All ship-shape and Bristol fashion . . .

Some do's and don'ts from a recent family weekend in Bristol:-

Do - look out for the works of Banksy as you wander around. The one above has since been graffitied again with a paintball gun.

Do - visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Bristol Museum ( until June 5th).

Do - visit @Bristol. It is very good.

Do - use your Tesco Clubcard vouchers to book free rooms at the Ramada Jarvis hotel. Only cost us £10,000 in groceries.

Do - visit the Arnolfini Gallery but only if you are VERY tall. Most of the sculptures and installations there went over the top of my head.

Do - enjoy the shops around Cabots Circus

Don't - eat a supposedly gluten free meal if it isn't and you are a Coeliac. I did, it wasn't and I am. I was very, very sick as a result..

Another Skid In The Wall

Vehicles often crash into walls and I often get to restore them. Usually the landowner knows the vehicle, but it can be interesting trying to deduce the make and model from bits found on the site. A registration plate can normally be pieced together from shards found amongst the stones.

Today there was no problem in identifying the responsible vehicle. I watched it happen. 30 yards from where I am rebuilding a wall from a previous accident. How grateful we must be for crumple zones and airbags, because the car hit the wall with some force, displacing 5 tonnes of stone with ease. And yet two thirds of the car appeared undamaged, and the driver, though shaken and taken by ambulance for a check-up, should be OK.

And all this happened on the sunniest, driest day of the year so far, with no other vehicles involved.

Away The Lads

I am not a great football fan, which might explain why I have been to four Swindon Town games in the last month or so. Yesterday's home match against Exeter was a little different - I watched it with a good friend sat amongst the away supporters. There were 950 of us in the green seats shown above. This gave some protection against the cold breeze, rather than being in the open Stratton Bank seating behind the goal (also known as the Adkins Family Stand and oddly sponsored by Divorce-Online.com).

A strange experience having to show contradicting emotions to those felt inside, but I justified my presence as both my parents hail from Devon and one of my grandmothers once died in Exeter . Though she was just a rubbish comedienne.

Fortunately, a 0-0 draw prevented too much chance of inappropriate reactions and nobody suspected a thing, even when I didn't join in the chanting. Sadly they used neither of the songs I had researched - Bob Marleys ' Exeters - Movement of The People' nor The Pointer Sisters 'I'm So Exetered'.

The away fans were generous in their comments toward Swindon and particularly for the rapid winger O'Brien who repeatedly skinned the right back. If only he could learn what to do with the ball from those positions. I have seen just one Swindon goal in the four matches, and now without Charlie Austen they have to do something about this to avoid relegation this season.

It is over 39 years since my first visit to The County Ground, where I watched Arsenal beat Swindon 2-0 in the FA Cup. The photo below is me, in my Arsenal Corner, from that time.

I Think I Would Like One Of Those

Thoroughly enjoyed the BBC's Stargazing Live at the start of the month. A welcome fix of Professor Brian Cox to kick off the year. Sadly the UK weather conditions did not allow good viewing of the solar eclipse and meteorite shower in the UK, but the programme made up for this.
There was the 'Funniest Live TV Moment of the Week' which you can see top right, where everyone was oblivious to the meteorite in the background. And the Pacman (not Jeremy) style photo above which not only shows the solar eclipse that day, but also the International Space Station passing across. I often see the ISS pass overhead, and the timetable for this can be seen on the NASA website.
After the show I really wanted a telescope. I could then see for myself the craters on the moon, the moons of jupiter, the rings of saturn and the fuzzy bit within Orion where stars are being born. And perhaps the occasional comet every 72 years. And lots of little light things.
A good telescope is not cheap, but it is something I might look into.

Top Of The Pops

Buying music is not the same as it used to be. That sense of expectation going into 'The Sound Of Music' to see if The Jam's new single had arrived, or the feeling of disappointment when 'Ciren Sounds' were still waiting for the delivery of Anita Ward's 'Ring My Bell' (I hope that was intended for a present for someone else but I fear it might not have been). Everything seems to be available at the click of a mouse now.
I know the Top 40 is still announced at Sunday teatime, but are the listeners still there like we were, nervously waiting to hear the new number one ( whilst probably naughtily taping the best songs)? And then there was the excitement of knowing the Christmas Number One. This has largely been taken from us by the X Factor influence. TV has sabotaged the whole process, and no longer will we have the opportunity to enjoy previous christmas number one classics such as Bob The Builder, Mr Blobby, Lily The Pink, Ernie(The Fastest Milkman In The West) and Two Little Boys. Ah . . .

Working in a Winter Wonderland

After two weeks of sub-zero temperatures, I finally gave up struggling with frozen stone and ground. And now the site is covered in about 20" of snow with more to come and no sign of warmer weather.
Fortunately I have a second career at times like this - that of the local snowplough driver. Well, the farm has the council plough, and right now the cows need all the help they can get, so no-one is free to drive it. So far it has been local roads in the village only, but last year I was asked to go all the way to Cirencester. On my own.
The reaction generally is welcoming, though there are some not so far away who say I remind them of the picture below. Can't think why.

It's A Bit Parky Out

Winter has arrived early this year. Fortunately The Cotswolds, so far, has not had the heavy snow, and the wall I am working on is long enough that there are sections that aren't frozen solid. OK, I have seven layers of clothing, the kettle won't boil and the local policeman stops by to check my sanity, but at least I have still been able to work.

I was warmed today by the bizarre 999 call reporting a stolen snowman. Perhaps, finally, Aled Jones can move on. The police sent two of their smaller special branch officers, to see if they could get a drift of what had happened. After a light dusting they found no fingerprints. They did apprehend a youth rolling a snowman away just down the road from the victims house, but let him go when his snowman was found to be much larger than the stolen one. They looked for witnesses, but some people sledging nearby turned out to be aussie cricketers. They are now concerned that the stolen article will just melt into the background, but will continue to plough on through the evidence.

So that this type of crime doesn't snowball, the police will try and work with the local community, but are unsure whether to use the carrot or stick approach.

Meanwhile, one snowman says to another - "Can you smell carrot?"