Wednesday 4th October 2023, 3.45pm (day 4,423)

This little cutie was clearly taking its first steps into the world of modelling. “Should I run and hide? Should I move in for the purr and rub? Or should I just pose?” Do the latter, that’s just fine.

This little cutie was clearly taking its first steps into the world of modelling. “Should I run and hide? Should I move in for the purr and rub? Or should I just pose?” Do the latter, that’s just fine.

Apparently “Mood” is the gender-neutral fragrance of the season, if the large stall in the Arndale Centre, exclusively devoted to tempting us to buy it, is anything to go by. But one might advise them to be a little more subtle when it comes to pumping out the scent. By the time I had walked past I was already sick of it.

The Conservative Party can’t even do incompetence competently — and by now, they have had lots of chances to practice it. Brilliantly, some idiot lets slip that the proposed high-speed rail link to Manchester is likely to be cancelled, in the very week that the party are holding its annual conference…. in Manchester. Frankly, I am so disillusioned about there being any prospect of genuine change in the trajectory not only of this country, but the human race, that I have largely stopped caring, but let’s at least document the existence of a political opposition to these clowns: unfortunately, sticking posters to lamp-posts seems to be the extent of it.

Some pubs are just superb inside, and I discovered today that The Central in Liverpool, just round the corner from Lime Street station, is certainly among them. Keeping those mirrors free of grime must be a full-time job (although probably easier than it was when smoking was still allowed in pubs) and this is just a small part of the whole. But what I really like about this picture is the way that the reflection of the woman on the screen looks like she has turned into the bride at some major Indian wedding.
Have we only just made it to October? Blimey.

22 men kicking a pig’s bladder (well, originally) around a muddy field, in the rain, up on a Yorkshire moor. But you know I like this kind of thing. Today, courtesy of Denholme United — the ones in yellow.

I was going to post something about how the truly large cave spiders that once lived in our shed (see here, for instance) haven’t made an appearance for a while. Then this morning — the day after this picture was taken — a “spider the size of a Buick” (to quote Woody Allen) turned up in the bathtub. This one’s big enough however. And I needed those bottles to decant the plum wine….

An upcoming short trip to London aside, I am not going anywhere in the near future: it will be at least February before I go anywhere radically different (meaning, outside the UK). It’s one of those periods where I need to find inspiration near to home. These plants will do for today, however. I don’t know what these actually are but to me they look like little paper chilli lanterns, hence the title of the post. All available for viewing in a window box a few doors down from my place, anyway.

Football matches are finishing later and later, now this whole ‘add on every second that players spend rolling around on the floor’ thing has kicked in. Rochdale v Chesterfield is still going on behind me at this point, even at 10pm, but I had to leave before the end to catch the train. Anyway, all of this is irrelevant to what I think is quite a pleasing shot of the moon riding on its little cloud.

Someone else’s art. It was nice, too — when I walked back past this on the way home (it is by the Chinese Arch in Manchester) it was finished and looked good, perhaps it will feature on here at some point in the future.