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