Tuesday 25th March 2025, 10.15am (day 4,961)
A place I can still find reason to frequent now and again. There were a few students seen to be doing the same (none of mine, though…).
Among the books
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: University of Manchester
Daffodil patch by Oxford Road
Thursday 13th March 2025, 9.35am (day 4,949)
This big patch of daffs is coming into flower rather later than many others in the vicinity, but some confident early adopters have made a start on it. Actually I like this picture more for the bark of the tree, which looks very ancient and Ent-like. This is all in the middle of the UoM campus, not a space normally renowned for feeling rural.
Study space
Friday 28th February 2025, 9.10am (day 4,936)
Not many students are seen on campus at just after 9am on a Friday, then again, nor am I, all that often. She seems engrossed enough in something, anyway. I hope I managed to keep my class entertained too.
Gray day in Manchester
Tuesday 11th February, 9:25am (day 4,919)
From the colour of one specific bit of Manchester yesterday, to this scene of utter grayness. Or is it greyness with an E? I’ve never been sure. Gra/ey it was today though, for sure. Such a gloomy day .
In the Engineering Building
Wednesday 18th December 2024, 10.20am (day 4,864)
After three pictures of inanimate objects mimicking live things, here we have a usually live thing — campus — as a more inanimate object. Teaching finished last week, and today there really weren’t many people around. And that’s it for me, too, not just in 2024: there will be no more campus shots on here until early February, if things go according to plan.
Class of 24/25 (and teacher)
Thursday 12th December 2024, 1.30pm (day 4,858)
In the last of my taught classes last year, it took about three-quarters of an hour (or felt like it did) for all the students to get their shots with teacher that then go onto social media, somewhere. (And, see also 2022’s version of same.). As I am, essentially, a grumpy man, I insisted that this year I would do it on everyone’s behalf. Apologies to those whom I have eclipsed.
There have been very few shots of my 4,858 so far which have been taken using the self-timer, but there have been some: any of the astronomical efforts (e.g. this shot of Jupiter and its moons, of which I’m still quite proud) will have used it. But I’m sure this is the first where I’ve used the timer to take a photo of myself, with or without others, and used it as the daily picture. So there you are, this is what I look like when I’m not taking a photo.
Learning with a Psalm
Monday 2nd December 2024, 2.45pm (day 4,848)
My Monday afternoons as a student continue, though the next one isn’t going to be until February. It crossed my mind today that we are being taught in much the same way as we would have been a thousand years ago, had we been doing much the same in an abbey somewhere. Look at examples of other people’s writing, be told about some idiosyncracies and abbreviations, and then do our best to reproduce it all. We don’t get handed a quill pen and some parchment, which is a shame, but then again these were valuable items in medieval times and perhaps not to be wasted on students just starting out. It does work if one merely wants to learn to write, or rather to copy: but although I admit my Latin is getting a bit better, there is no interpretation here. What does any of this text actually mean, not just in translation, but really mean for anyone’s life? Beats me. But for that, I guess we would have taken different classes.
Cleaning the panels
Thursday 7th November 2024, 11.35am (day 4,823)
Continuing the theme I raised a couple of days ago regarding the power of hi-vis…. these guys were on the roof outside my office window, Doing Stuff: cleaning the solar panels apparently. Which, OK, I guess need cleaning now and again. I like the mild optical illusion on this one, for all reflections are an optical illusion; the guy on the right is not quite where he seems to be.
Inspecting the manuscripts
Monday 4th November 2024, 2.00pm (day 4,820)
Another one of my Palaeography classes in the John Rylands Library. We have moved from Hogwarts (the old reading room) upstairs and into the new seminar room, with tape still on the windows. Checking out the manuscripts themselves is always the best bit, and they need to be ready, and cared for — would that students got to sit on such comfortable-looking cushions.
Stock campus shot
Wednesday 23rd October 2024, 10.30am (day 4,808)
This is a fairly stock campus shot, but then again it was a fairly stock campus day. At least there are people in it, which is more than has been the case for several other recent photos.
Being 42 