Walks, balloons and sporting Sundays

J ensured we continued our explorations and this time we did a ramble around Flax Bourton, which is near J's current school. A wander through fields took us around a curious area that looked very much like a military installation. It was marked as a 'depot' on our map, and had signs up for a construction company, but why would they need underground bunkers and a railway siding of their own...? When we got home a quick Google found that it is part of a huge underground gas and petrol storage network that dates partly back to WW2, but was still in use during the Cold War and even now in parts.

We also saw that lovely English countryside and ye olde villages, so that was pleasant. After the ramble we drove around Portishead near J's other school, then sat in a pub for a tea/coffee and a delicious Sticky Date and Toffee Pudding, while looking up the Severn to the bridges and over to Wales. We walked it off around the Marina where we watched the lock being opened to let 5 boats in. I've never seen a lock in action up to now so it was interesting

On the way back we took a detour to Ashton Court where we hoped to catch the balloons taking off. There were 3 so we got to see the whole procedure from unpacking to take off. It's very colourful and quite a spectacle.
Today we got up and rushed off to the Indoor Cricket World Cup which is being run in Bristol this year. We caught New Zealand v Aussie, which was a good game even if we lost (we were up to 40 runs behind at one point, but lost by only 5). We stayed for the Aussie v SA Under 19s which was won convincingly by Aussie who played some fantastic indoor cricket. We didn't hang around for the next NZ game because we wanted to watch the rugby.

Here's their site: http://www.actionsportuk.com/news_cricket_worldcup_2007.php

After changing into something warmer as it was raining, we wandered around Bristol trying to find a pub that was showing the All Black game. The problem was that Man U were playing Leeds so even if the game was being shown, there was no commentary. It was a bit disappointing to say the least and we had to retreat home and listen to it on the Net. We couldn't even watch the neighbour's TV this time as they've moved their room around. (Perhaps they read this blog - if so, Hi! Sorry. Could you move your TV back so we can see it, at least until the WC is over?) Lots of errors in the game but a 40 point shut out is still good. Will France be the only Northern team to pose a threat?

Here are some more pics around Bristol.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/FlaxBourtonWalk are of the country ramble.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/Balloons have some colourful shots.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/SeeBristol are some of the open day