Monday 30th September 2019, 11.20am (day 2,958)
I go one way, the bird goes its way, the cat goes that. None of us necessarily find out about what the “NO” is so keen to dissuade us.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: Manchester
At the Food Festival (again)
Saturday 28th September 2019, 6.45pm (day, 2,956)
A Saturday night out in Manchester and, to start it, a return to the Food & Drink Festival also depicted (more abstractly) yesterday. On both days there were plenty of pleasant things to consume. Manchester makes its five-in-a-row: only the second time I have managed this, the first being in March 2014.
Rain on the beer tent
Friday 27th September 2019, 4.35pm (day 2,955)
The weather over the last few days has been changeable to say the least, and another drenching on the way back to Victoria was avoided by taking shelter in this large tent that has taken up residency nearby. That it lived up to the promise of the sign was just a bonus. Well, it is the weekend.
Four days in a row in Manchester and as I’m there tomorrow as well for non-work reasons, this may well become only it’s second five-in-a-row stint on the blog.
The MECD (still) rises
Thursday 26th September 2019, 9.30am (day 2,954)
A break in the moratorium on pictures of building sites in Manchester, but I was sat in my office all day and there isn’t otherwise a great deal to see in this city, a state of affairs which, as locals will know, has lasted years now. The Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD), vast in scale (this is just a small wing of it), grows up like an incipient volcano on Upper Brook Street: apparently it’s due to be finished at some point this century.
Brunswick Park
Wednesday 25th September 2019, 4.10pm (day 2,953)
When I started work in Manchester in 2005, Oxford Road, which runs down the centre of the main campus, was still a carbon monoxide-choked arterial road. Gradually, over the years, there’s been some decent (and much-needed) traffic management, and last year, Brunswick Street was finally closed off and turned into this walkway, “Brunswick Park”. It’s not a very green park, admittedly — but still, it’s a definite improvement. This was the one little burst of sunshine of the day.
Entrance to the tea rooms
Wednesday 18th September 2019, 11.15am (day 2,946)
It’s nice that after nearly a decade and a half working in Manchester that I can still discover some new places. This was one: I just fancied a cup of tea at this point, and surely an establishment named like this can deliver? It certainly could. Inside had to be seen to be believed as well, but I couldn’t just snap away at the customers; the profusion of flowers in the porch does give something of the right impression, however.
By the Mancunian Way
Tuesday 17th September 2019, 9.20am (day 2,945)
I am sure that with better photographic equipment than mine one could have made this look like a lovely soft star of sunbeams, sparkling gently through the foliage on this lovely September morning. But hey, the main A57 motorway — the Mancunian Way — is a few yards to the left of this shot, and this is as firmly big-city as yesterday’s morning picture. So I beg forgiveness. I do like this little spot, an oasis in the morning walk to work — it’s featured before.
First class of the year (42 people)
Wednesday 11th September 2019, 10.05am (day 2,939)
The first class of the year, which as it usually is, is with newly appointed Manchester staff and not students. Which is why it was not quite so hard to get them talking to each other. I am pretty sure there are 42 people on this shot, fitting nicely with the (long-outdated) title of the blog… and that without too much cropping (OK, I did a bit).
The dungeon door opens
Monday 2nd September 2019, 11.10am (day 2,930)
The door hides itself in the dark centre of the underpass beneath the Mancunian Way. It is always closed. Sometimes it rattles to itself in a sinister fashion, as if there is a mythical beast trapped within, and it’s the entrance to some foul dungeon, Manchester’s Moria. Today, though, it loomed open, but there were no surprises within — as the road sign and glimpsed wheelbarrow imply, just more bloody building site stuff.
Renaissance Hotel, Manchester
Thursday 29th August 2019, 9.00am (day 2,926)
There have been very few morning shots recently. 15 consecutive afternoon ones up to and including yesterday, and only six of the last fifty have been taken before noon. I just wanted to get a morning shot today, and ideally one from Manchester so I can still prove I go to work there, now and again.
None of which really justifies this shot in particular, but what the hell; the little flickers of sunlight, bouncing off the higher windows, were about all we saw today, so maybe that’s enough explanation.
Being 42 