Monday 17th July 2017, 3.35pm (day 2,153)
It’s actually not a bad place to catch forty winks, the train home — I manage it frequently. Like these two gentlemen, I am tired…. but have now just three days left before my summer break.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Stranger
Evening in Argyle Square
Sunday 2nd July 2017, 6.40pm (day 2,138)
Still in London, and back in the usual haunt of Argyle Square, home of the cheaper hotels around King’s Cross. And a nice place to chill out on a sunny evening, as it was. Like the textures on this shot, and the colours.
Sat in row B
Sunday 11th June 2017, 4.55pm (day 2,117)
I can’t have been getting outside much lately, for this is the sixth consecutive interior shot, and usually exteriors easily outnumber them. This afternoon’s entertainment at the Picture House: Alien: The Latest Franchise (OK, maybe it’s not actually called that); not bad I suppose but these are starting to get like the Nightmare on Elm Street series, let’s just crank out the xenomorph goo again and not worry whether anyone notices the lack of plot or character. Passes the time on a Sunday afternoon I suppose.
The Ugra TV presenter gets ready
Tuesday 6th June 2017, 9.40am (day 2,112)
Khanty-Mansiysk lies in the Ugra (pronounced Yoo-Grah) region, the centre of the Russian oil industry — the money generated from same being the reason why a relatively small (100,000 people) and isolated city can sustain a few major conference centres, a national league ice hockey team, an airport, and indeed a life in a region where winter temperatures fall to -50ºC on a regular basis. Linguists may recognise the placename as contributing to the name of the Finno-Ugric group of languages, so if you speak Hungarian, Estonian or Finnish, this is where your ancestors came from.
Ugra TV seemed to think it worth covering the IT Forum that we attended this morning: no idea what is happening with the guy’s hands behind the presenter here, either it was something highly significant to her on-screen appearance, or he was just copping a feel.
Stairwell, Salt’s Mill
Sunday 21st May 2017, 3.25pm (day 2,096)
Salts Mill was financed by Sir Titus Salt, and when it was completed in 1853, was the largest industrial building in the world. Salt built a ‘model village’ around it for his workers, Saltaire, most of which survives today as the kind of place middle-class people like me sometimes hang out on a Sunday to eat, drink and look at overpriced designer ware. But it’s worth a visit should you be in the area, so Saltaire can become the 190th identifiable location to feature on this blog in its 2,096 days of operation.
Exchange Square
Thursday 18th May 2017, 7.40am (day 2,093)
Now that Manchester’s new Exchange Square tram stop is finished it gives you a whole new place to sit and feel depressed about the day to come. I am sure we have all felt like this on occasion at 7.40am on a Thursday.
Great hair
Saturday 29th April 2017, 4.00pm (day 2,074)
In my mind there is an alternative version of me with hair like this, but of course I would look silly and anyway would never get through that long stage of frizziness where it’s neither one thing nor the other. I guess for this guy the dreads are much more appropriate and probably permanent.
Three blokes walked into a bar
Wednesday 12th April 2017, 6.50pm (day 2,057)
Something tells me these three have been drinking buddies for a long time. They are all consuming their pints at the same speed, note.
Cherry blossom worship
Tuesday 28th March 2017, 10.40am (day 2,042)
Last full day in Japan. A couple of free hours this morning were spent in Shinjuku-gyoen park, along with several thousand other people, most of whom seemed to be cooing over the blossoming cherry trees (sakura), with dozens of Japanese engaging in what I could only perceive as a form of fundamental nature worship beneath each one. A total stranger asked me in the hotel elevator this evening whether I had seen the blossoms. They even have national news announcements, blossom forecasts if you like, stating where the best displays are to be found. I don’t dispute these plants’ beauty, but I can’t help thinking — you know, we have cherry blossoms in England too. They’re just there. But clearly I’m missing something.
This week’s transit lounge (Helsinki)
Monday 20th March 2017, 4.55pm (day 2,034)
I am sat in my hotel room in Tokyo as I type this, but there can be no photos of Japan for this day as I didn’t touch Asian soil until Tuesday morning. This is Helsinki, which a few years ago had several shots on this blog in its own right but since then has become another one of those places (Copenhagen, Schiphol, Istanbul….) seen as an airport transfer but not otherwise ‘real’. How does it compare? Well, it has a decent amount of booze in it as you can see. And there was sunshine, which was certainly more than there was in Manchester on departure, or indeed on Tokyo on arrival, both teeming with rain.
Being 42 