Monday 19 March 2012

March 12 - Friendly Birmingham

Things at the moment are quiet and money at a premium - basically there is none, therefore no outings what so ever since my Birmingham trip four weeks ago and none planned for the rest of this month either - all because no money. Even one of my closest friends as kindly offered to take me out which was such a lovely thought but had to refuse because of my work schedules yet again! Currently, I feel frustrated and down - hence being quiet I suppose but must keep going and hopefully something will turn up?
However, on the bright side, at least I had a nice couple of days with Tina on our visit to Birmingham back in February. This trip had been planned for about 3 months and had decided we would go on a Monday to take the opportunity to visit “Outskirts” who have meetings twice a month at the “Equator Bar” in Hurst St and stay overnight at the near by Ibis Hotel. I had arranged to collect Tina from her house but arrived a little late to an emergency at home. Anyway, I wore a brown co-ordinated skirt outfit with my new M&S boots to travel down to Birmingham but first port of call was diesel for the car otherwise not get far! Likewise we stopped once at a M6 service station on the way down as I had no dinner. As you would expect, I was just part of the everyday world at those locations and we eventually arrived at the hotel. Parking in the area was relevantly simple and cheap too.
Now we had arrived in our hotel room and neither of us wasted anytime in getting changed as we were both hungry. Tina and I both wore dresses for the evening and Tina looked as ever, lovely and natural. Eventually we were ready and headed to the Acadian Centre where there were a number of eating establishments and decided on the Las Iguanas Restaurant serving Brazilian / Mexican food. After a couple of hours after nice food and excellent service by the staff, it was time to head for the Equator Bar and find out for ourselves what Outskirts was all about. On entering the bar, it was reasonably packed with many girls in attendance and we stayed for a couple of hours, chatting with some of the girls there including Sally Payne, our host. Overall, we found at least on that evening, all the girls made good efforts in looking nice, the venue was open, clean and drinks were reasonably priced too. Certainly we would recommend a visit if you are in the area. Afterwards, although being a Monday, headed to “The Core” bar/club as it was open and it seem to be the favourite place for some of the “Outskirts” girls. Unfortunately besides the girls, it was quiet other than the music - loud was not the word but we decided bed time was calling and headed back to the hotel.
After a reasonable nights sleep, Tina and I got ready, departed hotel and put our things in the car ready for the journey home later in the day. We had decided before hand, that we would visit the Bull Ring shopping centre which was literally less than 10 mins walk away but need breakfast first before we could do that. In consequence ended up in a Wetherspoons pub as it was cheap and has it happens, plentiful and tasteful too. We headed for the shopping centre mainly window shopping, well certainly in my case anyway but unknown to me Tina had other idea’s! Amongst the many places we visited, it included House of Fraser too were there is a wig outlet which had been recommended, this had clearly interested Tina. Having found the outlet, we found ourselves surrounded by some lovely wigs, some of which caught our eyes especially Tina. Jenny the sales advisor made us welcome and at ease. Well cut a story short, Tina purchase a lovely new wig and we made our exit. Afterwards, further window shopping was had and along with the customary visit the Mac outlet and a short break at Starbucks. Later on we had a quick visit to Moor St Station as Tina was particular interested in the way they had preserved it as a typical 1930’s railway station. By this time out feet were wary and time to head home. The journey home although peak hour, was uneventful and eventually said our goodbyes to each other and that was the nice adventure over.
Looking back at the two days, it was nice being me, it seem natural and a good time was had for both of us. I think the biggest satisfaction to come out it, is the way we just blended in while shopping in the city centre, there was no indications by anyone that they anything different about us (well there was not really) and we got on about our business just like everybody else. Everyone was friendly and we cannot wait to go back again to Birmingham.
Well, that is I can write about and the above trip was 4 weeks ago - how time flies but it will nice when I can make an appearance again - mmm when will that be though?