Motivating myself to keep things going after 1,000 days is not helped by being on (for me) a reasonably long run of time just in Hebden Bridge and Manchester. From 16th May until 15th June this is basically where I am. Hard to find new scenes, but I don’t think this one has made it before — the entrance to the occasional Saturday craft fair (which has been pictured from inside in the past, but never from here).
I mean, really. Did you have to cope with this kind of stuff before 10am this morning?
And bearing in mind this guy is German, a philosopher, with a brilliant mind — does he not (with all due respect) win the ‘walking cliché of the month’ award?
My last day in Russia on this trip. I spent it at what must be at least the 20th university campus to grace this blog, Skolkovo, just outside Moscow, delivering a seminar and having it simultaneously translated into Russian by this guy. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced simultaneous translation but the effort and concentration it takes must be phenomenal, so he certainly earned his tea and pastries afterwards. Particularly as he must be all of what, 17? OK, I’m exaggerating slightly, but he was a little waif of a bloke.
My hosts/friends at the Moscow School (the organisation that is the reason I come to visit Moscow so comparatively frequently) invited me to come to this event at the Russian Army Theatre this evening. Lots of folk dancing and its associated benefits like beautiful women, beautiful costumes and manly men doing manly things with swords, like these guys. And not done for the tourists either — in fact Russia is one of the few places in the world where this kind of cultural event is still seen as a normal evening’s entertainment, there were lots of families here tonight.
I still can’t quite grasp the nature of the Cossacks, are they a separate ethnic group, something one is born into, or a cultural choice one makes, sort of like declaring oneself a Celt or a Gaul? Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure most of us would like an excuse to pull a face/pose like these two guys now and again.
And, by the way, I have one week left until day 1,000.
I am here in Moscow with three colleagues and since they heard about this blog they seem all day to have been competing to be featured on it. Craig wins 🙂
Posted also for the novelty value of being taken in a place where it is still legal to smoke in bars and restaurants. Apparently a ban is due to start in Russia in a few weeks, but looking at how many people here still do smoke, I wonder how well it will take.
We had a kind of extended family gathering this evening. My Dad’s cousin Paul put together this huge scroll showing the family tree heading back several generations and at least two hundred years (very few of whom ever bothered to leave the Ashton-under-Lyne and Oldham area it seems). This young chap — name not caught — is on it somewhere. Good evening, though I had to leave early, as I’m flying to Russia early in the morning.
Impossible to get a shot that was both photographically interesting and which captured the drama of today’s events at the City Ground, Nottingham. This picture is as good as I could manage to capture the tension that was released by Leo Ulloa’s 92nd minute goal, one already burned into the memories of all Brighton & Hove Albion fans I am sure. If you want to read more about that, go to this page. I am too drained. Seagulls!!
On average, you probably haven’t heard of this guy, but in my field he’s quite a big name. We are lucky to have him as a part-time academic at the University of Manchester. I’ve heard him talk before, he’s a very expressive speaker, so I knew it wouldn’t be too hard to catch him in some kind of animated pose. The ‘practice’ on the board behind it also makes the shot — if you know the work he does.
The Owter Zeds (think about the name — say it with a Yorkshire accent) are a band of local renown. Despite having an average age of well over 50, they still rock rather well.
A bit out-of-focus but everywhere I went today it was throwing it down with rain so no really decent pics today. This is posted firstly because it’s a nice pic of someone just doing his job well, but secondly (and mainly) because this guy looks exactly like Walter White Jr (aka Flynn) from Breaking Bad.
