At least the sun came out this afternoon, its last rays of the day illuminating the skyscrapers that have grown up recently in the Deansgate area of the city. Old timers would not recognise some parts of Manchester now the years-long construction boom is starting to top out.
The weather’s been fairly disgusting for several days now, and today was no exception. One of those days when the term “Sun”day is simply incorrect. I dislike this time of year: it always seems grey and cruddy, and it’s still getting darker. Roll on the Solstice.
In Huddersfield, in the pub having lunch on the way to the football (2-1 win for Brighton, yay). This posse of guys on the next table started out as three, all in flat caps, which I decided was evidence of a new retro fashion trend among the guys of Yorkshire. Then at least four more turned up, also all in flat caps, and in the end I decided they were a fairly genteel stag party. I hope they had a good day, even if they were Huddersfield fans.
The last morning of November, and I pull duty again on the 6:32 service to Manchester. The castle battlements at the bottom of Keighley Road look suitably dramatic in the moonlight (and streetlight).
On the outside, not one of the campus’s more attractive buildings, but it was looking OK this afternoon, and inside it’s actually quite pleasant, with lots of dark wood panelling etc. Mind you I still get lost in this building sometimes as it has a very confusing room layout, despite (or perhaps because of) hosting the schools of Planning and Architecture.
This is not my car. But I do sympathise with the owner, as this is taken near my house and they must live nearby (going on how often I see this car). Under such circumstances I too might have a mushroom cloud coming out of my head. Then again that’s one reason I don’t own a car.
This burst of wan and vapid sunlight is about as much as we got today. Not long after this, foul grey rain set in and did not let up all day. Winter is coming… we are in the late November doldrums of the year and as usual, I just hope to get to the end of the semester (mid-December) without any major grief.
Travelling, and working, and having a cup of tea, in Munich central station, which is so huge that you go two stops on the S-bahn train before you actually leave its awnings. I found my little corner of it for a time. A decent trip to Germany, but time to go home.
I claim that this blog is apolitical but it is hard to avoid touching on certain subjects sometimes. Why does this kind of thing still happen in a world where there are enough resources to lift everyone — and certainly, at least, everyone in a very rich country like Germany, and a very rich part of it, like Bavaria — out of poverty? We become inured to it, it becomes normalised, until we don’t even see it any more. Maybe that’s all I can say with this photo: here it is, still.
This is one of those shots that works if one gets the symmetry right — so it’s a shame both trains were not the same. But with this station, Simbach am Inn, lying right on the German/Austrian border, the one on the left goes into the first country, the one on the right, the latter. And who doesn’t love a bit of good old-fashioned Century Gothic font.
Being 42 