Wednesday 18th February 2026, 4.30pm (day 5,291)
Brrrr! It’s cold outside. Get that fire lit!
First flames
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: flame
Excessive waiter theatrics
Friday 8th November 2024, 6.10pm (day 4,824)
My PhD student of the last five years, Sara, passed her viva voce examination today — with only minor corrections, a very good result (for a good thesis, I honestly did think) — and so took me out to dinner at a Turkish restaurant in Manchester. The place’s waiters definitely had an overblown sense of theatrics. Salman, Sara’s son, looks somewhat apprehensively at one of them striding towards us with the kind of flamethrower that, if carried outside, would probably see him arrested for branding an offensive weapon. All this just to put a second or two of extra charring on the spicy meatballs. Food was good, though.
This winter’s fire
Thursday 9th November 2023, 5.20pm (day 4,459)
The fire in the pub has been lit some two or three weeks earlier than last year. This is a good thing.
Welcome warmth
Monday 6th December 2021, 4.40pm (day 3,756)
My three weeks in St Helena meant that I missed out on the first decline of winter, and have thus been plunged straight back into December chill and gloom, without the initial acclimatisation. Sights like this are thus very welcome at this time. It’s only just been lit, but it’s developing nicely.
Aflame
Tuesday 24th November 2015, 4.15pm (day 1,552)
Posted for much the same underlying reasons as yesterday’s pic of the frosty roofscape: because the winter chill is starting to seep through these increasingly old bones, there is pleasure to be found in watching things burn. So, fire today, ice yesterday: tomorrow I might try luke-warm water. (Spinal Tap joke.)
Burning down
Friday 2nd November 2012, 6.30pm (day 435)
Pictured in the Hole in the Wall pub, at the stub end of another week. Is it the end of term yet?
Being 42 