So after Thursday evening Orynthia really is convinced that Derren Brown is the devil. He put on a hugely enjoyable and unsettling show, which left us open mouthed on occasions. His magnificent stage presence and showmanship create the perfect environment for him to spin his magical craft. He can be both charming and disarming, the perfect combination for an act which relies on the audience allowing itself to be manipulated into seeing or believing only what HE wants us to believe. Since seeing the show, I’ve spoken to a few friends who take the world of magic and mind control pretty seriously (they do a few mean tricks themselves), and they have explained how some of the things would have been done. However they were both very impressed with the stagecraft of this extraordinary man.

As expected Friday was a pretty manic day, I caught some of the slightly chaotic free lunchtime performance from Joy Zipper, and then nipped home before returning to town via my former commuter train to meet Orynthia and Helen for the walk to Spike Island. We managed to grab some free wine and food, before making our rounds of the 100 plus studio’s. As usual the huge array of styles on offer makes the whole experience a fascinating one. I really feel that we are so lucky to have this sort of facility in Bristol. The place is open until Monday tea time, if you live in Bristol you really should take a look, it’s free! After leaving Spike Island we took the short but interesting walk along Cumberland Road to The Louisiana for the Joy Zipper gig. Got there in time to catch most of the set by support act Lucky Jim, which was not very lucky for us as they were pretty uninspired. The Joy Zipper set hit some real highs but also had a few meandering moments.

Yesterday we had a wandering around sort of day in town, the highlight of which was a visit to the magnificently named Pieminister on Stokes Croft. Fantastic pies at great prices, if only they were open in the evening. Also went to one of my favourite mooching around shops, the confusingly named Here, also on Stokes Croft. It’s full of quirky and inventive things, a great collection of comics and graphic books, interesting art and all manner of strangeness, I feel it’s a bit neglected by most people in Bristol which is a shame, it deserves our support.

Saturday evening was spent with Teresa and Steve, so we finally had a chance to see their gorgeous new kitchen, and catch up with each other. Today the sun is shining, so time for some work to be done in the garden, let’s hope it can stay dry for Redland Fair tomorrow.