@Bristol

So what do you do on a wet afternoon in Bristol in December?  Go to "@Bristol", the science museum, of course!  I expected it to be like the one in Kensington, but instead it was more like an Exploratorium aimed at children.  Perfect for me, then...

There was a great hands-on exhibit of water wheels and pumps sponsored by Bristol Water (who else?).

There was also the famous "inside-out Einstein" demonstration.  I'll leave it up to the viewer to decide which this is...

Other exhibits included spinning magnets, manually operated organ pipes and - being Bristol - a do-it-yourself Clifton Suspension Bridge, which had to be built from first principles by yours truly.

Part of the museum is dedicate to an exhibit called Animate It - perhaps unsurprising given that Aardman Animation is based in Bristol.  This area was huge fun, including our old friends Morph, Wallace, Gromit, The Red Baron and many more.  There's a prize for the first person to spot the difference between me and Wallace...

It was also possible to make short stop-motion animation films which were then uploaded onto a website for future viewing.  This was hugely enjoyable, and something I must have a go at in my copious free time now that Lightroom4 and Photoshop CS6 are both capable of editing image sequences as Video.  My masterpieces can be viewed here and here.  Hopefully no Psychologist will watch them, as I'm rather worried about the consequences if the films are analysed too closely...

Speaking of worried, I was accosted - in the nicest possible way - by a teacher in charge of a school party, as I had been "reported" by one of his pupils for taking pictures.  It's sad that we have reached the point where children feel they need to be wary of photographers, and teachers are put in the position of having to "protect" them.  What's sadder still is that none of us were actually doing the wrong thing: it was right for the children to be wary; it was right of the teacher to confront me; and it was also right that I was able to take pictures.  Chatting with the teacher later, he told me that the school had recently banned any form of photography from the end-of-term Nativity Play for fear of subsequent recriminations.  Now that is sad...

Enough of that, so here are a couple of images outside the museum to finish off.

A great place to visit, although probably better to there with a child and without a camera, if my experience is anything to go by.