Bristol and Liskeard are very much on the cards.

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So, memories of Cornish holidays in times gone by led me to recollect the shopping experience at one of the nation's three branches of Trago Mills, a shopping outlet in the south-west. Given that I am a sucker for bargains, resistance seemed too futile, and with that in mind, I was pulling into the entrance of Liskeard's very own branch thereof. The shopping complex is tastefully done out with statues of various figures strategically placed next to the car park area, alongside a stream, which gives the impression that this is very much a slice of quaint old England, which proudly sports its identity. This is most definitely an 'all-under-one-roof' shopping complex, and browsing can only lead to a few casual purchases as a direct result of spotting items which 'might as well be thrown in the shopping basket'. Exiting the store, an adjoining takeaway food outlet provided scope for sampling one of the region's famed Cornish pasties, and after that defining Cornish experience, it was back on the road again, this time Bristol-bound to see what delights the major south-west city had in store. As a travel guide I read recently accurately put it, 'Bristol buzzes', and the state-of-the-art Cabot Circus shopping complex really does give the impression that this is a city which has clearly shown no sign of resisting the urge to move with the times. In the allotted time frame, the mission was to sample the best of what Bristol had to offer, in terms of shopping and dining experiences which would appeal to this traveller's senses. Well, it was surely a case of mission accomplished, as a visit to Rise, surely the city's finest CD store, yielded no fewer than 6 CD purchases, many of which were part of a clearance sale, which is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow when the items on sale look like they belong in your personal collection. The waterfront development in Bristol has been so tastefully done out that you cannot help but marvel at the collaging of it all, and the way in which the quayside development has been woven into the urban fabric. Just when I assumed that I had sampled the cream of what this truly great city had to offer, a dining experience in the shape of an international buffet (Za Za Bazaar) came into play, and enabled me to conclude that Bristol does indeed have a fair few treats for the palate if this random pick was anything to go by. Without even sampling Bristol's nightlife, which I am told is equally, if not more, buzzing, I exited the city filled with a sense of fulfilment and the impression that if every country in the world possessed a similar-sized city of equal stature, then it would validate a person's lifestyle choice to not hang up their travel boots until every country on earth had been visited.

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