How life can change, just two years ago I left home nearly every Sunday evening and got home late on a Friday night. My life was hotels, airports, stations and commuting. Having studied tourism and always wanted to travel, it was a good life, great to get paid to actually see many of the cities of the UK and Europe. But as ones priorities have changed since marrying Dusan, well my new job kind of fitted in perfectly with that.
Thursday evening however I had my first business trip in about 15 months. Never quite understood why in all of my work related trips I ended up so many times in Birmingham and yet have hardly ever been to Manchester, but I won’t complain. I actually love Birmingham. It’s a great size city, you can walk from to practically anywhere in the city within 10 minutes and has the new and very fabulous Bull Ring Shopping Centre now which has about 300 shops enough to fill anyone’s retail therapy needs. Add to that you have all the other shops that exist in the city centre, the lovely Christmas German Market with all it’s festive joy and a nice large gay scene. Well enough to keep anyone happy.
I took the train up and got into my hotel room around 1830. I can’t knock the Mal Masion. The service is fabulous, the beds are comfy and the food is divine. Let’s be honest that when you are away from home you don’t want anything less comfortable than you have at home right?
Unlike when I first worked in Birmingham and was based there for 6 months back in 1999, I no longer felt the need or desire to go out late on a school night. I did take a wander down to Hurst Street to just see how things looked but nothing much had changed. There was however a sense that the recession seemed far more severe in the midlands than in London. Restaurants that had been a steadfast when I was based there in 2007 had closed, the tables still laid and ready to dine but notices of foreclosure posted in the window. Habitat was closing down with a sign saying the nearest store would now be Solihull. (They do say Solihull is the poshest part of the midlands). Maybe it’s the only area that still has money. The old Woolworth building lay empty and stripped of it’s fittings and several other units were empty. A new commercial building had been constructed in the financial district near to where I worked. My colleagues informed me that it was empty and it’s owners could not afford to fit the interior. Furthermore the cranes that were erected to build another stood still. I was told they cost £60,000 to erect and dissemble and have just been left standing as no one can afford to do anything with them. It seemed a far cry from London, where a walk down Oxford Street on Thursday Evening was so packed with shoppers carrying dozens of bags in the build up to Christmas. Eating at the Ivy and La Caprice in the last month, both fully booked with limitation on the time you can actually spend at your table.
The Virgin Train service from Euston to Birmingham New Street on the newly improved line is now amazingly fast, taking just under 90 minutes between the two cities. I barely had time to read my paper and enjoy a glass of wine and we were arriving.
It was a good 24 hour trip and nice to have a night away for work once again and back in time now to enjoy the weekend. Think I will put up the Christmas tree today. :-)
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