Friday 10 April 2009

10th April 1980

Thursday 10
Went to Birmingham for the day
It was great
Didn't buy anything as I had no money
Went to Hawkins Wine Bar for lunch
Phoned home
My brother is back from Saudi
Went into Stafford in the evening
****************************

Birmingham is one of those cities that has changed out of all proportion. I used to go once a week in the late 80s as I had staff in the Lewis's store and Topman (ahh those were the days when I did around 60,000 business miles a year, no stuck behind a desk in those days... just the open road and my own timetable... bliss! Oh and one of the first mobile phones that was the size & weight of a house brick with a HUGE ariel... the phone lost its charge in about 1/2 after being unplugged (result as I hated it). I even had a handsfree kit in the car & my phone bills were in the £100's.)

Brum is only 80 miles from here but used to take an age to get there (mind you Oxford was so much worse with only the A40 back then!). Such a bottle neck in the middle of England. It is a bit easier now with the M6 toll road but it still fills my heart with dread when I have to drive South through that part. A few years ago I was on a weeks training course in Birmingham and wow how impressed was I with the changes. The 'Bullring' used to be a no go area now it has fancy shops and is a pleasure to visit ... well done Birmingham (do visit the link to Wikipedia.. I had no idea abouts its historic roots).

Well today has been spent painting my hall.

In December 2007 I had a lovely porch put on the front of my house. Shortly after I had an accident and damaged my shoulder (it involved a window ledge, snagged curtains, Take That and no alcohol) so nothing could be done.
I had an operation onmy shoulder in October 2008 and whilst I was off I had the old front door and frame taken out and the hall and porch area plastered. So today, almost 6 months after the op (which is a 9 - 12 month recovery time) I tested out the surgeons work. Yahooo!!! that man knows his stuff & has done a fine job.... the bionic shoulder is rebuilt and working well ... look out the rest of the house 70s is back with her roller :-)

p.s. I am off into non internet land til Sunday night ... have a great Easter everyone :-)

p.p.s. Happy Birthday to my Great nephew 'E'..... bad Gt Aunt 70s failed to send you a card (I have it here ready to go but I am seeing your Mum next week so it will have a special pressy attached !)... will make it up to you and search for fossils and dead things with you soon plus I promise to play computer games which involve shooting and fast cars with you x (note to self just send the card with money in future !!)

13 comments:

HelpXtra said...

Enjoy yourself, missing you already.

I've still got one of those analogue 'brick' phones (sans aerial tho), I found it after moving house.

I looked at it in amazement, did I ever use this ????

The battery alone weighs 5 times as much as today's phones!!!

Safe Journey.

70steen said...

aww thank you GW .. I am off to the coast which is always a great place to be

I have an flip analogue one I saved from C1996.. it is like Trigger Happy TV .. yes we used them but were slightly embarrassed by them too (I must find mine and photograph it )

Thank you GW I will drive safely ... however, I can't vouch for the other nutters on the roads .. I will just swear at them as I normally do :-)

HelpXtra said...

I've also got an old NEC flip-phone that's a bit of a monster.

Strange how people who don't live on the coast always think it's so desirable.
I'll have to check it out up there one day.

Bognor Regis is a toilet !

Daddy Papersurfer said...

Have a lovely time and bring me back a stick of rock please as I'm still sans chocolat.

Nice bunny suit BTW - Heffner will be head hunting - tee hee

[Read your 'thing' on twitter about losing the post - I always write mine on a word document then copy and paste it into Wordpress [your case Blogger of course] and then file the doc as a backup record - easy peasy]

Anonymous said...

I used to have one of those hands free bricks in the car too. thought i was the bees knees... :-)

Daddy Papersurfer said...

Where's my stick then?!!!!!?

70steen said...

GW we must compare flipfone sizes lol

I was brought up on the coast and now live inland... the pull of the sea is always there... every opportunity to paddle in the sea is taken. So are you anover souverner that has not got past Oxford??
The NW is lovely

70steen said...

DP ~ if you can't find your stick then I think there is no hope at all!!! *snigger*

[good advice about wording the post first. I used to do that but then it corrupted when I put it on via Firefox and spent ages correcting it. However, my 5 minute 'YELL & panic' was resolved as blogger bless their cotton socks had saved it ... it just took a bit of finding]

70steen said...

NM ~ in those early days of mobile bricks I had that I am so cool to have one but also got a bit embarrassed as when it rang people would stop & stare & point and I knew they were saying' eeee by gum Mabel it is one of those new fangled phone things, what is the world coming to'

It still amazes me now how folk have full on 'very private' conversations in public huh??... like as though no one is listening!!!! but of course we are ;-)
I was actually thinking of writing down snippets of convo that I hear in a day ... it could be amusing lol

HelpXtra said...

Actually, some of my happiest times have been in the Norf.

In Newcastle, and the Norf-East area.

Never been to Mancville.

But when I visited Liverpool, I was very disappointed, everyone there seems to have a chip on each shoulder, would never visit there as a tourist.

Belinha Fernandes said...

Hi!!How good that you got sun for the Easter weekend!!We also did! But today the rain is back.In fact time is quite unusual for the seson.It snowed in our Serra da Estrela and people went all for the sonw instead of going south to hot sea in Algarve!!(Crazy people...I am allways after warm clima, not fond of snow at all...but it's pretty...well not so pretty as sea waves thow!!)

That procession is quite an event.In Spain they do it too.But for a child it's quite scary!!!:)

Have a great week!

70steen said...

gosh GW wash your mouth out .... Liverpool is fabulous as is the North East ... I worked there for a while in the early 80s and loved every minute :-)

70steen said...

Hi Belinha :-)
Yes it was a glorious weekend ... it has gone dull again now though.
I think I would definitely choose the warm coast to the snow capped mountains any time

I hope you are having a great week too :-)