• I went to Cribbs Causeway on Saturday. It’s our nearest big shopping mall in Bristol. People come from miles and miles to shop there. They even have day trip flights from France!

    A suspicious package was discovered in Marks and Spencer’s so the whole place had to be evacuated. It reminded me of the all the IRA bomb scares in the 1970s. It was a very calm and efficient evacuation. We were soon outside watching the rain clouds forming above us and remeniscing about bomscares we have known. I thought it was quite interesting watching people’s reactions.

    Then the mall creche walked past. They were hilarious. About fifteen toddlers and five or six carers all connected at the wrists by luminous green curly wurly cables. It was a fantastic image, so I got out my camera phone and made to take a picture for the weblog. My wife and a friend of ours, who is a teacher, were horrified and asked me if I wanted to be arrested!

    It’s so sad that we’ve come to this. Can the world no longer cope with innocent intentions?

  • Phew! I’ve done my last Library visit for a few weeks. I do seem to have done a lot recently. I had one of those surprising, special moments this morning. One young lad just wasn’t interested – said he didn’t like stories. His teachers rolled their eyes and said that he didn’t like anything. I read the story anyway – it was the Little Horrors Spider Man story.

    I must have got through to him because he came up for a chat afterwards. He admitted that he liked Toy Story2, so we had quite a chat about that and Toy Story 1 and I suggested he tried to see Star Wars. His friend said that he liked pictures, so I suggested Tin Tin. We found a couple of books and he seemed to really like the look of them. I made him promise to come back to the Library and borrrow them. I really hope he does.

    It’s a great feeling when you seem to get through to someone!

  • I’ve had the concreting ballast and cement hanging around for a week now and it has been raining non-stop, so I’ve not been able to get on with the new studio at all. I want it to be built and working in it… now!

    Rather excitingly I got new blades for my lawnmower this week. I ordered them a year ago. The guy in the shop was most unhelpful – a real jobsworth. I phoned a couple of weeks ago and everything was completely different. “No problem Mr Rayner, our parts department has new personnel.” I got my blades and they were delivered to my door as they were passing anyway. Well done Dean Mowers!

    Those little things mean so much. Hope it’s dry this weekend.