BIRMINGHAM SPRING MARKET etc

THIS weekend saw me finding two new things in Birmingham [no, one of them isn't the sunshine]:

ONE] The Birmingham Spring Market: This wonderful event was held at The Bond on Fazeley Street in Digbeth,
         a place that is slowly looking more and more like somewhere that stole a bit of Hackney's soul and
         gave it some elocution lessons.

Hiya bull of Bull-Ring fame

           Situated opposite one part of our vast canal system, the market featured many independent food stalls
          including Fire and Slice Pizza and their super duper pizza oven. Sadly I have given up pizza for lent
          [causing myself immense pain in the process] and had to take my friend's word for it, but frankly the

          doughy delights looked delicious:

I stole this from their Facebook page because my friend's pizza lasted about a minute

                Another of their food stalls was the wonderful Deli at Edgbaston which served a healthy, completely

            fulfilling and very colourful selection of salad that left me feeling pretty zen considering the wind had
            just started to send a rather inconvenient chill down our jackets:

mmm. health.

                Visual highlight of the day had to be the Routemaster Bus Bar which took me back to the days of
              catching the good old 38 through Angel in the sunshine, except more alcoholic:

Boozing on public transport without the consequences? Smashing!

                  And whilst you might be able to tell that I am slightly obsessed with food, the indoor stalls also
             appealed to the homemaker in me; something that caught my eye were the mason jar lamps by
             JamJar Lights. Find yourself some low wattage lightbulbs and these handmade lamps could be

             a centrepiece to andy room as well as a visual aid. Pretty and practical? Yes! Affordable? Yes yes.

Also stolen from their website as I was too busy thinking where to put my [future] lamp

                I couldn't escape food for too long though as I accidentlaly-on-purpose bumped into the

                Fat Man Chilli stall which sold my second favourite thing in life; chillis + food:

Here's my delicious Fat Man Chilli sauce! This is the second hottest one they had

which is made with Scotch Bonnets and Rum. The hottest is made with

Tequila. I hate Tequila, otherwise...

                 I could go on for hours talking about all the wonderful stalls that the market showcased but I simply
                 wouldn't have time to do basic, human tasks like wash and eat. Instead take my word from it, have
                 a look on the Spring Market Twitter account for all the businesses that took part and support your

                 local independent!

TWO] Phones in some parts of Birmingham [where we ordered this table cloth from] go 'ZIIIIR ZIIIIR', not
          'Riiing Riiing'. Interesting.

love

STANLEY