You’ve seen plenty of photos of me in Moscow; for a change here is a Russian in Manchester, namely Olga, making her presentation at a sort-of conference I organised for them today. I like the way her hand has been caught in mid-gesture. They sure saw Manchester in a diversity of weather today, anyway — wild mood swings from foul to sun to foul again.
A day working at home, which I haven’t done for a while. By this time in the year the morning sun is too low to get above the hillside behind, and the house will only see afternoon sunlight until February. There’s a reason all our living rooms are on one side of the building: the bathroom, like the kitchen, is on the dark side of the house.
This is one of those places that is either totally empty or heaving with people. Better this way, I think. A study in colour and form from the University Place building on campus.
A pleasant, relaxing Sunday, with everyone toking their caffeine and generally chilling out. Everyone should have a day like this at least once a week.
The half-timbered structure in the rear is Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, probably the oldest extant pub in the city of Manchester, even if it has moved a couple of times. The lights in the foreground are reflected in the perspex fencing that keeps the Mitre Bar — where we were — from its more venerable and also cheaper rival.
Facebook friends have been seeing the growth of this ridiculous facial hair over the last two weeks but it’s time to put it on the blog. We are at the halfway point of Movember, and this is my effort, all done (I can assure you) to raise money for prostate cancer and other men’s health issues. I display this on here today not, at all, for its artistic merit but to beg for compensation at having to look like this — sponsor me at http://mobro.co/drewwhitworth if you feel I am worthy. Every little helps, thank you.
Today was noticeable for being an extremely wet day, even by Norwegian standards — there was flooding in parts of Bergen and up and down the west coast, with more rain to come tomorrow, but I have escaped home. I hope everyone back there is OK though. I am now not leaving the UK for some time, four and a half months is the current plan. This was taken on the last plane ride home before the break: the Bergen – Manchester service, which runs just once a week, and never, ever on time (shame on you SAS!).
Stavanger is the fourth-biggest city in Norway (and the first three have also featured on this blog at some point — Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim, in that order). It is the home of the Norwegian oil industry, and totally dominated by it — the university has a big mock oil rig right in the centre of the campus, and I bet you anyone you talk to in a bar or at the airport (unless it happens to be me) will be working on some petroleum-related task. This picture is taken over the pool of Breivatnet, which prettifies the city centre. And another thing you can tell from this picture — it’s nearly winter…
Yes, I’m travelling again – couple of days’ work in Norway. But after this trip I’m at home, at least am projected to be at home, for four and a half months, by far the longest such period since I started this blog. So I’ll have to find inspiration there. I’m sure I can do it.
Yes, I also spend a lot of time in pubs, I admit it, but that also means I appreciate a good one and the Cardinal certainly is good — I would go so far as to say that it’s the best I’ve found in Norway. Stunningly broad (if expensive) range of beers, great atmosphere: definitely a prime example of the genre. You’ll find it on the street called Skagen, close to the quayside in the city centre.
Coat and thermos flask notwithstanding, the fact one can be doing this in Manchester in mid-November is a sign that we continue to have plenty of mild weather. The more insane newspapers in the UK seem convinced that the storm that has hit the Philippines will somehow leap two oceans and half a world and, specifically, hit middle-class districts of the UK in the next few days, but there’s no evidence of this. (There never is very much evidence for anything included in the insane newspapers.)
The building where my office is located in Manchester (better than saying ‘where I work’… I work all over), is something of a concrete monstrosity, but it is wrapped around this nice courtyard with a highly concealed entrance, so no one ever goes there. But I have discovered it; it’s very nice, particularly at this time of year. I know it’s easy to overdo the ‘autumn leaves’ thing but it’s a good standby on days when there’s not much else to capture.
Being 42 