Now, look: it’s the middle of May and it’s the middle of the afternoon. You take the dog for a walk. What do you expect? Well, a la Brighton, what you get is you and the dog repeatedly being almost blown off your feet. Literally.
If this was an isolated incident, fine. Hm, okay, today is particularly bad, and you normally get this of a night. But still. I didn’t get anything like this in the depths of Winter in London (or Brum, very often).
Read More »Lotsa Weather
One thing you London types don’t understand at all, and for completely different reasons us Brummie Provincials find hard to grasp, is the milk thing.
I really miss milk in glass bottles. Back in the stix, even if you didn’t have it delivered, you could stroll to your local corner shop, et voila, bottles of milk! Glass bottles. Loads of them.
London’s too ‘trendy’ and ‘high-speed’ for that. I have the most corner-shoppish corner shop you ever saw in your life down the road, but… no milk in glass bottles. It comes in plastic bottles. Very small ones, medium ones, huge ones. All plastic.
Read More »Milk!
I’ve neglected the blog a bit again lately, but as I’m not getting much feedback off it and things have been fairly busy anyway, frankly, I couldn’t be arsed.
As mentioned last time, Andy came down on the 30th and left on the 4th. It was a good time on the whole. On the Sunday night, you’ll be shocked to hear, we didn’t get an Indian… we went for pizza instead—tuna and jalapenos. Maybe not everyone’s taste!
Ugly, blurry pic took in Bacchus, July 30th.
Read More »Life in the Fast Lane, Lemme Tell Ya!
Andy Luke of Something-or-Other Fame is due here sometime around 6pm. I’m meeting him in Brum. He has housing problems and I don’t mind the company. He’ll be down till Friday, so I’ll have to curtail my animal sacrificing and cannibalism activities for a while…
Read More »Filling In
Paul Gravett came down for a visit today, which was a chance not only for him to have a good look around Birmingham, but also for me to see stuff I haven’t seen for ages. There’s much more to Brum than meets the eye, you know.
We had a nice look around the pre-Raphaelite display in the museum/gallery—some stunning work to be seen there. Mom tells me the last time I went there was when I was just about out of nappies.
Nearby, Paul posed for a snap:
I did buy some office-friendly clothes today, including a shirt. The venue was H&M. I usually buy stuff from M&S, since we have food from there, but they’re pricey. H&M are cheaper, although their displays are appallingly untidy and disordered. And the clothes are quite dirty in some cases; they had a pale blue shirt I might have bought had they not all been mingingly filthy and creased… okay, they can be washed and ironed, but that’s not the point.
If this sounds like I’m planning to get an office job, well, I’m not. Not really. It would entirely upset my long-term image as an arty-farty anarchist. I’m merely being… pragmatic.
Read More »The Office
Films we’ve watched recently:
Wrong Turn… verdict: okay. I think I appreciated it being fairly WYSIWG, no hidden twists or ‘clever’ variations. There were some moments of genuine tension and suspense. Not an original bone in its body, and if you’ve seen Hills Have Eyes et al, why bother? Along similar(ish) lines, Cabin Fever seems to have had good reviews, so I’ll probably check it out whenever.
The Christmas display in Birmingham is well up to its usual unimpressive standards. Tourists are flocking from yards around to see the spectacle. Hm. Yes. Well, actually, I’ve just found that taking a snap of part of it while walking makes it almost look interesting…
Psychedelic! Well, kinda.
Read More »Ho Ho Ho
Terrible, rainy weather today. I’m not really stuck in the house, but I had a couple of non-urgent errands that this wretched downpour has dissuaded me from doing today. (Okay, I’m a wuss. Sue me.)
I had plans for last Wednesday. Saruman himself, Christopher Lee, was signing his autobiography, Lord of Misrule, in London at Forbidden Planet on Saturday and Borders on Wednesday. I thought I’d go for Wednesday. Alas, irrevocable transport problems put the kibosh on my plans… I did finally make it into Brum, but too late to get an affordable train that would’ve been on time. My only choice was a Virgin train for £30. I was forced to admit defeat.
Here’s how interesting the scenery out and about today was:
Well, I went to Brum yesterday (and Merryhill Wednesday), which was slightly more riveting, but I think I wanted a really boring photo to capture the true West Midlands spirit! Can you identify this spot? I picked a more obscure area/angle to make it harder.
Read More »That is the Question
