On Saturday, I spent the day in Birmingham while Sarah went to the Bookcrossing Unconvention. I did the following…

I chanced across the Motorcycle Action Group Demo Run entirely by accident - there was a thundering rumble just down the road so I went to investigate. Turns out there were a couple of hundred motorbikes driving through the city centre, then parking up and having a rally in the park. There are a few photos here.

I tried to go to the Sea Life Centre but wasn’t going to pay 12 quid to see some fish. Luckily, just round the corner was the Ikon Gallery which was well worth the visit. The gallery displays the braver end of the art spectrum in a beautiful old building (round towers always do it for me). The displays on Saturday were by Ignasi Aballí and Marcel Dzama.

Ignasi Aballí presented 0-24h, a collection of interesting pieces prompting the old ‘is it art?’ question. Notable pieces include Big Mistake which at first glance appears to be a 4-foot white square on a white wall. It’s only when you read the materials on the notes that you realise he painted a black square on the wall using paint before painstakingly removing it with correction fluid.

There was a whole series called Waste. The most notable made using “The contents of a black ink cartridge and 24 sheets of A4 paper”.

Marcel Dzama’s presentation, Tree with Roots comes highly recommended. As well as some strange, semi-disturbing ink and watercolour work, there were giant fur-fabric bears and other friendly monsters, tiny box-frame dioramas, pages of notes and doodles and also three short films (including a good five minutes straight of kittens).

Then off to the cinema for Over The Hedge - A fun film, nicely animated with plenty of adult content. Erm… let me rephrase that… plenty of content on a suitable level to amuse adults. The caffeine scene (the later one) is just totally inspired.

Food at Big Wok (mmmMMMmmm!) where I also learnt how to make a Scoobie Bracelet, and back home for Big Brother and bed.

Yesterday was a day of lounging around (for me), filling the newly defrosted freezer with veg and things, and then on to the music quiz with Chris and Jenny. Luckily, we changed our name this week from The Penultimates to Squiggle (The Team Formerly Known As The Penultimates) - lucky because we came 5th. I daresay that Chris on his own would have come 6th, but I think we all definitely named at least one song or band he didn’t know!

So… a good weekend!