Had a great time visiting Bristol with friends this weekend. We walked over the historic Bristol Bridge that you can see in the picture. Mostly we went on a pub crawl. There's nothing like chatting and catching up over a pint of real ale, or in my case a half pint, since there was going to be so much of it. One of my friends prefers beer to food. The rest of us like them both in equal measure. I was surprised to find so many pubs that don't do food, since many establishments these days can't survive unless they do. Anyway, we were eventually forced to go to Pizza Express to get something inside us to soak up the wet stuff.
We did take time out on Sunday morning to visit the Botanic Garden. The route there took us past the wide open spaces of Durdham Downs. We saw lots of dog walkers with their charges, which made me think of Jade who stayed at home with my menfolk and who was to give me a super welcome when hubby brought her to collect me from the station later.
Pic by Linda Bailey - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Anyway back to the Botanical Gardens which are part of Bristol University and a really educational experience, because they chart the development of the plant world through the millenia and make references to the thousands of species of each plant growing there. They are very well tended and have many beautiful specimens in a lovely landscaped space. Before we left we visited the glasshouses kept at various temperatures to suit the plant life within.
After this it was pub time again, but we did find one more thing of note - the Bristol Lido & Spa. It is hidden away in a terraced back street - a really bizarre location. We glimpsed people swimming through the glass door as we passed and stopped to find out more. Apparently it is a quite exclusive club, although members of the public can swim in the heated outdoor pool at £20 a time. It has a bar and restaurant as well, and does special deals for a swim and a meal that just add £5 or £10 or so to the cost of the swim. You can read more about it at the
Bristol Lido website.
We spent some time on the waterfront, making a couple of visits to the Watershed, an event venue which also houses a cinema and restaurant bar. My real ale devotee friend reckoned it had the best selection of beers of the weekend, and for me it had really good decaffeinated coffee before heading to my hotel at the end of Saturday evening.
And after getting my batteries recharged in that way, today it has been back to work, which meant researching and writing about the riveting subject of voltage optimisation. I'm always surprised at how interested I get in these topics that seem at first glance to be really dull and dry.
How will Charlie react when old family secrets are revealed? Will her life change completely when some of her dreams start to come true? 
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