Tag Archives: 52

Aug 21 2022
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Rippleside cemetery

Saturday 20th August 2022, 12.50pm (day 4,013)

Rippleside Cemetery, 20/8/22

Barking is one of the least gentrified bits of London, not that that is a bad thing. It also gives extremely good graveyard, as I discovered when getting away from the traffic noise and finding myself in the huge necropolis that is Rippleside cemetery, seeming to stretch away for miles, a vast city of memorials to those who have ‘passed on’ and ‘fallen asleep’. Or, here with the three members of the Sanderson family, taken out by (I assume) German bombers one night in January 1941.

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Aug 20 2022
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Daily Post, Transport

Leeds station

Friday 19th August 2022, 4.25pm (day 4,012)

Leeds station, 19/8/22

On the move again — a schedule dictated by the rail unions. I support the strikes, though. Anything that pisses off the morons currently running this country must have some validity.

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Aug 19 2022
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Watching the beer come in

Thursday 18th August 2022, 4.40pm (day 4,011)

A day at home, between trips away, and watching the beer get delivered to the pub (from across the road, for some reason) was the day’s chief entertainment. Diamond the dog becomes the latest animal to make theblog twice, adopting much the same position as on her first appearance.

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Aug 17 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Slipway on Lough Barra

Wednesday 17th August 2022, 9.35am (day 4,010)

Lough Barra slipway

The last day in Ireland. Four days in the North, four photos with people in them, all taken in Derry — then four days in the Republic, four photos taken in different places and not a person to be seen (unless we count yesterday’s Madonna). Our drive back to Derry airport was partly done through the utterly empty landscapes of the Glenveeagh National Park. Lough Barra is in the middle of nowhere, but does have this slipway on it: maybe there is good fishing to be done there.

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Aug 16 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape, Transport

The ferry to Árrain Mhór

Monday 15th August 2022, 3.25pm (day 4,008)

Árrain Mhór ferry, 15/8/22

We spent the day on the island of Árrain Mhór, which in Gaelic just means ‘Big Island’. And it is fairly big, maintaining a permanent population of a few hundred, enough to justify a regular ferry service from the mainland, anyway. And here is the 3.30pm boat back to Ireland, coming in reasonably on schedule.

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Aug 14 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Trawenagh Bay, Donegal

Sunday 14th August 2022, 3.10pm (day 4,007)

Trawenagh Bay, 14/8/22

Time to cross the border into the Republic of Ireland, getting out of the UK for the first time since late November. Time to get out of the city and into the country — right into it. More of this over the next few days, I sure hope.

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Aug 14 2022
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Apprentice Boys’ parade

Saturday 13th August 2022, 9.55am (day 4,006)

Apprentice Boys' parade, 13/8/22

In 1689 there was civil war across Britain and Ireland as the Catholic King James II and the Protestant William of Orange vied for the throne. Derry was besieged for months before the forces of William finally prevailed, there and in the later Battle of the Boyne. And that victory has basically defined British politics ever since, and certainly Northern Irish politics.

The annual commemoration of the siege of Derry, the Apprentice Boys’ parade, is not as politically charged as once it was — in 1969 this event effectively set off the whole Troubles — but one might as well still see it as a political demonstration, conducted by a large number of middle-aged white men affecting a military style of dress. It made for good photo opportunities, but I document without sympathising.

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Aug 12 2022
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Daily Post, Interior

In the Museum of Free Derry

Thursday 11th August 2022, 11.20am (day 4,004)

On 30th January 1972, not more than a hundred yards from the Bed & Breakfast where we are staying in Derry, the British Army killed 14 citizens of its own country, and wounded 14 more. It took decades, but in 2010 it finally came out how the Estalishment massacred these innocent people, as this quote from a radio conversation between a soldier and his officer reveals: “This chap is clearly unarmed, but can I shoot him anyway?” (The answer was yes.)

The Museum of Free Derry now stands more-or-less on the spot where this atrocity took place, and I’m glad it’s there, and doesn’t depend on state funding. The present bunch of ruling morons are as likely to encourage moves towards a united Ireland as they are anything else. Sadly, I’m English, and can’t secede with them.

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Aug 12 2022
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Guildhall and Peace Bridge, Derry

Wednesday 10th August 2022, 7.50pm (day 4,003)

Guildhall and Peace Bridge, 10/8/22

Hey, I’m on holiday. Still in my own country — just about. But Derry, Northern Ireland, is the westernmost city in the UK and doesn’t really feel like the rest of the place for lots of different reasons. Of which more in tomorrow’s post. The Peace Bridge crosses the River Foyle, which is, essentially, the border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland — only not quite, at this point. It’s that uncertainty which defines this place, it seems to me.

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Aug 10 2022
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Trying to relax

Tuesday 9th August 2022, 1.55pm (day 4,002)

Cafe by the Ouse, 9/8/22

Despite the various depredations of different kinds of Authority I am trying to affect a state of relaxation, and this gentleman, by the River Ouse in York, seems to be someone I can aspire to right now. I assume he’s not eaing the ‘ice cream for dogs’ though (see sign).

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