Friday 9th August 2019, 1.35pm (day 2,906)
On an uneventful, work-free Friday ungraced by stellar photo opportunities, this seemed to sum things up the best.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Portrait
Clare peruses the world
Friday 2nd August 2019, 1.55pm (day 2,899)
Another bit of travelling begins. First stop, London. Clare peruses possible future destinations in an exhbition at the British Library. This is her 99th appearance on the blog, incidentally.
Joe and toe
Wednesday 31st July 2019, 2.30pm (day 2,897)
Another day when I didn’t leave the house. Joe will be fairly housebound for a while too, as today he went and had his “Sybil Fawlty” operation; in other words, the removal of an ingrowing toenail (this being what kicks off the fun in the Fawlty Towers episode, “The Germans”). He seemed fairly blasé about it all. But it’s not like he needs any great excuse to put his feet up at the moment — and why shouldn’t he, it’s the summer holiday.
The neverending sort-out continues
Monday 29th July 2019, 8.45am (day 2,895)
We have never seen our house empty. Not even when we moved in, eighteen years ago: the previous owner sold us all of his furniture along with the house. There is no cellar nor roof void in which to shove things. Therefore, concerted outbreaks of Stuff Management must occasionally punctuate our existence. Clare’s the specialist. But then again she’s a bigger hoarder than me.
Today is also proof also that I do still function, at least photographically, in the morning. This is the first pre-noon post since 10th July; a run of 18 consecutive afternoon shots.
Post-weekend
Sunday 21st July 2019, 7.40pm (day 2,887)
These two have clearly had a very good weekend. And so have I.
Crossing Allt a’ Mhuillin
Saturday 20th July 2019, 2.20pm (day 2,886)
Ben Nevis is a mountain of two sides, for sure. On the south side, a vast but rather dull slope up which hundreds toil daily; the payoff for climbing continuously for three hours being the chance to attain the status of Most Elevated Person in Great Britain, at 4,411 feet (or 1,345 metres). We secured this goal at 11.24am.
But going up that way doesn’t show you the other side, the North Face, with its stupendous crags and (after the tourist path) blissful sollitude. This is the connoisseur’s side of the mountain, the place where you can really look up and feel, yep: this is the culminating point of the whole country, it really doesn’t get any bigger than this.
Hebden Bridge meets Mariam
Friday 12th July 2019, 8.05pm (day 2,879)
I first met Mariam at the i3 conference in Aberdeen in June 2015. She is Tunisian by birth, but at the time was studying in Japan, so the second time we met was when she served as my guide round Tokyo on a (very wet and cold) day in March 2017. And as she has recently moved to Australia, I met her in Melbourne this April; it was her I was waiting for ‘under the clocks‘ — though that picture is of someone else, which also indicates that despite these different meetings each on different continents, this friend has yet to appear on the blog herself.
Let’s rectify that. Mariam speaks seven languages by the way and is a living example of why internationalism is the way to go. It was great today to finally introduce her to the home town.
Joe and the glaciers
Saturday 6th July 2019, 11.20am (day 2,872)
As it says on the relevant website: “The exhibition gives visitors the chance to delve into the collections of six different cultural institutions: from thousand-year-old treasures to the latest in Icelandic art. Its focus is on the visual expression of the ideas we have about the world, our environment and ourselves. The materials and techniques may change over the years, but the viewpoints remain the same.”
So other people’s art again; here, 42 (yes!) photographs of Icelandic glaciers, with Joe to give some perspective. He said he liked the place too….
Joe ponders the gardening
Monday 1st July 2019, 3.55pm (day 2,867)
Joe finished his GCSE exams a couple of weeks ago and so now, like all the UK’s 15-16 year olds, has an extended summer holiday, interrupted only insofar as his parents nag him to do things to get him out of the house. Attending part of the annual allotment summer tidy up (July is inspection month) didn’t seem to enthuse him much though. But the redcurrants are ready to eat (all six of them).
“The Handmaid’s Tale”
Tuesday 25th June 2019, 8.55pm (day 2,861)
Could John Logie Baird have foreseen ‘the box set’, I wonder. Perhaps so — after all it’s not radically removed from the novel as Dickens wrote it. With his exams finished, Joe here adopts a position he’ll doubtless choose to remain in all summer, although we’re working on it. Meanwhile, Clare knits to relieve the excitement.
Being 42 