Monday 4th March 2019, 9.45am (day 2,748)
This unit knows it must put on a brave public face as it awaits installation, but
inside it is screaming
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: University of Manchester
Kilburn Building in the sun
Wednesday 16th January 2019, 3.10pm (day 2,701)
One of those days on which I got soaked in foul winter rain on the walk to campus from the station, and dreaded doing it again on the way back — but fortunately, the sun came out. Here, for once I don’t mind the lamppost in the shot.
I really hope there won’t be too many Manchester pictures over the next few months — at least that will be an indication that my sabbatical will be something meaningful. But it doesn’t start yet: I will be there most of next week before I can escape for a while.
Chemistry Building
Monday 14th January 2019, 2.30pm (day 2,699)
Not an exciting shot, but then again this wasn’t an exciting day, nor is it an exciting period: I can see all the photos from a 15-day run (ending on 24th January) being from Hebden Bridge or Manchester. Never mind, I have marking to do. Here, I at least like the pipes, the red against the grey.
Misty campus evening
Thursday 10th January 2019, 4.30pm (day 2,695)
A full day in Manchester, and into the evening as well. By late on the city had become clamped under a vast sea of fog; here at 4.30 the first inklings of it give a romantic quality to the older remaining campus buildings.
The emptiness of the January library
Monday 7th January 2019, 10.45am (day 2,692)
Campus is nice when it’s like this, and there’s no one about. Doubtless this photo and the general level of lassitude around Manchester at the moment will be taken by neoliberals as evidence of our heroic lack of efficiency blah blah, but it’s at times like this that you actually get the work done.
Linda points something out
Thursday 6th December 2018, 5.25pm (day 2,660)
My working week has been busy but interesting thanks to the presence of two colleagues from the University of Melbourne, in Australia, Linda and Camille. I should depict at least one of them on the blog at some point, so here is Linda doing her stuff at a lecture this evening. It’s been nice to have them here, not least because in early April next year the reciprocal part of the exchange takes place and I (along with my colleague Lee) get the chance to go Down Under for a couple of weeks — with all its associated photo opportunities…
Humanities Building, Bridgeford Street
Thursday 29th November 2018, 1.45pm (day 2,653)
On the outside, not one of the campus’s more attractive buildings, but it was looking OK this afternoon, and inside it’s actually quite pleasant, with lots of dark wood panelling etc. Mind you I still get lost in this building sometimes as it has a very confusing room layout, despite (or perhaps because of) hosting the schools of Planning and Architecture.
Winter is coming
Tuesday 27th November 2018, 9.35am (day 2,651)
This burst of wan and vapid sunlight is about as much as we got today. Not long after this, foul grey rain set in and did not let up all day. Winter is coming… we are in the late November doldrums of the year and as usual, I just hope to get to the end of the semester (mid-December) without any major grief.
Pampas grass (office window view)
Monday 19th November 2018, 10.20am (day 2,643)
I try when I can to make these photos somehow epitomise the day, but this is an exception. I spent almost the whole day in a room interviewing job applicants. This is just a shot grabbed out of my office window, in one of the few bursts of light on this otherwise grey November Monday. But I like these natural feather dusters, Cortaderia selloana or pampas grass. Very 1970s. Then again so’s the building I work in.
Pre-lecture cup of tea
Friday 9th November 2018, 9.35am (day 2,633)
Fridays are my teaching days at the moment, not every week (hence my ability to bugger off to the Lakes last Friday) but most of them. And it’s an all day thing. So visual variety is not a characteristic of my average Friday, my apologies. Things kick of at 10: the pre-lecture cup of tea from the cafe in the Bridgeford Street building is an essential preliminary.
Being 42 