The reason I was put up for another two nights in Zagreb after the Networked Learning conference was so I could come to give this lecture at the University. A few more people did arrive by the time I started… so hopefully my hosts thought the bother was worth it. I enjoyed it, anyway. Home tomorrow.
The conference ended today but I am in Zagreb until Friday, and transited to a different hotel in the early afternoon. My walk there took me past the main railway station, a symbolic spot for those who have seen and enjoyed From Russia With Love — the best Bond movie (yes, it is) — as it’s here that 007 meets the evil Grant –the best Bond villain (don’t argue now) — posing as a fellow British agent.
Actually, those scenes weren’t filmed here, but in Turkey: and in the book, Grant and Bond meet not in Zagreb, but Trieste. But this is just detail….
Sat in a room all day listening to people talk, so not the most exciting day photographically. But the cathedral in Zagreb is an imposing presence so gave me something more interesting to point my camera at. Rebuilt in the late 19th century after the old one was damaged in an earthquake.
I’m aware this photo could have been taken anywhere, but it happens to be in Zagreb, Croatia: making this the first place to begin with Z that has appeared on the blog in its 2,454 days.
The pigeons of Zagreb, at least, the ones pictured here, may have decided for many reasons to have a fight but amongst those may have been the fact that on this late morning it was absolutely throwing it down with rain, as is visible here (and it’s not always easy to see rain on photographs unless it’s very heavy). I have been here 24 hours now and there’s certainly been copious amounts of moisture pouring out of the sky. I think there are three birds visible on this shot, but I must admit I’m not entirely sure.
Off I go again, to a country I have visited once before, though the city will be new to me. Where? Well, you can find out tomorrow. Look up from the Grain Loft bar in Terminal 1 of MAN and one will see the abstract view shown here, it’s not about travelling, it’s just a combination of shapes that I find interesting. It wasn’t an exciting flight…
On a day of ideal walking weather, the Lake District was not a place to go to for the solitude — at least, not the parts of it that I hung out in, namely Great Langdale and the 2816 feet (858m) summit of Crinkle Crags, one of Wainwright’s “Top SIx Fells”. But I cannot begrudge anyone else their enjoyment of the fine conditions today. We are just the same, after all.
They’re very pink, but very ephemeral, the cherry blossoms. Maybe that’s why the Japanese like them so much, it matches their general aesthetic.
Who first came up with the concept of a gargoyle, I wonder? Take what is, in essence, a piece of guttering, and wrap a little monster face around it? Someone must have thought of this first, back in antiquity, and the idea caught on. This one graces the fountain in Albert Square, Manchester, and caught the light quite well on this sunny morning.
A very low-key day, as yesterday was. Very little happened, and this picture of a picture is as good as it gets today. Still, the teeth are healthy ones — Joe should feel satisfied with this — more so than mine were when I pictured my own X-ray a while back.
Joe must have a maths test coming up… equations like these have started appearing around the house.
Being 42 