December 30th 2010

TGI Fridays

As I spent the first several months of 2010 living in Cheltenham, I stayed no more than a few hundred yards from this restaurant. Many Fridays, after a long commute and/or a difficult week at work, I thought I might take this photo for this blog, but each time a different alternative came up, and I kept this “in reserve”.

So now, I’m finally posting this photograph, but I’m living over 100 miles away, and it’s a Thursday …

Instead I’m posting this for a completely different reason, as today we enjoyed a family meal, with Claire, James and Sophie all enjoying the company of my parents, sister, brother-in-law and family as we met up for Christmas. It really felt like a look into the future as we all enjoyed our meals in a child-friendly environment and all got to know each other just a little bit more. I hope that as 2010 ends that Claire, James and Sophie really feel part of my family now – amazing to think, given how 2010 began.

August 31st 2010

Kusasi

Today was a day back in Cheltenham, though unlike most time spent there this year, it was just a flying visit to bring a carload of stuff back up North.

But I was delighted to find this sketch. This orangutan is Kusasi – a name I often go by myself when I need a presence online, as I’m sure many of you who have found this blog will already know. I had forgotten I had this – it’s a simple pencil and paper drawing, and was drawn ten years ago in Borneo by a ranger from the hut in Camp Leakey – Kusasi’s home. I was much taken by Kusasi the orangutan, and by the whole experience of visiting the island, and I was humbled that the ranger (Andreas) gave his picture to me as a memento.

I have a garage full of furniture still to sort, but this grubby sketch was the most valuable thing of all to me. I hope to look back at it just as fondly in another ten years.

August 23rd 2010

Explorers past and present

I knew Wilson came from Cheltenham but have only recently realised that I have been driving past his birthplace most days. With that in mind I wanted to get a photo as it occurs to me that my days in Cheltenham this year will now be few and far between.

Wilson was born in 1872 and in Cheltenham. I was born in 1972 in Cheltenham. Wikipedia describes Wilson as a distinguished explorer, physician, naturalist, painter and ornithologist. Well, I’ve got some nice bird pictures this year, completed my degree covering all sorts of science and environmental angles, and I know a thing or two about animals.

But explorer? Well, being born one hundred years after him in the same town, I am planning my own trek of exploration ninety-nine years after him. Wilson famously died in the heroic quest with Scott in 1912 to reach the South Pole. Beaten by Amundsen and his team, he reached the South Pole with Scott, only to perish on the return. My own quest is to the Himalayas in 2011 – as part of a team of 14 (excluding sherpas and medical team) to raise money and awareness for charity:water. You can find out more about it here

I hope my tenuous parallels with Wilson are not all the same – I have every intention of returning safe and sound – when my statue stands alongside Wilson in the Promenade in Cheltenham, or the blue plaque adorns the family home, I sincerely hope that my “to” date allows me to see the London Olympics and beyond! Besides they can’t all be true – he beats me hands down at painting, I can say that with confidence …

August 19th 2010

On the move

I was white van man – man on a mission today. I’ve booked off two days to move everything from the house (or everything allocated to me, or with an N label on it). And it was mission accomplished, as the first van load now sits somewhat surreally in my parents’ garage. I thought today might be emotionally difficult, but it really wasn’t. It just feels like moving house. That in itself is sad, but it’s a good thing.

Tomorrow, time to do it all again.

August 18th 2010

Greenfinch

Off work and confined to the house today with man-flu, thankfully this greenfinch obligingly posed in the back garden for long enough for me to get my camera and take a photo for the day. Not the greatest but the zoom lens on my camera has done me proud. Until that moment it was going to be a sachet of Lemsip!

Like all men with sniffles I can report that I was close to death’s door but have recovered manfully – the cold lingers but I hope normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

August 17th 2010

Silhouette

Not a lot happened today, apart from weather. Sunshine, wind, and heavy rain probably all contributed to the colours in today’s sunset.

August 12th 2010

Hot Cha

Today’s photo is from my local Chinese takeaway. I can report that the stir-fry vegetables with cashew nuts and boiled rice were, as always, a resounding success.

And I’m glad to see this heater is doing its job well …

August 10th 2010

Birdhouse in your soul

Today’s photo was an opportunistic shot as I noticed the dusk light outside. I love this shot, which, apart from being slightly cropped, has not been altered in any way – the light really was just like this as it split the sky into layers of deep colour.

It’s also a bird atop a house, and therefore it gives me a perfect, albeit tenuous, chance to make one final themed link for the title of today’s photo. It’s a theme, that of TMBG songs, which has continued uninterrupted for four weeks, and as I finally crowbar in their most famous song into a photo title, the perfect place to stop such nonsense. It’d be just my luck (and this will mean nothing to you) to see a bloke in a purple toupee tomorrow, or come across a shoe horn with teeth in Sainsbury’s …

August 9th 2010

I can add

It’s gone 10pm. You’ve spent the last three days in three unfamiliar beds, one of which was a tent. Thanks to a road closure you have spent over three hours on the road today as well as putting in a full day’s work. You are desperately tired, limbs aching from climbing a mountain, with important jobs still to do before the morning and have not got round to putting the second load of washing on (of three). You then remember you have a photo blog to do and haven’t missed a photo yet this year.

Do you:

(a) Wander aimlessly round the house desperately looking for an object and a story to go with it that has a relevance to your day, however tenuous?

(b) Decide it’s only a silly blog and does it really matter if there’s an uneventful day missing?

(c) Take two photos tomorrow and fiddle the date on one of them – nobody will notice?

(d) Remember that you have at least already taken a photo today? OK , it was a silly photo you posted elsewhere to make a cheap point against a big supermarket, but at least it ticks the box of a photo taken by me on the required day

I’ve gone for (d). I’ve already blogged too much – things to do and my bed is calling …

August 5th 2010

Here come the 123s

I spotted this milestone this morning on the side of the road during today’s commute to work, and snapped it (badly) on the way home. I’ve done it so many times but this was the first time I’ve seen it. Stow, Bath and Cirencester have all been in existence since Roman times (as has the road in some form – the Fosse Way) but I don’t know how long that milepost has been there. If this was how people found their way to places in the past, it’s a wonder anyone ever got anywhere!