Date: 2008-02-04
To: Ironbridge
Miles today: 0.0

We were up early and we went off to Gills dentist, she is having trouble with her wisdom teeth, it was located in Cradley Heath. I sat in the waiting area and talked to some of the patients, everyone is far more chatty up in these rural country areas, although Birmingham does have a population of 2 million, being Englands second biggest city. The people at reception yell out the customers name, and then tell them to turn left down the hall, climb the stairs and go to room 5. The patients are nervous, and often ask questions to clarify the directions. I prefer it in Australia where you are collected by someone with a big smile who says come this way Mr Perrett. Although for each consultation Gill only has to pay 15 pound, and to be knocked out and have the teeth extracted it only costs less than 50 pound, My God that is cheap, yet Gill was compaining that she even has to pay at all. We ventured off to see the balckcountry museum but it was shut. So it was an hours drive to Blists Hill Living Museum which is located in Shropshire. The Black country is the home of the Industrial Revolution, hence how it got its name, as the sky was always black and so were the buildings. Today it still has a very dark feel about it, but all the industry has long since finished.Blists Hill was very similar to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. We entered each of the small displays, and talked to many of the people running the displays. Some of the people, in fact all of the people were very strange. It is winter here so I must be one of only a handful of tourists, so most things are very quiet and not very crowded which is great for me. Each person that we bumped into seemed to have so much time to talk, and it was impossible to escape their grip as they told you all about the Victorian era. It was a great day and highly entertaining, and the eccentric english made it all the more enjoyable. The excitement of the man operating the press, or the man making rocking horses was very infectious. We had dinner at the pub on site, and I ventured downstairs and had my first English beer. It was both warm and flat, but I still drank it all, there were two men singing and playing the piano.In the afternoon we went off to see the Iron Bridge it was the first bridge made out of iron, all bridges before that were made drom stone or wood. This was a major break through and engineers and architects came from all over the world to look at this bridge and marvel. It is located in a steep sided valley and it would have to be the most beautiful town we have been to yet. The old buildings are built right along the river and up the valley walls. The brick work is incredible, and the detail in the windows, and the style of the old slate roofs gives the place such a unique feel. You simply could not build the shops, houses and churches like this anymore as it would cost far too much, and I am not sure that we would have the skills anymore. My camera was once again working over time.It had been another full day, and once again I was exhausted. It is so hard to describe everything that we did, as we did so much. Gill was highly entertaining, she is your typical English rose, incredibly polite and well mannered, and perfectly groomed. She fits perfectly into her surrounds, talking with a very posh English accent. When she drives me around all of a sudden a car might cut her off, and the whole butter whould not melt in my mouth routine rapidly changes as words such as you fucking dick, get out of my way, come spilling out of her mouth. Everytime she did it I could not help but laugh and laugh, it was so out of character, but very entertaining.On the way home we found a nice pub and it was another nice meal, they do not have chicken parmigiana, or chicken shnitzel, I know, hard to imagine. The food was great and it was another early night.I certanly owe Gill, she planned a wonderful trip and there was no way we could have fitted anything else in, she is one of the most organised people I have come across. All I had to do was wake up in the morning and get out of bed, she had the rest covered, I even gave her my clothes and they came back washed and folded. She drove me around everywhere, refused me to let me pay for things, and would shout my dinner at the pub. My aunties keep telling me that i would never find women of this type in life, but I just seem to keep finding them...LOL. Gill made my time in the West Midlands a great experience, and anytime she would like to come to Victoria she is most welcome. Why am I talking in the third person for.