Saturday and its excitement day as we, my partner, eldest daughter and I are off to Birmingham to see Cirque Du Soleil. We breakfast and I check the train tickets. By about 9:45 we are ready to leave so I summon up an Uber to take us to the station. The Uber driver had an interesting approach to speed limits, he ignored them. We arrived at the station with time to spare and while away on the platform. We had discovered that although I had ordered the tickets together and asked for reserved seats, the seats allotted us were not together, clearly too difficult. Anyway, we found our seats and settled into the journey and experienced the “being packed in like sardines” experience. We eventually arrive at Birmingham New Street and find our way to the world.

We walk through the centre of the Bull ring and find our way to the canal path that takes us to the Utilita Areana. We have hours to kill before the performance, so we dive into the Cosy Club to have lunch. It looks plush and we settle in and order. My choice, a dirty chicken burger was a mistake, not good. What is noticeable is the reduced quality of the Cosy Club menu, it is much poorer than it was. No more ham hock hash for example. So, it looks posh but doesn’t live up to the look.

I cannot move on without pointing out that in their wisdom the owners of Cosy Club seem to think that those of us using the “gentleman’s” toilet do so wishing to be observed by a bevy of young debutantes from the pages of Country Life! Not only do they overlook the urinals, but they sneak into the stalls as well. I present a couple of examples and hope that Cosy Club have paid the royalties due and have consent.

Having whiled away enough time we move on to the Utilita Arena. We get through the security and take our seats, discovering that the start time is half an hour before the time printed on the tickets. There is of course no filming or taking pictures of the performance, but I did snap the drop curtain.

The show is just excellent and full of real theatre and some touches of absolute brilliance. There is a twenty-minute break before the fun continues. The second half is also excellent. I am enthralled by the musicians especially the guitarist that also plays accordion, the whole musical backdrop to the stage performance is amazing. The end comes too soon for me. We leave and walk back by the canals until we pick up a taxi to the station. The journey back is less crowded and when we pull into home we hop into a taxi after stocking up with chocolate goodies. Home and I feed the hedgehog before settling down to eat the chocolate and watch football. I go to bed tired by the travels of the day and very much peopled out.

Sunday and I am up early to watch the England rugby team thrash their latest opposition in the women’s world cup. I go back to bed and wake again at about 10:30. I set about trying to mend or stabilise my collapsed plastic greenhouse.

I get the tools away, my new plants under cover and then indulge in a bacon sandwich. The Sunday call to our youngest daughter gets made late but we arrange to visit her in November. My afternoon is full of rugby, league and union, and then I pack for the conference I am going to for the next three days. Always a problem to decide on which image and wardrobe to choose, but I decide on an ice hockey jersey-based look draped in a long black cardigan. As the conference is going to be at a Quaker conference centre, I decide I need to take survival rations. I take a walk down to my local Co-op and stock up on chocolate, wine gums and other “can’t live without” items. I pack my “technology backpack” which in effect is my traveling office and run through my pack and to do list. Tea follows along with Dr Who and a Strictly catch up. My final tasks of the evening are to feed the hedgehog, clear the kitchen and put the final touches to my packing. Of course, I draft the blog not sure if it will be possible over the next couple of days, but I hope to be able to post something. I shall go to bed nervous about the coming conference but just hope I am able to juggle my spoons, yesterday took quite a lot out of me and I think I shall need to keep a sensible pace for the next three days.