Birthday Outing
It was my birthday at the weekend and we decided to have a day out to nearby Birmingham and our original hometown. The plan was to visit the Sunday art/flea market at the Custard Factory but little did we know the Sunday Flea isn't on at the moment, boo, so that was a bit of a bummer. But we still had a nice trip out all the same, mooched about, ate LOTS of vegan sushi and met up with my brother who gave me a copy of his album and told me about his recent trip to Texas. Here are a few pics of the day:
The fancy new-ish Selfridges building in the renovated 'Bull Ring'. I quite like the building itself but it's a shame the city centre is all about big chainstores and shops.
This is the back of the Custard Factory. The Custard Factory used to be an actual Custard Factory and home of Bird's Custard
This is the Green Man on the way to the main entrance to the Custard Factory:
The Custard Factory is an arts and media centre tucked away in the outskirts of Birmingham City Centre. It houses artists' studios, water features, cafes, galleries and shops. It's also home to our friend Log's gallery and framing business Studio 4/The Framers. I used to work at the Custard Factory 10 years ago as a receptionist and exhibition booker. It was completely different to how it looks now, the Green Man area wasn't even built.
We did see some cool collectibles through a window of a closed shop:
The next picture is on our approach back to the city centre after discovering the Flea market wasn't on. You can clearly see Birmingham's infamous Rotunda standing behind the Selfridges building. Prince Charles once famously called it a 'monstrous carbuncle'. It's having a facelift too, they're trying to make it look less like a 1960s bad idea and more like a modern classic. I'm glad they kept it though, I heard there was talk of getting rid of it.
