Together time

Yesterday Sue & I had some 'together' time. The morning started with me taking my car for it's next scheduled service then we ddid the weekly shop at the local ASDA. Following a bite to eat we drove down to Birmingham with me showing Sue my daily commute and the rat runs that I use to avoid most of the congestion, arriving at my current work location to park (for free) and then walk into the city centre. Sue is shoe shopping, so we wander in and out of appropriate shops and she finally finds a pair that suits. We then head off into the Bull Ring window shopping but not for the first time we are being overwhelmed by the number of people and head back out into the streets. It is starting to rain so we retrace our steps back to Bella Italia where we have a very pleasant meal. Then it's back to the car to put the shopping into the boot and walk the short distance to the NIA where we have tickets for a show.

The show is Cirque de Soleil, Algeria. Our seats are in row HH which means we are 'up in the heavens'just 3 rows forward of the rear-most seats. The view is good and clear but distant and remote. The show is acrobatic and gymnastic at the same time with clowns between sets. There appears to be a theme or story running through the show but as we make a point of never buying a programme I can only surmise. The music and singing that accompanies the stage and high air/acrobatics is good but it is the whole show somehow just gels and comes together as a spectacular event. We loved it.

It was a short walk back to the cars and a one hour drive back home, arriving at 23:00. The end to a long and pleasant day together.

Time flies

My last post was that in 3 weeks’ time Suzie and I would be off to Florence. Here we are now, its Easter morning and Florence is a fading but pleasant memory. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time there, it is a lovely compact city so we walked everywhere but the cobbles meant we came away with sore feet and aching thigh and calf muscles. It’s an expensive place to visit but not as expensive as Rome or Venice I am reliably told. We could not believe the number of Americans we met and got chatting to, mostly from New England - very nice people and not the usual selection of morbidly obese. Weather was very kind to us at 23-24 degrees C (daytime).

The hotel was nothing special, it did have clean sheets which were changed every day but the shower didn't and the bath might have filled if I'd switched the taps on when we arrived and left them on for the duration of our stay, so stand-up baths from the sink were the order of the day. Actually, looking back it was all very Fawlty Towers.

We took in a wine tasting trip in the Tuscany / Chianti wine making region which was both an education and a treat. Easy Jet got us from Luton to Pisa and back and the Car Storage people we used really impressed with their service. We had an excellent time.