Princesses, Pizza And Pictures

Out for another prowl around a Midlands metropolis yesterday. To Birmingham. Despite living oop norf for the past 10 years, we've only been there twice, neither time making it any further than the Bullring shopping centre. I had no idea there were canals going right through it.

Popped into Pizza Express and parked ourselves at a window table to nose at people going past people-watch. Unfortunately we timed our arrival to within minutes of the end of the Disney on Ice show up the road, and the place was soon heaving with pastel taffeta as hordes of little girls in Princess frocks, clutching souvenir light-up wands, descended on the place with their families. There was even a dad dressed as Buzz Lightyear....

Afterwards, to walk off the chocolate fudge cake dessert to recover from the decibel damage, we had a bit of a poke around the city centre, admiring the tall, beautifully embellished old buildings, and some of the even taller shiny new ones. We will have to go back several more times to get to know our way round better. Charity shops next time!

An Unwise Amount Of Pretzels And Popcorn...

... can only mean that Strictly is back. The dodgy trailer that makes Anita Dobson look like Emily Bishop, the how-bad-can-Lulu-really-be, isn't Russell Grant just like Frankie Howerd... awesome stuff. Especially Nancy Dell'Olio being set-up with that lethal feather boa. Some wardrobe mistress might just be finding a horse's head in her bed shortly.

Earlier today we went out intending to find some cool breeze down by the river in a nearby city. We took the tree-lined pedestrian route to the centre, taking photos of leafery and buildings, marvelling that we were trampling over orange, crunchy leaves in a HEATWAVE, but its too humid and late for me to figure out how blogger have sabotaged the upload-the-pics thing, so no photos for now.

Next along, near the new-favourite caff, were some marvellous gospel-choiresque peeps singing their hearts out to raise money to replace the old folks' minibus that got trashed in the riots. I had to shoo the kids along as the 14 year old was being cranky and rude about how his eardrums were being affected, but they got some bus-building silver from me. Lunch and ice creams were about all we spent on - we steered clear of the hordes in the shops, and I stayed out of the charity shops but popped into a couple of air-conditioned emo boutiques so the kids could window-shop t-shirts. Then by mid-afternoon it was back for a siesta on the sofa with the papers. And a bit of Celeb Masterchef. Danny Goffey made some interesting cake, and multi-tasked brilliantly despite Greg and John's butting in. I was distracted by how nicely he speaks - being a rawkstar an' all, I thought he'd drawl but no. Very home counties.

So, the ebay photos are getting done tomorrow - as is pretty much everything else I've deferred and wriggled out of doing. Why do today what you can put off doing til the next day, or something... ;)

Where We Went On School's Out Thursday

Despite not having to set the alarm clock this morning we were up early, to make the most of the Extra Day-Off today, and even managed to be back by teatime. We were so busy having a lovely time that I only remembered to take one photo. I'm really Quite Proud Of Myself for getting a move on and managing an impulse day at the seaside...

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Nah, course we didn't! The 12 year old enjoyed a long lie-in til gone 10, and it was a pj morning for both of us, but we went for an afternoon up the train track to Civilisation, exploring vintage shops, quaint buildings, finding A New Favourite Cafe - houmous and roasted vegetable ciabattas and king prawn salad sandwiches. Would love to show a photo, but still trying to pluck up courage to take food pics; they might think I'm from Environmental Health!

We* were so impressed at getting long-handled spoons with the coleslaw that afterwards we went to this lovely little shop to find some of our own, for ice cream sundaes aka anything from the freezer I sling into tall glasses and slather in chocolate sauce:

A treasure trove of Very Expensive Loveliness - personally I'd cry for days if I dropped an Orla Kiely teapot that cost £54.99 - but we found the spoons. Apparently they are latte spoons. There were several types of cutlery which, frankly, I'd never heard of and I felt as uncouth as someone encountering a place setting with so much silver that you have no idea whether to start from the outside or the inside. Grapefruit spoons? How very sensible - I thought that's what teaspoons are for. ;)

And finally, we had to put on body armour, took a load of rescue remedy.... and hit Primark. Yes, this was the Day When It Was Discovered That None Of The 12 Year Old's Jeans Fit Him Anymore - apart from the one pair that were in the wash. Predictably it was rammed, groups of School's Out teenagers (mostly well-behaved) and a slightly higher than usual amount of unmanned toddlers. But puzzlingly, there were also hoardes of people NOT entertaining school-age children - older people, people with babies... School's Out Thursday coinciding with payday? Brilliant! Oh, and I also got this t-shirt ;)

* Actually just me - the 12 year old is still being polite enough to pretend to feign interest

Travels In Time

And another Saturday in a Much More Well-Appointed Retail Place than the one we live in. One in which crossing the city centre is a breeze of bodies sliding effortlessly past each other in the way it happens at Grand Central Station. In our town people are programmed on leylines and walk slap-bang into each other from the most random of angles. And usually don't even realise.

So, this city we went to doesn't even disappoint if you come home empty-handed. The marvellous architecture, the people-watching, and even the fact that we are getting better at not getting lost is a good day out in itself. And its training the kids brilliantly in how to get out and about when they're old enough to go there solo.

The train-journey-entertainment was the discovery that if you hold a 7-Up bottle just so you can project a little green dalek onto the table. There would have been a photo, and indeed there was, but my camera does not like the memory card from the 13 year old's camera and I have no idea where his connect-it-to-the-computer gubbins is.

In fact, I'm waiting for them to wake up. I've turned into someone who practically sleeps farmers' hours and no longer stay up til 1am - I'm going to bed these days about 11pm and getting up about 8. Yeah, in farmers' hours that's probably elevenses, but still. I am craving chocolate and there are unopened Easter eggs waiting for the choc fest to kick off. Just need some kids first...