Birmingham: time to be fair

Some people have complained to me that my comparison of Venice and Birmingham was marginally unfavourable to the English city.

Regular readers will be in no doubt of the extent of my commitment to the most exact fairness and impartiality. Indeed, in my view anyone who does not adhere to my high standards in this regard can only be an ignorant, bigoted fool.

In the interests of equity I’ve therefore been back to Birmingham. Actually, we went to see a play, An Inspector Calls, which was fun even though it was as preachy as I remember it when I first saw it (that’s Priestley for you: J B Preachy) and the preachiness wasn’t helped by the slightly histrionic way it was played. Still, it made for an enjoyable evening.

Afterwards, Danielle insisted on getting some photos of the canals.




Highly evocative, aren't they? The second one even has a certain haunting beauty, doesn’t it? I can only conclude in all fairness that Birmingham has views with more going for them than I had previously allowed.

Under cover of darkness, at least.


Unrelated Postscript

Since we’ve been living in Stafford we’ve been struck by the number of Staffordshire Terriers around here. What is this? Lack of imagination or just commitment to local produce? After all, Yorkshire isn't alive with Yorkshire terriers, Scotland isn't inundated with Scotties. On the other hand, I can personally testify that Alsace is full of Alsatians, but most of them are of the two-legged rather than canine variety.