Full-on day of work today, both in Manchester during the first part of the day and in Hebden Bridge on into the evening. Very few chances to snatch photos of anything, and they were all snatched in transit from one meeting to the next. These guys were taking life rather easier than me today, but I still like the juxtaposition of their gathering with the sign in the windows of the Town Hall behind them.
Urbis has already appeared on this blog more than once; but seeing as it’s right outside Manchester Victoria station, I walk past it an awful lot, so it has plenty of chances. And I think it’s a relatively handsome building. This shot came about because just as I walked up the ramp, on another drizzly day, a truck drove off and left this perfectly rectangular dry patch. My in-camera shot had the wrong white balance setting on it and was a bit fuzzy, but a fiddle in iPhoto and here we have this abstract. Not bad.
Got bored today and shaved my head, well, a #1 clip anyway. I do this kind of spontaneous thing now and again. Ask my wife one day how I proposed to her.
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?
Clare’s alter ego – whose identity, of course, I could not possibly reveal – was doing a burlesque show in Chester tonight, and I got to go along for a change. Here is another of the lovely performers (5 female, 1 male). I like taking pictures of people candidly – it helps you see what they really look like. I get the impression Ginger looks rather like this most of the time, in fact. (Even if her right leg does appear to be stood in a big glass. Perhaps I should have cropped that, but what the hell.)
You were warned. But I think this is a beautiful creature; currently living in the shed outside our front door. Rarely have I seen a bigger one, and certainly not in England. I won’t get a better photo today so I’m posting this now. (I haven’t been able to identify the species, not for certain: if anyone can help, leave a comment…)
Postscript: Thanks to Gary, a nice man at UKsafari.com, I’ve been told it’s a Cave Spider: see this page. Species either Meta menardi or Meta bourneti, but it’s impossible to tell which one exactly without capturing it and using a magnifying glass…which I am not going to do.
After a busy week, today was dull, spent working at home while the rain came down outside. Later on, Joe observed that he never gets to decide my photo of the day. OK, mate: go ahead. Here is his choice. I love the pegleg on this Lego pirate; a neat touch.
Back in the UK, where there are occasional bursts of paraphernalia left over from the Jubilee celebrations last weekend, missed due to my being in Norway. So here’s a belated reference to all the pro patria stuff.
Today at 5.45 am (Norwegian time) there was a transit of Venus across the sun, the last such event until 2117. Through a series of lucky events, I did actually get to see it; not many people would a) be up at that time b) be somewhere where the sun was shining (particularly in Norway), c) have sight of it while sat in an airport departure lounge and d) have access to a pair of plastic, cheap children’s binoculars which nevertheless did project an image of the sun onto a whitewashed wall – on which the tiny black dot that was Venus was clearly visible. I did try to take a photo of it, but that proved beyond me, which I was disappointed about until reflecting that I was, after all, trying to take a picture of the dark side of a planet some 20 million miles away with a compact digital camera. So here’s another picture of an impressive astronomical object instead. (Chosen also for the novelty value of the time: one of the earliest shots on the whole blog.)
Norway is a sensibly governed country, compared to others I could mention: the best example of this being that the Norwegian state retains a 51% share in the main oil company and in each of the national banks. The result: it’s very wealthy. (Citizens of countries whose governments have, instead, chosen to squander all the revenue from North Sea oil over the last 40 years might like to take note.) Which is why it can afford to build vast and impressive new performing arts centres like the Kilden, in small provincial towns like Kristiansand.
This picture was taken during the conference reception. There are other people all around, but somehow, on this trip, it didn’t really seem to be about the people. At least, not photographically.
Being 42 