Tuesday 3rd April 2012, 1.10pm (day 222)
Jon Dron and Terry Anderson, of Athabasca University in Canada, get ready for their keynote speech at the Networked Learning conference. And very interesting it was too.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: 42
Girl, Maastricht
Monday 2nd April 2012, 5.55pm (day 221)
Spent the first part of the day on a plane then ambling through the German/Dutch hinterland on suburban trains: the second part of it at the Networked Learning conference in Maastricht, and part of the evening in the building in which the treaty of European Union was signed in 1992. Good photo opportunities today and I took three or four decent portraits of total strangers. This was the best: she looks pretty cool, I think.
Nutclough and Eiffel Buildings, Hebden Bridge
Sunday 1st April 2012, 9.20am (day 220)
It’s been interesting to use the progress of this blog to check the movement of the sun across the sky. Back in December it was setting behind the mobile phone mast you see here (and here); now it sets behind the houses much further round the valley. And the light hits bits and pieces of the architecture in slowly changing ways each week. Like this morning, when I looked out from my house and saw these chimney stacks lit up while the rest of the streets beneath were still in shadow.
Two ducks
Saturday 31st March 2012, 10.00am (day 219)
A husband-and-wife team, I guessed. Saw no sign of ducklings, but it looks to me like they’re on the case.
Serving the public good
Friday 30th March 2012, 2.35pm (day 218)
Let’s think about it: will either David Cameron or George Osborne will have a statue erected to them in a hundred and twenty years’ time that will extol their contribution ‘To The Public Good? Considering the ideological stance of their party is that there is no such thing as ‘the public good’, I doubt they would want to see such a memorial.
On the other hand, considering that Mr. Heywood’s era resulted in Manchester becoming one of the most powerful and successful cities in the world, and built art galleries and universities and football clubs, and Mr Cameron’s era in Manchester is largely characterised by the closure of all but one of the city’s public toilets, it should be easy enough to predict the answer to the question posed earlier.
The one decent thing about air travel
Thursday 29th March 2012, 7.20am (day 217)
Well, there’s the views and then there’s the chance to get wine 24 hours a day (and sometimes for free). Oh yeah, and the occasional decent movie. (Watched The Ides of March today. Recommended.)
This photo was taken 5 minutes after take-off from Domodedovo airport, Moscow.
Silver birches in snow
Wednesday 28th March 2012, 9.55am (day 216)
There’s got to be billions of these trees in Russia. They line all the roads out of the city of Moscow. They’re everywhere.
I know this is a similar theme to yesterday (and it’s taken from almost exactly the same spot) but I’m not doing much other than work on this visit: so little opportunity to get pictures of much other than the rather drab urban area around the Moscow School (Yugo-Zapadnya Metro station). As you can see, it was a bright, sunny day today, at least in the morning – but it’s still cold.
Back to winter
Tuesday 27th March 2012, 11.40am (day 215)
In Britain at the moment it is about 21°C and full-on summer, apparently. But here, in Moscow… it isn’t. I have no idea what this structure actually is, it is either a ventilation shaft for the Metro or just a brazier, possibly there to help warm the homeless overnight. Either way it shows the reality of the weather here right now. International travel? Yeah, it’s fun… somtimes!
Manchester city centre, from the air
Monday 26th March 2012, 9.45am (day 214)
Whereas yesterday’s picture encompassed a range of, say, about 50mm, I guess this shot covers a range about a million times wider (that is, 50km). This is the view I got this morning as my plane took off from Manchester airport to the south of the city. The prominent building just left of centre is the Deansgate tower (a Hilton hotel on its lower floors, residential apartments above). The main city centre is to the right. The university will be on the edge of where the high buildings start, just to right of centre.
As you can see it was another beautiful day in the North-west of England, 20°C at least – but not in London, where I was flying on this leg (clamped under a foul brown smog when we landed); nor, indeed, in Moscow where I currently reside (-1°C, a few inches of snow, and still thoroughgoingly winter). Ah, what the hell. It’s all the travel experience, innit.
Joe’s eye
Sunday 25th March 2012, 3.15pm (day 213)
Glorious day today, as warm as anywhere I’ve been since last August. Most of the population was out today enjoying it, whether in town, the woods, wherever. I took lots of good photos and the choice was a hard one today, but I picked this just because it’s different, and you’ve seen a lot of photos of town and woods before. Isn’t this beautiful? Like I said with the moss the other day, how much detail there sometimes is when you look closely enough. (Note that you can just see the lens of the camera reflected, almost centrally, in his pupil.)
Being 42 