Tag Archives: 46

May 17 2016
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Mr. James Brown (no, not that one)

Tuesday 17th May 2016, 3.15pm (day 1,727)

James Brown, 17/5/16

We worked out today that come September it will be twenty years since I met James, we shared a flat in my final year at Leeds University, subsequently he was best man at my wedding (coming up for 17 years ago). We haven’t seen each other much lately as he has lived in Taiwan for more than a decade now, but he passed through Manchester today, as did I briefly. Last time I saw him was 2011 not long before I started doing this blog so today was his first chance to appear on it. I know he normally looks happier than this but that’s what overnight flights from Asia do to the complexion, I guess. Good to see you mate, sorry it wasn’t for longer.

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May 16 2016
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Calder Holmes Park

Monday 16th May 2016, 5.00pm (day 1,726)

Calder Holmes, 16/5/16

I was working in Manchester all day, but there it was chilly and grey. Things were much more attractive on my return home to Hebden Bridge, so let’s depict that instead.

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May 15 2016
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

First crop of the year

Sunday 15th May 2016, 3.25pm (day 1,725)

Wild garlic flowers, 15/5/16

The wild garlic is out, and I foraged a considerable amount this afternoon to turn into dinner and some preserves.

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May 14 2016
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Clare on Blackburn station

Saturday 14th May 2016, 11.40am (day 1,724)

Clare at Blackburn, 14/5/16

Congratulations to my parents, Ian and Angela Whitworth, on being married an amazing 50 years today: 14th May 1966 saw them hitched in Dukinfield, Cheshire, so today was their Golden wedding anniversary. But the picture of the day has to be this one of my gorgeous wife chilling out on platform 2 of Blackburn station while we waited for the train to join the party this lunchtime. A good day was had by all I think.

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May 14 2016
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Crashed out

Friday 13th May 2016, 6.10pm (CET) (day 1,723)

Crashed out, 13/5/16

The truly superstitious probably wouldn’t have booked to fly on Friday 13th, but I am not among them, and the flights didn’t seem any less busy to me. This one was taken somewhere between Moscow and Amsterdam on leg one of my journey home.

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May 12 2016
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Taking the scaffolding down, Red Square

Thursday 12th May 2016, 6.20pm (day 1,722)

Scaffolding, St Basils, 12/5/16

It obviously takes a while to get things cleared up after the 9th May Victory Day celebrations: three days later and they’re still at it. But at least it gives me a chance to get a gratuitous shot of St. Basil’s onto the blog again. If you don’t think this is one of the most incredible buildings in the world then I’m sorry, you have no soul and I’m just not your friend any more.

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May 11 2016
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Monument to Corporate Failure, revisited

Wednesday 11th May 2016, 12.45pm (day 1,721)

Monument to Corporate Failure, 11/5/16

A day spent entirely working on campus here in Moscow, so let’s take this opportunity to check in on the slow decay of the Monument to Corporate Failure; a building which fascinates me and has been depicted on here several times before (example). At least fifteen years this has sat here empty, since the Italian company that 90% built it went bust with it uncompleted and no one has subsequently worked out whether they can safely demolish it or not — or perhaps, no one is bothered. Never used, bits of it periodically seem to fall off, but it does have a certain grandeur, in its own pathetic way.

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May 10 2016
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Kremlin Wall

Tuesday 10th May 2016, 5.45pm (day 1,720)

Unknown solder, 10/5/16

Seeing as I missed the Victory Day celebrations yesterday let’s pay homage with this shot. The Russian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lies below the monumental west wall of the Kremlin, at one end of a row of memorials to various Soviet cities, all decorated since yesterday with garlands of flowers. I think we citizens of elsewhere mostly forget that it was the Soviets who lost the most men (and women) of all the countries who fought in World War Two. They have a right to remember the dead. Perhaps not to celebrate them — but to remember them.

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May 09 2016
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

By the Moscow River

Monday 9th May 2016, 2.40pm (day 1,719)

Moscow river, 9/5/16

So here I am back in Moscow, and the city thus appears on the blog for the first time since 29th October 2014, 558 days ago. The weather that day was glorious, and so it was today too. It was a public holiday here, Victory Day, but only the oligarchs and Putin confidantes get to hang around Red Square watching the tanks roll past these days, so I just worked a bit and wandered out in the early afternoon to take in the rays by the Moscow River, along with several thousand of the locals.

The bridge in the background has two decks, by the way — upper for the road, lower for the Metro red line (line 1).

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May 09 2016
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger, Transport

Gate 49

Sunday 8th May 2016, 12.55pm (day 1,718)

Departure lounge, 8/5/16

In the first 1,520 days of the blog, that is, up until my return from Estonia last October, 341 of the pictures were taken outside the UK, around 22.5% of them. However, in the 196 days since, only five of them have been (on my trip to Norway in January). Whether this marks a sustained change in my travel habits is hard to say, for various reasons there probably will be fewer trips coming up but it is impossible to say for sure. Anyway — off today — as to where, you can find out tomorrow. At least it wasn’t a very early start, though this doesn’t seem to have made any difference to the guy stretched out on the seats.

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