Wednesday 23rd September 2015, 2.45pm (day 1,490)
Well, I can still see, anyway. But can I see better than the viewfinder of my camera? Only I and my optometrist know for sure.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Interior
Rydal cave
Saturday 5th September 2015, 12.40pm (day 1,472)
Rydal cave, on the slopes of Loughrigg Fell, is the biggest cave in the Lake District. As A. Wainwright says in his Pictorial Guide, “there is room in here for the entire population of Ambleside (though admittedly many of them would be standing in water)”. It’s not a natural cave however; instead, it is the product of quarrying. I guess you need a certain confidence in the local geology to dig out such a big hole…
Board games festival
Saturday 29th August 2015, 4.55pm (day 1,465)
Anyone who has documented every day of their lives online for more than four years cannot but be at least part-geek, so things like festivals of board games appeal to me, and I wasn’t even the member of the family who initiated this trip to “MeepFest” in Leeds today. (No, it wasn’t Joe either.) Great setting, a church in Leeds now converted to an arts centre. Good fun gaming, too.
Agricultural debris
Sunday 23rd August 2015, 2.55pm (day 1,459)
Passed on a walk through the countryside, on a muggy day. I dislike this kind of agricultural mess (why should someone feel free to litter the place just because they farm it?) while at the same time liking it as a subject for a picture.
Old dressing room, Hampden Park
Saturday 22nd August 2015, 12.10pm (day 1,458)
Hampden Park is Scotland’s national football stadium and also home of Queen’s Park FC, currently in the fourth tier of Scottish football, a bizarre but strangely endearing arrangement surely not replicated elsewhere in world football. The stadium has been on this site since 1903 and when it was substantially rebuilt in the 1990s this old version of one dressing room was preserved as part of the Scottish Football Museum. In this room, more or less, Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt prepared before the 1960 European Cup Final, often cited as one of the best games of football ever played (7-3 to Real).
Under the umbrella
Monday 10th August 2015, 4.15pm (day 1,446)
I returned to work. It rained. Well, these things will happen, they still need documenting…
Glass in restaurant
Friday 7th August 2015, 7.40pm (day 1,443)
Because this blog is just me documenting my life, one day at a time, as it comes, it is inevitable that the periods of activity and interest must subside. Little will happen over the next couple of weeks. Spent all morning doing the photos from the trip, then the afternoon unpacking, the evening reacquainting myself with the local pub and eating out. So this is as good as I could do today.
Packing for Kilimanjaro
Thursday 23rd July 2015, 1.50pm (day 1,428)
OK, we’re finally here. I’m off tomorrow for the first stages of a trip that on Sunday 2nd August should culminate with me reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro, at 19,340 feet (5,895 meters). I’m not taking the laptop so there will be a two-week hiatus in the blogging, but hopefully not in the picture-taking — I have a backup camera just in case… I’m certainly ready, in fact I feel like I am just hanging around and am very keen to get on with it. So let’s do it. I’m back late on 6th August, will probably be spending all day on the 7th sorting out the social media, so expect to hear from me again then. In the mean time, if you would like to support my fundraising cause, the Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team, feel free to visit my sponsorship page: every little helps and all monies raised will go to the CVSRT.
Clifford’s Tower, York
Monday 20th July 2015, 3.40pm (day 1,425)
First weekday of Joe’s school summer holiday and first weekday of my break too. Took him to York. This is Clifford’s Tower, which in 1190 was the scene of a notorious suicide/massacre by hundreds of persecuted Jews, and has been more-or-less in ruins since someone accidentally set fire to it in 1684. Today, venue for a school party of Americans to be conducted by their teacher (below) in a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. Tuneless — as ‘Happy Birthday’ always is when sung, fewer tunes are massacred more often.
Still life in pub
Sunday 19th July 2015, 3.55pm (day 1,424)
One of the most indolent days of this year, or indeed any year. So be it. I’ll be active enough in a few days’ time.
Being 42 