Tag Archives: University of Manchester

Jun 06 2026
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Daily Post, Interior

The writing of names

Friday 5th June 2026, 2.30pm (day 5,398)

Names and pens, 5/6/26

Attending a ‘Names Festival’, along with a grand total of fourteen other people, seemed a hassle-free way of bringing the working week to a close. These are all names, of the four others sat at my table: three in Chinese and one in Bengali. It was suggested I add my own name, but we just have that boring old single script to work with and it was written out on my name badge anyway so I kept myself an invisible presence, at least in terms of this particular, ephemeral document.

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Jun 03 2026
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Daily Post, Interior

The latest marketing slogan

Tuesday 2nd June 2026, 3.25pm (day 5,395)

Challenge accepted, 2/6/26

Actually, now I make this full-size I see the sticket is very difficult to read, but hey, this one was always more about the art than the aspiration. It says “Challenge Accepted”, by the way. The challenge we have at the moment is persuading the students (who as postgraduates are supposed to still be cranking it out) to stick around on campus, though at least these two have made it.

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May 14 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Glad I packed an umbrella

Wednesday 13th May 2026, 4.40pm (day 5,375)

This collage, featuring the Graphene Institute on the left, indicates quite clearly why I and much of the rest of Manchester city centre got very wet about twenty minutes later. But, yes, I had packed an umbrella, fortunately.

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May 08 2026
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Daily Post, Interior

Set up for talking

Thursday 7th May 2026, 12.05pm (day 5,369)

Chairs for tutorial, 7/5/26

More teaching, though of a different sort. To celebrate the last active (for me, anyway) week of the semester, just for once I thought it would be nice to try to get them to do a bit of talking. You know, to each other. I guess it worked, more or less.

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May 06 2026
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Incoming liquid nitrogen

Tuesday 5th May 2026, 11.50am (day 5,367)

Nitrogen incoming, 5/5/26

This is definitely liquid nitrogen (or was, until a second or two previously), as it’s going into the Air Liquide tank next to the Engineering building. All sorts of things might be going on in there, with applications for liquid nitrogen ranging from the preservation of human remains through the digging of tunnels to the making of ice cream. As uni doesn’t have a cookery department, though, it’s probably not the last one. I can’t discount the first.

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May 01 2026
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Windows of the Retro Bar, now dead

Friday 1st May 2026, 11.30am (day 5,363)

Retro bar, dead, 1/5/26

Going on the gig posters that still sit, forlornly, behind a metal screen just to the right of this shot, the Retro Bar, on the corner of Sackville and Charles Streets in Manchester, closed in summer 2025. The reason? Because there are no longer any students up at this end of the campus. Whatever is being planned for the acreage of the old UMIST buildings, it has involved gradually emptying them over the last decade or so, and accumulating what must amount to real estate value of tens, perhaps even hundreds, of millions of pounds. I’m sure my employer is well aware of this.

Meanwhile — it was loud and peaceful, so Mark attests. Note the train heading over the viaduct.

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Apr 28 2026
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Daily Post, Portrait

Rutherford

Monday 27th April 2026, 12.55pm (day 5,359)

Rutherford Theatre, 27/4/26

Professor Ernest Rutherford, originally from New Zealand, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908 even before he conducted, with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, the famous experiment where a bunch of alpha particles were fired at a sheet of gold and some of them bounced back, which Rutherford allegedly said was like firing a missile at a sheet of tissue paper and having it come back and hit you. From this was established the existence of the atomic nucleus, not to mention the original Geiger counter. For this reason Prof Rutherford is one of those former ‘Employees of the Month’ that the University of Manchester likes to big up. But in this case, why not? (Incidentally the room in which this experiment took place is still there, although no longer a laboratory — last time I looked it could be booked as a meeting room.)

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Apr 22 2026
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bluebells, wall, tree

Tuesday 21st April 2026, 5.45pm (day 5,353)

Bluebells, wall, tree, 21/4/26

More flowers. Then again, it is spring: a sunny, but chilly day today. If this is taken to represent my spending time today frolicking in the countryside, it shouldn’t be — teaching has restarted and I spent the whole day on campus. These bluebells sprout outside the entrance to the Chemistry building, in which, most of the semester, I have had the late afternoon slot in theatre G54.

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Apr 14 2026
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Daily Post, Interior

All quiet in the Ellen Wilkinson

Monday 13th April 2026, 10.30am (day 5,345)

Ellen Wilkinson commons, 13/4/26

I can’t really complain about the lack of activity on campus today — I was putting in my first appearance there in 19 days so have no leg to stand on. In the Ellen Wilkinson building’s ‘learning commons’ there may have been someone skulking at the back but they do not appear on the shot. On the left, the mural is of the building’s eponym: Britain’s first female Minister of Education and someone of the general kind of good reputation and worthy history that means they have buildings named after them. She died in 1947 aged 55, so is another person I have outlived.

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Mar 25 2026
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The blossom endures

Wednesday 25th March 2026, 11.55am (day 5,326)

Blossom and hail, 25/3/26

Typical behaviour for the British climate — balmy weather on Saturday, revolting wintry crap the following Wednesday. I have to wipe off a layer of hail each time I come inside today. The blossoms bear it stoically.

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