Thursday 28th July 2022, 9.50am (day 3,990)
The underbelly of the Mancunian Way isn’t the most glamorous spot in the city, but somehow this combination of graffiti and beer bottles looks relaxing.
Underpass still life
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Urban scene
British weather
Friday 22nd July 2022, 3.10pm (day 3,984)
Monday saw probably the highest temperatures in recorded British history, at least in some places. Today, it was chucking it down, and cool enough to need a jacket when out in the afternoon. The weather in Britain explains a great deal about the country’s psyche. “What comes, will come. Live with it.”
Monday morning in Oxford
Monday 18th July 2022, 8.45am (day 3,980)
My perambulation around the southern parts of England continues. Academic that I am you might have expected Oxford — undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest seats of learning — to have featured on here over the last 11 years (nearly). Its rival Cambridge has done so, and I have to say I do find that the more attractive place of the two. Cambridge has rural charm whereas Oxford is really just a middling-sized city with, admittedly, some pretty fine buildings. But on a sunny, pleasant Monday morning, it’ll do.
Plasticat
Wednesday 13th July 2022, 4.05pm (day 3,975)
It is plastic, but it does look very realistic, particularly sat on a cushion outside the pub in the sunshine. Many passers-by were seen doing double-takes. Why was it there? Just one element in a range of junk (hence the pile behind it), passing through.
Graduation photography
Tuesday 12th July 2022, 3.05pm (day 3,974)
I’d say ‘it’s that time of year again’ but this is the first mid-July since 2019 where there have been such scenes around campus. Ceremony does matter: it’s good to see these return.
Detritus
Monday 27th June 2022, 8.25am (day 3,959)
Outside Club Bloom on Abingdon Street. Clearly they feel they don’t need a “Deal or No Deal” fruit machine any more, so if you want one — or a traffic cone — help yourself. What we throw away in the modern world, though. In a SF book I once read there was a company called “Dumpmines” who made lots of cash through mining 20th- and 21st-century landfills for their valuable materials. Seems quite sensible to me, I’d invest in it.
Enjoying the sunshine
Saturday 25th June 2022, 4.20pm (day 3,957)
I did very little else other than enjoy some sunshine on this Saturday afternoon; and I was not the only one.
Friday afternoon reflections
Friday 17th June 2022, 4.50pm (day 3,949)
Friday, at the end of a busy week, and the sun was out. I make no apologies for heading for the pub. Others thought the same, as depicted in my camera, and in Mark’s sunglasses.
Mural on “Revolution”
Wednesday 15th June 2022, 9.05am (day 3,947)
Someone Else’s Art — but very fine it is. It doesn’t matter that her left eye is mostly replaced by the window, and the security camera totally fails to intrude, too. Great work. Sometimes even just a minor variation in one’s route to work brings new sights in view.
Steam cleaning, MOT
Thursday 9th June 2022, 11.50am (day 3,941)
If this garage did ever offer the services suggested here, it doesn’t do so any more. This abandoned lot sits near Batley rail station, a town making its debut on the blog today, albeit unglamorously. The nob graffito is the final touch.
Being 42 