Thursday 12th February, 6.00pm (day 5,285)
Hello, friend. The bloody thing is that today was another wake. Too many, too fast.
Jack
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: beer
Celebrating a life
Monday 2nd February 2026, 2.35pm (day 5,275)
I do not know exactly how many people have appeared on this blog and subsequently died, for I cannot account for all the strangers who have been in shots. As of today, though, there are certainly at least six such people among friends and family. Steve Cooper — always known in the pub as ‘Little Steve’ (not that the other Steve is particularly large) had appeared three times, most recently on 28th March 2025. He passed away on 6th January aged 63, today was his funeral and then wake at the Railway, where it had to be. Other members of the crew are pictured looking happy, which is the main reason I pick the shot — as the booklet on the table announces, it was meant to be a celebratin, not sorrowful. But Steve will be missed, as will all friends when they are no longer with us.
In the doorway
Friday 23rd January 2026, 5.00pm (day 5,265)
It’s Friday, it’s 5pm and, well, we’re in the usual place. It’d be great if the golden glow behind the beer glass was some tropical sunset, but sadly not, In fact we’ve barely seen sunshine for two weeks.
Jax, New Year’s Eve
Wednesday 31st December 2025, 8.40pm (day 5,242)
It’s just a day like any other of course but thanks to its position in the calendar there does seem a certain obligation to mark it. A modicum of sociability was thereby achieved, though we didn’t stay out until midnight. Jax becomes, probably, the person with the longest gap between first and second appearances on here — that is also her to the right of this portrait from January 2015.
Happy New Year to her and to you all. Of all the places I visited in 2025, Orkney was definitely the best — at the end of that week Clare and I were, virtually, both planning moves there. It’ll never happen though. This picture of Stromness was the last one taken there (August 2nd at 6.40am, the earliest shot of the year) and evokes the memories very well. My favourite picture of the year photographically is probably the one of the guide at the Great Tapestry of Scotland on June 8th in Galashiels — it just turned out very well and as I hoped it would. What will 2026 bring? Let’s find out.
Worst beer logo ever?
Friday 5th December 2025, 4.50pm (day 5,216)
This brand of beer (not mine, but the wife drinks it) has recently appeared at the Railway and the almost unanimous contention among the clientele is that its logo is quite the worst and most inappropriate piece of branding ever seen there — and it appears on the pump, too (an ugly, blocky, monstrous columnar thing that now dominates the bar). Why does a sweaty male figure who looks like a cross between Boris Yeltsin and Boris Johnson — definitely a Boris then — somehow epitomise a Spanish beer with a woman’s name? And did I really have nothing better to photograph on a Friday? Both of these things seem to have come to pass, though.
Ladybird on Guinness
Sunday 12th October 2025, 2.10pm (day 5,162)
Far too nice a day to stay in, something that the ladybirds had also decided — there are plenty of them around at the moment, probably getting in their last greenfly before it becomes too cold and they die or hibernate or do whatever it is they do over the winter. My pint of Guinness didn’t have any hanging around on, or in, it but maybe this one was just resting on the cool plastic for a while. Is ladybird.guinness.football a ‘What3Words’ waiting to be used?
Back of the pub — 2,000th Hebden Bridge shot
Friday 27th June 2025, 5.55pm (day 5,055)
I knew in advance that today’s shot would be taken at home in Hebden Bridge, meaning it would become the 2,000th HB shot to feature on here. Knowing also that not a great deal was going to happen on the day I thought I might as well make #HB2000 as typical as possible. Hi to Johnny and Mary therefore, who I see often enough in this spot, particularly in the summer. (In the winter we would be twenty yards to the right, and inside….)
Pud, pinball wizard
Thursday 19th June 2025, 6.15pm (day 5,047)
Pud (a.k.a. Sean) is definitely the local wizard with this machine. I mean, I try — others try — but Pud wins. Usually. Kind of like Manchester City, maybe not always, but quite a lot.
Chances of being saved, fairly high
Wednesday 28th May 2025, 2.40pm (day 5,025)
I suppose, to an insect, that the foam layer on top of a glass of beer looks like a solid landing place. But this is one of those risks that if it gets a second chance at it, this will only be because of the benevolence of the putative drinker of said beer, who doesn’t want a mouthful of insect to spoil his enjoyment. Learn the lesson, kid.
Light reading
Wednesday 23rd April 2025, 2.50pm (day 4,990)
This ‘reading in the pub’ theme has been done before but after nearly 5,000 days some things just come round again. Anyway, taking in James V. Wertsch’s concept of ‘mediated action’ is better done with the accompaniment of alcohol, I feel.
Being 42 