Mus Tournament in Bristol

The Basque community in Bristol is increasing every day. Some come to Bristol only for a weekend, others escaping from the awful job market in the Basque Country, while a few are settled down in Bristol.

For those who don't know who the heck Basques are and were they are from, here is a brief explanation. The Basque Country is the name given to the home of Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast. The region is home to the Basque people (Euskaldunak), their language (Euskara), culture and traditions.

These days, there are many Basques around the globe for many reasons and in order to maintain their traditions and culture, many Euskal Etxeas (in English, "Basque Houses") have been created all over the world.

In order to create a centre-point for Basques and showcase the Basque culture to the British people in the South West of the UK, a group of Basque people officially presented the Bristol Basque Cultural Society (Bristoleko Euskal Etxea) last month among friends with a traditional filling Basque lunch: black beans with sacramentos (meaning ribs, chorizo, black pudding, etc.).

Food, dance, games, logo competition... it was an excuse to meet new people and have a wonderful time. Additionally, the society has selected the two logo finalists and just selected the final logo yesterday.

The charity is organising a Mus Tournament next 7th February and celebrate Carnivals at the same time with a Carnival Costume Competition at The Crofters Rights, Stokes Croft. Mus is a traditional card game originally from the Basque Country similar to poker (more info here). Details about the event will be posted in the following week in the Facebook page as well as on the website. In advance, I can say there's gonna be a course for beginners to learn how to play, food will be provided and there's gonna be real prizes for winners!

Are you interested in participating in the Mus Tournament or Costume Competition? Write an email to bristolbasque@gmail.com and ask for more details. They will be delighted to have you there!


WEBSITE:

http://bristolbasque.strikingly.com/
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/609346609114447/

Anna Cake Couture

Anna Cake Couture: this little place on Boyce's Avenue in Clifton could go unnoticed if it wasn't for its outstanding smell of baking when you pass by. The display by the counter invites you to add a cake with your 5pm coffee and finish with your intention to diet in 2016 just like that. 

We ordered a cortado (£2.00), a cappuccino (£2.50) and two slices of delicate cake (£3.80 each) which looked too tempting, and proceeded to the small sitting area at the back of the shop. We were lucky to be able to choose between two empty tables.

A simple yet cleverly decorated sitting area stays next to a large open plan kitchen next to it, where you can see cooks baking the beautiful creations. The atmosphere at the patisserie is calm and relaxing for any coffee or tea lover with a sweet tooth.

WEBSITE: http://www.thisisanna.co.uk/

Welcome 2016! We are back!

It's 1st January 2016. I found myself writing new year resolutions on a piece of paper, which I never do, and I couldn't but include one I am fully ashamed of.

It's been months since I haven't written anything on the blog. It is so out-of-date and abandoned that I have been ashamed of coming back. My only excuse is that I just had been incredibly busy to write, and whenever I had some spare time, I did not have the energy to spend it writing. What a shame!

Nonetheless, I have added "keep the blog updated" next to "eat healthy" and "practice more sport". I have some topics and events in mind already, I just hope you join me!

So, I would like to wish all of you a healthy and fulfilling 2016! Speak to you soon!

The Bright Night

Bristol Bright Night will be taking over the city for the second time tomorrow, 25th September 2015. It is an unmissable celebration of local research in a Friday night like no other.

The programme, which is available at the official website, is full of free drop-in events from 6pm to 10pm in At-Bristol, such as Researchers' Fair, Science Cocktails and Chem Dine With Me. Other bookable activities such as the Flavour and the Mind Planetarium, Bite-sized Research Talks and Stand-up Science Comedy are sold out. Organisers say that there may be extra tickets available on the day if people don't turn up. So, please, speak to the staff if you are very interested in one of those activities.

Additionally, science will meet art and hit the streets of Bristol offering pop-up street performances. 

Pictures and selfies are welcome... but remember to share them using #BristolBrightNight! :)

WEBSITE: http://www.bnhc.org.uk/bristol-bright-night/

Banksy's Dismaland

Dismaland is a temporary art project organised by world wide known street artist Banksy. It has been built at the Tropicana, a disused outdoor lido in the seaside resort town of Weston-super-Mare, England. It opened doors on the 21st August with only door tickets available after the website crashed when visitors attempted to purchase online tickets.

We are not sure whether it crashed or Banksy deliberately did not activate the online purchasing system creating a chaotic reaction in the social media. Dismaland, which is a sinister twist on Disneyland, does not have any image of Mickey Mouse, yet other Disney characters such as Cinderella and the Little Mermaid are very present.

The show is a very well thought, intelligent but sarcastic exhibition with many artists being involved. You will find yourself laughing at things you probably shouldn't laugh at.

Tickets are only £5 which might suggest that Banksy does not want to make big money out of this show. However, food and merchandising accessories are incredibly expensive inside! I have heard that the third batch tickets were sold out in 15 minutes. 

For those who have not got tickets yet, I really encourage you to keep pressing F5 in the next release as the exhibition is worth it. Meanwhile, you can enjoy our pictures! ;)

Arcadia Spectacular

On the 4-5th September, Arcadia will be landing in Bristol city centre. The iconic spider built from recycled military hardware will be back in Queen Square, unifying a community of all backgrounds, ages, beliefs and ideals through a mesmerising experience.

This year's show is called "Metamorphosis", and it will see the spider come alive as a living organism, harnessing every creative element within Arcadia. 

The lineup include Roni Size Reprazent and Congo Natty on Friday, and Annie Mac, Eats Everything, Monki and Gotsome on Saturday. There are some tickets still available: £39.50 for Friday and £45 for Saturday (free entry for kids aged up to 3). If you want to earn a free ticket for the event, organisers are giving away a ticket per 6 tickets sold to your friends. If interested, sign up here.

WEBSITE: http://www.arcadiabristol.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/865692610181537/

Christmas Step BBQ

If you don't have a plan for this Bank Holiday Sunday (30th August), here is one: BBQ at Christmas Steps! After the Shapes Harbourside Festival party, the Chrstimas Steps courtyard will open again. 

It will be more than music and food in the sun (hopefully in the sun!) featuring an outdoor BBQ of culinary delights expertly cooked by the Christmas Steps' head chef as well as 11 hours of music. The outdoor free event will start at 2pm until 9pm at the courtyard. Then, the party will continue inside until 1am. 

With expert selections from three of Bristol's finest musical staples (Feel The Real Soundsystem, Soulworks Bristol and Boogie Cafe Records) expect some good house, boogie, funk and sould sounds. 

OUR POST ON "Christmas Steps":
http://greatlittleplacecalledbristol.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/christmas-steps.html

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1489479201367470/

International Kite Festival

The International Kite Festival returns to Bristol this weekend, 22nd-23rd August. This year, there is a new location for the event: Durdham Downs.

The kite festival is a well-established event which celebrates its 28th birthday this year! It started with a working budget of only £300 in 1986 and now, it is an ongoing annual.

The free event will be the perfect occasion to bring your family along and enjoy the amazing sky full of colourful giant special-shaped animals, mock aerial combat  with traditional Japanese fighting kites, synchronised sport kite team routines and many more surprises. There will be plenty of activities for children to enjoy, starting from kite-making workshops to giant bouncy castles and other attractions. Do not forget to bring along your kite to fly in the public flying areas!

11.40 - Team Flame: synchronised routines choreographed to music

12.00 - UK Rokkaku Challenge: mock aerial combat with Japanese kites

13.30 - Colours in Motion: mass ascent of artistic kites 

14.00 - Traditional Indian kite fighting

14.55 - Pulling Power: latest in extreme power kites, buggies and landboards

15.15 - Portraits in the Sky

16.15 - Festival of the Sea: a feast of sea-themed kites

This is only a selection of the activities going on, you can check out the full programme here. 

The weather is forecasted a mixture of heavy rain and intermittent sunny spells. Apparently, the summer is officially over. Nonetheless, experts suggest Saturday will be the best day, reaching temperatures up to 24 degrees.

OPENING TIMES: 11am - 5pm

WEBSITE: http://www.kite-festival.org.uk/
NOTE: Pictures have been borrowed from the official website. Thanks! ;)

Closed for Holidays

...but, no worries! We will be back.

Upfest 2015: the photo-gallery

Upfest 2015, Europe's largest live street art and graffiti festival (read here about the festival). Check out our photo-gallery below. I hope you like it! :)

The Graffiti Festival

Europe's largest, free street art and graffiti festival is happening this weekend, 25-26th July 2015, in Bedminster and Southville. Upfest 2015 will gather over 250 talented artists coming from 25 different countries to paint live on 30,000sqft of surfaces. 

There are 28 venues where all the art sale, music and workshops will take place including Tobacco Factory, Red Point Climbing Centre, North Street Green and The Old Book Shop among others (download map here). Artists such as Angus Art, Cheo, Miss Wah, Stina Jones and Vlong will be decorating the neighbourhood with street art stencils.  The live artist painting will take place on Saturday and Sunday (11am to 7pm), whereas Monday has been designated as a viewing day and special family day with extra workshops for kids.

An exhibition called "The Standard" will be featuring original artwork from selected festival artist at North Street Standard. Also, outside in the garden of The Steam Crane, will be Black Flag Brewery setting up a pop up bar which will offer a selection of craft beers on tap, and in the garden barn will be a series of local creative traders opening for a weekend-long mini-market. A similar event will be at The Rising Sun, serving cask ales, beers and ciders at the large rear garden which hosts DJs, live music and also a BBQ.

There is Scribble 'N Scratch at Tobacco Factory, a monthly illustration battle and hip-hop night based in Bristol. The main focus of the battles is to take artists out of their comfort zone and push boundaries as artists accompanied by a selection of DJs playing hip-hop, soul and break. Two heats on Saturday and one on Sunday down-select artists for the Grand Final, happening at 4pm on Sunday 26th July. 

If you bring your kids, in the back garden of Hungry Caterpillar Play Cafe will have urban fairy tales with Peter Pan and Princess Pal, and pose for pictures between 10am and 12pm. On Sunday (11am-2pm), families are invited to join Brillustration in drawing all over the wall inside and out with chalk.

The festival is FREE but organisers do ask to buy a programme on site and donate to NACOA... and do not forget to pick up you limited edition festival T-shirt at The Upfest Gallery!

WEBSITE: http://www.upfest.co.uk/

Cheo's graffiti picture "borrowed" from the official website. Thank you! ;)

Moonlight Cinema

Summer is the time where our calendars are busier than the usual. For the past few years, the popularity of al fresco cinemas have been increasing and this year, we are having plenty of options to enjoy a movie in an uncommon way.  This weekend, after announcing the event early April this year, The Moonlight Cinema will finally be happening. The even has been confirmed and early bird tickets are already SOLD OUT! Do not worry, though. There are still general tickets left!

After an online voting to select the screened movies, these are the finalists:

Grease will be screened on Friday, 24th July. That's the American musical romantic comedy-drama from the 1978, where Australian Sandy Olsen meets local boy Danny Zuko at the beach and fall in love. Thinking they will never see each other again, they bump into each other at Rydell High and that's basically when all the drama starts.

If you prefer Pretty Woman, get the tickets for Saturday, 25th July. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere start one of the most famous movie from the 90s, where man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute... only to fall in love with her.

On Sunday, 26th July, the movie is The Wolf of Wall Street, a more recent movie where Leonardo Dicaprio plays the role of Jordan Belfort, a wealthy stock-broker living the high life who finally gets involved in crime, corruption and issues with the federal government.

Tickets are still available and can be purchased here. General admission is £9, and children's ticket costs £1. I could not find discount tickets for students but there some limited Premium Tickets available (£16.50) if you want to get prime position, avoid queuing and get a complimentary drink!

We will be there. Will you?

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/themoonlightcinemas

WEBSITE: http://www.themoonlightcinemas.co.uk/

Note: picture borrowed from the Moonlight Cinema's Facebook page. Thank you! ;)

Quiz-lover's Guide

Are you a quiz lover? If yes, this is the post for you! We have gathered information on pubs and bars in the city centre organising a weekly quiz, including price to take part, jackpot price (if any), day of the week and area.

Monday is the favourite day for quiz. The earliest quiz starts at 7.30pm in The Beer Emporium, where you can win the biggest jackpot of the day (£50). Traditional Gloucester Road pubs such as The Flyer and The Wellington also organise weekly quizzes at 8pm and 8.30pm respectively. Close in Cotham, quiz at The Hill starts at 8.30pm with a £25 jackpot. Quizzes around Clifton start at 8.30pm in the Alma Tavern and at 8.45pm in The Eldon House, both with £50 jackpots. Both the Barley Mow (Bedminster) and the Grain Barge (Hotwells) start their quizzes at 8pm with £16 and £20 jackpots respectively, Stag and Hounds starts at 9pm.

On Tuesdays, best is to go to the Old Town area. The Famous Royal Navy Volunteer, with the incredible jackpot of £100, arrange a weekly quiz at 7.30pm while the one at Mothers Ruin in St Nicholas Market starts at 9pm. In the last one, apart from having the chance to win a £100 jackpot, they serve free food. We have been there and we had loads of fun! Read here. The Bank Tavern, also in the city centre, has a quiz that starts at 8.30pm which unfortunately has no jackpot.

Park Street is also a good area to go for a quiz on Tuesdays as Bristol Ram, starting at 7.30pm, has a £100 jackpot, and The White Harte, very popular among students, starts at 8.00pm with a £40 jackpot. Finally, The Brass Pig at the triangle starts at 8pm with a £45 jackpot.

If you have missed the Mothers Ruin quiz on Tuesday, you have another chance closeby on Wednesdays as Seamus O’Donnell hosts a quiz starting 9pm (£60 jackpot). Two quizzes are organised in Clifton this day: one at the Coach and Horses and the second in The Vittoria (both at 8.30pm). In Easton, the quiz at Chelsea Inn could be your option at 8pm, where it is free to participate but there is no jackpot to win either.

On Thursdays, the Three Sugar Loaves hosts a quiz on Christmas Steps starting at 9pm. It is the most expensive quiz of all, though (£2) and there isn’t a jackpot either. If you live in St Pauls, Surrey Vaults has a quiz at 7pm with a £40 jackpot, and in Cotham, the quiz starts at 7.30pm in Cotham Porter Stores (£50 jackpot). The other option is to go to The Ship Inn in Gloucester Road to try to win a £50 jackpot at 8.30pm.

There is no quiz on Friday or Saturday.

And the only quiz we know of that happens on Sundays happens at 8.30pm in The Cambridge Arms with a £50 jackpot.

It’s £1 to participate in all of them except for the few exceptions mentioned. There is a very useful map on this website (click here) which show the pubs with quizzes on a map, filtered by days. Have a look and… let me know if you win a jackpot!! :)

You might also like... Market-lover's Guide

Where is Shaun?

Two years after Gromit (read here), it's Shaun The Sheep's time to raise some money for the Children's Charity. Today, 6th July 2015, it's official day for the Shaun Trail in Bristol but I have been able to spot some of them during the weekend!

All 70 Shaun sculptures, which have been created by artists, designers and celebrities, will be guarding Bristol's corners until the 31st August. Then, they will go to auction to raise funds for The Grand Appeal and Wallace & Gromit's Children's Charity, supporting children in hospitals accross the UK.

If you haven't already come across with any of them yet, go for a walk around Bristol and I bet that you will spot at least one in less than 5 minutes. As a help, you can download the trail map here. On the website, there is also a list of all Shauns, with pictures and detailed information of the author and sponsor(see here).

This year, I will try to take a picture of all Shaun the Sheep sculptures and post them here. So far, I have 7 of them. Do you think I will managed to take pictures all of them? Place your bet!

WEBSITE: http://shauninthecity.org.uk/
Where is Gromit?: http://greatlittleplacecalledbristol.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/where-is-gromit.html

The Clock with Two Minute Hands

Look up at the front of the Corn Exchange building and you will see there is a big clock with two minute hands: one black, one red. It is a clock with an interesting tale behind.





The clock was installed in 1822 showing the local time in Bristol. As Bristol is located 200kms west to London, sun rises and sets about 10 minutes later. Therefore, Bristol and London did not have the same time. Having such different times was common until the arrival of the railway and the introduction of new means of communication.


It soon became apparent that an agreement would have to be reached on exactly when trains arrived and departed. Bristolians needed to know when the trains were running. Thus, began the concept of Greenwich Mean Time and an extra hand was added to the central clock. Therefore, each station would have two clocks: one showing the local time (black) while the other hand pointed to "Railway Time" (red).


Today, nobody uses "Bristol Time", of course. Bristol officially adopted railway time on 14th September 1852 but the red hand is still an interesting remain of past times.




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THIS EVENING, 3rd July, there is the St Nick's Night Market with street food, musicians and circus performances. Pop up between 5.30-9.30pm! :)




WEBSITE: http://bristolnightmarket.com/

Foodies Festival 2015

Regardless the drizzly day, we have been at the Foodies Festival on Sunday. It is a food festival which happened between 26-28^th June this year, and as a novelty, it has been held at the beautiful Clifton Downs instead of the Harbourside.

As recommended by the organisers of the event, we took the bus to get to The Downs, and our invitations were waiting for us at the ticket office right at the entrance. Two days earlier I was lucky enough to win a couple of day tickets in a competition at the blog A Life Less Organised, which I am very thankful for. ;)

I personally love food festivals because I love tasting free samples of... everything! Ginger beer, cheese, chocolate, chilli sauces, special oils an vinegars... Nonetheless, we also filled our shopping bags with some Ruby Mist cheese from the Snowdonia Cheese Company (one for £4; three for £11); chocolate from Sciolti Botanical Chocolates (£4), biscuits from The Sawley Kitchen (Offer! £1.50), although there were plenty of other tasty things we could have bought!

We stopped for lunch, which was a tasty rib-eye sandwich (£8) at BoyMeatsGrill and a glass of great wine (£4.50) at the Rioja stand, and continued with the route once our stomachs were full. There were many events for adults. I have been told that each ticket got you access to one of the events on each stage but on Sunday, probably because the weather was not in favour, there were many seats available except for the wine tasting event, which was very popular.

Nonetheless, it is not a festival for adults only. There were many activities for children as well. Starting from cookery classes to bouncy castles and slides, kinds can also have a lot of fun! However, only cookery classes were free: face painting for example cost £3.50, and the bouncy slide wasn’t free either (£1).

On our way out, we were given a set of freebies including a nice Stella Antois chalice, Chupa Chups bubble gum, a can of energy drink and some tea. Brilliant!

WEBSITE: http://www.foodiesfestival.com/bristol/

Bristol Big Geek Meet

Are you an anime fan? Do you like board games? There is a chance this Saturday, 27th June, to meet up with other gamers, cosplayers and geeks at the Bristol Big Geek Meet. Invite your friends and make new friends ahead of Bristol's big event next October (more info here)!

The meet-up will be this Saturday, 27th June at Bristol Temple Meads Train Station. The plan is to meet up at 12.30pm and move on at 1pm, go shopping and grab some food. They will go to Cabot Circus, Excelsior and around 4pm onwards, head to the upstairs area of King William pub where they will bring a selection of board and card games including Cards Against Humanity (I love it!), Cash n' Guns, Resistance and many more.

INTERESTING LINKS

Briston Anime & Gaming Con: http://www.bristolanimecon.com/

Bristol Big Geek Meet: http://www.animeleague.net/forum/showthread.php?101320

NOTE: Picture borrowed from Bristol Big Geek Meet forum. Thank you! ;)

Cycle as bare as you dare!

The World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together en masse on human-powered transport (normally bicycles) to deliver a "vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world". The dress-code motto is "as bare as you dare", a distinguishing feature of the WNBR against other cycling events.

Although nudity is not compulsory, the World Naked Bike Ride will be riding Bristolian streets on the 27th June 2015 with bikes and bodies, highlighting the vulnerability of cyclists on the crowded roads in Bristol. A peaceful, powerful demonstration against car culture and oil-dependency. 

The theme this year is "as bare as you dare" and there fill be body painting, flags and banners to buy and decorate your bike at the Full Moon. The idea is to congregate in the Full Moon courtyard from 1pm to decorate the bike and the body and depart at 2pm. 

The route through Bristol will be a flat, 4-mile family-friendly ride, starting and finishing at the same point. Will you dare?

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1540797549515912/

Fundraising for Cancer Research on Father's Day

I am sure all of us know somebody who has beaten cancer, who is fighting it, who has lost the battle... or who sadly didn't even get the chance to fight it. That person might be a friend, a family member, a colleague... or it might even be ourselves.


Either case, as my mom says, cancer is nowadays a common disease; 15 million cancer cases were diagnosed in 2013. It has always existed, but now we have a name for it, a diagnosis and many, many cases. A year ago, when my father passed away, I started investigating on my family tree to learn how my grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great grandparents died, and I discovered that many of them died of cancer too.






Recently, researchers from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York have achieved to reduce a large melanoma tumour in a 49-year old woman's chest with a new treatment; and researchers from the Case Western Reserve University have announced that they are a step toward turning the idea of using a new drug to regenerate damaged tissue into reality. One day, I would like to open the newspaper and read that somebody has found a vaccination to prevent the cancer. However, we need to do our bit in order to make similar discoveries happen.

With Father Day's coming up next Sunday, I thought it would be a good initiative to raise some money for those friends, family members, colleagues (or even ourselves) who might face cancer in the present or future.


Please, click the link below and support Cancer Research UK with as little/much money as you can donate. If you are a tax payer, do not forget to tick the Gift Aid as well!

Thank you very much!



https://www.justgiving.com/greatlittleplacecalledbristol

Bristol Grand Prix Bike Race

There are many plans for this summer solstice weekend. On the one hand, there is the Jamaica Street Open Studio (read here) and on the other hand, we have the Bristol Grand Prix Bike Race.

On Saturday 20th June, you will be able to show your abilities to cycle. This annual race for cyclist of all ages and levels, aims at inspiring people to cycle for leisure, travel and sport, and what better place to host than UK's first cycling city? The course if 1.3km long, suitable for any categories to suit junior or professional riders.

PROGRAMME

2.30pm - Love My Bike:  This is probably the funniest event of all. Take your friends, wear fancy dresses and cruise a lap of the course, there will be prizes for unusual bikes, beautiful bikes and happy riders!

3.00pm - Youth A, B:  This is the perfect race for junior bikers. 35 minutes and 3 laps.

3.45pm - Corporate Relay: This race is for all Bristol companies that have helped the event. In teams of 5, come join the race... or watch your colleagues ride!

4.45pm - Men's 3,4: Team race for local cycling club riders. 35 minutes and 3 laps.

5.45pm - Women's: Women's race. 35 minutes and 3 laps.

6.45pm - Men's Elite 1,2: Race for professionals. 50 minutes and 3 laps.

WEBSITE: http://bristolgrandprix.com/