Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Brum Brum...Brrrrrrrrum

I'm off to Birmingham. It's all glamour, glamour, glamour with me.

31 comments:

nibus said...

Now then - you will find that Birmingham is actually rather nice. Yes.

Betty said...

Actually Birmingham is okay, honestly. I'm from the west midlands so I would say that, wouldn't I?

Stef the engineer said...

Birmingham is surprisingly on the fab side. Read all about it at:

http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/

Well, OK. Bit of a stretch from "It's not sh*t" to "Fab", but you see what I mean.

Urban Chick said...

my first thought on reading the post title was that you had been won over by the cbeebies programme of the same name about a cute mini chitty chitty bang bang type car who fights off criminals in and around birmingham city centre(yes, really)

i need to get out more...

have a balti on me!

Urban Chick said...

hymdu = hindu with a penchant for church of england ditties

Wyndham said...

I love Brum, specially the bit at the end which features the worst dancing on a television programme ever!

surly girl said...

what, worse than balamory?

Wyndham said...

That's a good point but Brum has about 12 old men dressed as policeman dancing badly instead of just the single camp feller.

cello said...

Just finished 'The Closed Circle', sequel to 'The Rotters' Club' which is largely set in Birmingham. But I think I equated Brum to the 70s, Slade, brown carpets and wildcat strikes at car factories before that.

rtgyhih = brand of HRT pill

patroclus said...

I can confidently report that Brum has actually become a dynamic, sexy, cosmpolitan metropolis since I was last there 10 years ago. I take it all back.

Although apparently I missed a presentation by a nice Finnish man. But I did get a free bag that contained a free biro. Like I say, it's glamour all the way with me.

Now to storm London's happening East End for an evening of fun and frolicsome nonsense involving pig masks and screaming. Woo!

Smat said...

I went to Birmingham once, and made a very big impression on/in New Street station. I've been too embarrased to go back since.

h said...

>> I went to Birmingham once, and made a very big impression on/in New Street station. I've been too embarrased to go back since.

What.. fall over did you?

patroclus said...

Don't worry Smat, they rebuilt the city centre.

Betty said...

Cello - as a midlander living in the south I try to keep the spirit alive by furnishing the house with brown carpets throughout. Slade are rarely off the radiogram. I've yet to venture into any top restaurants but I bet the only one I could bluff my way into is the Ivy, as it's the one place where a cuppa tay and grey peas with bacon are not off-menu.

Stef the engineer said...

lauren: I used to work on a building site, and habitually swore so much I even embarassed myself. After one parental trip where my mum ended up turning puce, without me even realising what I'd said, I decided to clean up my act. I still swear when really riled, and find it has a lot more impact.

surly girl said...

i think i may really really need to know what smat did at new street station.

oh, and i've decided on my fancy dress costume.

see, p - you're not the only one with a glamorous glittering lifestyle. please elaborate on pig masks and screaming.

Wyndham said...

I'm very glad to hear that Birmingham has raised its standard if indeed they were low, although I must say that standards would have slipped as soon as Betty left town.

I myself will be going to Birmingham for a whistle-stop tour on Monday and I fully intend to get to know the locale, in the fim of the swish hotel bar.

Smat said...

OOK here goes - we travelled by train from Northampton (about a 40 minute journey) with a bottle of vodka and a bottle of Southern Comfort, then hit the bar. About an hour later I wasn't very well. However, neither was one of my companions later, but he still managed to pull. Says a lot about the standards od students at Birmingham University in the early 90s.

surly girl said...

so, to sum up, you threw up on the concourse of new street station?

marvellous.

cello said...

Betty, I am from Nottinghamshire myself, so I was just describing my own childhood I suspect. I see from your profile that we share many film and book passions, so a Midlands upbringing can't be all bad.

Unknown said...

I've never been to Brum. Can't get over that supremely irritating accent. Enjoy!

Smat said...

sg - not only on the concourse, but all the way from the bar to the loos, from where I had to be retrieved hours later. But hey, I was young and silly, and we've all done things like that (she hopes nervously). Hope the cleaners got a bonus that week.

surly girl said...

i got arrested once on a tuesday afternoon in the town where i went to school for drunk and disorderly. i was smoking pot and drinking cider with the local addicts.

i was also fifteen.

see, smat, you feel better now, don't you?

Urban Chick said...

the naughtiest thing i've ever done in brum is sneeze into my balti

feeling very square

Smat said...

oh, you have cheered me up Surly - I've never been arrested for anything, which either makes me very boring, or very clever. Not sure which.

patroclus said...

Oh no, we don't have to talk about Naughty Things We've Done in Brum, do we? I seem to remember getting erm...quite intimate with someone on a train from New Street to er...another city in the Midlands.

Of course, I was a *lot* younger then.

patroclus said...

NB it wasn't your companion, Smat.

surly girl said...

oh, and just for the record, mine wasn't in birmingham. i've only ever been through there on the way to alton towers (on the trip that led to me having middle-of-the-night confusion in the uttoxeter travelodge.

blimey pats, whodathought a one-line post would create so much discussion?

*sulks*

Konrad said...

Kids in Germany say Brum, Brum when they pretend to drive a car!

patroclus said...

>>blimey pats, whodathought a one-line post would create so much discussion?<<

I know - you lot are a blogger's dream! Pear bellinis all round.

Jack: I'm a lifelong member of that club. Well, four foot *tall*, maybe.

Anonymous said...

Whilst on a very busy train to Nottingham once, I witnessed a man exiting the toilet. Then about 10 minutes later a woman exited. I'd been stood next to two people doing god knows what in there for about 4 stops. Can you believe I never heard a thing? Perhaps the toliets are soundproofed.