I like cooking. I like beer. It was an inevitability that the two would come together at some point. This is my third ever batch of home-made beer. I’ll tell you around Christmastime whether it was any good or not.
I took last Friday off (see below) because I was teaching all day today. At the same time I didn’t leave the house. This is no contradiction; it is a sign that I do good chunks of my teaching online. The classroom of the 21st century can be sat on the lap, my connection represented by the little green eye of the web cam.
Would I want to teach this way all the time? No, but at least two people today said how glad they were that I did, because it opened up an otherwise unavailable education to them. And that, alone, gives it value.
‘An original idea? That can’t be hard to find. The library must be full of them.’ (Stephen Fry, Making History)
This wasn’t the most dynamic of academic conferences – I mean, they never are, really, but this was more sedate than most. So not a huge range of pictures to choose from today. I like the semi-random pattern of reds and greens on this shot.
God, it’s been a busy week. Even something like the Hippodrome seems a month ago. Came back from work late and knackered but instead of doing the sensible thing and going straight home I went and watched my lot on TV for the second time in 48 hours – my lot being Brighton, and as I live in West Yorkshire, I did so in a pub full of Leeds fans. At least they know me. 2-0 down after 25 minutes, we went 3-2 up with five minutes to go: buggers still equalised though didn’t they. Final score 3-3. I need to sleep.
No single photo or few lines of text can do justice to this place. Several people I spoke to today, from the district of Hulme, said that this used to be a real asset to the area.Derelict, but still just about hanging in there, this place is owned by an evangelical ministry and seems also to have a community group on its case, trying to stop it either falling down completely or being ripped down by developers. Hulme was one of the places hit by the civil unrest back in August. Right-wingers want to strip ‘benefits’ from anyone caught nicking a bottle of Lucozade at that time but they won’t raise a finger to restore an incredible place like this for the REAL benefit of the community. I could go on and this page would get angrier, but you get the point I’m sure.
(Thanks to Vicky for showing it to me and also not complaining as I snuck her into the corner of the pictures…)
Hebden Bridge is known for being packed full of ‘independent’ stores. This means that you can’t buy many useful things, like a pair of pants or a washing machine, but you can find five or six retailers here from whom you can buy a chamomile-scented candle shaped like a pyramid.
However, when one wants to get an otherwise reluctant child to do something with you just after school chucking-out time, the fact that we have an old, traditional sweet shop (candy store) is something of a bonus.
I’d like to say this is a piece of corporate motivational crap, but actually I find myself nodding in agreement…
So far there are no other people in these photos. To me places are more interesting when they are quiet. I like being first one in the gym in the morning, but don’t think I do it because I am particularly keen: more the case is that if I don’t do it first thing, I don’t do it. And I need to do it.
I like my house. I wouldn’t have been here more than 10 years, otherwise. Although it’s on a main road, and bits of it have a tendency to fall off now and again, I like the fact that it’s not some identikit Barratt Homes bollocks. I like the way the sun shines into the attic in the morning and turns it golden. I like that I can work here and not have to trug into Manchester every day. There will be many days over the next year where the defining feature is that I spent most of the time here. But I hope that will never be a problem, as it has not been for the last decade.
