A Saturday night out is about to start, not just for me but for many people. I’m very happy with this shot, an occasion where it all (composition, lighting, mood) turned out exactly as I hoped it would when I took it.
Things in Hebden Bridge are largely all recovered now after the floods of June and July; most establishments are back open again. This includes the Railway, my local pub, last seen on the blog on 22nd July when we got together there to have what might have been a final drink-up and tried to coordinate our plans to keep it open. Well, for now, it is still open, in independent ownership and not quite the same as it was, but near enough. Happy Fridays.
476 days into doing this blog and this is the first time my campus office has appeared on it. It’s not a very inspiring place, at least, not photographically, and it faces north so it never gets any decent light. At least, so I thought – until this morning, when some strange coincidence of angle and reflection bathed it for about sixty seconds in golden sunlight. It was nice while it lasted – and means it can finally make it onto the blog. I confidently predict you’ll be seeing no more of it for the foreseeable future.
It was the MA: DTCE graduation today but although it was a nice event, this was the best photo of the day, the 12th hour of the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year, marked by this tree getting a steam bath from a nearby vent.
I seem at the moment to be spending most of my life on the move. Just as well that I don’t mind taking photos of railway stations, then, even if it does sometimes make me look like a trainspotter. I got quite a few photos today that were nearly very good, and even though there’s nothing spectacular about this one, I quite like it; this gentleman just looks very chilled out. All in all it does encapsulate what was another very beautiful day with great light, one on which it was far more pleasant to be hanging around outside than one has a right to expect in mid-December.
At least, after the crappy event of yesterday (the loss of my personal diary), and the tiring nature of this passage of time – which I’m only halfway through – today had the decency to be a truly glorious day. Even Oxford Road looked spectacular on this last Monday morning of the teaching term. Note the large crowd in the background – the queue for the first graduation ceremony of the season.
This place is located near the Arbat in Moscow. I have eaten here once in the past and the food is very good, they do say that the Georgians do the best cuisine of all the former Soviet republics. What is more apparent about the place is the crazy nature of the building, it’s impossible to capture in one shot, really, but the fact that you enter it through a gigantic clay urn gives you some sense of what we’re talking about here. Inside it is full of bridges and little cubbyholes, it’s very surreal.
Last day in Moscow, and I won’t now be back until June. Unfortunately I have also to report the loss of my personal diary, the whole of 2012 disappeared last night somewhere in Domodedovo airport. I have kept a diary for 29 years now; but the year’s just gone. I have been trying to track it down, to see if anyone might have handed it in (as it can have no value to anyone else other than me – for whom it is irreplaceable), but no luck.
Here we are at another of the repeating events of my year; this took place on 10th December 2011, but it’s the same day, in essence. And I say the same things I said back then regarding wishing these people well and admiring their achievement.
Incidentally the woman on the left here is from the Russian high Arctic, where they still literally live in yurts and herd reindeer: the very fact that I can somehow, however indirectly, be responsible for someone like her getting a Masters’ degree (in Cultural Management) makes me feel at least partly positive about what I do for a living. Hell, that’s education for ya. One reason, perhaps, why moronocracies across the world claim to be in favour of education but actually aren’t. Good for her.
This is Alexander, stood in an office that he is making look his own – but is not his own.
Not an inspiring day in any way but this shot isn’t bad. I like the red of the carpet and the enigmatic figure in the background framed by the near-monochrome of the stairwell itself. (The white balance could do with attention, however.) The ANE is the host of my hosts, the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, and incidentally is one of the largest higher education institutions in Europe, ranked by number of students.
