Birmingham's new library

[Backblipped on Sunday morning]

Had a lovely, but tiring, day in Birmingham with some of my friends from uni. It was the first time my SO had met them (and vice versa), too. I hadn't been to Birmingham for years, apart from concerts, so it was interesting to see how it's changed and is still changing.

The day started early as we were meeting up with one of my friends on the way who was driving us into Birmingham.

Our primary aim was to have a look at the Staffordshire Hoard in Birmingham Museum, but before that we went to see the new central library, which is pretty spectacular (well, we did all train as librarians: what do you expect?). As you can see, it looks a bit like a pile of upmarket Christmas presents on the outside, but it's an interesting building inside and out. We particularly liked the roof terraces with their gardens and views across the city.

After that we went to see the hoard, or at least the bits that are currently on display: most of it is being worked on, still. Fantastically intricate and sophisticated workmanship and beautiful objects, worth a trip even to see the fraction currently viewable.

Then, after lunch, we went to see Captain Phillips at the Electric. The film is actually pretty good - not my usual sort of film, but very well done, and it's possibly cured my Tom Hanks phobia - for some reason he's ended up on my list of actors to avoid but he's very good in this.

The Electric is a strange cinema, with some nice comfy sofas etc, unfortunately all sold out, so we ended up in the normal cinema seats and they were seriously uncomfortable for me. Plenty of leg room, but not wide enough for persons of size: I was a bit wedged in. Which I suppose beats Stoke Film Theatre which has narrow seats and zero leg room at all, but seems poor compared to, say, the Vue in Newcastle-under-Lyme, with its nice wide seats and legroom to match. All of which is doubtless academic if you're thin.

So, after that it was back to my friend's house where my SO met my friend's wife, too, another friend from uni. And back home via the Chinese, munched happily while watching the recording of Strictly (during which I fell asleep), and so to bed as Mr Pepys would have said.

It's currently 10.40 on Sunday morning and I'm up but dozy, while SO still hasn't surfaced: you can tell we had a full day yesterday!