Publife

The Hillgrove Porter Stores

The Hillgrove Porter Stores is a good sort of pub - exciting ale, games, cose, an impossible quiz.. The Boy is rather a fan of real ale and the Hillgrove is within easy walking distance of his house so it's surprising we don't end up here more. However I don't think either of us feels quite settled enough to be declaring a local, and it'd take me a lot of steady visiting to pluck up the courage to chat to the bar people. On top of that there are so many pubs out there, all of them with a different selection of drinks, ambiance, facilities, and, of course, location, that it'd be silly to limit ourselves to just one.
The university's ale society (known as BRA) does a good job of keeping Bristol's pubs going. This Friday will see the annual BRAmble, an event where members amble across the city from pub to pub, beginning at lunchtime and imbibing copious amounts of beer along the way. I find it really heartening that despite being a society which is all about alcohol, doesn't promote irresponsible (or downright dangerous) drinking. *cough*UBRUB*cough*

Recently I've been the one with little time (last exam tomorrow!) so we've erred towards Clifton and The Portcullis for our evening excursions when they do happen. It was actually shortly after a Flickrmeet pub quiz at The Portcullis on a cold night in January 2010 that the boy and I became an item. We started as we've gone on seeing as we first met in The Old Fishmarket at my first ever Flickrmeet.
The Bristol Flickr group has very few rules (beyond the banning porn, racism &  Not Bristol...) but one thing that is constant is that the meet is held in a pub, chosen every month by whoever feels like joining in the discussion. This has led me to discover vast swathes of Bristol which I'm sure the majority of students don't know about or aren't interested and some very nice pubs, and that's on top of all the interesting & lovely people I've met.
 
This is a bit of a rambly post and it comes courtesy of my cryptography-addled brain so I shall say goodnight and leave the rest to pictures.

Narcissi at The Ostrich, their outside area is right by the harbour

The Hillgrove Porter Stores

The Hope & Anchor

RIP Daisy, The Three Tuns

Alice at The Three Tuns

Domestic Yarn Bombing

I love yarn bombing. It's one of those wonderful things that I happen across in the street and improves my mood amazingly. It's so fun! And creative! And friendly! <3

I've wanted to have a go myself for ages, encouraged by a Yarn Bombing Evening I went to at The Cube back in September; but the civil disobedience part* and the prospect of having someone destroy my work** didn't appeal. I had grand ideas of covering the banisters in my student flat with brightly-coloured cosies but of course the sheer amount of them and the fact that I'm soon to move out made that an impracticality.
One day I was sitting in my room revising something dull when inspiration struck, I could yarn bomb my Ikea uplighter! While it may be quite tall it comes in sections that screw together, and as such is easily coverable in sections. Since I own it I won't have to de-bomb it when I move :D

So, the process goes like this:

- Work out what size rectangle you need to make

- Crochet/knit it, checking the size regularly (I used up and down stitch from my recently purchased Handbook of Crochet Stitches)

- Use a yarn needle to sew it in place (sewing the seam around where the wire comes out)

- Embellish to taste (I used a crochet flower made using this video) and attached it with the trailing ends

Voila!

Have you ever yarn bombed anything? Would you?

* Yarn bombing is technically vandalism I think, although I imagine you'd probably only get a talking to unless someone had a complete sense of humour failure.
** The lady yarn-bomber who was at the event said that people do destroy yarn bombs, sometimes with fire :(