coxy's blog

I thought today would be nice - it was, and unexpected. I was awoken at about 10am by the doorbell; it was either the postman, or my grandad - it's always the postman or my grandad who rings the doorbell. Occasionally I get a salesman calling, but they usually bang the glass too. Cheeky sods can't read the sign on the door which tells them to get lost.

It was my grandad. He had bought some stuff around and I chatted to him for a short while in my sleepy state. I have no idea what we said or what he gave me; some disinfectant - I remember that because I opened it there and then to smell it. Random. He left because he wanted to let me get back to bed. I did. Outside was foggy - you could barely see the end of the road.

I kept drifting off to sleep until about 1pm when I decided I needed to get up and out of the house before 2pm. It's good to set yourself deadlines; you miss enough of them and you start to not care about time. I wanted to head to Urmston Market and stock up on some fruit and veg for the week before it closed though, so got ready and started walking to Urmston. Most of the fog had cleared by now, but there was still some lingering. I got to the top of my road and it was totally closed off to cars and pedestrians for roadworks so had to take a diversion.

The diversion was a distraction because it would mean I walk passed a path which leads to the meadows. I backtracked and stood there for a while wondering whether the meadows would still be foggy. I knew that if I went on the meadows, and it was foggy, that I wouldn't get any shopping done.

I went onto the meadows. It was foggy.

Being on the meadows in the fog was awesome. I walked and walked and explored parts of the meadows that I'd never been to before or even realised existed. Every time I go on the meadows I seem to find a part that I've never been before; its amazing to know that there's this massive area of desolate land sat just behind the housing estates and hassle of everyday life.

What's more is that in the fog you couldn't even see to the end of most fields. You go off the paths and you get lost until you come to the fence of another field. It was excellent. It was silent - I was so alone - every so often you hear the buzz of the electricity running through the pylons, a bird flying passed or a horse in a field that could be the same one you were in, or two fields down. You wouldn't know. You couldn't see for the fog.

As the hours passed, the foggier it got and the darker it got. I stepped onto the meadows at around 2pm and had to start making my way off the meadows at about 4pm as the night drew in fast. I had no idea where I was and in the whole two hours had only seen one other person, walking their dog in the distance, for a few seconds.

I spotted a light and headed towards it. It was the stables. I should've stuck around and taken some more photos - there were opportunities for some nice shots, I wish I had a colour film in my camera - but the fog was thick around there and the few people that were at the stables didn't look too inviting. I did climb a few fences - maybe I was trespassing? My hands were freezing and I was hungry.

I walked into Urmston town centre and went to Whittaker's chip shop who seemed to take pity on my efforts of fumbling around my pockets for change and gave me a portion of fish and chips at a discount price. They were the best fish and chips I've ever tasted. I ate them as I walked the mile back home.

I didn't feel particularly tired but returned home and sat on my bed and started playing with my laptop. I remember seeing 6pm, but fell asleep not long after until 10.30pm. I woke up to find a bunch of people had been speaking to me on MSN whilst I slept. I fell asleep again, midway through an MSN conversation, for another half an our or so.

It's now 1.20am and I'm not tired. My internet connection keeps dropping. Strange.

Today at lunchtime I walked across town in the rain and got a film back from Advanced Photo. I had enough time to upload a few shots, so have done. You can see the photos on my Flickr account.

There's some random shots of Salford Quays, some shots from the FOUND! Magazine tour and a cool shot of my friend Hannah from Sunday - not amazing shots, but I was dying to get rid of this film and load my Konica Auto S2 with a black and white film - so glad to get these processed.