Uneventful Sunday due to having to work, after which the in-laws came round and took us out for dinner, which was nice. Here we study the menus attentively although four of the five diners all ate the same thing anyway (roast lamb). And very nice it was too.
The Railway pub was shut for nearly a year after being mostly destroyed in the flood of 26th December 2015. It has reopened in what feels like a few separate stages; the latest arriving today, when seating finally made a reappearance out at the front. Matt enjoys this fresh luxury, while trying not to mark his coat on the wet paint of the new battleship grey facade.
Not an exciting day today, so here’s an abstract. I like the lines, the slash of pink. Flimsy disguise for the fact I was in the pub at 4pm on a school day, however.
Clare’s doing a course in London tomorrow (Saturday) so it seemed like an opportunity to get in a weekend away. Late trip though, so we were passing through Leeds station when Friday night was becoming busy.
The title of this post is meant in a practical sense. To see a Hebden pub this empty at 5pm is very rare. It’s the end of January, no one has any money. I certainly don’t.
But there’s an existential meaning to it too. It’s been an extremely uneventful period, last week included (I might have gone to Moscow, but I didn’t do much). It’ll change. Slowly. But it will.
I did say there was going to be little to get excited about this weekend (or for the next few days, come to that). In fact this picture is taken in the same place as yesterday’s. Warmth like this was much needed today, a grey, chilly day. About that point in the winter where you really start getting fed up with it.
It’s nice to travel, but it’s also nice to come home. So the family can feature on the blog for the first time for a while (as a duo, anyway). Not much is going to happen in the next few days, and it doesn’t look like we can expect the sun out, so I foresee more of this kind of thing.
Come Friday after work, the pub beckons — particularly with this beer on in Calan’s. It is well named, for it is worth respect and tribute.
We approach the anniversary of last year’s floods on December 26th, which took out most of Hebden Bridge’s town centre. Prior to that, this place, the Railway pub, had probably featured at least once a month for the four and a half years I’d been doing it, so say about 50 times…. But none since 22/12/15. I think this has been the last of all the businesses in the town to reopen after that day, but here you are…. One year to the day since last we drank there. Welcome back.
It’s a portrait of a stranger in a pub (the Kro Bar on Oxford Road, Manchester, as it happens), but it’s also a self-portrait. This is me, this is how I feel at the moment. I need a break. But I’m getting one, after tomorrow.
Being 42 