Once again, Leeds becomes the place to change trains when on the way to somewhere else for an evening out: but once again it was quite fertile territory for photography today, bathed in golden late afternoon light. I had a couple to choose from today but in the end went with this one due to the randomly bendy child. Like a stray piece of wind just tried to whisk him away.
Of all the back streets that comprise my standard walk from Manchester Victoria to my building at work, Abingdon Street is my favourite. It probably looks very much as it did a hundred years ago. Although in 1917 it probably didn’t host two of Manchester’s biggest gay clubs.
Evening game at the John Smith’s stadium, Huddersfield — but let’s not talk about it past this point. Suffice to say that only here, when the teams were coming out, did we Brighton fans feel particularly optimistic.
This extremely battered old skip wagon was parked outside my house all day, presumably being used by the builders working two doors along, but if their scaffolding is as knackered as their wagon, I wouldn’t trust it. Still, it was something to photograph in an otherwise dull day: I like the different textures, lines, it’s like a collage almost.
Although teaching term has restarted at Manchester, this guy still looked very much on his own in the corner of this particular campus café, and that’s what I was trying to capture.
Not an exciting day today, so here’s an abstract. I like the lines, the slash of pink. Flimsy disguise for the fact I was in the pub at 4pm on a school day, however.
A lack of cheap hotel rooms in the centre of London led to us staying last night in Stratford, on the doorstep of Olympic Park, venue for the 2012 Games. We went on a walk round there this morning. This counts as East rather than Central London, but is more than urban enough and, as is obvious from this picture, sees the occasional football fan now and again (though not this weekend).
When I first saw this cormorant perched on a post beside the unseen River Lea below, I genuinely thought it was a fake, put there as some vaguely cute piece of urban design when all this was built a few years ago. Then it moved. I wish I could have got a better photo of it — I had another one, a close-up, which made the wings look amazing but the head was out of focus and it didn’t locate it in this bizarre geographical context. I guess if birds like this can turn up in central London we may occasionally be doing something right with the environment.
With nothing else much to do while Clare was on her course today I took myself on the latest stop on my recent tour of obscure football stadia and took in a game from the Essex Senior League, Clapton v Barking. Clapton are notable for having a big ‘Ultra’ fan group, but they are a club with a history, having been founded in 1878 and still playing at the same ground they always have done, the marvellously named Old Spotted Dog stadium. The result — Clapton (here in red, white and black) 4, Barking 2. Better than my lot managed today anyway.
Clare’s doing a course in London tomorrow (Saturday) so it seemed like an opportunity to get in a weekend away. Late trip though, so we were passing through Leeds station when Friday night was becoming busy.
Whereas last Chinese New Year, Exchange Square in Manchester displayed an inflatable dragon, this year we are graced with this illuminated plastic ‘terracotta army’, which may or may not be the tackiest thing I have seen in a while. Still, if the purpose of the display was to get mentions on social media, it has succeeded, going on the number of people taking photos of it today. Including me of course. Or perhaps I was photographing the crowd. But it doesn’t matter does it? The end result is the same. It is what we do now.
Being 42 