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@Bristol 20th September 2014

Well, who went on this fantastic trip on Saturday 20th September 2014?

Aileen, Ernest, James, Kym, Matthew, Paul & Spud did.

Apart from Kym, who had to make her own way from Nailsea to @Bristol, we all met up on the Seafront, Weston-super-Mare to catch the X1 bus to Bristol. At one stage the bus left without taking any passengers. But another one turned up shortly afterwards.

We got off the bus just opposite @Bristol, where Kym was waiting for us.

Once Aileen had sorted out the tickets we went through to place our bags into lockers. This was fun. We kept losing the key for the locker at one stage and we also had problems trying to open one of the lockers – it seemed to have a dodgy lock.

Our first point of call was with water with moving parts. We had handles to turn and pull which moved water from one place to another through tubes and buckets. At one stage Aileen & Kym got wet thinking it was Spud or James playing about but, in fact, it was a little boy playing with the handles turning them around really fast which was causing water to go everywhere. We all took turns going onto a wheel where we had to hold onto two handles and run to turn the wheel which then caused water to go through pipes going across the ceiling. (see photos)

We then looked at a machine which told us about DNA and showed computerised enhanced images at different stages of DNA construction from a cell – this was very interesting.

Time to look at hearing and this was amazing. We all had to get a straw and place it onto a machine and place our fingers into our ears and then bite onto the straw. Not sure how this worked but you actually heard music playing.

Taking it in turns to have our height taken and, together with our ages, Kym entered the details into the console which then informed us who was the tallest person so far that day visiting @Bristol.

After lunch we took the lift up to the first floor and we felt the different sizes of the human brain, starting from a foetus up to an 80 year old person. We could hold and feel each brain and also put them on to weighing scales to see how much they weigh.

Now a look at taste; we had a pair of headphones and 2 bottles of different liquids. We had to put the headphones on and then place a drop of the first liquid on a teaspoon and place it on our tongues and afterwards we had to do the same with the second liquid to see if we could tell the difference.

Onto the sensory area where we stood on a platform, pressed a button, which played music, and at the same time the floor vibrated to the sound of the music. This was great fun; we had about 5 different buttons to go through which made the floor vibrate in different ways. (see photos)

And now a fantastic game of volleyball: well, poor old Ernest was getting hit by the ball when Kym was trying to get it over the net. Every time she failed the screen would say – too many goes!

Well, what can I say about the next event? Kym gave a very interesting talk whilst in the womb. Yes, a womb! Aileen, Philip, James, Kym and myself were inside this huge womb and Kym explained in great detail about the different stages of the foetus whilst in the womb. Astounding!!!

As we walked in to the sound area Ernest sat down at the pipes to give everyone a nice tune – it sounded like we were in the Caribbean. After the performance by Ernest we all went to the animation room where we all had a go making an animated movie using our fingers and posting on the @Bristol website. Aileen, Spud, Ernest & Orla’s pictures were taken with their faces showing through cutouts of a row of sheep. (see photos)

We finished our day by making bubbles. This was great. Spud was the best person making long tube shaped bubbles and everyone enjoyed making different shaped bubbles. (see photos)

Posted By Matthew Stevens