It’s over four years since this blog featured a proper visit to the Netherlands (Maastricht, April 2012) but I seem fated to visit Schiphol airport on a regular basis. My flight to Russia saw me positioned in a seat right above the entrance to the hold, so I got to watch these guys do their jobs while settling in for the second of three flights in one day….
First trip into Manchester for nearly two weeks. Last week I stayed at home and worked, which was the easier option due to the closure of Victoria station. Half-above the station stands Manchester Arena, scene of what we could refer to as ‘The Events’ of Monday 22nd May but which one might also reasonably call ‘the slaughter of 22 people by a psychopath’. *Sigh*. And I had decided to try not to mention it.
Well, here we are again. And as usual – just for a quick visit. Things to do, then I’m off home again. This is how London has become the fourth most-depicted place on this blog. A place to come to and depart from…
Ah, the joys of the 06:59 Hebden Bridge to Manchester Victoria service…. its cruddy carriages, standing room only by Todmorden, and then there’s that ‘6’ at the start of the time, which firmly puts it in the realm of ‘too early’. I dislike it, as you’ve probably gathered. Then again I doubt anyone has reached retirement age and fondly reminisced about the good old days on the 06:59.
A number of Hebden Bridge’s residents live on canal barges like these and I have sometimes wondered what it would be like to do so on a permanent basis. I’ve been on a couple of the boats and they are cosy, but I definitely don’t think it’s suited for anyone that has a really serious hoarding habit, which probably rules out me and (more especially) the wife. A sunny day today, but chilly, hence the stove bring run here at full operation.
Some pictures make it onto here for the novelty value more than anything else — so here’s what the Summit Tunnel (the longest railway tunnel in the world when it was opened in 1841, dontcha know) looks like from the inside when the driver forgets to turn the interior lights on in the carriage. Which he then realised, and corrected, some two seconds after I pressed the shutter. Bet you are glad then that I was able to capture this fascinating study of Victorian tunnel architecture.
Shinjuku railway station is a few hundred meters from my hotel, and is not only the busiest railway station in the world, but the busiest transport hub of any kind. 3.5 million people DAILY pass through here — that’s the entire population of Greater Manchester plus Leeds, or more-or-less the population of Los Angeles, through one single railway station. Every single day. It beggars belief. This picture was taken at a relatively quiet point in the daily cycle, but still gives an impression of it all, I think.
Long day for me today. In on the 7am train out of HB and back on the 17.45 from Manchester, on which this shot was taken. I felt like the woman in the middle.
On evenings like this it is as if the flight paths are creating some kind of tapestry. There is the latest weave going in, from top left. We humans seem to have found various ways to fiddle with the climate, and these artificial clouds are just another example of that, but they’re so everyday now, do we even think about them as much as we should?
Last morning in Tromsø. It started snowing. I could say I took the good weather with me, but it was crappy at home too (although not below freezing). Great week though — many good things to enjoy.
It crossed my mind that with Tromsø being on a small island, I have not been on the mainland of Europe at all this week. Small islands (not, like, Great Britain or New Zealand) that have appeared on this blog: Tromsøya, Kvaløy (this week), Snilstveitøy (also Norway), Kangaroo Island, Stradbroke Island, Tasmania (Australia), Stewart Island (New Zealand), Wayasewa and Wayalailai (Fiji), Æbelø (Denmark). None in the UK… perhaps I should make an effort…
Being 42 