The last time the sun was seen in these parts was at some point on Wednesday 20th June, two weeks ago. It reappeared today for a couple of hours in the evening, creating a paroxysm of photography in this blogger, even if the shots were largely mundane, it was just a relief to see the light. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. As I post we’ve just been hit by a pretty intense storm. You gotta love it.
Today was a dull day in every respect. The grey skies and rain are now a permanent feature of existence. Back in Manchester for the first time in 10 days but I spent most of it in my office, which isn’t a particularly great photographic subject (which is why there have been, to date, precisely no photos of it on this blog). This is the university’s new ‘learning commons’, due to open in time for the next academic year, and doubtless full of all sorts of exciting new devices that someone has decided will ‘enhance the learning experience’. Not that they ever asked any of the academics around Manchester who specialise in educational technology their opinion as to how it should be built. I know this, because I am one of them. I am sure it will be just perfect.
Man did I have to get out on a walk at some point or I was going to go mad. I made it, it wasn’t totally dry, but it will do. More details are on my other blog.
Clare likes me to take a picture of a sheep on every trip: and as it is our 13th wedding anniversary today, this one’s for you babe.
Well, there went the first six months of 2012. So far we’ve had four nice weeks of weather (two at the end of March and two at the end of May) and the rest has been dreadful. The nostalgia freaks would have us believe that all children spent their youth frolicking in hayfields at this time of year but it’s hard to engage with that reality at the moment, when it’s raining most of the time. So here’s Joe doing long multiplication. He’s getting kinda good at it.
This was supposed to happen last weekend. Once a year the populace of Hebden Bridge spend a little while building ephemeral but beautiful costumes and parade down the town to the park. It’s like Carnival in Rio, but shorter, with less naked flesh and in Yorkshire. A lot of fun though. Today it became something of a two-finger-salute to the weather, which for the entire month of June (except maybe for 3 days around the 18th) has been dreadful. Market Street – the main road through the centre of Hebden – has been devastated, with maybe two or three businesses out of about 30 still open, or likely to reopen before September. And it was still raining today – in bursts, but they were heavy bursts.
I took 89 photos of the parade within the 17 minutes it took to pass me; so to pick just one was very difficult. That being the case, interested parties could look at the top 20 pics, on my Facebook site. But I pick this one for here mainly because of the happy smile of the central model and the fact that this was the only picture of all the ones I took which I felt worked despite the fact there was a spectator firmly in the background. For some reason, it just seems to work with him there. We were all in it together, so to speak. And for just a short time we forgot the floods and the rain and just enjoyed the spectacle.
While I have been away in Russia, the clean-up has continued back home, and the end cost starts to be more apparent. My local, the Railway – where I have probably drunk twice a week, maybe more on average, for 10 years, is closed for two to three months. Several other businesses may not reopen at all, the cost of the cleanup not being worth the trouble. A furniture retailer in Mytholmroyd lost half a million pounds of stock in a single night. And probably the insurers will bicker about something.
Anyway, those of us who frequent the Railway have, for a while, had to find somewhere else to spend our Friday evenings. Today it was Marshall’s bar: themselves unable to serve anything on draught, cans and bottles only. It felt slightly wrong, but not too bad. I wish it hadn’t had to happen, however.
It’s a nice shot (if a little out-of-focus). Unfortunately, this encapsulates the day because there’s no way I should have been coming home late enough to catch the sunset streaming through onto the face of my single-serving model. British Airways stranded me in the sixth circle of Hell that is Heathrow Airport for 7 hours this afternoon because their first choice of plane needed fixing. OK, I don’t want to go up in a dodgy plane but why the hell was it left to me – a passenger – to inform the BA ticket desk in Terminal 1 that one of their planes had gone tits-up, a full hour after the pilot told me and the rest of the passengers that it wasn’t going to take off?!
I’ve been on the go since 3.30 am this morning UK time (6.30 Moscow). I’m going to bed.
Last full day in Moscow, for this trip at least. (I’ll be back, never fear.) One thing that has been nice this time is that I have been staying outside the city, in a relatively rural spot. It’s very pleasant to wander through the woods and down to the river before dinner. Well, unless you’re particularly bothered by midges, anyway.
Today was a salutary lesson in what Principal Skinner (The Simpsons) once said: “Children! Do you want to be like the real UN, or do you just want to squabble and waste time?!’
I am being unfair. It was a very interesting day today. But the experience of writing a document then, in effect, having to have it endorsed by 120 different people from 40 different countries was a new one on me. I therefore distracted myself from the more repetitive parts of the process by taking photos of the delegates. As you can see, everyone seems quite interested. Rule one of taking photos of crowds: even if it’s meant to be a photo of a crowd, focus on someone. This is Tatiana, from Brazil. There are good reasons to pick her as a focus: what a face!
God, it feels so long since I have been doing this blog. Way back in September – though it feels much longer ago – I took a picture of ‘the official photographer’, on a day when he was taking photos of us, constantly, throughout a conference/seminar session. Today I got the chance to repeat the theme, quite exactly.
She is definitely cuter. And considerably more Russian. Whether she is a better photographer or not, I have no proof.
Being 42 