Earlier in the week, Mr WME had text me to ask if I wanted to go to the Performance Car Show, because his mother had won tickets to the show. As I knew that this show was also part of the Autosport International Show, I jumped at the chance, and so big thanks to Mr WME and more importantly his mother, very big thanks Mrs W, the day out yesterday turned into two days, so this weekend turned into a BOGOF, Buy One Get One Free, two for the price of one, (I could go on and on with these terms!), but anyway I was going to the NEC.
Mr WME also let Mr SBI stay over at his residence as we needed to be at the NEC for 0930am to take our reserved seats at the Fifth Gear show, part of our tickets for the show. So I get up just after 0630am, after enough sleep to allow my aching feet to recover, to get myself ready and go downstairs so that Mr WME can now gain access to his own bedroom so that he can get ready. It is just after 0700am, and we make our way to Wolverhampton so that we can catch our train to get us to the show in time. Seeing as it is early on a Sunday morning, the buses are not running yet and we walk along the main Stafford Road, into the city. It takes us just after thirty minutes to walk into the city, and after walking along the ring road and see how the new bus station is progressing, we arrive at Wolverhampton Railway Station, but upon looking at the departure boards we find out that there are no trains and that the service is being replaced by buses, with the first one arriving at 0845. We did not want to wait for forty-five minutes for the bus to arrive, so Mr WME informs me that The Midland Metro is running. So choices made, we walk towards the Metro terminus at St Georges in Wolverhampton, having a closer look at the new bus station along the way - we also see a picture of the project manager and he sure looks young to be in his position!!
After walking through the city, we arrive at St Georges and it is not long before the tram arrives, and we take our seats ready for our journey into the other Midlands city, Birmingham, where this tram terminates at Snow Hill Railway Station. I have no excuses to get out of travelling on the Metro, as I enjoy any journey on the tram, but just after 0800am on a Sunday morning, I'm not to keen on hearing the voice saying that "The next stop is.......", but I grin and bear it and it is not long before our tram leaves Wolverhampton St Georges, and we are on our way via Priestfields, Bilston Central, Wednesbury, West Bromwich Central and Jewellery Quarter and many other stops, before we arrive at Birmingham Snow Hill. Along the journey, Mr WME and myself keep ourselves entertained by talking about our outing yesterday and the barmaid at The Swan in Chaddersley seems to be the top of the agenda. Mr WME also brings up Lizzie Borden, which I'm getting quite worried about Mr WME's music taste as he also bought up The Little Blue Man in conversation. After some crazy song choices from Mr WME, we arrive at Birmingham Snow Hill, where we walk from the station and down Colmore Row, past Starbucks Coffee in New Street to New Street Station, where after a little wait, we catch our train to Birmingham International.
We arrive at Birmingham International and it is now time to make our way to the halls of the NEC to have a look around The Autosport International and Performance Car Show. We leave the station and turn right for a bit of a walk to the main halls, but it is okay as half the way is a travellator, so it isn't too bad. We didn't make it for the Fifth Gear show, but not too worry as I am more of a Top Gear bloke. We arrive at the show, and we opt for the Autosport International part of the show first. To begin with, we have a walk around the merchandise stalls, and after that we then make our way around the motor sport sales stands. After about 15 minutes we see the new livery for the 2011 Lotus Renault GP (see top left photograph), where the iconic livery which was used on the old Team Lotus makes it return to Formula One - it will be good to see which Lotus team comes out on top for 2011. We carry on having a mooch around the halls and then we come across the McLaren stand with a display of old F1 cars that they have raced over the years. I was pleased to see the MP4-23 (see top centre photograph), the McLaren that Lewis Hamilton raced to net him the Formula One World Drivers Championship in 2008. After a while taking photographs of the McLarens we carry on around the NEC, and we see F1 Racing Magazines display, showing cars which were raced in the 2010 season on their virtual grid (see top right photograph), with cars on display from Lotus, Williams, Force India, Torro Rosso, Jenson Button's MP4-25 the 2009 defending champion car, and the current Formula One Champion, Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull car at the front of the grid. Whilst we were looking at the grid, Martin Brundle was in the background signing autographs for the fans. We had a little break outside of the NEC, which enabled Mr WME to get some photographs of the building.
Break over, we entered the show at The Performance Car Show entrance and had a look at that part of the show, and I had the chance to win a Lotus Racing Bag, worth £300, by entering a survey about the show. We continue to look around the stalls and try to get a few freebies, being handed out by the "Pit Babes" pictured below and also the chance to enter a competition to win tickets for a Grand Prix in the 2011 Formula One Season.
Break over, we entered the show at The Performance Car Show entrance and had a look at that part of the show, and I had the chance to win a Lotus Racing Bag, worth £300, by entering a survey about the show. We continue to look around the stalls and try to get a few freebies, being handed out by the "Pit Babes" pictured below and also the chance to enter a competition to win tickets for a Grand Prix in the 2011 Formula One Season.
After our walk around The Performance Car Show, we decide it is time for lunch, so we go to the J D Wetherspoons that is located at the NEC to rest our legs and have some food. We locate a table to enable us to browse the menu and get a table number to order lunch. We see the prices on the menu, and discover that being located at the NEC has somehow managed to make Wetherspoons raise it's prices considerably, so we decide to hold on for lunch and make our way to Birmingham. We make our way from the halls, back along the travellator, back to the Birmingham International Railway Station. We have about fifteen minutes to wait before our train to the City arrives, and we board the London Midland service to Birmingham New Street for a quick ride back to the city, or so we thought. Along the way there is a problem with an alarm on the train and we are stranded at a station until it is sorted out, which it eventually is and it is not long before we make our way to New Street. We arrive in Birmingham and walk via New Street to J D Wetherspoons public house located in Bennetts Hill, "The Briar Rose", where we both opt for a Beer and a Burger Meal, and a chance for Mr SBI to rest his now aching feet.
We are fed and watered, and decide to make our way back towards Stourbridge, so we pick up our bag of freebies, which Mr WME seems to have hide his bag amongst mine, and make our way to Birmingham Snow Hill. Just before we reach the station, the rain decides to show itself, but we get to the station without being soaked and after a short wait we board our train to Stourbridge Junction. Before the train pulls away, I have downloaded a Google Maps App to my Blackberry, and after noticing that when you open the app, it locates where you are, we spend most of the journey back looking at the phone and seeing the blue dot move along the screen. The train pulls up at Rowley Regis where Mr WME reminisces about Andy running for the train in a Superman style and literally jumping through the doors before they shut. Shortly after, we arrive back at Stourbridge Junction, where we change to the Parry's People Mover to get to Stourbridge Town. Upon arrival, we make our way to the temporary bus stands to catch Service 276A, which is operated by Black Diamond, and it is not long on the bus, where we get off close to Mary Stevens Park, to enable myself to get some cash from the "One Stop" shop. We have a bit of time to kill, so we walk to The Longlands Tavern, in Western Road, a pub that Mr WME had been to before, and wanted to return. We arrive and see that people are in the pub, but the pub is closed, so we head to the other public house that we were going to visit after, which is just literally a stone's throw away in Cleveland Street, "The Garibaldi". We head to the pool room part of the pub, where Mr WME gets his wish, it is time for darts. Remembering that when we tried playing before that we weren't that good, we decide to play "101", and after a few hits of the wall, instead of the board, we get down to the stage of hitting doubles to win the game. After a few attempts and getting no where, we decide just to score the points rather than doubles. After the four matches, Mr WME wins with the score being 3-1, and he even finished one game with a fluke score of 38!!!
We have an hour before we get to meet Mr UK Buses, so we head along Clifton Street and go to "The New Inns", in Cherry Street. We order our drinks and sit down to rest Mr SBI's even more aching feet (see picture left), whilst looking through the latest copy of "Ales and Tales", CAMRA's local magazine. We have a bit of relaxing time here, where we are keeping ourselves warm next to the fire. We have a chat about our time out over the weekend, and we both agree that our public house over the weekend was "The Swan" in Chaddersley Corbett, both for friendliness and the bar staff and her dress!! Not long to go, so we get ourselves ready for our little trip up South Road, to make our way to meet up with Mr UK Buses.
It only takes us about five minutes to get to "The Old White Horse", which is still known locally as "The Harvester", even though this hasn't been one for about three years and is now owned by "Crown Carveries". We happen to make it in time ans see Mr UK Buses at the bar, so due to his unfortunate timing and good timing by Mr WME and myself, it is his turn to buy the round!!!! After Mr UK Buses wallet has an heart attack, we sit down at the bar and say our hello's properly. It is not long before a table is spotted empty, so we sit down more comfortably, and chat about the weekend, and Mr UK Buses tells us of his visit down to London (Wembley Stadium), to see the Snooker Masters Championships, and asked us if we saw him on the TV. After finishing our drinks we head across the road to "The Plough and Harrow", where we have a lovely seat right next to the burning fire and carry on our conversation and about our planned weekend away to Weymouth in the summer. We have another round of drinks and a cheers photo (See picture right), and then make our way back to "The Old White Horse" for a very quick half before Mr UK Buses gets a lift back home and Mr WME and myself catch the 276C back to town. We make our way to the stand and see that Mr WME's Diamond Bus is awaiting for his Service 256 back to Wolverhampton, but my Service 276A arrives beforehand, which I catch to get back home and rest my aching feet for the rest of the evening.
Another good day out, which completes our fantastic weekend. Not long to go before our first 2011 trip for the WARP's.
We are fed and watered, and decide to make our way back towards Stourbridge, so we pick up our bag of freebies, which Mr WME seems to have hide his bag amongst mine, and make our way to Birmingham Snow Hill. Just before we reach the station, the rain decides to show itself, but we get to the station without being soaked and after a short wait we board our train to Stourbridge Junction. Before the train pulls away, I have downloaded a Google Maps App to my Blackberry, and after noticing that when you open the app, it locates where you are, we spend most of the journey back looking at the phone and seeing the blue dot move along the screen. The train pulls up at Rowley Regis where Mr WME reminisces about Andy running for the train in a Superman style and literally jumping through the doors before they shut. Shortly after, we arrive back at Stourbridge Junction, where we change to the Parry's People Mover to get to Stourbridge Town. Upon arrival, we make our way to the temporary bus stands to catch Service 276A, which is operated by Black Diamond, and it is not long on the bus, where we get off close to Mary Stevens Park, to enable myself to get some cash from the "One Stop" shop. We have a bit of time to kill, so we walk to The Longlands Tavern, in Western Road, a pub that Mr WME had been to before, and wanted to return. We arrive and see that people are in the pub, but the pub is closed, so we head to the other public house that we were going to visit after, which is just literally a stone's throw away in Cleveland Street, "The Garibaldi". We head to the pool room part of the pub, where Mr WME gets his wish, it is time for darts. Remembering that when we tried playing before that we weren't that good, we decide to play "101", and after a few hits of the wall, instead of the board, we get down to the stage of hitting doubles to win the game. After a few attempts and getting no where, we decide just to score the points rather than doubles. After the four matches, Mr WME wins with the score being 3-1, and he even finished one game with a fluke score of 38!!!
Another good day out, which completes our fantastic weekend. Not long to go before our first 2011 trip for the WARP's.
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