cultural differences and decency...

1. I don't care how do you wash yourself, but after you finish, clean your hair and dirt from the sink, bathtub, toilet, the water in the bathroom and open the window please!

2. I don't care how you cook, but close the kitchen door meanwhile and clean the tables after that, please! Some people don't necessary like the Indian flavors and smells!

3. Don't shout when you speak at the phone at 7 o'clock in the morning, please! Others might sleep!

4. If you live in a house it is also your responsibility to clean all the house when it's your turn, not just your own room!

meet our neighbour, Sandjeev

Birmingham

We visited Birmingham last Sunday. It is not far away and we can use a TWM bus (900) to get there. All in all, the city didn't impressed me, it is definitely a place where I don't want to live and made me appreciate more Coventry instead.

I was thinking that the native English people are already a minority in this city and in next 20 years will be probably a minority in their own country, all this due the massive immigration. I don't have a problem living with people from different cultures but the truth is I was expecting something else in England... civilized people, mans wearing top hats, etc. What I found instead? An youth behaviour very aggressive and rood, EMOs, lots of Indians, Pakistanis, black people, Chinese, etc; completely something else! I didn't imagine to walk on the street and to see mosques...

I found these things in Coventry, but in Birmingham is even more obvious! With respect to the city I will not publish the bad pictures we took, I made a selection, removing the rubbish.

So... interested things in Birmingham:

St. Martin Church

The new Selfridges building

Bull Ring

My favorite place in Birmingham :) ... Bull Ring, the old market. I thought about riding it but I didn't want to look like a savage guy... I just touch it a little bit on the nose.

on New Street

Cannon Street (nice, but just until the first curve)

Victoria Square
(this woman has to be everywhere...)

near the fountain

The city Hall

in the square it is an artificial beach, with sand from Dubai, which can be used for free... it is a small oasis sponsored by "Fly Emirates". We didn't used it because we didn't want to have sand in our shoes...

something... it has a name but I forgot it

a nice clock

with benches, which I gladly used to rest my legs... aaaaah...

One more thing is to be mention here: it was cold! 10 degrees, maybe less in July! Hm... like November in Romania...

Barbecue! :)

Well, I will let the pictures to speak... hope you can smell it! :)) I can still hear the juicy drops on the coal... yummy yummy! :D ... On last Sunday we had the first barbecue at home.

Meet our Russians neighbours (from Latvia):

Valerijs

and his lyuba, Marina

After "How to make a barbecue" training for about 10 seconds made by Valerijs and a body language one-to-one coaching session delivered by Marina, 'cause she doesn't speak English, I finally manage to light the coals! I admit I was a total ignorant regarding making barbecues until now, I never participate at making one, I was always there just for eating responsibilities. But it's never too late... yeah! I made my first barbecue! :)

Shakespeare's Town

We live in the middle of the island, so even it's not the most beautiful city in UK, Coventry is located excellent for people wanting to visit. Our list is huge so we started to check our objectives one by one.

Last weekend it was Shakespeare's town turn, Stratford upon Avon. It took just one hour and a half to get there with regular buses. Stratford upon Avon is a small touristic town now and it's visible how touristic it is comparing daytime when it's very crowd and the evening, when it looks almost deserted.

Stratford upon Avon, a kind of Google map...

A street in the city center

The most visited place is our hero's birth place, the house where he grow up. His father had a good condition because he was a glover and he had also some land. He was the Mayor of Stratford upon Avon for a while as well, so he could provide his lad a good education.

William Shakespeare's birth place

There is a small center in the memory of the poet, presenting his life, objects, books, etc...

Stratford upon Avon in the old times...

Mr Shakespeare writing something...

An old book... one of his plays

Shakespeare's coat of arms...

After he became famous he was promoted to a higher rank, one of the advantages was that he didn't had to serve his country in the army, he was a gentlemen.

At the beginning I thought that he is an idiot or something, but the truth is that he was payed to look like that :P

In the garden, actors were playing randomly pieces from his work...

the same house, view from behind

a memory with my medieval friends

We visited 3 from his family houses, and also his grave, in a church. A surprising thing for me was that during the religious service the tourists were allowed to visit the church! And this for 1,50 pounds which was the value of the ticket to enter to see the grave...

William Shakespeare's new residence

In the garden at Nash House, reading... (a leaflet) :)

At John Hall's house

It was interesting to see the differences between the rich and poor people in the medieval ages, the doctors could afford to have large houses, for example Mr John Hall (the husband of Shakespeare's daughter, Suzannah) had this big house where lived with another 2 people, having 13 servants, living in the same house of course. Inside I was impressed by his tools used for inspection and surgeries. They look something like the tools used by Inquisition for torture... and that ones for obstetrics looked like barbecue tools...

Coming back to the city, it's nice because there are free open air theatres, performed by amateurs or professionals.

open air stage

The town is nice, looking similar to Leamington Spa, there are all kind of tourist attractions, like boat cruises on river Avon, tours in the city, the butterfly farm, not too far you can see a horse race if you want to.

The clock tower

We left Stratford knowing that we will return there one day!