Some Brilliant service from SKY Mobile/TV

So what more do you want on a cold and bleak Valentine’s Day, Friday 14th February. We decided to go to Bristol to do a little bit of shopping, to have a decent lunch, and to visit the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Museum.

First stop was The Galleries which Bristolians and visitors will know to be an extensive multi- floored shopping mall just south of the bus station and right slap bang in the center of Bristol.

Francoise went shopping for some shoes while I tried to find the Sky sales point which I located in the middle of one of the aisles on the ground floor of the centre. The chap who served me spoke in immaculate English but colored by something that I was later to discover was his native Hungarian.

I collect names and voices and accents and since I have heard so few Hungarians who speak good English I was a bit floored so I dug further and it appears that he took a course in linguistics. He was helpful out of his heart and sympathized with my having to wait 45 minutes to get through to someone in India whose voice I could hardly understand

I was right in one thing that they are upgrading their Sky Plus boxes to an HD version with many benefits including speaking into your remote control about which channel you want which is a million miles away from having to click through the channels.  He joyfully demonstrated to me and I was sold on the spot.

He made other money-saving suggestions,. I was very glad for the morale booster because I was on the point of giving up Sky. Their website has not been touched by human hand for months and a fault report has just sat there without attention month after month

However as far ass the SIM contract is concerned, 5Gb for £10 it’s ridiculously bad value for money so I shall be changing anyway but I will keep my Sky system, my  internet  connection and my phone line.

The Sales person and myself parted after about 15 minutes and we both enjoyed the conversation and I would have loved to have taken him for a drink to find out why an obviously overqualified person is standing in a drafty corridor for 10 hours a day giving people advice.

ZaZa Bristol – they don’t come bigger

On to ZaZa. I have written about this establishment many times so do a search on my website but today being Valentine’s Day I thought we better get there early so we arrived about 12:10 and found that already people were queuing to get in.When we left there was scarcely a seat to be had.

correct as of 14 Feb 2025

The size of this mega restaurant needs to be seen to be believed. They must have at least  40 staff at any one time. The claimed capacity is up to 1000 people but I estimate 750 is more like it. I must go round and count the seats next time.

The establishment is located by the Waterfront and anyone will tell you where it is. What happens in the evenings and weekends that is that they bring on more expensive dishes, more fish, more meat, but quite frankly at any time you can get so much good food that you can almost gorge yourself. You are allowed 1h 30 minutes.  This stops people sitting all day and having two meals.

I’m writing this at 18:25 and I ate at around 12:45 and I still feel full. It is not the ideal venue for a romantic meal because you are forever getting up and filling your plate at one of the six major serving stations.

Clifton Suspension Bridge and Museum

Well done Samaritans, vigilant as ever.

Most people in the world have heard of Clifton suspension bridge and I understand that many engineers visited to see the remarkable innovations that took place at the time. I enclose photographs from the bridge itself on a less than glorious day.

Part of the reason for my coming to Bristol was to see the Clifton Bridge Museum. The museum itself is open between 10 am and 5 pm daily with free entry.  It is to be found on the South side of the bridge.

I noticed that the bridge costs £1.5 million a year to maintain and to cover this they charge cars £1 for each crossing which I think is most reasonable. The museum has its own website cliftonbridge.org.uk.

What is the function of a museum?

When I visit a museum I tried to see how the architect would have tried to make the most out of the limited space in this case a room about 20 meters in length and maybe four meters in width with a small upstairs gallery and an educational room.There is also a small and excellent little bookshop plus some souvenirs . At the desk sat a fairly elderly man who was charming and welcoming.

For me it is to portray the situation in a living manner for example who would know that the bridge was 28 years from conception to final construction (1836 to 1864)  and there were three pauses when they ran out of money. Many plans were submitted but most were rejected and the one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, aged 24 at the time of his submission, was accepted but alas he died in 1859 before the bridge was finished…

.. Many designs were submitted but most were rejected on safety margin or cost grounds

The triumphal opening

Brunel and the coin trick gone wrong

There are little pieces of information that put a personal touch on the character of Isambard who liked to astonish his children with magic for example pretending to swallow a coin then pulling it from his ear.

Famously he once coughed while placing a half sovereign in his mouth and it lodged in his windpipe. After 15 days of pain and coughing fits a surgeon was called but could not remove it. Isambard immediately invented a special pivoting board which would spin him upside down but alas it only cause more coughing.

Isambard designed special forceps and asked the surgeon to perform a tracheotomy – but it was too painful. However with a hole in his throat to breathe through he was able to try his pivoting board again and the coin popped out.

The coin had been stuck for 40 days from the 1st of April to the 13th of May 1843

How many other patients would design an apparatus for the surgeon to cure their own disease. This shows the caliber of Brunel and a fresh acquaintance with ‘the man’ made my day I must say.

Back to reality and checking my mail.

From the Christian Institute we have a piece about the lady who stood near a demonstration outside an abortion clinic, saying nothing. This was determined by West MIdlands Police to be causing harassment because her act of standing was within a government imposed censorship zone. She was known to hold anti abortion views. She was asked to leave.

To finish the day I found myself watching ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ on Trinity TV. My goodness what huge efforts were made to appear authentic and how well cast was Jesus showing the real thing, not the meek and mild version that we see today. This must be a monument in cinema-graphic history at least so far as I’m concerned

Whilst on the subject the other films that spring into my mind are West Side Story, Ben Hur, the Dam Busters, Oklahoma, 2012. See how films impress me especially during my younger years.

I’m sure other titles will come to mind but that’s all occurs to me at 05:54 on a Saturday morning. Yes I do wake up early as I find I do my best work between 5:00 and 7:30.