August 2015 Archives

Last week, I managed to secure weekend tickets to Banksy's new art exhibition in Weston-super-Mare (near Bristol, where Banksy's based): Dismaland. This new Banksy exhibition has been widely-reported in the media and tickets have been sought-after. The art exhibition takes inspiration from theme parks, and it's not difficult to see that Disney is the brunt of the jokes here. The typography and name of the attraction, the fact that its staff wear ears that similar to mouse ears, and some of the attractions (such as the castle) inside are close to what is seen at the Disney theme parks. The exhibits inside the park did not poke fun at Disney but poked fun at and challenged society. (Note before you continue reading and scrolling below: Don't view this post if you're easily offended or easily-disturbed.)

As we struggled to find a parking space for about half an hour and then had to queue for fourty-five minutes in the wet weather (we did have the first slot of tickets, which was at 11:00, but I think people in the later slots queued early), we did feel pretty dismal. 

At least I did not have to queue up for three or more hours like the Banksy exhibition in Bristol Museum in 2009, but when we arrived at 10:15 in the morning, people were already in queue for the walk-in. A notice put up mentioned that the ticket sales for the walk-in group would not be open until 15:00. Perhaps some of those people took their place at 7:00 in the morning.

The guy on the right hasn't yet been told that smiling is forbidden obviously

As our queue snaked around quickly to the entrance, we came to the entrance of the park. The staff we saw at the entrance were looking very dismal, frowning, being rude, and telling people not to smile. The first task was to get through security just inside the door. This consisted of fake security and depressed-looking and rude staff. I saw a pair of handcuffs and hand-scanners, CCTV cameras, walk-through scanners, and computers made of cardboard.

Security

Inside the park, it was already very busy. I think that they just let everyone who had a ticket in. I reminded myself of the 'South Park' episode about the 'Line Ride'.

The souvenir programme seller ran out of programmes

Something that I noticed was that a lot of adults were bringing a lot of children and babies in strollers. There's not a lot of room and uneven surfaces meant that these just got in the way. Also, the subjects in the bemusement park are not really suitable for children (in my view). Well, I don't think I'd bring my offspring there as I think a few of the exhibits would have frightened me, and I was never easily frightened. 

Abandonment and disuse was one common theme around the bemusement park. Scattered around were various of those old children's toys (the kind you put a coin in and it moves or plays music) abandoned and broken. This is disturbing like some post-apocalyptic world. Music was also played throughout the theme park, but the music was 'broken' and also sounded disturbing. On occassion, the speakers would 'squeak' and also a voice would mumble some wit about society. This seemed a little bit like "Big Brother" (or "The Prisoner" 1960s television series) in some ways.

Dance of Death

One of our first visits was another queue to get into a sheltered exhibition room, where we waited to watch "The Dance of Death". This involved the grim reaper (a.k.a, Death) on a bumper car (US English) / dodgem (British English). Disco music by the BeeGees "Stayin' Alive" was playing as disco lights lit up the floor and the grim reaper's car kept bumping into the wall; I was worried his scyth was going to come off the top of the car (the electric pole) and go into the crowd. Now, I found this moving spectacle slightly frightening even as an adult.

Caroline McCarthy uses everyday items to create artwork

I had a wander around the other artwork on display in this area. This consisted of work by Banksy, Damien Hirst, and several other artists whose work was showcased.

A frown, Damien Hirst's beach ball suspended above blades, Paco Pomet's funny cookie monster with terrorists, unknown

One room contained the 'Aftermath Displacement Principle' by Jimmy Cauty. This piece shows a model village in a moment of civil unrest, and there's a lot of police cars and ambulances attending scenes of crime. The lights flash, and noise is of sirens from this installation.

Jimmy Cauty ADP piece and Lush

One of the interesting pieces in the room (before I exited) was a snake eating a famous mouse. This is a Banksy piece.

Banksy 

Next up, I went into the tent showcasing 'gothic' art. Inside the tent were a large selection of artwork. Inside were grotesche wedding cakes with teeth, stuffed rabbits, tin cans that looked made of flesh, a stuffed unicorn, and a large selection of dishes with teeth and fingers.

Ronit Baranga's plate feast; Damien Hirst's unicorn

The game areas were also a dig at the state of the world and perception. One featured a take on the duck fishing game, and the ducks were swimming in tar with a large sculpture of a bird covered in tar. Another featured 'Topple the Anvil' and people queued up to throw small plastic balls at the anvils in attempt to knock them over.

Tar

Other items around the theme park showcase the unfairness of society, which is depicted in the below street art piece featuring politicans.

One interesting installation featured migrant ships in the sea off what looked like the white cliffs of Dover. These speedboats kept bumping into each other and the sides of the pool. There were also some migrant bodies in the pool.

Banksy migrant boats

One of the most prominent installations at Dismaland was the two semi cabs placed together with twisted metal tubes. This installation, by Mike Ross, is known as 'Big Rig Jig'. 

Mike Ross 'Big Rig Jig'

The working carousel also had an art exhibit on it. The subject of this installation was the horse meat scandal that hit the UK a year or so ago. A butcher is sitting on the carousel with a carousel horse hanging up like a piece of meat behind him, and the boxes that the butcher is sitting on read 'Lasagne'. A lot of the products that contained horse meat were minced beef, such as lasagne. I believe that this is another creation by Banksy.

Horse meat scandal

One of the funniest installations features a subject that anyone who has ever been to the seaside knows about: seagulls. There are countless stories about seagulls attacking people or stealing their food right from their hands. This installation features a woman on a bench being attacked by the birds while one stands nearby. 

Banksy - woman attacked by seagulls

One artist's work was featured in a kiosk for loans.

Another area showed Punch & Judy puppet shows, but these were not for children.

Dismaland also contains a giant pinwheel sticking out of a giant sandcastle, which was commissioned by Banksy. Ben Long constructed a stallion out of scaffolding poles.

Ben Long's stallion and giant pinwheel

And around the pond, which was also designed by Banksy, was another dig at the inequality of society.

Un-f--k the system

On the other part of the pond, a police armoured vehicle is transformed into a water feature with a slide.

While we waited in another queue to get inside the castle, we saw balloons being handed out by staff. The balloons read "I am an inbecile."

The main feature of Dismaland is the fantasy castle, which looks like it has seen better days. In front of the castle is a statue of a mermaid. Both are Banksy contributions.

Mediocre

Inside the castle was another Banksy installation. When we walked in, Cinderella was showing on a television screen, and she was leaving the wedding in the pumpkin carriage. Inside was the wrecked pumpkin carriage and carnage while the paparazzi did nothing except stand and take photographs.

At the opposite end of the park is another Banksy sculpture featuring a whale jumping out of a toilet into a small pool.

Next up was an exhibition labelled 'Cruel', which took an age to get in to see. The exhibition featured items relating to today's society about various government and company issues that cannot be trusted.  Next to this was a library.

Around the corner was a fire pit where books are burned.

Visitors could take selfies of themselves surrounded by a white wall.

Last but not least, we exited through the git shop where more souvenir guides and t-shirts were being sold. Unfortunately, they did not have any postcards for sale. "Exit through the gift shop" was the name of a past Banksy exhibition.

How do you get tickets? I read on the website a week ago when tickets would next become available. When tickets were due to go on sale, the website 'crashed'. I believe that this was a ploy to the dismal experience, so I kept checking for tickets throughout the day. (There are a couple of other areas in the theme park that were not working quite right, so it is all a part of the 'dismal' experience.) I must have been one of the first to see the tickets when they became available because I could have selected any time slot for any day.

I read on the website (http://dismaland.co.uk) tickets are going on sale for next week on Wednesday. Also keep in mind that someone has set up fake tickets on other websites, so do buy your tickets through http://dismaland.co.uk only and do not get caught out.

Leaving you with a face that sums up the experience of Dismaland

Tickets can also be purchased on the day, but those who were in the queue would have got there very early (before 10:15), and they were faced to wait until 15:00 when they let some of them in. At that point, it is a one-out-one-in policy. However, the park was very full when I visited, so it can accommodate a lot. Bear in mind that getting decent photos is a little difficult as the park was very busy, and we had to wait around a lot to see some of the other exhibitions.

Over Easter, I paid a visit to Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Dales with the bloke. Our last stop before we headed home was to the city of Ripon, which is officially a city but it is the size of a small town and one of the smallest cities in the UK. The city is close to the UNESCO world heritage sites Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Gardens, and one of the main attractions is its large cathedral.

First, we parked the car behind the market square and had a quick wander around. However, not a lot was open in the town as the day was a Bank Holiday (Easter Monday). Market day is on Thursdays, and the city also holds a special parade with people in fancy dress and floats parading the area based on a tradition dating from the early 1100s.

The city also has a horn-blower tradition; a horn is blown every morning in the market square, and the horn is the symbol of the city. 

We discovered an attractive street with nice views over Ripon Cathedral. There's also an attractive canal through the city.

Ripon Cathedral dates from the 7th century. The history of the cathedral can be read here: http://riponcathedral.info.

One of the features in the catacombs of the cathedral is a small shrine that is meant to represent the place in Bethleham where Jesus was born. 

I took a few more photographs in the cathedral and had a look around before we had to rush off to go home so that we could get home at a decent time and ready for work the following day.

Have you ever visited Ripon?

A year ago, my friend Natalie and I went to the Queen of Hoxton rooftop bar in Shoreditch in London. She had come from Bristol to London, and we decided to meet up for drinks. We got through a lot of glasses of wine and good chat. In the summer months, the rooftop bar is re-designed for the summer months. Sorry that I do not have more photographs!

There is a restaurant, and we had chicken kebabs with our many glasses of wines.

In the evenings during the summer, the rooftop bar shows films. This is Rooftop Cinema. The film showing was "The Goonies", which is one of my enjoyable movies from my childhood. I wanted to stay and watch this, but we were kicked out.

I've wanted to go to Rooftop Cinema for a couple of years now,  but my life is far too busy. I hope to go to something next summer. Friends are welcome!

Early last summer, my parents and the bloke and I went on a road trip around Ireland. We started off in Belfast and went around the island of Ireland counter-clockwise, taking in some beautiful scenery and ancient monuments. The road trip lasted thirteen days in total, and we were a little rushed for some aspects and could have had a couple of more days added on to the journey.

Part of the problem for some of the rush was that many of the places that we stayed at had breakfast included, but breakfast started at 8:00 in the morning. I prefer early mornings for travel so that we could cram as much travel time into the morning and use the 9:00-17:50 hours for visiting the monuments. I would have preferred an earlier breakfast. Also, I did not factor lunch into the stops as I generally skip lunch and have a breakfast and then a larger dinner (after 17:00) when I travel so that I can plan seeing as much as possible in a day, but my father is now a diabetic and needs to have regular meals, so I did not factor this in. If I were to do the trip over, I would have made some adjustments or tried to add at least a couple of extra days. I'm reluctant to say that I would have missed any place from the trip off as we saw so many wonderful places. 

Generally, I felt that the trip was a little bit rushed because we were not able to get an earlier start and we had to then factor in lunch along the way, which was not always easy in some of the more remote places. In the UK, you can generally find a shop or a cafe somewhere, but this was not the case in some of the remote areas of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Now, with this in mind, I will describe my iternerary in case any of my readers which to adapt it to their needs. The timings are pretty accurate here, and I'll explain any areas where we ran in to problems.

Day 1:  We flew in to Ireland on a morning flight. We were booked into the Ibis Belfast Centre Hotel, which is a walk to the tourist sites for a weekend in the city. My impression of Belfast is that it was a small city. On the first day, we walked to the Titanic Quarter, which was the most distant area from the hotel. If I were to do this again, I would get a taxi back and get a taxi between a couple of the sites as it was a long walk from the Titanic Museum to the Titanic Pump House. Read more about my visit to the Titanic Quarter, which included the Titanic Museum, SS Nomadic, and the Titanic Dry Dock and Pump House.

Day 2: On the second day, we walked around the city and visited the town and grounds of the city hall (we could not get inside due to an event) and St. George's Market. After having a wander around the market, we walked to Belfast Botanic Gardens. We tried to book a taxi tour to see the murals, but this did not work out, so we walked back through one of the side-streets and got some photographs of Belfast Murals. Afterwards, we walked back in the opposite direction, had a quick look at the oldest pub, and we went to the cathedral quarter and looked inside Belfast Cathedral - St. Anne's before it closed for the day. 

My additional posts cover the weekend in general:

• A Weekend in Belfast
• Belfast Street Art

Day 3: On the third day, we checked out of the hotel in Belfast and took a taxi to the airport. I did not realise that there were two airports in Belfast when I researched, so we went to the wrong one when we went to pick up the rental car and had to wait for another taxi to take us to the other airport, which resulted in a loss of time at the other places we planned to visit. After we picked up the rental car, we went to the Ulster Folk Park and then went across the street to visit the Ulster Transport Museum, which is on the same site. The Ulster Transport Museum has an excellent exhibition on the Titanic and some items found on the wreck the ill-fated ship. We spent most of the day at the Folk Park, which we found really interesting exploring the historic buildings and way of life. 

After our visit, we drove along the coast to visit Carrickfergus Castle, which is a very intact castle museum that we could explore. The castle was not too busy, so we were able to make the most of it.

After the castle visit, we headed toward Ballycastle. On our way, we stopped off at the Dark Hedges, which is used in films, including the 'Game of Thrones' television series. This was extremely popular when we visited in the evening at sunset. Our bed and breakfast was located in Ballycastle, and we walked into town in order to have dinner and explore the seafront and the attractive village.

Day 4: The fourth day was a busy one for us, and we managed to get an early start. Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. I was a little worried about the heights, but the rope bridge was not an issue at all. In fact, we had an early morning pleasant 15-minute walk to the rope bridge, and we were the first visitors and had it to ourselves for a short while.

After the visit, we drove a short way down the coast in order to visit Giant's Causeway in order to see the natural rock formations and to learn about them.

Afterwards, we drove up the coast again and stopped at Bushmills Distillery and had lunch and a tour of the whiskey distillery here.

Our last visit along the Causeway Coast was to Dunlace Castle ruins.

Afterwards, we headed in to Londonderry, where we stayed the evening. We had a quick walk around part of the Londonderry city walls (we had to finish the tour the next day), and we enjoyed dinner here.

We also saw the Bogside Murals, which documented the history of Londonderry only a few decades ago, and which is still a major aspect of the city.

Day 5: After our nice bed and breakfast in the Bogside area of Londonderry, we drove to Inishowen Peninsula and stopped off at Glenvin Waterfall, saw Crandonough Cross, went to Malin Head, and went to Gap of Mamore. There are many other attractions on this peninsula to visit, but we were only driving through to explore as much as we could.

After our visit, we headed back from the peninsula and stopped off at Grianan of Aileach, which is an ancient fort with amazing views.

Our final stop of the day was a quick drive through Glenveagh National Park and visited Glenveagh Castle. We loved the gardens of this castle, and if we had time, we would have walked as it would have been a pleasant walk along the lake. However, we got thr bus as the walk would have taken about an hour each way. I recommend the castle grounds, and we felt the castle tours were not as nice. 

Day 6: We stayed in Donegal on the night of the fifth day, and Donegal is the location where some of my ancestors came from. We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast with lake views. In the morning, we explored the small town and the ruins of the abbey. We walked along the harbour and went to Donegal Castle.

After we had explored Donegal, we drove to our next stop, Belleek Pottery (a quick stop) and Marble Arch Caves. If we had had some time, we would have toured the Belleek Pottery museum, but we did stop at the shop. On the way to the caves, we actually got a little bit lost on our way here as it was not sign-posted well.

Had we had the time, we would have explored the towns of Sligo and Cong, but our next stop was Galway, which was a fair drive away, and this is where we stayed for the night. 

We had a quick walk around the town of Galway before the shops closed. Galway is a very touristy town, and it seemed slightly souless due to this. Although, the Spanish Gate was attractive, and the town has many tourist shops and pubs. This is a popular tourist destination, and the majority of the town catered for tourism.  

Day 7: As we did not have breakfast the next morning, we were able to make an early morning start to drive an hour to Clonmacnoise ancient monestary. We were the first to arrive to see the attraction, and a large tour group turned up afterwards, but we were able to see quite a bit before they turned up.

After this visit, we headed back into the opposite direction in order to go to the Burren area of Ireland. We headed through some attractive villages here before visiting Ailwee Caves and Doolin Caves and Kilmacduagh monestary ruins. My preference between the two was Doolin Caves because of the giant rock formations inside. It has the largest stalagmite in Europe. 

Before heading to our hotel, we went to the Cliffs of Moher. We did not have long before the tourist area closed, but we were able to see a little of it. Afterwards, we walked along the sides of the cliffs for some nice views. However, I have seen better sea cliffs and views, so these were a little under-whelming.

Day 8: We really enjoyed our hotel in Doolin, but the next morning, we had to check out in order to drive to Bunratty Castle and Bunratty Folk Park.

The castle was too busy with tourists, but we really enjoyed the folk park, which was similar to the Ulster Folk Park. We had light rain on this day, and it did get a little harder at times.

After the visit, we headed to Kilfenora to have a light lunch at the cafe in the visitor's centre, a quick nip around the corner to see high crosses at abbey ruins, and then we met up with Tony from Heart of Burren Walks so that we could get a little taster of what the national park has to offer us. We followed Tony to a location in the Burren and saw a rare bee orchid as well as other plants and geological features; we were told a little bit about the history of the Burren. We got caught up in the rain off and on, but we still had a nice visit.

I would have liked to have driven past "Father Ted's" (the television series) house, but we did not have time as we needed to head toward Dingle Peninsula in order to get to our bed and breakfast. I'd struggled to find a closer place to stay. I ideally wanted to stay in Adare and also explore it, but we only had time to drive through. This town looked like a great place to explore, and I'd booked ages ahead and still could not find availability in a hotel or bed and breakfast, so this may be on the list of places to visit next time.

Day 9: We stayed on a farm (bed and breakfast) at the entrance to Dingle Peninsula. It was actually more like a bed and breakfast and less of a farm, and it also catered to mini-buses full of tourists. Our first plan for the day was to drive up Conor's Pass, but there was a cycle race going on which shut the road, so we had to re-plan. Instead, we decided to follow the road around Dingle's coast. We drove counter-clockwise.

Our first stop was Gallarus Oratory, an early church. Afterwards, we continued to follow the coast and stopped off at a couple of nice areas with sea views before ascending the mountains. I would have loved to have gone to the beehive huts along the road, but we did not. We admired more views and headed back into the town of Dingle where we ate lunch at a pub and enjoyed an ice cream.

After lunch, we took a boat trip around Dingle harbour to see Funghie the Dolphin before heading out of Dingle and driving up Conor's Pass on our way to our next destination, Kilarney.

We arrived in Kilarney in the late afternoon. Whereas Dingle was warm and sunny, Kilarney was completely the opposite. We were met with downpours while we stopped off at the ruins of Muckross Abbey.

After the visit to the abbey, we explored Killarney National Park and drove up to Torcross Waterfall for an amazing view of the waterfall and then up the mountain to Ladies View, where we saw a beautiful rainbow. We had dinner that evening in Kilarney. We had to drive to the centre as the hotel was too far to walk there, and we did not see much of Kilarney; the town itself is very touristy and not the most attractive town.

Day 10: Our plan for the morning was to visit Skellig Michael island to see the beehive huts. I'd pre-booked the boat, which left at ten in the morning, so it was an early morning start. However, the weather was again very wet and rainy. I really want to go to Skellig Michael, so we will have to visit again and pray that the weather is nice. When we got to Portmagee, we were told that the boat trip was cancelled due to the bad winds and weather. So, we continued to drive the Ring of Kerry.

Kenmare was our lunch stop, and we also walked to the stone circle close to the centre of town. We then headed back to Killarney and stopped off at Ross Castle and took ride on the jaunting cars first and took in the beautiful national park and some history. After our ride, we visited Ross Castle.

Our next stop was to the Gap of Dunloe, and we arrived in the early evening as the jaunting cars and hoards of tourists had left. I could see that the place is a popular one. It is a beautiful place. We drove up the hill to see the beautiful views and then back down. At the entrance of the Gap of Dunloe is a restaurant, and this is where we ate dinner.

Day 11: We stayed in Kilarney again, and the next morning, we had another early start to visit the villages of Kinsale and Cobh before heading into Cork. Kinsale was our first stop, and it is a quiet harbour village. We ate breakfast here before driving to Cobh, which is the last port that Titanic sailed from. There's a Titanic exhibition here, a cathedral, and a beautiful Victorian garden seafront. I also saw many cats in Cobh. After we had seen enough, we drove to Cork for lunch and had a quick wander around the market.

Our next stop was Blarney Castle, and we spent the afternoon here. We enjoyed the castle and the gardens. Of course, the castle is famous for its 'Blarney Stone', which we saw before heading back to Killarney for our final night.

Before we headed back to the hotel, we visited the Meeting of the Waters, which was not advertised as a long walk but ended up being a long walk. We saw a deer and nice scenery, but we wished we'd given it a miss as it was not as beautiful as expected.

Day 12: I woke up on my birthday on this day, and we checked out of the hotel and made our way to Cahir Castle. Again, the weather was rainy and wet for us.

After the morning visit, we made our way down the road to the Rock of Cashel and Hore Abbey, where we explored the ruins of the ancient monestary associated with St. Patrick. The beautiful monument was sadly covered in scaffolding, so I was not able to get many good photographs, and the weather was dreadful here. Unfortunately, we did not learn much here as the venue was catered for busloads of tourists, and the introduction video was in three different langauges before it played in English; we'd have had to wait over two hours for the English video to be played again. I think that they need to have English subtitles at least. After Cashel, we walked a couple of blocks away to have lunch and then drove to Hore Abbey at the foot of the hillside to explore the ruins.

After our visit was finished, we drove a little further away to the Rock of Dunmase near Portlaoise. This is the ruins of a hilltop castle, and it is free to visit. We were the only ones to visit, and we had a nice walk around, but we did suffer with the rain.

After that stop, we headed down to Kilkenny where our bed and breakfast was for the evening. The weather had improved for us when we arrived. We had a walk around the town and climbed one of the only accessible round towers at St. Canice Cathedral. Afterwards, we walked to the town to look in some of the shops, have dinner, and look at the castle. I was surprised with a birthday cake when we arrived back at the bed and breakfast.

Day 13: We left Kilkenny in the morning to drive to Wicklow Mountains, and our first stop was Glendalough village and monestary. After our visit to this beautiful location of ruins, we drove through the Wicklow Mountains National Park. I was not keen on the landscape of the national park and found it to be too barren.

We did stop at a small waterfall on the way and then arrived at Powerscourt Waterfall, which is the largest waterfall that we saw on the whole trip.

After the waterfall, we drove north to Trim Castle, which was used in the film "Braveheart". We had lunch in Trim at a bakery before our guided tour of the castle.

The last stop of the day, before we headed back down south to Naas where our bed and breakfast was located, was to the Hill of Tara, the seat of the Kings of Ireland and a place of mystery and history. We then drove to Naas and had dinner at a nice restaurant in the town. Unfortunately, this was the worst bed and breakfast as the host was rude to us and asked us not to bring our luggage indoors.

Day 14: Newgrange and the surrounding tombs were high on my list of places to visit in Ireland, so I wanted to make sure that we had secured the morning to have plenty of time to see them before we needed to head back to Belfast for our flights. We got stuck in bad traffic around Dublin on our way from Naas. On the way to Newgrange on the motorway (a few miles away) on the hottest and sunniest day of our trip, the car tire blew. The car rental company had given us a dodgey car with three normal tires and one winter tire, and the winter tire was several years old and an import from Germany. Apparently, tires from Germany are sold cheaply to Ireland because Germany has tighter regulations on the wear and tear of the thread, so used tires are sold on. 

We were not happy as we missed seeing Newgrange and were stranded on the motorway, trying to speak to the car rental company, Enterprise. We were stranded in the hot sun, on the phone and waiting for call-backs, to expensive international numbers as we were still in northern Ireland. Finally, we were taken to a service station. Enterprise eventually did refund us for the car and the tire that we had to pay for. 

The situation could have been a lot worse, but this left a bad taste in our mouths at the end of a pretty good trip. We were then taken to the airport and flew back to England. I will never rent with Enterprise after the appaling service and lack of duty of care for not checking the tires and making sure that the car was safe. We could have been killed. 

Sometime, I'd like to visit Newgrange as well as the other places that we failed to see. 

A few weeks ago, I went to Bristol to see the 'Shaun the Sheep' charity sculpture trail. I lived in Bath and worked near Bristol for nearly three years, so I know the city, but I knew the city before it was regenerated. I always thought that Bristol was a little bit rough when I lived near it (hence why I lived near it and not in the city), but as I've visited over the past few years, I've found it to be pleasant. I took a lot of photographs during my last visit which show how beautiful the city is.

The bloke and I walked along the harbour, and we took in the iconic view of Bristol with the colourful houses on the hill. This is a popular and beautiful view of the city.

Further down is a kiosk (known as Brunel's Buttery) selling breakfast items and drinks. The bloke and I stopped here and had a bacon sandwich here. We've stopped here before after walking for awhile. We watched the ships sail past on this beautiful summery day.

I have been into the MShed museum in Bristol, which is located on the waterfront. I have never actually spent that much time in the museum, but this is one of the attractions in the lovely city. It is always popular. On busy days, the steam train runs up and down the track along the harbour. On this visit, we saw a tall ship.

Bristol also has a lot of spires and its university and other attractive buildings, parks, and market squares.

There's an artist who creates dogs from sand. I've seen him before.

One of our stops was to the park to look over the Clifton Suspension Bridge. I have been here a few times. Unfortunately, the scaffolding is up on one of the towers. The bridge was engineered by Brunel, who was from Bristol and is highly-regarded as one of its famous residents.

We walked across the bridge and into parkland with the city of Bristol on the horizon. We did so much walking that I had blisters on my feet.

One of my favourite areas of Bristol is College Green. There's a lovely green area with flowers and attractive buildings and a lot of shops, cafes, and restaurants in this area. However, you will need the energy to walk up this steep hill.

After walking around, we had worked up an appetite. We ended up in Graze, a grill restaurant. We started off with a bottle of Prosecco. This was a nice end to the long day of looking for the Shaun the Sheep sculptures. We were blessed with nice weather, so we sat outside.

The bloke had lamb chops, which came with vegetables and new potatoes. He said that he enjoyed these, but he would have liked more as the portion was small.

I had the spring poussin (baby chicken). This came with dumplings and spring vegetables. It was also drenched in a very runny/watery sauce, which detracted from the meal. This sauce was not cooked well and it had the flavour and consistency of water. I could have done without it.

The dessert choice was also good, and the desserts were my favourite part of the meal. The bloke had the chocolate honeycomb. I had a bite and it did taste delicious. I am less keen on the honeycomb/crunchie items, but the chocolate hit the spot.

I had the lemon and meringue, which also tasted delicious. I could not finish it all. The main course was too small (in portions), and the desserts were too large (in portions).

We slept in the next morning for a little while, and our first morning stop was to Piano&Pitcher restaurant on the waterfront for brunch on Sunday. I had the cooked breakfast, and the bloke had a bacon sandwich. 

I had a non-alcoholic cocktail, but it was mostly ice. I was disappointed.

On the way to continue our journey through the city, we saw locks of love and more boats.

In the evening, after walking around Bristol Upfest street art fetival, we had dinner at Prezzo, which is a chain of Italian-themed food. The bloke had the mushroom chicken, and I had the bacon and chicken.

This was soon followed by ice cream and a slice of chocolate cake.

I do like my visits to Bristol, and I need to make another trip soon so that I can see my neglected friends. My life has been far too busy for far too long now!

One of the street artists to paint in London at the beginning of the year was Pyramid Oracle. I saw paste-ups of abstract portraits from the artist as well as a large mural taking shape on a wall off Hackney Road. The artist created over a dozen artworks in London, and I'd only managed to see and photograph the ones in Shoreditch and east London. Pyramid Oracle is from the midwest in the USA, and he's painted a lot around Chicago and Philadelphia as well as other cities in the midwest. I believe that this was the first time that the artist produced any work in London, and he had an exhibition in the city in March.

More information and work by the artist can be seen on his Twitter page: https://twitter.com/pyramidoracle

Today's post features a popular and (I think) two of the most stunning murals that have been painted in London over the past few years. Fin DAC is a high-profile street artist who started in 2008 and now has a large following, and he's painted in London quite a few times. The pieces included here were painted on Cheshire Street and Hanbury Street off of Brick Lane. Sadly, they no longer exist. His work is charactierised by realistic portrait work with focus of detail on the eyes and face, the importance on the eyes primarily. The murals produced are beautiful. 

This piece on Hanbury Street did not last long at all before someone tagged over the eyes. I believe that I took the photograph in the summer of 2012.

For more information about the artist, visit his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/finbarr-dac/102099492162

A few weeks ago, I went to Salisbury to see the Baron's Charter Sculpture Art Trail. Salisbury is one of my favourite towns in England, and it's been a few years since I last visited. While we were looking at the sculptures, I took some photographs around the city. I've taken so many photographs around Salisbury in the past, but I can never resist to get more when I visit as it is such a photographic place.

I can never resist getting photographs of both sides of the old gates into the Cathedral Close. An ex-boyfriend used to work on the building next to the wall on the outside of the close, and the building was like a maze inside with low ceilings and small rooms and wooden beams. It used to be a bookstore, and it had a sheep hanging above the door. Salisbury was known for its sheep trade, so I imagine that the shop sold wool at one time. On this visit, however, the sheep was sadly removed. I hope it hasn't been removed forever.

The cathedral is also picturesque, and although I have taken hundreds of photographs in the past, I can never resist taking more. The fascade of the cathedral is covered in statues, and it has one of the tallest spires of any cathedral in the country. The cathedral is also one of my favourites in the UK; it's beautiful inside. The Magna Carta can be seen inside, and there's also an ancient clock and a model of Old Sarum, which is just a short drive down the road.

I used to work in Salisbury for a short time in 2000, and I would sometimes take my lunch to the grounds of the cathedral. I remember once that an older lady sat next to me and started to talk to me. She mentioned that a relative used to work in London in the second World War, and, if I remember correctly, his job was to clean Nelson's Column.

On one of the buildings in the Close, we spotted a row of seagulls that were evenly-spaced out on the top of a roof.

After we spent some time walking around, we went to Côte Brasserie for lunch. The restaurant is located in 'The Maltings' area of Salisbury, which contains a little canal behind the library, mill, and supermarket. The canal is always filled with swans, ducks, and other birds. This restaurant is a chain, but I have never been to any of the restaurants in the chain before.

To start, we had bread and butter to share. This was fresh and slightly-warm.

The bloke ordered steak and chips, and I ordered the weekend special 1/2 roast chicken with gratin potato and french beans.

Service was a little lacking, and we were not asked for desserts or drinks afterwards, and we paid the bill and left. 

Our next stop was the park, Queen Elizabeth Gardens. These gardens join the Water Meadows, where there is a pleasant trackway to a water mill, which is a pub-restaurant. I love walking through these water meadows with pasture of sheep on one side and beautiful views of Salisbury Cathedral on the other side. A small stream also runs through the gardens, and it's always full of children on summer days. There are minnows in the stream, and the children catch them.

We had ice cream from an ice cream truck that is located in one of the entrances of the gardens, and we enjoyed the sun.

Our last stop on the way back to the car was to have a quick look around the market as some of the stalls were getting ready to close up. We stopped at Cafe Patisserie in Salisbury, which was not here during my last visit. In fact, I noticed many of the shops were more of the "high end" variety in the town now with more shops that used to only been seen in London heading out to the historical towns. I had a strawberry tart from here as the smell of the strawberries from the market stalls made me a little hungry. (I also did buy strawberries and peaches from the market.)

More posts I have written about Salisbury in the past include An Autumn Day in Salisbury and Salisbury Cathedral.

Our last stop on our Ireland Road Trip was to the Hill of Tara. We visited after seeing Trim Castle, which I previously wrote about. Actually, Hill of Tara was not meant to be our last stop in Ireland as we had planned to go to Newgrange neolithic timbs the following morning, but the rental car company gave us a car with a dodgey 10-year old winter tire and three normal tires, and we had a blow-out on the motorway on the hottest day of the year and were stranded for a few hours, so we missed Newgrange and had to get directly to our flight. At some point, I will go back to visit Newgrange and a couple of other areas that we failed to see.

Hill of Tara is meant to be the seat of the ancient kings of Ireland, and it probably was a political and religious centre of early pagan Ireland. The area contains many monuments, ancient roads, and tombs. The area possibly started out as a burial location, which was used for hundreds of years.

Mound of the Hostages is a neolithic burial passage tomb dating from 3400BC. It is the oldest visible monument on site. It was reused over a thousand years for new burials. Cremated bones and bones were found inside as well as other items and clay pots. I noticed that a stone inside the tomb contains a pagan spiral image.

Medieval texts mentioned Tara, and it was one of the seats of the ancient high king of Ireland. The site also contained timber-framed buildings and temples which were used in Roman times with connections to the Roman elite. There's also a cemetary here. Nearby is the Banquet Hall, which may have been used in inauguration of the kings of Tara.

Lia Fail is the name given to a stone pillar, and it is thought to have been a fertility symbol. It originally was placed in a slightly different location, but it was moved after soldiers who lost their lives in 1798 were put here. The stone was probably used as a location where the king was crowned and dubbed "the destiny stone". Apparently, if the stone was unhappy with the choice of king, it stone would cry out all over the country of Ireland.

The location has beautiful views over the rolling hills of Ireland's countryside.

On the way to the Hill of Tara, we came across a church. The church is meant to have a small tourist exhibition for the area, but this just closed when we arrived.

A statue of Saint Patrick can also be seen here near the church.

I am sure that this place has a lot of significance and importance in its past, and most of this has been sadly lost in time.

This summer, art installation "Enlightenment" is located at Salisbury Cathedral. The installation uses light and sound and is created by Squidsoup. The installation celebrates 800 years of the Magna Carta, and it is installed at Salisbury Cathedral because one of the remaining copies of the document can be seen in the cathedral.

The artwork is made from over 6,000 strands of lights. Visitors can walk amongst the suspended lights, which continuously fade into a different colour.

The idea behind this artwork is the 'ripple effect' that the Magna Carta had on the country and the influences as they spread around.

The above photographs show pink and purple colours, but I also watched at the bulbs changed to red, orange, yellow, blue, and green and various shades of those colours.

Street artist Banksy painted his version of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", a famous painting from the 1600s by Johannes Vermeer. Instead of a pearl earring, the girl's earring is an alarm. The artwork appeared last October near Bristol docks, and I happened to see it as I was walking in the area.

There were reports that the artwork was defaced shortly after it was painted, but it appears that it's now been fixed. It can be seen in Bristol Harbour area near the attraction Brunel's 'SS Great Britain'.

The 'Shaun in the City' event in Bristol this year was the event that I have been looking forward to since I heard rumours about it taking place after the success of the Gromit Unleashed sculpture trail two years ago. (You can read about that trail and see photographs of Gromit Unleashed here and here.) This spring, a separate set of 'Shaun the Sheep' sculptures visited London, and I went to locate them. Between both London and Bristol, there were 120 Shaun sculptures to be discovered.

Dolly - Julie Vernon

Similar to the Gromit Unleashed trail and the 'Shaun in the City' trail in London this spring, the sculptures raise funds for charities, such as "The Grand Appeal" Bristol Children's Hospital, and "Wallace & Gromit's Children's Charity". The event is organised by Aardman Animations, who created the character 'Shaun the Sheep' for its stop-animation films and television series.

Detail 'On the Waterfront' - Abigal McDougall

Shaun first made his appearance in 'Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave', and he now has his own television series and film. The sculpture trail this year coincided with the release of the film in cinemas and the Chinese New Year as the 'Year of the Sheep'.

Shaun Bean - Nigel Leach

We were a little disappointed that there was not a 'Build your Shaun' out of plasticine class this year at @Bristol, like there was a 'Build your own Gromit' two years ago that we enjoyed.

Flock and Roll - Carys-ink

A few of my favourite photographs are below.

Jarzberry Ram - Simon Tozer

Sgt. Shepherd - The Shaun in the City Team

Lotus - Richard Starzak

Bahhbersheep - Gav Strange

Willow - Rhiannon Southwell

The Bristol Express - Tim Sutcliffe

Sheepish - Wayne Hemingway

Honey - Amy Timms

Wooly Wonderland - Vicky Harrison

Lamb Chop - Duncan Craig

Baaack to the Drawing Board - Nick Park

Flock and Roll - Carys-ink

The Shear Speed Helter Skelter - Gav Strange

Baa-lloon! - Jenny Urquhart

From Dusk 'Til Shaun - Sneaky Raccoon

Justice Lamb - Mike Ogden

Beach Boy - Mike Ogden

Rex- Beth Waters

Shaun Muffin from hotel in Clifton

Shaun cookie

Two Hoots - Maria Burns

Shaun Romanus - Ian Marlow

There's not much time left to see the Shaun the Sheep sculpture trail in Bristol as it ends on the 31st of August, which is next weekend.

On every Wednesday evening throughout the month of August, Bournemouth keeps alive a tradition of candlelighting that begun in 1896. The tradition started when Princess Eugiene of France came to visit the town, and her route through the gardens was lit by candles. Today, the tradition is kept alive by colourful jars of candles placed on wooden frames in the Lower Gardens of Bournemouth. Many of the frames with the lit candles are made into shapes, such as cruise ships, sailboats, Union Jack flags, and some spell out words.

A little over a decade ago, I lived in Bournemouth for a short time in order to complete my MSc in Advanced Computing degree. I've been visiting the town for a few years before that, and I always remember seeing the candles and wooden frames in the summer, but I never knew the significance of the tradition.

I arrived in the Lower Gardens at about 8:00 in the evening, but it was not dark enough to light the candles (in my view), and lighting them starts at 8:00. Small sticks of candles were given out, and I did ask for one, but I was told that they were only for children. (However, adults were lighting the jars as many could not be reached by children.) As it was still light out, I looked around for a place to get supper, and the places I wanted to visit had 45-minute waiting times, so we settled for an Indian restaurant for a mediocre curry. 

When we arrived back in the Lower Gardens from supper, dusk was coming to an end and we managed to see many lit candles, but a lot of these had burned out by then. We managed to find a few candle sticks on the grounds and tried to locate jars that needed to be lit. We managed to find and light a couple. 

Afterwards, we headed to Sprinkles Bakery, which is a new ice cream and bakery shop in Bournemouth and located not far from the university buildings in the town centre. They had so many different flavours of ice cream to choose from, and they had some nice-looking cupcakes too. I choose chocolate brownie ice cream and Skittles ice cream. Yes, that was an odd combination, but it tasted nice.

The time was getting later, so we started to drive back to Basingstoke; I wanted to stop off at Burley in order to catch a glimpse of the shooting stars. When we got near Ringwood, the major road through the New Forest was shut northbound, and later on, the M27 was shut for road works too. This year, we've seemed to hit all of the construction work and road closures and have to go out of our way to get back home. I joked that so far, this year has been a "Diversion Year" as we're in "limbo", living month-to-month.

First, we took the detour to Burley and found a place to park up to see the shooting stars. Everyone else had the same idea of a parking space, though, and the road closure made the road even more busy with constant traffic. Despite the disappointments beyond control, we managed to see a few shooting stars and a couple really large ones. The best one we saw was when we'd just got out of the car and started to look in front of us. 

More of my photographs from the evening are posted below. This year's candlelight nights were not as nice as I've seen in previous years (a few years ago). 

For those interested in seeing Bournemouth's Candlelighting Nights, there is only one more opportunity this year: August 26, Wednesday. Lighting the candles starts at approximately 8:00 in the evening and continues until after dusk has ended.

Formerly, this small patch of green along Whitechapel Road and White Church Lane, was called St. Mary's Park. It was named after the church that used to stand here, St. Mary Matfelon. This area of London has a lot of history and diversity. It was once a slum area, the site of the Jack the Ripper murders, a place that attracted immigrants, and a place becoming gentrified as the City of London expands.   From 1250 to 1286, a chapel (St. Mary Matfelon) made from Kentish chalk was built here and and nick-named "white chapel" because of the church's white colour, and this is how the area got its name.

The church was rebuilt in the late 1600s using red bricks and again in the late 1800s. It was the first to have trees planted in order to absorb gases from the overflowing graves, which was a problem in London because there was not enough space to bury the dead.

In the 1600s, this area was filled with tanneries. A little later, many of bell foundries existed in this area to make bells for churches and companies. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry still exists, and I had a tour here last March, which you can read about. 

In 1940 during the Blitz, the church was hit by a bomb and damaged. Afterwards, it became derelict and used by criminals and squatters. In 1952, it was struck by lightning and completely demolished afterwards. All that remains are some graves and some of the floor. A few graves were notable people. The executioner of King Richard the 1st is meant to be buried here.

In 1978, the area saw more sadness as Bengali clothing worker Altab Ali was murdered in Alder Road in a racially-motivated attack. The park was used for demonstrations after this happened, to raise awareness. The park was dedicated to him in 1994 and renamed.

In 2012, the park was reconstructed and an archelogical dig took place. Some remains were uncovered form the past churches, and monuments were created. These are on display in the park.

This park has undergone a lot of change and reflects the diversity of the area today.

Ely's Yard is always host to new pieces of street art. There are two canvases outside of Corbet Place (bar), which are always changing with something new. There's also a corner of the square that has several pieces of street art, including a nice mask piece by Cityzen Kane. Along the same side of the building are small sculptures of men by Isaac Cordial. Ely's Yard used to have more street art before they refurbished the main building, removing canvases there which changed regularly and hosted murals by Ronzo and Vhils. For as long as I can remember, the square has held two other pieces of street art. One of them is by D*Face, and I've covered that here. The other is a pink race car, which is in a glass cage and was painted by Banksy.

Yesterday, I paid a visit to Wardour Castle on a very rainy day. The castle was built in the late 14th century for Lord Lovel in the reign of King Richard II. Wardour Castle is unique because it is a six-sided castle, and the castle combines its defenses with its guest rooms in the same building. The castle is located near Tisbury in Wiltshire and is located down narrow country lanes, and it is a ruin.

Lord Lovel was inspired by French castles, so Wardour Castle was built in a similar design. The castle had two functions as described - defense as well as a beautiful and impressive residence. 

The castle came to ruins in the Civil War in 1644. It was never restored, and a new castle (stately home) was built nearby. Shortly after it became a ruin, the castle became known as a "romantic ruin" for people to visit and explore the beautiful historical castle and its gardens. "Romantic ruins" were popular attractions.

We had the free audio guide on our tour, and this helped to make the ruined castle come to life. The guide told us that the fascade of the castle had changed to meet the needs to impress visitors. Decorations were added, such as the Jesus bust above.

Seats built into the thick walls were also added later on.

The entrance hall gave way to an inner courtyard with several doors off of them and a well in the middle. The most beautiful door was the highly-decorated one with the wide staircase. This led to the Great Hall, and this is the door that visitors would use. The sculptures and carvings of this door can be seen and still impress.

The doors above led to another wing of the castle, but this no longer exists. In the grass area outside, brickwork follows the footprints of where the walls originally stood. Other doorways lead to a ground floor kitchen and storage area, including the steward areas, and some lead to staircases to other chambers that the staff probably used.

The kitchen and pantry are located off the Great Hall, which was the most impressive room where people would gather and eat and entertain.

Rooms up the staircase and clustered around the Great Hall were the chambers.

I saw some amazing views over the lake and the gardens. The new castle (which is occupied and does not offer tours) can also be seen from here.

The castle was used in "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" starring Kevin Costner.

Last but not least, we were shown the grotto. In the times when the castle was visited as a "romantic ruin", a grotto was built with hidden areas and ferns, water features, and flowers. These grottos were the rage then. The grotto is in a state of disrepair now, but I could imagine its beauty when I walked through it and explored some hidden areas.

A stone circle at Tisbury was also moved and placed in the castle grounds as these were also viewed as past history and "romantic" of this time. I did not see any trace of the stone circle, but the audio guide mentioned it.

Overall, it was a nice visit to the castle. The castle is located near Tisbury in Wiltshire in England. It can be visited daily, and it is owned by English Heritage.

Norwich's newest charity sculpture trail for the summer of 2015 is GoGoDragons. The trail launched at the end of June and is in place until the beginning of September. Two years ago, the city of Norwich hosted the GoGoGorillas trail, and I was aware that year that dragons would be visiting the city this summer after the success of the gorillas. The gorillas certainly made an impression and captured the hearts of many. I managed to see most of the gorilla sculptures in 2013, and I covered them in my post Go Go Gorillas! take over Norwich. 

Gorgeous George the Beast of Beeston - Samuel Thomas

The dragons will be raising money to support charity Break, which aims to help vulnerable children. An auction will be held at the beginning of October, just after a last viewing to the public takes place with all dragons on display in one place at the end of September. Visitors can also donate or buy merchandise, such as collector cards and guide books.  

Spidy - Hilary Sanderson

Eighty-four large dragons can be seen in Norwich, just outside the city centre, and at the airport. A further 130 children-designed dragons can be seen dotted around various shops in the town. I managed to see all dragons except for the four at Norwich airport because airports are a pain to park up at with the security in place. (The reason why some of them are at the airport is due to the fact that one of the sponsors is an airline and the airport.)

Steam the Clockwork Dragon - Mik Richardson

I loved the creativity of these dragons and the interaction with the public, and although the trail does cover a lot of miles, all except six of the dragons can be visited in the city centre (or within walking distance). Free buses were offered to the two at the airport and the other two that are a drive away, and visitors only need to book their space on the bus.

Oakley - Mandii Pope

Choosing a favourite dragon was difficult, but I really liked Sunbeam and GoGoMosaic. Both are photographed in the gallery below.

Crypto - Tin House with SureStart

GoGoHoratio - Ryan Newell

Cavell - Samuel Thomas

GoGoMosaic - Carolyn Ash

Morgan - Sophie Green

Fiesta - Beverley Gene Coraldean

The Rise and Demise of the Dinosaurs - Will Adams

Luda - Kieron Williamson

Sunbeam - Raymond Noakes

Flambeau - Cat Finlayson

Ascalon - Kate Munro

Gloria the Garden Dragon - Jo Cane

Clang - Roberta Wood, Base Community Trust

Duff - Alex Egan

Double Decker - Helen L Smith

The Mother of Dragons - Paul Jackson

Sapphire - John Lewis Partners

Scorcher! - Hannah Nelson

Soup Dragon - Mik Richardson

Novica Sepaphina - Norwich School

George the Dragon - Martin Wall

Dragle - Deven Bhurke

Stormy - Mandii Pope

To visit GoGoDragons, make sure that you see them before they are removed on September 5. For more information about the trail, charity, auction information, and artists, visit the official website: http://gogodragons.co.uk

On a Friday toward the end of last month, I paid a visit to Lavender Fields in Hampshire, England. Lavender Fields is a farm that grows lavender and arranges items (such as soaps, perfumes, food) to be produced from the lavender. These items are then and sold in a shop on site. I have driven past the farm, near Alton in Hampshire, a few times in the past.

I wanted to stop in, drawn by the beautiful flowers. A stressful few months and overtime earlier in that week prompted me to take a half a day off and visit the farm. Lucky for me, this was the final day for tours before shutting for the season. However, there are other 'Open Days' earlier in the season from June until late July, and I'm sure that one could stop in to the shop on site and pay a small amount in order to get some photographs of the lavender fields. These fields would actually be a perfect setting for family photographs, fashion photographs, or photographs of children/pets.

Originally, I was not a fan of lavender because it's always been associated with a scent popular with grannies. However, after a trip to Hvar island in Croatia, I actually enjoyed the scent and the beautiful purple flowers growing on the mountains. You can see a few of my photographs here. Lavender is a naturally calming scent, and many products exist to aid in relaxation and sleep (or de-stress). 

The day that we visited was pouring with rain, and the weather was the worst that it had been in awhile, but we did not let this stop us from visiting and enjoying ourselves. In fact, a large bus load of people turned up for a tour as well.

Instead of having the tour and being told about the lavender and history of the farm from outside or in the lavender fields, we listened to information inside a tent before walking to the fields. The rain had died down somewhat, so we managed to get some shelter before it started to pour again and we headed into a barn to listen to the remainder of the chat. We were shown the equipment used to harvest and press the lavender.

The chat was followed by a dash back to the tent where afternoon cream tea was served for us to enjoy. The warm tea was welcome as were the scones with lashings of clotted cream and strawberry jam.

When we finished the afternoon tea, I wandered back into the fields to take a lot of photographs. The rain did not ease off, but I think I was able to capture some nice photographs despite the weather. 

In addition to the rows of lavender (I'd estimate that it was two or three acres next to the road, and this isn't their main crop), the fields were also transformed into wildflower meadows. These were filled with cornflowers, which are my absolute favourite flowers (I like daffodils too) and my wedding flower. In addition, there were red poppies and yellow daisy-like flowers and a few other types of wildflower mixed in.

I believe that some fantastic photographs can be shot here, particularly in the dusk or dawn light. Despite the weather, we had a good time. More photographs frm my visit can be seen below.

Last Saturday, I met up with some good friends in order to attend this year's Battle Proms picnic and concert. This year marks 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo, and the Battle Proms celebrate this event with music and patriotic displays. This year also marks 75 years since the Battle of Britain. The events of the afternoon were a showcase of horses in the battlefield with people in fashion during the Napoleonic times (British and French 1700s military and civilian fashion), a Spitfire fly-past, World War II era tribute singers, a classical music concert, canons, and fireworks. Much of the music was inspired by wars. This was also a charity event to support veterans.

The event took place at Highclere Castle. The castle (more technically a stately home) is used in filming the popular television series Downton Abbey.

My friends were delayed in traffic, so I watched the display of the horses while I waited for them. The horses and their riders demonstrated battle moves that would have been used in the Napoleonic Wars. Some of the riders were redcoats (British), and some were French. 

When my friends arrived, we set up our picnic area and ate, nearly finishing in time for the Spitfire fly-past. I didn't get any picnic photographs, but we had a couple of bottles of wine and cheese or ham sandwiches (with crisps) and fruit, followed by dessert.

Music followed with several songs, and the larger canon was fired along with a troop of redcoats firing muskets and smaller canons being fired during the song "1812 Overture Op. 49" by Tchaikovsky.

Later, "Wellington's Victory - Battle of the Vittoria, Op. 91" by Beethoven was played, and 193 canons sounded during the song along with musket fire and fireworks.

All of the popular battle songs were played, including "Jerusalem" and "Rule Britannia" too, and fireworks signalled the end of the finale. We also had "God Save the Queen" (queue flag-waving), and "Auld Lang Syne" was played by bagpipe. A lot of flags were waving. Apparently, 10,000 people were in attendance.

The weather was decent, although slightly chilly, but all of us had a good time. 

I was not aware of Battle Proms before and found out about it in January when I was looking for information about any special events taking place. I was particularly looking for information about another anniversary of Trafalgar or similar events, which I went to in Portsmouth in 2005, and I came across this special concert. I assumed that this was a one-off concert, but the concert does take place annually at various locations throughout the summer months. For more information, visit: http://www.battleproms.com

On Sunday, the bloke and I headed into London in order to take part in a workshop to learn how to make soap and bath bombs with Naz from Midas Touch Crafts. By the end of the class, we were told that we would have a bar of soap, a jelly soap, and a bath bomb to take home. Midas Touch Crafts host weekend workshops in south London.

We sat down at a table with others, and we had a list of supplies on each table as well as a packet for each of us with items for us to aid in making the soap and bath bombs. We were first told the history of soap before we got started.

The first item to make was the bar of soap. We were provided with chunks of pink soap which we could break up depending on how large we wanted the chunks of soap to look.

We had a choice of scents to use, and I used a floral scent. There were several vanilla scents, but I really don't like the scent of vanilla, so I choose the floral scent and borrowed pink food colouring from another table. Food colouring was used to colour the soap. 

Two drops of scent and a small teaspoon of food colouring was mixed with the chunks of pink soap.

After these ingredients wre mixed, the heated melt and pour soap was taken around to each student and poured into the plastic mould. When this was done, we stirred the mixture for a little while. Vodka was used to spray the top of the soap when mixed, and it was also used to spray into the plastic before pouring the mixture in place.

The bloke used a red food colouring, but this actually turned into a brown colour for those who used it. The pink turned out pretty, and the other student next to me did not use food colouring, and their soap turned out clear with the pink soap bits.

While we waited for the soap to set, we started to make the jelly soap. The ingredients used for this were between four and six teaspoons of gelatin and food colouring. This time, I borrowed green from another table. We also had a different scent of shower gel on each table, and we added a couple of drops of this into the mixture. 

This mixture was added with boiling hot water and stirred to get the lumps of geletin into a smooth mixture. The clumping gelatin bits could be crushed. My mixture needed more gelatin added, and it bubbled up quite a bit on the top. The bloke used orange food colouring.

Before we started on the bath bomb, our soap bars were removed from the plastic moulds. Each table had a couple of miniature tin cookie cutters, and we used these to create shapes. I got the triangle shape and cut out a couple of triangles and tried to mould together the leftover bits. Our table also had a heart cutter.

The bloke's brown soap looked delicious; we all thought that it looked like dark chocolate and nougat! Another table had created a beautiful bar with a heat, with a nice pink piece in the middle of the heart. This looked beautiful. I wish that I'd done the same with my bar.

Here's a picture of some of the class. There were five tables. The photograph I took across the room did not turn out very well.

Next, we made our bath bombs, and there was a lot of struggling with these. The mixture of ingredients had to be just right and able to clump most together. It could not be too wet nor too dry. The ingredients used include equal mixtures of bicarbonate of soda, citric acid and corn flour. We used three teaspoons of each.

In our packs, we received some cupcake decorations (sprinkles, silver balls, etc) to add to the bottom of the mould in order to decorate the bath bombs. After we had mixed the ingredients together, we poured the mixture into the moulds and pressed down hard with our thumbs in order to compact it and get the air bubbles out of it.

When we turned this upside down, and as long as the mixture was just right (not too wet and not too dry), we had a beautiful-looking bath bomb.

We were told to put these into the fridge when we got home so that the mositure is removed and the bath bombs harden up as they are still very fragile.

At the end of the workshop, we had some attractive-looking soaps and jellies and bath bombs. I liked the hearts that the bloke made, and they do look like chocolates.

I loved this bath bomb that another lady in the class made.

I am looking forward to trying my soap and bath bomb out this week!

If you're interested, Midas Touch Crafts do different types of workshops from flower arrangements, soap-making, candle-making, nail art, dessert-making, cushion-making, and beauty product creation. For more information and to book, visit their website at http://midastouchcrafts.com/workshops/. 

The classes come with snacks and refreshments, and we received some booklets and documentation on soap making after the course so that we could continue to create soap and bath bombs on our own. These would certainly make perfect gifts, and there was one student in the class who had taken other classes and was making soaps for a wedding. Many of the students had been to other classes.

Upfest in Bristol took place the last weekend in July, and one of the show-stoppers this year was the street artist My Dog Sighs (originally covered in Dulwich Baroque the Streets, a collaboration with Midge and Blackall Street in London). His subjects include pairs of eyes and bubbles/water drops, his Hug character, and characters made from flattened cans. His piece on Hotwells Road in Bristol became one of the iconic murals for Upfest 2015, which was created before Upfest and was printed onto the marketing booklets and used on the website as the 'face' of the Upfest 2015 festival this year.

The mural is painted next to a goldfish, but I am not sure who the artist is.

The eyes on the piece have reflections of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in them, and this is one of Bristol's icons.

Additionall, My Dog Sighs painted work at Upfest, which I covered here. During the weekend, he also painted on the side of a house in Bedminster, which I covered here.

Last weekend was Bristol's Upfest street art festival, which attracts artists from all over the world. I covered this year's Upfest and the brilliant work created over that weekend on my blog post here. One of the artists attending was My Dog Sighs. In addition to his murals for Upfest, the artist was asked by the owner of a house on British Road in Bedminster to paint the Hugs character on her wall. The owner really liked the style of work, and a Hugs character on another wall had been painted over, so she asked for a new one on the wall of her house.

I think this makes a fine addition to the area where a lot of street art took place over last weekend.