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It was snowing…

While a lot of the UK was having snow, it did miss us in Weston-super-Mare.

However today it did start to snow and we went out for a walk in the snow.

You can just about see the snow.

Alas it stopped and it has now all melted.

We’ve had some serious snow before as you can see from this photograph from December 2010.

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Murder Mystery on Netflix

We enjoyed Murder Mystery on Netflix.

This is not a deep film.

It is a comedic fun murder thriller.

If you like Adam Sandler films then likely you will enjoy this.

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Then and Now – Kings Cross Railway Station

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart.

I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.

I always think I should give them 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.  The first instance of this that I noticed was in May 2019 when I went to  Manchester.

It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!

I took this view in July 2016 of Kings Cross Railway Station in London having noticed that they removed the front ticket office and as a result you could see the Victorian brick structure of the station behind it.

And this was (almost) the same view in January 2018.

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Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2020

So in 2018 I published 89 posts to the blog, in 2019 it was 68, though 36 of those were in December.

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.

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

https://jamesclay.net/bristol-harbourside-in-the-1990s

Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Three

Bristol from the air in 2005

Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Six

The Longleat Miniature Railway

Potions Classroom

Diagon Alley

https://jamesclay.net/bristol-harbourside-in-the-1990s-2

Changes at the railway station

Remembering the Bristol Temple Way Flyover

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Then and Now – Birmingham

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart.

I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.

I always think I should give them 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.  The first instance of this that I noticed was in May 2019 when I went to  Manchester.

It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!

Next door to the ICC in Birmingham is a canal and there is a bridge across there from Brindley Place, and it would appear quite often when crossing the bridge I would take a photograph down the canal looking towards the what was the NIA (National Indoor Arena) and is now known as the Utilita Arena Birmingham.

This was the view in May 2011 in the early evening.

In the preceding years the NIA had undergone refurbishment and renovation and had had a glass facade added. It was renamed the “Barclaycard Arena” in November 2014 after Barclaycard won the naming rights. This was the view in March 2015 over lunchtime.

Here we are four years later in October 2019 in the morning.

Finally on my most recent visit to Birmingham in March 2020, also in the morning.

It’s quite surprising how little has changed over the nine years between the photographs.

It would also not surprise you that I have a similar set of photographs looking the other way…

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Photo a Day 2020

Every day during 2020 I took a photograph and posted it to Instagram and this blog.

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.

You can click the thumbnails for a larger version of each image.

ThreeSanta Kiwi Carol Singer #366photos2020 #366photos Onions #366photos2020 Lego Drawer #366photos2020 ALT LSSIG Meeting Gears #366photos2020 #366photos Type 22 Pill Box #366photos2020 Have your say #366photos2020 Bloodhound #366photos2020 Bowl #366photos2020 #366photos Homemade Gluten Free Sausage Rolls Sandwich #366photos2020 #366photos Ashton Gate #366photos2020 #366photos Baking #366photos2020 #366photos Icy grass #366photos2020 #366photos King's College Chapel, Cambridge Madingley Hall #366photos2020 The Office Fruit #366photos2020 #366photos Gin London Paddington #366photos2020 Brushes Pond #366photos2020 Service Van #366photos2020 Bunker Wain’s Hill Brean Sands Beach Path Haywood Village Bridge Flowers Breakfast Waffles Looking towards Brean Down #366photos2020 #366photos Nearly empty roads BunkerCourthouse #366photos2020 Keyboard #366photos2020 Worle Roundabout #366photos2020 Chocolates Donkeys #366photos2020 Bee #366photos2020 Where shopping trollies go to die #366photos2020 Strawberry Leaves #366photos2020Footpath #366photos2020 Surface Pro Keyboard raining Bubblewrap Brean Down and the River Axe Shopping The Wookey Hole Witch Ball Gluten Free Chewy Cookies Bristol Temple Meads Brean Down #366photos2020 At the drive-in... #366photos2020 Burnham-on-sea’s Low Lighthouse Ashton Court Mansion Bristol Harbour Calzone Verdure Pasta Orca

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My top ten tweets of 2020

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

So 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.

So in 2020, my tenth most popular tweet was this one, a response to one about signage in the libraries.

The photo was from an April Fool we did at the library in Gloucestershire College. What was interesting was that it didn’t work, no one noticed the new signs or paid them any attention,.

Though it should be said we never had a problem with swimming in the library again.

The ninth most popular tweet of mine was from an event I attended in February on trans national education and I posted a sketchnote.

The tweet at number eight was about the lack of a door in Matt Hancock’s home office.

The seventh most popular tweet was a picture of Buckingham Palace!

It was a response to an original New York Post tweet that has now been deleted. It talked about the UK Christmas covid-19 planning with a picture of Paris.

Number six, was a link to a story about how students realised they could game an assessment as it was been graded by an AI and not a person.

Wasn’t cheating, it was just doing what was required to get top marks.

Fifth most popular tweet was about shopping centre clocks.

Fourth most popular tweet was another tweet in response to that original New York Post tweet that has now been deleted. It talked about the UK Christmas covid-19 planning with a picture of Paris.

Luckily someone managed to get a screengrab.

The third most popular tweet was about The Sovereign Centre shopping centre, which appears to be chasing the title of the UK’s Worst Shopping Centre…

Back in January I misread a tweet from Stephen Fry and that was the most popular tweet at number two.

So my top tweet  of 2020 was me reminiscing when WHSmith in Bristol went all Dexter.