Sunny but chilly day in Manchester, trains being obedient. Got out of the house at least, even if it wasn’t a very profound change of scene. However, some very good travel news received today — looks like in two months’ time I will be in Japan for the first time in my life, a long-cherished dream destination.
The title of this post is meant in a practical sense. To see a Hebden pub this empty at 5pm is very rare. It’s the end of January, no one has any money. I certainly don’t.
But there’s an existential meaning to it too. It’s been an extremely uneventful period, last week included (I might have gone to Moscow, but I didn’t do much). It’ll change. Slowly. But it will.
Today was not the first time that I have been grateful to spot one of Hebden Bridge’s resident heron population on my only excursion out of the house. Days otherwise spent at home, marking, are not the easiest ones on which to fulfil the daily photo brief.
I say ‘one of’ the resident herons but I suppose there’s a better than even chance that this is the same bird as appeared on 25/5/16 and 17/2/16 — look at the earlier shots for yourself and see what you think. The markings are more or less the same and I guess as predators these are territorial beasts and like to keep coming back to the same spot. If it is the same one this would make it the second bird (after the local muscovy duck) to definitely appear on the blog more than once. And looking back at those other pictures does, at least, indicate just how much these guys can fold up those amazing necks of theirs.
I did say there was going to be little to get excited about this weekend (or for the next few days, come to that). In fact this picture is taken in the same place as yesterday’s. Warmth like this was much needed today, a grey, chilly day. About that point in the winter where you really start getting fed up with it.
It’s nice to travel, but it’s also nice to come home. So the family can feature on the blog for the first time for a while (as a duo, anyway). Not much is going to happen in the next few days, and it doesn’t look like we can expect the sun out, so I foresee more of this kind of thing.
Last morning in Moscow on this trip. Will there be another one? Perhaps… It is about time I got to see some more of this vast country in fact. It may happen, it may not. Anyway I imagine that this is many people’s stereotypical view of what Moscow looks like, and there is some truth to it, particularly outside the city centre (here we are about five miles from Red Square). Liked the way the brief burst of morning sun was spilling over from the right-hand side of the picture. Do svedanya, until next time.
I’m still here on the campus of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Political Administration (hence, RANEPA). It was much colder today — thanks to a biting wind; the last few days had been still and not unpleasant, but today was bitter.
Afternoon off, so I headed for the Arbat, probably the most laid back of the streets in Moscow city centre, and venue for one of the very first Moscow pictures featured on this blog on 24th October 2011. The kids seem very happy to see the guy in the chipmunk suit, what they probably don’t realise is that he’s almost certainly handing out leaflets for some tattoo parlor or e-cigarette vendor. Note the Christmas decorations still up — Russian Orthodoxy does all that stuff two weeks later than we do, so it’s not yet past Twelfth Night here.
“Brothers and sisters! Here we stand against the tyranny of our human masters. They hang us up on walls and expect us to be on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to guard against their own negligence. I say enough! We demand Sundays off at least!”
“And warmer foam. It’s cold enough here as it is.”
How nice it is that I have a job that frequently permits me the chance to get out of cold, damp, dark Britain in the depths of January. Many people would here make a point of going somewhere warm and sunny, like Australia, or the Mediterranean. I am a contrary bugger though, so I’ve come to Moscow.
Being 42 