Friday 2nd August 2019, 1.55pm (day 2,899)
Another bit of travelling begins. First stop, London. Clare peruses possible future destinations in an exhbition at the British Library. This is her 99th appearance on the blog, incidentally.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Family Member
Joe and toe
Wednesday 31st July 2019, 2.30pm (day 2,897)
Another day when I didn’t leave the house. Joe will be fairly housebound for a while too, as today he went and had his “Sybil Fawlty” operation; in other words, the removal of an ingrowing toenail (this being what kicks off the fun in the Fawlty Towers episode, “The Germans”). He seemed fairly blasé about it all. But it’s not like he needs any great excuse to put his feet up at the moment — and why shouldn’t he, it’s the summer holiday.
The neverending sort-out continues
Monday 29th July 2019, 8.45am (day 2,895)
We have never seen our house empty. Not even when we moved in, eighteen years ago: the previous owner sold us all of his furniture along with the house. There is no cellar nor roof void in which to shove things. Therefore, concerted outbreaks of Stuff Management must occasionally punctuate our existence. Clare’s the specialist. But then again she’s a bigger hoarder than me.
Today is also proof also that I do still function, at least photographically, in the morning. This is the first pre-noon post since 10th July; a run of 18 consecutive afternoon shots.
Crossing Allt a’ Mhuillin
Saturday 20th July 2019, 2.20pm (day 2,886)
Ben Nevis is a mountain of two sides, for sure. On the south side, a vast but rather dull slope up which hundreds toil daily; the payoff for climbing continuously for three hours being the chance to attain the status of Most Elevated Person in Great Britain, at 4,411 feet (or 1,345 metres). We secured this goal at 11.24am.
But going up that way doesn’t show you the other side, the North Face, with its stupendous crags and (after the tourist path) blissful sollitude. This is the connoisseur’s side of the mountain, the place where you can really look up and feel, yep: this is the culminating point of the whole country, it really doesn’t get any bigger than this.
Joe and the glaciers
Saturday 6th July 2019, 11.20am (day 2,872)
As it says on the relevant website: “The exhibition gives visitors the chance to delve into the collections of six different cultural institutions: from thousand-year-old treasures to the latest in Icelandic art. Its focus is on the visual expression of the ideas we have about the world, our environment and ourselves. The materials and techniques may change over the years, but the viewpoints remain the same.”
So other people’s art again; here, 42 (yes!) photographs of Icelandic glaciers, with Joe to give some perspective. He said he liked the place too….
Joe ponders the gardening
Monday 1st July 2019, 3.55pm (day 2,867)
Joe finished his GCSE exams a couple of weeks ago and so now, like all the UK’s 15-16 year olds, has an extended summer holiday, interrupted only insofar as his parents nag him to do things to get him out of the house. Attending part of the annual allotment summer tidy up (July is inspection month) didn’t seem to enthuse him much though. But the redcurrants are ready to eat (all six of them).
“The Handmaid’s Tale”
Tuesday 25th June 2019, 8.55pm (day 2,861)
Could John Logie Baird have foreseen ‘the box set’, I wonder. Perhaps so — after all it’s not radically removed from the novel as Dickens wrote it. With his exams finished, Joe here adopts a position he’ll doubtless choose to remain in all summer, although we’re working on it. Meanwhile, Clare knits to relieve the excitement.
Shoe shop (self-portrait)
Sunday 9th June 2019, 12.05pm (day 2,845)
After two new countries (new to the blog, at least) and several new locations over the last week and a half, the pendulum swings, and the next three weeks see me mainly at home. I can’t promise excitement but I will do my best, better than today I hope, anyway. As you can see I’m pondering a change of style. (Actually the shoes were being bought for Joe.) And more place-related trivia — the first ever weekend of the blog where both Saturday and Sunday shots were taken in Manchester.
Self-portrait with Terminator eye
Saturday 4th May 2019, 3.55pm (day 2,809)
Apologies for introducing you to today’s defining event, the sub-conjunctival haemorrhage which actually feels fine from inside but all day made me look somewhat like The Terminator.
This is one of the few photos on the blog not taken with my regular camera; this is a selfie with the much inferior lens on my phone. But lacking the same ‘flip screen’ function as the phone means it was impossible to get the same shot with the camera. You may be regretting this.
Night out with C & G
Friday 22nd March 2019, 9.15pm (day 2,766)
There was the chance of a Hebden Bridge picture this morning, but it didn’t come to pass, which means the one last Monday was the last for a month; I’m off on a substantial trip. The first stage of this was to go to London and have a Friday night out with (amongst others) these two lovely people, the wife and George, making her third appearance on the blog…. a good evening was had, for sure….
Being 42 