Chris went off to France for a weeks holiday without me! She stayed at Guilvinec (on the south west coast) with Rob & Dawn & Tom & Caitlin & Grace, while I stayed behind and worked (she has more annual leave than I do). Chris loved sitting with Dawn, at the edge of the ocean, each with a baby in arms - dipping their toes in the sea for the first time.

The highlight of her trip was when she bought an expensive colourful oil painting, but sadly then lost the gold bracelet I gave her for our 10th wedding anniversary present when playing with the twins on the beach. Verdict: she won't be allowed away on holiday without me again!!!

When I took Chris to the Birmingham airport, I went up to the observation deck and had to smile when I saw some avid plane spotters there with their anoraks, notebooks, binoculars and radio scanners. Oh well, I suppose it's a hobby less life threatening than bungee jumping! The British love bird watching, and counting trains etc, so it wasn't too surprising to hear of a recent public campaign for motorists to count how many bugs they find squashed on the car number plates! This survey is to discover if insect population has declined and thus maybe why there are much fewer sparrows these days.

Chris's France trip had some more 'interesting moments', when she was waiting at Charles De Gaul airport, she was trying to buy her last 'real French pastry' to eat, when the shops suddenly shut and a few moments that then there was a big explosion. There was no explanation on the public address system (not in English anyway) - so we figure someone's suitcase has just been aggressively unpacked by the bomb squad.  

To amuse myself during her absence, I went with Claire & Dave to a Queen tribute concert at Ragley Hall (the home of the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford) by the group 'The Royal Family', their last ever concert. It was a lovely warm summer evening, the concert was outside in the grounds of the stately home, lots to eat and drink, very nice (reminding me of the great concerts at the Auckland domain). Accompanying the band were fireworks and search lights.

Whilst away, pining for me, Chris finally mastered the technique of sending text messages!

 
While it is summer, we’re out trying to have lots of fun. On Friday night we went to a Jousting Tournament, where people in costume and armour were riding horses, as if they were in battle. It was quite exciting, the costumes were wonderful and they certainly were good at horse riding. I tried really hard to get some photos of the riders, but the low light and lack of a tripod meant that they didn't come out - although I quite like the photo at right, very blurred, an abstract art image of the horse & rider at speed.

The 'King' spent most of the evening talking on his cell phone (a throne call?). The commentary from the 'Jester' was a bit silly, but it was a cold wet evening, and we had to stand outside in the mud! Then the BBQ dinner was a disaster, we ended up only eating salad as it was that or a 1 hour wait for some roast pork in a bread bun! This is the least successful 'Spice Group' function that we have been to. But we have managed to see something which we never would have in NZ, so it's all good.

Another day, another adventure - Birmingham has an annual Discovery day, an opportunity for kids & adults to go places & see things which are normally off limits. One building which I have been keen to explore, but not allowed to until now, is the Birmingham city council house. It is right next door to my work, and I've stuck my head inside the door a few times but been told that it is not open to the public. On this discovery day it was open & so in I went! 

My goal was to climb the clock tower, and I was able to do this today. Hundreds of tiny steps up steep spiral cast iron staircases to the mechanism room, and then up even further to the bell chamber. Probably to the annoyance of the public below, we were all able to have a go and rings the bells - trying our best to produce a rendition of the famous Westminster Chime. The 'big kid' feeling was topped off nicely when I was presented with a lapel badge for having made the climb! And it was free! The only shame was that there was no view from the inside of the clock tower. Up at the very top of the tower is an observation point, but it hasn't been used since the 2nd world war - when some brave soul would sit up there at night, with binoculars and a map, trying to work out where German bombs were falling. It must have been quite nerve wracking, as if a bomb fell close to the tower - there would be no quick escape!!!

The inside (and outside) of the building is very ornate, lots of crystal chandeliers and other elaborate interior decoration. I went into the old old paneled debating chamber where no doubt lots of good & bad decisions have been made over the hundreds of years. Also slummed it in the lord mayors chamber. I was interested to hear that Birmingham still has a Sheriff (the chief of police)! 

Shoosmiths is providing me with lots of travel for work, so we've now made more money from vehicle reimbursements ($1 per mile) than it cost to buy our car in the first place!  But a looming warrant of fitness test is making us consider replacing the car with another, a Rover 414. We have suffered high maintenance costs with the Ford Mondeo we bought 18 months ago, and know that there's quite a few problems with it, so it is not worth repairing. 

We're feeling jubilant that Chris's family Church, the Kings Norton Church has just won a contest -  receiving £3,000,000 to restore two buildings to their original condition.  This is a BBC TV programme presented by comedian Griff Rhys Jones, which shows building restoration projects which have been nominated by the public. The viewers then vote by dialing an 090 toll number - generating income which goes towards the winning project. 

This is one of the buildings, the old grammar school, built in 1434. The church is even older than that (12th Century). It's hard for a NZer to imagine a building that old, everything in NZ feels very temporary in comparison. To think that through the doorway so many people have walked. It's difficult to imagine what life was like 500 years ago when it was built by the villagers. The best way that I can do this is to think of the movies & TV dramas set in that period.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/restoration/profiles/?13

The building on the left is the Saracen's Head, a 'half timbered' building which was the bailiff's house; a manor house; a pub; and is now the parish offices for the Church (in the background). It is the second building which is to be restored to it's original condition.

It was here that the wife of Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, stayed on her way back from Yorkshire where she had gathered troops for the English Civil War. The devoutly Catholic Queen arrived at King's Norton in July 1643 with around 5,500 men and spent the night in what is known as the Queen's Room, while her troops slept on land behind the church.

The Canon of the Church put his foot in his mouth, when he suggested on TV that the name should be changed - in order to be politically correct, as Saracen's Head refers to the decapitation of the enemy, which could be offensive to Muslims. 

This group of buildings is where Aidan & Racheal plan to have their wedding blessing ceremony in October. 

The night before the restoration TV competition final, we went to a music concert at the Church. A group of female singers called the Mediæval Bæbes put on a programme of soulful (and lustful!) traditional music, accompanied by a variety of old instruments. They have a particularly sexy and feisty style which seemed a little out of place in a Church! You can hear some of their music here and view their website here. 

This is a photo of them, with Canon Rob Morris and the presenter of the Restoration TV programme; Griff Rhys Jones, at the announcement of their winning the £3,000,000.

We experienced an avian delight one evening in August - the sound of an Owl hooting outside our bedroom window. Managed to stick my head out the window just in time to see it fly off!

The stained glass window is Chris's favourite, the one she spent her childhood gazing at, when at Kings Norton Church.

I went on yet another Spice group event, a walking tour of central Birmingham, showing off a number of historic buildings and hearing a few creepy tales about Brum of old. E.g. the only bit of green park space in the middle of Birmingham, through which I walk every morning (and sometimes sit in the sun to have lunch), is a graveyard with about 50 grave stones, but a gob smacking 62,000 graves, yes - that number is correct. Although it's only 1 acre in size, the bodies are stacked one of top of each other. Surprisingly, this was the upper class cemetery, so I can imagine what the lower class cemetary at the Bullring was like... Actually, the lower class cemetary has been dug up, and replaced by the new Bullring shopping centre. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few grumpy ghosts around that area! 

I heard the sorry tale about Birmingham typographer John Baskerville, who (as he was an atheist) was originally buried standing up in his own garden inside a conical mausoleum (which was the remains of an old windmill). This land was cut through by the major canal building in the area and in 1820 his body was dug up and used at a local peepshow! For a shilling you could buy one of his bones. The remaining bones were buried in a churchyard (against his will), that Church was demolished and so he was moved again to a graveyard which suffered subsidence & now his whereabouts are unknown! You can read his amazing life (& death) story here.

Another piece of interesting Birmingham history is that it has a leading eye hospital, built during the industrial revolution - as there were so many eye injuries with workers in the crude factories, mines etc. They campaigned for donations of eyes for research, and had thousands! 

We went to a dinner party @ Rob & Dawns place. They were having a reunion with some of the people they have travelled to Europe with, on trips by the "Good Food Club". Dawn was the organiser of this club for Sainsburys, taking groups on bus tours of France, vineyards, etc. They were a jolly lot, we have an outstanding meal prepared by Dawn, lots and lots of wine, all sorts of yummies.

George was keen to go to the theatre, so we bought tickets for Joseph & his technicolour dreamcoat, playing at the Hippodrome theatre. It's a great service the theatre provides, half price tickets for him and one companion, so effectively he goes free!

We've had a change of tenants for our Olympia Place house, it's now occupied by a part-owner of Placemakers & his family. Not so good news with our Frost Place property - there have been complaints about the tenants. We'll give them notice and hope that the next lot are a bit more orderly. Fortunately we have a robust property manager who can tackle these sorts of problems for us.

We are very proud that Aidan has finally received his certificate, for his studying NZCE - New Zealand Certificate in Engineering. While he's not happy about having a debt to the student loan service, it's a wonderful achievement to have this hanging on his wall. It makes me feel a little sad that I never completed my own University study. While that hasn't hindered my career, it would have been a satisfying accomplishment. It's not too late though, I am 1/2 way through a post-graduate diploma in management systems - which I can go back to Waikato to complete any time I wish.

The Olympic games have been on TV - a tremendous success for the Kiwis. I figure there must be something special in the water at Cambridge, to have bred so many champoins there! It was frustrating that the BBC coverage of the games showed virtually nothing of the Kiwi medal winners. Fortunately I've arranged for a video tape to be made for me, of the NZ view of the olympic highlights. 

Thanks for father for sending me some of the special holographic stamps which NZ Post produced for the games. 

Best friend Max has written a new book on the national anthem, and is in the news for his conservative attitude to releasing details of it before it is published. Good on him! I know that he's immensely proud of his work, and I was lucky to see some of the photos from the book when we visited him in February. 

He had a best seller with his Curious Questions book, and I'm hoping that he also does really well with this one.

Our dishwasher is fixed now – we waited and incredible five weeks for the tradesman to come back! He was Italian and could not speak English very well – we called him Manuel – like on Fawlty Towers because he did not seem to know what he was doing and flooded the kitchen and then tried to catch the water in a flower vase!

That's all for August - as you can see it was another busy month in the strange life that we're leading!