Birmingham Burlington

1st room. Dripping air conditioning vent. 2 buckets placed to collect the drips are one third full. Drip. Drip. Plosh. Drip.
2nd room. Twice the size as if space would intoxicate our senses. Same heavily decorated style of dark timber wardrobes, faux candle lamps, elaborate origami folded curtains in faded red and succulent lilies. Floral pattered wallpaper. Floral bedspread. Floral embossing of furnishings, floral print in tiles in bathroom. All flowers are large waxy pollen rich and have juicy sap engorged petals. It is bloom porn. Temperature set at 37 degrees Celsius. Temperature dial in radiator in bathroom has been liberated from its connection. Dial on main radiator unit is jammed. We are stuck in a hothouse of orgiastic blossoms.
Strangely lethargic and hallucinogenic experience trying to sleep; sweating in, freezing out. A feverish night spent rolling around the bed searching for the coolest patches of linen.

Please note that this pic was taken before the horrors of room 2 were readily apparent, plus, I was warmed to my very core with the clever german invention gluhwein.

B'rum - The Main Attraction.

Rain cleaned pedestrian shopping mall. Christmas Lights blue and white. German Christmas Market sounds and smells. A Christmas Carnival Oompah Band. Flashing lights. Smells of sweet hot waffles and sugar covered pecans. Steaming hot wurst on open grills. Garlic mushrooms and paprika potatoes. Heartily spiced mulled wine, Gluhwein or fire punch. Brightly coloured and warmly lit roundabout. Pretzels. Kuchen. Schokolade. Schinken. Sauerkraut.

B'rum The Drive-In

Raised highways. Brown concrete roads. Electrical power stations. Dirty empty shops. Buildings under demolition.

Puddles

I learnt about puddles today. The hard way naturally. I was waiting to cross Bower Rd, juggling handbag, open brolly and shopping bag when a slow car passed me and sprayed my skirt – a moderate sprinkle. I brushed off the droplets and moved further away from crossing and puddle.

The next car that passed was moving considerably faster. I’d moved so I thought I’d be ok and as a safety precaution I angled my plastic shopping bag into a shield like position.
The prick at the wheel took no hesitation as he flew past and I was victim to a gush of dirty puddle water. The only part of my body not drenched was a small centralised patch behind the shopping bag and portions of me back.

At a driver-survive training lecture yesterday, I discovered it is now an illegal offence to drench a pedestrian in puddle water and drive off without ensuring said pedestrian is unharmed. Driving through puddles here is now considered an accident. So Mr Silver Prick Peugeot 308 = Beware! I shall be watching for you by every puddle.

Eve Tempted

Here she is.

Maker : John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope. Not a name lending itself to global fame is it??

Alma-Tadema and his Silver Favourites

I have now seen the original after having had this poster stuck on various walls in various houses I have lived in over the last 15 years or so.

I was wandering about in the Manchester Art Gallery and simply happy to be warm and dry and not hauling about my luggage about as I got lost looking for hip quarters to spend my money.

I was in the Pre-Raphaelites section, gazing over the odd Rosetti and the superb collection of William Morgan pottery from the Arts and Crafts Movement when out of the corner of my eye I recognised 2 pieces - side by side - so vividly, that I gasped loudly.

I stood very still in the middle of the room, as if any movement of mine might frighten the pair off and I would never see them again. Heart beating unnaturally fast I backed away from the paintings to view my original target of yet more luminous Morgan pottery. I did my best to look at the pieces of metallic finished display pieces but the whole time I was greedily eyeing off the girls in the corner, making sure my gut reaction was correct.

Alma-Tadema - unmistakeably so and pictured above.

The second painting was the fall of Eve, painted in the typical Pre-Raphaelite style and I'd always mistakenly thought it to be a Rosetti. Eve with golden-red hair under the fruitful and forbidden tree looks off impassively and glazedly as a serpent with a wicked man's head blows evil air into her ear. This picture had been in a Christina Rosetti poetry book I had treasured as a typically angsty teen.

I lost all sense of time as I stood in front of those two paintings looking at the brush-stokes, reading the notes, soaking in the awe of beauty. The A-T was surprisingly small and Eve was surprisingly large but side by side - was truly shocking for me.

I've since learnt that Manchester is famed for its P-R paintings and I was so lucky to chance upon it! Immediately after this religious experience I trotted along to the gallery gift shop and bought postcards to decorate my flat - Waterhouse, Rosetti, Alma-Tadema, Lowry, Modigliani, Millais, Burne-Jones and Madox Brown... Ahhh!

Plans to visit Birmingham in a week or two to see their P-R collection!

Hornbeam Park

Famed for its Pyramid of Glass.

Apparently the fellow who set up the business park wanted architecturally interesting buildings scattered across the site and had this pictured little gem ear marked for his own company.

The contractor who installed the glass panels apparently put the glass in the wrong way and the building has been inhabitable. The developer lost interest, the contractors went bust and no-one has bothered to fix the error. Harrogate is now blessed with an inhabitable glass pyramid in it business park located to the south of the town.

You might also note the sunny disposition of the day. Apparently this is unseasonably good weather for November. Lucky me. Still bloody freezing.