Definitely the first full cherry blossom sighting of the year, sprouting in the nicely sheltered urban heat reservoir that is Sackville Gardens, Manchester. Dr. Turing’s statue looks rather content to be there, as it usually does.
Hugo’s third appearance on here, and all within the last twelve months. As Clare has just said to me, he is an ‘ugly little thing’, but still, endearing. Definitely one of the pub pack, anyway.
One could say this is an ‘early’ sign of Valentine’s Day but of course that particular commercial outbreak has already been with us for weeks. Nevertheless: a big kiss to you all, courtesy of my optician, hence the spectacles lined up above.
The first shot taken in Hebden Bridge since 25th January. It’s nice to travel, but it is also nice to come home. Even if the weather while I was away was wintrier here than in Canada — this much is obvious.
Another railway station, but this is more one of those shots where I was just trying to get the various horizontals and verticals to come out true: and for once I think I have managed it, although is there just the slightest curve on the tracks? If I never said that, however, perhaps you would not have noticed.
If the train from Toronto to the airport is counted, what you see here is the start of the third stage of the five that comprised my journey home: the Piccadilly Line at Heathrow Terminal 5. You don’t often see tube trains like this, and in fact all the way through to King’s Cross it seemed quiet. From there, to Leeds, then home by 11.20am; 12.5 hours from Toronto to Hebden Bridge, via London, is not bad at all.
My last day of the promised 11-in-a-row in Toronto. It’s been a worthwhile trip for sure, although that doesn’t mean it’s been all that eventful (Saturday night’s accident aside). But the necessary work has been done, and possibly I will be back in June. For now, the pre-flight ritual beer in the departure lounge, then home.
Sat in my room after work, a strange flapping noise started in the corridor outside. It must have lasted ten minutes, coming and going in volume, before my curiosity was piqued enough to have a look and see what was causing it. Turned out it was a gentleman just walking up and down the corridor in his flip-flops. Clearly someone who needed to get his step count up — yet couldn’t be bothered to go outside. Anyway, the thought then crossed my mind about trying to get this shot through the spyhole in my door: a technical challenge that means, at least, I haven’t ended up with yet another shot of Torontonian buildings. The other alternative was a cheap brown squirrel pic, so let’s run with this one.
You realise I haven’t actually done much while I’ve been here in Toronto, right? I mean, in a non-work sense. The various urban scenes from the city reflect this, all taken within walking distance of both my hotel and the building at the University of Toronto where I have been working. It’s quite an attractive city, if a bit generic, which is why so many movies are filmed here as its streets can substitute quite adequately for those of New York. The weather continues very pleasant.
Time to return to the CN Tower, still the tallest ‘free-standing structure’ outside Asia, and as I did successfully get up it this time, the highest I have ever been above ground in a building. The Skypod observation deck is still 330 feet further above the main deck, from where I took this picture, so this is about 1,130 feet, looking west along the shore of Lake Ontario, the distant towers are in the suburb of Mississauga I think. The CN is basically a glorified bar-café-restaurant, but it does have a damn good view. It’s the tallest thing around by such a margin that everything else just looks tiny.
Being 42 