TLDR – three nights in Birmingham UK for the largest Penny’s / Primark in the world, Costco and Taco Bell. The first flight of 2024 for the MillFam
Let’s go
Wila arrived around 0720; she’s staying at the house watching Chief. Allie arrived at 1000 to collect Penny – Mila acted like a mother leaving her baby for the first time. Huge overnight bag, care manual, treats. The whole 9. It’s something to watch Mila with her Penny and see how she might be as a mother. All out the door around 1100 headed for the airport.
With time to kill, we stopped at IKEA on the way for lunch: chicken and chips. Michelle reserved us an airport parking spot Online at the red lot. The only open section we found was in zone Z, like 3km from where we started. It is a short bus ride walk later we arrive at the airport. First flight of 2024 for us. We won the security line selection game, choosing one of the two 3D scanners where nothing needs to come out of your bag. Brilliant. We usually need 6 bins for the electronics plus that many for bags. One iPad or laptop for each kid, phones, laptops, wires, etc. Not today, we left it all in the bags. Even with the mega scanner 4 out of our 6 bins selected for random checks was still faster. – excited for this tech to end up everywhere!
Birmingham
Maddex somehow managed to misplace his Apple Pencil at the airport while we were sitting waiting for the plane. He never got up from his seat—and still managed to lose it. A 45-minute flight later, we arrived to find a train strike. Finally, we were at an airport with a train service, but the trains were not running today. We took a taxi into the city because we could not be bothered to work out something else.
The keys to our flat were waiting for us in a Texaco station a few blocks away. We unpacked then set off for food to eat and stock the flat kitchen. Collected food at a Sanasberry and a Tesco. Back at our flat, we ended the day setting up and relaxing. – Flat address -City Heights, 85 Old Snow Hill, West Midlands, England B4 6HW, United Kingdom – Going to try to include addresses for future refrence.
Costco and Primark
Thursday our first stop is the thing that brought us here, the Primark in the city center. We arrived as it opened and set off shopping. Maddex and I purchased a few pairs of jogging pants and a shirt for him. We shop quickly, leave the shop and set off to explore the high street. The girls spent more time shopping, finding more stuff. Eventually, we met up and explored some more. Had some boba before heading back to the flat for a rest and a fashion show
Plan for the second half of the day was Costco and Taco Bell a 45 minute walk away along a canal. Here is where I made a minor navigational mistake. About 50 minutes into the walk, I checked the navigation again; somehow, it’s 45 minutes to Costco now. Not sure what we missed, but dammit, it’s hot out – not the best day to get lost.
None of the kids complained much about getting lost, or the heat, or running to of water – we powered on and kept walking. Took about 95 minutes for the 45-minute walk. At the end of the walk, we found a Taco Bell; Excited !! Khaleesi is trying to establish a legend with her eating. She ate four hard tacos and two soft-shell tacos some drink and sides. She is a taco-eating machine.
Costco didn’t have goldfish or many samples, but they did have red vines and laffy taffy. To make up for getting lost we caught a taxi back to our flat for showers and a rest. We can’t forget the dancing. The girls were learning the Boots Fell Off dance song. The song became our theme song for the trip as they kept singing it while doing the dance
Friday
Friday was more walking around the city shopping, kababs for lunch for Maddex, Roxi, and me while Mom, Mila and Khaleesi went out shopping more. Escape room for Maddex, Pizza for dinner, then a nice easy night with some screens.
Headed home
Maddex and I are awake at 0500 am every day, trying to be quiet in bed while everyone else is sleeping. Everyone else wakes around 0730. Today is packing day. Things I had to yell today I shake my head at “Stop eating your watch band” — Maddex’s response “But it’s tasty”.
On the train to the airport, the Voice of the intercom tells us the train is no longer going to the airport due to police action. The train is going around the airport. We’ll need to catch another train to the airport from our diverted location – come on trains! Happy days; glad we left early for the airport.
We made it to some random spur train station, where we were told to take a bus to Covington, where a train might be able to deliver us to the airport. Nope, gold bars, We hired a car for 45£ to drive us to the airport. We made it to the airport, spent way too much on Burger King, waited a bit, and eventually boarded the plane on time, destined for home.
