@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.

Shooting Star

As part of my job being Frances's chauffeur, I took her to the local shooting club where she's a member.  I was allowed in on the understanding that I wore ear protectors and didn't make any sudden movements while Frances was shooting.

The final image involves a slight disagreement about the final score for Frances's 10-shot target.  Using a gauge specially made for the purpose, it became clear that it was 93 rather than 92.  Apparently the maximum is 101 - something which took a little bit of explaining to non-shooters like me.  Apparently there is a small dot in the middle of the inner "10" circle which scores "0.1".  Please don't ask me why...

Gloucester Road Shopping

I'm in Bristol at the moment and, of course, it is raining.  The original plan had been to go to the zoo, but there seemed little point given the weather.  Instead, Frances and I went shopping along the Gloucester Road, and here are some of the scenes we spotted.

Dog Friendly Fossil Hunting

It's been a bit of a lean period for photography recently, but hopefully I'll be able to change that over the Christmas period.  Due to a clerical error I had lots of holiday to use up at the end of the year, so I've taken up Frances's invitation to spend a week in Bristol.  Yesterday we went to Watchet on the Somerset coast, which claimed to have a "Dog Friendly Fossil Beach".  Curious to know what Dog Friendly Fossils looked like, Frances and I headed down there with Amber.  Not much in the way of fossils (dog friendly or otherwise) but still a great place for a Winter walk on the beach.  The rock formations were amazing too, with rich veins of Quartz (both White and Rose) in the red sandstone.

More from Harry Potter

A few more pictures from my trip to the Harry Potter studios, starting with the outdoor "guardian" and the flying Ford Anglia from Chamber of Secrets.

Part of the Main Hall.

The guardian of the stairwell which leads to Dumbledore's office.

Detail from the Chamber of Secrets itself.

The Ice Sculpture from the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire.  All made of plastic, unfortunately.

A display of costumes, including Harry's Invisibility Clock.  The lining is made of material with a very specific green colour, which then has another image superimposed using chroma-key technology.

Astonishingly, the colours in the next picture are actually fairly accurate.  It's the office belonging to Dolores Umbridge in the Ministry of Magic, which is lurid pink in colour and covered in pictures of fluffy kittens!

A couple of pictures from the mask-making and "Animatronics" displays.  The first shows a very small set of Goblin heads, worn by the people working at Gringotts Bank.  If only real-life bankers were this attractive!  The second picture shows the mechanical head belonging to Grawp, Hagrid's giant half-brother.  There's nothing in the image to give it scale, unfortunately, but it was truly enormous.

Finally, a few more from the shops in Diagon Alley.

I always wondered about the best place to buy Kneazles...