Category: stuff

Posted on

My top ten tweets of 2021

Last year I posted my top ten tweets for 2020 and I did the same in 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016. It was interesting to see which tweets of mine were popular.

So looking back first…

The top tweet back in 2016 was this one for #WednesdayWisdom

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.

The top tweet back in 2018 was this one about the newly revamped WHSmith at Bristol Temple Meads complete with storage cage!

The most popular tweet of 2019 was this one about keeping the old Twitter.

Alas the hack didn’t last too long so we have to use the new Twitter.

In 2020, the most popular tweet was this one, with me reminiscing when WHSmith in Bristol went all Dexter.

Okay back to the last twelve months, here are my top ten ten tweets of 2021.

In tenth place was a tweet from my #JuneEdTechChallenge which asked us to tweet about the VLE in my life, I referred back to the VLE is Dead debate which had happened back in 2009.

At number nine was a mention about rebooting a podcast I do on my elearning stuff blog.

At eight was a post to a link about low-bandwith online teaching.

The seventh most popular tweet of mine was a repost of a tweet from a few years ago about the the internet of things and how coffee machines connected to the internet would…. well see below.

In at number six was a post of mine about some blog posts I had written about online teaching and learning. It was pinned to my profile for most of the year which probably helped with its popularity.

Fifth place was this tweet from me about how ill I had been in October with Covid-19.

I didn’t use the Twitter when I was ill, didn’t do very much at all.

The tweet at number four was a shoutout to Lawrie who is a star.

The third most popular tweet of mine was reminding people that they could wear masks and didn’t need to be told to wear masks.

The tweet that came second was this one about the original Jisc Digital Leaders Programme.

My most popular tweet of 2021 was this replying to another post about empty shelves. It happens so often in my Sainsbury’s that they have had special shelf fillers printed so the shelves don’t look empty.

Posted on

Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2021

In 2021 I published 46 posts to the blog. So how did I do in 2020, well I published 423 posts…

Okay so 366 of those were of the photo a day project I did in 2020, so really I published 57 additional blog posts. In 2018 I published 89 posts to the blog, in 2019 it was 68, though 36 of those were in December.

Most of the top ten are nostalgic posts about the Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s.

The tenth most popular post on the blog was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Six.

At number nine we have another post on the 1990s Bristol Harbourside, with Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Five.

Eighth post was on the Harry Potter Wizarding World Potions Classroom.

Number seven was my first post on the Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s

Sixth post was a post reminiscing about The Longleat Miniature Railway

Five was my second big post on the Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s

Fourth was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Three

The post at number three 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.

The Café

The second 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 most popular blog post in 2021 was a nostalgic post about Remembering the Bristol Temple Way Flyover.

 

Posted on

Marine Lake

Went for a walk this morning and we walked past Marine Lake and Knightstone Island.

It has been drained and hopefully will be cleared of mud and silt making it a better swimming experience. The work requires permission from a government agency, and if approved will be finished by the summer of 2022.

Posted on

Things I still never had…

Scrolling through the Twitter I came across this post from UK Vintage Catalogues from the Scalextric in 1963.

It reminded me of a post I had written on this blog about Scalextric, I thought I had written it a few years ago, no it was back in 2012.

I was being slightly nostalgic about the wonders of Scalextric.

I never had Scalextric when I was young.

We don’t even have it in the house now, even with two small boys, they wanted model railways and trains…

I am kind of glad I never got Scalextric as it is obvious (now I am older) that the only way to use Scalextric was to find a constant speed that ensured the car went around the track without falling off and keep doing that, whilst your competitor in an attempt to beat you, would more than likely fall off the track and so you would eventually win!

Though I am too young for this 1963 catalogue, I do remember seeing bridges in the Scalextric catalgoies of the 1980s.

Scalextric Bridges

I do remember once playing Scalextric at a cousin’s house and they had the hump backed bridge.

The memory was that it was really fun.

I will never get Scalextric now, as my memory of wanting it, I know will be ruined by actually playing with it… so I shall just be nostalgic and think about what I missed and never fulfil a dream that would have never come true.

 

Posted on

What the…

Saw these at our local garden centre.

I have no idea why…

Reminds me of someone though….

Posted on

M&S think it’s Christmas

So there I was at one of those “unexpected items in the bagging area” machines at M&S and next to it was the plastic bags.

These were Christmas bags….

It’s March! Oh you can’t get those shortbread tins either now…

Actually part of me thinks this is quite a good thing, means we were using less plastic bags when they thought we would use more, so had overstocked.

Posted on

Walking down the seafront

Living in Weston-super-Mare and not being allowed to travel due to Covid-19 restrictions, we often make use of the seafront for our allowed exercise. It’s not as though we never walked there before, but now with limited choices, and only so many times you can walk around the area where we live, it’s nice to pop to the seafront. Its a short drive to the seafront from where we live and it was easy to park close to the seafront.

Today it was beautifully clear day, the sun was shining, and it wasn’t too cold. However it was quite windy.

You could see clearly over to Brean Down and even further across to Cardiff and Newport in Wales.

There were kite surfers making the most of the strong winds and the high tide.

Generally we don’t see the sea, as the tidal range in Weston is so huge that for most of the day the sea is some distance away. Today as we walked along the seafront, it was high tide, combined with the winds there were waves crashing down onto the sand.

We walked all the way along the seafront to Knightstone Island and Marine Lake. 

Then it was time to turn around and head back to the car to drive home.