Category Archives: Family Member

Jun 12 2025
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

“One day lad, all this will be yours”

Wednesday 11th June 2025, 11.50am (day 5,039)

Doune Castle window, 11/6/25

Joe makes his first appearance on the blog since December. Why this window? Why the post title? This is Doune Castle, and some 51 years ago, in 1974, Michael Palin and Terry Jones were stood by this very window during the filming Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Doune stood in for at least four different castles in the movie. “But mother…..” “Father, lad, father.” “But father….. I don’t want to marry her, I just want to, want to…..” (The ignorant can check out the scene at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3YiPC91QUk)

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May 22 2025
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Campus selfie

Thursday 22nd May 2025, 1.45pm (day 5,019)

First shot from Manchester since the 6th. Do I really spend so little time there these days? At some yet-to-be-determined date in the future, I will, of course, take my last ever shot from there, not so much the city but from campus more specifically. I will not be working at uni for the rest of my life unless that life ends unexpectedly, and fairly soon. But for now I am still going in. I do not know what this sculpture represents though it has clearly been built from the same stuff, and at the same time, as the building that surrounds the courtyard in which it stands. If I have a favourite place on campus, this is probably it.

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Feb 14 2025
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

The wife makes notes

Thursday 13th February 2025, 4.35pm (day 4,921)

Clare takes notes, 13/2/25

At least by recent standards, this has been (and will remain) a very uneventful week. But one can still take notes about it. Clare, indeed, can take notes about almost anything, a phenomenon I have been observing for more than a quarter of a century now. Note both the writing and the pointing hand: the information is being processed even at the moment of its creation…

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Dec 22 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Joe’s card trick (with risqué deck)

Sunday 22nd December 2024, 3.20pm (day 4,868)

Risqué cards, 22/12/24

Joe — or his hands, anyway — makes his first visit to Hebden Bridge since the summer, and first appearance on the blog since 7th September, demonstrating a rather nifty card trick: I did work out how it was done in the end, but it took some figuring out.

Can we both note that the deck of cards (and they are all like that, more-or-less) in fact belongs to the wife, although she claims I bought it for her….

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Dec 13 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Class of 24/25 (and teacher)

Thursday 12th December 2024, 1.30pm (day 4,858)

Class of 24/25, 12/12/24

In the last of my taught classes last year, it took about three-quarters of an hour (or felt like it did) for all the students to get their shots with teacher that then go onto social media, somewhere. (And, see also 2022’s version of same.). As I am, essentially, a grumpy man, I insisted that this year I would do it on everyone’s behalf. Apologies to those whom I have eclipsed.

There have been very few shots of my 4,858 so far which have been taken using the self-timer, but there have been some: any of the astronomical efforts (e.g. this shot of Jupiter and its moons, of which I’m still quite proud) will have used it. But I’m sure this is the first where I’ve used the timer to take a photo of myself, with or without others, and used it as the daily picture. So there you are, this is what I look like when I’m not taking a photo.

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Dec 08 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Sister and brother-in-law

Sunday 8th December 2024, 2.25pm (day 4,854)

Vicki and Pete, 8/12/24

A visit from Vicki and Pete, and as I get inexorably older, days like this are increasingly welcome. I think the relatives are happy about it too, despite how Pete may look on this shot.

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Nov 10 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Parents

Saturday 9th November 2024, 3.05pm (day 4,825)

80th birthday party, 9/11/24

My Mum was 80 last month — my Dad is 80 next month. We split the difference and held a joint 80th birthday party today (hence the banner across the door), at my sister’s place. Mum and Dad do seem to still like each other after over 58 years of marriage, which, of course, is how it should be. Happy birthdays to them.

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Sep 09 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Meeting Joe halfway

Saturday 7th September 2024, 4.00pm (day 4,762)

Clare and Joe at Heaton Stannington, 7/9/24

With Joe now living in Dundee we have determined that Newcastle is the halfway point between us, geographically. Hence, this weekend, built around an evening out but also (it being me) a trip to a football match and a chance to laze around in the sunshine on the grassy acres of Heaton Stannington FC (a ground which thoroughly deserves the awards it has received for its beer, by the way).

Of course, the title of this blog has non-geographical implications too, as with all parents and their children. And if you saw pictures of me when I was Joe’s age (21) — this shot, particularly, is like looking at a magical mirror that projects one back in time. That’s me, in the summer of 1991, right there. Only with bigger feet.

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Aug 16 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Asleep on my return

Thursday 15th August 2024, 12.25am (day 4,739)

Clare's feet, 15/8/24

One of those rare ‘post-midnight’ shots for a given day: I didn’t get back from Wales until after 12 on Wednesday night, or was it Thursday morning. By the time I did, the wife had dozed off, so she didn’t particularly complain when I got off one final shot (so to speak). And no, she doesn’t have an ankle-bracelet tattoo; it’s insect repellent, I believe. Postscript: C did insist I add an observation that she gave me permission to use the shot…

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Jul 20 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Two-tone

Friday 19th July 2024, 5.00pm (day 4,712)

The sun comes out, and with it, various bits of English skin that have not had much opportunity for solar exposure in recent months. And it shows. Clare, who has never been one for tanning much, decides to display possibly the whitest legs in Europe as we enjoy an end-of-week beer or three. They’ve some catching up to do on the arms, for sure.

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