Tuesday 9th December 2025, 10.55am (day 5,220)
A senior professorial colleague once said: “you’re a Reader. Do some fucking reading.” He was right. And there’s no reason why I need to prematurely leap out of bed to do it.
Still in bed (reading)
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: art
The Great Tapestry of Scotland
Sunday 8th June 2025, 2.30pm (day 5,036)
A stop off on the way north to Dundee. There are various routes available, things not yet seen, including the Great Tapestry, with 160 panels created collectively by over a thousand people between 2012-13. So not as old as this blog, but with more history in it, if you see what I mean. What is seen here is just the first few panels, chronologically. Having toured the country for a while it is now on permanent display in Galashiels, which makes that the 499th different place to feature on here, and number 500 should be along before the week is out, possibly tomorrow.
Another Toronto mural
Monday 17th June 2024, 5.25pm (day 4,680)
I have mentioned before that there are many murals adorning the walls of buildings in Toronto, and this is at least the third to feature on here, mounting up at a rate of one per trip. I do hope this isn’t my last visit to the city — though we will see — should I return, though, there are plenty more to document yet.
Dundee diorama
Wednesday 29th May 2024, 11.40am (day 4,661)
The first concealed round number of the day: today I am exactly 20,000 days old. When I first saw the Nick Cave documentary 20,000 Days on Earth (it’s very good and worth watching even if you have no idea who Nick Cave is) I naturally worked out when I would reach this milestone, and, well, it’s today. In my case 20,000 days works out at 54 years, 9 months and 3 days.
The second concealed round number is that this is the 100th blog pic to be taken in Scotland. This last week has seen the country overtake Norway in the all-time table to now stand third, behind only England and Australia. To mark this, let’s feature Joe, and behind him, Dundee — the juxtaposition of person and place being the principal reason that Scotland has kept up its healthy rate of appearance over the last three years (Dundee features on 24 of those 100 shots).
The diorama of Dundee was created by photographer Sohei Nishino, and is a remarkably good piece of work which gives a totally new perspective on the place and which one can lose oneself in: both characteristics of great art, if you ask me. And according to this article about it, it used 20,000 photos. Back to the first concealed round number we go. It must mean something.
At the Namibia Craft Centre
Saturday 13th April 2024, 2.10pm (day 4,615)
A weekend spent in Windhoek to transition to this new country (the 49th different one I have ever visited, incidentally). Had I known this was possibly the world’s most low-key capital city, particularly on a weekend, I might have replanned slightly, but I’m not complaining. The best lunches in town seemed to be available at the Namibia Craft Centre on Tal Street (recommendation…) and you can also look at some decent artwork, and buy some rails, if you really want.
Mural on Jarvis Street
Saturday 3rd February 2024, 1.40pm (day 4,545)
One thing I noticed when I was last in Toronto was that the city has some very good — and very large — murals. This one is on the corner of Jarvis and Carlton Streets. Yes, the telephone wires are a little annoying but this was my best effort at capturing it.
Subway, Motherwell
Saturday 20th January 2024, 1.30pm (day 4,531)
My first ever visit to Motherwell, in Scotland, which I can tell has been through its periods of post-war reconstruction as there’s something intrinsically 1960s about subways (I mean this in the British sense of a ‘pedestrian underpass’ rather than the American one of ‘underground railway’). There was a definite craze to build them around that time. This one’s been quite well decorated, something I probably fail to capture here.
Swansea mural
Saturday 6th January 2024, 3.50pm (day 4,517)
The day had various different, good elements to it, and I couldn’t decide which of them should make the blog: so let’s go with the scene caught in passing, an Other People’s Art moment which I liked a lot. Seems to totally fit the Spanish text below.
The Kelpies
Tuesday 26th December 2023, 1.30pm (day 4,506)
The Kelpies are sculptures a hundred feet high that sit beside the M9 motorway in Falkirk, Scotland. They are certainly impressive although I don’t quite see the point. Yes, it would be nicer if the pylons weren’t there, but never mind, you are meant to be distracted by the penetrating stare of the one on the left, while the other does that whole head-tossing thing, all in tons of steel.
Wire Man
Tuesday 5th December 2023, 3.00pm (day 4,485)
Wire Man — his official name, according to the ‘information sheet’ he dutifully carries — sits in one corner of the Albert pub in Hebden and has done so for some years now. He is quite an interesting creation, but he doesn’t do much. Visitors like him at first. Then they get annoyed that he is basically occupying two seats in a prime spot, particularly on busy weekends (and they’re all busy at present).
Being 42 