A meeting — with a colleague! In person! OK, so Alex had to stay imprisoned in his magic mirror, but he was in Austrai so we’ll let him off. Stephen becomes the first colleague I have actually shared a room with for many months; and the working day was all the better for it.
Tony pays the boss his dues. OK, so it’s early to be in the pub but plenty of people were; starved of true human contact for so long, there is a great deal of lost time to be made up between friends.
As Authority has graciously agreed to let us move around a bit (not abroad though — the mind-broadening experience that is foreign travel remains denied to the majority of us, until further notice); I have some friends with whom I need to reacquaint myself. Let’s start with George, making her fourth appearance on the blog. And very pleasant it was to see her, indeed.
To stop the walls closing in any more than they already are I’ve been making a point of sitting out in a spot by the river in the early evenings, when the weather allows. Just to take some air, watch the ducks (my post of a few days ago was taken from this same point), have a couple of beers. Feel human. Clare joined me for this one and so, for 15 minutes or so, did fellow ex-Railway habitué Bernard, who happened to be passing with a bottle of his own. We talked. As much as anything, we just enjoyed the fact we could see someone else’s face, for real.
I don’t (always) live the high life in the hotels of London, you know… In fact this time I stayed via the good graces of my friend Eric, and here he is seeing me off as I head home once more. Him, and his roses. I was home by lunchtime.
This is the 98th London shot to feature on the blog, so next time I visit it should hit the century mark.
The plum tree seriously needs pruning, and now is apparently the time…. this information being imparted by Peggy, fellow member of the allotment society and knowledgeable in these matters. Expect some documentation of the subsequent surgery, at least, once we get our pruning saw. Yes, this would be a nicer photo without the water butt, but it is what it is.
Somehow it seems to be a time to say hi to old friends. It’s been a while since Mr B appeared on here.
I don’t normally depict work colleagues on here but it’s worth making an exception today. For three years at least I’ve been working on getting a new hybrid (mixture of online and on-campus) MA launched (in Educational Leadership), and over this weekend we are finally welcoming our first batch of students. Here are some of them, along with Paul, Bee and Steve, fellow academics, looking happy about this at the meal we organised to mark the occasion. And I am glad too, it’s always a relief to see something come to fruition. There’ll be more of this on Sunday, a working day this weekend (a price to be paid)…
This picture is out of focus, yes — but it is as good a portrait as I can offer of this particular friend, on this day. I have had a run of portraits recently, but the weather is so crappy outside that it seems best to concentrate on things close to hand.
“You’re not pointing that camera at me, are you?” asks Gus. Well yeah, actually you could see that I was… No offence meant my friend.
