Tag Archives: photos

Oct 12 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Toronto whirlpool

Monday 11th October 2021, 9.35am (day 3,700)

Toronto whirlpool, 11/10/21

My destination on this long-deferred trip outside the UK is Toronto, the largest city in Canada. As the director of this movie about my life, I did consider going with the ‘establishing long shot’, but in a way I’ve already done that, as the Toronto skyline featured in August 2017, when I changed planes here on my way to Illinois to see the eclipse. So here’s a shot from this morning’s explorations; I liked this ‘whirlpool’ sculpture. In the background, Lake Ontario, or at least, an inlet of it. I am here until Saturday: some work to do, but y’know, it’s just nice to be somewhere else for a while.

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Oct 11 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

A burned bit of Iceland (not the UK!)

Sunday 10th October 2021, 2.40pm (day 3,699)

Iceland view, 10/10/21

Yes folks, after 615 consecutive days on the island of Great Britain, I have finally left it. It was February 2nd 2020, in Bucharest, that this blog last featured anywhere outside England, Scotland or Wales. You know the reasons why. And yes, I appreciate travel can be seen as a privilege, and I’m grateful that I’ve finally broken the run, for all that the last 20 months have, at least at times, seen plenty of interesting sights.

This is not my final destination: instead this was taken on my first descent, into Keflavik airport, where I and the family were last seen waiting out the 12-hour flight delay that EasyJet (never, ever again) subjected us to in July 2019. I changed planes here and moved on. You can tell it’s Iceland, though — only that island has random burned bits like this, huge lumps of volcanic cinder that just seem here to be a normal part of the landscape.

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Oct 10 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Leigh, Lancashire

Saturday 9th October 2021, 1.10pm (day 3,698)

Leigh, 9/10/21

Perhaps this shot is unfair on a place that I’d never visited before today (thus, it becomes place number 364 to feature on the blog), as Leigh seemed lively enough, but I just liked the decrepitude of these two buildings. Maybe these businesses are rocking on a weekday evening, but not on this warm and bright Saturday afternoon. But if you want to find out, well, the phone numbers are there.

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Oct 09 2021
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Daily Post, Interior

Vending at Victoria

Friday 8th October 2021, 3.25pm (day 3,697)

Victoria vending, 8/10/21

The end of another week…. and some snacks are required for the journey home. This is one of those where I just saw some good light over on the far platform and tried it out.

Following a negative Covid test this morning — but of course it was always going to be negative — this should be the penultimate shot of around 615 consecutive days in the UK. But on Sunday, I will be leaving for a week; if the clenched-up bureaucracy at each end of this journey does deign to let me through. Destination — well, you can find out on Sunday (or possibly Monday).

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Oct 08 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The wasp in the plum

Thursday 7th October 2021, 5.30pm (day 3,696)

Wasp in plum, 7/10/21

The last of the plums have finally been harvested off the tree. I’m leaving the rest for the wasps: this one’s already made a start on the bounty, as you can see.

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Oct 07 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

Great Door, revisited

Wednesday 6th October 2021, 10.15am (day 3,695)

Great Door, revisited, 6/10/21

A long time ago, in the first few days of this blog on day 8, I was halfway up the southern butt end of the mountain of Yewbarrow, in Wasdale in the Lake District, in quite foul weather, wondering what the hell I was doing there. The view I posted there, of the dramatic rocky gash of Great Door, gives an indication of the conditions I faced.

Today, ten years, one month and four days later, I returned. The weather was much nicer. But the climb up to this point is still an absolute arse. For its height I would say Yewbarrow is the toughest of all the fells in the Lake District — but as it’s now done twice, I never, ever, have to haul myself up it again. And that’s a very good thing. (See my Wainwrights blog for more.)

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Oct 05 2021
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Early, but open

Tuesday 5th October 2021, 6.45am (day 3,694)

Station café, early, 5/10/21

A welcome sight on an early morning: by now in the year the sun is still not up for the first few trains. This is the earliest shot on any day, and the first pre-7am shot, since 30th November 2019.

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Oct 05 2021
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Late lunch

Monday 4th October 2021, 2.50pm (day 3,693)

White Swan, 4/10/21

Do I spend too much time in bars and cafés? Maybe it’s whatever Mediterranean genes I have in me. I was working, honest. This is a photowhack — the only picture I took today.

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Oct 04 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Deansgate awaits

Sunday 3rd October 2021, 3.00pm (day 3,692)

Deansgate, 3/10/21

Manchester once again plays host to the Conservative Party’s annual Conference, and today was the day that the Party and its state police force graciously permitted the parallel annual Protest March. This was safely kettled somewhere to the right of Deansgate, as we look down it here. The whole city centre was cordoned off to cars, and eerily quiet, apart from the distant drums of the protestors. Ahead are Beetham Tower and the West Tower of Deansgate Square, the tallest habitable buildings in the UK outside London: monuments to a particular kind of property-driven capitalism that the Conservative Party fully epitomise. No one can be publicly seen to question it, to ask whether this is really the way that we want to structure the world. The waiting police vans make sure of that.

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Oct 03 2021
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Daily Post, Sport

Three winners

Saturday 2nd October 2021, 2.55pm (day 3,691)

World Cup winners, 2/10/21

This sculpture stands outside the Tameside Stadium in Ashton-under-Lyne, east of Manchester. It commemorates the three men born in the town who have World Cup winners’ medals. The trick being that only two of them — Jimmy Armfield (left) and Geoff Hurst (right) — won them with England. In the middle is Simone Perrotta, who was born in Ashton but whose parents moved back to Italy when he was young. This is a decent sculpture; it looks dynamic, and different from each side.

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