One of those days where it threw it down with rain for my journey to work — including the walking outside bits — and then two hours later it was glorious sunshine. It’s the gap between teaching and exams so the campus is relatively chilled out. These two seem to be getting on well even if they do only have one leg between them.
Left Dundee this morning after an enjoyable stay. Anyone travelling south from there by rail will begin their journey with a crossing of the Tay Bridge, scene of one of Britain’s worst rail disasters when the original, and poorly-built, version of the bridge collapsed in high winds in 1879, taking a train and 75 people with it. (The only survivor was the locomotive, which was salvaged and remained in service for another 50 years.) Fortunately for us all, the replacement bridge was built rather more durably.
I know this photo teeters on the brink of being deliberately bad but hey, I’m feeling experimental. The rain was sheeting down outside the windows as I crossed on the 0924 Dundee – Edinburgh service, so this is the best I could do. And, of course, this photo is taken from the rail bridge — but it’s a photo of the newer road bridge (completed 1967), with the still-extant shipyard behind.
You didn’t think I was going to come all the way to Scotland to work and not get a walk in, did you? This is about an hour north of Dundee by road, the southern edge of the Cairngorms National Park. Here we are about 2,600 feet above sea level, at the head of Glen Clova. A good walk today.
I am here in Dundee to finish off writing a paper with my colleague Annalisa and this task was undertaken today at her house; and this is the man of said house. The rest of us are just staff. Milo becomes the third cat in a row to feature on this blog where I’ve known its name, after Harry and Mathilda, the last two CCSs (Cheap Cat Shots).
I’m not facing head-on the General Election that is taking place today. In any case nothing will be resolved until tomorrow morning at the very earliest, and probably several days after that if the opinion polls are to be believed. I left home very early this morning because of work commitments in Dundee, Scotland, a city I have never visited before, and this shot of the evening light there (plus the small plane — does it look like a blotch, or does it add to the shot?) makes this only the second Scottish location, after Edinburgh (April last year), to feature on this blog. It may be that the Scottish Nationalists hold the balance of power after today’s voting, so this could be an appropriate location to spend the next few days.
The St Thomas’ Centre, where I did some work today, is a converted church, and its front yard is paved with these grave markers. Which would have made an excellent photo had it not been hurling down with rain whenever I was outside: the wettest day in months, actually. So, bad photo alert. Sorry.
Another trip to London. This was taken at Waterloo station — the busiest railway station in Britain by number of passengers — these two were just part of the throng, but I like the way they’ve been captured in relative isolation.
That’s the nice thing about this commitment to record the everyday. Sometimes your basic wall will just turn up and surprise you.
Following the perceived success of last year’s passing of the Tour de France, everyone decided it would be a good idea to run another professional cycle race along our street — only this time going up the hill rather than down it. The end result was much the same — a lot of guys on bikes came past very quickly and 30 seconds after they had done so, all the spectators went home.
Last game of the 2014-15 Championship season. Most Brighton fans will follow this with, “thank God”. It’s not been one of our better ones. But we have avoided relegation, anyway, and today marked this with our annual ‘Flying Squad’ gathering at the last game, which this year was in Middlesbrough. A good atmosphere, a reasonable game, but 0-0, sums up our season. The Flying Squad are so named because many of them come in from abroad, including Phil here, who lives in Canada.
Being 42 