Wednesday 23rd January 2019, 7.15am (day 2,708)
What am I doing in Manchester city centre by 7.15am on a winter’s morning? I should still be asleep. Like the guy in this sleeping bag, though hopefully in a more comfortable and less public place.
What am I doing in Manchester city centre by 7.15am on a winter’s morning? I should still be asleep. Like the guy in this sleeping bag, though hopefully in a more comfortable and less public place.

One of those days on which I got soaked in foul winter rain on the walk to campus from the station, and dreaded doing it again on the way back — but fortunately, the sun came out. Here, for once I don’t mind the lamppost in the shot.
I really hope there won’t be too many Manchester pictures over the next few months — at least that will be an indication that my sabbatical will be something meaningful. But it doesn’t start yet: I will be there most of next week before I can escape for a while.
Not an exciting shot, but then again this wasn’t an exciting day, nor is it an exciting period: I can see all the photos from a 15-day run (ending on 24th January) being from Hebden Bridge or Manchester. Never mind, I have marking to do. Here, I at least like the pipes, the red against the grey.
A full day in Manchester, and into the evening as well. By late on the city had become clamped under a vast sea of fog; here at 4.30 the first inklings of it give a romantic quality to the older remaining campus buildings.
Back into Manchester for work-related reasons for the first time since 18th December. The Christmas holidays are over for us all. These pigeons ponder the possibility of a dip in the fountains of Piccadilly Gardens, but understandably refuse — it was a chilly day, winter has its bite back to some extent.
OK, it’s Manchester, not New York… But it is The Producers. So it’s Broadway really. All together now… “Springtime…”
No one, for once, told me I couldn’t take photos during the performance so I got a couple. I’m quite pleased with this one, which is one of the few photos from which I have not cropped even a pixel; and considering the symmetry that’s worth noting.
A damp, soggy evening, and when we potential passengers were told that the bus I was waiting for was to be half an hour late, I gave up and made other arrangements for the evening. So be it — this was my last day of work in Manchester of 2018, and frankly, for now, I’m just glad to see the back of the place. I need some downtime…
The corner of Charles Street and Princess Street in Manchester: a significant place in rock music history. I’m declaring a moratorium — no more photos of building sites here for a while. But there’s nothing wrong with putting up photos of a Factory. (The old Factory Records HQ, that is.)
The transformation of Manchester into a city of tower blocks continues apace. Over the last few years, how many shots from here have featured some giant construction project, completed or (mostly) otherwise? The end of Canal Street, at the New Union hotel, is now literally overshadowed by this concrete lattice, which just keeps going up, and up, and up.
My walking route from Manchester Victoria station to my office has been finely worked out down the years. Chancery Lane is another one of my alleys, passed while I negotiate a way round the Town Hall district that, as far as possible, doesn’t involve other people, whether in vehicles or on foot. Normally I would despair of bins appearing in a shot, as they would normally spoil it, but here I’m trying to embrace them.