Gromiting - the art of spotting five foot high dogs

Headed by Aardman Animations, for ten weeks between 1st July and 8th September, eighty statues of Gromit have been placed in a type of public art display under the title, 'Gromit Unleashed'. These are mainly in the greater Bristol area, but some are further afield. Each statue has been designed or decorated by a different individual and each sponsored by a different corporate entity. After the end of the ten week period they'll then be auctioned off to raise funds for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital charity.

As my husband used to work for Aardman, I have a soft spot for all things Aardmanite. I even got to go on a couple of friends and family tours and held a model Gromit in my hand. It's just a shame it was all subject to confidentiality agreements, and I don't have any photographic evidence! As a result, as soon as I heard that the statues were being launched, I wanted to get out to see them. One of them is in London, which may well prove a bit problematic, I just have to hope that there's a course or meeting I need to attend there for work over the next few weeks!

As I've been off work this week, I've taken the opportunity to get around and see (and photograph) as many Gromits as I can. I'm aware 80 Gromits in one hit is a bit much for anyone, so I thought I'd blog after each 20 that I've visited, a target that I passed yesterday. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I have.

This is 'Poochadelic' by Lisa Hassell, sponsored by Linden Homes. This was the first Gromit we found, at Gloucesteshire Cricket Club. A good start, nice and colourful.

Next we went to see 'Two Eds are Better than One', by Peter Brookes, sponsored by Dunkley's Chartered Accountants and placed outside their offices. The illustrations are of Ed Balls as Gromit and Ed Milliband as Wallace. One for the more politically savvy, I think!

We took a drive up through the countryside to Hawkesbury Upton, where we found the next Gromit, 'Harmony' by Marie Simpson, tucked away in the Beaufort Arms beer garden, who had also sponsored him. I liked his design, with flowers and birds, which perfectly suited the summer weather.

Heading back home at the end of our first day, we nipped in to see 'Roger' by Richard Williams. He was outside the Top to Bottom soft furnishings store in Staple Hill, who also sponsored him. With my limited artistic ability and love of bright colours, this is probably how I'd have painted Gromit!

Another day, another set of Gromits. We were already in the area and so decided to visit the Gromits at the Cribbs Causeway shopping centre. This first one, 'The Wild West' by Amy Timms, was outside Harveys the furniture store, and was sponsored by them. He looks a little crazed, due to having a snail for one eye and a ladybird for the other!

Our next stop was 'Antique Rose' by Cath Kidston MBE, who was just outside one of the main entrances to the shopping centre, and was sponsored by them. This seemed a popular one judging by the reactions of the other people taking photographs of him.

'The Green Gromit', by Zayn Malik, was inside the Gromit Unleashed store in the shopping centre, who sponsored him. Not one of my favourites, as it's not immediately obvious that a lot of thought went into this one (prepares for the wrath of One Direction fans).

We went into town in the afternoon for a trip around the museum and found 'TutanGromit' by Dale Evans, just inside. He was sponsored by Brewin Dolphin and fitted perfectly with the Egyptian exhibition which we'd come to see.

I was surprised that this one was part of the series, as it's clearly so different. However, it's created by Nick Park CBE who also created Wallace and Gromit, so if anyone's design should stand out, it's his! This was in the main lobby of the museum, was called 'Newshound' and was sponsored by LDC.

Next we walked up to the Royal West of England Academy and found 'Bushed' by David Inshaw just inside. He was sponsored by Airbus and again wasn't amongst my favourites as little thought seemed to have gone into the design.

'Golden Gromit' by Julie Vernon was sparkling outside the Victoria Rooms and was sponsored by Dancourt Group. This is one of my favourites so far and must have taken ages to form the mosaic design.

'Vincent Van Gromit' by Laura Cramer was on a side street around the back of the Royal West of England Academy, so we nipped to see him on the way back to the car. He was sponsored by County Contractors and was quite a clever idea, I especially liked the bandaged ear!

The following day we both had appointments in Clifton, and so did a walk around all of the Gromits in the vicinity. We found 'Sheepdog' by Richard 'Golly' Starzak in the Mall Gardens, he was sponsored by BID Clifton Village. He's a Trojan Horse, you can just about see Shaun the Sheep inside controlling him.

On Sion Hill in the shadow of the Suspension Bride we found 'Ship Shape & Bristol Fashion' by Sarah Matthews, sponsored by Bristol City Council. This was a really clever one, with several parts of Bristol drawn onto him.

We had to search a bit for 'Fiesta' by Lindsay McBirnie. At first we went down the road behind the Avon Gorge hotel, and then spotted a sign that read, "Gromit is in the pub", at first we assumed he would be in the Avon Gorge Hotel, but he was actually on the terrace at the White Lion, but confusingly sponsored by the Avon Gorge Hotel. It was another clever design in a perfect location on a sunny day.

We then walked through to Clifton Hill where we found 'Patch' by Emily Golden and sponsored by Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital. This was a cheery design and unusually didn't have any other Gromit spotters around him. In fact the only other people around were the workmen eating their lunches and snoozing under the nearby trees!

We jumped in the car and spotted 'Sugar Plum' by Celia Birtwell CBE on our way up to the Downs. He was outside The Redgrave Theatre, but sponsored by Clifton College. The rose theme seems quite popular, not the first nor the last we'll see.

We made a quick stop at Bristol Zoo Gardens to see 'A Mandrill's Best Friend' by Vivi Cuevas, sponsored by Kings Heavy Haulage (Bristol). Again, this was a perfect design for the location and was very popular.

'Dog Rose' by Ros Franklin was nearby on Whiteladies Road and was sponsored by A C Services (Southern). This one looked like he was rolling his eyes, a simple design, but done well.

'Blossom' by Emily Ketteringham was nearby outside Cafe Retreat on the Downs, but sponsored by Siniat. From the photographs this looks like he's in a bit of a sad location, it's a shame they didn't place him with the Downs as a backdrop, his flowery image would have worked much better then.

We did a few more that day, but as I've now covered our first twenty, that seems like a good place to stop.

Hopefully you're enjoying seeing the Gromit statues. If you want to come to Bristol to hunt some down for yourself, there's an app for Apple and Android phones, that you can use to tick them off as you see them. It costs 69p, but most of that goes to the charity. The Gromit Unleashed website is also worth a look. You can download maps there, or pick them up from the passport stops and shops (where you can also get your Gromit Unleashed passport stamped).

If there's anything I can help with, or you just want to let me know which is your favourite Gromit, please leave me a comment below.

I'll hopefully be back with the next twenty shortly before I have to go back to work and life gets in the way!

Nine months of braces

I was back at my orthodontist's this week for my latest adjustment. When he asked how things were going, I was honest and said it had probably been the worst six weeks. Three out of my four wire ends had been cutting into my cheek pretty much throughout, and my molar was aching more or less constantly as it tried to level off after initially being tipped up. He then asked how things were apart from that! The wires sticking out at least show that my gaps are closing and the tooth needs to level out, so although it's felt like a long six weeks, it's all going in the right direction.

I warned him that with my molar being sore he may want to hold it in place when working on it, to stop me jumping out of the seat. He then prodded it a few times, with the traditional, "does this hurt?", "how about this?" When I jumped, he seemed satisfied that my tooth does indeed hurt. I'd even taken painkillers before leaving home as a safeguard!

The wires came out relatively easily. The good news was that he's happy enough with my bite that I can now bid farewell to powerchains. Hurrah, a sign of progress! I'm now on the thickest wires on both arches. As my molar was sore, he used a burr to reduce the size of the wire on that end, so it would go in more easily. It was still a bit of a battle, but with a bit of grease, he managed to wiggle it into place in the end. The next good news was that he seemed to indicate that it would be another two or three appointments before I'm done. Not wanting to count my chickens, but it would be nice to be brace free before Christmas, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

He's bent the wire again next to my top incisor which is still set a little back. The only other issue with my top arch is that it bows, with my teeth being lower at my wisdoms and incisors and higher in the middle. The thicker wire should even that out. On my lower arch, my troublesome molar still needs to sink a little further, and the powerchain has made all my teeth tilt inwards, so the thicker wire and lack of powerchain should now mean that they start to tilt the other way.

As is now traditional, I've included a progress photo below. You can see that there's a bit of a gap between my top and bottom teeth by my premolars, caused by my tipped molar, and my lower teeth are tipped in, but generally I feel like I'm on the home straight.

Read about my previous adjustment appointment
Read about my next adjustment appointment

Making the most of a week off work

We booked a week off work about a month ago, mainly as we were both exhausted and needed a break and had few plans other than relaxing. As it turns out, our choice of week off couldn't have been better, with glorious weather all week. We're only just over halfway through the week, but have been so busy that it seems like a perfect excuse for an update blog post.

We had this crazy idea to get our chores out of the way at the start of the week, so we could enjoy ourselves and relax at the end of the week before returning to work. What that did mean was that by the end of Saturday I'd painted all the external woodwork on the house. I loathe gloss paint at the best of times and had worn latex gloves to keep it off my skin. I quickly realised, as they stuck to my skin more and more, that latex gloves aren't suited to temperatures in the high 20s! I'd also painted the sides of an old cast iron bench which we acquired when my work moved from their old premises complete with patio, to one completely devoid of external space. Andrew's taken it apart over the last couple of years (including angle grinding rusted bolts out of it!), and sanded down the wood, so it was nice to be making it look better than it probably had for fifteen years!

By Sunday, we decided we needed a day off. This year Aardman Animations and The Grand Appeal have placed around 70 five foot high decorated sculptures of Gromit around Bristol, plus a few further afield. They're only in place for about ten weeks, and I'm keen to get around to see as many as possible. We made a start on Sunday, visiting a few to the north of Bristol. They have all been designed and decorated by different people and so are as diverse as 80 sculptures of a five foot dog can be. On Sunday we got around to see four of them, this is the first one that we found.

We also have dreams of living in the country and so drove around some villages in South Gloucestershire for inspiration. We passed a house with this incredible memorial tower in the garden, unfortunately it wasn't for sale!

We had to get up early on Monday to drop my car in for a service. When we got back we felt sufficiently recovered to be able to face more painting. We emptied the room, then applied masking tape and put down dust sheets. We set about painting, with me doing the cutting in and patch filling and Andrew wielding the roller, and didn't finish until about 9pm. By that time we couldn't face cooking, so Andrew went to pick up a curry from our local restaurant, the Raj Mahal. No curry has ever tasted as good!

We got up on Tuesday and removed the masking tape, dust sheets and started putting everything back together. I can't believe we managed to cover dark red paint with a single coat of this!

 

 Afterwards we headed into Bristol to visit the Museum, where they had a visiting Egyptian exhibition. I've lived in Bristol for about seven years and hadn't been there before, so it felt like a perfect excuse. It's mind-blowing that artifacts from 3,000 years ago are still in one piece when almost all of our dinner plates have chunks missing! Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed, so you'll have to make do with these mummified cats, complete with drawn on faces, from the main Egyptian display! We also managed to see a few more of the Gromit statues whilst we were in the area.

When we got home we put the bench together, not only does it look great, but it's also incredibly comfortable, just what we needed!

Today, we both had orthodontic appointments. Afterwards we rushed off to the Primrose Cafe for lunch before our teeth started hurting. It's a lovely little spot in Clifton Village with good food, and everything looks especially good when the weather's as sunny as it is today. 

We finished with a walk to track down all the Gromits in Clifton, it's a beautiful area, but by the end of it, we'd covered about four miles and were very glad to get home to put our feet up!

We've now visited 23 of the 80 Gromits and I'm wondering what to do blog-wise. Should I do one large post when I've seen them all (hopefully!) or is that too unmanageable, would I be better posting every time I've seen 20 or so? Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

The end of Google Reader, where else you can find me

There seems to have been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in the blogging community since Google announced its plans to discontinue Google Reader. This seems to have caused some confusion about what exactly they mean.

This is Google Reader, and as the message suggests when you go into it, it won't be available after 1 July 2013.

The confusion is over whether Google Friend Connect (which acts as the blog reader in Blogger) will also be discontinued. Whilst there are no plans announced as yet, the conspiracy theorists seem to suggest that it will happen at some stage, as part of a plan to direct more traffic to Google+ by using that instead.

In the meantime, more and more people seem to be using Bloglovin' as their blog reader of choice. It's not a bad choice at all, it's easy on the eye, you can import your blog reading list from Google Friend Connect or Google Reader, and best of all, it has an app, so you can easily catch up with blogs whilst away from your PC. I've certainly moved my reading list over to Bloglovin' and like the way it works. 

If you're being booted out by Google Reader, or are nervous that you may lose your blog list on Google Friend Connect, there are plenty of other ways to follow me.

If you're on Bloglovin', or just want to give it a try, you can follow me on there by clicking this link and then the follow button.

Whilst at the moment my Facebook blog page mostly replicates my blog, I'm aiming to start adding more photographs and thoughts to make it a little bit different. You can follow me on there by clicking this link and liking my page.

 I'm also on Twitter and Instagram, you'll find buttons for those in my side bar.

Oh, and if you're old school, you can still follow my blog by email. Hopefully there's something for everybody!

Meal at the Clifton Sausage

We'd had some gift vouchers for the Clifton Sausage knocking around since Christmas. It's no secret that we love our food, so vouchers for somewhere to eat are always welcome, particularly when it's somewhere as good as the Clifton Sausage. We booked a table for last weekend and I thought I'd take a few photos to share.

As the name would suggest, the Clifton Sausage is in Clifton village, just outside Bristol city centre, in an area filled with independent shops and home of the landmark Suspension Bridge. We've been to the Clifton Sausage a few times and never had a bad meal there, so it's a good reliable place for a tasty meal.

We were welcomed, shown to our corner table and presented with the main and the specials menu. So much choice!

I liked the sound of the cream of sweetcorn soup, but didn't think I'd manage three courses and so passed on a starter. Andrew had more confidence in his appetite and ordered the king prawns and chorizo with chili and garlic and rosemary focaccia. The waitress was keen to tell him he'd made the right choice. She wasn't wrong. The prawns were succulent and the chorizo smokey, it went down exceedingly well.

Next, onto the main course, it seemed rude to not have sausages. Andrew went for the tasting plate, which was four sausages, Clifton (pork, cider, wholegrain mustard), Gloucester Old Spot (prime traditional pork), lamb mint and apricot and Beef and Spitfire Ale, with parsnip crisps, served with gravy and champ (mash with chopped spring onions). I decided to have the special, pork, plum and ginger sausages with gravy and mash. They were so good. I'm not normally a huge fan of sausages as the lumpy bits make me a bit squeamish, but these sausages are made of such good meat that they fall apart when you cut into them. Absolutely perfect.

I was already feeling quite full by this stage, but I normally refuse a pudding and then try to eat Andrew's. This time I decided I should order my own. We both went for sticky toffee pudding which was delicious. It defeated me though, and had to leave some of it. What a waste! 

Andrew finished with an espresso. We were given a comments card with the bill, and I even liked that with its piggy snouts!

If you're in Bristol and are looking for somewhere to eat, I'd definitely recommend the Clifton Sausage, it's worth booking though as it's so popular. You can do so through their website.

Birthday break in Pembrokeshire

 At the end of April we went to Pembrokeshire for a long weekend for my husband's birthday. We'd both had a bit of a stressful time with work, and so were desperate for a few days away from it all.

The drive to Saundersfoot, where we were staying didn't take long, around three hours, we arrived at St Brides Hotel mid afternoon and were welcomed and show to our room. It was cosy with a balcony that gave us a view of the coast.

 As it was such a clear, dry day, we didn't want to stay inside and so headed straight back out for a quick look around town and some geocaching. It didn't take long to realise that although the weather looked fine, there was a cold wind blowing off the coast. We had a walk around, did a couple of caches and were then pleased to get back to the warmth of the hotel.

Before we left the house that morning, we'd had a Patisserie Valerie cake delivered from Andrew's bosses. A piece of cake broke the afternoon up nicely!

 

 We stayed in for the rest of the day, had a lovely meal in the hotel restaurant and generally lounged around reading and watching television.

The next morning we headed over to Pembroke Castle. It was even more impressive than I'd imagined. It was in a good enough state of repair that you could climb up inside a number of the towers, which gave a great view of the surroundings, and work your way around using the walkways that connected them.

We had a bit of excitement when the wind caught Andrew's hat and blew it off over the castle walls. We managed to spot where it was on the ground below, so we could collect it later.

 After exploring the castle, we stopped for a cup of tea and then headed into Pembroke to find some caches. We ended up walking by the river, which gave a great view looking down to the castle.

That evening we headed out to the Marina restaurant for some proper seaside fish and chips. They were delicious, much better than the greasy battered fish we get at home.

The next morning, we set out for a day of geocaching. We found nine in total, and probably covered about five miles. The one that really stood out was this one, an old World War 2 underground bunker. I was glad to stay above ground and let Andrew explore!

We had a final meal at the hotel that night and headed home in the morning. Unfortunately we didn't find time to make use of the spa facilities on site, but that may just make for a good excuse for a return visit!

Brace adjustment - seven months in

I had my latest brace adjustment appointment on Wednesday. I'm clearly now in the stage where it's a series of small, unexciting adjustments to correct my bite, and then we're done.

My teeth started out quite sore after having the additional brackets fitted at my last appointment, but settled down so that over the last few weeks the only trouble I've had has been with a wire digging in to my cheek at the back on my right hand side.

I went into my appointment promptly and had a quick chat about how things were going. I mentioned that my top right second incisor was still a little tucked back and wondered if it could be encouraged forward. I also asked about how much my orthodontist was hoping to close my extraction gaps by, so I could get an idea of progress. The answer was that it was as much as was needed to get my bite right. That makes sense I guess!

My wires, ligatures and power chain were removed and replaced. I had the same size wire on the top, albeit with a bend in it to encourage my right incisor to move out a little (it's top left on the photograph below, you can see the wire bending removed some of the coating). The bottom wire had got stuck by one of my molars and was quite painful coming out. As I had a thicker wire on my bottom arch it was a bit of an effort getting it back in, so I braced, wishing I'd taken some painkillers before I left home! The power chain now doesn't go all the way from wisdom tooth to wisdom tooth, it starts at my molars. I've got one which is tipped up higher than my other teeth and it's throwing out my bite as a result. The plan is that by not taking the power chain past it, it will help it move down into position.

The photos don't really show much as most of the work now is going on at the back of my mouth. I like to include them for completeness though!

It's now about three days since my appointment and surprisingly, since the wire change was quite painful, I've hardly had any trouble from my teeth since. Normally I have to eat soft food for a couple of days afterwards, but this time I've not struggled with harder foods. One of the brackets on my wisdom teeth digs in a little bit sometimes, but most of the time I don't even notice it. I'm hoping this will be an easy six weeks!

Read about my previous adjustment appointment 
Read about my next adjustment appointment