Wednesday 17th June 2020, 11.05am (day 3,219)
This is very Hebden Bridge. Strictly a one-person only library, however — which I guess at the present time is seen as healthy.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Interior
“Shop for Britain”
Tuesday 16th June 2020, 11.30am (day 3,218)
I did two things today which I have not done since 21st March — 1) get on a train 2) go to Manchester.
A tabloid headline seen yesterday exhorted me to “SHOP FOR BRITAIN!” and who am I to ignore the clarion call of the redtops? There weren’t many other people who accompanied me, as evident from this shot of the epicentre of the Manchester Arndale Centre, but I guess that’s something we should approve of, at this time of doublethink.
Cold day in June
Tuesday 9th June 2020, 11.55am (day 3,211)
The heady feeling of freedom engendered by three days in a row out of Hebden was decisively brought to an end. I had to work — which means, these days, staying at home (it is now over three months since I was last on campus on March 8th). And it was cold, too: cold enough to put the heater on, anyway. In the background, Lego guy turns his back in disgust at this lack of moral fibre.
Away (but not away)
Friday 5th June 2020, 8.35pm (day 3,207)
On this day last year I was in Corfu. Today, I should have been in Tromsø at the “Creating Knowledge” conference. The stats of this blog show that over the last nine years or so I have subsisted on a diet of a lot of travel, mainly for work but with a healthy amount of personal exploration thrown in. Not this year, though. And what with the devastation that this will wreak to airlines and the welcoming nature of immigration counters around the world (that was irony), who knows? Perhaps this will be a permanent shift. We will have to see.
Concept for a movie mash-up
Wednesday 3rd June 2020, 6.30pm (day 3,205)
A deeply dull day. By the evening I was reduced to casting my eye around the randomly organised piles of DVDs around the place and playing mash-up games, cross-fertilising. I’d pitch this one to Hollywood, but probably someone has already done a screenplay.
Place of work
Wednesday 27th May 2020, 1.05pm (day 3,198)
Even under conditions of normality I was due an unexciting week at home, whatever the weather. It’s Marking Season.
But a day spent sat in an attic, on a rocking chair covered in a white shawl, while the sun beats down outside? Bugger me. Didn’t middle age come on fast.
Planning the reality transition
Tuesday 26th May 2020, 3.10pm (day 3,197)
After yesterday’s explosion of freedom, a day spent entirely at home and mostly marking. Here, however, are my notes as to how the next teaching semester is going to pan out, following instructions from the holy of holies (UoM) regarding how they see Paranoia transitioning back to a sense of reality. We start teaching late October, apparently — and some face-to-face. I welcome that. But it’s still months away.
Kalamata olives (and meeple)
Sunday 24th May 2020, 3.45pm (day 3,195)
Lockdown notwithstanding, I live in a middle class enclave, so the olives are still flowing. I am middle class enough to say, ‘thankfully’.
In the background, a meeple from today’s Sunday afternoon distraction, Carcassonne; I like the two star-shapes complementing each other.
Planning activities
Sunday 17th May 2020, 5.40pm (day 3,188)
I know I am not the only one to whom this has happened, but I have lost all the little things, outside my immediate home, that gave my life pleasure. Except one — and that one thing is walking, experiencing the countryside. I spent the day reading, planning, looking forward. That’s a large part of the fun, in fact.
And yes, I need the reading glasses to do it. So they can take their rightful place on the stage.
Kitchen abstract
Friday 15th May 2020, 6.25pm (day 3,186)
And so it has come to this after eight weeks of lockdown — abstract shapes in the washing-up bowl. And on a Friday evening too. But they are pleasing shapes, at least to me.
