Sunday 16th April 2023, 3.30pm (day 4,252)

Everyone grows up, even Hell’s Angels. Every Sunday there will be some motorcycle club or other relaxing in the square. This lot had better gear than most.

Everyone grows up, even Hell’s Angels. Every Sunday there will be some motorcycle club or other relaxing in the square. This lot had better gear than most.

If there’s DIY to be done about the house, it’s never me that does it.
An inconsequential shot for an inconsequential day, but it does have one claim to significance: this is the first time I have ever managed seven morning shots in a row. Six in a row has been attained several times but never a full week. Getting through the weekend was the trick, at least in this case.

Life at the moment is having its uneventful spells, and this is the middle of one of them. But at least the immediate locality continues to provide sufficient photo opportunities.

My last day in London, this time. I did the Thames as a subject on Sunday, but I’m doing it again. A glorious morning: the two walkers seen here, and me, were considerably overdressed. I’m not sure that the bridge ahead has a name, but it takes the suburban line over the river to Chiswick. This is a very attractive part of the city, which is why I will never be able to afford to live there.

After booking the second set of flights to and from St Helena, and a couple of airport hotels, the travel budget was well and truly spent: there is literally £5 left of the £5,000 we were granted back in 2021 to do this project. So over the next two weeks I am crashing with these two good individuals, Mr. Gareth Drabble and Moonlight the cat, to whom I must defer. The guitar case is representative of both of them too: Gareth plays. Moonlight sleeps in it sometimes.

It’s nice to catch a major road in that brief moment when it doesn’t have any traffic on it. Last time I was in Nottingham was August 2021, and on that day I captured a shot of Maid Marian Way, so as you can see, the local town planners are not afraid to publicise some obvious cultural icons. Doubtless there’s a Robin Way somewhere around the place, or a Hood Boulevard.

Second consecutive shot taken at the outdoor market, but hey. The guy on the DVD and CD stall takes a casual attitude towards his merchandise. One can either rule the world by wearing the shoes… or, presumably, get hints by watching the various Marvel movies which all seem to be based around much the same theme.

One of those where the guy’s profile caught my eye, and the rest of the shot was whatever came into view as I caputred it.

Why was I in the depths of Rochdale at 9pm on a Tuesday evening? Photography reasons, of course. (OK, actually it was a football match.) The substantial tower blocks in the background are locally known as the ‘Seven Sisters’, I believe. As is often the case, going monochrome disguises some dubious sodium-lighting yellowness and the odd bit of lens flare. Plus it just seems like a black-and-white kind of place, to be honest, befitting the first day of November.

There might only have been about 35 or so people at the game, but it was social enough — despite appearances at this point.