Bristol

I am in the process of organising a trip to Bristol to attend a conference (this one, if you are interested).  I lived in Bristol for a while as a child (1980-1983, or something like that).   I was young enough that my memories centre around home, the nearby environment, parks, the walk to the local shops, the Downs, and a very few other things - the long road with the toyshop (Dawson's Toys) on, for example.  It will be strange to be back.  Like with any work travel, I will be there just in time for the start of the meeting and leaving just as the meeting ends and will not be able to visit any old haunts, but I expect it will be a slightly odd experience in any case.  It's the only place I've lived as a child that I've never really been back to.  I was born in Glasgow and have been back many times, and lived in London, Oxford, Tennessee, Portsmouth, Bishop's Stortford (where my parents still live) and have visited all those places again over the years.

If you ever watched the opening of TVAM's Good Morning Britain programme when it was on the air over many years, then you would have seen me, aged 6, somewhere in the top-right part of the "D" in this spelling out of the words "GOOD MORNING BRITAIN" made by a group of people on the Bristol Downs.  

The snapshot is taken from a YouTube video I found (here) so you can see the whole thing, where we were all milling around on the Downs and then at a signal we all had to move to a roughly-designated position inside some letters that were marked on the ground.  The director on the ground heard back from the helicopter that it had apparently worked brilliantly - and the effect is pretty neat!