Bristol calling

 

This time tomorrow I should be on my way to Bristol. It’ll be just a few days shy of ten years since I visited the city for the first time; I wonder how much has changed...

I went there then at the invitation of a friend, L, whom I had met at Chelsea School of Art where we were doing a part-time illustration course, and she used to travel down from Bath once a week just for the teaching sessions.  This would seem to most people to be quite a big undertaking anyway but I have no end of admiration for L for doing it because she also had some significant physical impairments, one of which affected her ability to simply breathe.   Yet she was one of the most driven, feisty and active people I have ever known, determined to squeeze the absolute most out of life even though at times it really must have been a struggle, plus she was very much a fighter for justice and equal rights.  Sadly L is no longer with us but I’ll think of her while I’m in Bristol again this week as it was thanks to her offer to take me to her MA Fine Art Graduation Show at UWE that I went in 2015.

For much of the time, though, I explored on my own.  I wandered, unworried about time or distance, got lost near Clifton, found my way again, was ambushed by some film-makers outside the Arnolfini (where I was persuaded to try out a prototype VR headset to walk right through the middle of Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’),  fell in love with a 50-year old giant lobster called Patrick at the Aquarium, met a cat on a wild hill near the Avon Gorge, and time-travelled in the Red Lodge Museum, amongst other delightful activities during my stay.  

Now a whole decade later I'll be there once more, and on this occasion I’m so pleased to be able to unite with one of the loveliest groups of people you could wish to spend time with: my fellow bloggers!  It’ll be something of a whirlwind trip but what a treat to be among such good folk, a couple of whom I’ve not met before.  Something tells me there’ll be smiles, anecdotes and probably drink aplenty, and that being back in Bristol may well feel like visiting an old friend too.

See you soon!