Last Saturday I went to Bristol, to meet my friend Ollie. I met Ollie on the last day when I was in Germany 3 years ago (an epic short-holiday, obviously featuring Captain Vestman), though back then he was known as Tim. The reason I was going is because he is doing a 1000 mile walk from John O'Groats to Lands End, for charity.
That weekend he was in Bristol, walking in a morph suit to raise awareness, so naturally I jumped at the chance to help. I never turn down the chance to wear a morph suit.
I chose to wear the yellow one, as it's my favourite colour, and I wanted to look like a banana. The disadvantage of this was that I almost-literally couldn't see a thing. Usually you can see fairly well in morph suits, but everything was a hazy yellow mist.
One thing I had forgot to mention... on his walk he is carrying 20 litres of water (20kg). Personally I think this sounds impressive, but for those who think it doesn't, just try carrying it. I managed about 5 minutes before I was dying inside. My arm ached the next couple of days.
The walk was good. I got to speak to Ollie for a while, and wave at people who I couldn't see (thankfully, Brandi would just say "wave to your left".
Shortly (seconds) after the above picture was taken, all the people in front of me parted, and since I couldn't see a thing, I walked straight into a crotch-height post. It hurt. I thought that Ollie had kicked me in the balls, as a joke (... I dunno), so I attempted to just continue walking, but posts aren't as movable as feet, so the post won and I dropped. Ollie found this hilarious.
Apparently, in the centre part of Bristol they were giving out free boxes of Krispy Kremes. This kept me going. I've never had a 12-doughnut box to myself, and I wanted one. Sadly, on arrival the people had gone. I hate them for this. My spirits were raised though when we were posing for photographs, and a really young girl saw me, and came running over and hugged my legs. It was cute, and now I wanted children.
The doughnut side does have a happy ending though. One of the women from the Frank Water charity had picked up a box, and gave me two!
Bristol has a famous pie shop, called Pieminister. Last time me and Brandi went we got there a bit late and it had closed. Since then I had been looking forward to it. I could have had one at the horrible music festival, but I didn't want to associate eating nice pies with being wet and cold, so I held off.
I'm not the kind of person who usually takes pictures of food, and then talks about them, but it was very nice. I had a Steak and Stilton pie, with minted mushy peak, mashed potato and gravy. It was worth the wait.
The day we went was during Bristol's "Balloon Fiesta", which is the largest hot air balloon festival in Europe, apparently. We walked over to the place where it is, to get ready to see the "mass ascent". I still point up when I see a single hot air balloon (which looks strange when I'm on my own), so I was excited. We found a nice area of the field and sat down waiting (though I am unable to sit down without falling asleep now, so I napped for half an hour).
This is a tragic picture of me and Brandi, but it was the only one we have together from the day, so just pretend we look good.
The balloons started at 7pm, and here are a load of pictures I took.
It was cool seeing so many, and there were lots of families there who seemed to have a good time, so me and Brandi decided we would take our children (when we finally have some), and maybe make it a tradition.
Just before we left we went back to see Ollie and his girlfriend at the hostel they were staying at. It was a really cool place.
We had a blueberry flavoured sheesha, some laughs, then it was time to head back home! All in all, a great weekend, and I must arrange to meet up with them again soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment