Asriel

This is Asriel, George's tortoise.

He was born on the 7th July 2015 weighing 15 grams.

He came to us on Saturday 16th July 2016

weighing 25 grams.

He is a good tortoise.

Spring and Summer

Railtracks that Stevenson's Rocket ran on.

Performing Anti-Thatcher anthem 'Drink Your Milk' in his school history play.

I decided that George should have the pet tortoise he wants for his birthday as he loves them. I've learnt a lot about them since, and eventually we got ours from a real tortoise lover who lives locally, and that you shouldn't get them from pet shops as they're not looked after properly and the breeding and transporting of them (usually from Eastern Europe) is really not good for them and shouldn't be supported. But I took this in the pet shop on Borough Road the day I first went to investigate. They are beautiful creatures.

One afternoon in July I came home to find the beautiful tree in our front yard completely cut down and gone; apparently the billboard company had been giving the landlord grief about the hoarding on the side of our building not being able to advertise hard enough.
We're not in the most rural of places but we've watched our tree change it's clothing through the seasons for eight years, and had blossom confetti showers greeting our return home on an evening every spring.

Capitalism.

Henry!

Silver Apples

Korchnoi

Viktor Korchnoi

23rd March 1931 - 6th June 2016

RIP

Manchester

Took a train to Manchester this week to resit the practical half of the Accredited Clinical Coder exam, a year and a half after I passed the theory test. It was the first time in Manchester since going to see Soundgarden at the Apollo in 1992, and only the third time I've ever been (the first was Pink Floyd at Maine Road in 1988); it was also the first time I've ever had chance to have a look around. My hotel room overlooked Piccadilly Gardens and had the Northern Quarter behind. Managed to find the exact location of Kevin Cummins' beautiful photograph of Natalie Curtis, by the Town Hall and the Library (see entry for October 2015). The examination hall was on the top floor of the colossal Sackville Street Building, beyond the canal and the gay village. In Sackville Gardens sits master codebreaker Alan Turing; an auspicious find on my way to crack the codes.

 

Magic

For What Is Right

Into The Void