The rain came down again. It won’t be a white Christmas this year, unlike the last two. When my sister & her family came round, indoor games were the order of the day. I like this shot for its signs of movement. Joe’s 4-1 up, but I don’t know what the final score was. His tactic is usually to twizz both spinners round at maximum velocity for the entire game. Sometimes it can be devastatingly effective.
24 people from the neighbourhood gathered in the ex-pub over the road to eat good home-cooked food and drink wine. Call it a ‘Solstice celebration’ (for today was the shortest day of the year), or a pre-Christmas get-together; it doesn’t matter, the good food and the good emotions remain either way. This is Christmas, for me: forget the presents, the best thing about it is the excuse it offers to push the boat out a little further and indulge in some really excellent eating for a few days. Tonight’s meal was great, and I didn’t have to lift a finger.
A week off work, but I’m at home. When this happens I tend to cook. I like doing it and I like the results, which also tend to go down well with others. I don’t have to do Christmas dinner this year, so let’s get the time in now.
That I was sat on my bed watching Taxi Driver at 1.30pm is sign enough. That I decided this picture best encapsulated the day says more still. Well, I’m on vacation. I had a huge supermarket run later and made a bloody good dinner, if it makes you feel any better.
Is Scorsese’s 5 minutes in this movie the best director’s cameo of all time, or what? “You see that woman at the window? That’s my wife. But that’s not my apartment…. You know who lives there….?”
Two nice things today. Sold a photo (framed) to someone who wanted it as a photo, and not as a Christmas card or calendar. And when I showed yesterday’s photo of her hands to the spinning lady, she bought a copy of it too. Which was very satisfying.
Today was my last day at work for 11 days – I’m on my Christmas break. So is Joe, it was his last day at school for two weeks. However, the most distinctive thing I saw today was this lens case, next to me while I was having my annual eye test. Of all the bits of my body, my eyes have probably been the most properly looked after for the longest time. Wouldn’t want to be without them…
Today I was the University of Manchester’s representative at the graduation ceremony of our partner, the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Like all graduates these guys have worked very hard. Like all of us they face an uncertain future, but hey, that’s what futures are. Good luck to them all. This was a good day.
The Juke Box Is Your Friend.
This one’s pretty good. There’s no Joy Division, Spiritualized. Ministry, Santana, LCD Soundsystem, Pink Floyd, Lard, or Can. But there is plenty of Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Stones, the Doors, Bowie, and occasional outbreaks of the Temptations, the Sex Pistols, Primal Scream and other positives. I invest three or four quid a week in it. It’s money well spent.
Although feeling sometimes like I do rather too much of this flying lark I do like looking at the departure boards in airports and thinking one day, I’ll just turn up and go somewhere random. I like the odd juxtaposition of destinations on this mural. Bangkok and Orkney in the same context – that won’t happen too often. Home tonight, though not until after midnight.
Not easy to encapsulate a day which was the third in a row spent at home trying to entertain Joe (I’ve been single-parenting this weekend) and where the only real distinctiveness was having to do some minor DIY to fix an electrical problem in the house. It’s hard to take photos of the Boy these days without him sticking his tongue out (see October 8th, for example)… so here’s an abstract for you. It might not be exciting, but then again, neither was 20/11/11.
Being 42 