Search

BEFORE I DIE..

The shot at the header was taken in Wolverhampton, place of my birth, on a cold, wet and windy day, a few months ago.

These inter-active ‘Before I Die’ graffiti boards seem to have become a bit of a thing….A bit of ‘googling’ indicates they’re everywhere, not just a British phenomenon… A few of the comments on this one did make me smile, but generally speaking I find the whole idea a little weird.
It’s all too ‘Bucket List’y for me…….What a strange thing to do.. To set out a finite list of things you’re going to get done before you snuff it!

Dream…Plan…Wait…Wait a bit longer…Tick it off….

Dream…Plan…Wait…Wait a bit longer…Wait a bit longer still…Tick it off….

That sounds like a whole lot of down time to me, and, what are you going to do when you wake up on the day after you’ve crossed off the last thing on the list?

No….Not for me…I’ll stick to my random, scatter-gun approach, doing something when it occurs to me, and if I can’t do it virtually immediately, forget it and do something else…..I don’t think I’m much of a planner.

Anyway the shot doesn’t have anything to do with anything else so I thought I’d seize the opportunity to clear the decks a little…

A gallery of random shots from the last few months, random things I’ve done, random things I’ve seen….I’m a random kinda guy.

Maybe I ought to get a bit more focussed…(before I die).

All Images Copyright Stuart Allan Hyde.

  1. suej

    Great grungy stuff, Mr Shpics… and I’m with you re the weirdness of those boards, all a bit ‘look at me’ to my way of thinking.

    Reply

  2. scillagrace

    Steve also dislikes the Bucket List approach. Before I die, I want to live…simple as that, no conditions, qualifications, or expectations. How easy it is to lose sight of living when you’re planning to live. 😉

    Reply

      4. Stuart Hyde - shpics

        I’m going to do a BA Photography degree….!!!
        Uni wasn’t an option when I left sixth form as my father decided to choose that particular moment to run off with a stripper, (you think I’m joking), and I’ve always been intensely jealous of my contemporaries who were able to go.
        So, I look at it as if I’ve had a three decade gap year.
        Good news is of course, if I’d have done it then it would have been something career orientated and practical, (I’d actually applied for an economics degree…AAAaagh! Thanks Dad! :-)).
        Leaving it till now means I get to do something I love., (though being surrounded by eighteen year olds does engender some trepidation…… They seem like aliens).

      5. Helen Cherry

        How marvellous and I am extremely envious! Coming from a very poor working class family University was a word that wasn’t even in the vocabulary and I desperately would have liked to study English and Drama.. I wanted to be an actress! So instead I messed about at school and then went on to train to be a Learning Disability Nurse and then 10 years or so ago to be a Social Worker.. My life could have been very, very different !
        I look forward to seeing some of the photos produced and to learn lots form you too 😉

      6. Stuart Hyde - shpics

        Even at 53 I will still be the first from my blood family to go to Uni……My Grandad will be turning in his grave..”Yoh doh wanna goo there lad! Them places is full of lefty poofs”.. 🙂
        I was lucky in that I went to a very good Grammar school and did A-Levels, but that was it I’m afraid…Mother had me out and off to work. I’ve been paying a mortgage since I was seventeen yet didn’t have a house until I was forty…!!
        What’s that all about?
        Still….All’s well that ends well etc..
        (Though why Mrs Shpics keeps mumbling “Freshers Week” and giggling uncontrollably I don’t know…)

  3. Emilio Pasquale

    Your photos are great, especially Digbeth and Dawn In Almeria. Haven’t seen any interactive graffiti around here. In fact all the graffiti seems to have been painted over. But it’s just a matter of time till new appears.

    Reply

    1. Stuart Hyde - shpics

      Hey Emilio…How’s tricks?
      I do like the way that street art seems to have liquid properties…Birmingham is just the same, Pieces disappear, seemingly washed away, just to be replaced with something new…A real ebb and flow.
      🙂

      Reply

  5. OdesIsPro

    I found your follow by email button today. Yahooo! For some reason your posts do not show up in my reader. 😦 Tis all good now as it will show up in my email.

    I agree with the bucket list and these walls. I have a list of ten things I am always working on. I had that way before the bucket list craze. This list is not a bucket list its a personal growth list. Things come and go from that list but it is all an adventure!

    Reply

    1. Stuart Hyde - shpics

      Good news! Now you can’t escape…
      😀
      I suppose I’ve got a fluidy liquidy kinda listy thing going on as well. but I’m a fickle minded dilettantey kind of dude and half the time I forget what I wanted to do before I get around to it…I’m usually doing something else by the time I realise..
      But it is all an adventure!
      🙂

      Reply

  6. Helen Cherry

    Well I LOVE the idea of a board like this as I think I’d be endlessly fascinated to see what people would write.. I’ve never seen one before 🙂 I enjoyed your randomness..

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: