Wednesday 18th February 2026, 4.30pm (day 5,291)
Brrrr! It’s cold outside. Get that fire lit!
First flames
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Interior
Harvey Keitel (kinda)
Friday 13th February 2026, 9.40pm (day 5,286)
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?)
Al Fardan Exchange metro
Monday 9th February 2026, 11.30am (day 5,282)
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.
Authentic incomprehensibility
Friday 30th January 2026, 2.10pm (day 5,272)
In case you were wondering I have been doing at least some work on this trip, including today, spent in the Asian and African Reading Room of the British Library, carrying on hunting down some sources relevant to St Helena and the East India Company. Some of them were useful and interesting (published tirades against incompetent former Governors and Deputies which for vituperativeness rival anything 21st century social media can offer). Some were useful, but not authentic documents; photocopies are OK but not quite the same when it comes to feeling connected to the authors.
This one was authentic — but as you can see, almost completely incomprehensible. I can see an ‘and’ here and there. And, oh look, that’s an ‘if’ towards the bottom right. How much valuable information is now lost despite being properly preserved and archived — simply because the handwriting is so goddamn awful?
St Denys’ church, Rotherfield
Thursday 29th January 2026, 12.40pm (day 5,271)
The little Sussex village of Rotherfield has two things going for it, as far as I am concerned. The first is that it was where I lived through my teenage years, more or less. The fact it has never before appeared on the blog (thus becoming featured place no. 522 with this shot) indicates that I have had little reason to come back here since departing in 1988 — at least not since the rest of the family also decamped from there a few years later. But I did make a day trip there today, for curiosity and something to do as much as anything else.
The second thing Rotherfield has in its favour is its church, a 13th-century masterpiece, a monstrously large building for such a little place. It’s the only thing worth seeing in the village but worth seeing it definitely is. Check out those ancient murals on the wall ahead, visible to the left of and above the arch: not to mention the 1,500-year old yew outside. These things were seen…. and now Rotherfield may well be unvisited again by me for a decade and a half. But hopefully all this will still be there for many years to come.
Dewsbury station footbridge
Saturday 24th January 2026, 11.50am (day 5,266)
I have been meaning to feature the footbridge at Dewsbury railway station for a while: it’s just got an appealingly old-fashioned feel to it. On the far end also resides one of the best station pubs in the country — yes, almost as good as Stalybridge’s — it is undepicted here but take my word for it. It’s the best thing about Dewsbury, anyway.
In the doorway
Friday 23rd January 2026, 5.00pm (day 5,265)
It’s Friday, it’s 5pm and, well, we’re in the usual place. It’d be great if the golden glow behind the beer glass was some tropical sunset, but sadly not, In fact we’ve barely seen sunshine for two weeks.
In the depths of New Street
Sunday 11th January 2026, 3.05pm (day 5,253)
And another photo taken at a railway station but not depicting a train — or, in this case, even any tracks. Birmingham New Street, the busiest railway station in the UK outside London, is almost the epitome of a hole in the ground, with all the tracks squatting below the gigantic retail edifice that is the station building itself. I suppose, up there, the place is OK but the platforms are not a place in which one feels like hanging around very long. Still, at least our train home was punctual, unlike the last time I depicted the place on here.
Taking the pressure
Tuesday 6th January 2026, 2.35pm (day 5,248)
It’s the new year, and thoughts turn to those of health and happiness in the months to come. I think my blood pressure is OK, a little on the high side perhaps but nothing really major to worry about.
Moonwalking
Friday 2nd January 2026, 12.50pm (day 5,244)
Courtesy of Clare’s Xmas present for her mother (Carol), and the ‘Lightroom’ immersive movie theatre at the Aviva Studios in Manchester, we got to go Moonwalking today, at least for a little while. The main thing I learned was that the Moon has really good landscape photography potential. Other than that, was it worth £30 for 50 minutes of Tom Hanks’s narration and other people’s children, not yet familiar with the concept of quiet contemplation, being boisterous? Hmmm, well, just about.
I did try to crop it so the feet to the bottom left, and the corner of the ceiling to top left were not visible: but it didn’t work out.
Being 42 