Saturday 1st June 2019, 10.05am (day 2,837)
Last morning in Ireland. I mean no inslut at all — quite the opposite — by declaring that this is a country that does pubs very well. However, this guy was starting rather early, it has to be said.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: photos
Friday evening, Dublin
Friday 31st May 2019, 5.50pm (day 2,836)
Friday evening, and Ireland goes to the pub. The inscription on the glass raised a smile.
Howth harbour
Thursday 30th May 2019, 7.05pm (day 2,835)
I am in Ireland for a couple of days. Why? Just because I could, and I needed the head-space, and I like going to new places. I’ve been to Dublin before, but not here, which is Howth (pronounced ‘Hoat’ by the locals, seemingly), sitting on a headland just outside the city. If you’ve heard of it at all it’s probably from the opening lines of Finnegan’s Wake:
riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
Not that anyone’s actually read Finnegan’s Wake of course. Try it, you’ll see why.
Academic humour
Wednesday 29th May 2019, 10.50am (day 2,834)
Made my weekly visit to Manchester today, to little effect, but I did like this montage, seen on a colleague’s office door. I like the plaintive comment on the pink post-it. My students react to my teaching in that way, much of the time.
Caudale Moor summit
Tuesday 28th May 2019, 1.30pm (day 2,833)
The summit of Caudale Moor is also known as Stony Cove Pike. In the background, the peaks of Ill Bell and its little brother Froswick. Behold, the payoff for working yesterday.
Rainy un-holiday
Monday 27th May 2019, 1.10pm (day 2,832)
It was a public holiday today but I stayed in and worked: don’t give me sympathy though. It’s just a swap with tomorrow. And it rained today, anyway.
Accrington, Lancashire
Sunday 26th May 2019, 3.15pm (day 2,831)
Getting the train from Hebden Bridge to points further north-west involves passing through — or rather (on a viaduct), over — the town of Accrington. I once got involved in a conversation on social media as to which was England’s most ‘Northern’ town, meaning, not geographically, but culturally, stereotypically. This place won, and each time I cross the viaduct and see its seemingly endless ranks of terraced, back-to-back housing, I remember why. This is just a small part of the whole. LS Lowry could paint Accrington as it looks today, and few would doubt the authenticity.
This year’s apple crop (so far)
Saturday 25th May 2019, 11.55am (day 2,830)
After last year’s glut, our plums are going to have one of their years off, this is obvious already. But there are dozens of these little babies on the branches of the apple tree. Come back to us in September for the harvest.
On the canal
Friday 24th May 2019, 10.05am (day 2,829)
One of those highly uneventful days when even everyday scenes are hard to come by. Still, the sun shone, and on such a day, drifting along the canal has a certain appeal, whether you’re human and have to use artificial contraptions to do so, or a goose, who can just use what nature provides.
Joe’s school leaving shirt
Thursday 23rd May 2019, 1.50pm (day 2,828)
On the day I started this blog, 26/8/11, Joe was just short of being eight-and-a-half years old. He did not finish primary school until July 2014. Yet today was his last day of lessons at Calder High — there are still exams to do, but no more classes. He arrived home at lunchtime in a shirt scrawled with signatures from staff and classmates. I can’t be the only parent asking — where does the time go? How quickly it passes… at least for him. (Not for me. My life moves at a crawl.)
Being 42 