... 1245 and the car-hire man arrives ... hooray ... 40 minutes later and a substantial amount of money transfered to their account and I have loaded the car - a black Astra - two hours later I am in Leeds ...
between us we fill the car with ... stuff, stuff and more stuff ... the road to Bimingham is startlingly free-running and we are at Lawrence's bijou penthouse pad in Digbeth (or wherever it is) by 7pm ...
I am amazed that we dont get lost in Birmingham's maze of roads - but lets face it how many fools are driving INTO Birmingham on the Friday before Bank Holiday - precisely - so thats why the roads are clear
we take a taxi to Ladypool Road and curry in the Lahore Kebab House - we have a bag of beer, and the maitre d'hote (!) apologetically says it is a totally alchohol free restaurant, and indeed the customers are all from the local asian community ...
but no drink is no problem ... we hide the bag of beer discretely under the table and set about ordering a pile of pakoras, dahl, mixed veg curry rice and nans ...
the tables are all rectangles of marble bolted onto metal frames ... in the corner is a large round table with a plastic red and black tartan covering and a sign saying RESERVE parked prominently in the middle. An old man in a brown suit is reading a pakistani paper. Beside him two guys, one of whom spends a lot of time eyeing the three of us suspiciously .... could be the Soprano's
the food is excellent and cheap ... outside the locals are racing up and down in BMWs ... the police are questioning two drunken english down and outs on a bench ...
we get a taxi to the town centre where we explore the bars - gothic crazy club bar full of lovely girls ... on to the exuberance of the Theatre Bar next to the Cathedral - and the truly astonishing architecture of downtown Birmingham ... classical structures, modern brutalist, modern-post-post-modern, victorian gothic, pedestrianised lanes and streets, trees jewelled with light ... who would have thought Brum could be so beautiful ...
the view of the city's night skyline,from the balcony is beautiful ... ruby, emerald and diamante, all flash and sparkle ...
I open a can of beer, but am too tired to drink it so at 2am i retire to bed
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