Tuesday 11th June 2024, 7.35pm (day 4,674)
Someone Else’s Art, I guess — but I like it, and the customer’s red hat sets the composition off nicely. I liked the pho, too.
In the Pho parlour
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: photography
Big Lego
Monday 10th June 2024, 10.15am (day 4,673)
Toronto, like all cities, is unable to stop building and rebuilding itself. This particular site resides on Yonge Street. It’s nice to get the perpendiculars straight; something more achievable with an elevated vantage point, viz, my hotel room balcony, twenty floors up. And it does look like a big Lego set.
Carl, and acolytes
Sunday 9th June 2024, 11.45am (day 4,672)
Professor Carl Bereiter, Emeritus of the University of Toronto, is someone I’ve been lucky enough to, if not exactly work with (at 94 years of age, Carl doesn’t exactly turn up to the office very much any more) but certainly meet, talk with, hear from. He is genuinely one of the pioneers of the academic field of computer-supported collaborative learning, in which I have occasionally been known to dabble. And please, don’t ask which one of the people in this picture is him.
Niagara Falls
Saturday 8th June 2024, 1.00pm (day 4,671)
I first visited Niagara Falls on a freezing cold day in April 1989, when I was 19, and with a trip to make from Toronto to Buffalo for a workshop tomorrow, there seemed no reason to not stop off on the way for another look, 35 years later. On neither visit have I been unimpressed: the falls are certainly a monumental spectacle and manage to rise above the excessive tourist tat that spreads along each bank of the river (and is somewhat worse on the Canadian side, I thought). What you see here are the American Falls on the left then the narrow Bridal Veil fall on the right.
And, a curiosity: though everything you see in this picture is the territory of the USA, I was stood in Canada when I took it. Not long afterwards I walked across the Rainbow Bridge into the States, making this, I am pretty sure, only the second time I have crossed an international border as a pedestrian, after Spain/Gibraltar. (Italy to the Vatican and back can’t really count.)
Self-portrait in Tim Horton’s window
Friday 7th June 2024, 9.40am (day 4,670)
It’s been a few months since I did a self-portrait, and the prospect of this one did occur to me while sat having a pre-meeting cup of tea in Tim Hortons, pondering how we can find ways to continue the collaboration that has brought me here three times now. I am here sat in more or less the same spot from which I took this shot in October 2021, and armed with the knowledge of the venue, the building in the background and Google Maps you can probably pinpoint the exact location should you wish to.
The Imperial, Toronto
Thursday 6th June 2024, 4.00pm (day 4,669)
I continue to munch air miles in 2024, as I have returned to Toronto for a couple of weeks’ work. On my first afternoon I was wondering what picture I should get to best represent the city where I’ve already spent 17 days of my life. The CN Tower, or other big, tall buildings? Another of the fine collection of murals? But in the end, let’s go with a pub, as there are some fine drinking holes to be found here — including the Imperial pub downtown, as pure a 1970s relic of interior design as I have ever seen. It still has working aquaria, for heaven’s sake. I saw the girl’s reflection in the mirrored pillar and tried it.
Cloudscape from the train
Wednesday 5th June 2024, 5.50pm (day 4,668)
More weather, but it was better today, and anyway I don’t care as once again I am leaving the country. Whether conditions will be improved where I’m going, who knows. The first part of my journey was by rail — this shot was snapped at about 90mph somewhere in the vicinity of Peterborough.
Rain, is what it is
Tuesday 4th June 2024, 4.15pm (day 4,667)
I still have one walk left to do in my Lake District project and today might have been a day to go — but no. Good weather in 2024 has been at a premium. And so, that particular milestone will have to wait another three weeks at least.
One way traffic
Monday 3rd June 2024, 8.40am (day 4,666)
Staying over in the Premier Inn after last night’s gig provides the opportunity to observe the morning traffic on the Mancunian Way from fifteen floors up. Heading west seems to be the route of choice, but the one car going east has the preferable journey at the moment, if you ask me.
Jane’s Addiction
Sunday 2nd June 2024, 9.15pm (day 4,665)
So that’s another one ticked off the list of ‘Bands I Have Liked for Thirty-Plus Years But Never Before Seen Live’. Then again, Jane’s Addiction did their first ‘farewell tour’ in 1991, have still only ever managed to scrape together four studio albums, and the original four members have only just decided they are still prepared to talk to each other and go on the road again before one or more of them dies. Which in singer Perry Farrell’s case, has always seemed likely to happen imminently. Therefore, I never really had the chance to break the duck before tonight. But I’m not complaining — they were worth the wait.
Being 42 