Travels at Christmas 2010

To- day, Tuesday December 28th 2010, I am celebrating the best Christmas for more than decade and possibly one of the best ever. The main reason is that I did not spend it alone, involving a journey of some 180 miles, something of a challenge given the continuous atrocious weather conditions.

There was heavy snow falls in most parts of the United Kingdom with few, if any, areas escaping some snow and the extreme cold condition with temperatures below minus 20, colder that in parts of the artic and the Nordic countries. However it was significantly colder is Moscow according to someone who was working there recently.

Because of the severe weather warnings for the Christmas period I took the precaution of booking an early morning one way rail ticket for the Thursday before Christmas with an early morning of 8.30. At under £30 this meant if I was able to us my car, the first preference, then there would not be any great financial loss. Until this summer the idea of making a train at Newcastle by 8.30 was out of the question but after approaching 100 early morning swims the time posed no problem.

I am already looking back over a year when I managed my finances badly and have left myself in a restricted position for the next two to three years. I will begin the New Year cautiously.

The travel omens were not good first with mounting chaos at the UK’s premier airport, Heathrow, Greater London. In fairness to the travel companies it was reported they wanted to communicate to passengers not to travel until checking with them that their particular flight was going ahead but the management at the airport are then reported to have indicated the belief that they had learnt from the situation which developed in late November and would be able to cope.
In the event although one runway became quickly available there were few flights, if any, because most of the parked planes were locked into their station due to the failure to clear snow and ice below them. There was several days of chaos with some passengers sleeping rough within the airport terminal unable to return home because of traffic chaos and unable or unwilling to obtain temporary accommodation unless arranged by their travel agents/flight companies. There was mounting pressure which led to the Government offering to provide troops and the Chief Executive announcing he would not accept the entitled performance bonus this year. That other airports found themselves in similar situation here in the UK, in Europe and over the past 24 hours, in North America, was of little consolation to those coming home for Christmas, visiting relatives around the world or just getting away for the holiday period.

There was also chaos on parts of the rail network, with those using the fast trains to Europe hardest hit and for a time, significantly, on the East Coast Line with various problems which prevented most travel for 24 hours. This posed a challenged for me given the variable road conditions where suddenly you could become engulfed in blizzards, ice and freezing fog. However there appeared to be a respite on Wednesday morning so a week ago I hastily got myself prepared with a view to setting off as soon as it was light the following morning, preparing to take a wrap around, soup and coffee as well as food in case of some major delay.

In the morning I checked the road conditions and according to local news the way out through Durham County along the AIM was good and there was no reports for Yorkshire. However the weather report mentioned that heavy snow, falling over the south and west had reached the midlands, my destination, so reconsidered starting off and staying at the Days Inn Wetherby, or the Travel Lodge Sheffield Donnington. No sooner did this plan unfold the clouds covered the previously blue sky and first flurries commenced of what quickly became a blizzard and that was that for the day.

In the evening British Rail sent an email to say that although the line from Newcastle to London was now clear, it was not from Doncaster to Newark, my train destination, and from where I was to be collected by car for the rest of the journey. The email advised that I would be able to use my ticket for a direct train but within a short time of the original departure. The options was a train just before 8 and then one about 9. I arranged everything for an early start leaving the decision to order a car until the morning.

As it was dry and I was well organised I set off just before 6.45am down the hill, missing a Metro train as I reached the end of the platform but another came within 15mins and I was in Newcastle at the main line station by 7 40. A train to London about that time was cancelled so those passengers awaiting were advised to get the next scheduled for 7.52 the one I was to take. This in turn was delayed because of a local train and did not arrive until 8.15 by which time those travelling on the 8.32, my original train, were also arriving. Despite the arrival of three sets of passengers I was able to find a seat among those in the buffet car which also meant I was able to quickly get a hot coffee.

Sitting opposite was someone who driving from his home at Wark the vehicle left the road and went into a hedge at some 20 miles an hour damaging both rear light indicators and the rear bumper. The car was drivable to Hexham station where the train was caught to Newcastle onward to his central office at York although as area manager his patch stretched from Dundee to Hull. He was relaxed notifying the right people of the accident, arranging for a replacement vehicle and having contact with his family. We swapped bad weather stories and he admitted that when it happened he had wondered how it would end.

There are two aspects of the holiday which I will mention. I attended a nativity service in a Church of England which is clearly endeavouring to attract families with children of all ages. The pews have been removed and replaced by comfortable cushion chairs. There were two large screens on which the words of the hymns were relayed and instructions given to parents to usher their children to where the play was being enacted. There was also a full audio system for the small choir and musicians and hand mikes for the vicar and a woman who orchestrated the play with ongoing responsibilities for the children/family aspect of the church. The church was more American in style than evangelical revivalist and I was torn between feelings of admiration and uncomfortableness reflecting the usual struggle between heart and reason.

The second note is praise for those in the planning authorities which allowed the village to grow to the extent it has become an ideal countryside community with more than adequate local facilities such as a primary school, round the clock mini supermarket and a community which encourages the best aspects of village life without claustrophobia. The village grew primarily with a development of the chalet bungalow and two storey dwellings of the lodge type mixture of brick and wood with upper floor windows inserted into the elongated roofing. While each property has off road garaging to the front there are pleasant walkways between the rear gardens which lead to the various older public pathways which dissect the village or circumnavigate its eastern boundaries with the surrounding farmland. While these properties on this side of the village are all of a similar construction the remaining new development comprise individually styled executive housing.

I left open the day of return to take account of the weather but is looked good for the Monday, after the Boxing Day and I selected a train departure around mid morning anticipating that I might have to make the two hour journey without a seat. It looked this would be the situation as more and more people came to platform coffee and snack stop which also led into the waiting room. Shortly before the train arrived I had an important decision to make. I could make my way to the far end of the platform where the first class compartments would stop in the knowledge that for the payment of £20 I would find a seat, or take a gamble and position myself just under cover from where I was located and hope that by going into the open area just before the train arrived I would be able to place myself by an entrance door into a compartment and find a newly vacated seat. This happened although I was not alone with the same idea but seized the first vacant seat by the luggage area, leaving mine by a doorway. The seat was booked between London and Edinburgh and I assumed that it was vacant, sitting down without asking the adjacent young man if someone was away at the buffet car or toilet.

My confidence was rewarded. Others were not so lucky and were left standing although majority of those getting on at subsequent stops were also seat successful. I and the others nearby were entertained by a large colourfully dressed woman, perhaps in her early thirties, who at one point explained that she was a watch fanatic who could not bear to be without the knowledge of the precise time. The dial and wrist strap matched the colour of her top, skirt or dress and she explained that while she has seen one of a similar style for £160 she had purchase this one for under £30. Some eight of them in different colours! She loved to spend money on clothes and jewellery and he accompanying husband gave her a weekly allowance to do so.
She was on her way to a family wedding and met up with a first cousin, a slim and very attractive young women a dozen years younger together with the brother of the girl and her boyfriend. During the journey I learnt much about their present and past lives.

The Metro journey home was comparatively quite until at Hebburn a man entered with a whippet like dog who was instantly attracted or threatened by another creature already sitting nearby at least quadruple its size. The arriving animal began to let out some blood curdling cries which were responded by the other animal until its owners ensured it quietened. This contrasted with the other master who made little effort and which confirmed my impression that potentially vicious dogs are owned by vicious or potentially vicious people. Although the pavements were covered with slushy or compacted snow the roadways were clear and therefore as it was not raining I was able to trek my way home without the additional expense of hiring a car. I was pleased to find everything in order at home, including the one card I had had expected but had not arrived before departure.

Although I could have stayed up to watch the start of the fourth Ashes Test in Australia I missed the opportunity forgetting that a start on Boxing Day meant midnight on Christmas Day. I say could of in the sense of there was opportunity to do so, but I was long asleep by the start of play although I did wake around 2 am and could have gone down to witness the final collapse of the Australian first innings at 98 runs. The wicket was lively as prepared and England was fortunate to win the toss and admittedly it had quieted down by early afternoon when the away side commenced to bat. However by the close of pay England had amassed over 150 runs without loss. The issues was whether they could survive another lively wicket at the start of play the following day

The following morning of the match there had been some reverse swing which resulted in the loss of the openers Cook for 82 and Strauss for 69. But Trott commenced another fine innings and batted the rest of the day and following morning to end undefeated with 168 runs. Prior gave him excellent support with 85 and so did Peterson with 51 although he was the innocent cause of an incident which has probably ended the Test match career of Ricky Ponting the Australian captain. He has been one of Australia’s best batsman and has captained the team to its position as consistently the best in the world of cricket. It is his failure to make any runs this season which has contributed to the dramatic decline although this takes nothing from the fact that all the batsmen with perhaps the exception of Collinwood have performed brilliantly, and Collingwood has been brilliant in the field and bowled well when required.

Now for the incident in which the Australians claimed that Petersen had snicked a ball which passed closely to one side of his bat. The replay suggested he had not touched the bat. The Australian appealed against the not out decision and the celebrated when they saw a white spot on the bat which before close examination suggested that the bat had made contact with the ball. However closer examination indicated that this white spot was on the opposite side to where the ball has passed. It was conclusive evidence that the original decision was correct and should stand.

It is understandable that in such circumstances without the benefit of close examination of the technological evidence he would question the umpire. However he lost his cool and commenced a prolonged disagreement with the umpire, then with Petersen and then with the other umpire, unheard of in cricket, especially at this level and meriting a yellow or red card. In the event he has been fined 40% of his match earnings after some apology although it was not as fulsome as the circumstances required. His reputation has been badly damaged although he could have commenced rehabilitation had he batted well after England ended the third morning all out for 513, a lead of over 400 runs. Australia commenced well as anticipated on a flat wicket in hot sunshine, scoring at 5 runs an over for the first 10. Then at 53 one opener ran out the other, but still there was a determined look about the Australian batting and then the flood gate opened with the second wicket for 99, third at 102 and fourth at 104 with two more falling before the close of play. As midnight approached here in the UK the 7th wicket fell before something of a rally involving Haddin and Siddle but when the 8th fell at 258 the end was close, in fact no further run was scored and when the 9th went it was all over because the injury to Harris meant he was unable to bat and the celebration could begin.

To retain the Ashes in Australia and to do so emphatically has resulted in national jubilation and humiliation in Aussi land where local supporters did not take up their seats leaving the area to travelling Brits and those in Australia who still identify with their original homeland. However the series is not won until the final game next week where a draw will be sufficient to achieve this. It is time to catch up on recent films experienced before the New Year.

1937 Durham City and University Life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1935 b William Armstrong's creation

As forecast Wednesday, which will now be known as the Cumbria shooting’s day, started brightly and I set off for Cragside the wonderful estate in north west Northumberland not far from the Cumbrian border. The route took me through the Tyne Tunnel where considerable progress is being made with the creation of the large new area for making payments on the north south route which is use the new tunnel whose entrance can now be seen, and where recently the tunnelling operations from either end met after breaking through to each other.

The first part of the journey is along the two lane each way A19 which then joins the A1 which forms the AIM south of the river after passing through Newcastle. Just after passing the junction with leading to Alnwick, the road is taken north westwards towards Rothbury where there are two route to the estate. One is direct but the other is more attractive with views towards the Simonside hills, part of the Cheviots alongside the river Coquet which continues for 40 miles until reaching the coast at Ambleside. Along here is also Brinkburn Priory, a National Trust Property in a beautiful setting overlooking the river.
This route take one round part of the estate with its thirty miles of car drives and separate thirty miles of pathways. The entrance leads quickly to one of two car parks within a short walking distance of the main house and the separate areas of former stables and estate workers converted into restaurant, shop and visitor‘s centre.

There was a brief visit to Restaurant for a coffee in the former stables overlooking the Tumbleton lake before commencing pre lunch walk, Behind the restaurant and car park the rock is steep and high above which the trees then tower. It is a spectacular position. The selected pathway takes on below the main house which itself stands over one of the largest rock gardens anywhere and which falls sharply down to the burn, then taking the autumn colour walk up to the Clock Tower and the formal gardens, involving a steep climb. Only half a mile from the House the walk takes a good twenty minutes of steady climbing meriting close attention to where you place your feet. The spring bulb season over the gardens are just being to put on their summer finery and another month will see them at their best.

There are splendid views across grassland towards the Simonside hills at this point as well as a giant owl carved out of a large broken tree. From here close to a car park and the wildlife Hide, I went down to the valley garden, the route to the original Pump House where the first hydroelectric plant anywhere in the world was created to bring electricity to the main house, the first home to have electric light in the world.

This is the appropriate point to record how Cragside came to be created. William Armstrong, later created Baron Armstrong, was born in Newcastle. His father was a corm merchant who became a Mayor of Newcastle. Thus with a middle class background he was educated at private schools and followed the career chosen by his father for him that of the law, and he became a local solicitor after qualification in London, and practiced for more than a decade before deciding on a dramatic change of career. In fact it was not a sudden change because William had become greatly interested in engineering and it was while visiting the engineering works of William Rams haw that he met his subsequent wife Margaret Ramshaw, six years his senior. They lived in Jesmond Dene, an attractive gorge part of Newcastle to the western boundary.

As a child he had suffered from chest coughs and this led to his parents taking him the Northumberland Countryside and in particular to Rothbury where he fell in love with the rocky crags and hills surrounding the village. This might have remained his association with the area had not he worked out the first of many ideas which was to change aspects of the nation’s future and create a fortune for his himself and his childless wife.

It was on an angling trip to the River Dee at Dentdale in the Pennines that he was struck was struck by a waterwheel used to supply power to a marble quarry and he realised that that the opportunity to hardness water in this way was being missed so on return he designed a rotary engine and then a piston engine for this purpose and his work was recognised becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society just before the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1850. Before then he had designed hydraulic cranes for use on Newcastle Quayside to unload ships. He established a company and a factory to build more cranes starting with 300 men in 1850 and increasing to 3800 by 1863 producing over 100 cranes a year. He then added bridge building with that at Inverness one of the original orders.

His next interest as to create a more effective field gun for the army because of their experience in the Crimea War. This then led to creating naval guns and to designing the Swing bridge which is still in operation in Newcastle to provide access further up the river. By the 1880 he had moved into warship construction at his works at Elswick where the community increased from three and half thousand to twenty seven thousand because of the work provided.

Thus with his wealth and position he decided to purchase a estate of seven square kilometres near Rothbury, starting with a small house on the site of the present one overlooking a tributary to the Coquet. It will be evident that Armstrong did not do things on a small scale and began clearing and reshaping of his estate, planting seven million trees, creating five artificial lakes and the carriage way and pathways around the estate. Deciding to make the estate his main home he arranged for the house to be enlarged from 1969 taking 15 years to complete and became a place in which he could entertain the highest from many lands including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Prime Minister of China, the Shah of Persia and the King of Siam. He died on 1900 aged 90 years leaving in his will a sum of over £10 million in today’s money for the creation of the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, a sum of over £1million in today’s money for the creation of the Hancock Natural History Museum and donating the Jesmond Dene wooded gorge to the people of Newcastle as well as the Armstrong Bridge and Park.

And now protected and nurtured by the National Trust there is Cragside for everyone to enjoy, at a price with £48 being the sum for entry to all National Trust properties for a year or £9 for single adult entry to grounds.

Returning to my visit I pressed the button in the Pump House to commenced a one revolution cycle of the original motor bringing electricity to the house. From there a picnic lunch was collected from the car before finding a pot overlooking Tumbleton Lake where the view and meal was enjoyed in hot sunshine. After that and a relax there was a drive around the outer edge the estate to admire the glorious azaleas in their golden yellow and rhododendrons in the varied colours for mauve through to deep crimson in their hundred if not thousands of plantings from small infant shrubs to ancient huge tree like growths clinging to crag side or surrounding the roadways and paths.

This road way goes through the house and on to the north east edge of the estate where I took a detour to the Cragend car park which I cannot remember previously venturing and which is a extraordinary place which looks as if the rocks have been sliced in blocks for use in the buildings but where now tall trees have progressed from what appears to be bare rocks with visible roots spreading to reach anchoring earth. The road turns south at Blackburn Waterfall where there is also parking, then passing the Thatched Boathouse which once led to Blackburn Lake, no longer to the main area for families overlooking the adjacent lakes of Nellies Moss North and South. Here there is a large adventure area and various trails for children and adults, a refreshment kiosk doing a continuous trade in ice creams and cold, and toilets. I was able to find a picnic table overlooking the lake to enjoy a chocolate ice before continuing the car journey past the Labyrinth, the Timber fume and several more care parking areas, passing an exit, and then back along one side of Tumbleton where at the restaurant two scones, a pot of jam and a carton of cream plus tea cost £4.50

It was time for the journey home with a traffic build up approaching the Tyne Tunnel, with four lanes becoming two and then one through thee tunnel and for once the other motorists behaving sensibly. I looked forward to have evening meal of tomato soup, salad and strawberries and cream and then discovered the new of the killings and that the international media was descending on the Cumbrian coastal town of Whitehaven. I switched over to Britain’s Got talent and an evening 20 20 cricket match as the horror and the pain was too great to bear, and if so for me what for loved ones, other relatives, friends and acquaintances.

1920 A- Three nights at the Leeds Bradford Airport

On Thursday morning while sitting in the car park of an entertainment centre in Leeds, I listened to BBC Radio play back what Gordon had to say having been asked to answer questions from a passing voter. She is reported to have expressed the usual concerns about the level of immigration and potential cuts and with his wireless microphone still on for the interview as he sat in the official Party car with his advisers, he complained about the interview and called the life long labour voter, a bigot.

Not having heard the interview I cannot say if the retired local government worked is a bigot or not. It would not have surprised if she had been as there are plenty of politically illiterates, educational morons and racist and other forms of bigots in the UK, as in all countries, but if you hope attain and retain power in a democracy you do say so in public and you will be wise to keep your own counsel in private. The big question is will such a gaff make a difference when it comes to voting? For Gordon to remain Prime Minister he has not only to retain the share of the vote but gain a point or two into polls while the Liberal democrats, continue to hold their position or marginally improve.

The political machine surrounding Gordon immediately realised this was likely to be a defining election losing moment so he was quick to apologise to the woman and to party loyalists as well as to the public at large. We had seen the real face of Gordon who has lived in the Ministerial and Prime Minister’s world for over a decade and who prefers the discipline and routine of office to living as the rest of us. The event will overshadow the third and final Leader’s debate and could foresee a haemorrhaging to the Labour vote especially in a situation when the Liberal Democrats could win the seat.

As it happens I was unable to see the first of two films planned for the afternoon having first mistaken the times and then my gift voucher was refused because the system could not cope with my paying the difference between the voucher and that for a 3 D film. I therefore went for a short car ride and returned to watch the Roman Polanski film about Prime Ministers and politics, called The Ghost Writer.

Over three decades ago Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to a sex charge involving a minor in a plea bargain to protect his anonymity although originally protesting his innocence. When the ploy did not work and he was given a custodial sentence he fled to France and became a citizen as the country did not recognise extradition to the USA. The Polish Director has an impressive record commencing with Knife in the Water, and Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Ninth Gate, The Pianist and Oliver Twist. Polanski was also the husband of Sharon Tate who was murdered by Charles Manson and his so called family.
Recently, presumably believing he was safe, the 77 year old travelled to Switzerland to receive an International award and was promptly served with an extradition arrest warrant and placed under House arrest from where he completed the editing on this film. Could this have been something to do with the subject of the film which follows the main theme of the 2007 novel by Robert Harris, which states that the CIA were involved in a plot to assassinate not one but two Ghost Writers who and uncover the truth about the political rise to power of none other than British Prime Minister Tony Blair, why he committed Britain to involvement in invading Iraq and regime change and became charged with War crimes for his involvement in the kidnapping (rendition) of terrorist suspects and their torture in friendly countries as well as at Guantanamo Bay.

The recently retired British Labour Prime Minister is played by Pierce Brosnan who has been writing his political memoirs at the beach house of his multi millionaire publisher on Martha’s Vineyard off Cape Cod. The setting is appropriate because it is the established haunt of celebrities, politicians and academics who like to holiday somewhere beautiful and secluded with a small resident population who are protective of the their own and visitor’s privacy. Nearby is Chappaquiddick Island infamous for the death of an assistant to the late Edward Kennedy.

Ewan McGregor as a successful international fiction writer is hired by the publisher on the recommendation of a senior executive friend to ghost write the completed memoirs following the alleged accidental drowning of the previous writer who had been a long term friend and associate of the British Prime Minister and his wife.

Within three days of arriving on the island McGregor finds himself involved in some form of international conspiracy and murder involving the CIA and where the truth of the story is signalled well in advance for those with the kind of mind who look out for clues and red herrings when they experience thrills in the cinema theatre.

The rewrite is overtaken by the news that action is being taken to prosecute the former Prime Minister for war crimes following the allegation that he was complicit in the rendition of terrorist suspects from one country to Guantanamo Bay where they have been tortured to secure confessions and information. The action is fuelled by a former cabinet Minister in the Prime Minister’s cabinet (I wonder who the author of the book had in mind). The former P.M effectively seeks sanctuary in the USA where he has the continuing support of the American Government and the majority of its people and who do not recognise the International Court.

The plot develops as McGregor find some photos tapped under a drawer of the dead predecessor when clearing the room of possessions which amazingly have been left as they were before the man suddenly took off in the guest car for the ferry and the mainland.

Then McGregor finds out that the death is suspicious(surprise surprise-no) and that a woman living in the area where the body was washed up had reported seeing lights on the beach area, had a fall at home and is in a coma.

With the former Prime Minister away in Washington, fixing his position, and McGregor reveals his concerns to the wife she pleads ignorance of what has been going on and jumps into his bed at the residence. McGregor knows this is not a good idea but he plays a character who is repeatedly stupid as well as amoral mercenary, doing the job because it is paying a quarter of million dollars for a month’s work, later reduced to two weeks when the Prime Minister is asked to cooperate with the War crime investigation. He reacts more like Gordon Brown last Thursday morning with impulsive temper losses and a reliance on the advice of other’s.

McGregor has worked out that the reason why the Ghost writer was killed is because the Prime Minister appears to have been recruited by a Rhodes Scholar CIA member when at Oxford. The Prime Minister explains why he suddenly went into politics having previously appeared to be only interested in acting, smoking pot and women when he met his future wife, then a Labour activist in the University. He discovers that in the Prime Minister had been a party member two years before meeting his future wife and was a friend with the Rhodes scholar who went on to become an influential Professor, director of a major arms company, involved with CIA and formed a top level secret org to influence governments. This therefore explains the Prime Minister’s sudden rise to power and his unswerving support for USA policy regardless of which President or Party was in power.

His first reaction to the situation is to run taking the manuscript with him and the guest car but cannot resist following the orders of the Sat navigation equipment which takes to him to the home of, guess who, the Professor who lives in isolated secured home on the mainland. The Professor denies any knowledge or being a close friend but we overhear the man’s wife alerting someone that Ewan has called upon them. Although the Professor denies being home when the killed ghost writer appears to have made arranged the visit he ahs already emphasised that he sees no one without an appointment.
We thus deduce that having arranged the visit the previous ghost writer had been killed before leaving the island and the Professor knowing he would have an alibi being away at a pre arranged event. After leaving the house Ewan is followed and attempts to get on the last ferry back to the Island after hiding with his vehicle in the woods. But his pursuers are able to hold up the ferry and get on board, they are the CIA black ops after all, but he manages to get off the ferry as it leaves and finds himself stranded at the ferry motel as there are no planes away until the morning. I am confused about the location of airports at that point.

At the motel he makes he rings a telephone number handwritten on the back of the key photo and this amazing appears to be a key British political figure who is able to visit within a short period of time and wants to se the manuscript. He explains that the previous ghost write had contacted and said that if anything happened to him he had placed information at the beginning of the manuscript. Ewan provides the information about the Prime Minister and the Professor and the CIA and is then persuaded to accept an invitation from the Prime Minister who is flying back from Washington to Martha’s Vineyard to be picked up, so that he can confront the man with what he has found and on the premise he will be safe as to kill the second ghost writer would arouse suspicion. The Prime Minister denies the accusations in a convincing way and by this time anyone who has been paying appropriate attention has worked out that the CIA contact and fixer was not the Prime Minister but his wife.

However Ewan is too stupid to work this out and when the Prime Minister is shot and killed he agrees to complete the book without any revelations and goes to the book launch at the invitation of the personal assistant rather than the wife. The personal assistant and the wife have clashed over influence on the man, McGregor‘s suspicions about the truth is finally aroused when he finds that the widow is being supported by the book launch by the Professor and follow student from Oxford days. The assistant has brought along a copy of the original manuscript as a souvenir and he re-examines and works out from coded information that it is the wife who worked for the CIA via the Professor and who obviously arranged the killing of his predecessor. Left open is did she also arrange the assassination on arrival back at the island airport, The culprit is presented as the aggrieved father of a boy killed in the Iraq war. He first appears as a suit middle aged man at the Island hotel where McGregor first stays until the War Crimes action is announced and he is moved into the private and secured residence. The man also appears to have entered and examined the contents of his room. It is never explained why he did this? The man then reappears in combat uniform at a Peace Camp type protest set up at the gates of the residence, but her and the other protestors then vanish when the Prime Minister goes to Washington. He then appears to be the assassin.

I enjoyed the film at the time of viewing but it flawed nonsense which is why Tony did not bother to sue. I look forward to learning what Dr Mark Kermode makes of the film if he decides to undertake a catch up and view.

The airport when I stayed is located on high ground at Yeadon above Leeds so that on the way into the city there are excellent views across the Aire valley. The airport appears small and is classified as the 17th in terms of customers in the UK, under 3 million passengers and 3700 flights a year, around 100 a day in and out. The main routes are to Spain, Ireland/Eire, Amsterdam and Paris and internally to London and Southampton. A ten to twenty year development plan has been approved increasing use to 5 million passengers by the mid century. The airport is now privately owned with the former local authority owners being paid £145 million.

Yeadon is an ancient town and developed as a clothing and mill town in the industrial revolution. An important aircraft factory was established just before World War II with 700 Lancaster bombers produced. I did not visit the town centre which includes the Town Hall building used in the Beiderbecke Tape series with James Bolam and Barbara Flynn. While the road into Leeds skirts the town the route passes one of the oldest Fish and Chip restaurants in the UK Murgatroyds, which I had heard off beforehand, and where there was a queue of people outside the door at the take away part as I went into town by bus on Thursday. This is expensive eating with the main fish dishes £11 to £13. It is all in the batter, they say! There is a basic three course menu of for Elders at £8.25.

A short distance from the airport into the city is the village of Rawdon which has an attractive village Green overlooked by an old attractive former primary school building now in the process of being converted into residential properties. There appear to be completed blocks of flat in the former school yard with the former school fenced off and for sale as part completed development. It occurred to me that the building and location would make an ideal site for a permanent Artman’s Arthouse although as with my previous choice locally I would have to win the lottery to purchase before it is sold.

On the Wednesday I travelled by car to the next important community on the way into Leeds city centre, Kirstall which has a population of 20000 and is home of Kirkstall Abbey . There are large wealthy houses in grounds on the road to the outer ring road but Kirkstall itself contains many Victorian back to back properties used as tenements in the days when this was an area of mills and factories. The Beiderbecke film series was primarily shot in Kirkstall. At the main cross road leading to a supermarket and small retail centre there is the new looking Leisure centre which includes a swimming pool.

A short distance further on there is Burley a traditional area of back to back terraced housing to one side of the river Aire and which was my destination on Wednesday for the Cardigan Fields Leisure development comprising the Vue Multiplex, 2000 seats, and Bowling (skittles arena), a Health centre(Virgin), a nightclub, and the usual range of restaurants including the Louisiana which combined Indian and Tex Mex food. The red brick tenements were used to represent Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the TV drama series Harry’s game, Melanie Brown-Scary Spice was raised in Burley. Before getting to Cardigan Fields there is a small roadway alongside the Iceland and Neto buildings which crosses the river and should lead to the nature reserve although I only found the inexpensive municipal golf course.

I also followed this route on midday Thursday taking 757 bus from the Airport into the City centre some 12 miles and an official bus time of 40 minutes. The city centre has been transformed since first visiting in the later 1960’s when I worked for the West Riding of Yorkshire Children’s department, located at Wakefield and lived at Lofthouse midway between Wakefield and Leeds. The main area of shops and recreation facilities lies either side of the Headrow from the Westgate station area to the Eastgate where there is the Bus station, the famous Kirkgate Markets, the BBC studios and the Leeds Playhouse.
The city centre is now dominated by some fine towering new office developments and hotels and a through pass which takes travellers to the Leeds City Football club with the now more successful Rugby League Club, the Rhinos, based on the same site as Yorkshire County Cricket Club at Headingley, now also the centre of student life.

The main purpose of the visit was the city centre Vue cinema, the only multiplex in the city centre and off the Headrow in a new tall arcade development of over 32000 square metres designed for high spending customers with 13 screens and 3000 seats, and middle class eating such as Browns and Cafe Rouge. There is a health club and a Radisson’s Hotel £65-£95 room rate a night. I had a good hour before the planned showing of Centurion so I first made my way to the Merrion Centre just behind the side exit of the Light and which is showing its age and is several notches below Eldon square and a generation below the latest transformation. On the way to see what was on at the Grand Theatre, the home of Opera North, I discovered the London style Blue Coyote Lap dancing club with London prices aimed at the business and student community, offering vintage champagne a private dancer for £60 for 15mins £250 an hour, or a single dancer in the main room from £10, according to the website. It boasts of being the only USA sport bar type of lap dancing club in the UK.

I then headed down to the area of Victorian arcades and crossed over to the famous Kirkgate markets, with the indoor refurbished in the early 1990’s. The market is vast with over 500 stalls indoors and 200 outside. Those outside have roofs. In butchers row I counted a dozen mini shops and the fish shops are vast. I spotted a South African home food stall, a Polish Russian and an Afro Caribbean. I was after a can of coke available at 20p in Azda and here the cold price was 85 to 90p. I settled for a can from a news agent opposite the Grand Theatre on the return journey for 65p. It was to be my only expenditure of the day with free bus, prepaid food, accommodation and car parking. I used the second of the Vue Vouchers which was to expire at the end of the week.

I did not enjoy the film Centurion, Directed by Neil Marshall with Michael Fassbinder as Quintus Dias a centurion who becomes the only survivor of the 3000 to 4000 men of the Ninth which for centuries was alleged to have disappeared to the north of Hadrian’s Wall. The film takes the view that the Legion was ordered north to capture the Pict leader Gorlacon as a political manoeuvre by the Roman governor anxious to achieve something which would earn him a recall home. The Legion General is given as his guide Etain, a ferocious and bloodthirsty Pict who is mute following the massacre of family by the Romans in which her mother was raped and she had her tongue cut out as child witness. Her other senses have been developed with the kind of tracking antennae usually associated with native Americans and Africans. She leads the Legion into a trap in which almost everyman is massacred. Among them is Quintus who at the opening of the film is the only survivor of a Pict attack on a fort and he manages to escape after being taken prisoner and we see him trying to out run his captors across snow covered mountains and then nearly being recaptured in a forest to be rescued by as Legion scouting party.

On learning that the Legion general has been captured the small band of survivors attempt to rescue him but fail, with one of them killing the son of the Pict Chief who with Etain sets of on a revenge mission to kill in as painful a way as possible everyone of the survivors.

Quintus and two others make their way south after going north and to the west and come across Arianne who has become a Pict Outcaste but has learnt to communicate with the Romans from another fort two days to the south. She helps one of the injured and provides food and shelter and a hide when the Pict revenge band arrives. The trio then make their way to the Fort to find it abandoned as the new policy is to retreat below Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, abandoning the intention to conquer and subdue Scotland. Here they manage to defeat their pursuers although one dies. They then find one of the two other survivors, the man responsible for the death of the child and who has also wounded a fellow soldier because he could run faster than pursuing wolves. In sight of a wall fort, Quintus as to deal with this renegade during which time his companion is mistaken for a Pict and killed by a Roman soldier on lookout. This leaves only Quintus who although welcomes and given food and drink finds that the Governor has decided to have him killed so that there is no evidence that the Ninth were sent across the border and were all killed. There will be no record of what they did, where they went or what happened to them. Quintus then decides to go back across the new border to live with Arianne with whom he had struck up a relationship.

I have been able to find that 50 years before the date when the film is set around117AD the Ninth was involved in a massacre in which it is believed about half its strength were killed by forces of Queen Boudica and the Legion was then commanded by someone called Quintus. The Cavalry were not involved and the rest of the force of 5000 men were elsewhere in forts and other duties. It is not known what happened to the Ninth because it does appear records were destroyed or lost. However there is dispute among historians that the Legion may have been deployed on other missions outside of the UK and that at some point it was disbanded with the men deciding either to settle or return to the lands of their origins.

I thought the film was too full of vivid violence however accurate, was cold and bleak and failed to engage. Dr Kermode liked it but mentioned it has reached only 13th in the British popularity by attendance list.

I and the other handful of the public in the theatre had to sit on one side as there was a roof leak. At Headingley there had also been a roof leak just above where I had chosen to sit on a sunny day. It was raining when I left the cinema and quickly made my way to the City Bus station on the other side of the outdoor market, where earlier I had been tempted by original Jazz Long Play records and some DVDs, but resisted. I had a long wait as having missed one bus and the driver of the next was delay because of a serious accident in the Headrow and we set off some 15 minutes late.

The following morning I decided to set off home before noon as it was evident that the match was destined for a draw with bad weather forecast for the afternoon, although it was warm and sunny when I set off taking the same road that had taken me into Leeds North where about the distance along I reached the pleasant North Yorkshire town of Harrogate with the Valley Gardens, the Greens and the antique Shops as well as Spa. I did not stop but continued to Ripon where I made lunch, stopping for a can of diet coke at a garage having to pay 90 pence.

I had enjoyed my visit although had only spent two sessions of the four days at the cricket. Durham had been confronted by a massive first innings of 610 for 6 with Rudolph going onto 228 and McGrath 105. Beckenstein had managed 12 overs for only 21 runs and Blackwell 43 overs for 105 runs. Even Coetzer and Smith had bowled a few overs. Di Venuti had led well from the front reaching 108 before having to retire with a back injury and only Beckenstein with 64 and Plunket who was massacred as a bowler scored over 50 with Smith making a pathetic 8. And the team were effectively all out for 330. They were 46 without loss when the rains came on the fourth day so it was a draw and are now in mid table one of four teams with one win. There are three teams with 2 wins with Nottingham 2 from 2 whereas Yorkshire who head the table are 2 and 2 draws.

The trip proved inexpensive with three nights accommodation for £29. petrol £31 Car Parking £15 Cricket entrance £10 and Food and drink - Bread rolls, £1 Sausage Rolls £1, Pain au chocolate £1.68, Pain Raisins 84p, Danish £2, Salami, £2.57 Cucumber 35p Coleslaw 40p and three cartons of Grapes £7.41 Diet coke 5 cans £2.60 Liquorice 64p, a total for food and drink of £21.65 and £106.65 for the four days. It is time to give Gordon Brown and his Manifesto his day.

1919 Three nights by the Leeds and Bradford Airport

I am in a room at the Bradford Leeds Airport Travel Lodge having watched the gut wrenching first episode of Five Daughters, a series of three interconnected dramas based on the killing of five young prostitutes in Suffolk in 2006, all of whom were also dependent on illegal drug use. I had intended to watch the second on the BBC i player and then the final live on the Television. Sometimes I cannot cope with more than one sad, tragic and sickening event, real to the parents, brothers and sisters, friends and the local community where they lived.

At the front of the Travel Lodge it is possible to see and planes taking off or landing at the airport, just across the roadway. yet from my open window at the rear of the building there is occasional sound of traffic on the main road from Leeds to Harrogate, and silence as soon as it is closed as the evening cools and dusk descends across the green farmland across a valley with not a dwelling in view.

I had no idea the location would be so good when I booked up in December to attend the Championship cricket game at the Yorkshire County ground Headingley and worked out that this was the nearest lodge at the amazing cost of £29 for the three nights.

The day went well until Yorkshire won the toss.

I decided not to set the alarm and trust that when I woke for the second time it would be around dawn between 5 and 7 am. It was just before 5 so after making myself comfortable I returned to bed and relaxed for just over half an hour before rising and completing preparations commenced the previous evening. Monday had been a solid working day in which the kitchen was given a great clean after its use for repairing and redecorating the garage and patio area, then the day room floor and surfaces, while the washing and drying was taking place. Late afternoon I called in at Azda for ‘pain au chocolate’ breakfasts and Danish pastries plus another tub of coleslaw, Milano salami and liquorice twists. At filling up the petrol tank at 118 pence a litre, a horrendous price, I called in at Morrison’s with my £5 voucher from using the supermarket petrol station and bought grapes, two melons and coffee, putting the extra on the credit card. After making up the sandwiches for the day and slicing a cucumber for picnic meals over the following three days, I enjoyed a bacon steak in a sesame seed bun. Later I was too look in the mirror and it was not the size of my tum which shocked but the double chin. I have become so different what I had always anticipated.

There was time to play a few rounds of Mahjong before packing the car and making a thermos of coffee.

I set off a little later that intended, just after eight arriving outside the cricket ground just after ten after an eventless journey in partial sunshine. I knew from previous experience it was wise to arrive between 9.30 and 10 to be sure of parking close to the ground and with relief I secured a place within a few metres of the Headingley entrance which remained a building site as the finishing touches were being put on the new Carnegie Pavilion and University teaching complex about six storeys high in a not unpleasant green and with a solar panel multi arched roof. I remain to be convinced of the building design or how it fits into the already makeshift of cricket ground after the Yorkshire members refused to move to a new ground on a Greenfield site outside the city boundaries.

Before the weekend Nicholas Clegg, or should I say David Cameron mark II, was being pressed by the media commentators to say who he would support and not support in the event of the increasingly likely unbalanced House of Commons, unbalanced because the number of seats for the Liberal democrats will not reflect the percentage of the popular vote.

He then said what everyone else had been saying that a continuing Labour Government who came last in the popular vote but held the greatest number of seats was not democratic and as a Liberal Democrat he would not support. This increased speculation that if Gordon Brown made way for someone else he might be able to do a deal but as was also pointed out the Lib Dems have been able to join with the Tories in running several councils to keep Labour out. The big issue was electoral reform and David Cameron Change Man mark I said he did support first past the post, well Turkey’s do not vote for Christmas or Thanks Giving, do they?

This led the politicians and the some media to accuse Change Man mark II of being arrogant and assuming how the public would vote. As soon as one media follows one track the rest follow like bleating sheep, unscrupulous and dishonest and living in their own curious world cut off from everyone else who on the whole is keeping their own Council until they are able to deliver what they hope is a coup de grass.

The continuation of the Lib Dem surge of over 10 percentage points is the problem. If the pollster employed by already politically committed newspapers and media organisations to the two party system of confrontational government and opposition are still admitting the Lib Dem surge than it can be assume it is greater than the figures being shown. Remember the first indication was a Twitter leak of the actual results which where they “corrected,” by increasing the number of don’t knows. All the subsequent polls admit the results are within a 5% margin of error and have between 8 to 10% undecided. This means that if the Lib Dems gained a swing of 10% to them after one broadcast they can pick up another 10% or more with the final broadcast and the last few days when it will be difficult for the Pollsters and media to sustain presenting a false position because of the discredit which will follow when the actual result is shown to be significantly different from what they are showing. No one is now likely to switch to Labour or Tories who was not previously committed and likelihood is that the hard core vote will swing to Cameron Mark II in order to punish the two main parties who they feel are responsible for our economic situation and genuine dissatisfaction with the political state. The media and the pundits got it run in the lead up to the broadcasts and therefore nothing they say since means anything until the final broadcast and people make up their minds over the weekend.

Time is also running out for my review of the Party political manifesto’s with over 150 pages to go of the Tory and Labour works of aspiration.

Starting with the Tory Change society section they mention that Carers provide some £87 billion ongoing free service, a sum twice that is immediately required to deal with the Banker’s debt. As previously mentioned the great new Tory idea is that those who are not already caring for individuals should care in the form of national and other services for everyone else. In my view this will cover for the reduction in public expenditure and which in turn will alter the balance between the public and private sector in the economy without any dramatic increase in commercial activity.
The other associated approach is to ensure that fewer people become dependent on NHS paid for drugs and care by insisting no one smokes, drinks or eats too well. This seems to me to construct the model citizen of the future as someone who will work longer and harder, use the majority of any free time in providing personal care and other good works, and stops drinking, smoking and over eating thus closing more pubs, tobacco manufacturing and junk food restaurants, reducing supermarket profits and staffing levels. It will be OK to spend more money on profit making entertainments though.

On a more serious note there is broad agreement to make doctors earn their money by providing a round the clock service and for doctors and nurses to stop killing those who enter hospital by reducing the amount of secondary infections.

The Conservative’s big idea on education is to encourage people to set up their own schools independently of local authority education departments. This might happen in a few areas where there are lots of stay at home parents whose other partner is earning sufficiently to enable them not to have to earn a living themselves. There is a plan to raise teaching standards which we all agree is a worthwhile objective but without overall increasing education expenditure will inevitably lead to larger class sizes in the short terms in order to pay existing teachers more and to attract new recruits. There is also a plan to convert soldiers into teachers and improve discipline in schools as a consequence. This sounds similar to the Hitler Youth and the Young Communist league programmes no less.

The Manifesto is full of contradictions having emphasised the need to encourage voluntarism, independence and deregulation the Tories want to improve quality against quantity and direct the teaching day into certain areas such as English, Maths Sciences and History, introducing a minimum standard reading test at the age of six. Yet if parents do not embrace the Big Society idea, who else will promote and effectively influence the young if is not primary and secondary teachers?

The Tory Party used to be party for law and order which tended to mean official covering up when things went wrong. Their main aim during the present election campaign is to show that crimes of violence have increased although the national crime figures do not bear this out, so they then resort to quoting individual examples from recent history of knife crime in particular, saying that the carrying of a knife should result in the presumption of a custodial sentence thus further removing the independence of the courts and filling up the increasingly ineffective prisons.

The contradiction is their subsequent statement of wanting to give the police greater discretion in who is charged and who is not and processing criminals more quickly by video linking to custody cells and courts. They are also suggesting that town and city centres have got worse on weekends when in fact no go areas for oldies were first created in the 1980’s, after youngsters brought back their two week annual holidays in Spain of drugs drinks and sex to the cold dark winter nights. The small amount of attention given to crime in all the manifesto’s indicates that this is not one of the key subjects in this election, except conspiracy among Members of Parliament to misuse their expenses while asking everyone else to accept cuts in their living standards.

The manifesto criticises the government’s decision to early release some prisoners because of severe overcrowding which had resulted being unable to focus on rehabilitation with the consequence that an increasing number of people re-offend within a short time of release up to over 90% from 25% in the early 1960’s, in part by filling up the prisons with drug addicts and mentally ill people. It costs over £150000 a year for a young offender to be looked after in a custodial centre and where there is no evidence that doing so prevents them from continuing to offend after they are released.

I can find very little about the creative arts in any of the manifestos but the Conservatives do praise Brighton as a creative and diverse city with 50 festivals year. Brighton is likely to send the first Green Party member to the House of Common this election which is why the traditional parties may not in fact be so keen on the creative arts, in fact.

The Conservatives will introduce a new agenda for Politics in the UK while remaining opposed to any change to the electoral system of first past the post which results in governments holding office with under fifty percent of the total votes cast and in this election under 40% as things stand. They want to take power away from the political elite yet the manifesto is full of a different set of targets and priorities so what is the point of the Tory Party or any other political party if is not to insist that its policies and programmes are put into practice by making even more laws than before? The Conservatives want to restore confidence in politics after is has been tarnished and broken, but who by? They want more transparency yet did not object to information on expenses being censored. I know I am being unfair but contemporary politics is about half truths and misrepresentations. A large number of voters are full of prejudices and bigotry but what happens t any politicians who calls it as it is?

I do like the idea of pubic hearings for the appointment of heads of advisory bodies and I am in favour of restricting their number to technical expertise and bodies which require political impartiality.

The Manifesto does admit that its last government was primarily responsible for dramatically reducing the powers of local government and centralizing power within individual authorities. I supported the idea of a City boss for London and would also support for Greater Manchester and Birmingham but I am less sure of Merseyside, Tyneside and Leeds unless it was in effect a sub regional elected controller but this would reintroduce a new tier of government in these areas. Having lost control of Newcastle the Tory plan suggests an attempt to gain power back, if it works for them in Tyneside as it has in London.

I fully support Tory proposals to cut back on the surveillance, particularly on the powers of local authorities. There is a commitment on having a free vote on repeal of the act banning Fox Hunting

In a section Strengthening the Union, The Manifesto declares that it does not oppose the proposed referendum on giving more powers to the Welsh Assembly. I support measures to also deal with the West Lothian Question. This will involve measures to ensure that only Members of Parliament for England and Wales vote on domestic matters excluding those from Scotland and Ireland.

I am puzzled by the section of the environment which appears to face in opposite directions at the same time. The document recognises the need for a greater emphasis on environmental protection but is not favour of retaining or extending enforcement measures.

The section on National defence and the role of the UK in the world supports the continuation of the Trident Missile system but supports strategic defence review which by implication means cutbacks in other areas which are not involved in combat situations. Labour has the same approach. This I suspect means the focus will be on cutting back on the navy and airforce hierarchy excluding helicopters, and also on some ships and aircraft.

The Manifesto leaves its most controversial subject until the end, Europe. On one hand Party Members remain anti European, and the Party is unable to join with other mainstream Conservatives parties such as those presently running France and Germany and instead allied itself with some curious parties some with fascist views. The basic problem is within the Party, The likely outcome is that disaffected Tories will vote for the United Kingdom Independence Party and Labour the National Front with in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland those of similar positioning will vote for the respective nationalist parties. So there is not much in the Manifesto that appeals although I admire Mr Cameron for the changes he has made and is making in those could well form the next Government although he appears to have mortgaged what he will do because of the Banker’s betrayal and what is in the Manifesto in order to retain its hard core of membership and its main financial backers.

1902 Counting the Cost and a City development

With my new Oyster card to hand I set off for the journey home on Thursday content after an excellent break in which I had visited the outside of my former home at Teddington, noting the plethora of places to eat and drink in the High Street, marvelled at the Atrium to the Bentalls’ shopping Centre at Kingston where on the third day I had enjoyed a meal at a Wetherspoons’ before taking a bus through the villages of Ham and Petersham and a walkabout in Richmond until reaching that most wonderful of English Greens. I had seen the psychological thriller Shutter Island, been a little disappointed with a filmed production of La Boheme from Convent Garden and stood in appreciation at the end of the musical Blood Brothers, some 25 years after its opening performance. There had also been a good day with members of the extended family of my late birth and care mothers.

My mind was still on these experiences when I correctly touched in the Oyster card and went onto the first platform taking the first train which came in for Victoria. It was only once the train powered away non stop to Clapham Junction that I remembered. I was not going to Victoria but to St Pancras International on the cross Thames route to Luton and Bedford. As with the train I had boarded, both originated at Brighton. Woe was me and Woe was me again when at Clapham Junction the train pulled onto a platform where the line going in the opposite direction did not go back to Croydon. I therefore had to place the heavy laptop holding bag over one shoulder and lift the case step by step down the two flights of stairs along the passenger tunnel and then up the two flights of stairs to the platform where fortunately a train going back to Croydon was soon arriving. At Croydon instead of pausing and remembering the platform for Bedford I dragged the case up the long steep slope to the transfer passage between the platforms and down to where I thought the Bedford train departed only to find this was the platform for stopping trains to London Bridge and had to drag the case and bag back up the slope and across and down to where I had just been as the trains departed from Platform 2, something which I have done ever since the new link to St Pancras opened three years ago, possibly five or six times!

The right train arrived less than a minute later so in fact I had probably arrived at the station just in time or just missing the previous St Pancras heading train earlier. I was fully recovered on reaching the first destination and headed for the gents before going to Marks and Spencer’s for a carton of grapes, resisting the other goodies as a penance for my lack of due attention. It was a pleasantly warn sunny day so rather than take the underground route into Kings Cross I crossover the road between the two stations entering towards the end of the long distance platforms hearing an announcement that the non stop train to Cambridge was departing from one off the four platforms at this end of the station where the new roof and other works is now well underway. In the thirty five years that I have been using Kings Cross Station, this was the first time I could remember learning that the train to Cambridge was non stop. Cambridge of Cambridge University was to be a significance later in the journey although at the time I did think of planning a days trip on one visit when staying in central London.

I found a seat and enjoyed the sandwiches and the grapes having arrived at noon. Just before the quarter hour when passengers are usually allowed to rush to get on the train I made my way to the platforms and quickly worked out that there were only two options for my train and correctly positioned myself at the end of the platform where the notice soon went up, all stations to Newcastle. I headed immediately for my assigned compartment, hoping there was an unallocated disability seat. This was one of the older carriages with no such seats but there were a couple of tables foursomes available and I grabbed the second one, taking the forward facing window seat. A young man in his late twenties and thirties took the rear facing aisle and without luggage except for his laptop I accurately assumed he was going only as far Peterborough about 50 minutes down the line as were a number of others entering the compartment and I presumed others along the length of the train. I relaxed and went online, checking the mailbox and then started to write notes on the experiences gained by the visit.

At Peterborough a young woman took a twin seat vacated by other passengers and started to phone her friends and I and the other passengers quickly learnt all about her life at Cambridge that she was good at working during the day, but liked to spend the evenings drinking, eating and watching films, had only recently passed the driving Test and planned to get in some practice before setting off over Easter, collecting friends on the way to a get together either before or after a family trip to Ireland. This was very interesting and an enlightening insight into the life of an undergraduate today, but for close on two hours it became irritating. She departed at Durham when the journey to Newcastle only takes ten minutes of peace and quiet and when I went for my case shortly before arriving in the city I noticed she left what transpired to be a high fashion magazine, under which was the cursed mobile phone. Now I will not write the thoughts which came immediately to mind but I did hand in the phone to the information counter saying that I was confident who the phone belonged and they said they could probably contact via information on the phone. Thus my reluctant good deed for the day before continuing homeward where I found my home cold but otherwise all was well.

It is now time to count the cost of my third trip of the year. My travel to Newcastle on Sunday was via the age permit say 50p and breakfast of a bacon roll, hash browns and coffee £3.60 approx (free muffin and coffee on train). Purchase of Time out London £ 2. 99 Train to Kings Cross £23.60 and to Croydon from St Pancras £4.40. I bought a prawn salad £2.20 for the evening with still water £1 and 4 Croissants 98p at Marks and Spencer’s, a total of £4.18. Internet for day £4 Accommodation for the night £9.50.Total for Day 1 £52.77.

On Monday the bus to Teddington and then to Kingston was free. Lunch of a sandwich, fruit juice and Crisps cost £2.00(Tesco). A discount of 53 pence. The Cinema ticket cost £6.30. I took the train to Wimbledon £3 and the evening meal at the Coal Grill with tip cost £12. La Boheme ticket £12.50 and tram to Croydon £2.Accommodation for night £9.50, Internet £4. Total £51.30

On Tuesday I purchased hot chicken wings for the evening meal with Pain au chocolate £1.59. Shaving form £2.19 and Pontefract cakes 1,09 a total of £7.36 at Waitrose, Accommodation was £9.50 and Internet £4, a total of £20.86.

On Wednesday purchase of an Oyster Card £3 deposit and initial top up of £5, Lunch at the Kings Tun Kingston came to £4.54. Theatre Ticket £17. Double chocolate Ice Cream £ 2.50, Programme £3. (£2.70 was deducted from the Oyster card for the train to Wimbledon from Kingston and £1.20 for the Tram back to Croydon a saving of £1.10 on the previous journey without the card). Chicken Wings for evening 2.49. Prawn sandwich 1.10 and Salmon Sandwich 1.60 Hot Cross Buns £1.25 Crisps 47p and Nestle 51p Kitkat chunky and Snickers Bar 44p (£8.66 from Waitrose), Accommodation £9.50. Diet Pepsi Travel Lodge £1, Internet £4 a total of £58.20

On Thursday £5 added to Oyster Card. Packet of 15 biro pens St Pancras Smiths £2.99 Carton of red grapes £2.29 from M and S. Train fare to Newcastle £15 and coffee on train £1.70 Internet morning £4. £30.98 Total expenditure over five days £214.11 with the £250 budget for mini trips of less than one week.

England had won the second Test in Bangladesh which I had listen to on the internet radio on the Monday and Tuesday mornings over breakfast. I also caught up with Prime Ministers Question Time on Wednesday evening on the BBC I player.

I worked hard on Friday washing clothes with two washes. I had missed the meter reader and over the weekend sent readings for the Gas and Electricity accounts by text return and now fear the worst. The latest Income Tax code for the coming year arrived and this prompted me to consider making an annual budget once more. I paid in full the amount outstanding on the credit card and ordered two cinema seats at the Cineworld with my rewards balance. There are rewards left for 4 more ticket at present.

I kept one eye on a Marilyn Monroe musical film called Let’s Make Love, in which Bill Crosby and Gene Kelly play themselves as tutors to Yves Montand a wealthy man who is confused as an out of work actor seeing a brief part sending up the wealthy millionaire. Frankie Vaughan plays Frankie Vaught a singing and dancing actor in the musical revue featuring Marilyn Munroe. Tony Randall plays Montand’s flunkey and Wilfred Hyde Whyte plays his usual character perfected in My Fair Lady. This is not my kind of music and story is naff and the actors clearly thought the film naff as did he critics.

The holiday spirit continued on Saturday when I left early for Newcastle, taking the Metro as I wanted to see the latest Extension to the Eldon Square Shopping Centre. When built in 1977 Eldon square was the flagship town centre Mall in the UK and with an outside structure which includes Brick and Glass. It occupies most of the city centre to the North of Greys Monument with direct access to the Metro system at this end and to a lower level bus station at its centre This level also provided entry for Goods vehicles with lifts and conveyors direct to the stores. A new bus station was first created close to the shopping centre across from the University buildings and close to the Haymarket Metro station This station has been revamped costing a fortune over the past two years but now looks finished and is smart, bright and the best on the system.

Buses from this part of the bus station go to all parts of Northumberland and North Tyneside as well as the administrative area of Newcastle City. The central underground bus station has been moved to the side with access from Street level as well as from the shopping centre and provide services south of the river to Gateshead and Durham. I am not sure where buses to South Tyneside and Sunderland depart. The new bus station development provides direct access to Boots and John Lewis and Argus has moved here from elsewhere in the centre. On this side of the shopping centre there is an eight story circular car park with direct access to the centre.

The existing shopping centre occupies both sides of the main road now restricted to buses from the Monument towards St James Park, the home of Newcastle United. There is also first floor passage way across the one way main road with St James Park, the University and Playhouse theatre on one side, the shopping centre and the bus and Metro stations on the other. This leads to the separately owned Eldon Square Garden shopping centre with its own separate multi story car park as well as an external park to its rear and where there is a short walk to the Football stadium complex.

My visit was to see the large extension which includes a two story high mall where each of the stores has internal lifts and stairways and a new Debenhams store occupies the far end. It is very impressive and there are plans to upgrade the rest of the centre over the next few years without disrupting ongoing functions. The development makes the shopping centre the largest for any city eclipsing those in Manchester and Birmingham. However it is not as large as the Gateshead centre located on the Banks of the Tyne at the edge of both cities. Nor is Eldon Square and Eldon Garden the only precinct in Newcastle because across the road at the Monument is a separate and small development which includes a food court on the top floor. In between this centre and East side of Eldon Square is the great Fenwicks departmental store. There is also direct access from the Eldon Square to a huge Marks and Spencer’s’ and which in turn has direct access to the bus station. The Debenhams Store and new Mall is also directly opposite the new Cinema, Casino and Restaurant complex across the roadway. There is a fitness and indoor leisure centre including basketball and Tennis as part of the Square complex

A former small in door market area has been closed to make way for developments with key outlets moving to the Grainer market, and there is a large market style restaurant cafe in the far corner here where Argos used to be located. Here are plans for further development with a street only access to a new store.

In between the new Mall block and the road leading to the Monument with the older part of Eldon square to one side is the famous indoor Grainger Market, a huge city centre facility with internal shops rather than stalls including everything from hardware to shoe repairs, from books, records and DVD’s to the traditional greengrocers, fish and meat suppliers. One of the lanes of shops has been roved to make areas of tables and seating for full meals and snacks. It remains one the big indoor city market areas in the UK
To the east of the Square centre is the pedestrianised Northumberland Street where on the eastern side there are large stores such as WH Smiths, Curry’s HMV, British Home Stores and Primark. Further east still there are the central Baths, the City Hall, the Laing Art Gallery, the new City Library and some restaurants. To the north west corner there is China Town and the Journal Tyne Theatre and to west there is the great Newcastle gem, one the greatest architecturally designed Streets in all of the United Kingdom, Grey Street, the work of John Dobson and Richard Grainger and where a short way from the Monument down to the Riverside where there are also streets of restaurants and drinking houses, bars and night clubs, there is the awesome Theatre Royal and much beloved Grainger Arcade which I also visited. There was only time to gaze into the windows of ‘Windows’ which occupies the whole of one side of the arcade with a basement level for rock instruments, amplification and audio equipment, the ground level for other instruments which included a dozen pianos at one end, and a first floor for folk and jazz and any forms of music you can think of. It is one of the few places left keeping a stock as well as supplying sheet music. Just around the corner from the Arcade is the New Tyne film Theatre, my destination for a relayed and rare performance from the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, of Hamlet not produce there for over 100 years and with Simon Keenlyside in the title role. There was time for a coffee and toast. The menu stated one round of toast but I was given two and the refreshment only cost £2.70 which I consider most reasonable as I did the double chocolate ice cream in the interval which required a climb to the third floor bar but it cost only £2 compared with the £2.50 at the Richmond Theatre. I will leave the opera until my account for Sunday, The Australian Grand Prix, Sunderland at Liverpool, catching up with all the last five episodes of Babylon 5 and Lark Rise to Candleford. On Friday I fell asleep after 20 minutes of Lost and dragged myself to bed sleeping fully but waking early and making Saturday along day so it as just was well the Opera started at 5 because the USA had already altered their clocks to summer time. I stayed up late on return, not appreciating the change to summer time until then.

1901 Blood Brothers in Richmond, Lunch in Kingston

After an excellent journey to the capital, an unexpectedly treat of a day on Monday visiting the town where my first purchased home is located, seeing Shutter Island at Kingston and La Boheme at Wimbledon, taking the tram for almost length of its track, a family meal and lots of chat, deciding what to do with my third full day and something which would add to the experience posed a problem. My pre journey intention had been to visit the new Renaissance exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and /or the Henry Moore retrospective at the Tate but if the weather as good then I fancied a trip to Richmond, taking the bus from Kingston, and passing Ham and Petersham, alighting at the Thames riverside and going on to the Green, one of the most picturesque in all the British Islands, lunching, having a walk around, taking a river bus trip, assuming their continuing operation, perhaps then continuing on the sixty five to Ealing where I had worked between 1967 and 1970, not that I remembered the number of the bus when considering the options.

All this seemed unlikely when I opened the curtains of the room Croydon and looked towards the Nestle building and the main road passed the Fairfield Halls, towards the Local authority buildings where I had worked for the Finance department in late 950’s and noticed the grey skies which looked full of rain. I decided that I would nevertheless take the bus to Kingston and if weather had not improved take the train from there to Waterloo.

I arrived at the bus stop in good time and was able to take a raised seat midway in the bus, able to pay greater attention to the other passengers and the places passed, remembering previous associations. A retired couple behind me provided a running commentary and at the Fairfield Halls reminisced at a past era. Passing between Beddington and Park and Wallington Green and I remembered the where a Liberal parliamentary Candidate lived whose children attended the same school and church and where we had gone Carol singing one Christmas as teenagers. In those days he lost his deposit gaining only a few votes whereas today the Sutton Council has a Liberal Democrat majority and a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament. After Carshalton pond we passed the former music store, now selling clocks where another former pupil lived above with his family.

At the station stop in Kingston I alighted in front of a Wetherspoons pub offering their three sausages and chips with beans for £3.99. This was irresistible. This is a giant of a Wetherspoons with two large seating areas and a horde of young staff who appeared to be enjoying their working day. The meal came surprisingly quickly given the number of people in the pub restaurant and someone came to check that I was satisfied with the food soon after it had been delivered. It was noon and I realised that Prime Minister’s Question Time was showing with sub titles. I was too lazy to move. However on going to the gents before making my way, I noticed that the House remained full and Chancellor of the Exchequer William Darling was on his feet. It was budget day.

After making myself comfortable I found a table close to a screen and watched the rest of his speech. In total he said nothing other than remind of the Government‘s performance and previously stated policies and decisions to do nothing to lessen the impact of the recession, to protect jobs as much a possible and to stimulate the economy in the best possible of ways. He explained the plans to reduce the national deficit with the forecast reduced by some 11 billions from 178 to 167 because improvements in employment, reductions in benefit payments and other measures. The only new announcement was to double the price of a property to a quarter of a million before stamp duty has to be paid and this will be offset by charging an additional 5% on properties worth more than £1 million. The speech will have placed the Conservatives in a difficult situation because their only accurate from of criticism would be to criticise the failure to cut public expenditure and not raising more taxes, both of which would have been electorally disastrous alienating the centre and their own core supporters. They therefore concentrated on criticising the government leadership and its personalities

I then went in search of the bus station and the bus to Richmond having remembered, so I thought, the way through the town centre having passed the bus station earlier. I was wrong and soon found myself close to the Kingston College and a one way system back into the centre of town where in a side street were not one but two 65 buses to Richmond and Ealing parked on their turnaround and with a small queue of people waiting at the bus stop for the first of these buses to recommence their journey. This had been a great stroke of luck because the bus then filled with standing room only accommodation at the next two stops through the town centre

After leaving the town centre where the traffic is always heavy because of the Thames and the one bridge crossing we moved quickly into the pleasant suburbs and then to a stretch of still magical England with the green at Ham surrounded by fine houses and cottages. Ham is across the way from Teddington Lock at the end of the long Teddington High Street which I had walked its length on the Monday.

It is possible to walk the whole stretch of the river thanes on this side of the River to Ham, Petersham and Richmond, whereas mention on the other side private housing and private roads restrict and discourage entry to the river bank. There is a pond to one side of the Common and a short walk on the other side of the road and one is in the vast acres of Richmond Park. Unless one is a good walker then a car is required for Richmond Park where there is an excellent refreshment facility at its centre in the former home of the first Earl Russell, Pembroke Lodge where I took my birth and care mothers and aunt to tea during their last years together having parked at the Richmond Green beforehand. I had also attended a Home Office Children’ s department arranged course at Strawberry Hill on the other side of the Park over three and half square miles and three times the size of New York’s Central Park. The Royal ballet school is within the park as is the Metropolitan police command centre for all the Royal parks.

A little further along this pleasant road of twists and turns is Petersham with its meadow land under Richmond Hill from which here are impressive view across this part of the Thames valley. There is a gatehouse road into the Park. The bus then continue on a road with the river to one side and the lower slopes of Richmond Hill on the other and this where I alighted rather than continue to the town centre. The sun was shining again and it was pleasantly warm. I unbuttoned my coat. I debated continue down a path to the river bank but thought I would do this later and enquire if there was a river bus back to Kingston. I have with the past five years taken the river boat from Hampton Court to Richmond. I was once interviewed for a senior post with the London Borough of Richmond but political background was not suited. I also recalled making a special journey to the Curzon Cinema and Water Lane to see a film about the Spanish Civil War.

Instead of going down to the river I walked up a steep bank into the Richmond Hill road of art galleries, antique shops and restaurants before retracing steps down to one of the two Odeon Cinema across from the Richmond Bridge which goes to Twickenham and Teddington. Someone has written that in 200 years the only things that have changed is the emergence of the International Rugby Union stadium at Twickenham and the constant flying of planes landing or taking off at Heathrow, although there was not much evidence of this on the day. I needed another visit to the loo and headed for John Lewis and had great difficulty in locating the toilets which are unmarked in the far corner of the second floor, obviously aimed at preventing steady stream of visitors like me. I was able to assist two middle aged women who were on a similar search.

Comfortable once more it was time to make for the wonderful Richmond Green and I thought I would look out the mansion which I had noted for sale in Saville’s. Later on line I learned that the asking price is £6.5 million for this four story property with its own pleasant gardens but overlooking the Green and with very spacious drawing rooms, many bedrooms rooms, and a guest flat or one for staff as garden flat, similar in fact to the situation at my former home in Teddington, There is a double garage and off street parking for five vehicles including access to Old Palace Yard. Located within walking of the Riverside and Parkland it is a dream location in a small town full of antique and art shops and good food restaurants. Oh to win the European Lottery for a win of £20million would be needed to look after the extended family, to purchase and adapted property for my project and arrange and endowment to secure its future from the tax man. I entered the Green by the famous Cricketers Pub and it is on this Green that the first Cricket match between Middlesex and Surrey was played in 1730 although here is reference to cricket being played here in 1666. Croydon also played Chertsey in 1736 thus combining links however loose ones which have drawn me to the town. Most of the benches around the Green were occupied but saw one on the far side and making my way I then stopped having noticed a lot of people outside the Richmond Theatre which is one side of an extension to the Green. Wednesday, Matinee time and it was 2.15.
Then the Gods looked down on me, beaming. There was a performance of the Willie Russell masterpiece Blood Brothers, undertaking its 25th anniversary tour. I could have a seat in the second row at the. I was able to sit with vacant seats on either side and a clear view between the pair of seats in front. I was in wonderland. The rest of the large theatre was full. I has a double chocolate ice cream at the Interval.

The Richmond Theatre on Little Green was built in 1899 and is the outstanding example of a Frank Matchem Theatre with a tradition interior of stalls, dress and upper circle full of gilt and plush red fabric. The Theatre has been used many film and TV productions such as Evita, Neverland and Jonathan Creek and remains capable of productions prior to the West end as well as professional Touring companies. It echoes back to the great era of the musical hall and pantomime

Blood Brothers is one of the longest running West end production in musical history with a tragic moving story, great music and a clever concept imaginatively presented. It features a Catholic Merseyside woman with five children whose husband runs off with a younger Marilyn Munroe lookalike, leaving her to fend on the dole, ordering more goods than she can ever afford from the catalogues. She gets a job cleaning for a middle class housewife with no children and finding herself having twins reluctantly agrees to give one of the two to the childless employer. The woman cannot cope with the situation and having agreed that the mother would be able to see her other so grow up through he continuing work, she persuades her husband to agree to their moving away after the two boys become close friend and make themselves into blood brothers.

When the mother and her six children are rehoused to a new estate on the outskirts of Liverpool they two boys, now young men encounter and re-establish their friendship together with a young girl who adores the working class half who is unable to express his affection while the middle class lad also adores the girl but recognises the prior claim of the other as well as the girl’s preference. When the middle class lad goes away to university, the couple are required to get wed and no sooner does the lad settle down living with their mother he is made redundant and then persuaded to participate in an armed robbery by his elder brother. in which someone is shot and the younger man is sent to prison for seven years, destroyed emotionally by the experience he returns to his family dependent on pills. In desperation his wife turns to his still unknown to them twin brother, now a councillor, for help to get a job and their own council home. The working class lad misinterprets the relationships and enter the Council premises with a gun. He is warmed by an armed police response team.

As a prologue we witness this last scene in which the brothers have been killed and we are told it was part of a curse a warning that should the two ever find out their relationship they would die. In order to prevent the middle class son killing the other, their mother reveals the truth and one shoots the other, with the police shooting the remaining twin.

The musical play demonstrates the strength of my dictum that what we do and say remains with us throughout our lives and with those involved. The main message of the play is one of class and when the two lads get into trouble with the police, one is given a final warning and other advice to keep away from the working class district. There are six principles in the cast. The Mother - Mrs Johnston and her twin son Mickey, Mrs Lyon and the other twin son Edward, the girl Linda and the narrator/chorus /conscience/prophet. Among those who have features as Mrs Johnston are Stephanie Lawrence, Clodagh Rogers, Kiki Dee and four of the Nolan Sisters, with Spice girl Mel among the latest. Russell Crow appeared as Mickey in the Australian production. Petula Clark made her Broadway debut in the work with the Cassidy brothers playing the twins. There has been a Japanese production and boot leg productions in many languages as well as official tours around the world.

Adults play the children and then the adolescents with considerable insight and naturalness and it is this aspect which has made the musical an essential introduction to the theatre for many young people, often brought to schools by the groups of actors. On Wednesday there was a party of fifth or sixth formers who enjoyed the show immensely , some moved to tears at the end. especially the girls who reacted to the jokes and aside about adolescent sexual and emotional fumblings of the boys. Despite knowing from the outset what the end will be there was still a strong emotional outburst from the audience followed by prolonged applause and a standing ovation, something which the show has experienced over the past 25 years everywhere everytime.

I made my way, joyously, back by bus to Kingston, then by train to Wimbledon and Tram to Croydon getting in after seven. I made by way from the Theatre and to where I thought there might be a bus stop in the one way system discovering a mini bus station down a side street and where a 65 bus arrived within seconds.

There was just time for the lady waiting on the seat next tome to hand me a tract from the Bible. She must have been clairvoyant for I was having a brief erotic memory Over forty years ago I was without my car and I had taken the 65 at Ealing to Kingston and then got a bus to my home in Teddington. This was in the late 1960‘s when girls were wearing the shortest of skirts for the first time. Unable to get a seat I had to go upstairs and look up had been startled by the rear of an attractive girl who had turned round and look back at me smiling. She went further inside the bus and I took a seat at the front for the different form of view.

I then made a mess of using the Oyster card for the first time. Again I arrived at Kingston station to find a train being announced so I rushed hoping that I had correct used the Oyster Card to gain entry, but I think I had the card in the holder the wrong way round. At Wimbledon I went straight to the Platform for the tram but the card did not register and I was told to seek help. Being rush hour the attendant was very busy but he eventually helped taking the correct amount from the card for the journey from Kingston. However I was not sure the card registered for tram trip. I thought the card had an initial deposit of £3 showing plus the £5, When I checked the following day there was only £1.10 in credit so a great mystery. However it had been another great day.