I don’t think I would like this guy’s job as such, which, thinking about it, would seem to require spending a lot of time kneeling on cold, hard pavements, particularly in early January. On the other hand, tell me I’m not the only one who would quite like to while away some time unplugging and rearranging all of these, just for the hell of it.
These curious new black boxes have appeared on most of the telegraph poles round here, perhaps they are installations for the great system of surveillance that has doubtless, by now, permeated every aspect of our lives. Though I suppose I do offer up plenty of information about my whereabouts on a voluntary basis. I doubt I would be happy spending my working life fifteen feet up in the air but presumably he’s used to it.
Continuing the theme I raised a couple of days ago regarding the power of hi-vis…. these guys were on the roof outside my office window, Doing Stuff: cleaning the solar panels apparently. Which, OK, I guess need cleaning now and again. I like the mild optical illusion on this one, for all reflections are an optical illusion; the guy on the right is not quite where he seems to be.
Second photo in a row of the next person along the platform, but this was an utterly random moment that could not be resisted. Somehow this bodes well for the rest of the week. The blog’s second, and my third, trip to Berlin.
No one seems able to leave any empty Manchester space empty for long. Cathedral Gardens is particularly prone to being built on by some temporary structure or other, if it’s not the ‘Davis Cup Fan Zone’ (that was last month) it’s whatever this twelve-hi-vis operation might become. Probably the ice rink; for after all, it’s nearly Christmas.
For some weeks now these guys have been pretty much the first thing seen as our curtains are opened in the morning; work to redo the roof of the Nutclough Mill has been going on forever, it seems. Rain or shine, and it was definitely rain this morning.
Holyhead railway station is one of those that is definitively The End Of The Line. A terminus, a cul-de-sac, all change please. You get off into a tangle of docks and railway lines and have to depend on this bridge to take you over all this and into the town. I like this shot as (unlike yesterday) it was one of those that has turned out exactly as I hoped when I pressed the shutter.
An official run as well, hence the steward directing them up Lees Road. Around 9.5km to go, including up to Heptonstall, which is a considerable effort even at walking pace. Taken from inside my place, so apologies for the reflections, telephone wire, etc.
I recall a time when I imposed a block on further pictures of building sites in Manchester, but needs must. The Town Hall is still undergoing its years-long renovation — first pictured back in January 2018, for heaven’s sake. On this picture, no endorsement is intended: other weather defence options are available. I presume.
Although this has been given a certain extra layer of grim by being taken through a rain-spattered window, it is nevertheless a reasonable depiction of what the weather was like this morning I don’t know what the face of the guy walking along the roof was looking like, but I’m damn sure I wasn’t going out there today. This is one reason why I am spending most of November 2021 out of the country — but more on that over the next few days.
Being 42 