool manager agreed.

I have watched two of the 20 20 cricket games being held in the Indian competition fort eh most successful clubs side from the international world of cricket, including Sussex and Somerset from the UK. I have been unable to find the full score tables s on the competition site as the BBC is not providing the information on Teletex or the BBC sport’s site on the Internet. The games are being shown live on Euro sport and from the results so far Somerset will not progress from stage of four mini leagues but Sussex still have an outside chance. And now for a different dimension

Having recently viewed the film Troy I was intrigued to find a film called The Last Glory of Troy which centres on the arrival Aeneas and the Trojans after their wondering when Troy was sacked through the clever trick of the Wooden horse when a thousand ships were said to have been launched to reclaim the fair Helen. The film claimed that by defeating the ambitious, ruthless and cunning Turnus, King of the Retuli, before he was able to marry against her will, Lavina the daughter of Latinus, King of the Latins, Aeneas was able to bring peace to the area, marry Lavinia himself and help form Rome and its Empire. This version of the mythological legend was created by Virgil 70 to 29 BC in his epic poem the Aeneid. Julius Caesar and his family had created the legend that he was direct descendent of the mythical Prince who escaped the fall Troy. Titus Livius, known as Livy was a contemporary of Virgil 59BC to 17 AD and was responsible for the great work on the founding of the City. The myth. including the marriage of Aeneas with Lavinia is not mentioned. The film is a stock costume drama of this period but my search produced an amazing Wikipedia site guide which systematically makes references to the great Wars before 1775 and any films which are known to have been based on those taking place in the period, including reference to the literature or historical works on which the films are based,

I could not resist the umpteenth showing of Quo Vadis of Friday evening. The uncontested star performance is that of Peter Ustinov as Nero with his singing, fears and obsessions and a cuddly giant of a man who wrestles a voracious bull to save life of a former Princess, Deborah Kerr who has become a Christian when in the household of a former Roman General who has been asked to look after this hostage of Rome. She is the awarded to Robert Taylor the returning victorious commander of a Roman Legion as his reward but she escapes before he can claim her. Inevitable they fall in love and eventually he is converted, and in fairness he plays the role well with the help of an excellent script. I have always liked the inclusion of the eight beatitudes before the Commandments and the Christians singing as they faced a horrific death by the lions always leaves me moved.

The contrast between this film and Captain Hamilton could not have been greater although the story was not without interest, I may have the title wrong as I cannot find further trace of a man for TV film. The story, with one stopped but the other falling into the hands of is well worn, a soviet missile going astray, in fact two, one stopped and the other falling into the hands of a middle east Terrorist group, involving renegade USA special forces and a NATO hero from Sweden and second heroics. All too familiar but for once the hero came from a Nato allay.

However the film was streets ahead of one of the worst films I recall seeing. The film shown have been Narrow Escape also known as A thousand Men and a Baby about a Korean baby “adopted” by a ship’s crew and then by the naval medical officer and his wife at Christmas. This is a true story and he captain of ship disobeyed orders on allowing the baby on board and bring it back to the USA rather than transferring to a civilian cargo vessel back to Korea. The reason why the rescue happened is that the Captain had a extraordinary career as a pilot during World War II, and then involved with the development and dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan and then with the development of aircraft from carriers and then put in charge of a carrier with 1000 men John T Hayward and the medical officer Hugh Keenan and his adopted son Daniel who attended subsequent reunions of the ships’ crews.

Now that was the film billed and with credits at the beginning and end, However it was not the film in the middle. This is the story as far as I could work out. I small time sexist comedian loses his stars in the eyes girl friend to a Las Vegas mafia con man believing he is a film maker who will get her a deal. His best friend is a mixed race lawyer DA with a respectable mother. In the second half of the film the mother tells her son that his father is in fact a well know Los Vegas mafia boss with whom she had a casual relationship. She fails to mention that she had been a whore and a druggie but her former pimp arrives called Whitee because of his white hair although a black and demands money or he will reveal her background to the son and in public to affect the son’s career., Mother appeals to the son and the son contacts his father, as a good friend of his mother without admitting the man is his father. Father arranged for Whitee to be a place X with a car load of drugs, so the DA can arrange for the police to pick him up. There is a shoot out and Whitee is killed solving teh problem without teh problem of a court case and publicity. Son thanks his natural father and that should have been the end of that.

Meanwhile the two but sexist comedian has been fired from his job at a Las Vedas hotel owned by Lucky, the daughter of a, guess who, the father of the DA. She is supposed to have a close but competitive relationship with the father. Against father’s wishes she had married a man the same age as her father and another mafia hood all the way from Scilly and who has a villa in the South France. They have a son and live the highlife outside the USA so she has little contact with her father who against her wishes has married someone who lives most of the time in Los Angeles and their marriage ends through prolonged separations. Lucky’s husband has a daughter by his first wife who is she same age as his bride. She is an irresponsible, mindless, drink and drug play girl who on whim has married once with the man having to be paid off and this time married the big comic entertainer at one of the hotels where the then sexist comic was sacked all those years before. She takes him off to meet daddy and step mom at the villa in France where step mum’s daddy has also come to see his daughter. The recently big time comic soon realises that his father in law does not acknowledge his existence and his wife is immediately regretting her decision. He goes for a swim and climbs on an out to sea float where sunbathing, is guess who, his mother in law although neither knows who each other is and have an oblique heart to heart talk about their respective situations and strike a chord, yes could this be the real thing. but is impossible when they discover their legal relationship and circumstances.

These are immediately to change as the comedian is freed by his bride who goes back to Las Vegas to her former lover and his dodgy associate one of who it out for Lucky, who has also returned to Las Vegas after catching her husband with someone else and has returned to manage her hotel. The comedian and she get together but there is to be one final twist,

At the beginning of the account of the film mention is made that the comedian’s girlfriend was taken away by a crook and she is now tied to a man who is possessive and violent and who has a hatred for Lucky, kidnapping her son and takes him on his private jet plane to New York. However the ex girl friend spills the beans to her former friend and now internationally recognised comedian, who contacts the DA and they arrange to meet the jet plane as it arrives in New York and the DA’s as well as advising the child’s mother of the position who also get on another jet look alike with her daddy. The child is rescued, the villain warns his former girlfriend he will be out to get her, and she wishes she had the taken the advice of the DA and her former boyfriend and asks is it too late for them. He says it is and goes off to play happy families with the daughter of his best friend’s natural father. Wow isn’t fiction great. All those beautiful and talented bodies living the high life, but wait a moment are they not most dangerous criminals whose wealth is based on exploitation, corruption and naked crime? I wonder how many people other than me witnessed the experience of watching the film that was not, without a title.

It is Sunday morning and very cold, just above freezing and computer is playing up although I know the problem and do not know how to fix it. The security system advised that it had blocked two operating programmes which were causing instability and these would only become removed or deleted when the computer was closed. I forgot this aspect and to day when I attempt to play a game or internet visual, listening to Steve Bruce on the BBC sports site the mouse wireless or cable freezes. Fortunately I disabled the multiple weather windows to be able to complete this writing. Where I can upload to MY Space and Google is the next challenge.

I will leave mention of the impressive discussion in Parliament about Government policy in Afghanistan and towards Pakistan and much gnashing of teeth by Members of the House of Commons about the way the expenses has been handled. There has also been more bad news from within the extended family.