Friday 17th December 2021, 10.35am (day 3,767)
Friday, and the last day of work before Christmas. Spent at home, but it’s all done now, and the views were good in the morning.
Misty morning
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: photos
Waiting by the weir
Thursday 16th December 2021, 11.30am (day 3,766)
The weir is where the herons work, in town. Maybe I return to this subject quite a lot — this particular heron might have been on the blog several times by now — but it’s sometimes a relief to see one, as on days like today (spent 95% inside, marking), there isn’t very much else to see. May they continue to fish happily away.
Debi’s funeral
Wednesday 15th December 2021, 10.55am (day 3,765)
As time passes, and an increasing proportion of my life is depicted on here somehow, ‘cast members’ will start to be lost. Debi was the subject of my post on 11th February 2013. She lives in Hebden Bridge like me, but on that day we met in Brisbane while I was on my trip there and she was breaking a three-month visit to New Zealand to meet relatives. She was a fellow regular at the Railway too and has appeared on photos taken in there. We’d seen each other less recently, though unfortunately that is true of everyone, and a state of affairs I am increasingly refusing to tolerate: there was a healthy (in all senses) gathering of people today for her service in the Hope chapel, then the wake. RIP Debi.
Poster day
Tuesday 14th December 2021, 10.10am (day 3,764)
The last taught class of the first semester, and of 2021. The students show off the ideas they’ve been working on in groups over the last few weeks — including, here, 3-D printing being used to create replicas of famous artworks that people can then touch and interact with, which seems a reasonable idea to me. It was an engaging, interesting class, and one that if I had listened to my paranoid employer, I should have hoiked online at 12 hours’ notice. But I didn’t listen, and the life of everyone involved was all the better for it.
Above Bassenthwaite Lake
Monday 13th December 2021, 11.40am (day 3,763)
As the country spirals back down into a stupid, paranoid and self-deluding feeling of ‘safety’, I’ve given up trying to talk to anyone about this so will just carry on doing my thing, including all activities which are health-giving and beneficial. The Lake District seems a fine setting for just that sort of thing. This is the National Park’s 150th appearance on this blog; an average of over once a month, which emphasises its value. ‘Work from home’? Bollocks to it. That will kill us all, faster than anything else.
Substitute
Sunday 12th December 2021, 2.35pm (day 3,762)
Fifteen or so minutes to go in the Brighouse v Sunderland game, in the Women’s FA Cup Third Round. Sunderland make a change. Sadly, despite valiant efforts our team Brighouse lost this one to the visitors from the division above. Good effort, but not quite enough.
Under surveillance
Saturday 11th December 2021, 12.50pm (day 3,761)
“I don’t care what my lot are doing. You’re eating. They’re not. I’m going to stare at you for a while.”
A break between classes
Friday 10th December 2021, 11.15am (day 3,760)
At times in a British December it’s hard to believe there is such a thing as sunlight, so this was a welcome burst on an otherwise grey day, illuminating those of us taking a break in University Place. For once, on this shot, I don’t mind the appearance of litter bins.
Pickling prep
Thursday 9th December 2021, 11.45am (day 3,759)
No other veg is quite so purple as beetroot. Not this rich, vibrant purple that stains everything around it, anyway. And in such a grey, alien-looking container.
Chinese pronunciation class
Wednesday 8th December 2021, 1.25pm (day 3,758)
I have to stand up in front of a full room next week and intone the names of at least a hundred Chinese people (amongst others); so this was a professional development opportunity that was worth the time. If the recording of this session ever gets out, however, I suspect we will go viral and be a source of hilarity on Chinese social media. A dozen or so middle-aged white academics being tutored by the very patient Luxi (pictured, as she encouraged us to place our lips correctly for the first syllable of ‘Yuxuan’), mangling tones and generally embarrassing ourselves. But at least it was only a rehearsal.
Being 42 