Back to Birmingham.....

And I'm back.......
Did you miss me?

The last few days have been spent by the Bruton family in and around Birmingham.

It's half term so Molly and I are off all week anyway and Louise took Monday and Tuesday off as holiday which gave us 4 days to go a-visiting the city we called home until last October.

Actually, that's a bit of a fib.
The real reason for heading back to the Midlands was to go to the dentist. Have you tried to get a bloody NHS dentist lately? Absolutely impossible. So we're now in the ridiculous situation that we have to get our dental care 131 miles away. We did ask in Pocklington about joining the local dentist as NHS patients but there's a very long waiting list apparently so we were advised to stay registered in Dudley.

Everyone's teeth thankfully are okay, if we had needed treatment it may have become a little difficult to pop back! I need a replacement filling but I can fit that in whenever I manage to get down next.

We had a marvellous time in Birmingham, although trying to get so much packed into the few days meant that people were left out - apologies to you all, next time we'll see you - honestly!

On Saturday we drove down fairly early, wondering what we were driving into. All the news the previous night had warned us that Birmingham was under some of the worst snow and icy conditions it had ever seen. we were expecting something out of the Shining as we passed the border into the West Midlands, but we really shouldn't have worried. It may have been a little slippy on Friday and there may have been a bit of snow, but it had all gone by the time we rolled into town.

First stop. Birmingham city centre. It hasn't changed. Still wonderful, still horrible in equal measure. Of course, there was a visit to Nostalgia which I'll get to in the next post, but we had a nice time wondering round playing at being tourists for a couple of hours.

Then off to drop Molly round at her friend Ellen's for the first of three sleepovers this trip. Then over to Louise's sister to drop our stuff and head straight back out to a night out in Birmingham. (If it seems a little rushed, that's because it was.)

Sunday was a more sedate affair, family and quick blast to see some friends. But not enough time to do half of what we had in mind. The time just seemed to slip away from us. Sunday night was Molly's second sleepover at Louise's sisters house.

Monday over to my Mom & Dad for the third and final sleepover before the dentist on Tuesday morning, a nice meal out and then home.

Well first there was navigating 131 miles to get home, most of it spent in 20mph traffic on the M-bloody-1.

It was really strange going back. A lot of fun obviously and it's always nice to see friends and family. But it's been nearly 4 months since we left and it was fairly obvious to us that we'd all changed in the time we've been away. Possibly the strangest thing we immediately noticed as we left the car park and headed out into the city centre was the sheer volume of things, buildings, people and traffic all around us. Added to that was the noise; it just seemed way too noisy everywhere. It seems we are getting used to the quieter country life after all.

Nothing we saw or did this last few days has made us question whether making the move was the right thing for us to do. If anything, it's reinforced how much we love our new life.

But it was nice to visit again.

A very big thank you to Mandy, Sharon, David, Mom & Dad for putting us up.

Thanks as well to all those we did manage to see. We promise to catch up with the rest of you next time. It doesn't mean we don't love you still!