Posts Tagged ‘ animals ’

Friday Photo by Karen Strunks

Who wouldn’t want to meet this handsome fella? Pop along to Birmingham Nature Centre and you can meet all his friends too! It’s a great family day out and there are lots of wonderful photo opportunities there, but good luck trying to get a glimpse of the elusive red pandas. The meerkats are particularly entertaining, especially around feeding time. It’s open every day of the year and there is a small admission charge, but if you are a senior citizen, student or Passport to Leisure holders you get a discount and children under 5 enter free. The Nature Center is just two miles from Birmingham City Centre. Buses 45 & 47 run past it, and there is car parking too (via the Midlands Arts Centre). Grab your coat and scarf and friends and family and enjoy an afternoon with some wonderful furry, and not so furry creatures. Have a great weekend :)

The planning a application for the Chamberlain Square beach is now up on the Council Site (can’t do direct links, you have to go here and search for “C/01989/09/BCC” — its number): Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch! Read that through again: “Temporary installation of summer beach area with accompanying flora and fauna“. Flora and fauna. Fauna, “the animal life of any particular region” (Wikipedia). Other than the ice cream polar bear: and the croc: what are we getting? Live animals, hmmm (or maybe a cliché used to sound clever without understanding it?, we’ve all done it) — I vote GIANT FOXES.

Kong (2), originally uploaded by allybeag. The old statue of King Kong that people in Birmingham periodically decide they miss is still towering over markets the length and breadth of the country. allybeag on Flickr has found him in Penrith. She’s even done the research that I’m too hungover to attempt: “He was designed by one Nicholas Munro in 1972, and made his first public appearance at the Manzoni Gardens near Birmingham’s Bull Ring Shopping Centre, where he stood for about 6 months before being sold to a local car dealer by the name of Carl Racey. Mr Racey changed the name of his business to King Kong Motors and displayed the statue at his premises at the Camp Hill Flyover. Not long after this, however, Mr Racey sold the statue to Spook Erection, a company that organises various street markets, and in particular, the infamous and sadly-missed Ingliston Market just outside Edinburgh. Here he stood for maybe 30 years, providing a useful focal point for lost children, until the market closed down, leaving many of his fans wondering what had happened to him: there were even suggestions that he’d been melted down! I was delighted to find him...

Felix the cat food are staging a marketing campaign at the moment, not only were they projecting paw prints in the middle of the night onto Brum landmarks and buying a wrap-around in the Birmingham News free paper they were dressed up as cats with placards outside the Council House today. Unusualy the placards weren’t decrying Single Status, but proclaiming Felix’s candidacy for Birmingham mayor. Now, despite the best efforts of the Mail, Brum doesn’t directly elect its mayor. So: Do Felix’s advertising agency not know that, unlike London, most cities have an honourary mayor voted for by the council? Do they know, but don’t think we know? Mind you, with the media coverage, a lot of people round here probably think they’ve got to vote for Ken or yellow slapheadman. Are they petitioning the council to recognise Felix for his long service in Brum’s council chambers? Or had they just got a big campaign worked out for London and couldn’t be arsed to even slightly ammend for Brum? I think I know the answer, and I’m not being catty ;)

Brummie of the Year 2005 Babu the red panda is off to Scotland. He’s had his head turned by a woman, Tensing is to be joined at the Nature Centre by a panda called Raka. Sniff.

Badger Medical Centre?, originally uploaded by judyboo. If its ever worried you, BADGER stands for Birmingham and District General Practitioner Emergency Rooms, unfortunately.

Recent Comments

Archives

Is Brum Happy?

Birmingham's emotional wellbeing* on Saturday 11th of February 2012 12:07: 60.4 % (okay)

Posts Tagged ‘ animals ’

Friday Photo by Karen Strunks

Animals!

Kong lives

Cats like Felix like local politics

Firefox off

Badger Medical Centre?

@onBirmingham – Breaking Brum News on Twitter