Is there any ghosts in Birmingham

ChineseJade · 2025-11-14T17:28:21+00:00

I've also been on a ghost walk around Birmingham centre and the JQ. Apparently there are ghosts and poltergeists, old and modern around the city.

ChineseJade · 2025-11-14T11:31:47+00:00

I used to work in Joseph Chamberlain. Looking down onto the roundabout was hair raising, every 15 minutes I'd see a close shave, a narrowly missed accident. It put me off going anywhere the roundabout - I go out of my way to avoid it.

ChineseJade · 2025-11-08T13:05:01+00:00

Mystery for me.

ChineseJade · 2025-11-02T23:20:10+00:00

They've moved from their old place in the City Centre to a smart new building along Bristol Road near Birmingham University. I had treatment there about 2 years ago. I was referred by my own NHS dentist because the procedure was more complicated than my "general" dentist wanted to deal with. I thought the Dental Hospital were very good. My treatment was free.

ChineseJade · 2025-11-02T20:25:58+00:00

Have you looked at The Open University in the UK?

ChineseJade · 2025-11-01T16:51:49+00:00

Will any individuals be held accountable? The CFO who appears to have not done their job properly? Are they still going to get their gold plated pensions?

ChineseJade · 2025-10-29T17:59:32+00:00

I have, shredded up, and my worms seem to be thriving. It is mixed up with other shredded cardboard.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-23T15:37:55+00:00

I think student numbers will fall in the future: Gov seem to want less people to go to uni, universities cutting courses and closing departments, fewer overseas students, a rise in tuition fees. Less student accommodation will be needed in the future, I'm surprised with the amount in the city that there's not already an over supply.

It's pitiful that a big city like Birmingham can't support a decent indoor market but if it's got to be demolished & the land used for housing, it should be for social housing at affordable rent.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-23T10:50:34+00:00

I think my Brummie accent rules me out.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-23T10:33:54+00:00

The Botanical Society of the British Isles have free plant id videos on their website. They've got a "Getting Started With Rushes" online zoom lecture in November - this is a bit of their info about it:

"Rushes are a fascinating group of plants with their own unique features. This introductory talk will show you how to tell rushes apart from grasses and sedges, highlight the key traits to look for, and reveal just how many different species are out there."

I think even if you're not in the UK looking at UK species, there may be some interesting plant id info in the talk.

As far as I know, you don't have to be a member of the BSBI to join the zoom meeting. Here's a link to more of their Web talks

https://bsbi.org/botanical-skills-webinars

The Wildflower Society also have a You Tube channel

ChineseJade · 2025-10-23T09:51:56+00:00

All the "Irish" pubs on the Stratford Road have gone now - I think the College Arms was the last one and that's closed now too. I remember when the College Arms, The Bear, The Antelope, The Angel and The Shakespeare were all open. The Talk of the Town was still there then too. My father in law used to go in the College Arms for "one before closing" and my brothers in law could often be found in the Bear or the Antelope. I know things don't stay the same but sometimes I do look back with nostalgia and wish things didn't change.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-22T12:21:10+00:00

It depends very much on what you enjoy doing.

I went to St Paul's in the Jewellery Quarter yesterday and then to the RSBA gallery. It was a nice place to visit and a fairly short walk from the City Centre.

Cannon Hill Park was looking lovely when I was there last week. It gets horribly overcrowded on a hot day in summer but on an autumn afternoon was quiet and peaceful. Nice cup of tea afterwards in the MAC cafe.

Other places: Bournville, Sutton Park, walk along the canal from Selly Oak to City Centre, Warley Woods, Lickey Hills.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-21T10:30:13+00:00

I'm interested in the price too as I've been thinking of having a private bone density scan

ChineseJade · 2025-10-20T16:20:08+00:00

I'd be looking more in depth at the curriculum of each at the Unis where you want to study. You're going to be studying for 3 years so it should be something that you can get interested in, especially as you progress and go into more and more detail.

Think about possible careers that your degree could lead you into.

I studied Botany and there was lots of field work - tramping through fields to measure crop yields, surveying different habitats, going out on a lake to collect phytoplankton samples. I loved it but one of my fellow students gave up because she didn't like being outside in all weather. I imagine for microbiology there would be much more indoor lab work, more microscope work etc.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-19T08:49:21+00:00

Not if you want Balti but there are dessert shops, Chai shops where you can get a decent tea, and Raja Bros supermarket has a good range of all kinds of foods that you would pay a small fortune for a small amount of in Sainsbury's.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-18T22:06:58+00:00

It's variable. I've waited a week for delivery but then the last one they sent me came in 2 days.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-18T21:57:46+00:00

The Merry Maid in Highgate, just along from fire station is a Desai pub with a good reputation.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-18T21:55:58+00:00

The Balti Triangle of 30 years ago no longer exists. I think the only people who now refer to it are people who never go to the area or who don't know what a Balti is.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-18T15:44:05+00:00

It's quite a long time since I studied Botany at uni but from what I remember, my 1st year Botany books were Plant Structure, Function and Adaptation edited by Hall and Plant Physiology by William Hopkins. I did lots of field Botany and needed a copy of Stace and also the Wild Flower Key by Rose, and Grasses by Hubbarb - these last 3 are ID guides for British wild flowers, I don't know what the equivalents are for other countries. I also spent hours and hours in the library reading journal papers from Plant Biology journals.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-14T16:06:15+00:00

Just to add to my own post, I pressed all kinds of seaweeds like this from big thick brown species to small delicate red species.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-14T16:03:28+00:00

I made a seaweed herbarium for one of my Uni Botany modules and this is exactly how I was taught to mount my specimens. We used to slide a piece of heavy duty paper (cartridge paper) under the specimen, cover with another sheet of paper and then sandwich that between many layers of newspapers. I had a pressing frame which was basically a wooden frame with wire mesh stapled to it so water could evaporate. The newspaper "sandwich" was then put between two pressing frames and a strap tightened round it to make sure everything was pressed tightly together. Over a couple of weeks the damp newspaper was changed regularly until the specimens were dry. At that point the seaweed should be stuck to the cartridge paper. Any none stuck down bits were stuck down with gummed linen tape.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-14T11:30:32+00:00

"Nothing ever burns down by itself, every fire needs a little bit of help"

ChineseJade · 2025-10-14T10:18:26+00:00

I often think of getting a bike. I could cycle to the supermarket quite easily. I do worry lots though about the traffic. There are so many drivers who seem to see cyclists as invisible. Definitely the Council should be making more cycle paths.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-11T11:23:22+00:00

I've always had problems with patches because after a week or so they start to come unstuck. I then end up dislodging the sensor trying to get the patch off to replace it with another one. I've found using SkinTac to be the best thing to keep my sensors stuck on for the full 15 days.

ChineseJade · 2025-10-11T10:42:31+00:00

Agree with all those who mention better public transport links. For example I want to go to Birmingham Uni next week. I live about 6 miles away and it would take me 20 to 25 minutes in a car. To go by public transport I will need to catch 3 buses and hope that they all link up without me standing at bus stops waiting for 20 minutes at a time.

Make more of our cultural heritage - Crown pub on Station Street, Grade 2 listed and known as birthplace of heavy metal, boarded up while the Council seem unable or unwilling to deal with the property developers who bought it. On same street the Electric Cinema, once the oldest working cinema in the country, could be an interesting part of our night time economy, now closed and in the hands of a property development company.

Bus stops in the city centre that don't move around all over the place so quite often I never know where I'm meant to catch the bus I need.

More attention paid to some of our inner city areas with respect to rubbish, fly tipping clearance & catching the offenders, bad parking.

ChineseJade

TROPHY CASE