Not what I was expecting

 It's been a number of years since I went on a coach trip but when I saw that a local company had a trip to Bristol Christmas market with a stop for a carvery meal on the return journey I booked  myself on it.

Bristol Is somewhere I've wanted to visit for a while, It's always mentioned as being a nice place to shop with a variety of independent shops so I was really surprised to discover that It wasn't at all what I expected.  Cabot Circus and The Galleries did have some different shops than we have locally but The Arcade which supposedly had independent shops turned out to be mostly nail, hair and beauty shops. Although It was nice to explore new shops the main reason for the trip was the Christmas Market.

What a disappointment. I imagined walking round and getting into the Christmas spirit with perhaps a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie, ha!

 Seems you can put up a tree, a few Santa statues and some wooden huts and call it a Christmas Market.  None of the stalls were selling anything really Christmas related, there was a stand selling jewellery another selling wooden items and one selling those bohemian ceramics and the rest was made up of food and drink.  The prices for food was ridiculous, loaded chips were £8.99 and churros £7, a burger was about the same.  Needless to say I didn't buy anything to eat, nor was there anything else I wanted to buy.  I initially thought the four hours we were there wouldn't be long enough, turned out that It was quite long enough!

But, we had a carvery on the way back to look forward to, and thankfully that was wonderful and the highlight of the day.

Will I visit Bristol again?  Well not for the shopping but I would probably like to do a sightseeing trip sometime in the future. 

For now I'm in search of a much more Christmassy experience.

-x-

Out and about

It's been a busy couple of weeks again, some fun stuff but also doctor appointments and chiropractor visits mixed in too.  Those chiropractor visits seem to be working, albeit slowly.  The  Doctor suggested an xray on my hip which took me two days of calling to book and they can't get me in until December 26th, the problem may well have sorted itself out by then

Halloween night was fair and dry so we did have quite a few kids trick or treating, they were all younger kids and all had made really good efforts with their costumes, there was only a few treats left at the end of the night.

The night before Halloween Joanne was taking the children on a pumpkin walk and asked if I wanted to join them.  It was held at Bodenham Arboretum which I've visited a few times in the day light, the paths lead around a central lake with a working farm about half way round, it's a really nice place for a walk  The organisers had put a lot of effort into the pumpkins which decorated the path, some were real works of art and it made for a spooky atmosphere because there is no artificial lighting.  When we reached the farm the kids could make a magic wand from sticks and wool listen to a spooky story.  The walk ended with marshmallow toasting.  It was perfect, and unlike so many attractions today there were no fairground rides to spoil the magic.

The giant spider was brilliant and I loved how they decorated the bales of hay.  They had also set scenes at various points using some of the farm vehicles, It was well worth the £10 ticket price.

 Last weekend was a busy one, I had a day out on Saturday with my daughter Stevie, we had a lovely lunch in a fairly local farm shop and then called into a small garden centre on the way back where they were hosting a craft fair, we had such a lovely time that I forgot to take any photos, lol

 Sunday was the last day of the Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC Birmingham, the ticket price included the Cake International and Simply Christmas show.  I bought my ticket last minute thinking It would be quieter on the Sunday, It wasn't.  My only purchase was two pieces of fabric to make something Stevie had requested, (more on that next week perhaps).  There was nothing in either the Cake Show or the Christmas Show that I wanted, the Christmas one is always full of over-priced things that you can get cheaper on the high street anyway.  

I did spend quite some time admiring all the amazing cakes, although these are not the edible kind, they are purely to showcase the amazing sugar craft talent.

The biggest and probably the most impressive creation was the life sized replica of Elizabeth I.

Inspired by the Rainbow portrait at Hatfield Park and created by Emma Jayne Cake Designs, this amazing piece of work took four weeks to create, three weeks for the body and a week for the head.  

Following the show the cake is to be taken to Hatfield Park and auctioned for charity.

Aren't they fabulous? the time and skill involved is just unbelievable.  There were some 'real' cakes that were taste tested and in amongst those I spotted this.

Oh dear! Imagine taking the time to make your entry only to have this happen on the way to the event, I can imagine that they were very upset.

 I've been stitching a lot this week but I will catch up with that another time, It''s Remembrance Day tomorrow, Oliver's Scout unit are not marching for the second year running, they don't have enough people to cover, apparently.  Bonnie and Jacob are doing a short march from their meeting place to the church with Beavers and Squirrels and Bonnie has been chosen as flag bearer so we will go and watch them and stay for the service.  

Hope you are having a good weekend whatever you are up to.

Take care

-X-