Last evening in Nairobi. We were taken out to this Ethiopian restaurant where, at the end of the meal, I had my first sip of coffee in about 18 years – having definitively given it up in favour of tea back in about 1995. Still, looking at this photo one might understand why I was persuaded to partake once again, even if just in a small way.
In case you thought I was just here to soak up some rays (though it’s a valid reason to travel, I admit), this picture is taken at the KAPC campus, our collaborative partner here in Nairobi. Evidence that much of Africa has totally skipped the landline era and gone straight into mobile. I wonder how the world would be different if Alexander Graham Bell had tried using radio for his communications experiment instead of copper wiring.
Five hundred days. Well well. An ordinary day to mark this milestone, however. Captured this shot on the way to the supermarket; a more in-focus version of this shot, taken from the same spot some nine months ago.
Another recurring event, as I am sure it is for most parents – last year it happened on December 13th. Very hard to get a shot that was a) sharp enough and b) didn’t disturb some arbitrary child protection law – but here’s my best attempt.
Things in Hebden Bridge are largely all recovered now after the floods of June and July; most establishments are back open again. This includes the Railway, my local pub, last seen on the blog on 22nd July when we got together there to have what might have been a final drink-up and tried to coordinate our plans to keep it open. Well, for now, it is still open, in independent ownership and not quite the same as it was, but near enough. Happy Fridays.
I seem at the moment to be spending most of my life on the move. Just as well that I don’t mind taking photos of railway stations, then, even if it does sometimes make me look like a trainspotter. I got quite a few photos today that were nearly very good, and even though there’s nothing spectacular about this one, I quite like it; this gentleman just looks very chilled out. All in all it does encapsulate what was another very beautiful day with great light, one on which it was far more pleasant to be hanging around outside than one has a right to expect in mid-December.
Here we are at another of the repeating events of my year; this took place on 10th December 2011, but it’s the same day, in essence. And I say the same things I said back then regarding wishing these people well and admiring their achievement.
Incidentally the woman on the left here is from the Russian high Arctic, where they still literally live in yurts and herd reindeer: the very fact that I can somehow, however indirectly, be responsible for someone like her getting a Masters’ degree (in Cultural Management) makes me feel at least partly positive about what I do for a living. Hell, that’s education for ya. One reason, perhaps, why moronocracies across the world claim to be in favour of education but actually aren’t. Good for her.
Is there a voyeuristic aspect to this shot? I like the light, the pattern of the branches contrasted with the brick, the facelessness of it.
Back home. It was a beautiful, crisp winter’s day and I got some good pictures around lunchtime, one of which I was particularly keen on, but it was of waterfowl on the canal and I’ve done that theme rather a lot. This one was different – a family captured watching the ‘Valley of Lights’ parade through town tonight, a torchlit procession done to celebrate the turning on of the Christmas lights (at an acceptably late point in the year). A good evening.
Any day in Bergen on which it isn’t chucking it down with rain is worth recording. After the end of my workshop today I walked out to the tip of the Nordnes peninsula, which splits the city harbour into two, and took this shot. I like it because of the odd configuration of his hands (he barely seems to be holding the rod), the hood, and the fact that for once, despite being taken right into the sun, there is no flare in the lens.
Being 42 