Another shot of Manchester’s slowly developing transport infrastructure — but I’m in Manchester a lot this month, so get used to it. Anyway, I like this one, particularly as I didn’t have to crop it at all, so got the symmetry just right when the shutter was pressed. A kind of ‘played for and got’ moment.
Sometimes things can improve. When I first started work at the University of Manchester in 2005 the campus was split in half by this traffic-choked urban throughway, one of the main A-roads of the whole country. It was really rather dismal. Slowly, by incremental steps, it has markedly improved, with most traffic now directed around the sides of the campus. The latest round of roadworks have now mostly gone and it is so much better than it was 11 years ago.
And another thing — there have been many reasons to be unhappy with 2016 in a global sense — but the UK’s autumn weather has not been one of them. Since mid-August it has mostly been tremendous. Same again today, for sure, a glorious autumn day.
After the collapse, the clean-up continues…. I pick this shot also because I like the subtle burst of light. It was another beautiful day today, much like last year’s 1st November: but after that, came the Great Wet of late 2015. Can’t see it happening this year however; but maybe after yesterday that’s just wishful thinking.
What was intended to be an uneventful day spent entirely working at home was interrupted by a huge crash from downstairs at about 10.00am, followed about thirty seconds later by another one. The cause turned out to be two huge chunks of our living room ceiling having unexpectedly descended: old lath-and-plaster deciding after what was probably at least forty years, and maybe more, that it had all had enough. Fortunately no one was sat in there at the time. So, I still spent the day entirely working at home, only on unpaid manual labour instead of all that wishy-washy uni crap. This was a couple of hours into the clean-up operations — you should have seen it at the start…
The Midland was built in 1933 and is an Art Deco masterpiece, a beautiful and elegant building inside and out. For most of the time since I started coming to Morecambe when I met Clare 20 years ago, it stood empty and crumbling, but in 2008 was restored and reopened as a hotel and we were lucky enough to have stayed there last night as the final act in this week of celebrations for Clare’s 40th. The food was excellent too. If you’re ever in the area it’s well worth the patronage.
Trafalgar Point sticks out into Morecambe Bay, as that is where I reside this weekend for the final hurrah of the wife’s 40th birthday celebrations — this time round, with her family. The good weather has definitely receded, at least for now, and this shot could have been discarded because of the rain on the lens but in the end I decided it was all atmosphere. With tonight being the last day of British Summer Time, this will be the last evening it is remotely light at this hour until March.
“Hey baby. You’re cute. Wanna come see inside my shell?”
“Actually I’m more interested in how we both ended up six feet up a stone wall…”
Took my bad post-party head into a day of teaching and meetings and it really was quite as exciting as this shot reflects. Clare has been trying to deconstruct this photo as I put together this post and seems to think this is about death and life juxtaposed, or something. So who am I to argue?
It’s half-term, so school is closed, and with Clare at university today it fell to me to entertain the Boy. By a few miles into the walk I chose he was probably regretting this, but too late. Still, even he agreed it was better than sitting in school.
On Sunday morning this room was full, but clearly Clare and I were the only people who felt like extending their stay at the Arundel Park hotel into Monday morning. What the hell, it’s been an excellent weekend.
Being 42 