A day early too. We all need a break — me, him and indeed the trains, which stop running into Manchester for the next 10 days, just for the hell of it really. Who cares: I’m now off work until the 4th April. Happy Easter.
The Barbican estate is home to about 4,000 people and is a huge complex in the City of London. When it was finished in the 1970s it was often decried as a brutalist architectural monstrosity. Actually I kind of liked it, I bet it’s a pretty decent place to live, with a lake and garden within its walls and generally a rather peaceful feel. Something tells me the guy seen here has been there for a lot of the last forty years.
Why do I keep taking photos of this building (see also here and here, to identify but two others)? Because I like it, it is fine architecture and great public space.
I’m sure this is a sign of the decay of Western civilisation or whatever, but hey, at least we’re all around the same table at the same time.
Early picture today — in fact, the earliest true morning picture since 5th August last year (in Tanzania).
With a determination not to repeat myself on this blog, if one had extended the timeline long enough into the future then I guess it was inevitable urinals would appear on here at some point. But with these being rather pretty ones, hey, here they are today. These are installed at a garden centre, if you’re wondering what the point is.
Pictured by the canal this afternoon. The one on the right is flexing his/her muscles, or giving its wings a stretch. I don’t know if these are males or females — unlike with mallards it seems rather difficult to tell.
First night on Stewart Island: not only the most southerly place I have been, but pretty much the most southerly place one can go. Only the very bottom of South America, the Falkland Islands (or Malvinas), and Antarctica are further south than here.
Evening entertainment in Oban, the only settlement on Stewart Island, consists either of going to the one pub, or hanging out here on the dock waiting for the penguins to turn up. We did see one. But as is often the case, it turned out more productive to photograph the crowd and not what the crowd was waiting for. (Incidentally, having got to know her a little tonight, it turns out the woman to second right here is a highly accomplished photographer in her own right, far better than me – see her blog here.)
Being 42 