A wet Sunday afternoon

Sunday ...at least I remembered my umbrella today cos we certainly needed them. We caught a bus into town and visited the SS Great Britain. If you have a wet afternoon to spare in Bristol sometime it is worth seeing. The first steamship made of iron and designed by Brunel ( he designed the suspension bridge as well - clever man). It was built in the 1830's and spent time as cargo boat and taking immigrants to Aussie. It was then left to rust in the shallow seas of the Falklands before someone decided in the 1960's to refloat and bring it home to the dry dock it was built in. They have done it really well, the dry dock is dehumidified so that the boat doesn't rust, and the top decks are done out just like the passengers would have seen them - really little (short and thin beds), the kitchens, doctors surgery, dining room for first class passengers were quite interesting to see. Apparently, a lot of the designs had been lost and so they pieced together diaries from passengers to reconstruct the top. Caramello is playing cards in one of the photos - I was fascinated because the cards do not have numbers on them - it would be quite difficult to play bridge when you couldn't see all the hearts or diamonds on the card. Harry was of course interested in the technical side of the boat and enjoyed taking photos of the engine room, pumps etc. The green and white photo is a model of the steam engine (just in case you didn't know). I enjoyed reading the diaries of the passengers, and continue to realise how courageous these people were to take their families, or just themselves, to the other side of the world - not knowing what it was like. One of them was of course my grandmothers family - she came to New Zealand when she was only 5 - the parents had 7 children to look after (I have a feeling they were in steerage rather than first class). I have a lot to thank her for. One diary was of a man going to the Australian gold fields - he said that someone had asked him 'had he considered the influence of failure on his life before leaving England'. I guess it is something we need to consider but if we did fully, we wouldn't ever take on new challenges. I always think that with email, texting, telephones and post our adventures do not seem so distant or lonely. Thank goodness we can contact everyone in NZ or I would feel so isolated.

We tried out our new thermos's (flasks they call them here) and had our picnic under the shelter in the rain (Michael and Sharon would say at this point 'typical'). The ice cream man took a photo of both of us but I didn't look great so you will see the one of Harry eating alone.

We wandered around some streets we hadn't seen before and came across Bristol General Hospital - Harry and I both have wondered where the 'BGH' is as we now send mail to it all the time and Harry has to cope with all the equipment failing - an old stone building which reminded me a little bit of a prison. I have a feeling that some of these old hospitals are certainly poor conditions compared to the newer wards. Apparently the hospital I am in was built in the 1700's and the BGH is relatively new from the 1800's.

Saw more boats - this time growing sweet peas and sunflowers. The sweet peas reminded me of my friend Heather who grows beautiful ones at her home in Stokes Valley. Those of you who know me well know that I like sunflowers - so it was nice to see them both on the boat at the same time.
Every day we drive past on the bus St Mary Redcliffe church and I was determined to go and see it today. It is funny that it doesn't matter how many you see they are all different - little differences I guess picked up by the congregations and those that have restored them. This is huge and beautiful as you can see from the pictures - personally I think one of the best. In the lawn is a tram line that was uprooted from the road, thrown over the adjacent houses, when a bomb struck on Good Friday 1941. They have left it to show how close the church came to destruction - quite a sobering reminder.

We walked to the grocery shop nearby to see if we can shop after work rather than in the weekends after yesterdays fiasco. Yes, this shop closes at 10.00 so we can walk 20 minutes after work and then catch a bus with our load of groceries (join the multitude who do that every day). It will free up our weekends which is great as it is sort of like a Warehouse come supermarket and so should have most things we need.

That's it - new week tomorrow and new job...