Boh to the Crimbo

PC's been in bits for a week or so, been unable to regularly post updates, apologies. Been working me socks off in Tesco recently too, it sucks but must be done =/ ... Posting this from my phone (!). Have a quiet xmas all, and drink heartily. ;)

Motor Racing THROUGH Birmingham? (I kid you not!)

I just discovered that back in the 1980s and 90s, Birmingham used to have motor races actually AROUND the City, on a defined circuit - it's the only city in the country to have an Act of Parliament specificall defining its abillity to hold motor races around a set track - it would be illegal anywhere else!

The British Touring Car Championship used to have a race around the city centre, culminating (along with all the support races) in the SuperPRIX... And, even better, Birmingham101 has made a video of the entire 1989 BTCC SuperPRIX race available online to watch! Go check it out, you'll marvel at the sheer impracticality - and yet, the absolutely incredible spectacle - that is a fully-fledged motor race around Birmingham city centre... There's more images and video highlights on the Birmingham101 SuperPRIX web pages.


On another note, I'm now at home for three weeks, as it's the start of my xmas holidays. Why do people drive so fast on the M6? I was driving back at 80mph most of the way in my little Clio, at times having to speed up to 100 to overtake lorries hogging the left and middle lanes (!), and then as soon as I pulled back into the middle lane, still doing ~100, cars were shooting past me in the fast lane doing at least 120! This wasn't an isolated incident either, I had vans (even a French van!) doing over 100... It's pure madness!

Glad to be home though, but I have work at 10am today until 7, and then pretty much every day until New Years' Eve. Great. I'll be a bit better off, but totally zonked. Great. ¬_¬

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Birmingham SuperPRIX BTCC holidays motorway driving 

Viking, South East six to gale 8, occasionally gale 9 in the North.

"Viking, South East six to gale 8, occasionally gale 9 in the North."... This is just a mere snippet of what you can hear if you're up at such antisocial times as I am, listening to Radio 4 as they roll out their Shipping Forecast (followed by a really odd, 60s track played by the BBC Orchestra called Sailing Away (it's more tradition than anything else that they play it, I'm sure there's a good story behind it though)... Then, they play the National Anthem, and Radio 4 ends its transmission, segueing neatly into a relay for the BBC World Service.

This happens every night, only for a few hours though, as Radio 4 is soon back up and running with its programmes for farmers and early-morning risers.

It's bizarre that such an odd arrangement is still performed daily by the BBC on its longest-running station, but it's strangely comforting. Right, random thought of the day done! It's not 5:51am on Saturday night, and I'm contemplating bed... After:

• TWO fire alarms (one at 9:45pm, and another at around 2am..ish) - some interesting photos from that! I now take my camera outside whenever there's a fire alarm, as there's bound to be some quality snaps,

• way too much sleep deprivation,

• a horrendous lack of alcoholic beverages (I drank my last beer tonight, and I can't afford to buy any more until January! DANGEROUS!)

Hmm. Student Loan second instalment roll on :D

Oh my, buy me THIS Santa!

One word: phwoar. :D



Check it out: SyncMaster 214T Black 21.3" LCD Monitor (Samsung-214TBLACK)


I feel like I really need this. To write essays on. And watch DVDs work on when I'm editing Audio Projects for my Music Tech course. Oh yes. Indeed. :)

Bullring By Night

What happens when you trek out into Birmingham with a camera, early night skies and an interest in taking panoramic photos?

This does:



If you're wondering where this is, this is on the slopey bit of the Bullring, which, if you head down the steps (to the right, you can't see them in the dark unfortunately) you end up walking towards the (World Famous, apparently) Bull Market.

That illuminated Christmas Tree-derivative is really HUGE - what you can see is what's sticking up from the floor below, hell it comes about level with the clock face, and that's high. At least 40, 50 feet.

To the extrememost sides of the picture, if you walk through the doors on the left, you're in the Selfridges end of the Bullring (the bobbly bit which locals fondly call The Blob). The right-hand doors will take you into the bit with Debenhams, if you're at least vaguely familiar with the layout of the place. Because of the way the Bullring was built on a big hilly slope, where I'm standing is actually the First floor inside the Bullring, and I'm actually standing on top of people (if you could see through the floor).

AAaaaaanyway, enjoy the photo.


I made a very nice tuna pasta thing this evening, came out a bit different from what the packet said it should probably be, but hell, if I like it who's caring.

Oh, and I made more progress on my ROOM TIDY (!!!!!) I should've taken a picture of how it was before, I'm sure I have some old photos somewhere though... My GOD, it was an absolute sty, even by my standards.

Technorati tags:
Birmingham Bullring photo panorama 

Oh, what a surprise. Friday once more.

All is not well in the world, I'm stuck here in Halls again this weekend, and majorly bored.

Everyone else seems to have either gone home, has pissed off somewhere with their mates, or is just hiding. Hell, I can't find anybody around, and my best mate just rang me to say that she's NOT now in fact coming by here to say hi before she and her friends go back home (they've all been at the Clotheshow Live, which was in the NEC today in Birmingham), apparently the weather's so bad they're going straight home.

Great.

I was really looking forward to seeing her :( She's one of the few little buoys of sanity in this bizarre switchup many like to call University.


Anyway, what have I eaten this week? A variety of things. Today I had a bowl of Coco Pops (Coco Pops for the win, baby!) for breakfast, followed by some pasta just before I set out for Uni earlier this afternoon. Shared a few sausages with a mate later this evening, we were too lazy to cook anything proper.

The other day, I had some mince, which was very tasty, in one of those nice ready-prepared Beef Tonight sauce mixtures. Accompanied that with some baked potatoes, gorgeous that was. Had plain couscous another day too, that's pretty sweet.

I can't remember any further back than that, apologies. :D I must start making a daily record of things I do, that was one of the reasons I started this thing in the first place! Heaven forbid I neglect it, I've paid for the domain name and webspace after all :)

Roll on Xmas, not so much because of Christmas, but because I get to see all my old friends. Yay for that, I have something to look forward to for once in December.

Ooh, and before I forget, the German Market is still on in the centre of Birmingham until Mid-December, check it out, miss it at your peril! They have some awesome-looking beers on the Beer Stand (which I feel is my duty to duly investigate and report back upon in an orderly, scientific manner).

Technorati tags:
friends Christmas food German Market Birmingham