Following the Gromit trail around Bristol

I've previously blogged about my plans to visit all of the Gromit statues which have been placed around Bristol and the surrounding areas over the summer of 2013. 

Headed by Aardman Animations, for ten weeks between 1st July and 8th September, eighty statues of Gromit have been placed in a type of public art display under the title, 'Gromit Unleashed'. These are mainly in the greater Bristol area, but some are further afield. Each statue has been designed or decorated by a different individual and each sponsored by a different corporate entity. After the end of the ten week period they'll then be auctioned off to raise funds for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital charity.

 

My blog post here is about the first twenty statues we visited, this post is about the next twenty.

These first few carry on from the previous post and are also in the Clifton and surrounding areas of Bristol. This is 'It's Kraken, Gromit!' by Filthy Luker, sponsored by Torwood House School and Nursery and positioned just off the Downs. This is probably the most creative Gromit I've seen, the extra legs can't have been easy to add!

This is 'Five a Day Dog' by Laura Cramer, sponsored by CJ Hole and was on Henleaze Road in Henleaze. I'm not sure why an estate agent are sponsoring a Gromit which looks like he'd be better claimed by a green grocer!

Our final stop of the day was to see 'Feathers' by Dave Bain sponsored by Nailsea Electrical and placed on the Gloucester Road. It's not that easy to see, but he's decorated with parrots, hence the name.

 

The next day we headed into the city centre for shopping and Gromiting. We started in the Cabot Circus shopping centre where we found 'Doodles' by Simon Tofield, the Gromit that the shopping centre are sponsoring. Gromit is decorated with Simon's most well known creation, Simon's Cat.

 We found 'Gromit Lightyear' by Pixar and sponsored by Jones Lang LaSalle inside the Showcase Cinema de Luxe. I loved the Buzz Lightyear design, and that he'd been placed in a perfect location.

'Grosmos' by Cheba was sponsored by and tucked away in Harvey Nichols. This was a challenge, the bright light in the background made it really difficult to get a good photograph of him, but hopefully you can see the galaxy effect.

'Lancelot' by Sir Paul Smith was in Quakers Friars and sponsored by Bluefin Professions. He's clearly had his nose rubbed a few too many times as the paint was wearing thin!

 'Malago' by Dan Collings at Thirty Three and sponsored by the John James Bristol Foundation was in Broadmead, in full sun.

'Gromitasaurus' by Huncan Daskell was in The Galleries shopping centre and sponsored by them. I did like his eyes!

'Collarfull' by Hannah Cumming was in Castle Park and sponsored by TLT. He's covered in cartoon style drawings, a bit of a random design!

'Why Dog? Why?' by Mark Titchner was located at and sponsored by St Nicholas Market. I wasn't convinced by this one, the question mark seemed like an after thought and looked as if it had been coloured in by hand.

'Nezahualcoyotl' by Joseph Dunmore was sponsored by and placed in Stanfords bookshop. Nice design but a nightmare of a name to try and pronounce or type!

'Bumble Boogie' by Sarah Jane Richards was sponsored by Wessex Water and placed at Colston Hall. This also had music composed by Jools Holland OBE. I tried tentatively pressing the red button, but as the Hall was so quiet, didn't have the confidence to press it firmly enough to hear the music.

'Hero' by Tom Deams was placed outside and sponsored by Subway. Bristol is well known for it's graffiti, so I liked the idea of the Wallace and Gromit inspired graffiti behind. Nice Gromit design as well!

'Salty Sea Dog' by Peter Lord CBE, one of the directors of Aardman, was sponsored by Veale Wasbrough Vizards and placed on the Cascade Steps. Pete does love his pirates, so really his design couldn't have been of anything else!

'A Close Shave' by Harry Hill was at the Tourist Information Centre and sponsored by Destination Bristol. I thought this was a clever idea, picking up on the name of a Wallace and Gromit short animation.

'Hound Dog' by Sir Peter Blake was at the Arnolfini and sponsored by the O2 Academy Bristol. This one made me laugh, with his quiff it was clear that he was channelling Elvis.

'Zodiac' by Inkie, sponsored by At-Bristol was outside the Arnolfini and was marked with the names of all of the signs of the Zodiac.

'Bark at Ee' by Leigh Flurry at Red Central was on Queen Square and sponsored by Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking. This was a popular one, he has Bristolian phrases written over him, which were making the Bristolians around me giggle.

'Groscar' by Chris Taylor was sponsored by Business West and placed in Thunderbolt Square (didn't know it was called that!). This one was a bit worse for wear, his gold paint was rubbing off and he had a patch on his ear with a repair in progress.

We did a few more before heading home for the day, but as I've covered another twenty, that seems like a good place to stop.

Hopefully you're enjoying seeing the Gromit statues. If you want to come to Bristol to hunt some down for yourself, there's an app for Apple and Android phones, that you can use to tick them off as you see them. It costs 69p, but most of that goes to the charity. The Gromit Unleashed website is also worth a look. You can download maps there, or pick them up from the passport stops and shops (where you can also get your Gromit Unleashed passport stamped).

If there's anything I can help with, or you just want to let me know which is your favourite Gromit, please leave me a comment below.

The post with the next twenty should hopefully be up before too long.

MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, my favourite tools for healthy eating

I'm no fan of diets. I've got some friends who've been on very succesful diets and kept the weight off, but on the whole they seem to be part of a seesaw process where I see people lose weight, put it back on (and more) and the process starts again.

I've had a Fitbit for almost a year, which I love. It tracks my daily activity levels and tells me if I'm not getting enough sleep (see my review here) but I was aware that it was only part of the story. Without monitoring what I put into my body, how could I be sure that I was active enough to maintain my weight, or indeed reduce it?

That was where MyFitnessPal came in. It's a free food diary app, and put simply, it's brilliant. You key in a few bits of profile information, whether you want to maintain your weight or lose a pound or two a week and it tells you how many calories you should be eating. You can either look up what you eat in the database or scan the barcode. You can even copy meals from day to day if you tend to eat the same things. Admittedly you have to weigh what you eat, but that's the only complication. Now for the really smart bit. I can also link my Fitbit to MyFitnessPal. My Fitbit reports now not only tell me how many calories I'm burning each day, but also how many I'm taking in. I've always been the sort of person that needs to know how things work in order to get my head around them. This is what's so brilliant about this combination. I can see exactly what I need to do to get the result I want. If you don't have a Fitbit, you can just input your daily activites straight into MyFitnessPal. Since linking up the two apps I've lost 12lbs and it's been painless. I don't see this as a diet, just a lifestyle choice to balance what energy I burn with the food I eat. I'm no gym bunny but I walk a fair bit at weekends, equally I've had a couple of blow outs, but I'm honest with myself, put the sad facts into MyFitnessPal and then at least I know what I'll see when I step onto the scales at the end of the week, as I have this information at my fingertips. It means that if I'm having a bad week foodwise, I make sure I go out for a long walk. Equally, if I'm stuck to my desk all week and not walking much, I just watch what I eat a bit more carefully.

MyFitnessPal circulated this infographic earlier in the week, it's clearly propaganda, but it still makes for interesting reading. Food diaries always seem to be highly ranked in methods people use to sucessfully lose weight. MyFitnessPal just makes that process a little easier. It's also interesting to see how other people are using the app and what they find works for them.

If you use MyFitnessPal or Fitbit, I'd love to hear what you think of them or if you have any tips or other recommendations.

Gromiting - the art of spotting five foot high dogs

Headed by Aardman Animations, for ten weeks between 1st July and 8th September, eighty statues of Gromit have been placed in a type of public art display under the title, 'Gromit Unleashed'. These are mainly in the greater Bristol area, but some are further afield. Each statue has been designed or decorated by a different individual and each sponsored by a different corporate entity. After the end of the ten week period they'll then be auctioned off to raise funds for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital charity.

As my husband used to work for Aardman, I have a soft spot for all things Aardmanite. I even got to go on a couple of friends and family tours and held a model Gromit in my hand. It's just a shame it was all subject to confidentiality agreements, and I don't have any photographic evidence! As a result, as soon as I heard that the statues were being launched, I wanted to get out to see them. One of them is in London, which may well prove a bit problematic, I just have to hope that there's a course or meeting I need to attend there for work over the next few weeks!

As I've been off work this week, I've taken the opportunity to get around and see (and photograph) as many Gromits as I can. I'm aware 80 Gromits in one hit is a bit much for anyone, so I thought I'd blog after each 20 that I've visited, a target that I passed yesterday. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I have.

This is 'Poochadelic' by Lisa Hassell, sponsored by Linden Homes. This was the first Gromit we found, at Gloucesteshire Cricket Club. A good start, nice and colourful.

Next we went to see 'Two Eds are Better than One', by Peter Brookes, sponsored by Dunkley's Chartered Accountants and placed outside their offices. The illustrations are of Ed Balls as Gromit and Ed Milliband as Wallace. One for the more politically savvy, I think!

We took a drive up through the countryside to Hawkesbury Upton, where we found the next Gromit, 'Harmony' by Marie Simpson, tucked away in the Beaufort Arms beer garden, who had also sponsored him. I liked his design, with flowers and birds, which perfectly suited the summer weather.

Heading back home at the end of our first day, we nipped in to see 'Roger' by Richard Williams. He was outside the Top to Bottom soft furnishings store in Staple Hill, who also sponsored him. With my limited artistic ability and love of bright colours, this is probably how I'd have painted Gromit!

Another day, another set of Gromits. We were already in the area and so decided to visit the Gromits at the Cribbs Causeway shopping centre. This first one, 'The Wild West' by Amy Timms, was outside Harveys the furniture store, and was sponsored by them. He looks a little crazed, due to having a snail for one eye and a ladybird for the other!

Our next stop was 'Antique Rose' by Cath Kidston MBE, who was just outside one of the main entrances to the shopping centre, and was sponsored by them. This seemed a popular one judging by the reactions of the other people taking photographs of him.

'The Green Gromit', by Zayn Malik, was inside the Gromit Unleashed store in the shopping centre, who sponsored him. Not one of my favourites, as it's not immediately obvious that a lot of thought went into this one (prepares for the wrath of One Direction fans).

We went into town in the afternoon for a trip around the museum and found 'TutanGromit' by Dale Evans, just inside. He was sponsored by Brewin Dolphin and fitted perfectly with the Egyptian exhibition which we'd come to see.

I was surprised that this one was part of the series, as it's clearly so different. However, it's created by Nick Park CBE who also created Wallace and Gromit, so if anyone's design should stand out, it's his! This was in the main lobby of the museum, was called 'Newshound' and was sponsored by LDC.

Next we walked up to the Royal West of England Academy and found 'Bushed' by David Inshaw just inside. He was sponsored by Airbus and again wasn't amongst my favourites as little thought seemed to have gone into the design.

'Golden Gromit' by Julie Vernon was sparkling outside the Victoria Rooms and was sponsored by Dancourt Group. This is one of my favourites so far and must have taken ages to form the mosaic design.

'Vincent Van Gromit' by Laura Cramer was on a side street around the back of the Royal West of England Academy, so we nipped to see him on the way back to the car. He was sponsored by County Contractors and was quite a clever idea, I especially liked the bandaged ear!

The following day we both had appointments in Clifton, and so did a walk around all of the Gromits in the vicinity. We found 'Sheepdog' by Richard 'Golly' Starzak in the Mall Gardens, he was sponsored by BID Clifton Village. He's a Trojan Horse, you can just about see Shaun the Sheep inside controlling him.

On Sion Hill in the shadow of the Suspension Bride we found 'Ship Shape & Bristol Fashion' by Sarah Matthews, sponsored by Bristol City Council. This was a really clever one, with several parts of Bristol drawn onto him.

We had to search a bit for 'Fiesta' by Lindsay McBirnie. At first we went down the road behind the Avon Gorge hotel, and then spotted a sign that read, "Gromit is in the pub", at first we assumed he would be in the Avon Gorge Hotel, but he was actually on the terrace at the White Lion, but confusingly sponsored by the Avon Gorge Hotel. It was another clever design in a perfect location on a sunny day.

We then walked through to Clifton Hill where we found 'Patch' by Emily Golden and sponsored by Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital. This was a cheery design and unusually didn't have any other Gromit spotters around him. In fact the only other people around were the workmen eating their lunches and snoozing under the nearby trees!

We jumped in the car and spotted 'Sugar Plum' by Celia Birtwell CBE on our way up to the Downs. He was outside The Redgrave Theatre, but sponsored by Clifton College. The rose theme seems quite popular, not the first nor the last we'll see.

We made a quick stop at Bristol Zoo Gardens to see 'A Mandrill's Best Friend' by Vivi Cuevas, sponsored by Kings Heavy Haulage (Bristol). Again, this was a perfect design for the location and was very popular.

'Dog Rose' by Ros Franklin was nearby on Whiteladies Road and was sponsored by A C Services (Southern). This one looked like he was rolling his eyes, a simple design, but done well.

'Blossom' by Emily Ketteringham was nearby outside Cafe Retreat on the Downs, but sponsored by Siniat. From the photographs this looks like he's in a bit of a sad location, it's a shame they didn't place him with the Downs as a backdrop, his flowery image would have worked much better then.

We did a few more that day, but as I've now covered our first twenty, that seems like a good place to stop.

Hopefully you're enjoying seeing the Gromit statues. If you want to come to Bristol to hunt some down for yourself, there's an app for Apple and Android phones, that you can use to tick them off as you see them. It costs 69p, but most of that goes to the charity. The Gromit Unleashed website is also worth a look. You can download maps there, or pick them up from the passport stops and shops (where you can also get your Gromit Unleashed passport stamped).

If there's anything I can help with, or you just want to let me know which is your favourite Gromit, please leave me a comment below.

I'll hopefully be back with the next twenty shortly before I have to go back to work and life gets in the way!