Apologies for the delay in posting. Mac fell into a coma on Monday morning. But some TLC from the Genius Bar has restored it to full health. Back on Monday, it was another lovely day in Manchester. Here’s the relatively monumental Sam Alex building (as most people on campus call it), named after a former professor of Philosophy at this august institution. I like the rim-lit shadowy figure to the right.
Sometimes things can improve. When I first started work at the University of Manchester in 2005 the campus was split in half by this traffic-choked urban throughway, one of the main A-roads of the whole country. It was really rather dismal. Slowly, by incremental steps, it has markedly improved, with most traffic now directed around the sides of the campus. The latest round of roadworks have now mostly gone and it is so much better than it was 11 years ago.
And another thing — there have been many reasons to be unhappy with 2016 in a global sense — but the UK’s autumn weather has not been one of them. Since mid-August it has mostly been tremendous. Same again today, for sure, a glorious autumn day.
Took my bad post-party head into a day of teaching and meetings and it really was quite as exciting as this shot reflects. Clare has been trying to deconstruct this photo as I put together this post and seems to think this is about death and life juxtaposed, or something. So who am I to argue?
Thanks to the very good weather over the last few weeks (though it changed today), there has been a huge crop of apples this year. Our garden tree has produced so many that for the first time ever we have a surplus. Not as much as this tree however — or rather the tree implied above the upper edge of this shot — which resides on campus, near my office, and unfortunately isn’t the agricultural territory of anyone in particular so all this windfall has gone to waste.
Off on a trip tomorrow…. a new city and new country for the blog. Come back to find out where…
I’m sure this picture will simultaneously warm the hearts of traditionalists and chill those who believe in progress in educational technology, but the speaker here was not using the blackboard, I can assure you. Or, indeed, Blackboard. A second monochrome shot in two days but the white balance of the original was blown and this made it look a whole lot better (as is often the case).
Most of the university campuses featured on this blog — and there have been a good many over the last five and a bit years, at least 20 I make it — have plenty of nice, green space. But the one on which I spend the most time, Manchester, has hardly any, it is the most urbanised, built-up campus I can think of. So it’s nice to picture some of its very rare green space on another very pleasant day. Even if this shot isn’t ‘green’ in the slightest. (It looked better in monochrome.)
Every year at this time the campus goes from being peaceful and quiet to a heaving mass of people. Still, if it wasn’t for them none of us would be doing what we’re doing. Sam Harris of the International Society at Manchester says hi to the gathered new postgraduates in Education: who collectively I am now responsible for…. (there are a couple of hundred more in the room than pictured here). Let’s hope they all fulfill their potential over the next 11 months or so.
As a few recent photos have suggested, we are entering a good time of year for dramatic skies. I like the NGI building, it somehow matches its main host substance — which I guess is the point, architecturally. Well, my employers have spent enough on it, so it’d better be good I suppose….
Beautiful morning in Manchester. Took two or three photos I was happy with, but all of them before 8.50am; after emerging from a day at work the light had mostly gone. Anyway it’s about time I acknowledged a morning again, after 12 consecutive afternoon shots. The sign points into (or away from) the entrance to Café Muse at the Manchester Museum.
Being 42 