Located under the arches of one of Leeds station’s approach roads, the Cockpit is surely a familiar place to anyone who has been a student at Leeds University in the last 25 years or so. I had my 30th birthday party in this club — quite some time ago.
Last full day in Rome. The Forum was the heart of the ancient city and this picture is meant to epitomise some kind of glorious decay, the ruins of the Eternal City left to moulder pleasantly away, returning to nature or whatever. Of course it’s nothing like this. Really it’s just a big park with thousands of tourists swarming over it daily. But it does have a certain grandeur. It’s been a good trip here, a fine city, I recommend it should you ever get the chance.
Lots seen today. Visited Ostia Antica, the port of ancient Rome, an extremely extensive site which once again emphasises the sheer scale of the old city. But though I had a couple of candidate photos from there, this one wins; we went to the Trastevere district for an excellent meal and I took this on the way back. What you see here is the island in the centre of the Tiber that is one reason Rome is here, as it makes for an easier crossing point on the river, that then flows through Ostia on its way to the Mediterranean and the rest of the world.
If you know Rome, you know the Trevi fountain I am sure, at least by reputation. Over-the-top baroque wedding cake of a water feature, throw a coin in you will come back to Rome, Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita etc. Well, at the moment it’s surrounded by scaffolding and being repaired, at least in part by this jolly chap, which I’m sure will give all you Romanophiles pause for thought.
I may not have mentioned I am in Rome this week, but here we are — the 19th country to appear on this blog in its three years (and the 20th will come on Friday, if the schedule works out). Expect to see more than one ancient Roman monument appear on this site over the next few days, I love all this stuff. This is Trajan’s Column, erected to commemorate the victories of the eponymous emperor in Dacia, modern-day Romania (hence the name of that country). The column is 30 metres high, and the carvings on it form a continuous frieze of nearly 200 metres long, with lots of detail depicting Trajan’s victory. Note the heads on spears in the centre of this image.
Two otherwise rock-solid photo opportunities were snatched away from me today by poor weather. My first plan was to do a walk in the Lakes, and even after that was cancelled due to forecast thunderstorms, a 5K run in Halifax which Clare and Joe had planned was also postponed for ‘safety reasons’ (e.g. it would have been a bit wet). Wet it was, so I fell back on this random architectural curiosity, a church that seems to have misplaced most of itself. I assumed as the result of WW2 bombing but apparently it has been like this even longer, since a fire destroyed most of it in 1930. Hardly the best photo I’ve taken — I manage to make it look even wonkier than it already is — but it’ll do.
Last day in Manchester until well into August. People seem to have disappeared from these photos in the last few days. Indeed, in the last 6 I’ve depicted nothing more sentient than a raspberry.
Poor photographic pickings today as I was working at home all day, and it wasn’t sunny. This deserves documenting however — the finished turf roof on the Calrec Audio extension below our house. It took them a while to get it done, but at least it is now complete.
None of my students are present — they all usually graduate in December — but the summer graduation ceremonies bring a last burst of life to the campus before it really shuts down for high summer. Not that there were any attendees yet present this morning when I took this shot. Not much light in Manchester this morning but the seats have caught a dim flicker.
…so I think the Tour de France should be the subject of today’s picture… don’t you? I doubt any other world-class sporting event is going to come within a few feet of my front door again. Of all the ones I got today I like because of my friend Simon’s smile, and also the fact it has the yellow jersey on it — he’s just visible in the centre.
