Saturday 1st June 2019, 10.05am (day 2,837)
Last morning in Ireland. I mean no inslut at all — quite the opposite — by declaring that this is a country that does pubs very well. However, this guy was starting rather early, it has to be said.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Urban scene
Howth harbour
Thursday 30th May 2019, 7.05pm (day 2,835)
I am in Ireland for a couple of days. Why? Just because I could, and I needed the head-space, and I like going to new places. I’ve been to Dublin before, but not here, which is Howth (pronounced ‘Hoat’ by the locals, seemingly), sitting on a headland just outside the city. If you’ve heard of it at all it’s probably from the opening lines of Finnegan’s Wake:
riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
Not that anyone’s actually read Finnegan’s Wake of course. Try it, you’ll see why.
Rainy un-holiday
Monday 27th May 2019, 1.10pm (day 2,832)
It was a public holiday today but I stayed in and worked: don’t give me sympathy though. It’s just a swap with tomorrow. And it rained today, anyway.
On the canal
Friday 24th May 2019, 10.05am (day 2,829)
One of those highly uneventful days when even everyday scenes are hard to come by. Still, the sun shone, and on such a day, drifting along the canal has a certain appeal, whether you’re human and have to use artificial contraptions to do so, or a goose, who can just use what nature provides.
Exam revision time
Sunday 19th May 2019, 2.30pm (day 2,824)
At age 16 Joe has his first, but doubtless not last, bout of major school examinations — the GCSEs. The first week is done — the whole show lasts about another month yet, though. Today’s revision schedule: Physics. But we did let him out to go to the cinema later.
Former glories
Saturday 18th May 2019, 1.00pm (day 2,823)
Social commentary? Irony? Or just a decrepit but visually interesting corner of the urban world? Interpret it how you will. I was just passing.
Music man (and fish man)
Thursday 16th May 2019, 12.35pm (day 2,821)
Buskers have been around longer than most professions. We used to call them minstrels, but the whole singing for one’s supper thing is much the same as it was in the time of King Arthur. Fishmongers have been around for a while too.
This is a rare photowhack — the only photo taken today.
May storm
Saturday 11th May 2019, 2.10pm (day 2,816)
Back in Hebden Bridge. In the afternoon, a sudden storm, but with enough sunlight around to make the drops glisten and shine: beautiful, but not if you were out in it. This is taken from the shelter of home.
Unbroken relationships?
Monday 6th May 2019, 1.15pm (day 2,811)
It was Zagreb, Croatia, to where I was travelling yesterday. When I was here just under a year ago I said it was quite possible I would return, and so it has turned out.
Amongst its other charms Zagreb is home to the quite brilliant Museum of Broken Relationships, where are exhibited objects, and associated stories, that represent break-ups of one kind or another whether through desertion, death, infidelity, geographical separation or whatever. The poignancy of that place — and it can truly be said that of all the museums I have ever been to, this was the first one in which I genuinely inspected every single one of the exhibits on display, and with emotional contact too — was highlighted by then coming back to the Lower Town via one of those panoramic viewpoints of the city (one of its churches in the background) where young lovers choose to set a padlock, to represent their undying commitment. It seems so permanent, yet in the end has taken just a few moments in time. I wonder how many of these can still be said to be meaningful. I’m not trying to be cynical. I genuinely hope most of them still are.
Early morning stepwork
Thursday 2nd May 2019, 7.30am (day 2,807)
Second day in a row of some solitary bloke wandering around Manchester. Which is appropriate enough, because that’s how I’ve felt as my Unsabbatical continues this week. I have been walking past the bottom of these steps fairly frequently since the blog began, they make it today because of what I think is a happy combination of pedestrian and tree, the latter framing the top of the shot in a pleasant wave. A split second later and I’d have been too late. But then again I was feeling sluggish at 7.30am on a Thursday.
Being 42 