Monday 13th October 2025, 10.00am (day 5,163)

It may be yet another abandoned shoe (why is there only ever one, not two?) but dammit, it can still make its own way home. Of course, it isn’t really moving. But I guess the illusion is there.

It may be yet another abandoned shoe (why is there only ever one, not two?) but dammit, it can still make its own way home. Of course, it isn’t really moving. But I guess the illusion is there.

This was one of two photos that I took today which I like despite their technical deficiencies. I was more or less trying for this effect. My third day in a row in Manchester (and blog-wise that’s the first time that’s happened in 2024), but I was not there to work, nor, like the great majority of the people in the city centre, to shop. Instead I was going to the football and just passing through on the tram, nicely insulated from the rush — and the rather poor weather — outside, at least for 45 minutes or so.

The apostrophes appear to be compulsory in any reference to this place, or the suburbia that surrounds it — the hinterland between Manchester and Bury. Can you think of a more ‘northern’ name for a public transport terminus? I am struggling. Why was I here at 9pm on a Wednesday evening? The usual reasons…. walk, football, etc.

Here I am still going into Manchester a couple of days a week, largely because it gets the step count up. I will try not to get symbolic and just observe that I like this picture because of the various chunks of detail, which seem to lay over one another like a collage, particularly on the right hand side. And the pigeon which sneaked itself in.
At least the sun came out this afternoon, its last rays of the day illuminating the skyscrapers that have grown up recently in the Deansgate area of the city. Old timers would not recognise some parts of Manchester now the years-long construction boom is starting to top out.
The smudges on the lens, the unnaturally reflective ground, the kind of stoically pained look of the lady with the blue bag, yes, it was another fine autumn morning in Manchester. I’m glad this week’s over, it has been very tiring. But Worktober ain’t finished yet, unfortunately.
A decent run of morning shots in recent weekdays. I like this shot because of the general yellowness but then contrasted with the blue of the woman, and the lines up the middle and across the bottom. Composition then, I guess.

I cannot think of anything much to say about this photo today, although I quite like it. Clare, sat by me at this point, says however that she likes ‘the pinks, the blues and the purples’, so now you know what she thinks, anyway.
This nice round-number blog post is marked by yet another shot of Manchester city centre’s ongoing building works — a theme that is becoming recurrent, because they just never seem to end…
So what’s in the carrying case? Inquiring minds want to know.