The Fopp Challenge - Bristol

As a Manchester-based trainer it was natural that I'd end up working in Bristol, which is where I am currently sitting, bored out of my mind after one day here.  Bristol also happens to have one of the only two branches of Fopp I've yet to visit, so last night I was a man with a mission and prepared to tick it off my list.

I left the office and drove through heavy traffic along three motorways into the heart of Bristol.  I parked at the Cabot Circus shopping centre, which is a little bizarre - a cluster of new buildings, open to the elements but with a strange glass canopy suspended above to keep you dry but buffeted by the wind, a little like a mall with open ends.  As a shopping centre it was alright, if a little pretentious (one of the levels was called the "Glass Walk") but I wasn't there to shop, at least not in Cabot Circus.  I headed down the bitterly cold main shopping street, through a slightly unnerving student-y area complete with graffiti-covered buildings, past the Hippodrome, and up onto College Green where the familiar red "splat" sign soon came into view.  I was excited, nervous, shivering (I'd left my "big coat" in the boot of my car) and desperate for the toilet.

Inside the shop was quite like the Nottingham branch in that it was shallow but wide.  The ground floor had new releases, books, discounted stuff, and some DVDs and Blu-Ray which, not having a Blu-Ray player, I ignore.  Upstairs was deserted (and playing some very strange music), and was where CDs plus the majority of the DVDs / Blu-Ray disks were found. 

Sadly due to my UWR (urgent wee requirement) I didn't stay for long, despite the heating in the shop being pleasantly set at the level known as "Nan's House" (i.e. boiling, which thawed me out nicely), so I bought two CDs and a DVD (Lana Del Rey, "Speaking In Tongues" by Talking Heads, and "Nobleism" by Ross Noble), knocked a tenner off the bill with the gift card I got from Di (thanks, Di!) and headed back through the graffiti-covered streets to Cabot Circus, where I saw two bad transvestites and finally found a toilet where I relieved myself.  Then I wandered around Cabot Circus for a while - bought nothing - and went to Piccolinos for a disappointing and slightly depressing (I was alone but surrounded by laughing people) meal, the highlight of which was when the two bad transvestites tottered in on their ludicrous heels, sat a couple of tables away from me, and proceeded to flirt with a rather confused and alarmed-looking waiter.

So now I have only one Fopp left to visit, which is in Cambridge.  As a Manchester-based trainer I'm sure I'll end up there soon enough.