Tuesday 31st January 2017, 11.05am (day 1,986)
Although teaching term has restarted at Manchester, this guy still looked very much on his own in the corner of this particular campus café, and that’s what I was trying to capture.
Greenhouse café
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Stranger
Leeds station bar, Friday night
Friday 27th January 2017, 6.40pm (day 1,982)
Clare’s doing a course in London tomorrow (Saturday) so it seemed like an opportunity to get in a weekend away. Late trip though, so we were passing through Leeds station when Friday night was becoming busy.
Gate 49, 5.20am
Sunday 15th January 2017, 5.20am (day 1,970)
I do like this picture, or I wouldn’t have chosen it — I always like the juxtaposition of so many random people in airports, and wonder where the yogi is off to (beyond just the answer ‘Amsterdam’, which is where the 05:55 KLM flight goes to, always the first flight to leave Manchester on any given day). The aquatic mural behind them is an added bonus.
But the main reason I chose it today is that finally, after five years and four and a half months of doing this blog, it means I’ve plugged the last gap in the hour-by-hour coverage of the day: this is the first photo to get in between 5:00 – 5:59 am. A bloody early morning in other words, I was up at 3am. Where was I heading? Well, if you don’t already know, you can find out tomorrow.
Piccadilly Station
Wednesday 21st December 2016, 12.45pm (day 1,945)
What these ladies in fancy dress were exactly doing outside the ticket barriers at Piccadilly Station, Manchester, today I am not 100% sure, but they all seemed to be having a good time. It’s nearly Christmas after all — also the winter solstice today, in theory we should be celebrating the turn of the year, it all gets lighter from this point on. In theory…
Yawn
Thursday 15th December 2016, 5.55pm (day 1,939)
It’s a portrait of a stranger in a pub (the Kro Bar on Oxford Road, Manchester, as it happens), but it’s also a self-portrait. This is me, this is how I feel at the moment. I need a break. But I’m getting one, after tomorrow.
Post-match press conference
Saturday 15th October 2016, 5.10pm (day 1,878)
Rochdale FC’s manager Keith Hill takes questions from representatives of the local media, who, for some unfathomable reason, included me amongst their ranks this afternoon. His team had just beaten Bury FC 2-0, but that didn’t necessarily make him the jolliest of interviewees.
U Malého Glena
Monday 10th October 2016, 5.50pm (day 1,873)
“U malého glena” apparently means “the little glen” and is the name of this bar in Prague. Well, this is one of the world’s great beer-drinking countries, so I was inevitably going to end up in a bar or two while here…
Under the viaduct, Charles Street
Thursday 6th October 2016, 4.25pm (day 1,869)
Well, the weather’s still very pleasant, that is undeniable. I told my students today, most of whom are from overseas, “you do realise that it’s not always like this, don’t you?”. But these things happen, in 2013 I think I got about the best two weeks of autumn weather that New Zealand had had in recent memory. It’s hard not to just sit down and chill out in it. It won’t last…
Cattle truck
Tuesday 4th October 2016, 8.20am (day 1,867)
11 years of using the Calderdale line, and one learns which services have CTS (Cattle Truck Status) and which are safer. I will never aim to catch the 1726 from Manchester, for example. It just ain’t worth it. The 0742 from Hebden (depicted here just about on its arrival to Manchester) is usually not so bad but today, for some reason, it suffered from a massive case of CTS.
Why monochrome again? Because it hides a multitude of white balance sins.
Being 42 