Tag Archives: 52

Indoor tyre yard, Dundee

Friday 8th July 2022, 12.10pm (day 3,970)

Indoor tyre yard, 8/7/22

In the Blackness area of Dundee there is this huge old industrial complex, now abandoned and crumbling. Open doors and windows allow views inside here and there, like this one, which I nearly entitled ‘Arson attack waiting to happen’: tyres burn most satisfactorily, and for a long time. The place is for sale, and I wonder whether there is profit in buying it and keeping it this way, as a film set or somewhere that urban explorers can simply be let loose to play.

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The Firth of Forth, from the train

Thursday 7th July 2022, 1.55pm (day 3,969)

Firth of Forth, 7/7/22

My son might have chosen to live out his university years in a place (Dundee) that is about as far as he could have got from us in West Yorkshire, while staying in the UK. But, there are compensations. Over in the distance, Arthur’s Seat and Edinburgh. Closer to the camera, the Firth of Forth, all taken just before passing through Burntisland station.

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Filament

Wednesday 6th July 2022, 4.30pm (day 3,968)

Filament, 6/7/22

What beauty there is in this filament. As if it is a whole swirling galaxy of electric light. Worlds within worlds, within such an everyday thing.

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Joe pays a visit

Tuesday 5th July 2022, 12.45pm (day 3,967)

Joe by fridge, 5/7/22

It’s three-quarters of an hour into the afternoon, he’s still in his dressing gown and wearing odd socks. Guess a first year at uni hasn’t changed Joe all that much.

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Double ticket whammy

Monday 4th July 2022, 2.30pm (day 3,966)

Parking tickets, 4/7/22

One reason, among many, that I hardly ever drive into Manchester is the enthusiasm of its traffic wardens: this seems to particularly apply around the King Street/Booth Street area, as the driver of this car will doubtless realise when s/he returns to it and its double ticket whammy. When I saw this I recalled this story from The Register, which noted that:

One council operative, identified only as badge number MC1192, issued 5,662 of the council’s 14,887 parking tickets for the month [May 2020], raking in £69,864 with a further £155,266 allegedly outstanding on MC1192’s tickets alone by the end of the month. This workrate is the equivalent of 35 tickets issued every working hour of the month, assuming a generous 40-hour working week with no bank holidays or days off.

….and that was in lockdown. I’ll stick to public transport, thanks.

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Modern worship (Paloma Faith)

Saturday 2nd July 2022, 10.20pm (day 3,964)

Paloma Faith, 2/7/22

Our 23rd wedding anniversary. I took Clare to a non-league football match and she took me to see Paloma Faith. I have no idea who got the better of the transaction. Photography opportunities were better at the gig, even if musically this is not my thing. A couple of thousand other people seemed happy enough with it all, though.

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Pistyll Rhaeadr

Friday 1st July 2022, 9.45am (day 3,963)

Pistyll Rhaeadr, 1/7/22

Pistyll Rhaeadr may or may not be the highest waterfall across both Wales and England — the award depends whether you are troubled by the fact that it does not fall in a single drop. Either way it’s an impressive water feature, set off very well by the natural arch in the middle (seen here), through which the water threads like a curtain through a ring. Well worth seeing, despite being ripped off £5 for the car park. (For more pictures from today see my County Tops blog.)

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Under the rainbow

Thursday 30th June 2022, 9.10pm (day 3,962)

Llandyrnog rainbow, 30/6/22

Yeah yeah, so I didn’t go more than 5 weeks without a dose of football, and travelled to North-East Wales to get it (specifically the village of Llandyrnog, near Denbigh). But the sport is incidental here to the rainbow, which was exemplary, one of the best I have ever seen — a double rainbow lasting at least 45 minutes (the second half, in other words). The price was that everyone got a bit wet earlier on, but it was worth it.

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Life-planning tools

Wednesday 29th June 2022, 5.10pm (day 3,961)

Many maps, 29/6/22

The day was spent indoors but the horizons ranged rather wider. What you see here amounts to about 40% of my collection of Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps of the UK; ‘the hiker’s Bible’, for sure. I shall hopefully be making use of one chapter before the week is out.

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Antique shop

Tuesday 28th June 2022, 3.30pm (day 3,960)

Antique shop, 28/6/22

More junk, like yesterday. But no one would come in if it were called a ‘junk shop’, so the word ‘antique’ is employed to give these various discarded pieces of trash some cachet. But it’s all for show. Take the false teeth visible to top right, for example. However old they are, I doubt they would be employed by a set decorator for some period movie.

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