Busy day in Birmingham. An hour on a long boat around the canal system followed by a visit to the library. In 1864 the Birmingham Shakespeare club started a collection to mark the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. It was housed in a decorated room in the city’s first public library. This memorial room has now been relocated to the top floor of the impressive new 9 story library. It was declared that the collection should contain every edition in every translation, in short, every book ever written connected with the life of the great poet. For hundreds of years people have be compiling scrap books of Shakespeare memorabilia. A couple of hundred of these scrap books appear in the collection.

Coffee again

Many of you have met our daughter Danielle when the family visited the Breeze last year. Knowing how fussy I am about coffee, Danielle took us to the famed “Coffee Room”, around the corner from the infamous Starbucks. Crowded and busy, so rather than make a fuss, ordered a simple double shot flat white. Very pleasant indeed along with a messy but delicious ploughman’s focaccia. As the crowd thinned out, family encouraged me to go chat with the barista. “Yes, I do know Magic, but no one asks for it”. Me and Reece become instant buddies. AND he shows me the finer points of controlling the machine for the best Ristretto. The resulting “Magic” is, of course as good as it gets. Soooo, when we return to Lonnie, if I am allowed behind the counter, and if Maureen approves, I will be happy to attempt Reece styled Magic coffee for all comers.

The Bullring is the epicentre of Birmingham and a bull has long been the symbol for Birmingham. The famous bronze bull near the centre of the Bullring has a sleek patina from the caresses of thousands of admiring visitors. The giant mechanical bull called Ozzy was the centrepiece of the opening ceremony of the 2022 commonwealth games in Birmingham and is be installed in the atrium of the New Street station.

Games

While the Matildas have been setting records on the football field, we have continued with the ritual of our Rummikub game. Every night after supper we clear the table and the 7 of us prepare to engage in our noisy and sometimes physical version of Rummikub. Most of us prefer to play solo, but Idris and Yusha work as a team with one set of tiles. The rules, including points for opening and the number of starting tiles are open to negotiation. Attempts to cheat include making forged jokers and various forms of sleight of hand. Grandma, being a very careful Scot was slow to make her mark. But now, entering into the spirit of things, she is capable of cheating with the best of us. The locals generously accepted what they call the Australian manoeuvre as creative and entertaining.

On the other side of town there is a massive entertainment centre that provides no end of physical and mental challenges, including escape rooms. This is the deal. Part real, part imaginary. The secret seven find ourselves unaccountably in a cabin on the Titanic. Unexpectedly, the deck is tilting much more than usual, and we are locked in. A quick check in the dimming light reveals that our resources are a lot of keys, a crank handle, a revolver and our boarding passes containing an odd sort of code. Danielle tries to dislodge a loose vent cover. A booming voice says “don’t touch the vent cover!!”. Idris, who is good at that sort of thing, realises that the boarding passes have a cryptic code, which when translated reads: “Shoot the vent”. Yunus who has the revolver, and is good at that sort of thing, loudly shot the vent and the booming voice said “Well done”. Grandma led the escape into the pitch black ventilation shaft which led to the bridge with its dangerously tilting deck. No sign of the captain anywhere. In another box there were a few more crank handles and a crow bar which was useful to gain access to the radio room so we could send Morse code distress call. Booming voice said “Help is on its way, lower the life boats”. That’s what the crank handles were for.