I know I said yesterday that the weather was coming in, but this is ridiculous…. Behold, though, the opening frames of a certain 1980s TV classic, watched in its entirety tonight. Apart from Zaphod Beeblebrox, who adds almost nothing to it, it’s still funny and clever. There’s absolutely no plot, though.
In the years I have been doing this blog I have made my way through five cameras, giving an average lifespan, for each, of somewhere between two and three years. The latest came quite close to dying today: a few minutes after I took this picture I thought it had gone, in the same way as they always go, namely the zoom lens freezing up permanently. This would have been a major problem seeing as I am still stuck out in the mid-Atlantic, a few thousand miles from a reasonable camera retailer. However, after putting it in the fridge (literally), it has recovered, for now — but I will be using it sparingly for the rest of my time here. In which case, this is not going to be the very last shot taken with the Leica; but it was close to being.
This is the BBC World Service’s station on Ascension Island — from here, programmes are received, converted and relayed to South America and Africa, including until quite recently the Voice of America, but DOGE put paid to that, and as the manager of the station told me today, who is going to take up the slack? Russia and China, certainly. Thank you so much, MAGA. A fascinating morning in fact, but not an edifying prospect for the future, even if I do know more about global communications technology than I did last night.
My last day in Toronto. I could say ‘on this trip’ or I could say ‘forever’ and the fact is I don’t know at the moment, ‘cos it’s the future, and as yet undetermined. But I do hope to return.
Waiting out a 6-hour flight delay was made more entertaining by watching Spain v Italy in the Firkin pub on Yonge Street: location for what remains my favourite shot yet taken in Canada, namely this one on 14/10/2021. Both these guys were cheering for the same team, specifically Spain: and both went away happy, as they duly won, 1-0.
The Emley Moor TV transmitting station can be seen from almost everywhere in West Yorkshire, particularly anywhere even vaguely elevated: but then again, that’s the reason why it was built where it was. It’s still the tallest free-standing structure in Britain. Except that it has a companion at the moment; a temporary mast designed to take the load while repairs are conducted, apparently. Yes, I am frustrated by the electricity wires on this shot but this was another day with not much to see, so I’m taking what’s there.
I return here to a theme developed on Friday, but bear with me, it’s not an exciting time. Here we see the cones shamelessly deployed to ensure Sgt Cawood of Happy Valley always gets a parking space outside her house. I did wonder if they needed an extra for the role of “man with long coat and Brighton & Hove Albion shopping bag” but I don’t think that would have fitted the Yorkshire ambience, necessarily.
Could John Logie Baird have foreseen ‘the box set’, I wonder. Perhaps so — after all it’s not radically removed from the novel as Dickens wrote it. With his exams finished, Joe here adopts a position he’ll doubtless choose to remain in all summer, although we’re working on it. Meanwhile, Clare knits to relieve the excitement.
McGlynn’s pub in Bloomsbury declares this afternoon for the French, before their game against Peru in the World Cup: note the tricolour in the window. What gets me about this shot though is how much Roy Keane looks like a little orange animated version of himself, sort of like Max Headroom….
Khanty-Mansiysk lies in the Ugra (pronounced Yoo-Grah) region, the centre of the Russian oil industry — the money generated from same being the reason why a relatively small (100,000 people) and isolated city can sustain a few major conference centres, a national league ice hockey team, an airport, and indeed a life in a region where winter temperatures fall to -50ºC on a regular basis. Linguists may recognise the placename as contributing to the name of the Finno-Ugric group of languages, so if you speak Hungarian, Estonian or Finnish, this is where your ancestors came from.
Ugra TV seemed to think it worth covering the IT Forum that we attended this morning: no idea what is happening with the guy’s hands behind the presenter here, either it was something highly significant to her on-screen appearance, or he was just copping a feel.
First day of everyone’s Christmas break, and we spent it indoors watching movies. To give some coherence to this, we ran our own Film Festival, specifically the movies of Rob Reiner, so watched, in order: When Harry Met Sally; The Princess Bride; Stand By Me; This is Spinal Tap; and Misery. Not a bad day’s viewing by any standards. Joe here watches Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan do their bits in the early scenes. Not exciting photography but a good and needed day of relaxation.
I don’t watch TV so I don’t know who the woman on the left is, but she’s clearly something to do with TV presenting because the gaggle of lighting technicians and cameramen seen here are just a portion of the posse of hangers-on, outside broadcast vans, police outriders and so on, that surrounded her in front of the National Football Museum this morning. Anyone care to provide the ID?
UPDATE: Apparently this is Michelle Ackerley — they were filming a piece for BBC’s Crimewatch (hence all the coppers, which I did think were otherwise a bit excessive)
Being 42 