Tag Archives: Experiences

Celebrating Pride in Birmingham

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I’ve lived in Birmingham since 2001, and up until last weekend I had never been to Pride, which is one of the biggest of the year.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. About 15 years ago my mum came to visit and travelled down to Birmingham via train. The old New Street Station was small and difficult to navigate, so I asked her to wait in the main arrivals area and I would collect her from there. True to form, mum had other ideas and wandered off, and I eventually found her at the bottom of the ramp (Brummies will know exactly where this is), surrounded by drag queens and having a great time as the Pride Parade was going past. 

It has never been a conscious decision not to go – I’ve been invited many times by friends who are gay, straight and otherwise, but I’ve either been busy or broke at the time. 

Earlier this year, I was given an invitation to join some of my work friends at this year’s Pride, with brunch in the morning and the concerts in the evening down in Smithfields after the parade had finished. I jumped at the chance, and have been looking forward to it for months. 

And what a blast it was!

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A Spontaneous Day Trip to London

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Yesterday morning – Saturday on the Easter Bank Holiday weekend – The Bloke and I were awake early. It was a rare day where both of us had the entire day to ourselves, so I suggested that we take advantage of the beautiful weather and go out somewhere.

The conversation about a day-trip to Solihull quickly turned into a trip to Worcester. We got ready and got on the bus…

… and ended up in London. 

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Celebrating the New Menu at Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill

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I have visited Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill a number of times over the years, and even had the opportunity to interview the man himself back in 2019. I like it – it has always been a place to visit for spectacular views of the city and a nice cocktail in a relaxed atmosphere. I’m a big fan of several of the dishes – my favourite dessert in Birmingham was the Chocolate Mousse from MPW.

However, the prestigious restaurant, situated on Level 25 of the Cube, has recently undergone a refurbishment, and we were offered the chance to have a sneak peak at the new changes and get a taste of the new menu. As I was unable to attend, I sent a friend in my place to have a look…

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A New Year, A New Home

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There’s nothing like moving house to remind me that I have the upper body strength of a toddler and I’m insanely unfit. 

Brace yourself. This is a long one. 

The Bloke and I moved house at the beginning of January. It’s been a long time (I think about eight years!) since our last move and not one that we had planned on – our landlord suddenly suggested late last year that he was thinking of selling the house, leaving us in the precarious position of potentially being given notice and needing to find somewhere new in a very short amount of time, in an area that is very much in demand. We decided to take ownership of the situation and found somewhere ourselves, and struck lucky with a beautiful property not far away. 

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2023: A Year in Review

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As you may be able to tell from my previous post, the end of 2023 is not the relaxed and restful time that I had hoped for. We’re in the process of moving house, we’re up to our eyeballs in boxes, and I’m more than a little anxious about everything that we need to do over the coming week. 

Consequently, and after everything else that we have had to deal with, it’s difficult not to look back on this year with a level of negativity. 

2023 has been tough. My mum spent the first four months of the year in and out of hospital, The Bloke’s auntie passed away, my father died, my workload has been insane and on more than one occasion I have had to start putting my foot down and set boundaries with a few people who have made constant demands on my time and energy while being rude and dismissive in the process – something that has gone on for far too long. The year has felt like a constant battle and I’m tired. 

However, in times like this I turn to the opening pages in my Bullet Journal, titled ‘Memories and Highlights.’ It’s one of my favourite things – a double page of all the great experiences that The Bloke and I have had throughout the year. 

And despite the nonsense, the double page is filled. 

This year we’ve seen over thirty shows at five different theatres. My favourites were Rock of Ages (which I think we’ve seen four times now), SIX (which has been on my list for a long time), Sinatra at The REP, and The Bodyguard. 

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Twixmas Packing

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I’ve seen the term ‘Twixmas’ thrown around a lot over the last week. Apparently meaning the period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, it has represented a feeling of nothingness – Christmas is over, many are off work (or at least, have had a few days off) and it’s often a time of relaxing and recovering from the festivities before preparing for the start of a new year.

My ‘Twixmas’ usually involves a little bit of work, lots of sleeping, eating snacks and watching movies. This year, however, we’re up to our eyeballs in boxes, packing tape and bubble wrap. 

Because we’re moving house. Next week. 

Great. 

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A Basic Christmas

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“At the beginning of December I’m going to go all out with the Christmas decorations,” I said to The Bloke last month. 

We’re moving house at the beginning of January and so it is going to be the last Christmas we have here. I had every intention of making a huge effort – Christmas over the last few years has been haphazard and last-minute and both The Bloke and I have felt like we’ve just gone through the motions rather than actually feeling festive and celebrating. 

And then at the beginning of December I got covid. I’ve been pretty careful at trying to stay as safe as possible, but I met up with a friend at the end of November and must have picked it up on the bus on the way home – there were lots of people coughing and spluttering and because it was minus temperatures all the windows were closed. 

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The Benefits of Being Productively Unproductive

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On Friday night I logged off and sank back into the couch. Last week wasn’t particularly bad, but it was certainly intense in the sheer volume of work that appeared on my daily lists. While everything got done I was left feeling mentally and physically exhausted. 

Additionally, my sleep patterns have been all over the place (thank you, peri-menopause), and this has resulted in lots of my working hours being conducted through what has felt like a hazy fog behind my eyeballs recently. 

Working for myself has a number of positives… in theory. I don’t have an awful daily commute, I can set my own hours, choose who I work with and I don’t have a micro-managing, passive-aggressive line manager to deal with (of which I have experienced many). While these are all things that I appreciate on a daily basis, I have found that as my client base has grown, an increasing level of fear has accompanied it… 

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The Universe Steps In… Again

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Isn’t it strange how, when you find yourself in a difficult situation, the universe seemingly steps in and shows you the direction in which you need to go?

I discussed recently about the challenges that The Bloke and I have faced this year, particularly with the death of various family members and my mum being ill. We’re both tired and a bit stressed, we both struggle with depression and anxiety on occasion and both of us have found ourselves getting through the day on autopilot when things have got really tough. 

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Time for a Change

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On 1st January 2023 The Bloke and I sat on an enormous couch in a suite in a nice hotel. We were surrounded by our favourite snacks and were watching a film while talking about our hopes and expectations for the coming year.

“It’s going to be amazing, I can feel it,” I remember saying, and at the time, I believed it. After the world shut down in 2020 things had plummeted, and 2021 had been tough, so had 2022. Surely 2023 couldn’t get any worse, could it?

As it turns out, yes it could. 

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