Couldn’t decide between two pictures today and went with this one largely to avoid having two pictures in the same weekend taken in the cinema. But this one will do. It has been a while since something has used the dry dock in Hebden town centre, but this barge obliged today while also being quite well-decorated, although what a tsunami has to do with the water on a canal does pass me by. Wishful thinking perhaps?
After dull weather for what seems like the whole year, at least in Yorkshire, the forecast relented and a Saturday walk in the sunshine duly transpired. I am pleased with this shot; the positioning seems just right and she does make quite a nice shape. The walk was quite good too (but more details are still to be posted on the County Tops blog — bear with me).
Today it was either Harvey Keitel or an avocado. I asked the wife. She said, she liked the avocado, but, Harvey Keitel. So here you are. (You know the movie, right?)
Hello, friend. The bloody thing is that today was another wake. Too many, too fast.
I don’t think the police will be called for this one, although somewhere there may well be a small person distraught over the loss of their soulmate and demanding major investigations. To those who want to know, then, this morning it was in the Hebden Water, just upstream from the weir by the White Lion. If retrieved and given some tumble dryer attention there might even be a reunion.
I didn’t go on from Dubai to China — this is Manchester. The lanterns have all appeared since I was last there a week ago, so get to make their regular appearance on the blog: I think most Februaries have featured them in some form.
Another one where the verticals are doing a lot of the work. He looked pretty keen to get on the train that was coming: so was I, as it was the first leg (well, second, if I include the five-minute walk there from the hotel) of my journey home. I might be back next year… I might not. I probably wouldn’t come to Dubai on my own account but it’s not a bad place I suppose.
Last day in Dubai. Taking a picture of attendees at the course I’ve been teaching on while here (undepicted…) there was a frisson of excitement as I pulled out my ‘vintage’ compact camera, as if usage of such things is simply anachronistic in 2026. I have tried taking photos on the phone, though, and it just doesn’t work as well when it comes to zoom and focus. I doubt this pic could possibly have been taken on a phone, not the combination of detail in the foreground and the soft-focus of the background, not from the distance at which I was standing, anyway. And it’s that combination that I like here. When this camera finally does die — and it won’t be long, I predict — I will try to get another one. And another, until we’re all so anachronistic that we’re not here any more.
Not necessarily the kind of thing one expects to see on opening the curtains in the morning, but I guess that’s what happens when one’s room overlooks the gym of the hotel next door. This is the first time boxing has been depicted on the blog actually in progress, but the tags allow me to connect this with a group of Albanians seen some 12½ years ago…. whither them I wonder?
A small, but nice thing about coming to work somewhere else is that it changes my commute to ‘the office’, or in this case, ‘the hotel in which the teaching is taking place’. Instead of sitting on a Northern Rail cattle truck in the February rain I get, for a couple of days, to take a 10-minute walk in the sunshine. I can’t just walk through the park though, as currently it is occupied by a food festival, the gate of which can be seen behind the sign. Maybe I’ll have time to check it out on Sunday, but not today.
Yes, I know, the skyscrapers are somewhat on the slant; but it was either them, or the sign. Such is the impact of cheapo gear. I’m impressed my camera still works, in fact: it’s reaching the three-year mark, which has been the historic limit for them since I started taking pictures every day.
Being 42 