Bits and pieces, news, views, reviews and stuff
I don’t know why, but this sign made me smile.
The local council have put out warning signs to drivers to avoid a country road (more of a lane) during the hours of darkness due to some migrating toads.
First time I have seen this kind of sign. Wondering if some toads complained or took legal action?
Having posted that I was unable to post a top ten from 2024 looking at the dashboard I realised I could see the stats for the blog posts from 2024.
In 2024 I published 410 posts, though 366 of those were for the photo of the day. So that meant 40 real posts. In 2023 I published 99 posts. Now in 2022 I published 429 posts on the blog, though I really only published 40 “original posts” then, with 365 photo a day posts and 24 advent posts. In 2021 I published just 46 posts to the blog. I did 423 posts in 2020, in 2019 it was 68, in 2018 I did 89 posts.
The tenth most popular post was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Two.
The post at number nine was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part One.
The eighth popular blog post, was a nostalgic post about Remembering the Bristol Temple Way Flyover.
Seventh post was a post reminiscing about The Longleat Miniature Railway.
Sixth most popular post about Changes at the railway station in Weston-super-Mare.
The fifth most popular blog post asked the question “the cafe on tv at weston super mare is it real” which was a post about people Google searching that phrase and ending up on my blog. Now those same Google searches send people to this page rather than the original post on Cyril’s Cafe.
The post at four was Remembering The Eagle has Landed which was a post reminiscing about the film from the 1970s starring Michael Caine.
The post at three was from January 2024 and was from my series of Then and Now post, Then and Now – Cheddar Yeo Sword.
The second most popular post on the blog was a reflection on Young Sheldon about The significance of the cow…
The top post for 2024 was the same as the top post for 2023, it was “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.” Which was Michael J Fox joining Coldplay on stage in New Jersey in 2016, playing Johnny B Goode from Back to the Future.
Usually at this time I would publish a blog post of the top ten posts of the previous twelve months. However WordPress have stopped doing free stats for blogs that show adverts. So I don’t have detailed stats about the top posts.
In 2024 I published 410 posts, though 366 of those were for the photo of the day. So that meant 40 real posts. In 2023 I published 99 posts. Now in 2022 I published 429 posts on the blog, though I really only published 40 “original posts” then, with 365 photo a day posts and 24 advent posts. In 2021 I published just 46 posts to the blog. I did 423 posts in 2020, in 2019 it was 68, in 2018 I did 89 posts.
Sometimes it’s the little things, the unimportant things that get to you.
Sometimes it’s the things you don’t understand that get to you.
I assume most people have a kitchen sink at home. It’s a thing that most if not all kitchens have.
I don’t know how you use yours, but I use my for doing the washing up in.
Now in our office we also have sinks in the kitchen areas.
Though they may look similar, they are not the same.
The reason they are not the same, is that the kitchen areas in the office are not the same as your kitchen.
Lots of people use it. In fact a lot more people use the kitchen areas then use your home kitchen.
So, why, oh why, do people working in the offices decide that the best thing they can do with their dirty dishes or dirty lunch boxed, is to leave them in the sink unwashed?
Why do they do that?
Don’t they realise that other people work in the office and may want to wash their dishes.
You might do that at home, but that is your home, this is our office.
There is nothing more annoying then getting to the sink to wash up your stuff and find that people have left dirty stuff in there.
Actually there are a lot more things which are annoying, but bear with me please.
We even have dishwashers in the offices, which may surprise you, can be used for washing dishes and so you don’t even need to use the sink.
So, please let me rant, and ask you ever so nicely, please either wash up your dishes straight away, put them in the dishwasher racks, or (if push comes to shove) leave them on the side.
Please leave the sink free for others to use.
I will now go and lie down.
Over the weekend I went out and bought myself a new backpack. I use a backpack on a regular basis and my trusty Camelbak backpack has started to fall apart and needed to be replaced.
In December 2009 I was invited to speak at a conference in Auckland in New Zealand.
I flew out there and took two bags with me, a large suitcase and a carry on suitcase. Having arrived in Auckland and checked into my hotel, the following day I had some time to explore the city. I realised very quickly that a carry on suitcase wasn’t going to cut it. I went out and on one of the shopping streets in a basement was a shop selling kit for outdoor activities, hiking, and so on. I was looking around for a suitable bag, if I remember correctly there was a few to choose from. I saw the Camelbak and it was reduced. I have no recollection of how much I paid for it, but I thought at the time it was good value.
What I didn’t know or realise was that Camelbak was a brand of backpacks that could be used for hydration. So the bag came with water bottles and tubes. When I got back to my hotel room the first thing I did was remove all of that.
What I liked was the bag, though relatively small, had two pockets and could carry quite a bit of stuff.
My usual load was a laptop in a padded laptop bag, as the Camelbak had no protective padding for an unprotected laptop. I did once dent my laptop when not using the padded bag.
The bag was well used over the years. I did actually semi-retire it for a while in 2016 with a Berghaus rucksack. I remember trying to find a replacement Camelbak, but I couldn’t find one. I did use both bags for a while, one for work, and one for non-work stuff.
However the zip broke on the Berghaus bag a few years later and as it was frustrating, despite a temporary fix, it finally wasn’t going to be practical anymore.
The Camelbak I did notice was getting rather tired. Recently I noted that there was rips around the zips, and then in the sides as well.
I did look on the Camelbak website, but alas no joy. So I headed into town to buy a new backpack.
My new bag is a dedicated laptop rucksack, the Vic Laptop Bag from Mountain Warehouse.
The Vic Laptop Bag was made for work and travel. With a modern design and plenty of features, including a zipped laptop compartment with padding, an organiser pocket and a padded mesh back, so you can carry your belongings comfortably and securely.
What really sold it to me was the padded 15″ compartment to keep your laptop/tablet safe in transit.
It also holds thirty litres. I may use this if I am staying away and travelling by train, rather than take a suitcase. It also says it is cabin friendly so might be useful when flying as well.
First test will be a trip to London and Edinburgh.
When I was working in Oxford ten years ago, I really loved how festive the Oxford Covered Market was, and some of the stalls made it feel very Victorian.
Obviously I have never being to a Victorian Christmas market, I am not that old. However, that concept of what a Victorian market could have been like, reinforced by Dickens, film, and television, meant that when I was walking around the Oxford Covered Market in December I did think I had gone back in time to the Victorian times.
On a recent visit to the Oxford Covered Market, ten years later, it felt a little different. It was still quite festive, but it didn’t feel traditional and Victorian any more.
However quite a few places had changed hands and were now eateries. There were more coffee shops, a pizza place, and other stalls (shops) to get something to eat.
The classic butchers had closed down, there was no fish stall, though there was a really long queue for the cheese stall. The fruit and veg stall was still there two.
This was still the Oxford Covered Market, but I did feel it had lost a little of the magic that had made it so special ten years ago.
In 2023 I published 99 posts. Now in 2022 I published 429 posts on the blog, though I really only published 40 “original posts” then, with 365 photo a day posts and 24 advent posts. In 2021 I published just 46 posts to the blog. I did 423 posts in 2020, in 2019 it was 68, in 2018 I did 89 posts.
The tenth most popular blog post was the Movie Advent Calendar #24 – The Muppet Christmas Carol.
The post at number nine was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part One.
The post at number eight was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Three.
The post at number seven was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Six.
Whilst the sixth most popular post was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Two.
Fifth most popular post about Changes at the railway station in Weston-super-Mare.
The fourth most popular blog post asked the question “the cafe on tv at weston super mare is it real” which was a post about people Google searching that phrase and ending up on my blog. Now those same Google searches send people to this page rather than the original post on Cyril’s Cafe.
The third most popular blog post, dropping two places, was a nostalgic post about Remembering the Bristol Temple Way Flyover.
The second most popular post on the blog was a reflection on Young Sheldon about The significance of the cow…
Rising one place, the post at number one for 2023 was “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.” Which was Michael J Fox joining Coldplay on stage in New Jersey in 2016, playing Johnny B Goode from Back to the Future.
Last year I posted my top ten tweets for 2022, and I did the same in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016. It was interesting to see which tweets of mine were popular.
However Twitter is no longer what it was. I stopped using the Twitter in September 2023, as it was no longer a place I wanted to be, and lots of others were thinking and doing the same.
I will admit to visiting the site now and again, but I am glad I left. Still not fully engaged with Threads and Bluesky as alternatives.
For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.
Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.
You don’t need a membership though to visit the Mendip Hills. We walked up Crook Peak, before walking back to where we had parked the car.
Only clocked on the trip that it is Crook Peak and not as I have been calling it for years Crooks Peak.
Crook Peak has been important as a landmark and boundary from very early times, and the origins of the name are unclear. The local parish council state that ‘Crook’ comes from the Old English ‘Cruc’ meaning ‘peak’ or ‘pointed hill’.
Mendip Hills
Dramatic gorges and ancient woodland rising above the Somerset Levels.
Current saving £188.85
No admission fee or parking costs
Total saving £0
Cumulative saving £365.15
Membership cost £133.80
Net cumulative saving £231.35 Continue reading “Mendip Hills (again)”
So let’s be frank about this, I really don’t know that much about classic cars, however I have thought in the past it would be nice to own an old classic motor.
These photographs were taken at a car event in Weston-super-Mare today, I can guess what some of them are, but please add a comment if you are more confident than me in what they are (and correct me if I got it wrong as well).
1. Dodge ?
2. Pontiac?
3. Pontiac Firebird
4. Ford Consul
5. Vauxhall
6. Mini Clubman
7. Mini Pickup
8. Jaguar
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?
12. MG
13. ?
14. Morris Minor Police Car
15. Triumph Herald
16. Volkswagen Beetle
17. ?
18. Ford Torino “Starsky and Hutch”
19. Hot Rod ??
