Friday 25th May 2012, 7.40am (day 274)
This is rather boring and abstract. Then again, so was my day.
It’s definitely a dull one to mark the 9-month anniversary of this blog. Three-quarters of a year done: one quarter to go.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: Manchester
Gymnastic display, Exchange Square
Wednesday 16th May 2012, 3.30pm (day 265)
Where, a month ago, the Wheel of Manchester still stood, there was today this gymnastic display by a group of energetic ten year-olds. This’ll all be some Olympic games run-up thing. I snapped this one as I went past on my way to the station: luck more than judgment, I can assure you.
‘Champions’ banner, Manchester Town Hall
Tuesday 15th May 2012, 7.50am (day 264)
Posted purely to wind up any Manchester United fans in the audience. I dislike Manchester United because of:
- the fact my Dad is a City fan of nearly 60 years’ standing
- the general arrogance
- (most of all) the 1983 FA Cup Final (look it up if you don’t get this reference).
Anyway the drama of Sunday’s game (which I missed altogether, being on a plane back from Copenhagen at the time) was too good for it to end any other way. Well done, City.
Cathedral and Carbuncle
Monday 30th April 2012, 7.50am (day 249)
I put up this photo today for two reasons. The first is that I have been starved of sunlight for a week but here is evidence that the morning was a beautiful sunny one, and the whole day stayed reasonable. The last time I had a photo on this blog illuminated by sunshine was 21st April, and even that had just been a momentary break of sun in an otherwise rainy day.
The other thing is that I see this view of Manchester Cathedral every time I leave Victoria station, and keep thinking, OK, it’s not a particularly impressive church (the parish church in the Sussex village where I grew up is larger); but it is a cathedral, thus the centre of a bishopric, the ecclesiastical centre of this, a very large city, God’s house, all that jazz. And in 1974 or so someone went, ‘I’ve got an idea. Let’s build a sodding great white concrete thing right beind it.’
Pigeon feeding, Manchester
Monday 23rd April 2012, 4.45pm (day 242)
I’m in the middle of what is, for me, quite a long run of days without going anywhere in particular. So I have to find photographic succour in Hebden Bridge and Manchester, familiar territory but there’s plenty to see if you look around.
Urbis, Manchester
Wednesday 11th April 2012, 6.10pm (day 230)
Am still off work so was going into Manchester tonight, for an evening out, as opposed to passing this place on the way in to work in the morning. It’s actually not ‘Urbis’ any more – a failed museum of ‘city life’ it is apparently being converted into the new National Football Museum, though there’s little actual sign of that happening right now. Took me a couple of minutes to get this exact photo as lots of other people were walking past, I kept hoping that a) the light would stay b) the girls wouldn’t just get up and leave and c) no one would arrest me for pointing a camera at them for ages.
Serving the public good
Friday 30th March 2012, 2.35pm (day 218)
Let’s think about it: will either David Cameron or George Osborne will have a statue erected to them in a hundred and twenty years’ time that will extol their contribution ‘To The Public Good? Considering the ideological stance of their party is that there is no such thing as ‘the public good’, I doubt they would want to see such a memorial.
On the other hand, considering that Mr. Heywood’s era resulted in Manchester becoming one of the most powerful and successful cities in the world, and built art galleries and universities and football clubs, and Mr Cameron’s era in Manchester is largely characterised by the closure of all but one of the city’s public toilets, it should be easy enough to predict the answer to the question posed earlier.
Manchester city centre, from the air
Monday 26th March 2012, 9.45am (day 214)
Whereas yesterday’s picture encompassed a range of, say, about 50mm, I guess this shot covers a range about a million times wider (that is, 50km). This is the view I got this morning as my plane took off from Manchester airport to the south of the city. The prominent building just left of centre is the Deansgate tower (a Hilton hotel on its lower floors, residential apartments above). The main city centre is to the right. The university will be on the edge of where the high buildings start, just to right of centre.
As you can see it was another beautiful day in the North-west of England, 20°C at least – but not in London, where I was flying on this leg (clamped under a foul brown smog when we landed); nor, indeed, in Moscow where I currently reside (-1°C, a few inches of snow, and still thoroughgoingly winter). Ah, what the hell. It’s all the travel experience, innit.
The Oxford Road bus swarm
Wednesday 7th March 2012, 9.45am (day 195)
It is sometimes said that Oxford Road, Manchester, is the busiest bus route in Europe. Looking at this sight – there are at least 17 buses visible on this shot and I see no reason why the unseen space behind the one in the centre of the picture is occupied by anything different – it is not only easy to believe this, but impossible not to marvel at the mentality of those who think that unregulated public transport is a good idea. Reallocating even one of these buses to the Lake District, say, or a bus-free village in the shires… don’t you think that would be a more productive use of it?
Former Factory HQ, Manchester
Monday 5th March 2012, 8.05am (day 193)
Walked a slightly different way to the office this morning; not a big deal, just a matter of going down a street parallel to the one I normally go down, but I very rarely do it. So I never noticed before that this building on the corner of Charles Street and Brook Street is the former HQ of Factory Records, the company that brought us Joy Division (World’s Greatest Ever Rock Band… it’s just a fact guys, live with it). I’m enough of a rock geek to think this is pretty cool.
Though not as geekily cool as having a photo of the exact phone box in which Withnail does his ‘No, I’m not in London… Penrith… Penrith!’ rant at his agent. But that’s another story.
Being 42 