Cold in Brum

19 November

Our shopping trip to Brum went off OKish I suppose, the major problem was being so cold. The Christmas Market was as I said yesterday, boring, seeing as we have seen most of it before in other years, even the stalls seemed to be in the same place. The one item I did see which was different was the ½ metre hot dogs, far too large from me even in my greedy days. Oh yes, there seemed to be more beer sellers this time around. At least it wasn’t so crowded yesterday. I think we may have missed part of it though because of the access to the area by the library that we used has gone and I don’t know the way around there now. Last time were there was a lot of stalls in that square too. And guess what? We got lost coming home because we didn’t park where we normally like to; that added around 45 minutes to the trip home. By the time we got home I had quite bad headache on, and it’s there again this morning, so I’m hoping I’m not coming down with something, at least we have no plans for today, for which I am pleased about.

It was cold, just as I said, and Jan got a bit chilled as we rode around on our scooters, so we went for a warm and a drink in one of the better city centre pubs, The Shakespeare. That was where the crowds were by the look of it. We got in there at the same time as another couple were getting up leave, so we were lucky there. Then two guys at the bar drinking moved for me to get served. After that we were back in the cold again. I did at least get a half leg of lamb before tomorrow and we’re both looking forward to having that.

I missed the news all day yesterday so when I caught a glimpse of Buck House getting £370m of tax payers money to renovations, then my pissed off button got pushed quite hard. It’s been some time since I mention not being a royalist on here, and that story is enough to do it. Some folks on social media have commented about the number of homeless and hungry kids we have in the UK. The Government won’t do anything for them apart from finding ways to make things harder, yet the can find all that money to do up just one house. However, no matter how much I agree with the negative comments about it, I feel they are missing are trick here.

Liz and co don’t live there full time do they, so they can’t say that it’s her home. But what they could say is that Liz has a duty to entertain visiting heads of state and Buck House is where that happens, and therefore it is up to the tax payers to foot the bill. I mean, as a country we want to give a good impression of the nation. A shabby entertainment venue for world leaders wouldn’t look good at all would it. But what the story doesn’t say is that how much The Firm is actually paying towards the cost of repairs if anything. After all they are only tenants aren’t they and a lot running repairs and maintenance should be paid by the tenants. It’s something we will never be likely to find out either.

Today’s photo is one of beer sellers in Brum …

This is one that has been there for years now and there has been no change in the design of it. The guy in yellow is one of the 'market marshals they hade there. 

Today’s funny …

A woman seated at the movies was surprised to find, sitting in the two adjacent seats, a man with a sheep dog sitting next to him. All through the movie, she noticed the dog watching the picture with apparent understanding, snarling when the villain appeared, and yelping happily at the funny parts. At the end of the movie, she tapped the man on the shoulder. ''I just can't get over how much your dog enjoyed the movie,'' she said. ''It surprised me too,'' the man answered, ''He absolutely hated the book.''