Friday 29th May 2026, 2.50pm (day 5,391)

It’s that time of year again. Oh God. At least I don’t have to do them all.

I don’t think I would like this guy’s job as such, which, thinking about it, would seem to require spending a lot of time kneeling on cold, hard pavements, particularly in early January. On the other hand, tell me I’m not the only one who would quite like to while away some time unplugging and rearranging all of these, just for the hell of it.

This is not a time of the year when much seems to happen. Four years ago I was on St Helena in November but even then, 12/11/2021 was being spent in quarantine (and battling ants). There have been a couple of late November trips. But right now I’m just happy not to have been in Manchester today. Meanwhile, shot n+1 of ‘bloke(s) working on a roof’. With autumn leaves.

It’s good to have some sustenance while waiting for colleagues (and Peter is a Professor, a rank I will now almost certainly never attain) to offer their opinions on one’s writing. That paper might even get finished one of these days.

Attending to the roof does seem to be his primary task, going on the strip of felt that is either not yet attached to the front, or is partway through being removed. It’s a fairly low-power way to house oneself, I imagine — and maybe in a few years time, once AI eats 95% of all electricity generated, anywhere, many more of us will be having to engage with it. (Note: not one pixel nor letter of this or any other of my blogs has been generated by AI, nor ever will be.)

I seem unable to get outside much at the moment — this is the fifth interior in a row and the 11th in the last 13 days. But I do have some work to do. For now, at least. Note: Drew is not a student midwife. The journey that mug has made in order to now reside at our place has been a saga in itself, in fact.

This scene has been seen a few times in Manchester city centre recently. All the bollards you see here are decorated with little golden bees, the bee having been adopted (I think fairly recently) as the symbol of the city. And it’s some bloke’s responsibility to go round and repaint them now and again. Actually I think they’re doing a pretty good job, but it must be hard on the knees.

The weather is warm and pleasant at the moment, and very unconducive to staying indoors, even if I did have to work. So, I didn’t. Stay indoors, that is. The other thing comes with the territory, for a bit longer in my life at least.

The woman in question being Clare, of course. We both adopted this position all day in fact. I liked her little ‘light cave’, and should point out the dubious fluffy mascot to lower right.

Friday afternoon, and it’s been a six-day working week. But the next time this bell dings, I can go home. And I am the one responsible for dinging it this time round. I’ll wait until the appointed time, though.