Manchester In Lockdown

I took a few pics of Manchester after lockdown while I was still going to work (I’m classed as a key worker).

Piccadilly Gardens:

Pigeons have now taken over the town (I’ve seen that happen before, albeit briefly), though I wonder how they’ll get fed, as with no people in town eating, there are no crumbs left for them.

Is there any better sign of the bleakness of the times we live in than a closed McDonald’s?

Market Street:

Written in chalk on the pavement:

Entrance to Arndale from Exchange Square.

Printworks–I’ve never seen it shut down in all the 17 years I’ve lived in Manchester.

Well, here’s your gloomscapes, the Universe whispers to which I respond: I did not want this! I only like it when it’s fictional! I only to like to imagine it!

I used to joke often about the upcoming end of the world, never did I imagine it would happen for real. In the future, we will talk about the before and after. Everyone will know someone who has lost someone to the virus.

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Bastille, Pompeii

The only way is to hope that the world will change for the better–and work towards it.

I Like My Kindle eBooks

Reblogging my eBook appreciation post for our COVID-19 times. Ebooks are delivered to your devices instantly and with no contamination. Check out links in the post for some free resources.

Some Photoblog

I’ve been thinking about doing this post for months. Initially I contemplated giving it some Buzzfeed-style catchy title (17 Ways My Kindle Makes My Life Worth Living) but in the end I opted for simple, what-it-says-on-the-tin title. So here it is.

kindle photoshoot3

I’ve mentioned books on this blog here and there, mostly either LM Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables or Agatha Christie, or, if it’s a Gloomscapes post, a dystopian novel. This post not strictly about books, though, it’s about their format. The reason? Well, eBooks need some love. I’m fed up with the stupid comments about how eBooks will never be as good as “real books” and how you can’t really get immersed in an eBook and real books, nothing beats the smell of real books, realbooks, reAAAAALBOOKS waah waah waah! So, here I want to list my reasons why I LIKE eBooks.

However, this is…

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Stay At Home

When I did my Gloomscapes series two years ago, I never imagined we would soon be in the midst of our own dystopia. I expected some things, of course, with Brexit and Trump and the wave of right-wingery on one side and climate change on the other, but I never expected a pandemic. And now here we are.

Following the advice of staying at home and social distancing is for me, pretty much, just living my life as I do. I stay indoors and don’t go anywhere anyway, unless I take a trip for my photography and I don’t socialise. So I thought I would post some currently appropriate shots of my home. I put no quality in these, I basically just snapped them and uploaded to my computer.

I’m very much about Kindle books, as I blogged about before, so these physical books are from the time before eBooks started or titles that are not available in digital format. I’ve got some Game of Thrones characters figures, funko pops of Captain Marvel and Black Widow, a tiny model space shuttle and cats!

This is an older photo, as you can see more effort was put in it. This pile represents so many of my interests: Anne of Green Gables, Agatha Christie, history, maps, Star Trek, A Song of Ice and Fire and Sherlock Holmes!

Jaime Lannister with a catapult pencil sharpener from Chester and a tiny globe. The doll with the red braids is, of course, Anne Shirley.

The dog is called Snoopy and I’ve had him since 2003. Obviously I’m a cat person but Snoppy is special.

I’ve posted some of my Polaroids before, here they are again.

Panic! At the Supermarket

Results of panic buying in my local Tesco.

Above – the pasta shelf. Below – the toilet roll shelf.

I personally am not doing any stockpiling, because I live on my own and have no space anyway. I went to Tesco to do my usual weekly shopping. On the way, I saw a man in a balaclava riding a scooter, backpack on his back, with a shopping bag hanging in front of him. Well ain’t you a badass, I thought. James Bond could never!

Stay safe everyone!

International Women’s Day 2020

Like last year, I am doing a mixed content post.

The Photograph

I tried to imitate the Rosie the Riveter poster using my Captain Marvel doll and a yellow card paper.

TV Quotes

Chrisjen Avasarala from The Expanse, responding to mansplainers:

Or you can have the pure female rage from the Game of Thrones:

What of my wrath, Lord Stark?

Cersei Lannister

The Book

It’s really a short story: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Based on author’s real life experience, it’s a tale of a woman, who is after the birth of her baby taken by her husband to a countryside mansion for a prescribed “rest cure”. He doesn’t let her do anything, as she must only rest and she is slowly driven insane by the yellow wallpaper on the walls of her room. I call it the Madwoman in the Attic Origin Story and it’s available for free on Gutenberg here.

The Music

Lizzo’s album Cuz I Love You – enjoy!

Throwback to 2010

I meant to post this last week but I forgot, so I’m doing it now before the month is out.

I took this picture in February 2010 (exact date was 19/02/2010) on my way to work in the morning. I don’t remember what brand smartphone it was.

Happy 10th anniversary, picture!

It’s foggy and frosty and I think I would prefer that to what we have now. (Another storm is on the way and I’m slowly forgetting what the world was like before them. I don’t remember the last time we had dry weather at a weekend.)

Just for fun, I have tinted versions:

As always, shame about the cars, without them the image would look much better.

Fading

It is miserable out there.

Every weekend a new storm. Every day, constant rain. If it’s not raining, it’s windy. It’s cold. It’s bleak. You doubt if spring and summer really exist, if they’re not just a product of your imagination.

So you stay at home. The only thing you have is a bunch of half faded roses you bought yourself for Valentine’s. At this rate, you’re soon fade too.

Apologies for the terrible purple prose but I’m so over this atrocious weather!