On Monday, Dean and I meet with Birmingham city staff. Birmingham is doing a lot with Best Value, gearing up for the April 1 mandate. We go once again to the Council House in Victoria Square, only this time we are taken into the bowels of the building where there are no red carpets or chandeliers. Neat, square rooms, one after the other, on both sides, line the length of a long corridor that our host tells us used to be the city mortuary. When we exit, we cut across a small courtyard in the building’s center where sectioned stone walls are visible—the stalls that once kept the horses that carried the Lord Mayor in carriages to his official functions.
I stop to see my friend, Dawna, at her City Center hotel. Her baby is sick and they are staying in today.
At the bank on my way back to the office, miracle of miracles, my ATM card is waiting for me! I hesitantly insert it into the machine and punch in my PIN number (the 2nd one, I don’t even try the first one that the tellers assured me would work) and several 20 pound notes spit out. More than a month and a half in, it seems my bank saga is over.
On Tuesday, I have a progress meeting with the BC’s Tim Chamberlain. I am expected to give a presentation on my project at the Edinburgh fellows’ meeting in November. In the meantime, Tim says to let him know if the council can help. He makes a passing reference about how different it is to work with Americans compared with other international visitors. I smile and say, “You mean because we’re pushy?” He demurs, “Well, I wouldn’t say that, but you are clear about you want and not afraid to ask for it.”
Dawna’s husband, Jim, is attending his convention, but Dawna and her three children, Elisabeth (13), Anthony (5), and Kirsten (3), and I plan to go to the National SeaLife Museum at Brindley Place. Anthony and Kirsten are all excited about seeing the “big fish” since I had told them yesterday we would go to the aquarium.
I am late and I hurry to catch the train to City Center to meet them. A train is pulling into University station just as I arrive. Instead of standing in the ticket line and missing my train that is leaving in mere minutes, I hop on with no ticket. They have never punched tickets on the short ride between University and New Street stations. Then, as I am sitting there, I see a blue-uniformed man at the rear of the carriage who looks like he is checking tickets. But whether he is not a conductor, or he just doesn’t make it to me at the front of the coach, I’ll never know because we pull into New Street station and I get off fast.
I love aquariums and this one is wonderfully done. Big portholes of magnified glass let you peer into the ocean depths. I am mesmerized by the seahorses. They are strange looking; almost translucent with long snouts, little protruding potbellies, and curled up tails. They use their monkey-like tails to grip seaweed or coral so they aren’t swept away by the current. There is also a fascinating octopus named Bev. The SeaLife staff puts a plastic screw-top container containing a mackerel into the tank. Ever so slowly, the octopus wraps its tentacles around the top of the jar, and within 10 minutes, she twists off the cover!
Photo: National Sea Life Museum, Birmingham
To see the Titanic exhibit, we walk through an aquatic glass tunnel. Remnants of the ill-fated ship’s contents—a grand piano on its side, a cabinet full of crested china plates, most of them unbroken, and even a pearl necklace belonging to one of wealthy first-class passengers—are scattered on the ocean floor; fish swimming amongst them. Elisabeth loves the movie, Titanic. I don’t know if it is the movie she is keen on or Leonardo DiCaprio!
When Jim arrives, we go to nearby Brindley Place for pizza. It was a delightful afternoon and I have a great time with them!
- In today’s news: There is growing speculation that the Princess Royal will soon be taking on a new role as the monarch’s ambassador in Scotland. The rumours, which surfaced over the weekend, suggest that the Princess could move permanently to the Palace of Holyrood and take the title of Princess Lyon—an historic symbol of Scotland’s royal heritage. Scottish ministers say that they would be happy to see the Princess living in and representing Scotland. But the Princess would never be the “Queen of the Scots” as Scotland already has a Queen, Elizabeth II. (Source)
- In today’s news: The Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, is visiting Britain. There is considerable controversy surrounding the visit and, in particular, about official Britain’s warm welcome of him considering China’s atrocious record on human rights. The government’s belief is that they can affect greater change by wooing the Chinese than by punishing them. Prince Charles took the highly unusual step of tacitly making his political views known by boycotting the president’s banquet in protest of the Chinese government’s campaign of genocide, which has killed 1.2 million Tibetans. One article describes Chinese criticism of the British for not doing anything to stop the public protesters. The Chinese president is said to have been very put out. Isn’t that just the point? The right to voice an opinion even in protest is at the very heart of human rights, which the Chinese leaders so willfully and brutally suppress. (Source)
Jody’s UK Memories 