Carol Singer #366photos2020
This is one of a set of resin carol singer tree decorations. We bought these tree decorations over ten years ago from a now defunct Christmas shop in Weston-super-Mare and we have never seen them ever again in any other retail outlet. No idea who manufactured them or if they are still available.
Santa Kiwi #366photos2020
As it is not yet twelfth night, our decorations are still up. This tree decoration of a festive Kiwi was a souvenir from a trip to New Zealand ten years ago. I bought a few and they still adorn our tree every year.
I have done a photo a day before in 2012, 2014and 2016. I did try in 2018 but i has a few technical issues so stopped after a few weeks. This year I am trying again. The photos will be posted to Instagram and then I will blog the photo too. Hopefully with more detail.
Three #366photos2020
I have done a photo a day before in 2012, 2014 and 2016. I did try in 2018 but i has a few technical issues so stopped after a few weeks.
This year I am trying again. The photos will be posted to Instagram and then I will blog the photo too. Hopefully with more detail.
This metal three was seen in Uphill where our local scout group was undertaking an easy New Year stroll.
My top ten tweets of 2019
Last year I posted my top ten tweets for 2018 and I did the same in 2017 and 2016 which was interesting to see which tweets of mine were popular.
The top tweet back in 2016 was this one for #WednesdayWisdom
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. #WednesdayWisdom
— James Clay (@jamesclay) May 18, 2016
Whilst top tweet for 2017 was this one from the 2017 ALT Conference and it was my sketchnote of Bonnie Stewart’s keynote on openness.
My sketch note of the @bonstewart keynote here at #altc pic.twitter.com/1ZvARS9R7t
— James Clay (@jamesclay) September 5, 2017
The top tweet back in 2018 was this one about the newly revamped WHSmith at Bristol Temple Meads complete with storage cage!
Ooh nicely spruced up new WHSmith at Bristol Temple Meads Railway Station. Compete with new flooring (no carpet), new signs, new shelving. Original storage cage in shop floor though. cc @WHS_Carpet pic.twitter.com/fJg0EgO6f8
— James Clay (@jamesclay) June 21, 2018
So in 2019, my tenth most popular tweet was this one about my son appearing on BBC Points West whilst working at Bristol Temple Meads as a GWR Apprentice.
Always nice to see one of those outstanding @GWRHelp @GWRApprentices on the telly. #BBCPointsWest #prouddad @bbcpointswest pic.twitter.com/zUGlzdcvjI
— James Clay (@jamesclay) February 8, 2019
In ninth place was a nostalgic tweet about a steam train visiting Weston-super-Mare ten years ago in July.
On this day ten years ago that @60163_Tornado was in town (as in Weston-super-Mare) pulling the Torbay Express. pic.twitter.com/ZtWXhbOSlA
— James Clay (@jamesclay) July 5, 2019
I did tweet a lot about the past this year, and will do less of it next year.
At number eight was a tweet about the phrase “digital detox” which gets bandied about a lot when people feel they need to take a break from services such as Twitter. If you feel you need to take a break, you probably do, but is it necessary to tell everyone about it?
I hate the phrase “digital detox” as it implies that digital is toxic by default. #DigiFest19 pic.twitter.com/XMamfblYLL
— James Clay (@jamesclay) March 13, 2019
Seventh was about about an incident at Oxford Circus. The tweet was picked up by some news outlets and my photo appeared on a news website.
Emergency Services at Oxford Circus Underground Station, including British Transport Police, London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service. I counted at least 12 vehicles. #oxfordcircus pic.twitter.com/VpNbGXSQ35
— James Clay (@jamesclay) November 13, 2019
The sixth tweet was about WHSmith in Bristol being covered in plastic last February.
Sealing off parts of WHSmith in Bristol today. This isn't an image for @WHS_Carpet as this is refurbishment not normal day to day operations. Can you tell the difference? pic.twitter.com/elCjCEGXif
— James Clay (@jamesclay) February 23, 2019
I did find this reply amusing….
Is Dexter there?
— Simon Harper (@sixteenhp) February 24, 2019
The reason was less worrying, it was because they were putting the Post Office into WHSmith.
The tweet at number five was one about great women in edtech from March for International Women’s Day.
Here are some great women in edtech that I look up to and follow on the Twitter.
@MarenDeepwell @sheilmcn @DonnaLanclos @LornaMCampbell @sarahjenndavies @bonstewart @audreywatters @KerryPinny @ambrouk @VivienRolfe @chrissinerantzi @suethomas @suebecks #InternationalWomensDay
— James Clay (@jamesclay) March 8, 2019
Fourth was another nostalgic tweet about the #140conf Twitter Conference I attended in 2009 and was on a panel session with some great people.
On this day ten years ago I was at the O2 in Greenwich for the #140conf organised by @jeffpulver I was on a panel session with @shirleyearley @daveowhite @digitalmaverick and @Dr_Black where we talked about education and the Twitter. pic.twitter.com/AkQyyvfgAs
— James Clay (@jamesclay) November 17, 2019
And now the top three, with the third tweet was an early morning tweet celebrating that GWR were now using old HSTs as commuter trains, so we had more seats and faster trains.
With the introduction of the new @GWRHelp IET trains we now have these wonderful HST 125 trains as our local commuter services around Bristol and North Somerset. Ace. pic.twitter.com/R2fjBrVavo
— James Clay (@jamesclay) July 15, 2019
At number two was a tweet about the revamped WHSmith in Weston-super-Mare.
Ooh the outside of the WHSmith in Weston-super-Mare looking very nice. Re-opens on Monday, looking inside though, not much has changed they still have the same @WHS_Carpet pic.twitter.com/Gy1UMc2WMx
— James Clay (@jamesclay) June 9, 2019
So the most popular tweet of 2019 was this one about keeping the old Twitter.
…and we're back!
So you want to go back to old Twitter?
Click More
Click Settings and Privacy
Click About Twitter
Click Directory
Click Home pic.twitter.com/PGMF4WeTFB
— James Clay (@jamesclay) July 25, 2019
So what does this tell us? Very little.
Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2019
Over the last twelve months I have posted 68 blog posts to the blog. This is less than in 2018 when I published 89 posts. However most of the 89 posts in 2018 were from the Gromit Unleashed 2 trail across Bristol. I did post 24 televisual advent calendar posts in 2019 so this boosted the total.
Most of the top ten posts are nostalgic posts about Bristol in the 1990s…
There are in reverse order starting off with the tenth most popular post on the blog.
https://jamesclay.net/bristol-harbourside-in-the-1990s
https://jamesclay.net/bristol-harbourside-in-the-1990s-2
Potions Classroom
The first time I went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour was in 2015, just after they had added the Hogwarts Express and Kings Cross set to the tour. At the end of November 2019 we made a return visit, mainly to see how different it was dressed for Christmas and with snow.
The Potions Classroom, though a magnificent piece of film set design and full of amazing props, didn’t have a festive theme….
The Trial of Christine Keeler in Bristol
If you are watching The Trial of Christine Keeler you may recognise some scenes which were shot on Broad Street in Bristol. This is a screen grab of tonight’s broadcast.
You can see three old cars and this is the view down towards the Church of St John the Baptist on Christmas Street.
Here is another screen grab of Broad Street at night.
As it happens back in January 2019 I was walking around the area on my lunch break so I took a few photographs of the filming.
I was impressed with the number of 1960s cars they had used to dress the street.
Televisual Advent Calendar #24 – Friends
We were on a break…..
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
The last in this series is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary that year, and that series is Friends. Though I have posted in no particular order I was tempted to have 24 as my 24th entry, however I realised that I only ever made it through the first season of 24 and then stopped watching it. So this entry is not about 24, but about Friends.
Friends was a comedy series which started in 1994 and went on for ten seasons.
I am the same age as the Friends characters, and I certainly empathised with their challenges and issues, though I never lived in New York. I was never a Joey, but could certainly identify with Chandler.
Another reason I guess I like this series, as with Fraiser, is that there is a fair amount of time where the action takes place in a coffee shop, this was in a time before coffee shops became the staple of the UK high street. I think there was an yearning to have a local coffee shop like Central Perk, even if you didn’t want Gunther to be the manager! I remember when they opened a version of Central Perk in London, going out of my way to have a look (and hopefully a coffee) alas, the queue was horrendous so I never even got into the place to have a coffee and sit on *that* couch.
I think after Friends finished, I stopped watching as many American comedies that I had before. It was like they were all trying to be Friends, but were nothing like it. I think that’s the reason I didn’t even look at or attempt The Big Bang Theory, as it felt like a nerdy version of Friends, and I didn’t see how it could even come close. Of course The Big Bang Theory is nothing like Friends, and was never trying to be Friends, and I think the passage of time helped too. So when I came around to watching The Big Bang Theory, my affinity for Friends had passed.
I have been amused by my eldest son (and his friends) discovering Friends for the first time, now the whole series is on Netflix. They really seem to enjoy it and seeing all the Friends merchandise in shops such as Primark, shows how popular it is.
So there we have it, that’s my televisual advent calendar for this year. It was hard to narrow down the list to just twenty four, but I am pleased with those I have chosen. I could certainly have done another twenty four…. hmmm maybe next year!
Get Friends on Blu-Ray.
Get Friends on DVD.
Get Friends on Amazon Video.
Get Friends on iTunes.
Televisual Advent Calendar #23 – Blackadder
As cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
I never saw the first season of Blackadder until much later, so really only started watching from the second season. This was a wonderful piece of comedy writing and excellent acting from Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson.
The second season was set in the Elizabethan era and Miranda Richardson played the part of the Queen superbly. I loved the machinations of Blackadder only too often to be foiled at the last moment.
The third season saw Blackadder as butler to the Prince Regent. Hugh Laurie was wonderful as the bumbling mad prince, though this time more often than not the machinations of Blackadder ended in disaster.
The fourth season saw our “hero” as Captain Blackadder in the horror of the trenches of the Great War. Could a comedy set in that period work, I think it did. The escapades of our heroes as they try to avoid going “over the top” often worked, but not in the way they thought it would. I really enjoyed seeing the bumbling general staff looking at war as a game of cricket, Stephen Fry was particularly good at the, in some ways, horrifying, General Melchett.
That poignant final episode of season four, one of the most moving pieces of television ever, nothing more to be said.
Get Blackadder on DVD.
Get Blackadder on Amazon Video.
Get Blackadder on iTunes.