<



Had a sudden awakening by a loud noise followed by a screeched conversation between people seemingly stood at opposite ends of the street.

I heard the exchange of greetings between the two and surprised myself by falling asleep again.

Really surprised me as was just thinking that’s me lying awake while Richie sleeps on but no sooner had I thought this than I was asleep.

We woke up late but not surprising as we were very late last night, Richie did not turn the light off until 2 am.

Every night we seem to be pushing time back and never manage as it just suddenly catches up on us and it is 2 am or shock horror on Saturday night it was 3 am.

Seems that if we can’t go out to a gig we can stay up late and one early morning leads to another.

Have to watch that and maybe have a change sometime soon and turn the light off as soon as The Wire is finished then not long after lights out at 1 am.

Doe not sound like much but better than 2 am or 3 am besides the wire is only on from Monday to Wednesday.

Funny us both liking The Wire, do not usually like cop soaps but this one is very well done, the characters are good.

It is interesting to see how the stories weave in and out of each other as do the interests.

Funny to see the experiment with setting up a zone where the street dealers and their customers could go.

The cop that set it up wanted the drug trade off the corners in his area, he wanted the good folk living there to be able to go about their business without the madness of street trafficking and other harassments.

After he got all the trade moved crime in his area dropped by 14% and was the pride and joy of the Comissioner until he found out how it occurred.

Very curious what they will do next, the characters are good very believeable and all characters are well rounded.

You can see where they are coming from and at the same time totally find some of them abhorrent and that is on both sides.

Fascinating to see the various strands of the story being braided week by week.

Guess it has become so compelling a story because it is well told and intelligently told and that makes all the difference.

Hate things that talk down to me feel patronised, feel like a label saying dummy audience has been slapped on all our foreheads.

In the UK they have a soap called The Bill about police in Manchester and it is dreadful as it is a verey flat storyline.

It is all pretty stereotyped police soap which never got my interest ever, we might watch it by accident and get rid of it quickly as soon as we would realise what was on.

Have been here since 1981 apart from term times spent at Hillcroft and Middlesex University but do not watch much Dutch TV there are a few good programms.

They do investigative news and discussion s and are good but apart from that and some dresdful soaps Dutch TV seems to consist of endless quiz shows and games shows.

And in the summertime there are a series of free concerts in parks round the Netherlands, the pe-ople who are there all look pretty happy to be there.

We always turn over as we can’t stand them, I always feel that just because it is ampliefied does not make it good.

Oh well different people, different tastes which is a good thing would be so dreadfully boring if we all liked the same thing.

It is pleasant weather today which is good, the sun is shining and Marianne is on her way, she is off on her South Africa bus adventure next Tuesday.

So my last visit from her until 11 August, hope I can sit by then am determined to get outside before the end of summer.

Well enjoy the afternoon I will.