Wahey! The day of the red-trousered philanthropist!

Well it's happened.  Bristol now has a mayor - and he wears red trousers!

For years we've been dogged by the crappiest council in the country.  They hate cars.  Intent on introducing controlled parking zones.  Let developers cram too much housing into too small a space without thinking about all the associated cars that brings, or the infrastructure needed for all these extra people. 

Every year they are surprised by the number of children seeking school places that they didn't know would be applying.  For goodness sake, these 4 year-olds didn't just spring out of nowhere.  They were all born somewhere and they're all known to health visitors and doctors.  Couldn't they just ask them how many were on their books? 

Similarly with secondary schools - well nearly all of the would-be new intake come from existing primary schools, so you know where they all live and where the schools need to be.  God help us if they ever needed rocket science.

They make it impossible to park in town.  They let FirstBus run a really awful bus service, too expensive, buses don't go where you actually want to go - and then wonder why Cribbs Causeway shopping centre (which is actually in South Glos) attracts all the shoppers.

So yes, finally, we have someone in control who can think outside the box and who actually GETS THINGS DONE.

Not much to live up to, eh?  Go, get 'em, George!

(Oh and because of the mayoral elections, we have the highest PCC turnout in the country which now has also gone to the independent on the second count with twice as many votes as her contender)

How many days to Christmas?

With nearly six weeks to go, the trees are on sale already.  Lucky they're growing ones in pots.  Any for sale round your way yet?

Wow! Gromits!

Last year here in Bristol we had Wow! Gorillas in which 61 gorillas were decorated by artists and placed around the city. 

Some of them arrived by boat.  A gorilla flotilla.  They were great fun, and a lot of photos were taken with them.  Every time you saw one, you smiled.

Now it seems we shall be sporting Gromits next year.

Which reminds me of a day back in 2005, when I was walking back from school and saw what was obviously a huge fire in the distance.  And that afternoon, when the wind was blowing gently in our direction, all the ash came with it.  The top of our black dustbin was thick with it.  And then we discovered where the fire had been. 

It was a bit like when it's been snowing and there's a blanket of snow over everything.  Except this time it wasn't snow, it was Gromit's ashes.

In other news, we've voted for the man in the red trousers.  Let's hope he wins.

Coming to a multi-storey carpark near you....

Sunday night in Cardiff was cold and raining, but a lot of fun was had here . 

You can see my daughter coming second at 3' 17".  For once, not much mud.


(Apologies for the advert on the front, you'll have to click and close that)

And here's another one in which she features (the moody looking girl on a high-viz bike at 55" in)