House And Garden Are Very Nice: Another Day In Bristol.

Yesterday's trip to Bristol was a real pot pourri of experiences. The weather was good and I have now reached the age where I have the confidence to chat to strangers. For overseas readers let me just say that we Brits do not usually strike up conversations, if you do and are a man you will probably be considered a perv or a weirdo and if you're female then you're either looking for a bloke or going a bit odd. The only exception seems to be middle aged or older women who are considered safe because they are probably mums or grannys. Coming from an immigrant family and having travelled a little on the continent I know that there if you didn't strike up a conversation with your fellow travellers you would probably be thought to be stand offish or suffering from depression. Maybe I'm being too stereotypical but that's what I've always found. Now at my age and with the prospect of maybe having to travel on my own I'm making a positive effort to strike up conversations. While very confident in certain situations I'm generally a shy and solitary person. So I'm quite pleased at my progress at being more outgoing. Now back to yesterday.

The first stop was the cathedral refectory for a cup of tea and a flapjack, (wasn't going to risk the coffee after last time) in the little garden at the back of the cathedral.

College Green, outside the cathedral was a hub of activity with marquees being put up for an event, skaters practising in the seating area, students and tourists sitting out on the grass and surprisingly - a piano. Later I was to find more of these open air pianos scattered about the city. They were simply there for people to play, some sort of arts event/celebration. And yes I did wander over to this one and bash out a few snippets from LOTR. (I should have worked harder on learning more by heart in the summer.) After my brief open air performance it was time for my eye check where everything was pronounced fine, better than 20/20. One more visit in 5 months time and that's me done. Now Peter is working out timings so that he can have his eyes done too.

After the eye clinic I visited Bristol Museum. It is a little bit of everything museum, fossils, history and art but what most caught my eye was the architecture of the place. Lots of grand marble staircases and mezzanine levels with plenty of overhead light flooding the 2 open halls.

For the sake of culture I walked around the 'Old Masters' rooms but was more fascinated by a contemporary room which had a St Ives section. There on the walls were paintings by half a dozen of my mum's friends, (actually Barbara Hepworth was one of the many people she fell out with), including this painting by Peter Lanyon. He and his family befriended my mum when she first went to St Ives and they all remained good friends throughout her lifetime. I don't have any links to the art world but it is fun to see how well known some of my mother's friends are now.

Back out into the sunshine and the hustle of city life. I called in at the Designer's Guild and was very tempted to buy a leaded glass mirror in an art nouveau style but resisted. I also had to laugh when I saw 2 of my favourite blue flower patterned mugs, bought at a summer fair for 20p , on sale for £12.50 each. That put an end to my initial plan to complete the set. Down at the waterfront the area was full of people enjoying the sunshine. There was a piano here as well being played by a boy who had brought his mum and his sheet music.

Bristol isn't by the sea but these shallow fountains make very good paddling pools and the whole area had the atmosphere of a sea front.

I have to admit that I too took off my flip flops and had a cooling paddle and then sat drying my feet in the breeze. It was lovely and warm in the sunshine and I was glad that I had dressed very lightly knowing that it is usually much warmer inland than out here on the coast. I was almost tempted to wear shorts but unless you are young or thin it is not the done thing in towns and cities.

Walking over to the main shopping area I found this remnant of old Bristol.

Out in Broadmead (the open air precinct with a lot of phone shops), there was another piano being played by a man in Victorian costume from the old shopping arcade. (The one where I was asked not to take photos last time. )

Yet another open air piano and in the top left hand corner can be seen the sign showing the entrance to John Wesley's Chapel. I had planned to go inside and take more photos up in the preacher's rooms but simply did not have enough time. Instead of stopping for lunch I bought a drink, prawn sandwich and a dessert from M&S to have on the train home.

I had a wander around the clothes shops and bought some black trousers for work at New Look and funky bright socks at Primark which is now in a big new department store and well laid out unlike most of their stores which are so crowded , hot and untidy that I spend the minimum time possible in them.

For the chocolate lovers there is always the Hotel Chocolate. I took a bus back to the station and caught my train with seconds to spare. It would have been annoying to have to wait an hour for the next train as there is nowhere very interesting around the station. From Exeter I took the Tarka Line train which is a little 2 carriage train. At Umberleigh a group of youths got into the carriage that I wasn't in and the amount of noise coming through to us made us all crane our necks to see what was going on. It sounded like a party in that carriage. I even had conversation with some women sitting across from me, wow! Then at Eggesford, where the train waits for the train coming the other way to pass, we seemed to be held up for a very long time. Then the ticket collector and the train driver went into the other carriage and eventually an announcement came over the tannoy to say that the train was delayed because a passenger had exposed themselves. I'm sorry to say that we all burst out laughing in our carriage. More peering up the aisle and chat from my carriage and eventually everyone sat down, presumably the culprit had apologised, and we made our way to Barnstaple.