So scabbed has my walk to work become by various building sites of one form or another that each day I go into Manchester I find myself driven down further obscure corners of the urban architecture. And who is Gurn? Who knows what claims are made here?
How many generations of students have spent their time waiting around in corridors, until the time they are called into the room? It doesn’t change. Did I get the job? Not this time.
Now that’s a big…. large concrete thing. Actually I have no idea what function this could serve. It just continues the trend for Manchester city centre to be devoured by increasingly voracious machines. It’s like The Terminator meets War of the Worlds sometimes — which is where I came in with this shot.
Today was the summer solstice, the Northern Hemisphere’s longest day. But seeing as I’ve been north of the Arctic Circle since Saturday morning this was a regression, in daylight terms. No problem with that however. The 24-hour daylight was nice in some ways but it could become monotonous after a while. Shot taken from above Manchester on the final flight home: the city centre is just visible down there in the haze.
Now that Manchester’s new Exchange Square tram stop is finished it gives you a whole new place to sit and feel depressed about the day to come. I am sure we have all felt like this on occasion at 7.40am on a Thursday.
I do like a good alleyway. They are the capillaries of the road network, the little incipient runnels in the tops of hillsides that then broaden out into streams and rivers.
It was time today for the monthly staff development workshop that I organise. Why the Lego? Well, ask the speaker… but the talk was about creative innovation, so always good to have some toys to spark interest. I always try to do something creative each day — the proof has played out over the last five-and-three-quarter years on here.
Normally, litter bins of various kinds are the bane of photographic composition (along with cars, telegraph wires and lamp-posts). But just occasionally one flowers into attractiveness, as here, I hope. Another beautiful spring day with excellent light, I hope this lasts a while.
The new tram lines are in place in Manchester, just behind the point from where this shot was taken: but building work is alive and well in the city centre. At some undefined point in the future — 2021, say — it might be possible to walk through the city without encountering some major construction project or other, but I have my doubts.
Another nice morning and a sunny day followed. Off we all go to work in our various ways — or possibly, come home again.
Being 42 