Heading North on Cheltenham Road from the centre, you will see arguably the most striking and iconic mural that Bristol has to offer.
Stinkfish, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2015
This beautiful portrait is by the Colombian artist Stinkfish, and is at the hub of so much other brilliant street art in the area. It is funny how we become accustomed to just seeing things but not noticing them. Today I stopped and took a really good look at this and it is absolutely outstanding.
Stinkfish, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2015
There is a bit more background to this mural, which was painted in June 2012, here.
Today hasn’t actually begun yet or at least I suppose it has in Japan and will in the UK fairly shortly. Bit of a cock up on the time front. Well I slept for some 12 hours on and off – bad dreams all the time. I lay awake for half that time. Missed all daylight – God it’s so depressing doing that. I am planning to go to bed at about 10-11 this morning with a view to radioing Stanley at 10 on Friday. Tonight’s fishing completes my first week back of the second voyage – I suppose that has to be good news.
My mind keeps going back to mum on the phone saying “write a book”, “why not?” – I could think of a million reasons why not, beginning with ‘I have nothing to say, nothing new happens’ – too difficult – I cannot express myself – nobody would find it interesting.
I had a good sleep and feel quite refreshed. Changed my socks, or at least my 7-day-old pair walked away from me. In fact they weren’t too smelly.
Smelly socks
‘Name of the Rose’ is getting good, but I can’t help feeling that Umberto Eco’s vanity has entered into it a little too much. He uses the characters to show how much he himself knows about monastic history from the period 1100 to 1400 or so. Why not write a history instead of a thriller? Vanity? money? I wrote to Deb and to Andy W yesterday. I have become a little less prolific recently, probably all part of my general gloom at the moment.
Friday 22 April 1988, Koei Maru 30
I have managed to get through midnight without my customary snooze, which gives me great cheer and I don’t feel too tired yet, which is a good sign. I have learned to make myself as comfortable as I can and use the mattress from the other bunk to sit across my bed on. It is not ideal, but more comfortable than my fold up writing chair.
I feel it is time to enter some football; results and tables:
Cuttings of football results from newspapers sent out to me from the UK.
I’ve been meaning to do that for ages and feel really good now that it is done. I only yearn now for my next bunch of newspapers.
21:30 hrs – What a lot to talk about.
I must just say on e thing that made me laugh – one of the crew was standing with 5 or 6 packets of liquorice comfits and he said ‘no goo’, whereupon he promptly filled his hand with some and swiftly chucked them in his mouth.
Are these desperate men?
Are these men desperate?
These men are desperate
These are desperate men
Desperate these men are
Desperate men these are
These men desperate are
These desperate men are.
Best news is that I’m going to Uruguay! Yahoo! – all payed for etc etc.
Shit I’m lucky.
It has all come about because of some argument to do with the KSJ/Fisheries Directorate agreement. It seems that KSJ want an observer to watch and report on the refit in Montevideo and count this as part of the 120 day programme of long-lining. Still, I’m not complaining, especially as it now means that my leave will be in July/August instead of June. Much better for everyone.
Only a stone’s throw away from the new Unify stencil, is a memorable work by one of Bristol’s most celebrated street artists.
Nick Walker was born in 1969 (which makes him almost as old as me) and has become a world famous artist, having emerged from the Bristol graffiti scene in the early 1980s. He tends to use stencils and freehand, and many of his works will be found in more than one place. More about Nick Walker can be found here.
Nick Walker, RapunzelNick Walker, Rapunzel
This particular mural is known as ‘Rapunzel’ and features a recurring theme in his work of a ‘vandalism’ motif with a heart. It appeared in August 2008.
I will be posting more of his Bristol murals in time.
Natural adventures 