Category Archives: Friend

Jan 21 2012
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait Gallery

Tom Baker

Saturday 21st January 2012, 2.20pm (day 149)

Tom Baker, 21/1/12

First day at home after 8 on the move, and so profoundly inactive (and light-free) that I was reduced to taking pictures of the DVDs I was watching.

Still, this shot is meaningful to me: like most British kids my age, I accord Tom Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who near-divine status. I could claim that I was watching ‘The Deadly Assassin’ DVD today because of Joe, who does like the programme, but actually, he was out at a friend’s. I feel no shame.

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Dec 15 2011
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait Gallery

Fei at her graduation, University of Manchester

Wednesday 14th December 2011, 6.00pm (day 111)

Fei at graduation, 14/12/11_low-res

Couldn’t take lots of photos at this happy event because I had an official role to play: it would not have done to have been snapping away from up on the stage while reading out the names of the many graduates celebrating their achievements this evening. (Reading the names out is a harder job than it looks, I can assure you.) This was the best shot to encapsulate the most important thing about the day however – it makes people happy.

I would say, somebody please tell our government that higher education remains a public good, but we have done so, and they don’t care. Very soon Fei, and I, will sod off to work and study in a country which still values the notion of higher education as something which benefits everyone, not just the student. And we will take all the expertise and economic gains that it represents with us. Their loss. I hope it never happens, but we teeter on the edge here in the UK system, right now.

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Dec 05 2011
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait Gallery

Doug in his wheelchair

Monday 5th December 2011, 4.10pm (day 102)

Doug in wheelchair, 5/12/11_low-res

Doug is my friend and has been using a wheelchair for at least 10 years due to an autonomic disorder. What amuses me slightly – but I also think it says a lot about stereotyping – is that because his legs are in full working order he often propels himself around using his feet (kind of like you’d move a kids toy car). But you’d be surprised how many people look askance at him for doing this, as if they can’t balance the equation ‘in a wheelchair’ + ‘can use his legs’ = ? Many look at him like he must be a faker. After a while you get tired of pointing out that only a small minority of wheelchair users are paraplegics, and just start finding their confusion amusing.

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Nov 23 2011
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait Gallery

Boris at the Christmas market, Manchester

Wednesday 23rd November 2011, 5.45pm (day 90)

Boris at the Xmas market, 23/11/11

This (on the right) is Boris, one of my colleagues from Moscow (see October 23-27), visiting Manchester for a couple of days. He is well into his 60s but has a 6-year-old daughter, which I find kinda sweet. A nice guy, if you don’t enquire too deeply into what he did in the Soviet era.

I also quite like Manchester’s German-inspired Christmas markets, which achieve the (for me) astonishing combination of being both highly Christmassy and yet not twee nor over-commercial. I like this shot because of the stallholder’s pleasant look of satisfaction as Boris decides whether to get a gift for his daughter.

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Nov 13 2011
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

John B by the bonfire

Sunday 13th November 2011, 7.30pm (day 80)

John B, by the bonfire, 13/11/11

Busy but interesting weekend ends with a pleasant evening party among friends, chilling out by the bonfire and listening to Joe be enthused by access to an electric guitar – with amplification.

The party was a birthday do for another friend, Mick, 43 today (so happy birthday to him). There is a huge rush of birthdays at this time of year, at least 7 family members & 3 close friends within a month. Why? Because it’s 9 months after New Year, of course. ‘Darling, I will stop taking the Pill, but let’s wait until after Christmas, OK?’.

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Oct 30 2011
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The morning after

Sunday 30th October 2011, 11.00am (day 66)

Clare and Caroline, 30/10/11_low-res

Nice to come downstairs and find two beautiful women in the lounge dressed in their bedwear. After that the rest of the day was taken care of.

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Oct 15 2011
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Our neighbour and his motorcycle

Saturday 15th October 2011, 2.25pm (day 51)

Richard and bike, 15/10/11

I’ve lived in this house for over 10 years now and all that time the house across the road has been inhabited by this gentleman. And every Saturday morning he is out there working on his bike and listening to his ’60s music. And then on Sunday morning we are usually roused briefly from sleep at around 7am as it farts into life across the road and he heads off for whatever rally or off-road session he is visiting that weekend. He seems pretty happy. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know his name.

Postscript: It’s Richard.

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Oct 06 2011
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Guyda (and digital Dante)

Thursday 6th October 2011, 5.15pm (day 42)

Guyda presenting at the seminar, 6/10/11

On a day spent almost entirely in my office, looking out at grey and rainy skies, there weren’t many candidates for today’s shot and I nearly put something utterly dull (like my office wall) just to encapsulate the feeling. But then my friend and colleague Guyda came along to one of our research seminars to present about her using ICTs to teach medieval Italian literature, and both her and her beautiful books brought some interest into the day.

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Sep 08 2011
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Kro Bar, Manchester

Thursday 8th September 2011, 6.00pm (day 14)

Huiyu, Dalal and Cormac, 8/9/11_low-res

At this time of year there is an element of the holiday rep about my job. One lot of students are about to finish their time with me but as they do so, the next lot are on their planes in, ready to start the next cycle. Today I had drinks with some of those who were departing. Cormac, my colleague (being Irish) and I had Guinness; Huiyu & Dalal caffeine. But it’s all the same in the end. They’ve worked hard this year as have we. We all deserve it.

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Sep 06 2011
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Daily Post, Family Member, Friend, Portrait Gallery

First day back at school

Tuesday 6th September 2011, 3.05pm (day 12)

Joe and ishmael, 6/9/11

Recently, any emergence of the topic of the return to school has meant that grouching and complaining is sure to follow from Joe. Nor does he profess himself ‘bothered’ about seeing his friend Ishmael again after their weeks off.

At 3.05pm out come this fairly bouncy pair of kids and Ishmael asks if Joe can come round for tea. ‘How was school?’ ‘Boring!’ J cries in an enthusiastic voice. It’s like the Lord’s Prayer. It’s just one of those automatic responses you give without conscious thought.

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