Aug 08 2012
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Tampere

Wednesday 8th August 2012, 6.15pm (day 349)

Tampere, 8/8/12

Tampere is the largest inland city in Scandinavia and known as the ‘Manchester of the North’ as it was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution in this region. Unlike Manchester itself it does still have a sense of industry about it, like things continue to be actually made here. I’m here for a conference (which traditionalists will say has nothing to do with ‘making’ anything, and they’d probably be right). This is the city’s second appearance on this blog, the first being way back in September 2011.

 

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Aug 08 2012
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Four-legged beast, Helsinki airport

Tuesday 7th August 2012, 3.40pm (day 348)

Four legged beast, 7/8/12

I’m away again. When heading east most of the day is spent travelling and there wasn’t much to see today. Snapped this while sat on the Finnair bus waiting to head into Helsinki city centre from the airport.

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Aug 06 2012
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Daily Post, Interior

Affleck’s Palace

Monday 6th August 2012, 2.25pm (day 347)

Afflecks palace, 6/8/12

My leather jacket, of many years’ use (but surprisingly little photographed, once I looked through the archives), died following the biblical downpour of 9th July, when it got soaked and then was never properly dried because I never thought about it as I dashed off to New Orleans. It was knackered anyway, but its fate was sealed when I next picked it off the rack and… you don’t want to know.

Fortunately, if you want any clothes even remotely in that genre and your budget is limited, there is always Affleck’s. Threatened with closure a few years ago because it didn’t meet the profile of the district’s gentrifiers, it’s pleasing to see it still open and still selling good gear of this type for – in my case – £25. Long may it reign.

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Aug 05 2012
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Transport

Hebden Bridge Vintage Car Rally

Sunday 5th August 2012, 12.55pm (day 346)

Vintage rally, 5/8/12

This is one of my town’s more pleasurable regular events and was thankfully blessed by good weather. I no longer have an interest in cars as a means of propulsion but any one built before about 1965 just has such a damn fine look to it. And when they come out to events like this they’re all looking their best, polished and chrome and curvy and well, dammit (Janet), rather sexy. But I only look. I don’t want a relationship with one of these things again. Too complicated.

(PS technically this is a self-portrait: look carefully.)

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Aug 04 2012
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Daily Post, Interior

Blue Pig Beer Festival

Saturday 4th August 2012, 3.30pm (day 345)

Blue Pig, 4/8/12

The Blue Pig sits in the woods and opens at random and unpredictable times. It’s a kind of Harry Potterish pub. I quite like this shot because of the double reflection of the guy in the picture frames.

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Aug 04 2012
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The CIS building, Manchester

Friday 3rd August 2012, 3.40pm (day 344)

CIS building, 3-8-12

This  building is only a couple of hundred yards from Victoria station but I never have normal cause to go past it. Today, after I had a meeting nearby, was an exception. When built in 1962 it was the tallest office building in the UK, at 399 feet, and it remained the tallest in Manchester until 2006 when the Beetham tower (510 feet) was built on Deansgate. It’s one of the group of buildings around this site that are the headquarters of the Co-operative Group (bank, stores, insurance, etc.).

I’ve never been inside it but it does have a significant role to play in my life. My mother and father both worked for the CIS but in separate buildings and only when this was built (when they were 18) did they begin working in the same place – and thus met. Arguably, then, if this hadn’t been built, I wouldn’t be here.

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Aug 03 2012
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Daily Post, Landscape

Above Oxenhope, evening

Thursday 2nd August 2012, 8.15pm (day 343)

Above Oxenhope, 2/8/12

The landscape shots on this blog tend to have been of the Lake District, but I must remember more often that I live in a pretty decent part of the world, too.

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Aug 01 2012
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Daily Post, Interior

Pop-up Shop

Wednesday 1st August 2012, 12.30pm (day 342)

Pop-up shop, 1/8/12

A few of these have emerged around Hebden Bridge in the last couple of weeks. Businesses that occupied premises that were damaged in the flood have been invited to set up shop (literally) where they can. They’re calling them ‘Pop-up Shops’ round town.,  The main road, Market Street, is still a dead zone – about 3 out of 20 shops open – but one of them, Valley Organics, has a temporary home in the Hope Baptist Chapel, pictured here. It doesn’t have electricity at the moment, as the chapel’s cellar was also flooded on both 22/23rd June and 9th July, but it’s a start. I’ll tell you one thing – a disaster like this sure helps you see who your friends are (yes, we’re looking at you, Punch Taverns).

Hey, it’s August. My birthday’s in August. That means I’m coming to the end of the first year of this blog.

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Aug 01 2012
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Manchester ‘Olympic village’

Tuesday 31st July 2012, 3.50pm (day 341)

Manchester Olympic village, 31/7/12

In some city down South the Olympics are on, and Manchester (which is hosting some of the football tournament’s games) gets in on the act with a ‘village’ built around Exchange Square, where the wheel used to be (see previous photos). Judging from this shot, it is doing about as well at filling its seats as London is.

Cynical? No, I’m not, not about the athletes anyway. But we all knew that the promises of a ‘people’s Games’ were rubbish when they were made in 2005, so why are we surprised it’s turned into a corporate love-fest in which the relatives and friends of athletes can’t see them perform, while swathes of corporate junket seats sit empty, because bigger profits are made that way? I also remember hearing that the ‘brand poiice’ don’t want anyone to link to the official Olympic site if they are going to be critical of it.

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Jul 30 2012
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Unity Street, Hebden Bridge

Monday 30th July 2012, 6.00pm (day 340)

Unity Street, 30/7/12

Hebden Bridge, and the British summer, and I have had a bit of a falling out over the last few weeks. It kind of started around June 21st and has gone on from there. Today, we all started toward a reconciliation of sorts. Let’s hope it continues.

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