Hay-on-Wye

Hay is where I took the picture on my last post. We were there in October 2010. The bench is near the old castle mound and by a footpath that follows the River Wye. We discovered this by accident as we wandered around.

This was how we found it - a plaque on the wall that divided it from the road.

This is a photo of the motte taken from the road. (Sorry about the truck that got in the way.)

We took the steps that followed the fence dividing them from the motte. You may be able to
 make out the bench pictured in my last post. It's behind the tree to the left.

The walk along the high level of the river bank is shaded but affords lovely river views between the trees.

We ended up under this bridge that brings traffic into the town of Hay-on-Wye
 from the other side of the river. 

Wordless Wednesday: Helpful Bears

My Life - by Jade: Feeling Better

Yippee!. Mummy let me off-lead today so I could run around a bit on a wide open space.

I've been under doctor' orders to rest for two weeks at least because my leg hurt and made me limp. Even after it stopped hurting I still wasn't allowed to go further than the top of the park for my toilet, and at home all my toys were taken away and I wasn't allowed to run in the garden. Every time I jumped up with my front legs on the cupboard top where my toys were, Mummy told me to get down and be good. I think I've lost weight because it's no fun eating my kibble from my bowl instead of Mummy throwing it for me to chase.

But today Mummy called the dog doctor and he said I can start going out for exercise again. And she gave me a ball to play with indoors. Actually I'm not used to all this exercise now and I'm tired. So I'm going to have a snooze in my bed behind Mummy while she is on the computer.

British Gas Again

It seems no-one managed to find the howler on the British Gas advert.

So I'll just have to point it out.

See the three parachutes? The bottom one is titled Boiler and Central Heating, with a spanner. In the middle is Plumbing, with a plunger. At the top is Drains, with a Stilsons wrench.

Now would you fix a drain with a Stilsons wrench? Wouldn't you use a plunger to unblock it? And what would you use a Stilsons pipe wrench for, if not the pipes in your plumbing?

Get it, now?

Wordless Wednesday: Roses are on the Way

Bristol

Had a great time visiting Bristol with friends this weekend. We walked over the historic Bristol Bridge that you can see in the picture. Mostly we went on a pub crawl. There's nothing like chatting and catching up over a pint of real ale, or in my case a half pint, since there was going to be so much of it. One of my friends prefers beer to food. The rest of us like them both in equal measure. I was surprised to find so many pubs that don't do food, since many establishments these days can't survive unless they do. Anyway, we were eventually forced to go to Pizza Express to get something inside us to soak up the wet stuff.

We did take time out on Sunday morning to visit the Botanic Garden. The route there took us past the wide open spaces of Durdham Downs. We saw lots of dog walkers with their charges, which made me think of Jade who stayed at home with my menfolk and who was to give me a super welcome when hubby brought her to collect me from the station later.

Pic by Linda Bailey - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. 


Anyway back to the Botanical Gardens which are part of Bristol University and a really educational experience, because they chart the development of the plant world through the millenia and make references to the thousands of species of each plant growing there. They are very well tended and have many beautiful specimens in a lovely landscaped space. Before we left we visited the glasshouses kept at various temperatures to suit the plant life within.

After this it was pub time again, but we did find one more thing of note - the Bristol Lido & Spa. It is hidden away in a terraced back street - a really bizarre location. We glimpsed people swimming through the glass door as we passed and stopped to find out more. Apparently it is a quite exclusive club, although members of the public can swim in the heated outdoor pool at £20 a time. It has a bar and restaurant as well, and does special deals for a swim and a meal that just add £5 or £10 or so to the cost of the swim. You can read more about it at the Bristol Lido website.

We spent some time on the waterfront, making a couple of visits to the Watershed, an event venue which also houses a cinema and restaurant bar. My real ale devotee friend reckoned it had the best selection of beers of the weekend, and for me it had really good decaffeinated coffee before heading to my hotel at the end of Saturday evening.

Pic by Keith Edkins - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

And after getting my batteries recharged in that way, today it has been back to work, which meant researching and writing about the riveting subject of voltage optimisation. I'm always surprised at how interested I get in these topics that seem at first glance to be really dull and dry.

British Gas Howler

The advertiser's don't always get it right, but I'm amazed someone let this one through. Can you see a glaring error in this flyer that came through our letterbox? My hubby pointed it out to me. 

Here's a clue. (Sorry it's not in full focus - you should still be able to see what I mean.)