John makes his second appearance on the blog after the picture taken at his place of work three years ago. But is he really off-duty? Looks like he’s looking wistfully at the competitor establishment across the street, somehow.
Went to the in-laws’ for Easter but didn’t take the computer so a bit of catching up to do, first from the 40th birthday party we attended on the Saturday night, sister-in-law Rachael marking her fortieth — this isn’t her in the shot, sorry to say I can’t remember who is but perhaps enlightenment will dawn. Anyway, happy birthday to the S-i-L, a good time was had by all.
As March becomes April and it turns into spring, it’s nice to be able to sit outside the Railway, in reasonable warmth and evening sunlight, for the first time in about a year and a half. John: meet the blog. Followers of the blog: meet John.
I am here to work rather than just swan around visiting shrines, so here is a picture of that side of my life. We are trying to persuade Japanese potential students to come and study in Manchester — many of whom are vastly intelligent, fluent in English and would be obvious assets to the intellectual community, only you try telling this to certain elements in the reactionary press. Anyway, ignoring this aspect of our lives my colleague James, on the left, and his temporary client, seem happy enough as they discuss how to arrange this. I like this picture, it makes it feel like our presence here has a real positive point.
I could have uploaded another picture of snowy land- or urban-scapes but let’s pay tribute to the people who have made my stay in Tromsø a highly enjoyable and hospitable one. Helene relaxes after dinner, and deserves to, as she cooked it — elk bourgignon apparently, a new one on me but it was very tasty. With plenty of wine to wash it down as you can see (not an inexpensive proposition in Norway). Thanks to everyone for having me…. back home tomorrow morning.
I do say that on this blog no pictures are staged or posed, and this is the case — I do not arrange any photos specifically to be a blog post, I just take pictures of what’s happening around me at any given time. This is perhaps on the borderline of acceptability then but I did take this photo anyway, for other purposes, and it was the one that I liked best today. My Educational Technology and Communication students on their annual field trip to the National Football Museum in Manchester, with replicas of the Premier League and FA Cup trophies.
Our multimedia guy, Peter, gets himself set up ready to film me talking about something or other in my office. I had to sound reasonably intelligent but really, it’s not going to make your day more interesting if you knew what the subject matter had been.
The Railway pub was shut for nearly a year after being mostly destroyed in the flood of 26th December 2015. It has reopened in what feels like a few separate stages; the latest arriving today, when seating finally made a reappearance out at the front. Matt enjoys this fresh luxury, while trying not to mark his coat on the wet paint of the new battleship grey facade.
Mr Cope becomes the latest rock star to feature on the blog: looking every inch the part, he nevertheless is these days as much a mixture of solo busker, stand-up comedian and raconteur (particularly about old megalithic monuments) as he is anything else.
A curiosity: the ninth photo in a row to be taken outside Hebden Bridge, even though I have spent some time at home on each of these days. This is the longest such run: all other long runs of non-HB photos have been accrued thanks to some kind of travel away from home.
I don’t make a habit of photographing work colleagues in their natural environment, but here I did think a nice portrait unfolded itself as Stephanie prepares to launch the 2-4pm session. Thursday is generally a Meeting Day — so there’s a level of appropriateness to it./
Being 42 