Monday had to start with some school uniform pictures having finally got Bunnykin's Blazer...
I cycled into the office. It was a bit more a wet and blustery day.
I tried a different place for lunch, but it was still a bit too much (this is fried cauliflower).
The cycle back was very wet, but the last stretch was pretty as the sun was very low in the sky which had cleared a little to let a beautiful light through.
It was nice to work at home on Tuesday and feel a bit cosy in all this miserable rain.
I received some swatches, which was rather exciting. I am thinking about how we decorate the front room and of course want to see some patterned and floral fabrics in there. Also thinking about some wallpaper...
Wednesday after school was Netball. I met Bunnykins along the way and we had time to sit and enjoy the pasta she had made in Food & Nutrition at school. It was yummy; very nicely seasoned.
She had got a house-point for brining in whole-wheat pasta. The teacher had asked if it was, she told me she had no idea, but when the teacher said it she just replied "yes" because her thinking was this is just the kind of thing Daddy would do - give me whole-wheat pasta...
On Thursday I cycled in again. There had been a lot of rain over the previous days. As I went through the underpass, the base was flooded. I lifted my feet and got through fine. It would have been over my shoes. A lady pedestrian coming in the other end watched my effort and decided not to go that way.
It was wet wet wet. Ben was in town again and we met for lunch, but this time went for a cafe just across from the office so we had somewhere to sit down in the dry. It is a little place doing Lebanese flatbreads.
At 5pm Ben was waiting to cycle home together after he was teaching at the Folk House. We got to the underpass and it was deeper. I said to Ben to wait to let me go through first. As I approached it I realised it was much deeper, there was no pulling out at this point so I lifted my feet (hitting my knee) on the handlebar, squealed quite a lot and got quite splashed. I stopped on the other side and looked back to see Ben looking quite unsure... er...are you expecting me to follow?! He did get through fine, but with a bit of screeching himself!
At the weekend I had taken some sedum cuttings (just popped in some rainwater), I was quite excited to see roots are already developing from the nodes...
On Friday, Mark was off volunteering with work. Ben was over at the park for a class, so we met for lunch.
The afternoon was a bit manic work wise. There was a lovely interlude with the Analyst Friday call where we played "What's in Stuart's fridge?".
I had been going non-stop to get everything done, and had been almost getting on top of a hefty task list when I received an e-mail that had volunteered me for a heap more work. I was not happy tbh and ended up with quite a late finish.
Mark had made us homemade pizza which was yummy.
On Saturday we got up at a reasonable time, Bunnykins and I picked up Hannah and M at Co-Op and then went on to pick up A. We drove into town to Cabot Circus, it has been so long since I have been there. We parked up, it was quite busy already. We were booked into an escape room for Bunnykins' birthday, but we were there a bit early so we had a mooch about including around the Lego shop.
We went to Escape Hunt escape rooms. We were booked in for the Blackbeard's Treasure puzzle.
After a briefing, we were let in the room, which was a series of 3 rooms with treasure at the end, and then you had to figure out how to get out. We did it in 43 minutes which we were chuffed with. It was such fun and really engaging. Everyone was busy finding things and working together to solve all sorts of puzzles. I cracked a musical section (after a lot of playing and driving everyone else bonkers 😂), Bunnykins spotted some great things in the room that helped us crack it, M had great energy to just get stuck into solving each puzzle, and we were all surprised (and relived) when A figured out how to get us out... Hannah and I both admitted that we could be in there for hours and would never have made the link that allowed us to finish!
Finishing early allowed us to be at the front of the queue for Wagamama's. I knew we couldn't reserve a table, but I wasn't prepared for how busy it was. The whole while we were there there were queues around the corner. Anyway, it was where Bunnykins wanted to go and we got in so it was all good.
It was super tasty.
Bunnykins enjoyed her Raman.
I had picked up a cake while Hannah and the girls went to queue. It was a Kinder cake, plus some cupcakes for the girls to take home (with a chunk of cake for the families). It was a very tasty cake, and it was nice of the restaurant to let us have (and eat) the cake.
The next part was something the girls enjoyed; I gave them each £10 and told them they had an hour to go spend it on whatever tat they wanted. There were only a few rules: they had to stay in Cabot Circus, they had to stay together, they had to have their phone ringer on and answer it.
Hannah and I had a mooch around some shops (occasionally bumping into the girls). We met them after an hour. They had bought some good tat. We popped into New Look, where they found a t-shirt for A (from the 70% off sale rail) and decided to pool what they had left to get it for her. Which I thought was lovely. I could see they had really enjoyed their taste of grown up freedom. It is a big transition to go from the protection of primary to the world of secondary, I think it is a good thing to scaffold them a bit, giving them opportunities to try out some of this stuff of being independent in the big, scary, bustling world, before being fully dunked.
Back home, Mark had been intending to put up plasterboard with Woo's help. But Woo had been working on her homework (and then had not appeared again), so he was a bit adjitated when I got home. I got changed and got straight to helping him. It was hard work, so I was quite glad that he hadn't attempted it with Woo. I think she would have really struggled with the heaviest board and once the process has started - you can't stop without damaging the board. I powered through the pain, just huffing and puffing and whimpering a bit. Once a board was up and didn't need holding, then I got on with putting in the screws to the rest while Mark would prepare the next board, measuring and cutting to size.
Woo did come to help us on one of the heaviest where we also had to poke through the lighting wires.
We got most boards up by the time the takeaway arrived. We did one more after that, then tidied up and watched Avengers - Age of Ultron. When it was done, it was time for a shower for me, and bed for everyone.
Sunday we were all up early. Mark was taking Bunnykins to her tournament, Woo decided to go too.
Ben was cycling over, and Mark dropped he and I off at Ashton Gate for the Bristol Walking Festival, where we were going to join in walking part of the Bristol Bridges challenge.
At the moment there is a bit of a fuel crisis in the UK. It isn't to do with the underlying supply, it is getting enough drivers for the tankers (#BrexitBenefitsNOT). Having a hybrid electric car has been good. The Mamma Sting has a range of about 30miles, so has been doing most of what we need. The orange car was now pretty much out of fuel, so the only way for us all to get where we were going was Mama Sting and/or public transport.
We were glad of Mark dropping us off. It was a short trek from the start point to get to the Bristol Bridges walk, but it was very pretty.
The Bristol Bridges walk was devised as a route that crosses all of Bristol's pedestrian accessible bridges (across the main waterways), where each bridge is only crossed once and that you end up at the start. It is based on the Konisberg Bridges challenge.
Our first bridge was the Clifton Suspension Bridge (bridge 36).
It was a beautiful start, but a bit hair-raising for me. I love this bridge, but find it terrifying to cross.
Once across, we swapped across a bit of a pinch in the route (where 2 points came together), to then follow clockwise with bridge 39 next down in Hotwells.
(Bridge 39 Poole's Warf Bridge)
Followed quickly by 40 and 41. (North Junction Lock Bridge and South Junction Lock Bridge).
The day was looking lovely at this point.
I even had my coat off and sunnies on for a while.
We passed the Banksy: Girl with the Pearl Earring which was one I haven't seen before.
The walk along the river here was lively, and even though familiar, was enjoyable.
It was a fairly long stretch to Bridge 42 (Prince Street Bridge).
Then 43 Pero's Bridge (another familiar one)
44 Redcliffe Bridge
And just generally spotting fun things along the way.
45 Castle Bridge took us back to a familiar part of town, as I cycle past it going into work each day. (Ben giving me his best Blue Steel look...)
Then we were onto Bridge no. 1 (Bristol Bridge)
and from there we zig-zagged through the center of town, including some fairly unprepossessing sights... (Bridge 2 St Philip's Bridge)
and one closed bridge (no.3 Castle Ditch Bridge - not a great name either!)
4 Temple Bridge
5 Valentine's Bridge
I enjoyed taking pictures of the bridges and trying to find interesting angles to make the most of the geometry. (Number 6 - Mead's Reach Bridge)
But some of them were really hard to be inspired by, and I just ended up capturing the greyness of city roads. Bridge 7... (Bath Bridge West)
Bridge 8 Bath Bridge West (basically coming back the other way on the roundabout)...
Bridge 9 (Brock's Bridge), wasn't actually open. I had hopped up on a cement block to get a better view and better picture.
The construction site gates had been left open, so we did walk across it and back.
And then similarly with no. 10 (St. Philip's Footbridge), who's angles I really enjoyed, we had to walk across and then back as it was closed at the far end.
The evocatively named bridge 11 - the Temple Mead's Relief Line Bridge had some great colour and angles.
But was horrible to walk across, as the cement planks wobbled. I got across as quickly as I could.
By this time it was about 1:30 pm. In the morning we had passed so many great cafes with wonderful smells of coffee, bacon, bread and such filling the air. We had been walking to Totterdown, with no cafes to be found, but a growing need to eat and go to the loo. I remembered there was a good place to eat at the Paintworks, but when we got there there was no space.
But 13 and 14 (St Philip's Causway Bridges East and West) were soul destroying as we just walked around in a small circle around the dual carriageway in the pouring rain....
This then took us into AvonMead which is a soul-less out of town shopping place. I vetoed the following lunch options: KFC, McDonalds, KrispyKreme Doughnuts (!), and a Gregs with outdoor seating!!), leaving us just Costa which tbh felt like a haven with it's clean loo, comfy seats and toasted sandwich options.
I couldn't help think of all the other lovely places we had passed earlier, but I can't say a bad word about Costa for rescuing me from the rain.
One of my favourite elements of the walk was the street art and colour.
It was at this point that it really started to rain hard. I was not encouraged by Ben's optimism about AvonMead being around the corner, or these cheery planters...
The Spark Evan's Park bridge (12) was pretty
We then headed along the Feeder Road, which even with the rain, did have it's aesthetically pleasing moments, despite being a mainly industrial area.
Bridge 15 - Barton Hill Bridge.
The rain was pretty relentless though, and while I did appreciate the surroundings, I still had plenty of chuntering to do.
I think we went slightly different to the map route, as this is bridge 18 St Anne's Footbridge, from the map. (We were following the GPX version I had downloaded onto my phone.)
This was the furthest East of our route and it did feel good to be turning back towards town.
Though it was still pretty damp...
Bridge 17 - New Brislington Bridge.
Then across two lock bridges 16 and 19. (Netham Lock Bridges East and West).
Bridge 20 (Feeder Road Footbridge) took us away from the Feeder Road into an area that felt like it had quite an industrial history.
I find details like this finely made gate, now swathed in barbed wire, fascinating.
And find the textures and shapes of a view like this really intriguing.
21 Marsh Bridge.
Then on to 22 - Totterdown Bridge, where the weather was getting biblical.
Not only that, there were massive puddles that the traffic was splashing through, causing us to have to run past sections to avoid a further drenching.
We climbed up into Totterdown, where I was really giving up, but at the top of the hill, the sun broke through the clouds and also Mark offered to come pick us up. This did give me a boost to keep going.
Bridge 24 Bedminster Bridge (East)
Bridge 25 Bedminster Bridge (West)
We were now firmly back in town, which felt like we were in striking distance of our finish point (Hotwells). Mark was driving into town to get us, so we needed to press on and get as many of the bridges done as possible, so that when we do part 2, we don't have to add too much extra on.
So by the time we hit the Bannana Bridge (23), I had a bit more enthusiasm.
Bridge 26 Bathhurst Basin Footbridge.
Followed by Bridge 27 and 28 Bathhurst Basin Roadbridges (East then West)
We were walking along Spike Island now with the sky clearing above. The walk was part of the Lets Walk Bristol Festival. During the day I had spotted a few other walking types lingering on bridges to take photos in the rain. I would give them a knowing smile of miserable fellowship. At this stretch we caught up with a group of 3 women, who were all doing the walk too. We had a brief hello of recognition.
Bridge 29 Gaol Ferry Bridge.
Bridge 31, Ashton Avenue Bridge was our last bridge of the day.
It was striking in the late Sunday sun.
As we approached the car, we spotted rainbows. It was a fitting end. The walk in parts had been bloody miserable. But it was a great way to explore Bristol in more detail, I had enjoyed the architecture, street art, structures, and as always, I love walking with Ben. If I had to do a miserable walk with someone, I would do that walk with Ben.
We got home and had a look at the progress Mark had made on the plasterboard. He was annoyed with some of the finishing, but I thought he had done a great job.
Bridge 30 Vauxhall Bridge took us back to Spike Island where the road was closed. I called Mark and we arranged for him to park by Grenville Smithe Park, and that we would get to bridge 31 and then go to find him. This would just leave a tangle of bridges in Hotwells to do next time.
This was one of the most full on weekends I have had in a while. I certainly came out of it feeling exhausted. I think that is how life used to be though, so it is a thing that the pandemic has taught certainly, to understand the benefit of slowing down. I know the next few weekends are going to be similarly busy, but at least from now I am going to 4 days a week at work, so should have Fridays as a bit of a relief valve to get things done or do nothing.
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