James Clay Stuff

June 27, 2025

Plymouth #50places2025

I have been visiting various universities across the South West with my daughter for their open days. I’ve not been posting those visits here as most times we have just been visiting the university campus, so didn’t really consider it being a place for my #50places2025 posts. However when we went to Plymouth we arrived early, so after visiting the university we had some time, we went to explore Plymouth. We visited the city centre, Plymouth Hoe, the quayside and the old town. The sun was shining and it was a lovely walk around the city.

My first visit to Plymouth was back in the 1980s on a school trip, well not quite a visit but was departing from there to Roscoff in France. It was quite a hike in the coach as at that time I was living in Cambridge.

In the early 2000s I would visit Plymouth quite often for meetings and attending conferences at the University of Plymouth. With changes in my job, I no longer needed to visit Plymouth. We did stop off there once in 2016 when we were travelling down to Cornwall, that was the last time I had been there until now.

Plymouth is an interesting city in many ways, the historic naval connections and the destruction during the second world war has influence how the city has grown and changed over the years.

The city centre is being redeveloped when we were there and you could see that the sea of concrete needed some much greenery and trees.

Plymouth Hoe is so different to the concrete of the centre. The green grass, Smeaton’s lighthouse, and the lido.

I do like the dockside and I remember going to bars there when I was attending conferences at the University of Plymouth.

June 17, 2025

Then and Now Take Two, still with scaffolding – Bristol Airport

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view o ar perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Over the years I have taken this view at Bristol Airport quite a few times, both unintentionally and now intentionally.

I was flying to Belfast in June 2025, so I took my usual photograph, with an iPhone 13, the building work was continuing.

I was flying to Dublin in October 2024, so I took my usual photograph.

Not quite the same view as there was scaffolding in the way and it was raining.

I was flying to Glasgow in November 2023, so I took my usual photograph.

I was flying to Amsterdam in October 2023 so I took a photograph from the window next to the balcony at the departures lounge. The balcony itself was closed, it was rather foggy.

When travelling from Bristol Airport in August 2023 I took this photograph from the balcony at the departures lounge.

When I was at Bristol Airport on the 14th November 2022, I intentionally took a photograph from the same vantage point.

I had taken a similar picture in February 2017.

I took this view of Bristol Airport from the departures lounge on an early morning in August 2016.

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025

Brighton #50places2025

I first visited Brighton in the 1980s when as a family we would sail over to France. Sometimes we would sail from Ramsgate to Calais (or Boulgone), but if we were on our way to Normandy, we would sail from Brighton, arriving in Dieppe, Fecamp, or Le Harve.

I also made a trip there for a JISC programmes meeting in July 2004. Then I had stayed at The Grand Hotel. I remember thinking it was a little too posh for me. I headed out for dinner finding a nice French place in The Lanes.

I also visited Brighton in June 2005 when I was on holiday in Bognor Regis. Then we stayed mainly on the seafront, visiting the Pier and the Doctor Who Exhibition there.

I had planned to stop there last year on my way to Newhaven on a driving holiday to the continent, but ran out of time and stopped at Horsham instead for something to eat.

This time I was attending a conference all week and it was nice to see Brighton once more.

We had a fun conference dinner on the Brighton Palace Pier and I had some nice meals in some of the restaurants in the Lanes. The conference kept me busy so I didn’t have much time to do too much exploring, but did manage to see the Pavilions, a building I hadn’t got around to seeing on previous visits to Brighton. The conference itself was in the of the Pavilions buildings, The Dome.

June 12, 2025June 17, 2025

Then and Now Take Two Again – Grand Hotel, Brighton

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I also made a trip there for a JISC programmes meeting in July 2004. Then I had stayed at The Grand Hotel.

This photograph from July 2004 was taken with a Sony Cybershot digital camera.

So, over twenty years later, I took a new photograph with an iPhone 13 in June 2025.

I didn’t quite catch the same perspective.

June 9, 2025June 9, 2025

Belfast #50places2025

I first visited Belfast back in the early 2000s as part of a JISC programmes meeting. The last time I was there was in 2017 running a leadership programme for Jisc.

I was back in Belfast last week for a conference. I didn’t get a chance to explore much of Belfast, but I did see quite a bit of the area around the hotel and the university. Part of the conference was a gala dinner at Titanic Belfast, a new(ish) attraction about the construction of the infamous Titanic.

June 8, 2025

Brussels #50places2025

I have visited Belgium quite a few times over the years, we went to Ostend a lot when I was a child. When I did some college trips to Amsterdam in the 1990s we obviously travelled by coach through Belgium, we also stopped at Bruges, which I am planning to visit again in the future. Last year on the way back from Germany we stopped for a flying visit to Ghent. We had thought about visiting Brussels, but time was against us.

I was in Brussels for a couple of in-person meetings. I had caught the Eurostar from St Pancras, having travelled up to London from Weston to Paddington. I find it quite amazing that the train from London to Brussels takes just two hours. In between my meetings, I did have some free time for exploring and taking some photographs.

Brussels is a beautiful city with some amazing buildings and parks.

June 3, 2025

Then and Now Take Two Again – Killerton Chapel

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I visited Killerton back in June 2023 and recently made a return visit in May 2025.

In the grounds is a chapel, when I visited in 2023 it was covered in scaffolding. I took this photograph with an iPhone 13.

So when I made my return visit in May 2025 I took a photograph of the chapel without the scaffolding. This was taken with a Canon EOS R100.

June 1, 2025June 1, 2025

Killerton #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025.

Killerton

A family home and a great estate. Glorious landscape garden surrounded by parkland with fine 18th-century house.

Current saving £142.10
One adult £17.00
Parking £4.80
Total saving £21.80
Cumulative saving £255.10
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £163.90

I visited Killerton back in June 2023. Having just visited Knighthayes down the road, it was a short drive to Killerton for a return visit.

I was pleased to see they had EV chargers in the car park, so I put the Funky Cat on charge.

They had dressed the house as a 1920s summer party with music and “dancing”. It was a lovely house and lots of rooms to explore. The first floor is more of a museum to a collection of dresses and clothes that were left to the National Trust.

The grounds and gardens are really nice as well.

May 31, 2025June 1, 2025

Knightshayes Court #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025.

Knightshayes Court

A great post-war garden,19th-century parkland and grand Gothic Revival architecture by Victorian visionary William Burges.

Current saving £120.30
One adult £17.00
Parking £4.80
Total saving £21.80
Cumulative saving £233.30
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £142.10

I visited Knightshayes Court back in January 2023 and enjoyed the visit. We rushed the house back then, so on my return visit in May I took a lot more time exploring the house. This was very much a gothic mansion and some really interesting painted ceilings.

There are some beautiful gardens and grounds to explore as well.

May 12, 2025

London #50places2025

In 2025 I have planned to visit a minimum of fifty places. Each time I visit a place I will post a blog post and some photographs.

Of the many places across the UK, I actually visit London quite a lot. I have made a trip to London at least ten times this year already. However, all those trips have been for work, either meetings in out London office, or events and conference. However in May we travelled to London for a show in the West End. We went to see Mischief Comedy’s production The Comedy About Spies.

When a rogue British agent pilfers plans for a top-secret weapon, CIA and KGB spies converge on London’s Piccadilly Hotel in pursuit of the elusive file. Add to the mix a clueless young couple, a hapless actor angling for the role of James Bond, and enough double agents to confuse even the sharpest operative, and you’ve got a mission that’s hilariously out of control.

In the past we have enjoyed their productions of The Play that Goes Wrong, and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery. However in both those productions there was none of the original cast. This time The Comedy About Spies had just opened and had the original founded members of Mischief cast in the various roles.