Thursday 14th December 2023, 3.45pm (day 4,494)

The woman in question being Clare, of course. We both adopted this position all day in fact. I liked her little ‘light cave’, and should point out the dubious fluffy mascot to lower right.

The woman in question being Clare, of course. We both adopted this position all day in fact. I liked her little ‘light cave’, and should point out the dubious fluffy mascot to lower right.

The last class of the semester, and as I’m on sabbatical for several months next year, the last one for me until late September 2024. And that’s just fine by me. I do — generally — like teaching but it is tiring, time-consuming work and if I want to do some proper thinking I can do with taking a break from it. The last class of the semester also gives rise to the annual ceremony of ‘having pictures taken with one’s professor’ — I make people upset if a 20-minute window isn’t offered up at the end.

One might think that Jenga and Red Stripe are a risky mix in the first place, but Tom’s ‘reacharound’ move just adds to the tension on this Friday night match-up. However, though the tower did fall — they always do, in the end — it was not for another few moves yet.

It’s the Season of Tat, it starts some time in mid-October these days so by now I reckon this guy feels like he needs a rest. However he might also be Deliverooing at some point as he has the masked look of the typical cyclopath (I’m tired of dodging them on the streets of Manchester). The definition is low on this shot but that’s because the light’s very dim, even by 4.25pm.

Not only did this peak hour train turn up with half the usual number of carriages, thus assigning itself instant CTS (Cattle Truck Status) — but it was also 23 minutes late at this point, being scheduled to pass through Rochdale at 8.37. Grin and bear it? Bollocks to that, I wasn’t grinning at this point, put it that way.

I wonder how many different public houses have appeared on here over the last 12 years. Quite a few I imagine. Free advertising: the Ship in Brighouse does very good BLT sandwiches for only £3.50. And thanks to its Halloween decorations, it gives good purple — a shade almost exactly matched by the woman’s coat, which I think is why I like this shot.

A Friday night out, for me and for them. And why not spend it at a football match. It was damn cold though: as 5ºC seemed a reasonable estimation I’d say it was about 15ºC cooler than my last one, on Sunday. We all needed some warm food.

Another person’s art — and this time, with the artist. Sophia is depicted at the Friends of St Helena annual meeting, telling us about her inspirations, as a person born in Britain of St Helenian descent, and never having visited the island until earlier this year (in fact she was there in January and February when I was, but I don’t remember meeting her). The guy pictured is her grandfather, born on the island but left 78 years ago. Her art is really good, I don’t do it justice here, but I like the picture anyway.

Apparently “Mood” is the gender-neutral fragrance of the season, if the large stall in the Arndale Centre, exclusively devoted to tempting us to buy it, is anything to go by. But one might advise them to be a little more subtle when it comes to pumping out the scent. By the time I had walked past I was already sick of it.