I have worked the last two Sundays and I’m working this coming Sunday too, so today I took the day off and made the most of a decent weather forecast. This is taken in the far south-west corner of the Lake District, looking southeast over the long estuary of the River Duddon, with the town of Barrow on the peninsula in the background. (More pictures from the day will be put on my other blog later.)
The refurbishment continues of the building recently named as one of the 10 worst railway stations in Britain. A mundane shot to mark a day with a good number. As well as being day 777 of the blog it is also 22 years to the day since I moved to Yorkshire.
Finished work last night too late to get home, but not too late to get down to Brighton and spend the night there rather than in the suburbs. And, well, sometimes you just have to say that you made the right choice.
Had a day’s work to do in London today, and walked through Trafalgar Square and Soho for the first time in years, but this was the winning picture today. Amanita muscaria – fly agaric – I haven’t seen one of these in years either. Sort-of poisonous, but people have been known to eat it anyway. No idea why. Taken in the grounds of Rose Bruford College in Sidcup.
Although there are other eminent candidates, Alan Turing is probably the most famous single scientist ever to have worked at the University of Manchester. If it wasn’t for his work on the philosophical-technological basis of computing – the idea that a machine did not have to be built to perform one task, but could perform many, if it were given the right instructions – we might not be sitting here doing all these things we do with ICT. On the other hand, if he hadn’t been persecuted for his sexuality, and committed suicide as a result, who knows how much further the technology could have advanced. This memorial to him sits (literally) in Sackville Gardens, at the corner of Whitworth and Sackville Streets, Manchester.
Well, they look like it from this angle anyway. If you don’t get the “Midwich Cuckoos” reference — Google it…
Well, this has been a fairly unreconstructed weekend — a Friday night out and a Saturday afternoon in the pub, too. The results in the Championship are nothing to speak of at the moment, however. But that does not mean that going out is unenjoyable.
Ketso is the name of this mind-mapping tool, with the leaves and the felt, invented by a colleague of mine (Joanne Tippett) at the University of Manchester (see www.ketso.com). I am using it at the moment in a research project with my colleagues in Bergen, hence my flight there last night. Atle (left) and Cristoffer seem rather confused, which tends to happen with my research projects.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The only real spiritual benefit one gets from air travel is seeing the world from 30,000 feet. It can be an amazingly beautiful place.
Second, and last, day here at the Högeskolan i Borås, and a very nice lunch at this Indian restaurant with three colleagues, including Ameera, the centrepiece of this picture. It’s been a nice stay here in Sweden, but too short: I hope to be back one day however.
Being 42 