Here is my luggage awaiting what amounted to the second leg of my 9,000-mile journey home: the train journey from Circular Quay station to Sydney airport. Circular Quay must have one of the best views of any railway station in the world — accepting stiff competition from Durham in the north-east of England (look it up…) – so you’d think they might clean the windows now and again.
Start of the first leg of my journey back to Brisbane, where I now reside. (Well, second leg, if you count the walk up Katoomba’s main street to reach the station.) I like the various curves of the platform, and do wonder what the guy in the background is actually up to.
The east exit. It does get busier than this during the week. Taken as I returned from the airport having transited (on a very bumpy flight) back from Adelaide. The lonely ‘wet floor’ marker – placed there for no reason I could discern – gives it a sense of pathos I think…
Lovely morning today, which at least means the three-day storm has passed over without flooding us again (though towns to the east were definitely not so lucky). Beautiful light at the station as I waited for the 0856 train in. And here it is, right on time.
Tomorrow is day 400 of this blog, so as I do with these milestones, I have updated the ‘best of the rest’ page with some more recent pictures that didn’t quite make the one-a-day cut.
Fourth and final day of the ALT-C conference, but the picture is not of Manchester today: this is Hebden Bridge station, as you probably recognise by now. An early morning after a late return the night before. Ow.
A mundane subject to mark the end of the first year of this blog, perhaps: but it’s all been an attempt to just capture a life, and here I am in Leeds tonight, celebrating my birthday tomorrow with a night out. These gates just grabbed my attention as we came in this afternoon on the train.
I’ve posted what I think are the top 10 pictures from the first year; also some statistics, feel free to browse and comment. But I’ll be back tomorrow…
Apparently so named because they perform the songs of Jacques Brel – but I think ‘Dead Belgian’ is a great name for a band. I don’t have anything against Belgians, by the way – I’ve never been there.
Tomorrow, you may have noticed – actually today, as I post this – will be the 366th day of this blog. Yes, providing I don’t forget to take a picture and post it on Saturday 25th August, I will have completed my original brief: to take a representative picture for each day of a year, from my 42nd birthday on. Hurrah! However, I have decided I am going to continue the blog for at least one more year: I’m doing too many interesting things next year not to document them (mainly going to Australia for five months, January – June). The name of the site will be out-of-date from Sunday – my 43rd birthday – but never mind.
What I will do is post a page of the top 10 photos I think I have taken this year, and also some statistics, for those who are interested (or need a cure for insomnia).
This is where the Hebden Bridge trains join up with the West Coast main line, thus, trains for the Lake District and Morecambe. I spend a hell of a lot of time in Preston station – never for very long at a time, but it mounts up, and I’ve spent far longer here in my life than I have in Preston itself.
Which, of course, is something I do frequently: though not as often as some. Either the 0652, if I don’t have to take Joe to school, or the 0856, if I do. Today I did. It was a nice sunny morning, and though I got a couple of other decent pictures throughout the day, I’ll stick with this one: it’s nice to be on the way to work and still feel quite mellow about the day, and the shot captures that I think.
Another gorgeous, sunny day. The Keighley & Worth Valley railway is visited by members of this family about two or three times a year. I know I spend enough time on trains as it is but it’s reachable on a single bus journey from just outside our house; it keeps Joe entertained; and they serve real ale from the buffet car. That’s ticking several boxes…
Being 42 