No significant commentary today, just a pastoral scene on a relatively pleasant day of weather, one where I was glad I was not sweating it out in Manchester or some other such office space. It’s getting chilly, though.
The latest anthropomorphically-designated bout of crap weather, ‘Storm Claudia’, apparently came through today but while things were definitely damp this wasn’t a major event. Either way, staying indoors and watching next door’s guttering struggle a bit seemed like a good move. I had work to do.
This is not a time of the year when much seems to happen. Four years ago I was on St Helena in November but even then, 12/11/2021 was being spent in quarantine (and battling ants). There have been a couple of late November trips. But right now I’m just happy not to have been in Manchester today. Meanwhile, shot n+1 of ‘bloke(s) working on a roof’. With autumn leaves.
This is definitely a stock shot, but what the hell. The Rochdale Canal is definitely worth a regular viewing, particularly at the peak of autumn.
Wherever it actually resides depends on the university’s deployment of ‘cloud storage solutions’, I guess, but the interface that allows oversight of this ‘digital twin’ of Manchester resides in the Business School. Want to keep an eye on the city’s start-ups? energy use? property prices? infection rates? It’s all here. There’s something mildly sinister and undeniably impressive about it all, both at the same time.
It is now dark by the time I get back to the station after my Thursday afternoon lecture — but next week it will be dark before I even finish the class, thanks to the clocks going back this weekend. This is one of the usual ‘sculptures’ (I suppose we can call them that) put up around Manchester for Halloween, in case you hadn’t made the connection. Actually I think there’s been somewhat less overt plastic tat on display this year but maybe that’s just a personal opinion.
A day of work, even though it was a Saturday. Then, an attempt to find a quiet corner somewhere for a post-work drink — not necessarily easy on a Saturday night in Soho. But this pub on Charing Cross Road just about managed it, and afforded many people-watching opportunities through the sash windows. I pick this one because it has the feeling of being a still from a movie, and Soho just has that feeling of being a movie kind of place.
It may be yet another abandoned shoe (why is there only ever one, not two?) but dammit, it can still make its own way home. Of course, it isn’t really moving. But I guess the illusion is there.
The weekend’s tour of non-glamorous Northern towns continues. Actually Accrington is a more pleasant place than you might imagine, with signs of civilisation…. Not in the market today, though, not on a Sunday. Day of rest and all that. Did you know that bricks made in Accrington were used in the foundations of the Empire State Building? Now you do.
It seems to have happened slightly later than usual this year, though that’s just a quirk of the calendar, but today was the day I could no longer avoid going onto campus and being faced by a large number of people who were not in the vicinity two weeks ago. Yes, it’s the first week of teaching. So be it.
Being 42 