Back to Birmingham

Yesterday, we left Cuckoo Wharf fairly early as we all wanted to be back in Birmingham by early afternoon and we had 24 locks in front of us.  Unfortunately we had an unexpected delay at Aston Bottom Lock as Alan on the boat in front of us couldn't get the bottom gate open. By the time we moored up behind him, he'd already phoned the local C&RT guys who arrived within 20 mins. Their equipment left a lot to be desired as it was in a poor state of repair, but they persevered and managed to shift what they thought was a pile of bricks from behind the gate.  We'd been delayed about an hour but soon got a good rhythm going between the 4 boats left on the cruise and we made good progress up the lock flight.  About half way up the heavens opened and it continued to pour down for the rest of the day.  It was extremely cold too, so for the first time in ages we needed full waterproofs and jumpers too.

Half way up Farmer's Bridge flight is a new lock gate.  This is the first 2012 C&RT lock plaque we're seen.  It's a shame though, that they've replaced the lock gate but re-used the lock beam which is old and in poor condition due to rot.  Wouldn't you think they'd have done a proper job while they were at it?

Farmer's Bridge flight has a better quality of graffiti. It also has it's fair share of alcoholics lurking under the bridges, but you have to give them their due; they're all very friendly and chatty even if they were swigging back the White Lightening at 11.30 in the morning.

We're now moored back in the centre of Birmingham, right outside the NIA.

To celebrate the last night of a very pleasant week's cruising in excellent company we all went out for the evening.  We started in the Prince of Wales pub and ended up in Cafe Rouge.  On the way back to the boats we were met by thousands of people pouring out of the N.I.A (National Indoor Arena) after seeing Michael McIntyre on Tour and the bridges over the canal were packed. This morning several of the beautiful floral planters which are on the bridges had been ransacked and the flowers just thrown on the floor. It's such a shame, let's hope there isn't a repeat tonight.

More from Artsfest 2012

Artsfest continued long after dark and we went back after dinner to watch a couple of bands

and the ballet.  I'm not really into ballet but it had drawn a huge crowd and was very enjoyable.

It was followed by a spectacular fireworks display which was set to rousing classical music.  As usual, the photos just can't do it justice.

Today's weather has been gorgeous once again and we've spent most of the afternoon alternating between the various stages listening to some amazing local bands.  At 5.30 the local BBC radio took over the main stage and presented a girl band.  Up until then the sound system had been just right, loud but not excessive, but as this band started performing the sound level was cranked right up.  Maybe I'm getting old, but it was just TOO loud so we gave up and came home.

Birmingham Artsfest

We still seem to be really lucky with the weather, I keep reading on other blogs about cold temperatures and rain, but apart from a couple of cool mornings we've been enjoying blue skies and full sunshine with hot temperatures to boot. Long may it last!

We also seem to be really lucky as every time we come into Birmingham there's some sort of event on in the city centre.  This weekend it's Artsfest 2012 and there's free live music and art and dance exhibitions on all over town.

Centenary Square is just outside the ICC and Symphony Hall which is beside the canal near Gas Street Basin.  Yesterday they erected 2 large stages here and there have been acts on throughout the day.

Indian drum band "Dhol Crew"

Over in Chamberlain Square is another large stage. There are tiered steps all round the square where you can sit and watch the groups.

In Victoria Square is the Bandstand. This was a Bluegrass Swing band called Knoxville Highway.

Apart from the music stages there were lots of  stalls dotted around the city centre either selling pictures or jewellery or promoting up-coming theatre productions & concerts.  There was a large marquee with exhibitions of Bollywood and Belly dancing. The whole city centre was buzzing.

There were plenty of activities for children too;  from the usual face painting and kids participation art stands to this climbing wall which looked like a lot of fun and had a long queue.

On the way back home to the boat we stopped to watch this guy in Centenary Square.  His name was Sam Eden and he sounded like James Blunt.

Our next stop was the Prince of Wales pub which has also had live acts on throughout the day.  It was doing a roaring trade and was so busy that we only stopped for one pint.

Birmingham

We've decided not to return to Bournville next week to visit Cadbury World.  That's mainly because we were rudely awoken at 3.00am by some scroat throwing stones at the boat, but also because I've been hearing and reading reports that it's not worth the visit.  Close inspection of the boat this morning revealed a few small stones on the roof but thankfully no damage to the paintwork or windows.  Chico had done his usual useless guard dog impression and hidden under the bed!

On the way into Birmingham we stopped in between bridges 79 & 80 and I went to Sainsbury's to stock up while Roger and Chico stayed on the boat.  On the way back my trusty "granny trolley" decided it was overloaded and the reinforcing panel in the base of the shopping bag gave up the ghost and split in two.  Being car-less means I rely heavily (in more ways than one) on my trolley but as there was nothing wrong with the wheelie frame or the rest of the bag I didn't see the point in scrapping it and shelling out for a new one.  It just needed a bit of lateral thinking to fix it and, if possible, make it stronger into the bargain.

This is what we came up with.

I had a spare unused chopping board which Roger's screwed to the frame to support the weight of the shopping bag.  We did consider putting another insert in the bottom of the bag, but by doing it this way it means we'll be able to use the trolley for carrying other things, like bags of coal in the winter.

Since we were here 2 months ago Birmingham has become highly floral.

The city centre was extremely crowded today as there was a special event on to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's Independence. There were several reggae bands performing on the stage and lots of stalls selling Jamaican food specialities like curry goat, jerk chicken, ackee and salt fish etc.  People were buying their food and either sitting listening to the music or sitting watching the Olympics on the big screen.

We didn't linger long as I needed to go to the market.  I just LOVE Birmingham market.  Not only do they have amazing fruit and veg bargains, but the meat and fish market are fantastic too.  We eat a lot of fish so I got 7 big sea bass for £10.

When you consider how much they charge for sea bass in restaurants I thought this was a real bargain.

We're now moored outside the NIA, hopefully in a nice safe spot, right under the CCTV camera.

Fellow Bloggers Graham and Jill on n.b. Armadillo are moored opposite and have invited us over for drinks after dinner.  I'm really looking forward to it, see you later guys.

It's finally stopped raining!

We'd planned to leave Birmingham on Thursday but the rain was so awful we stayed put. To keep myself busy I made this kimono style jacket for my baby grand-daughter. It's far too big at the moment but should fit her by Autumn.

Most of the plants on the roof have taken a battering in the heavy rain and strong winds, but the violas have flourished. Not bad for £3 from Morrison's.

The rain finally stopped this morning so we set off down Farmer's Bridge Locks. They cut right through a residential area, down towards the Jewellery Quarter.

One of the locks takes you down under Newhall Street.

It's like a lock in a tunnel and is quite a tight fit.

Further down, the locks take you under a large building and we met some Australians on a hire boat coming up.  They hadn't met any other boats at locks before and started panicking that there wouldn't be room to pass, but with a little coaxing and directing we managed to calm them down. There was loads of room and the boats didn't come anywhere near close enough to touch.

Several of the bridges in Birmingham have these red doors in them. Apparently they date back to the war when they were used by the fire brigade to get quick access to water in case of bombs and fires.

We'd walked down the lock flight 2 weeks ago when we first arrived in Birmingham and this building was scaffolded off with painters working on the gable.  This is the result.  Such a waste of money as no-one will ever see it, other than us boaters that is.

This cavernous bridge had Snow Hill rail station above.

After 13 locks we turned towards Salford Junction and carried on down the next flight of 11 locks.  These weren't as interesting as the Farmer's Bridge flight but were a lot easier as every one was full.

One thing that did stand out however, was this beautiful brick wall.  The boat is called the Lady Maria.

We're now moored at Cuckoo Wharf in Nechells. It's BW secure moorings next to the service block.  Once we'd got moored up we walked just under a mile to the Birmingham branch of Costco Wholesalers to stock up on beer and wine.  The taxi back only cost £5 and the whole round trip took less than an hour but the best part was that I didn't have to carry any of it as the taxi driver also unloaded it all for us. Service with a smile, don't you just love it!

Jubilee Concerts

The sun shone today but I'm afraid Birmingham's Jubilee celebrations haven't improved very much.  We had a booklet from the Tourist Information Centre listing all the events across the city centre but many of them seemed to have been cancelled. At least we got plenty of exercise walking from venue to venue looking for the ones that were still on.


We only managed to see 3 groups.  One was a jazz band on the steps of Jury's Inn hotel, another was the Central England Concert Band in Oozells Square

and the other was The Pin Ups, who were a 40's & 50's dance troupe/burlesque act. You can watch their act HERE

It's a wash-out

Our son arrived for the weekend yesterday. He doesn’t drive so cycled here instead……80 miles!    I doubt I could cycle 8 miles never mind 80. Oh to be young.

You can tell it’s a Bank Holiday weekend as the weather’s been atrocious.  This is the underpass near The Mailbox. It’s been so dismal you could see the fancy lights which normally only show up when it’s dark.

We went out to watch a 50’s review show but it was cancelled due to the weather and half of the stalls at the Food and Craft Market had either not turned up or packed up and gone home. It was such a shame but there were hardly any people about.  At the bandstand this group of youngsters were bravely carrying on but the audience was only about 30 people.

The rain didn’t stop these street performers though.  They were absolutely soaked but were carrying on regardless.

Cut adrift

At 00.15 last night we were woken by a fellow boater knocking on the boat to tell us our ropes had been cut and our back end was across the cut! We hadn't gone to bed until 11.30 so it must have happened as soon as we'd fallen asleep.

We’ve been untied before, but never had the ropes cut.  It wasn’t just us either, 4 other boats had been done.  As it was malicious damage (with an exceptionally sharp knife), we phoned the police who arrived within half an hour.  They took a statement from us and the boat moored directly in front of us, but the other 3 boats didn’t report it. This morning we reported it to the BW information centre as well.

In daylight we assessed the damage - 3 ropes cut into at least 3 pieces each, total replacement cost about £60   ouch….. But it could have been a lot worse, at least there was no actual damage to the boats.

We've moved closer to the National Indoor Arena where there are several CCTV cameras and there are now several other boats moored with us so hopefully it’ll be safety in numbers tonight. We’ve also got the chains on.

When we were still building boats it was one of my jobs to splice the ropes that we supplied with the boats.  I’ve never done short in-line splicing before though, so I downloaded instructions here and started mending the ropes. Thank heavens for the internet.

before

this is a fid, a really useful tool for splicing ropes

after

They might look a bit “patched” but they’re strong enough to do the job and we’ll pick up a new set on our travels, just to keep as spares and for best.

It took me most of the afternoon to splice the ropes as there were 3 cuts in each one so at 6pm we headed out for a beer and to listen to a blues band who were playing in Brindley Square.  They were very good but only on for 2 hours, I could have listened to them all night.

These Canada Geese goslings were only hatched the day before yesterday and have been the target for a pair of large gulls who've been dive-bombing them all day.  There were 7, now there are only 5.

Birmingham

We're still moored in Birmingham City Centre and have been out and about exploring (sorry I keep forgetting the camera).

The weather's been fantastic, until yesterday afternoon that is.  We'd booked a pump-out from the local mobile service boat but they couldn't come until 4.30.  All day it had been hot and sunny but at 4.25 the heavens opened, just as the service boat pulled up along side.  I felt so sorry for the guy doing the pump-out.  The rain was bouncing 6 inches off the canal and he didn't have a hat or coat on.  He said he was so wet it wasn't worth wearing a coat and getting that wet too.

We're really enjoying being moored back in a city.  There's so much to see and do and the shopping is fantastic.  I don't mean "retail therapy" clothes and tat, I mean FOOD.  The Bullring food markets are exceptional.  The fruit and veg are all sold by the bowlful at £1 each and there are Asian and Caribbean stalls selling stuff I have never seen before.  I got a bit carried away as usual so we're having a veggie week while I use it all up.  Anyone got any ideas for baby mushrooms?  The bowlful that I bought weighed over 2lbs and we've had 3 meals from it already. I haven't even started on the meat and fish stalls yet. I'm in foodie heaven, think I'll need to do lots of locks when we finally leave to make up for it. 

Birmingham

For me, the first sign of Summer having officially arrived is when the poppies flower.

We're now moored back in Birmingham city centre, in the same spot as Friday night.  It was lovely to sit on the back deck last evening, chilling out with a beer and listening to the sounds of Reggae music coming through the open windows of one of the apartments above the boat. The sun was so strong and there were so many different foreign languages being spoken by passers by that we could have been in any European country, Paris or Amsterdam came to mind, rather than Birmingham.   Long may it last...................