Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Bristol

Cat Chant

10:52 / 08.08.05

Bristol! The city whose finery was financed by the slave trade! The city whose City Museum display consists almost entirely of disturbing taxidermy! Ah, Bristol. Diana Wynne Jones lives there, and soon so will Tangent and I.

Tell me things about it, please. I've been there a few times, job- and/or flat-hunting, and my researches suggest that I will be hanging out at Cafe Maitreya and Here (home of both Queer Mutiny and Stitch & Bitch: at last, somewhere where my Avon/Blake tapestry will be properly appreciated!), but what else should I be looking out for?

Oh, and I'm going to be teaching in the Faculty of Arts. What are the students going to be like?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:53 / 08.08.05

Ooh, good for you! I can't give you too much in the way of details, as it's been a looong time since I've been there, but it's a lovely city.

Tryphena Absent

11:07 / 08.08.05

I like Bristol although last time I was there all of the teenagers thought it was still 1994. But apparently every town has an era of its own.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

11:10 / 08.08.05

Pubs tend to only use plastic cups now because pretty young things keep getting glassed in the face.

Nasty.

11:14 / 08.08.05

Don't drink Cripple Cock cider. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Do visit the camera obscura, where the whole of the suspension bridge and surrounding area are projected onto a giant plate in a dark room for your convenience, and tiny people walk across the palm of your hand, unaware that you could crush them at will.

Fist Fun

11:26 / 08.08.05

I live in Bristol. It is the best place ever!!!

For flats my favourite areas are Clifton or Harbourside. Although anywhere near Gloucester Road is nice and a bit cheaper.

There are many good clubs. I've done too many hippy things here although I do think there is a big hippy culture around.

For restaurants I enjoy :
The Olive Shed, El Porto, Boca Nova and, erm, Wagamama.

Jub

11:40 / 08.08.05

[threadrot]

Hey - don't knock Wagamama! I love it. I went to the opening of their 50th place at the royal festival hall. It's a great place to eat.

[/threadrot]

Fist Fun

11:44 / 08.08.05

I love Wagamama too. I once went to London and was eating in china town. I suggested going to somewhere like Wagamama. We went to this place called the Tokyo Diner where it is really Japanese food. Yuck!

I love the bland Asian food in waga mama. It is so tasty.

Jub

11:53 / 08.08.05

Mmmm. Are you a member? They send you free stuff and you get vouchers (although not in the summer months) - for 2for1 offers etc. It's really rather very good. Quick service, clean restaurants, very competant staff and healthy good food.

Man - I fancy a Katsu Curry. MMMMmmmmmm.

Peach Pie

15:43 / 10.08.05

ohhh.. we *all* love Wagamama. Especially the yasai katsu curry.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:50 / 10.08.05

It's hard to know who is serving and who is eating in this exchange.

Alex's Grandma

16:16 / 10.08.05

What are the students going to be like?

Hmm. Well you know that old thing about virtually the entire population of Bristol university being made up of Oxbridge rejects?

Well it... it's a lie, goddamnit... It's a filthy, filthy lie...

Cat Chant

09:00 / 11.08.05

Okay, well, what are Oxbridge rejects like? I mean, are they rejected simply because there are too many upper-class kids stifling on their own sense of entitlement to fit into Oxbridge and the overflow has to go somewhere (bad), or because they're too interested in their work to spend all their time punting with teddy bears (good)?

Though of course this wouldn't apply to Bristol students anyway, so is technically threadrot.

All this praise of Wagamama's fills me with slight apprehension, especially after living in a city with the best vegetarian Indian restaurant in the universe (remember, Goodness Gracious Meme?) plus a couple of very good and veggie-friendly Japanese and pan-South-East-Asian ones. Not that I don't like bland fast food, but it's not something I'd go out of my way for in general.

Fist Fun

09:10 / 11.08.05

Yeah. I know. Sorry.

I think you will love the students. I don't know where you will teach but there are some very interesting modules at one of the unis here which match with the kind of things you post about. They tend to organise lots of things like cheap theatre visits, which I have tagged along to in the past. I was suprised how close the teachers were to the students.

Quantum

09:31 / 11.08.05

I think a friend of mine will be a student of yours come September, heh heh- blackmail opportunities abound...

Can I visit if I bring GGMeme? And home-made tarka dahl? Can we shoehorn in on your friend DWJ (well, obviously you'll have to befriend her highness ASAP) and stare at her drooling like fanthings? If we bring barfi and gulab jaman(sp?)?

Can we can we? Huh? BTW I was talking to my Mum about Bristol the other day, she said it was big, steep, and had a nice bridge. She said it was rough in the 70s but that's probably a bit out of date now... gosh I'm so helpful.

William Sack

09:35 / 11.08.05

I'll be even less helpful. My family comes from Bristol and Alfred the gorilla (pictured in your disturbing) taxidermy link) once masturbated at my grandmother back in the 30s.

Quantum

09:51 / 11.08.05

Is it true that to work at Wagamama you have to be beautiful, queer AND rude? And preferably from somewhere exotic?

Cat Chant

09:53 / 11.08.05

I think a friend of mine will be a student of yours come September, heh heh- blackmail opportunities abound...

Can I visit if I bring GGMeme? And home-made tarka dahl?

Blackmail and bribery? How's a girl (or a bigo) to resist? (Which department is your friend studying in, btw? I'm only teaching one first-year course this year.)

Buk, no need to be sorry - like I say, it's nice to have a good, cheap, vegetarian, non-lethal, reliable fast food restaurant around for when sudden hunger strikes in the middle of the long shopping day. But I'm hanging out for Cafe Maitreya's roast acorn squash with hazelnut & watercress risotto.

Will be nice to teach somewhere with good teacher/student relations, as well (No! Not that good, Quantum! Stop it!) after being somewhere where the Head of School routinely refers to undergraduates as "vermin".

Cash, I will never be able to look at Alfred the gorilla the same way.

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:45 / 11.08.05

[Threadrotty.} Is yr current head of school a

If so, colour me unsurprised.

Cat Chant

09:39 / 12.08.05

No (though it prolly wouldn't be much of an improvement, except that I have less personal reason to hate her than I do the actual HoS), but more importantly, I'm in love with your mad ungooglability skillz.

Goodness Gracious Meme

09:48 / 12.08.05

I *was* rather proud of that. Never pass up a cheap a/h gag, me.

Add Your Reply