(And given that I just spent two hours diagnosing and fixing an SSL issue on the blog that was giving me Cloudfront problems before I could post that, it might be time to catch up on the whole “drinking wine” front…)
Bloggity blog: Favourite Photo of the Month, 2020 gothick.org.uk/2020/12/31/fav…
North and South. My last view of the river for 2020. #bristol pic.twitter.com/X9a2csl5qn
CharlieVMartin I’ve spent most of 2020 napping. Are we sure cats aren’t just depressed?
Lucyvfreeman A trio of mountain bikers in box-fresh gear approach on muddy walk, ruddy cheeked and beaming. Two zip past. Portly gentleman at rear stops when he sees me and leans heavily against tree. “This,” he says confidingly to me, “is bloody horrible. COMING, DOUG.”
GeoffShadbold PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
all three of Alan Plater’s Beiderbecke stories are on Britbox
@jukesie Solidarity. pic.twitter.com/b5KKsPP9cM
@craigmod My favourite one was when I wanted to pause the music on my Mac to answer my iPhone and found out that that’s how you answer calls on your Mac with Handoff. It left the music playing.
Film4 A boy and his foster father become the subjects of a manhunt after getting stranded in the New Zealand wilderness.
From Jojo Rabbit’s @TaikaWaititi and starring Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks), Hunt for the Wilderpeople is on tonight, 10.55pm. pic.twitter.com/E6a6SsWgAe
I didn’t notice until today that my Lightroom catalogue has passed 100,000 photos. Hrm. pic.twitter.com/BATk1t94ZF
It’s that @_pigeons_, or, as I think of her, She Who Walks Behind the Rows. pic.twitter.com/TMKokHgEQ2
We believe the architectural term is “peekaboo dormer”. pic.twitter.com/GtnEE0Nmyu
Sand Bay layers 2/2 pic.twitter.com/vze6AbDEqU
Sand Bay layers 1/2 pic.twitter.com/fG6XtfnotB
@fortelabs I’ve always thought it would be nice if any published article on the web retained the original *style* of its publication, so that you could “feel” its age like you can when reading typewritten, yellowed paper.
@nickparker Lost in Translation.
DALIA WHEN THIS PANDEMIC IS OVER I’M GONNA GO WILD addressing my non-urgent medical issues that i’ve been ignoring
@MittenDAmour @TomCullen Confirmed.
Apparently John Wesley preferred St Vincent’s spring to the original Hot Well as it was “free from noise and hurry”. Ironically its last remnant is hard to get to as it’s on the non-pavement side of the Portway, which consists entirely of noise and hurry.
buildinghistory.org/bristol/hotwel… pic.twitter.com/V41sD8n6pi
@archidave Some you win, salome you lose.
That bloke gets everywhere. #bristol pic.twitter.com/fnjCiSr1M4
@4r7hr Congratulations! You’ve reached that special age where your problems start cancelling each other out. In my experience, that age lasts approximately three hours.
@scribb @stuartgibson So, basically we can’t risk the possibility that baby Yoda falls into the hands of the Republic?
ArianeSherine What’s with all young people starting their Twitter bios with their age? It’s all:
21 | 🏴 | 💜 Taylor Swift
You never see older people writing:
67 | 🇬🇧 | 💜 my garden shed and making a groaning noise when I stand up
@unfortunatalie But given the number of Americans in Star Fleet, I was quite surprised to find they weren’t still measuring distances in feet and inches or parcelling out the dilithium in cups.
I watched The Messenger last week and I think it’s possible she used the memory of this moment of online interaction to fuel her furious performance as Joan of Arc. twitter.com/ddoniolvalcroz…
McaleesJohn As a personal tribute to David Bowie, I’ve made a whole tin of Heroes last just for one day.
@TJHFowler I’d be very grateful; I’m currently doing a somewhat odd lockdown project where I try to walk down every road within a mile of me (I’m in Hotwells) and that house has caught my eye every time I’ve wandered near it.
@TJHFowler Thank you! (I may still have to take liberties with the truth if my current fascination with the sinkhole at Canynge Square turns into a Lovecraftian short story, mind…)
Victoria Square pic.twitter.com/mVNsvNIGXl
St. Andrew’s Churchyard pic.twitter.com/smLKrqq30u
Conveniently located in leafy Clifton Village, this flat can also pick up every terrestrial TV and radio station in Europe and signals from the Hubble telescope. pic.twitter.com/n8zqnCPK8v
alicegoldfuss Every night I’m like “I can’t decide what to watch” and I spin and spin and spin and it turns out I just miss other people
@TJHFowler Just tripped across an old article of yours in Bristolienses after searching for “conflict tests the warrior”. Glad to know at least that I’m not alone in my curiosity! pic.twitter.com/gwEeHmixJ9
Clifton robin from this afternoon’s wander. pic.twitter.com/JCiBEnl3DB
Also, @mistymaria wins a prize, because look what I found 24 feet in front of that sign. twitter.com/gothick/status… pic.twitter.com/hv8EqloZ4i
Been to see the sinkhole. Too cordoned-off for a good picture, but finding a nearby building dedicated to Leng definitely fits my Cthulhu theory. pic.twitter.com/tTGVucHn9e
@CuriousUkTelly Danse Macabre, appropriately enough. #jonathancreek
gracepetrie I hear I’m on the verge of extinction. Sponsor a lesbian today, your £2 a month will go to vital protective flannel shirts and you’ll receive a cuddly lesbian in the post
@word_geek @Kavey I got veg *in*, I just managed not to bother cooking it this year. I may spend the next day or two eating exclusively veg :)
@recurrie @danbenjamin While Oldman’s is obviously a different performance, I felt he successfully brought a similarly astounding underplaying of the role to the screen. The way the emotions rolled without any apparent movement of the facial muscles was very reminiscent, anyway!
I don’t like it.
Hitting the stage where I start to crave an actual vegetable—other than roast potatoes, that is—which presumably is some kind of unconscious mechanism to avoid scurvy or rickets.
@teacherdude Christmas reference acknowledged 😂
@AthanSpod @mistymaria It seems very likely to be the right answer. Maybe I’ll go back and look for a modern sign — given Clifton it wouldn’t surprise me if the hydrant had remained in the same place for the last hundred or so years!
@porthjess Merry Christmas, Jess!
Having nearly killed @_pigeons_ by doing the Guardian cryptic Christmas special (much to @Bingo_Little’s amusement) it’s now time to sit down with a whisky and the Jonathan Creek Black Canary Christmas special…
mistymaria @gothick Fire hydrant, 24ft away, I think?
@PeteWilliams That was what it reminded me of, but it’s up in Clifton, above the height of the top of the suspension bridge, so no, it would have to have been one hell of a flood :D
logopetria @gothick In light of this it’s more plausible that it used to be a square at some time in the past and just lost a corner in an act of spontaneous civic origami
Even if it does say F. H. 24 Ft. like I think, I still have no idea what it means. pic.twitter.com/mO2rmWhliS
Something tells me the area has previous form for collapses; here’s a picture from one of the three corners of this alleged “square” from one of my recent “one mile Matt” wanders. twitter.com/beardedjourno/… pic.twitter.com/m6D3FCyZWw
The Clifton Catacombs of Cthulu have been laid bare! twitter.com/beardedjourno/…
beardedjourno A sinkhole has appeared in Clifton pic.twitter.com/8bYiCq1vEj
This is the square I posted about recently that isn’t actually a square, but a triangle. In my imagination the angry gods of geometry are trying to rectify things. twitter.com/BristolCouncil…
Managed to save this one up for Christmas ;) pic.twitter.com/zde4BaZZUz
@danbenjamin The terrible look is added in post so nobody can tell they’re all breaking quarantine in a studio.
@liveindetail Dare I ask if she’s pro or anti?
@Neiljamesb Thanks!
unfortunatalie They started it. twitter.com/theipaper/stat…
Merry Christmas all. Here’s a robin from Leigh Woods from last year #Bristol pic.twitter.com/hCqOfT9h5h
The Other Side pic.twitter.com/3hMuC9kKwP
St. Vincent’s Shadow pic.twitter.com/BPXFQNpBS3
BacklistedPod New episode up now. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, with guests Robert Macfarlane @RobGMacfarlane and Jackie Morris @JackieMorrisArt. Merry Xmas everybody! 🎄📚❄️ backlisted.fm/episodes/127-s…
That’s pretty tricky with that accent, Hans.
@dangusset I tried to put it on in the background while I was working from home, and five minutes in I realised it was still completely captivating and I had to switch it off so I could actually get stuff done :D
@djelibeybi_meg This is Bruichladdich’s “turn the peat up! More!” brand, named after a disused distillery a little to the south along the coast, which apparently leaned heavily toward the peaty end of things.
Avon_Stories Poor shipwrecked Shadow pic.twitter.com/VJoK86x9ki
@4r7hr Nice.
sarahvanpelt My potentially unpopular The Good Life theory is that Margot and Jerry are much nicer people than Tom and Barbara
@petedrinks PPS: when did they switch to these new bottles? They’re lovely. pic.twitter.com/qnL7XdGl81
@talkie_tim Given my tastes, I’d say “adequately peated”.
Postscript: pic.twitter.com/qXTXzTVeh8
@tweenyprints I have the box set but I’m so lazy I’m watching it on iPlayer 😂
@chubbybannister Badger’s Cranborne Poacher. Fruity.
Work over for 2020. Have beer, fairy lights, Jonathan Creek. It’s a start. pic.twitter.com/DY1UnnDLL7
@tsunimee The only damn thing about it was that at the end of walking 8k I still had to sit down and go to damn work 😂
Some photos from this morning’s rather damp solstice walk with @Avon_Stories and @Bingo_Little, featuring Brizzle drizzle and light pollution. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/kSRipeuTJd
Some photos from this morning’s rather damp solstice walk with @Avon_Stories and @Bingo_Little, featuring Brizzle drizzle and light pollution. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/PRqmNO4UuM
@unfortunatalie That’s where I grew up, that is.
Pandamoanimum Dan Levy as ice cream.
A thread. pic.twitter.com/k0rdkpaJxZ
@RellyAB The wanker is abroad.
RellyAB “And this night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.” twitter.com/nickeardleybbc…
@shezza_t Very friendly, too. I have been enjoying the free resource of affectionate local cats.
Heh. Early morning test shot before a rainy solstice walk, including the camera rain jacket :D pic.twitter.com/FzJ2cpQorl
@IanRobinson @stuartgibson My first job, too! Tandem system with an *amazing* reel-to-reel tape drive that could lace its own tape onto the spool using a vacuum system that sucked the tape into the right place. One of the most preposterous bits of tech I’ve ever used :)
@davidcaolo I’m considering putting it on a similar-vintage iMac, but I feel your hesitation. Going to at least back it up three different ways and make sure there’s a *lot* of disk space free first.
Scareman? Snowcrow? Looks to be directing traffic, anyway. pic.twitter.com/sSFuZpq8qD
@AndyRileyish @JulianDutton1 Looking forward to the revamped 7th hole where you have to putt a coronavirus-shaped ball through the mouth of a a windmill-driven automaton that keeps putting its mask on and off.
TravisinaB7 #Blakes7
Remembering Jacqueline Pearce on what would have been her 77th birthday.
“There are no women like me. I am unique…” (Servalan, ‘Sand’)
@HorizonBlakes7
blakes7online.com/news.php?readm… pic.twitter.com/cnbiS5Z0Jb
@forestpines @Dru_Marland For me it’s the smell of my cousin Simon’s Scalextric controllers at Christmas :D
Always fascinated by this little place with the grand chimneys. Wondered today if it’s really two-storey or if it technically counts as a bungalow with a preposterous mansard roof. pic.twitter.com/ZAU2FlhPuq
Bedmo wall kitty pic.twitter.com/IQRYBvpnwL
Snigger #bristol pic.twitter.com/u4iMjsp207
MittenDAmour If you are suddenly facing Christmas alone, I have tips. I LOVE Christmas alone so get on board.
Food: What would you ideally like to eat if no-one could limit you or judge you? Nothing but pigs in blankets? Just cake? Pot Noodle? Get that! I’m having cheese and crackers.
@CharlieVivante This is the kind of thing I find in the hood of a coat in three months’ time.
athenogenes You: let people enjoy things
Ursula Le Guin: pic.twitter.com/tAiH3jSomn
meakoopa when I toured the catacombs in Paris at the end they check your bag and I asked how often someone tries to steal something and without looking up the guard said “a skull a day” and i am still alarmed
@djelibeybi_meg Ta!
@KevinLehane Excellent timing. @iamtheshunt1 pic.twitter.com/pcUsCcYdqd
NickHowes13 The Andy Lewis, mainly colour Bristol slide collection c1967-c1985 is now on @KYPBristol flic.kr/p/2gcCiEJ
Distant hills pic.twitter.com/sJ04grxDW4
Up cycling pic.twitter.com/zXNZkZX3lW
Lightroom really seems to be quite crashy these days :(
@Dru_Marland Booblebrox!
Someone with two mouths appears to have discarded their face mask. #hotwells pic.twitter.com/0PfUrhS6Am
DUSKdev One of the most frightening things I’ve ever heard is when someone pointed out that the existence of the uncanny valley implies that at some point there was an evolutionary reason to be afraid of something that looked human but wasn’t.
Sotherans someone just rang in because they wanted to buy a sword and instead of telling them ‘I am sorry we do not supply swords we are a bookstore’ richard just tells him ‘oh i know a guy’ and walks off
every day i realize I have no idea what goes on in this place
@MakingBlakes7 I found it great fun and there are many more beautiful people to come.
(This is for an electricity account for the communal lights and intercom system upstairs where the quarterly bill never rises above £60 and it’s not me who controls the use anyway. Every time I tell them I don’t care and that must be about the twentieth phone call so far…)
I wonder if it’s possible to take out a restraining order against @SSE to stop their ongoing attempts to convince me to get a smart meter fitted. Apparently they don’t take “no” for an answer. Or “No. No.” Or “No. No No NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONONONONO NOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO!”
When you’re surprised by an offhand reference to Harvey Weinstein and realise that the pristine unread Interzone you’ve finally got around to reading is from 2014 👀
Sluiced pic.twitter.com/xPqYIcROax
A Bond pic.twitter.com/JN89f5Y54I
Ridgeline pic.twitter.com/AVNyKxXhDv
Alakazam! pic.twitter.com/jTmDcK2x1F
SaphiFluff Oh my god, there’s a word for it… REVENGE BEDTIME PROCRASTINATION
I’m not the only one who feels this way? pic.twitter.com/uL3q6PpPQE
BacklistedPod No new episode next Monday BUT a very special one landing on Christmas Day instead: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. 🎄❄️📚 pic.twitter.com/e1ewuRFOW1
Well played, Forbidden Planet. pic.twitter.com/tGkmf8drFh
@iamtheshunt1 I think World’s End Lane has been my favourite so far. I’ve been down Zed Alley but it’s not in my current 1-mile-radius plan 😂
Perennial favourite. pic.twitter.com/vktOsHkom6
Went for a wander with my friend Lisa. We particularly liked the last house in Queens Parade’s 12 Days of Christmas. pic.twitter.com/cYQS8f1cue
Irony. pic.twitter.com/TZQlSQcqWO
The Last of the Light pic.twitter.com/KGsolr7py6
The Teasels of Sunset pic.twitter.com/CWOmeIFbSM
Bobble pic.twitter.com/0RBeWlWVDF
Guided pic.twitter.com/SMvCM9dazr
Radiant pic.twitter.com/BX1pNGNkGJ
Brizzle solidarity pic.twitter.com/RMKTans2tr
Serpentine pic.twitter.com/sK5kIJpFqy
Oooh-Laaaa! pic.twitter.com/dsgsNNFuv0
The cherry pickers make their ritual evening obeisance to their warehouse god. pic.twitter.com/ugwLwrUhIa
Bedmo wildlife. pic.twitter.com/clrqwjhW1i
@sugarenia Wait, Babybels have an expiration date?
Sunshine and showers. pic.twitter.com/HfKsROSNRD
Crescents and Moon pic.twitter.com/OtyZCsDIcp
KYPBristol A dramatic modern space behind a conventional facade; The Underfall Yard electricity substation on Avon Crescent was begun in 1905. It was probably the first reinforced concrete building in the city, and one of the earliest in the UK. maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=b… pic.twitter.com/hrByupuePf
Given the way bird naming seems to work, I imagine this is a Persnickety White-Chested Greenbill pic.twitter.com/Culm1gBIJ6
Just remembering the time a chunk of the Portway fell into the river. bbc.co.uk/bristol/conten…
I understand there are two hard things in computer science. #coding pic.twitter.com/2Q1xgKPu6O
@PollyShulman @GrammarTable Oh yeah, that was pretty fucking terrifying. In a kind of plus ça change way, sadly. Congratulations, you have won the novel by marrying the one man with the bare minimum of humanity who didn’t also happen to be your dad or your brother.
danielpunkass I can’t believe Zoom gives away their best feature, limiting meetings to 40 minutes, for free.
HeathC That Big Job You’ve Been Procrastinating On For Days Increasing Your Stress To The Point Where You Started Work Early To Get It All Done Today Turned Out Not To Be As Big And Scary As You Thought: The Heath Carney Story
_FrancesBurney I do prefer *FRANCES* to Fanny, Matt Gibson. twitter.com/gothick/status…
MakingBlakes7 Check out this amazing Series D trailer from my talented friend @charliefrancis. #Blakes7 twitter.com/charliefrancis…
@GrammarTable I just finished Fanny Burney’s Evelina. Surprisingly accessible for 1778. I was inspired to read it by a chunk of it being set where I live, but it turned out to be the descriptions of London that were most interesting for me.
I feel the iconography may be overkill. pic.twitter.com/qlyamKWtHk
@daycoder It’s definitely in that category mismatch space for me where I’ve bought cheaper cars.
Well, that’s a good sign. pic.twitter.com/nYtSJS7MKI
Starting to get images working. #onemilematt A few things are a bit broken/still not written yet, mind. pic.twitter.com/cUxu4jiHiP
Colourful bargeboards of Bedminster pic.twitter.com/My2LSy3Fqd
At some point during my wandering, somebody is quite likely to come out of their house and ask what on earth I’m doing, and I’m not sure “Just admiring the typography of your transom window” is going to cut it. pic.twitter.com/OlnJNerb1q
@BeatrixHellcock Ah, might be a bit far east for me. Will keep my eyes open anyway!
@BeatrixHellcock I’ll have to keep a lookout. Heading over that way for a coffee right now…
@Bristolvor Well, to be fair “ancient” is a bit of an exaggeration. It was originally built around 1870, but the modern bit is 1960s.
@Bristolvor Yeah, fantastic space. One of those rare let’s-mash-modern-and-ancient-together-because-someone-bombed-half-of-it experiments that really works. pic.twitter.com/JIRfhHYIxC
You’d barely know they were there from the outside. pic.twitter.com/p7ImjWg5CO
For those unfamiliar with Alma Vale Road, Electrofix looks exactly how you hope this kind of shop will look, including window sill keyboard detailing. pic.twitter.com/rotS0Nxj6q
@Redveee Don’t think I know that one.
And one thing I always enjoy on Alma Vale — Electrofix’s shop window.pic.twitter.com/I93O5Ttjuoo
(Also from today’s wander: Hungarian grilled sausage hot dog, Budapest Cafe, Alma Vale Road 👍 ) @mockingbirdAlma pic.twitter.com/p5hcAHMtyo
From today’s wander: Interior, All Saints, Clifton, including the River of Life/Tree of Life, and Lady Chapel windows by John Piper. #onemilematt allsaintsclifton.org/Groups/296406/… pic.twitter.com/WaSVyBO1LS
@bitter_sky @Garferty @unamccormack Blocked and reported.
@Garferty @unamccormack Are you at least able to skip the theme song?
The random Clifton gargoyle is quite fed up with 2020. pic.twitter.com/F9sq8olZjQ
_tessr OH, on technical interviews: “if I saw a live-ass engineer at my company hand-rolling a linked list I’d parachute right the fuck on in to figure out why they’ve gone all historical re-enactment on company time”
Looking back. pic.twitter.com/SkWZMhwuTW
Selfie with someone else’s bad luck pic.twitter.com/2xpxlV1KMI
Terraced pic.twitter.com/fLhYAArox2
It’s amazing they fit buses down here at all, never mind the steps at the end… pic.twitter.com/tfRJSAvMw3
*Waves at Bristol* pic.twitter.com/esigkVQsJS
@Dru_Marland Hah! This was one street over, in Bellevue Crescent. Brought back memories for me, too; first time I had to push-start my Talbot Samba solo I very nearly didn’t make it into the driver’s seat in time to steer away from a line of parked cars…
Just saw someone bump-starting a Nissan Micra on a hill. Not sure if I’ve come for a walk in Cliftonwood or 1987.
MaidenSarah1 My girlfriend has left me because of my insecurities.
No wait, she’s back. She just went to make a cup of tea.
@claireellent From what I remember, it’s basically the overflow burial ground from the now-long-gone St Paul’s church in Clifton; it’s where they used to bury visitors to the Hot Wells who died of consumption rather than being miraculously cured!
@claireellent It’s on the edge of Manor Hall, on Lower Clifton Hill, just up the hill from The Eldon House. I’m not sure if it’s ever open to the public but it looks really well-maintained.
Strangers’ Burial Ground, Clifton. pic.twitter.com/hX1AuNJjMc
@Avon_Stories There’s a good list at Judith’s site -hermit.org/b7/whatswhat/L…t Not too much near here, but I didn’t know they’d used Wookey Hole!
Oh, so that’s where I left my feelings. twitter.com/dangusset/stat…
@shezza_t Definitely found several things I never knew were nearby, and started thinking a lot more about history and why I like the area. At some point I’ll get some of the photos I’ve taken up on the site, too, which might make it a bit more coherent.
Avon_Stories Film photos from @Bingo_Little & me accompanying @gothick on his #Blakes7 pilgrimage to the decommissioned Oldbury on Severn nuclear power plant, back in October (the bottom of it reminded me of the bathhouse in Spirited Away) pic.twitter.com/tfeF21YR5z
I could tell you where it is, but then, of course, I’d have to kill you. pic.twitter.com/EYH6iOofdm
Top of the world #bristol pic.twitter.com/NwDGcqLMoa
I wasn’t sure whether this was meant to be NO PARKING or NO PAPPING so I took a chance on taking a photo. pic.twitter.com/Zm2klk4Y2E
Then and now. Couldn’t quite match all the angles, but hopefully it gives an idea of the changes. #bristol twitter.com/WeirdBristol/s… pic.twitter.com/7qtg3ZjJGb
BBCBristol The incident in Avonmouth is ongoing - latest updates here….
bbc.in/2VD0wXP
CharlieVivante Shamelessly stolen but here is my advent of my favourite Bristol things and places.
1/24
Park Row
#bristoladvent pic.twitter.com/YQb723JkN1
@lilydoughball Surely the vintage cooker alone must be worth a fortune!
@WeirdBristol Fantastic picture. I may have to try recreating the present-day version…
Got some stats working on my weird little One Mile Matt project. Apparently I’ve walked 147km since I started. Gosh. pic.twitter.com/nwSzc7kJsl
You know, this may not be the best time to ask. pic.twitter.com/wMYZOA4xTm
The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius pic.twitter.com/26xVK8SYwU