Scene: Birmingham | Take: 1

Birmingham is the second largest city in England and a great destination for shopping and sight seeing. I decided to head off to "B'ingham" for the day as it is only a 30 minute train ride away.

This plan was doomed from the beginning!

Trying to book my train ticket turned out to be hopeless as the website didn't like my Debit MasterCard details, claiming that the card number was invalid! I resigned myself to just buying a ticket at the station the next morning, which is often more expensive than pre-booking. After sleeping through my alarm and missing the early train I should have just given up...especially because it was threatening rain. I sorted myself out and got the bus to the station and set off for the city.

It was pouring when I got there. So I went to the shops first, while the rain settled down, and had a look around. Some interesting stores with some great clothes. A department store called Selfridges & Co (similar to DJs or Myer) had two whole floors dedicated to menswear! Good luck finding that in Australia!! I also came across the Disney store...and took a photo:

After visiting the mass of shops for quite a while I decided to head out and follow one of the walking trails around the city for tourists. I got to the first stop (the huge City Hall), pulled out my camera and found that my photo of the Disney store had drained the battery! So I went to the Art Gallery and back to more shopping before heading home.

Clearly my trip to Birmingham was cursed from the start! Although I did get asked by a local family for directions...but the husband thought I was American so it ruined the moment for me. The wife recognised the accent but only from watching Home & Away. The only time Lincoln Lewis has had a positive influence from his work? Sorry Maeghan :)

Hopefully next week's trip will be a little better...