Birmingham Broad Street
I had to go to a conference in Birmingham, out at the NEC centre. I had been dreading it. I don't like the three day conferences - they're tiring, and they're far away, and not in a travelling way, just in a pain to get to way. The journey up actually wasn't too bad. There were a few connections, but miraculously, they all worked out. And Virgin Trains do have a nice shop with decent mushroom stroganoff - expensive for a microwave meal, but nice. The Crowne Plaza is a pretty nice hotel, too. But in common with many nice hotels, particularly in out of town areas, the bar was unbelievably expensive. Almost six pounds for a glass of wine. I barely pay that for a bottle! So on the wednesday night, we got a taxi into town.
We got into Broad Street, and went to the Wetherspoons. There is a Wetherspoons or two in most British towns - they're dirt cheap, and variable atmospheres, but the figure of eight is actually pretty nice. We had a few drinks and decided that we wanted a bit of a dance. The first place we went in was absolutely spookily dead - just a DJ in a scary wig and a couple of bored looking people. But they do get points for IDing me - I'm old enought to be flattered by that! Then we ended up downstairs in Walkabout. The music in there was pretty good, though. Walkabout is another chain, and it's the sort of thing where you say "whatever happens, we aren't going to Walkabout" and then you go and you have a great night. At about two ish we went back in the taxi out to the NEC Crowne Plaza, and I stayed up for another hour talking to someone. I got about three hours sleep, because the heating system woke me up at about half six, and then I had to go concentrate at the conference. Why do I do these things? :)
