Category Archives: Friend

Apr 13 2022
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Geoff takes Q & A

Tuesday 12th April 2022, 2.15pm (day 3,883)

Geoff takes Q & A, 12/4/22

Golly, an academic conference. Face-to-face, with real people — the first one for me since Bucharest in January 2020. And plenty of evidence as to what we’ve been missing in the travesties that are the ‘virtual conference’ (of which I have only managed to do one, and that briefly, basically because I liked the people that organised it and didn’t want to let them down). Discussion, spontaneity, conversations in the lunch queue, empathy. To the neo-liberal interests, tech giants and health fascists who say we can all do it online now — I say, get stuffed.

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Mar 14 2022
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Doug on the bus

Sunday 13th March 2022, 5.05pm (day 3,853)

Doug on the bus, 13/3/22

June 2022 will mark 25 years since I graduated from the University of Leeds, at least for the first time, with my BA (Development Studies with Politics, in case you were wondering). There are now very few people from that time still present in my life on any kind of regular basis, and even they haven’t been seen enough lately, for many reasons, not just the one that is obvious (though it does matter). Doug is one of the few, unseen at all since August 2020 and, on the blog, March 2019 (with this pic, that shows he hasn’t changed much). Great to see him today, though. As we say each time it happens, we should do this kind of thing more often — but will we? That’s up to us, isn’t it.

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Mar 04 2022
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Jim, being himself

Thursday 3rd March 2022, 5.20pm (day 3,843)

Jim, 3/3/22

I think this sums up this particular acquaintance. If the guy that you think is Jim doesn’t have a glass of red wine in front of him, then it’s not him.

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Feb 22 2022
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Steve, in virtual life

Monday 21st February 2022, 11.25am (day 3,833)

KF and Steve, 21/2/22

Before 2020 I never minded doing online teaching, because it offered variety, and was not the only game in town. But there are limits, and I probably reached mine about this time last year. Fortunately, a sense of Real Normal has largely returned. This particular class was always designed to be an online session — when it works, use it, when not, get face-to-face. Steve, one of my PhD students, peeks his face out from his virtual cell.

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Feb 18 2022
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Mark and Yathi

Thursday 17th February 2022, 5.30pm (day 3,829)

Mark and Yathi, 17/2/22

Next week will mark ten and a half years that I have been doing this. In that time people have come and gone: at least two friends who have appeared on here at some point have died in the last 12 months. But new faces arrive in turn. I haven’t known these two as long as some others but now it’s Mark and Yathi’s turn to debut on here.

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Dec 21 2021
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

New tattoos

Monday 20th December 2021, 10.15am (day 3,770)

Friend George has a substantial amount of body art and is collecting more all the time — for now. Come next year, more health fascism will see the banning of most coloured tattoo inks (see this story); restrictions on our lives based on dubious health evidence, who’d have thought such a thing could happen. She’s getting them done while she can; the new ones are being dabbed clean a couple of days after being laid down.

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Dec 05 2021
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

The ‘Bistro de Paris’ (Manchester version)

Saturday 4th December 2021, 6.15pm (day 3,754)

Mithila and colleague, 4/12/21

On 4th December 2020, a year ago, I had my one and only day of face-to-face teaching in the whole of the academic year 2020-21. The students last year had a difficult time of it for reasons that were totally (taken) out of their control, but most of them made it through. Including Mithila, seen on the left here, who as a result of having finally received her results, invited me to have a mulled wine on her at the Christmas market. Cheers, and well done all. (And hi to the colleague too, who clearly wanted to be in on the photo as well.)

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Dec 03 2021
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Home, with friends

Thursday 2nd December 2021, 6.15pm (day 3,752)

It’s nice to travel, but it’s also welcome to come home. Mr Steve Grey makes at least his 10th appearance on this blog.

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Nov 24 2021
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Tammy of Saint FM

Wednesday 24th November 2021, 8.00am (day 3,744)

Tammy, radio woman, 24/11/21

Tammy is clearly the driving force behind St Helena’s radio station, Saint FM (I could give you the frequencies, but you’re not going to be able to pick it up right now unless you are on a boat somewhere in the nearby South Atlantic). I was an interviewee not just once, but twice today — the first very early, so apologies to Saint listeners if I sounded a bit fazed.

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Nov 16 2021
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Gareth and Jamie bring essential supplies

Monday 15th November 2021, 2.40pm (day 3,735)

Gareth and Jamie, 15/11/21

The tape marks the legal limit of my world. But I have suppliers who can transfer across it some essential supplies, not least a couple of six-packs of Windhoek beer, from Namibia. Thank you Gareth — who’s also, in the end, the reason I am here in the first place (more on this next week, probably) — and his other half, Jamie. Dear St Helena Government: I didn’t cross the tape.

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