Tag Archives: photos

Snug bug

Wednesday 19th October 2016, 12.50pm (day 1,882)

Snug bug, 19/10/16

I think this ladybird looks quite snug and comfortable on its apple tree leaf. Winter is coming, though… better get inside somewhere, beetle.

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Circle Square rises

Tuesday 18th October 2016, 9.40am (day 1,881)

Circle Square, 18/10/16

Point one’s camera in almost any direction in Manchester these days and one will hit a building site. This particular one — to be known, once complete, as ‘Circle Square’ (you have to cringe just a little bit) —  is on the site of the old BBC building. Creative destruction….? Something to record, at least.

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Another beautiful morning

Monday 17th October 2016, 8.40am (day 1,880)

HB station, 17/10/16

It really has been a fine run of weather over the last two months and still shows no real signs of becoming unpleasant. My train to Manchester this morning was 15 minutes late and I cared not at all, just 15 minutes longer to hang out in the sunshine and take pictures.

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This year’s habaneros

Sunday 16th October 2016, 1.50pm (day 1,879)

Habaneros, 16/10/16

Look what’s been ripening away beautifully on my bedroom window sill while I was away in Prague. This house is now self-sufficient in habaneros. You want some wicked fresh chili peppers, this is the place to come.

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Post-match press conference

Saturday 15th October 2016, 5.10pm (day 1,878)

Rochdale FC’s manager Keith Hill takes questions from representatives of the local media, who, for some unfathomable reason, included me amongst their ranks this afternoon. His team had just beaten Bury FC 2-0, but that didn’t necessarily make him the jolliest of interviewees.

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Nutclough castle

Friday 14th October 2016, 4.50pm (day 1,877)

Nutclough castle, 14/10/16

This shot is taken not twenty yards from my house, but I think it sustains a suitably Eastern European feeling. Particularly with the bats — or whatever — circling ominously above.

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In Prague airport

Thursday 13th October 2016, 4.00pm (day 1,876)

Prague airport, 13/10/16

My six days in Prague come to an end. It’s a very beautiful city, if you’ve never been, you should visit. I know the sign on this shot looks wonky: it’s funny how the camera can distort perspective quite easily sometimes.

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Dina and Ellie present at ECIL2016

Wednesday 12th October 2016, 1.05pm (day 1,875)

Dina and Ellie, 12/10/16

Dina is from Greece but works in Scotland. Ellie is from Iran and works in Australia (she helped look after me when I went to Brisbane back in 2013). Both are here presenting in the Czech Republic at the  same conference session as me (from the UK) and other delegates from Croatia and Belgium, helping, in our small ways, to advance knowledge worldwide.

This is why Brexit and the isolationist, racist mentality it provokes is so utterly stupid. I don’t just mean that as a random insult. I mean vicious, ridiculous stupidity of the most damaging kind.

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Prague castle guard

Tuesday 11th October 2016, 2.15pm (day 1,874)

Prague castle guard, 11/10/16

The conference here in Prague has been in full swing since Sunday lunchtime, but we were given this afternoon off, so I went to Prague castle, reputed to be the world’s largest castle (though it seems to me that the Kremlin in Moscow would give it a run for its money). It remains the home of the Czech president as well as being a huge tourist attraction, and judging by the pomp and circumstance in evidence today, he was in residence. It’s a good way of getting people employed, by the looks of things.

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U Malého Glena

Monday 10th October 2016, 5.50pm (day 1,873)

U Maleho Glena, 10/10/16

“U malého glena” apparently means “the little glen” and is the name of this bar in Prague. Well, this is one of the world’s great beer-drinking countries, so I was inevitably going to end up in a bar or two while here…

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