Friday 27th October 2017, 8.05am (day 2,255)
It became a very bright and sunny day in Manchester but at 8am the whole city centre was wreathed in this rather eerie mist. A long and busy week comes to an end; time for a break….
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Urban scene
Gagarin
Tuesday 24th October 2017, 10.30am (day 2,252)
Well, if you hit a theme, sometimes it’s worth continuing it. From yesterday’s post-Soviet-style statuary to the real deal today, the monument on Leninsky Prospekt to Yuri Gagarin, first man in space. Whatever you think of the Soviets’ attitude toward economic issues, it’s hard to deny they did good statuary.
Khachaturian
Monday 23rd October 2017, 7.25pm (day 2,251)
Here I am in Moscow again, a place I seem to find impossible to avoid for very long. But I guess I’ve got used to it down the years. In the centre there remain many picturesque little lanes (flanked by real estate worth billions of roubles, no doubt); here, on an extremely cold evening, I found what looks like a piece of Soviet realist art but this monument was in fact unveiled in 2006. It commemorates the composer Aram Khachaturian — you might not have heard of him, but I virtually guarantee you’d recognise his Sabre Dance.
Bonsalls, the ironmongers’
Saturday 21st October 2017, 11.15am (day 2,249)
Bonsalls is a Hebden Bridge institution, the sort of hardware store that you thought you only now saw in movies. If it helps prop up the house or garden, you can get it in here. Probably it has been here since Victorian times. But it does take credit cards.
This is also a photowhack — that is, the one and only photo taken on a given day. It was far too wet and rainy to take many other worthwhile pictures. ‘Storm Brian’ they are calling it, like they decided to give it the most prosaic name beginning with B that they could think of. Storm Barabbas? Storm Balthazar? Storm Boogie Nights Woah-Woah-Woah….? There must have been hundreds of more interesting names.
Exchange Square tram stop
Friday 20th October 2017, 8.55am (day 2,248)
The smudges on the lens, the unnaturally reflective ground, the kind of stoically pained look of the lady with the blue bag, yes, it was another fine autumn morning in Manchester. I’m glad this week’s over, it has been very tiring. But Worktober ain’t finished yet, unfortunately.
Early start
Thursday 19th October 2017, 6.55am (day 2,247)
First time I’ve pulled a duty on the 06:59 for a while. First time I’ve been at the station before sunrise in an even longer while. The world turns…
Oxford Road (under ominous skies)
Monday 16th October 2017, 10.00am (day 2,244)
I know I did this one yesterday, to some extent, but hey, it’s a different spot with added gold. Ominous skies all morning but although it’s got very windy this evening, major stormy weather doesn’t seem to be brewing up. Which is a good thing, seeing as thirty years ago today (16th October 1987) the village I lived in at the time, Rotherfield in Sussex, had its 500-year old church spire blown down by the massive storm that hit the south of England that night.
Tower and trees
Thursday 12th October 2017, 12.05pm (day 2,240)
There have been very few Hebden Bridge pictures on the blog recently; in the last sixty pictures, since 14th August, there have been only 10 before today (and five of them were in the first week of September). But there will be a run coming up; time to reconnect with home turf. The trees are just beginning to turn, the nights drawing in.
Outside the Manchester Museum
Tuesday 10th October 2017, 4.15pm (day 2,238)
Today, 10th October 2017, is the 26th anniversary of my coming to Yorkshire to stay for a short while, and never leaving. But here’s a picture from my workplace in Lancashire: a better attempt than the rather boring shot from last week I think.
Having chips
Sunday 8th October 2017, 8.45pm (day 2,236)
Second day in a row to somehow be connected to fast food. But hey, that was my weekend, whether at Bamber Bridge (as yesterday) or in the nation’s capital (as today)…
Being 42 