Bristol sights and more Commonwealth Games rehearsals

Some of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games performers posing for a shot during rehearsals. We're in there somewhere but you can't see us as we're at the back over towards the left somewhere

Chilled out Millie cat

Bristol is nearly over, how (Brian: by the time I got round to posting this it is already over!)?

We’ve walked a couple of times, on Monday from the house (see Relive short video with photos: click here), on a walk that had some lovely bits, and some horribly overgrown bits. Not good in shorts! Some of the most overgrown bits were on ‘the Gordano Round’ a well known local path. Obviously not that well known. Thursday from below Sea Walls in the Avon Gorge where we often used to park to go climbing. We went up through a little gulley that has goats for wild flower preservation! Apparently they prefer bramble and woody things, to grass and flowers so are good at providing the delicate habitat these rare plants want. Bit of a walk across the Downs and to the ice cream van that is marked on Googlemaps. They’ve got to be there regularly to be on Google maps! See another Relive short video with photos: click here

Part of the Gordano Round trail. Marked on the OS map as a major trail, but actually most of it was like this, overgrown and difficult to follow. Nice day out though

We had visitors last Friday, my brother and niece, stopping over between university visits in Bristol and Bath. How very convenient. It was lovely to see them and practice my vegetarian cooking. We are trying to encourage Caroline to come to Bristol, so we can spend time with her when we sit next time.....

Here's another interesting bit. Look at that big fungus growing on that fallen tree on the left. Don't try this track after heavy rain!

We had our second CWG rehearsal on Sunday. Much more specific, our individual bibs all had marker points on them , so we know where to stand, to form various shapes at different times. It’s all becoming a little clearer. We both had our costume fittings too, I was pulled out of rehearsal to try on, thinking oh well, Brian can tell me, but no, he was sent in too. We get the feeling the vibe is “Peaky Blinders” and are both really hoping we get to keep the costumes as I could happily wear all my bits, though not necessarily all together. This has yet to be confirmed, but apparently is quite usual. It was a long day, up at 06.20 on Bristol, Longbridge to rehearse, dash to Morrison’s to grab something for lunch (15.00 ish) to eat with mum, then back to little cats. This week much the same, except we aren’t coming back to Bristol.

From the hills looking down towards the docks at Portishead and, on the other side of the Bristol Channel, South Wales

Concorde in Bristol museum

Wednesday we had a busy day, booked Jurassic World at the cinema so thought we might as well go to the aircraft museum at Filton with the last Concorde that flew. It was an interesting visit and we’ve left the ‘valid for a year’ tickets in the drawer I found the SS Great Britain ones in, in the hope we’ll be back within the year to use them! Didn’t enjoy the movie as much as Top Gun, but still good to see at the cinema. We followed it with a bite to eat, so all go!

Today (now yesterday) we’ve cleaned in preparation for our early departure tomorrow, and packed the car, so he won’t publish this blog, because the computer is already packed!

Third rehearsal on Saturday, it is all coming together and you realise that everything we do has a second purpose, it’s really all very clever. We are loving it despite the wind and rain. The atmosphere is fabulous, the camaraderie and enthusiasm brilliant. We are meeting people and having a really good time.

Back to mums for what is looking like an action packed few days, before Smokey cat in Milton Keynes on Wednesday

View from the back of Concorde with those four huge Bristol Siddeley Olympus 593 jet engines 

Here's an interesting fact: the square inlets on each of the four engines have controllable flaps to regulate the air speed entering the engine. Apparently the engines worked optimally with an airspeed of 350mph, but as the jet could travelling at up to 1350mph, the flaps would deflect the air away from the engine input in order to reduce it to 350mph.

The view you could have had inside Concorde if you had enough money. A transatlantic flight, which used to take 3 hours, cost £8000 when the fleet was retired in 2003

And here's the flight deck. There's a lot of knobs and switches there!

There were lots of other interesting exhibits to see there. This is the Bristol F2B fighter aircraft used in 1918

So this is my costume for the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Not sure if I should be sharing this or not, but no-one actually said not to. I like it and hope I can keep it. I particularly like the flat cap. Jackie's is something along the same lines 

Rehearsals on Saturday 25th. On the platform is Nathan, our very enthusiastic director. We're all wearing headphones with a number of different channels so we can hear him or our individual instructors telling us when to move and where to move. We think we'll be wearing them at the ceremony to keep us all together, telling us when to move. It's quite scary but its also a lot of fun and he makes it for us with his jokes, praise, enthusiasm and professionalism. He's done a few of these now so he's quite experienced and knows exactly how to teach and keep a thousand or so people on track. Here he's being wheeled on his platform to a new position as we have to make a new shape

They did tell us that the rehearsals would be outside and would continue despite the weather. Here a rain shower had just passed us making us quite wet. They handed out these cagoules to help keep us dry, but you can see there was no loss of enthusiasm from us all, it is such fun. You can see the cloud shower moving off on the right, to be replaced by blue sky. The tower there is to enable them to get an overall view of the shapes we are making. Apparently, so I was told by someone in the know, this area at Longbridge is set out exactly as Alexander Stadium, where the opening ceremony the track events during the games will be, and that tower is in the position where the press box will be. Beneath it is the main entrance into the stadium where all athletes will come out onto the pitch. We will be here in front of that for a good part of the ceremony so we might be on telly! There again, we might not!

Princess Tinsel cat on her cushion was unimpressed by the whole thing and would have preferred us not to have gone in the first place!

This was in Chiquitos at Cribbs Causeway, Bristol after the Jurassic World Dominion film. The hat fitted so I wore it!

This was the start and finish of our walk in the Avon Gorge at a crag called Sea Walls, scene of many climbing adventures we've had in the past. Multi pitch climbing on these 300 feet crags

This is Old Sneed Park Nature Reserve. It's been fenced off and filled with these goats who protect the  wild flowers here. Apparently they feed on the prickly undergrowth leaving the flowers alone, giving them space to grow. The stone edifice you see there is a vent for the railway tunnel that runs beneath

They are actually quite cute goats and quite happy for us to walk past, giving us a mere glance

Up on the top in Clifton Downs we came across this exercise equipment so felt we had to try it out

Having promised Jackie an ice cream stop on our walk as I had seen it marked on Google Maps, I was a bit sceptical it would be there taking into account it is mobile. However, it was exactly in the position marked on the map. You've got to be there for a long period of time to be marked on the map

This might look pretty flat here, but just the other side of that fence is a sheer rock face that plummets down 300 feet (100m) into the Avon Gorge. These two guys were painting the scene they could see...

And here's what they could see and were painting. That's the River Avon, tidal at this point, just in the distance is the huge bridge that carries the M5 motorway over the river on its way between Birmingham in the Midlands and Exeter on the South Coast

And there's the view the other way. In the distance you can just see the Clifton Suspension Bridge built by Brunel and down there on the left is Sea Walls crag that we've climbed many times, Main Wall crag further along on the left, another place we've climbed on many times. The road is the A4 into Bristol, which you can just see a bit of in the 'V' under the bridge. Our car is in the car park at the bottom of Sea Walls and at the top is the fence around Clifton Downs. When we've climbed on this crag it was always disconcerting to arrive at the top of the climb into a park with people walking, jogging, eating ice creams and gazing at the view. We'd just spend the best part of two hours climbing and waiting on belays, completely isolated, to suddenly be thrust back into civilisation at the top. The fence did provide a very convenient place to belay from though, even though the signs said not to! We'd often see people standing here watching us climb, then to walk round and have a chat with us as we topped out

So it's bye-bye to these two pussy cats for now, We've had a lovely time in Bristol and it was great to catch up with Bev and Iain before they went off on their holidays. We look forward to seeing them without having to housesit and again when we next look after their house. It's Sunday afternoon now and we've had word that they are safely back home now after being delayed on their return flight so these two are quite happy, dinner will be in their bowls tonight!

Bristol and a secret location in Birmingham

The SS Great Britain in Bristol dry dock

We’ve settled into the routine here very quickly, two laps, two cats. Coffee in bed is ‘Tinsel time’ the rest of the day is ‘Millie time’

We’ve been into Bristol twice now, once just for a mooch and yesterday because I found the tickets for the SS Great Britain that we’d bought when we were last here, valid for free entry for a year, so till the end of this week! A good trip around the ship, a walk along the river to Wapping Wharf, a mall built of container units, for a yummy lunch. Across the bridge to the Cathedral, and up George Street to the Georgian house, as recommended by Iain and Bev’s neighbours who I had a good chat with the other morning! Most odd walking up the street, we both felt we’d been before, we have been known to forget these things, though in this case I think the street was actually reminiscent of the street in Glasgow where the Rennie Mackintosh museum is, as we hadn’t been before. An interesting snapshot of a well-to-do house, though they have had to rewrite some of the information as much of the money was made in the slave trade, so very non pc at the moment!

Going underwater (not really!) The lower half of the SS Great Britain is in a climate controlled environment to stop further corrosion of the iron ship (the first ever made in 1843, by Isambard Kingdom Brunel)

We’ve been for a couple of walks, one round the coast and through the marina at Portishead, which was quite gentle, and one from Portishead to Clevedon where we stopped for an ice cream and got the bus back. This wasn’t quite so gentle! A good walk though.

So here we are 'underwater' looking at the quite corroded hull. The upper half is open to the elements and has been painted in corrosion resistant paint, however the lower half has salt bonded into the iron which attracts moisture and would continue to corrode even if painted. The only solution was to remove moisture from the air, a very expensive on-going cost

Dressing up in period costume

We went to the cinema to see Top Gun Maverick, which we thoroughly enjoyed, I saw the original in Bangor, twice, as a student, with the same bloke, not that it got me anywhere with him! We always say we must go to the cinema more often, particularly having bought our car insurance through compare the meerkat (other insurance agencies are available) as two for one makes it a good trip out! Meant to go to Jurassic Park today! Oh well, next week!

The big excitement though was last Saturday, our first Commonwealth games rehearsal, at a secret location in Longbridge! Rehearsals go on regardless of weather, shame about the downpour as we turned up! We had no idea what to expect, all we knew was we were in group MAR. As we queued chat turned to MAR meaning Marshall, and my, along with many others, heart sank. Are we just going to be supervising the athletes arriving? No we are performing, it says so on my ID card. There seems to be quite a lot of confusion, I knew John, one of my ex colleagues from the BBC, a real boffin, who does a lot of lighting and sound for plays had a role in production. I didn’t expect to see him so was pleasantly surprised as he walked past for his second shift as a seamstress! This was not a role he was expecting. We were split into groups and taken outside, a bit of a warmup, then four areas for different sorts of movement. We did only manage three of the areas as we got sent home early due to a plumbing problem making the toilets unusable! Can’t tell you much, as then I’d have to kill you, but suffice to say, having got a bit down beforehand, after rehearsal and then watching a YouTube vid of some of the marshalling activity at the Glasgow games, we are very excited again. We will be right amongst the action and in the arena for the longest time apparently, though we still don’t know doing what!

Brians attempt at recreating the famous photo of Isambard Kingdom Brunel

The recreated propellor on the SS Great Britain, made to Brunel's original design. Not only was this the first iron steam ship ever built, it was also the first ship to be driven by a propellor rather than paddles. The inventiveness and genius of Brunel!

Bristol cathedral and park on a sunny afternoon

Along the 6 mile (10km) coastal path from Portishead to Cleveland

At our first Commonwealth Games rehearsal at Longbridge, Birmingham

Jackie gets her bib and number for the day along with headphones and receiver to be able to hear individual instructions

Brian's ready too

Here we are being led out to our practice area. Notice the puddles, there had been a rain shower, but we'd been warned rehearsals would go ahead no matter what the weather was. Where is this secret location? We can't say, apparently its to stop paparazzi descending on the area

One of four areas of different movements

Pow! Yeah, lets go for it!

Since we are housesitting (and have actually spent a lot of time with these pussy cats) here's Millie cat asleep on Brians lap

And a sleeping Tinsel cat

Bishampton to Bristol via Alvechurch

Fish, chips and beer by the sea with Iain and Bev

How has a fortnight passed?

Medieval weekend was a good mix of craft stalls, food and then lots of cosplay, people, tents, dogs, archers, armour and all sorts. Our visit was slightly curtailed as we wanted to get over to Warwick to see Fiona and James, just returned from their honeymoon, and Becky to celebrate her 22nd birthday, via the dogs so they didn’t think we’d abandoned them.

Monday seemed to be teeth day, Brian was just about to leave for his appointment in Leamington when I was contacted with a hygienist cancellation, sadly in the opposite direction. Fortunately when they rang in the afternoon with another cancellation he was back so I could get to Rednal. Long distance dental visits for both of us, but hey!

Evesham's Medieval market

Happy 22nd birthday Becky! Nice gathering in Fiona and James' back garden, LtoR: Fergus, Chris and Janet (James' mum, who also announced their engagement that very day - double celebrations!), Fiona, James, Becky - birthday girl, Jenny, Laura and Jackie

Evesham town and river walk before the rain arrived

Tuesday was our last full day, but before cleaning we thought we’d take Cookie and Cracker to do the Evesham town walk. It all started well, until the rain came in, we were about halfway around, so lots of sheltering under trees, in a hopeful fashion! Not that it did much good, clothes and dogs all needed washing when we got back! Donna and Keith arrived back about 04.00am and amazingly managed to get into the house without it being brought down by excitable dogs. They spent the rest of the night with mum and dad, but were outside our door when Brian got up to make coffee, then in for their morning cuddles and snoozing as ‘normal’. This makes us very happy as we know we’ve done something right. Apparently they were waiting the following morning too when we weren’t even in the house. Last walk and a leisurely breakfast before back to mums. We shall miss these dogs.

At the start and end of our walk, by the Hampton Ferry, one of the few crossings over the River Avon. Apparently its a very old crossing, originally to allow monks to cross the river from the old abbey to get to the area where Hampton village now is, where they used to have fields of fruit and vegetables. BUT WAIT!! Did you see it? Look closely, there a car in the river....

Its a real accident, although no-one was injured. The ferryman told us it's been there for a few weeks and he is waiting for someone to recover it. To be fair, there is a sign on the road warning of a river ahead and a sign that says it's a passenger ferry only!

We quite liked this riverside sign on our walk through Evesham. Pointing to the right at the bottom it says 'Decision time, toilets 75yds or 750yds' (that's 68.5 to 685m for our continental friends or 225 to 2250 feet for our USA friends, 'cause you don't use yards)

Look at this bird that Jackie rescued after it flew into the conservatory

Our excitement for the day was clearing out the utility room ready for a new boiler to be fitted the following day, we know how to live! New boiler fitted, we shopped and Brian had a biopsy after his skin visit the previous week. As usual it was a ‘just to be on the safe side’ so hopefully all will be well. It was right on his eyebrow, so in itself not particularly noticeable, it’s just the black eye that developed after! (B: she took a photo of my black eye and stitches, but I declined to post it here!)

Mum and dad geese guide their six youngsters along the canal in Alvechurch

A baby starling sits atop Paulines giraffe in her back garden

Gardening, a visit to the Redditch food fair and general pottering for mum while we finally made it to see Acoustic Roots, an open mic night that has been run in the village by Paul (from our trip to Jordan) for years. We were made very welcome, and were pleased to see John, though he didn’t stay long, as seats were whisked in for us down at the front with Brian and Hazel. I have to say I enjoyed it more than I expected, five acts with half an hour each, in a completely packed village hall. They actually had to turn people away. Bumping into Jan and Paul led to a coffee invite for Monday which we were glad to accept, lots of chat, time just whizzed past.

I just love this old postcard we found when clearing out Paulines (Jackies mum) utility room ready for the new boiler fitting. It's of Birmingham's Bull Ring centre in the 1960's. It's very different now, the church remains on the left but everything else you see there is now gone

We found this old photo of Jackie too

Wednesday down to Easton in Gordano sitting for Bev and Iain for three and a bit weeks, four cats are sadly now down to two, Millie and Tinsel with the passing of Shadow and Mr. Pickles. Two laps and two cats though does work well and Tinsel has come much more out of herself, which can only be good for her. Lovely to catch up with B&I, fish and chips and beer with a view of the Bristol Channel and lots of chat! Fabulous. We took them to the airport on Thursday in sunshine, which lasted till about mid afternoon the following day, just in time to rain on Fridays jubilee celebrations. We had made it to Portishead for their event seen a few bands and had a pork bap before the rain set in. Today we are hoping it might clear in time to visit Pills celebrations this afternoon. Whatever happens, it’s lovely to be here, it’s a great place to be.

Back to Evesham and our town walk with Cookie and Cracker. The hill you see here (and explained on that noticeboard Jackie's reading) is significant: it is the site of the battle of Evesham that occurred on August 3rd and 4th 1265 between Simon de Montford, the Earl of Leicester and Prince Edward and is very important in English history. Why? Picture the times, King John had been forced to sign the Magna Carta by rebellious barons in 1215 in an effort to curb the power of the king and establish rights for the people. The struggle continued after his death eventually leading to civil war. Earl Simon captured King Henry III and his son Prince Edward in 1264, governing England for a year and setting up the first representative parliament. Simon was heavily outnumbered and was hacked to death near this spot, leading to the crowning of Prince Edward as Edward I. However, Simon's legacy lives on in the form of representative government  that, today we know as the House of Commons

I wanted to put this photo of a woodpecker feasting on peanuts in Donna and Keith's back garden. Isn't he (she) fabulous?

In Portishead drinking beer with Iain and Bev. Jackie wanted to sample one of the beers and got it in a miniature tankard!

Portishead Jubilee Festival on their show field before the rain started. At the far end was a stage with lots of youth rock bands playing under the banner 'school of rock'. They looked around the 14 to 18 age group, some possibly younger, but they were pretty good (some not so it has to be said). Great atmosphere, lots going on, it's just a pity persistent rain set in for the afternoon

There was even a tame T-Rex there. Oh, wait a minute, he seems to have an extra pair of legs!

Brace yourself, here's a selection of photos of Millie and Tinsel cats, our current charges. This one's Tinsel sleeping on our bed this morning

She thought the camera was quite interesting so came to have a closer look. You can see here strange right eye that is permanently dilated. Whether she can see through it or not we don't know, but suspect not

Not sure she likes posing for the camera though, perhaps she's afraid I'll steal her soul!

However, she does enjoy strokes

Millie has a similar interest in cameras. That perfect shot of her sitting was ruined before I could take the photo

After much effort I did manage to get this one

A more common sight is this though. Millie sleeping

And Tinsel sleeping (but aware of Jackie's presence) in her favourite out-of-the way spot by the stairs