Birmingham: round the shops & some bleedin' culture!

'Herding cats' the man said; look at all these tickets to Birmingham... three out of five turned up! Three! The good'uns though...

 A beautifully clear spring day, bright but very cold out of the sun, I cannot tell you how many times my jacket went into & out of my bag... though, the sun stayed shining high in the sky well into the evening.

Boy! Can these two boys shop! I thought Neil was a fine consumer, until I saw Rhys in action... likes a bargain, he does. They do!

However, the chaps were convinced to give me a chance for a slow down, as we hoovered up some culture at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. A couple of great exhibitions: some of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings (from the Royal Collection) marking the 500th anniversary of his death... some great pieces... that lad could wield a goose quill!

Secondly, & far more freakily, Too Cute! curated by Rachel Maclean is hard to sum up in a few words... so, check these...

Back down to the markets & a cracking lunch at Cafe Neo (whose All Day is a Very Large, Very Good Value Breakfast, & whose service is excellent!) A bit of a pig out, then an amble through the rag market to the train home. 

All in all, a lovely day out - but you had to there to truly enjoy it Linda & Rob S; look at all those tickets up there!

All England Badminton Championship 2019

Guess where we went in the second week of March? Yep! The 2019 Yonex All England... always so good!

 It was cold and damp all day, but inside the badz was great: engrossing games across the disciplines - up close for Momota beating Wangcharoen (he went on to win ms), & it's always good to see Hirota & Fukushima win (wd).

Some of the guys were out again in the evening, so we did leave somewhat earlier than anticipated... but, a great day of badders (& sarnies!) was had by all!

An unpleasant journey home: the train was simply chock-full - dangerously so, if not quite as bad as the Manchester train that left just before!

 A special pic for poor Rob L, as Lin Dan went out too early for us!

Black Country Living Museum... almost!

Spitting in Cannock; raining in Birmingham; tipping down in Tipton - & Rob ate his lunch baguette before he got to the station! 

We ran away - discretion being the better part of valour (& some of the guys thought they might shrink!)

We got wet in Brum.  Shaun & Neil bought matching shirts, as Rob got a tad moaney! 

 The high point of the day may have been the choccie bar whilst waiting at New Street station.

We got wet when we got back to Cannock!

All in all, not too bad a day...

Birmingham

A lovely wander around Brum... after a lovely full English at the Merchant.  We did an awful lot of walking - to the point we almost lost Rob (cardiac!), but we did see an awful lot of the city.

The highlight for most of us, simply because we hadn't been there before, was the Library of Birmingham.  A magnificent building, with great work & social spaces, but most specially with a couple of gardens in the sky, offering fantastic views over the city skyline.

 

And, of course, no wander around Birmingham would be complete without a trot along the towpath to Gas Street Basin.