Once more I was in the work cocoon — specifically, the email cocoon — all day, only emerging as the skies looked like this. Another day, then, where there was not much to photograph, but at least it’s the weekend.
The woman in question being Clare, of course. We both adopted this position all day in fact. I liked her little ‘light cave’, and should point out the dubious fluffy mascot to lower right.
A busy stint of work comes to an end — this is Manchester’s third appearance in a row, and that hasn’t happened since April ’22. By the end of the working day I needed a pint, and the City Arms on Kennedy Street has definitely become the Manchester Pub of Choice. I’m not the only one who thinks this either, as it’s usually busy like this, but the beer is high quality. Note the old typesetting frame stuck randomly to the ceiling. Anyway, I probably won’t be here again until well into January — my work in this specific city is done for a while.
Prof. Alexander’s bust has long graced the entrance hall of the building on Manchester’s campus that bears his name. This kind of thing happens most years, to be honest. He seems to bear it with stoic dignity. I don’t think he looks all that unhappy — a bit resigned, maybe.
The last class of the semester, and as I’m on sabbatical for several months next year, the last one for me until late September 2024. And that’s just fine by me. I do — generally — like teaching but it is tiring, time-consuming work and if I want to do some proper thinking I can do with taking a break from it. The last class of the semester also gives rise to the annual ceremony of ‘having pictures taken with one’s professor’ — I make people upset if a 20-minute window isn’t offered up at the end.
Now here’s the polar opposite to Monty Python’s Cheese Shop. If you don’t get the reference, just be comforted by the enormous variety here. Time to buy some Xmas presents — and maybe squirrel a few away on my own account.
Spectacular urban decay. Oldham doesn’t look all that great at the best of times but on a dreich day in December it really comes into — or perhaps gets out of — its own. Bear in mind that not only is this clock wrong, but I suspect has been stopped for a couple of decades by now.
One might think that Jenga and Red Stripe are a risky mix in the first place, but Tom’s ‘reacharound’ move just adds to the tension on this Friday night match-up. However, though the tower did fall — they always do, in the end — it was not for another few moves yet.
Watching them, watching me? Actually it’s very unlikely anyone is actually ‘watching’ at any given moment, but that’s Michel Foucault’s point about the surveillance society — people discipline themselves anyway. What I’d really like to know is why someone felt two cameras, pointing in the same direction, were really needed to monitor the ‘forgotten footbridge‘ at Manchester Victoria station. Why buy only one, when money can be wasted on two to do exactly the same pointless job?
Both species — jackdaws and roofers — are becoming perennial aspects of the house view. The roofers on the Mill have been working there for nearly six months now, and I have the photos to prove it. Even on another frosty morning. Maybe they just like the view too.
Being 42 