What little stories there are all around us sometimes. Who abandoned this pair of grubby, but otherwise serviceable-looking shoes by the side of this crossing over Oxford Road today – and why? Or have they struck out on their own, striking a blow for the freedom of brogues everywhere?
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?
Tolerable weather this morning so I left home without any equipment. On the two-mile walk back from my office to the railway station, I decided happiness would have been a small frame of wire with some synthetic material stretched over it, even if it had been red with black spots and had two comedy eyes poking up from the top. I’m still damp now, several hours later.
Although my work location varies, as you can tell from this blog, Monday is most commonly a Manchester day, spent among the dreaming spires…
Dreaming spires? Well, not really. The University of Manchester campus is split in half by one of the country’s principal A roads (this is the A34 which starts here and ends in Southampton, having passed through the centre of England on the way – including Oxford, hence the name Oxford Road). It makes it the noisiest and most crowded campus I have ever visited, and believe me I’ve been to a few. My bosses are spending millions on new buildings but if you ask me a better investment would be simply to pay for a ‘university bypass’ and then grass this over to create a long garden. Who knows, one day we might realise that cars subtract from life more than they add to it and it might even happen.
I know if I keep repeating it too long this ‘golden light, golden colours’ theme might start to get a little wearing. But surely we can’t sustain this for much longer, so let’s make the most of it while it lasts.
The Whitworth Hall (named after engineer Sir Joseph Whitworth) is the ceremonial hall for the University of Manchester. People say you end up working somewhere appropriate for your name. Well, not only is my family name Whitworth, but my mother’s maiden name is Hall, so I guess that does it for me.
Being 42 