Category Archives: Interior

Mar 16 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Enigma

Friday 15th March 2024, 12.30pm (day 4,586)

Enigma machine, 15/3/24

Found another excuse to leave home for a while and come for a weekend in Milton Keynes, which may not sound the most immediately glamorous destination, but it does have the significant draw of Bletchley Park. It was here that World War 2 was won, arguably, when a (largely female) staff of thousands worked tirelessly to crack German ciphers, mainly produced by the now-famous Enigma machines, of which the museum still has a few dozen, out of about 450 surviving ones apparently.

Do you know that if Enigma had ever enciphered a letter as itself, the code would have been near-impossible to crack? But this was its fatal weakness, giving just enough indication that particular strings of gibberish might just be commonly-used phrases like “Wetter für heute” [‘the weather for today…’] and allowing each daily machine setting to be worked out.

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Mar 09 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

At uni, late

Thursday 7th March 2024, 5.05pm (day 4,578)

Late uni class, 7/3/24

I am not often to be found at work after 5pm — not ‘in the office’ anyway — and heaven forbid that uni’s now seemingly random system of allocating timetable slots gives me a 5-6pm class next year, or any other year. I can feel the ennui even when spying on them from across the corner of the Ellen Wilkinson Building.

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Feb 29 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Anticipation of a place to come

Wednesday 28th February 2024, 1.05pm (day 4,570)

Namibia map, 28/2/24

A day spent at home was enlivened by the arrival of a travel itinerary, map and other stuff from the very competent people I’ve been dealing with at Expert Africa regarding my upcoming travels — which will certainly get me out and about. As I may have already said on here more than once, I do like a good map. It was my flights over Namibia last year that prompted me to want to go there, and in April, I will.

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Feb 23 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Data and more data

Thursday 22nd February 2024, 5.30pm (day 4,564)

Spreadsheet, 22/2/24

This picture epitomises the week, not just the day. This is what ‘research leave’ means for me, at least this time round. I could tell you what it all means but it would be out of context and take too long. If too dulled out by it all you could, like me, get annoyed by the little speck of whatever between columns F and G and try to wipe it off — but it will be there forever, at least digitally.

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Feb 17 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Office idol

Friday 16th February 2024, 11.30am (day 4,558)

Office idol, 16/2/24

Students often give me gifts. Nothing major — I have never received an outright cash bribe, in case you were wondering — but things like tea, or things representative of their country somehow. I don’t solicit these, in fact I often wish they wouldn’t because I’m just doing my job. But some of them are nice and have made it into a kind of permanent residency status in my office at uni. This little idol is an example, and to my shame I can no longer remember who gave it to me or even, with any certainty, what country it is from, though it might be Indonesia.

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Feb 13 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Mwah!

Monday 12th February 2024, 9.25am (day 4,554)

Optician kiss, 12/2/24

One could say this is an ‘early’ sign of Valentine’s Day but of course that particular commercial outbreak has already been with us for weeks. Nevertheless: a big kiss to you all, courtesy of my optician, hence the spectacles lined up above.

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Feb 08 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

The flip-flop guy, through the door

Wednesday 7th February 2024, 5.00pm (day 4,549)

Spyhole shot, 7/2/24

Sat in my room after work, a strange flapping noise started in the corridor outside. It must have lasted ten minutes, coming and going in volume, before my curiosity was piqued enough to have a look and see what was causing it. Turned out it was a gentleman just walking up and down the corridor in his flip-flops. Clearly someone who needed to get his step count up — yet couldn’t be bothered to go outside. Anyway, the thought then crossed my mind about trying to get this shot through the spyhole in my door: a technical challenge that means, at least, I haven’t ended up with yet another shot of Torontonian buildings. The other alternative was a cheap brown squirrel pic, so let’s run with this one.

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Jan 31 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

In Café la Gaffe

Tuesday 30th January 2024, 9.50pm (day 4,541)

In Café la Gaffe, 30/1/24

This is not particularly Toronto-specific. There are at least three, and probably more, blatant electrical wires running across the shot in various directions. There are all sorts of reflections intruding and the head resides above what appears to be a fusebox. Nevertheless this is certainly my most interesting shot of the day, it feels to me like a collage. (The food in this place had similar characteristics — that is, random and possibly incompatible things nevertheless pushed together into the same space — but that’s another story.)

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Jan 28 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Ramen bar

Saturday 27th January 2024, 7.00pm (day 4,538)

Ramen bar, 27//1/24

London can pretty much provide access to all world cuisines, and in fact, Walthamstow on its own manages quite well. This Japanese ramen bar certainly hit the spot for my evening meal. There are a lot of brands of sake, aren’t there — I wonder if any of them taste any different from one another? It’s not a drink that seems to internalise a great deal of variety.

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Jan 26 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Jim’s wine

Thursday 25th January 2024, 4.35pm (day 4,536)

Jim's wine, 25/1/24

I did get very close today to the ‘having nothing to photograph’ assessment — but I did get the marking done. Justification for the latest trip to the pub, anyway: I am now officially On Sabbatical. As I ordered the first pint of this period I was reminded that I do like pub regular Jim’s habit of claiming his daily bottle of red wine. But even that, I couldn’t get properly in focus. 

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