Trip Report: Birmingham

We went to Birmingham with no expectation of it being an interesting place, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a rather neat city -- and extremely Christmasy. The event that took us there was the annual Christmas Market. It's more of a German tradition, but the fact that Birmingham's sister city is Frankfurt means that Birmingham's Christmas market is pretty good. They put up some 90 little wooden chalets in the main square of the city and down one of the main pedestrian walkways for vendors who sell everything from painted German houses to wooden toys to knit hats and scarves.

Oh, and there's food. On the left there, you've got a kebab of gouda and salami -- battered and deep fried. On the right, a giant grill of German sausages. There were also fresh baked pretzels with the bottom sliced open and stuffed with yummy things (I had one stuffed with camenbert and cranberry sauce), Berliners, hot chocolate and German beer. Mmm. I might even say we'll go back next year, but perhaps we'll actually try to go to Germany for a German Christmas market.

Birmingham itself has a long history of being an industrial center. It was an important manufacturing center during WWII, producing cars, ammunition, helmets, etc. As such, it was also a major target during the war, and some 12,000 buildings were bombed. A couple of the city's buildings were spared, though, and there was a massive effort to rebuild after the war. Now it's a major cultural center and has a great music/club scene. One of the most striking buildings is the space-agey Selfridge's building (left), which opened in 2003.

To woo JT on this trip, I got us tickets to see a Birmingham City soccer game. They're in the top league in the country, unlike our Cambridge United, which is nearly-bottom-of-the-rung farm team. The game was fun! Our long walk back from the stadium (well, only 2 miles or so, but did I mention it was 30 degrees?) was what made us feel virtuous enough to eat the deep-fried cheese.

We came home on Sunday via Warwick Castle, which has been there in one form or another for 1000 years. It's now owned by Toussauds (wax museum folks) who poured a ton of money into it and have made it a really amazing attraction. They restored a lot of the rooms to what they would have been like in 1898, and there's a cool display in the sub-ground level where the castle's working class would have been, preparing armor, building things, cooking, etc. They also have an ice rink that's an ice path -- it winds its way through one of the formal gardens. Very cool!

If you're keeping score on the various car upgrades we've gotten because there aren't many automatics, we did get upgraded to a VW Golf. A manual VW Golf. So, this meant I got plenty of practice shifting with my left hand and JT got some practice navigating. I think we both need practice on these respective tasks.

The thing I'll whinge about

First, whinge: "To complain in a particularly annoying manner." Chiefly British. Used in place of "whine," although it seems to be a more acceptable way to describe general complaining by anyone in particular.

I'm not going to whinge about the food, because sausage and mash, the occasional pie, bacon rolls, Scotch eggs, fish and chips -- can't argue with that. Just don't eat it all at once, don't expect fine dining at anything other than a fine dining restaurant, learn to love Indian food, and, oh yeah, don't suddenly forget how to cook.

I'm not going to whinge about the fashion, because no one is going to hold me down, iron my hair, and make me wear leggings and ballet flats, or black tights and short cut-offs, or, god forbid, legwarmers.

I am going to whinge about the day length these days. Today I caught an amazing sunset (pictured above). I didn't get the camera out and in a good place for a photo during the truly amazing colors, but you get the idea. It's not the fact that I missed a good picture that bothers me.

It's the fact that it wasn't yet 4 p.m., and the sun had set.

It set at 3:47 p.m., to be exact, and rose at 7:50 this morning. I think this might be where seasonal affective disorder was invented. Don't get me wrong, on a beautiful day, it's still beautiful. Briefly. But it's also rainy a lot these days, which makes for dark, gloomy days.

On the flip side, the early sunset does give you plenty of time to enjoy the abundant Christmas lights all over town. The official lighting was the week before Thanksgiving, and there are lights and Christmas trees everywhere. Cambridge does Christmas well, right down to the ice rink. It's been plenty cold for it, too -- "U.S. cold," one of JT's coworkers said.

Plus, it's just 11 more days until the days get longer, when we can start counting up to the longest day of the year. Yay!

Make Mine Man-Sized

From the "they think we need it" department ...



When placing an online grocery order recently, I made my usual perusal of the sale items. Tissues were on sale, so I bought four boxes. I didn't read the fine print. When the order arrived, I had four boxes of ...

Kleenex for Men. Now, that photo makes them look no different than other tissues. Maybe comparing to a regular box will help:

They're HUGE. Perhaps the damp, chilly climate makes men's noses particularly runny? And they blow their noses with the force of a jet engine and therefore need more surface area to contain the shrapnel?

I suppose Kleenex for Chronic Sinusitis or Kleenex for That Guy At the Back of the Church Who Sounds Like A Foghorn When He Blows His Nose didn't pass the marketing department.

A Walk in the Botanic Garden

No time for writing today -- it's a pretty sunny day, and the daylight is measured in minutes nowadays, so I gotta go. It's not actually measured in minutes, but it sure feels like it. Dark by 4:30 or so, and we've got one more month of that getting earlier and earlier. Sigh.

Anyway, here are some pics from a walk in the botanic garden last week. Even on the down side of the growing season, it's a nice place to visit.

Ode to Boobs

Before seeing Elizabeth: The Golden Age on Friday, we were treated to 27 minutes of commercials and previews. (Seriously.) One of the commericals was ... eyebrow raising? Moderately shocking? Rather funny? Slightly baffling? It's a public service announcement about breast cancer.

This link takes you to it.

Fair warning: If you're at work, make sure it doesn't matter if someone walks by and sees a topless woman on your computer monitor.

Also, DEAR PERVERTS WHO GOOGLED "FILTHY NAKED LADIES" AND ENDED UP HERE (what, you think I don't look at my referrer stats? Think again.): You ended up at the wrong place. The post you're looking for is this one, and it's about football and contains no naked ladies. So there.

Anyway, back to the video. What do you think? Can you picture that on American TV or at the cinema?