(more pics)
Just a couple snaps of the central canal area of Birmingham. I took these when I was up there in May. Birmingham for some reason seems to have a reputation as a particularly ugly English city but it seems all right to me. And so here's some proof.
Not a lot of proof, mind you, but it's a start.
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Brigitte and Bernhardt are a couple friends of Vicki's Mom that came to visit us in London. I wasn't around when these pictures were taken. I met up with them after Vicki had run off to Birmingham and the three of us went to see Samson and Delilah at the Royal Opera House.
The ROH is a gorgeous building. I'd like to live there some time. A bit of work and you could make it really cosy, I think.
I think B and B were impressed. Brigitte, especially, is a huge opera buff and Jose Cura performed as Samson. Our seats weren't the best. Next time, rather than go for the slips, I'll choose the nosebleed section. It may be so far away that you can't tell Samson from Delilah, but at least you can see most of the stage and get a rough picture of what is going on. From our seats in the slips, we could see less than half the stage. This, combined with the fact that my Italian is non-existant, meant I had some difficulty following the actual narrative. Oh well, it sounded good, which I suppose is the point, after all.
It was a very posh crowd. We wandered through the Crush Room and into the conservatory and as we stood there rubbernecking at the grandeur of it all, I realised I was standing right next to Simon Callow. This is Simon CALLOW, by the way, not Simon COWELL. Simon Cowell is the meanspirited materialistic dude with the high-waisted pants on pop-idol who is pretty much a poster boy for everything that is wrong about the music industry. Simon Callow is the talented actor with the gorgeous, sonorous voice. He played Gareth, the flamboyantly gay guy with a beard in Four Weddings and a Funeral (amongst other things).
Anyway, probably not a big deal for most people but I got a minor thrill eavesdropping on his conversation. He sounded exactly how I imagined Simon Callow would sound if he was discussing a show at the Royal Opera House. Uncanny, that.