No Fireworks, new camera, more cycling, Christmas Parade
Hey LiveJournal! I have a couple of weekends' worth of life to update on.
The weekend before last I arrived home on Friday night, made pasta sauce and lemon biscuits (that turned out to be more like rock cakes, but still, very nice!). On Saturday we went to Stourbridge as David had been there earlier in the week and seen a camera in Cash Converters he thought would be suitable for me.
My old trusted Kodak camera that served me admirably through my time Poland etc, decided to die on me on the morning of David's birthday. This meant I had no camera of my own for the entire Prague trip, which was rather disappointing! I expected to make do with my phone camera for a while and pick up a cheap one in the post-Christmas sales, perhaps for my birthday. Personally, I wasn't too fussed on the specs. I want point-and-click, I want it to work and take a photo in focus, without having to worry about lighting conditions or settings. David, on the other hand, is rather interested in cameras and kept suggesting cameras that cost twice as much as I'd envisaged paying because of better specs on things like the lens speed. He did explain why the lens speed was important, but it's just not something I'd have ever considered. How well it fits into a handbag and whether it's a nice shape was about my level of interest. It's a good thing he helped me really or I'd have ended up with something pretty shoddy.
In the end he found a camera from the same range as his own but a lower model (fewer bells and whistles but still good quality) in Cash Converters for £45. It ticked all the boxes and was a good deal so we made the journey over to Stourbridge just to get it. David used to live over there so we met up with his old housemate while we were there. We also picked up some sparklers in Waitrose in anticipation of going to a fireworks display that evening.
While we were over that side of Birmingham we stopped by his nan's house and saw his nan and his mom for a brief visit before heading back to Birmingham to go to a fireworks display...
When I was a kid I am sure there were more displays around! I remember there being one at the local church, pub, community centre, etc. Pubs in particular used to put on displays to bring in business. They'd usually have a bonfire and kids would wave sparklers and the fireworks wouldn't be that amazing but it felt cosy and special.
I tried in vain all week to research some place that would have a small display and couldn't find one. There's a massive, council-run display at Pype Hayes park in Erdington. That's not the most ideal part of Birmingham to get to, and apparently the parking offered was a 'park and ride' from the Fort Shopping centre. Just sounded like a lot of faffing about to go somewhere that probably had a massive crowd and everything overpriced. The only other one I found was at a cricket grounds at Kings Heath. We decided to check that out and arrived about 20 minutes after the fireworks were advertised for, and so we expected we'd perhaps missed the fireworks but hoped for a bonfire or some kind of nice little event. We arrived and there were balloons by the entrance signifying there had been an event on but as we pulled in, the last car was pulling out. They'd evidently had the display and packed up and left within half an hour. Can't have been that good!
We could hear fireworks going off all over the place but I suppose they must have been private events. Maybe churches, schools, etc do put on their own displays but they're just not advertised publicly? I asked on facebook, thinking we'd perhaps missed out due to lack of local knowledge, but people could only suggest Himley Hall in Dudley. Doesn't Birmingham do Bonfire Night?! There was actually a suggestion of Harborne Golf Club in the end so perhaps I'll look into that next year.
Just a bit miffed we missed out really, particularly as we didn't get to use the sparklers!!
On Sunday I think we had a lazy day. We went to the park for a bit, I remember that. It was only a little over a week ago and already I've forgotten what we did. My memory is terrible - that's why I keep this journal!
I have to say I'm in rather a good mood for a Monday morning. I can probably blame the endorphins from cycling in. Trying not to be smug about it but I cycled three days last week and plan to cycle three days this week. I have had a couple of problems; mainly last Tuesday when I came out of kickboxing, said goodbye to my friends, set off, then quickly discovered my front tyre was completely flat. After what happened last time when I locked my bike up in that area (and I had chosen a slightly more conspicuous spot this time), I was convinced it was malicious and someone had let the tyre down, but I guess it could have been a puncture.
I turned back but my friends (a couple of whom would have been driving) had disappeared. This happened to be a night when David wasn't even in Birmingham as he was visiting a friend so I couldn't call him for rescue. I queued up for a bus with the plan of begging the bus driver to let me bring the bike on board (they don't normally allow bikes). There was a long wait and the buses started to go past without stopping. Someone said there'd been an accident in Kings Heath and a girl had been killed. Clearly, when a bus would eventually stop, I suspected it would be too rammed to take a bike. I manoeuvred it down the very steep, narrow steps to my kickboxing club (it's underground - makes it seem very tough! Ha!) where the instructor said it would be alright if I left it there for a day as there was some hidden storage space I didn't even know about. I ran back to the bus stop and waited and eventually a bus turned up, over an hour after I'd begun waiting. It's hard to feel pissed off at that when you know it's because someone died, though.
David picked me and the bike up the following evening. I've mislaid my pump so as a stop-gap, David has replaced my front wheel with the wheel off his own bike. So his bike is out of action but I can still use mine to commute, albeit with odd tyres. Once we relocate/replace my pump we can find out if it was a puncture or if someone left my tyre down. I've got to lock it up again tonight. It's really not easy to bring it into the club (I needed help getting it back up the stairs last time) and so I have to lock it outside, but I'm wondering whether to park it by the market where more people are walking around. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but Digbeth is not a nice area and there are kids just hanging around bored so it wouldn't surprise me if they decided to mess with a bike. David will be at home tonight though so at least I can call for a rescue if necessary!
This weekend just gone was another quiet one. In fact I felt as if I slept through most of it! Both Friday and Saturday night we stayed up late (I made an awesome sausage casserole on Friday night - this has to be noted!) and consequently slept and slept on the following mornings. We have curtains that completely cut out the light so it's possible just to sleep until your body has had enough sleep - which for me is quite a lot!
On Saturday I wanted to go to the Rag Market as this year I'm planning to attempt to make gingerbread houses again for Christmas presents. I made one a couple of years ago and it was quite a feat of organisation and engineering but I was very proud of the result. I remembered buying these white chocolate buttons with coloured bits on from a stall at the Rag Market that made great roof tiles so I decided buying those would be my first step in this year's organisation. I'll figure out the rest later (already I've noticed Sainsburys do a pack of candy canes for £2). All this confectionery can get expensive so I'm trying to buy it bit-by-bit.
We went for a drink in a little cafe in the Pallisades (2 for 1 with vouchercloud, woo) and we weren't sure what to do next. I think we were both groggy from sleeping in so much. I had a nagging feeling there was another shop I wanted to go to and couldn't remember what. Then I saw a child with a light-up wand and it hit me what the other reason was I'd wanted to come into Birmingham on a Saturday - the Christmas parade! The council put a parade on every year to coincide with switching on the Christmas lights. We thought we'd missed it and we were gutted, then noticed people were still lining the pavements and were pleased to find it hadn't started yet. We grabbed a baguette and found a good spot on New Street. I had expected it would just be a Father Christmas sleigh pulled by some reindeer but there was much more than that - there were angels and elves and all kinds of characters. I think the theatres must have sent their cast members from their Christmas shows. The Father Christmas & reindeer were definitely the highlight but I was surprised how much more there were. It finished with a gigantic inflatable Santa Claus which was actually quite scary.
Buoyed with Christmas spirit, we bought a dessert from Tesco and hurried home for a night on the sofa. We watched Cloverfield, which I'd never seen but was actually impressed with (considering I just slagged off another camcorder-type film!!). I annoyed David by commenting so much on how the woman was effortlessly running about in stilettos. That was less believable than the big CGI monster!
The last couple of weekends have perhaps been a bit quieter in that we've not gone quite as far afield in our adventures but I don't really mind. Somehow everything I do with David feels like an adventure. I can hear you aww-ing/retching to that but it's true - I look forward to my weekends so much because our lives are filled with enthusiasm and everything feels like fun :)
The weekend before last I arrived home on Friday night, made pasta sauce and lemon biscuits (that turned out to be more like rock cakes, but still, very nice!). On Saturday we went to Stourbridge as David had been there earlier in the week and seen a camera in Cash Converters he thought would be suitable for me.
My old trusted Kodak camera that served me admirably through my time Poland etc, decided to die on me on the morning of David's birthday. This meant I had no camera of my own for the entire Prague trip, which was rather disappointing! I expected to make do with my phone camera for a while and pick up a cheap one in the post-Christmas sales, perhaps for my birthday. Personally, I wasn't too fussed on the specs. I want point-and-click, I want it to work and take a photo in focus, without having to worry about lighting conditions or settings. David, on the other hand, is rather interested in cameras and kept suggesting cameras that cost twice as much as I'd envisaged paying because of better specs on things like the lens speed. He did explain why the lens speed was important, but it's just not something I'd have ever considered. How well it fits into a handbag and whether it's a nice shape was about my level of interest. It's a good thing he helped me really or I'd have ended up with something pretty shoddy.
In the end he found a camera from the same range as his own but a lower model (fewer bells and whistles but still good quality) in Cash Converters for £45. It ticked all the boxes and was a good deal so we made the journey over to Stourbridge just to get it. David used to live over there so we met up with his old housemate while we were there. We also picked up some sparklers in Waitrose in anticipation of going to a fireworks display that evening.
While we were over that side of Birmingham we stopped by his nan's house and saw his nan and his mom for a brief visit before heading back to Birmingham to go to a fireworks display...
When I was a kid I am sure there were more displays around! I remember there being one at the local church, pub, community centre, etc. Pubs in particular used to put on displays to bring in business. They'd usually have a bonfire and kids would wave sparklers and the fireworks wouldn't be that amazing but it felt cosy and special.
I tried in vain all week to research some place that would have a small display and couldn't find one. There's a massive, council-run display at Pype Hayes park in Erdington. That's not the most ideal part of Birmingham to get to, and apparently the parking offered was a 'park and ride' from the Fort Shopping centre. Just sounded like a lot of faffing about to go somewhere that probably had a massive crowd and everything overpriced. The only other one I found was at a cricket grounds at Kings Heath. We decided to check that out and arrived about 20 minutes after the fireworks were advertised for, and so we expected we'd perhaps missed the fireworks but hoped for a bonfire or some kind of nice little event. We arrived and there were balloons by the entrance signifying there had been an event on but as we pulled in, the last car was pulling out. They'd evidently had the display and packed up and left within half an hour. Can't have been that good!
We could hear fireworks going off all over the place but I suppose they must have been private events. Maybe churches, schools, etc do put on their own displays but they're just not advertised publicly? I asked on facebook, thinking we'd perhaps missed out due to lack of local knowledge, but people could only suggest Himley Hall in Dudley. Doesn't Birmingham do Bonfire Night?! There was actually a suggestion of Harborne Golf Club in the end so perhaps I'll look into that next year.
Just a bit miffed we missed out really, particularly as we didn't get to use the sparklers!!
On Sunday I think we had a lazy day. We went to the park for a bit, I remember that. It was only a little over a week ago and already I've forgotten what we did. My memory is terrible - that's why I keep this journal!
I have to say I'm in rather a good mood for a Monday morning. I can probably blame the endorphins from cycling in. Trying not to be smug about it but I cycled three days last week and plan to cycle three days this week. I have had a couple of problems; mainly last Tuesday when I came out of kickboxing, said goodbye to my friends, set off, then quickly discovered my front tyre was completely flat. After what happened last time when I locked my bike up in that area (and I had chosen a slightly more conspicuous spot this time), I was convinced it was malicious and someone had let the tyre down, but I guess it could have been a puncture.
I turned back but my friends (a couple of whom would have been driving) had disappeared. This happened to be a night when David wasn't even in Birmingham as he was visiting a friend so I couldn't call him for rescue. I queued up for a bus with the plan of begging the bus driver to let me bring the bike on board (they don't normally allow bikes). There was a long wait and the buses started to go past without stopping. Someone said there'd been an accident in Kings Heath and a girl had been killed. Clearly, when a bus would eventually stop, I suspected it would be too rammed to take a bike. I manoeuvred it down the very steep, narrow steps to my kickboxing club (it's underground - makes it seem very tough! Ha!) where the instructor said it would be alright if I left it there for a day as there was some hidden storage space I didn't even know about. I ran back to the bus stop and waited and eventually a bus turned up, over an hour after I'd begun waiting. It's hard to feel pissed off at that when you know it's because someone died, though.
David picked me and the bike up the following evening. I've mislaid my pump so as a stop-gap, David has replaced my front wheel with the wheel off his own bike. So his bike is out of action but I can still use mine to commute, albeit with odd tyres. Once we relocate/replace my pump we can find out if it was a puncture or if someone left my tyre down. I've got to lock it up again tonight. It's really not easy to bring it into the club (I needed help getting it back up the stairs last time) and so I have to lock it outside, but I'm wondering whether to park it by the market where more people are walking around. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but Digbeth is not a nice area and there are kids just hanging around bored so it wouldn't surprise me if they decided to mess with a bike. David will be at home tonight though so at least I can call for a rescue if necessary!
This weekend just gone was another quiet one. In fact I felt as if I slept through most of it! Both Friday and Saturday night we stayed up late (I made an awesome sausage casserole on Friday night - this has to be noted!) and consequently slept and slept on the following mornings. We have curtains that completely cut out the light so it's possible just to sleep until your body has had enough sleep - which for me is quite a lot!
On Saturday I wanted to go to the Rag Market as this year I'm planning to attempt to make gingerbread houses again for Christmas presents. I made one a couple of years ago and it was quite a feat of organisation and engineering but I was very proud of the result. I remembered buying these white chocolate buttons with coloured bits on from a stall at the Rag Market that made great roof tiles so I decided buying those would be my first step in this year's organisation. I'll figure out the rest later (already I've noticed Sainsburys do a pack of candy canes for £2). All this confectionery can get expensive so I'm trying to buy it bit-by-bit.
We went for a drink in a little cafe in the Pallisades (2 for 1 with vouchercloud, woo) and we weren't sure what to do next. I think we were both groggy from sleeping in so much. I had a nagging feeling there was another shop I wanted to go to and couldn't remember what. Then I saw a child with a light-up wand and it hit me what the other reason was I'd wanted to come into Birmingham on a Saturday - the Christmas parade! The council put a parade on every year to coincide with switching on the Christmas lights. We thought we'd missed it and we were gutted, then noticed people were still lining the pavements and were pleased to find it hadn't started yet. We grabbed a baguette and found a good spot on New Street. I had expected it would just be a Father Christmas sleigh pulled by some reindeer but there was much more than that - there were angels and elves and all kinds of characters. I think the theatres must have sent their cast members from their Christmas shows. The Father Christmas & reindeer were definitely the highlight but I was surprised how much more there were. It finished with a gigantic inflatable Santa Claus which was actually quite scary.
Buoyed with Christmas spirit, we bought a dessert from Tesco and hurried home for a night on the sofa. We watched Cloverfield, which I'd never seen but was actually impressed with (considering I just slagged off another camcorder-type film!!). I annoyed David by commenting so much on how the woman was effortlessly running about in stilettos. That was less believable than the big CGI monster!
The last couple of weekends have perhaps been a bit quieter in that we've not gone quite as far afield in our adventures but I don't really mind. Somehow everything I do with David feels like an adventure. I can hear you aww-ing/retching to that but it's true - I look forward to my weekends so much because our lives are filled with enthusiasm and everything feels like fun :)