A day in the archives

J had the joyous job of photocopying for a day while I hunted for more useful pics. Sadly hers was the more productive of the tasks in the end, if boring, although there was an album of interesting aerial shots, some of which I hadn't seen before. I'll have plenty to work with when I get to Italy. J got some reward with a bit of shopping.

It was actually a nice day and they are now predicting 5 days of sunshine! Typical when we are heading off on Thursday... C tells us that the Leith has flooded, though sent no photos (you'll never be a journalist C). Strange that we get the same news at both ends off the world.

Thanks for those who comment. It's nice to know that people are actually reading the blogs! Unlike my parents who haven't contacted me in forever. 8-( (Phil, it was a StuG III. There don't seem to have been any StuG IVs at Cassino, and I've not seen any in pictures before Rome. This suggests there weren't any in theatre until later, if at all. ) Q, perhaps you can arrange a reading with Mother dear. It seems K hasn't quite worked it out yet.

Ciao!

Sunshine and theatre

We went for another sortee into the festival. For some reason the bridge was open today, so obviously people are lighter on Sundays. Fancy that. We popped across and watched various acrobatic groups performing in Millenium Square. One group we'd seen before on Friday night, so their jokes were familiar, but still clever and funny. Lots of inuendo that hopefully went over the heads of the many children in the audience. There were also balancing acts, jugglers, hoola-hoopers, and others, so plenty to keep the crowds happy.

We'd not been on a ferry boat since we got here so today was the day. It was a different view of the harbour as we went down to the locks and back up to the SS Great Britain. There were boats everywhere and it seemed anyone who could charge for a trip was doing so. Add to that rowing races, dog rescues, and people generally messing about in boats and you had a busy harbour.

We strolled back past bands, stalls, ice-cream trucks and all the other things that come with a festival, then I got on with touching up the three days of photos, and writing these blogs while J went for a walk again since the sun was out, but returned with ice-creams.

Tomorrow we're off to London to delve into the IWM archives (no charge there for turning up), and of course Thursday we're off to Italy. Yee ha!

Fireworks

If you like these fireworks, see the rest.

Bristol Harbour Festival

We woke to bright sunshine and a warm day. Amazing to think we have to mention this in the middle of summer, but there you go. Couldn't have been better for the festival either. We popped across to the stalls and picked up some fresh baking for brunch - croissants, pain au chocolat, etc, were all there so we got our fill of pastries.

C and M were coming in to have a few hours looking around with us. When we all headed over we discovered that all sorts of fair rides and booths had been installed, there were bands playing, dance groups dancing and so on. The footbridge to the other side of the harbour was closed just as we got there: apparently they were concerned it had too many people on it, the implication being it might collapse. I reckon if they had made it one way traffic only they would have been OK, but perhaps an engineer knew better. Anyway, there was plenty to do on this side without bothering to walk around to the other. M had a great time on the rides - another slide, the spinning tea-cups, face painting and so on. Then we sat down for lunch and watched Salsa dancers, and a (showing my ignorance of current musical terminology here) bloke who sang to the accompaniment of electronic samples and mixes. The latter, unusually named Kid Carpet, came complete with a swag of groupies, mostly under 17 I'd guess, and appeared to be well known to Bristolians of that age. C and M had to leave around 5, but J and I stayed on until the sun disappeared and it started raining again, around 5:30.

J whipped up a delicious dinner from fresh stall-bought bits and pieces, then after a bit of a rest we headed back in to town. We were off to see the highlight (for J) of the Festival -- the fireworks display. The rides were still up and were very colourful in the night, even if the rain kept most people at home. We could here a band playing across the harbour, butagain didn't bother to go over. The bridge was still closed even with fewer people about. Instead we found a good position to see the display, and stood there waiting for 20 minutes. Of course, as soon as it started some arse came and stood right in front of me, blocking much of my view.

Click here to see more of the Festival photographs. I've made a new post for the fireworks.

All Creatures Great and Small

J finished work on the Thursday, so on Friday we offered to take M to Bristol Zoo. It was a small zoo, so mostly small animals, but they pack a lot into the area and it was very nicely done on the whole. The only animal that concerned me was a cat that appeared to have very little space and was doing that pacing too and fro that often indicates boredom and mental illness in zoo animals. The most impressive for me were the gorillas. There was a family group of a big silverback, a female, a young male and a baby. Those apes are huge! Another nicely done display was an empty house with rats, mice and spiders all through it. J and M were less keen on this but it was a great set-up. Check your microwaves, folks. M had a good time looking at various animals and playing on the slides and whatnot. She even ran into a school friend so got to play with her for a while. There were almost tears when she got 'carpet burn' on the inflatable slide, but she was brave. (Click on the link above for more photos.)

The Harbour Festival was supposed to have started on the Saturday, but when we went for our walk we found it in full swing. There were French and Italian food stalls in the park across the harbour from us, street theatre nearby, and Toots and the Maytells were playing in the amphitheatre. Somehow the harbour had filled up with ships in between our walks and there were tall ships, narrowboats, wideboats, pleasure cruisers, motor launches and so on crammed up against every dock, pier and wharf. It was quite an impressive sight. We listened to Toots for a while then headed home through the very large crowds. It seemed like a Saturday. You know how it is when you have a long weekend? You seem to get a Saturday and two Sundays, especially if there is a hangover in there anywhere.

Unemployment

No more work and school finished for the last of them yesterday (Wednesday). On Tuesday I spent the day Interneting and going over some of the Cassino photos. There is film footage of a German Stug - a self-propelled gun for the uninitiated - that is shown in almost every document on Cassino, and stills used in nearly every book. It was supposed to have been sheltered in the Hotel Continental but I have proved it is in fact the neighbouring building. I'm sure the Nobel is in the post this minute! I met J after work at The Ostrich and we sat in the sunshine for a drink (Yes! Sunshine, if only for an afternoon.) We sat and read (look out for a book called Erindipity by David Kenny - most amusing) and after a pint of Kronenburg and a bottle of Bulmers cider I was quite merry.

Yesterday I had the same sort of day, but found out how to layer maps and aerial photographs on top of a Google Earth view. This means I can now fade them in and out to see where certain features are, and it is great for seeing what has changed since the war. I also had a play at using SketchUp to add 3-D buildings to the map, but I'm not very good at it. Perhaps someone used to CAD could whip up the monastery for me? 8-) As it stopped raining in the evening J dragged me out for a walk, this time way down to the end of the harbour and back up the other side. It was further this way than I'd been before on foot and it was interesting to see some of the old workings, including two drydocks, the locks, sluicing gates and so on. As it was 9:30 by the time we got back near home, we waited for the burglar alarm that has been annoying us to go off, as it does every night at that time, and made a note of the address. Sadly it may turn out to be unoccupied, but GVA Grimley will be getting a call!

Today I actually got pen on paper and wrote up the 28th Battalion's attack on the Railway Station for my battlefield guide, then started on the next section, the later attacks on the Railway Station by the 26th Bn and 19th Regt. I think J is writing this same section now too. He has been churning through the writing at a great rate from the sounds of things, so I need to keep up with him with the stuff from the archives over here and soon in Italy.

I hear that a Kiwi has been given a VC, the first since WW2. Excellent, and well done that man. The citation certainly shows he was a courageous man, and lucky.

Speaking of the Army, it is exactly 7 months since I first wrote to the Army about my experience at the Kippenberger Archives in Waiouru. For those of you not in the know, the first Director sat on my complaint for 5 months and then retired. I had to write to the CO to get a response after 6 months. They put it on to the new Director, who failed to see my point of view, 8-) but now tells me that the whole thing is not actually within their purvue anyway! After 7 months of back and forth he tells me he can't actually make a decision! I went into this with quite a high opinion of the Army, but now my opinion is that they are run by fools, and like all peacetime armies the biggest fools are in the highest positions. I now have to deal with Director number 3, but have engaged the CAB to help me. Small Claims Court here we come.

J has had her farewells and got a bloody good reference from the school. I'm continually impressed (not surprised of course) by her competence, and completely jealous. Mia sposa, mia eroina.

Weekends

The agency called with work on Friday, but as J had already left with the car I only had public transport so would be late getting to the school. (Broadoak - a train and a bus away.) They rang back to cancel me so I ended up with the day off. All rather strange then that they rang again today (Monday) and wanted me despite the delay. This time the trains were delayed due to the ongoing effects of the flooding so I didn't get on one until 8:55. Then when I arrived in Weston I asked a bus driver where I could catch a bus to the school. She said she went past it, but what she didn't mention was that she stopped at every stop in Weston, and some outside the town before she went past. It was 10:00 before I got to the school, and they'd already called the agency to find out where I was! I could have walked in 20 mins. The stupid thing is they knew the teacher wouldn't be in as she's been off sick for a week already and isn't likely to want to come in for the last three days of the school year, so they could have arranged cover a week ago.


Anyway, I missed P1, and by then they'd arranged some other cover P2. P3 the kids were shits and I had 4 next door with the HoD before the settled down. P5 was average and P6 I tried teaching the Haka to fill in the lesson. Of course I don't know the haka, so even with the help of a nice interactive website it was a bit of a cludge. Better than the worksheets they had though... L100 less tax.


J has written a little about the weekend. We got new cellphones so ring/text the old and we'll reply with the new number. Nice phones I guess, but J is more enthused than I at the moment. It filled in most of one day and some of the next though.


There was a bit of sunshine on the Sunday and rather than Bristolians going to the beach, the beach came to them. It seemed quite popular, but noone was jumping in the water - I wonder why?


I'm quite excited about finally getting back to Italy, and have also recently found some potentially good sources of photographs. One in particular has rarer photos that would be great for our book, but I have yet to hear back from them. I also found some that help me with my own article so I am looking forward to the job of tracking down the locations of, and matching photos for it.


We caught up with C for afternoon tea. It's always nice to shoot the breeze. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology M had managed to record the All Blacks - Wallabies game and save it to DVD. We watched it on my laptop that night. It was a good result of course, but not the best of games, I guess partly because of the lousy weather. BTW, who was the one player who wasn't confirmed in the squad of 30? The paper here said this had happened but didn't name the player.

We've just confirmed a house-sitting in Sicily in November. Should be interesting. See J's blog for more details.