Sunday 5th June 2016, 4.25pm (day 1,746)
Sunday afternoon, and a lazy one. Well, it was a very warm and sunny day and the last few days have been busy enough.
Sunday afternoon
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: pub
Building works
Thursday 19th May 2016, 8.40am (day 1,729)
There are many buildings in Hebden Bridge still in some state of repair or other following the Boxing Day disaster, though to be strict about it, this place — the old Hole in the Wall pub (last pictured fulfilling that role some time in November 2012) — was being rebuilt months before that happened. Still some way to go too, if this sneaky look inside is anything to go by.
A sign of the utter uneventfulness of my day — this was a photowhack, the one and only picture I took today.
Mr. James Brown (no, not that one)
Tuesday 17th May 2016, 3.15pm (day 1,727)
We worked out today that come September it will be twenty years since I met James, we shared a flat in my final year at Leeds University, subsequently he was best man at my wedding (coming up for 17 years ago). We haven’t seen each other much lately as he has lived in Taiwan for more than a decade now, but he passed through Manchester today, as did I briefly. Last time I saw him was 2011 not long before I started doing this blog so today was his first chance to appear on it. I know he normally looks happier than this but that’s what overnight flights from Asia do to the complexion, I guess. Good to see you mate, sorry it wasn’t for longer.
The Railway diaspora
Saturday 23rd April 2016, 3.35pm (day 1,703)
Since the Boxing Day floods took out 95% of the town centre four months ago, five of Hebden Bridge’s pubs have reopened: the White Lion (which never shut), the Old Gate, the Crown, the Trades Club and the Fox and Goose. However, this leaves seven that remain closed: the White Swan, the Shoulder of Mutton, Nelson’s, the Sports & Social, Stubbing Wharf, the Albert and the one that I and many friends feel most keenly, the Railway. Martin and Shelley, pictured here, are members of the Railway diaspora, drinkers in exile (in this case in the Old Gate). Perhaps we will all return home some time soon but to be honest at the moment there is little sign of it.
The Pub Zoo
Tuesday 19th April 2016, 4.15pm (day 1,699)
An unnecessarily tautological name for a drinking establishment, perhaps. Who cares on such an utterly beautiful day as today.
Outside the Shoulder of Mutton
Tuesday 29th March 2016, 2.55pm (day 1,678)
The Shoulder of Mutton in remains closed, as do about half the pubs in Hebden Bridge town centre. This guy looks mildly distressed by this fact, or possibly he’s decided that it’s really time he found a hobby other than skateboarding (I assume the board on the table next to him is significant).
In the ‘Lord Rodney’, Keighley
Saturday 20th February 2016, 2.35pm (day 1,640)
There have been a run of eventful days in the last week and a half — today marks the 9th different location for a shot in 9 days. (To wit: Manchester, Portmeirion, Devil’s Bridge, Aberystwyth, Llangollen, Hebden Bridge, the Lake District, York and Keighley.) But whereas last Saturday saw us exploring the surreal delights of Portmeirion, today we went to Keighley to buy a mattress. And it was peeing down. Thrill a minute stuff…. But still, a decent weekend, as I hope these guys were having in their own ways.
Dog/owner couple
Tuesday 12th January 2016, 4.40pm (day 1,601)
I know a few dog/owner couples — connoting not just the usual doggy relations but where the two actively look alike. For an example of what I mean, well, see here….
Busy behind the bar
Thursday 31st December 2015, 7.35pm (day 1,589)
Here is where we have just spent New Year’s Eve. and this picture is worth posting if only because it depicts a Hebden Bridge pub that has managed to open despite the floods. Up yours to the last, depressing week of 2015 and here is hoping for better weather in 2016, at least. But let’s not be negative – a happy New Year, whatever you have done, whatever you might wish.
Railway crew, in exile
Tuesday 29th December 2015, 6.00pm (day 1,587)
Determined not to do a post today that was directly flood-related, so this isn’t one, although it’s hardly the best-quality pic of this or any year. The White Lion is currently the only pub remaining open in Hebden Bridge town centre, so the Railway crew have relocated — while they ponder the fact that their home turf may well never reopen.
I do note that the White Lion is the oldest building in Hebden, built in the 16th century when there was literally nothing else here — and that it is the only building in the town centre not to have been flooded on Saturday. It has only struck me today that this is not a coincidence. The builders observed — then they built — and they were right. Everyone else who has since built here has taken a rather more shortsighted view.
Being 42 