Author Archives: Drew Whitworth

Oct 22 2020
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Being a Reader

Wednesday 21st October 2020, 3.40pm (day 3,345)

Reading in pub, 21/10/20

My job title is Reader. That means, as a local Prof once put it to me, that there are times when I should just be doing some f***ing reading. I agree with him, and accept that it’s a perk of the job that there are times I can validly do it while nursing a pint of Old Peculier during working hours.

The book, by the way, is Nick Hayes’ The Book of Trespass and I highly recommend it, particularly if you are (specifically) English. It has a lot to say about how control is asserted over our national psyche.

Oct 21 2020
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Daily Post, Sport

Asserting a right

Tuesday 20th October 2020, 7.15pm (day 3,344)

Atherton Collieries FC, 20/10/20

Going to see a football match is such a simple, harmless thing, and no one is compelled to do it. Our Glorious Leader and some associated bureaucrats, desperate to deflect blame away from the fact they’ve all been promoted above their level of competence, are desperate to take this pleasure away. Region is being played off against region, town against town, neighbour against neighbour even, and simple, harmless things are suddenly not so simple any more. What a farce all this has been, and a no-deal Brexit still to come.

This is about half an hour before kick off at Atherton Collieries’ very fine little ground, by the way. The hosts were smiling at the end — the scoreboard read 5-0 by full time.

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Oct 20 2020
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Royd Terrace stays in touch

Monday 19th October 2020, 11.50am (day 3,343)

Satellite dishes, 19/10/20

Whether or not Authority spasms and throws out arbitrary diktats in the next few weeks will not change the fact that I have plenty of work to do, and opportunities to get out of Hebden Bridge are going to be limited. So, Johnson, Our Glorious Leader, do your worst, I don’t care any more. Expect more photos of the local area. I don’t know why I focused on this run of satellite dishes on the street of Royd Terrace this morning — possibilities range from a ‘staying in touch’ metaphor, up to and including the decline of civilisation itself. Perhaps.

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Oct 19 2020
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Hammock smile

Sunday 18th October 2020, 2.00pm (day 3,342)

Hammock smile, 18/10/20

I don’t get to spend enough time in hammocks. There is something deeply relaxing about this mode of relaxation. A shame the weather is getting colder now and this one — lying outside the houses that stand above our allotment — probably won’t be used much now, until the spring. (Spring 2021 seems even longer away this year than usual, sadly.)

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Oct 18 2020
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Joe’s tour of inspection

Saturday 17th October 2020, 10.55am (day 3,341)

Joe inspects Staffs Uni, 17/10/20

Astonishing as this may seem, our Joe is now at the stage where he is putting together applications for university in 2021-22. Staffordshire University, in Stoke-on-Trent, is on the list, but all any of them can offer at the moment are ‘virtual open days’ which provide info, sure, but not a feeling for the place. And that’s essential if you’re going to spend three years anywhere. So we arranged for our own little tour of inspection today, both of the campus and the city. And despite it being dead, like the set of a post-apocalypse movie dead — the campus tour did not seem to be offputting. Perhaps then we will be seeing more of this place in the future.

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Oct 18 2020
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Hebden Bridge

Mural (no longer heron)

Friday 16th October 2020, 1.30pm (day 3,340)

I quite like the heron mural that occupied this spot until fairly recently; now it has become this. Possibly this blog is now the only record of how it used to look. I do quite like its successor too, but this photo is more of all the various quadrilaterals on the side of what used to be the Hole in the Wall pub and has been ‘under refurbishment’ for what seems like years now.

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Oct 16 2020
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Daily Post, Landscape

Ether Knott

Thursday 15th October 2020, 1.15pm (day 3,339)

Ether Knott, 15/10/20

The start of teaching has been delayed four weeks this year, but the summer can’t last forever. This is basically my last three-day gap of freedom before it all kicks in. And in weather like today, I made the most of it — as did the other walker just visible on this shot, below the summit of Ether Knott, a minor protuberance above Borrowdale. Behind, Skiddaw, one of the Lake District (and England’s) 3,000-footers. Boosting one’s immune system is very much the way to go, whatever the lockdowners think.

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Oct 14 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Ladybird (possibly evil)

Wednesday 14th October 2020, 10.50am (day 3,338)

Station ladybird, 14/10/20

Clare tells me there are both good and evil ladybirds — the latter being invasive species, of which this specimen may be an example. Whatever, it seemed to develop an attachment to me: after I took this photo of it at the railway station it then hitched a ride on my mug of tea and by now will be living it up in Manchester — or whatever the ladybird equivalent is.

And no, I do not know what the problem is with removing the label. Perhaps I should find out one day.

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Oct 14 2020
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Sunny spot and red cyclist

Tuesday 13th October 2020, 8.20am (day 3,337)

Manchester cyclist, 13/10/20

One of those days which was absolutely gorgeous until I arrived at work, and then after I left, it was dreadful, grey and raining. So let’s document the morning; featuring the second red-clad cyclist in three days. I like this spot on my walk to work, huddled beneath the Mancunian Way but very pleasant, particularly on an autumn morning.

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Oct 13 2020
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Daily Post, Transport

Going out in style

Monday 12th October 2020, 11.45am (day 3,336)

Horse drawn hearse, 11/10/20

One of those where the object of interest had turned at a junction and was trotting away from me in the distance before I realised how interesting it was. But I just about got the shot. That is the way to go, is it not. And this is the second horse-drawn hearse to appear on here, the first being in London back in January 2014.

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