Watty's been to Birmingham:

I was led there under false pretences. I was supposed to be attending an exhibition / trade show on 'Storage Solutions'. When I got there (there being the Birmingham Botanical Gardens), I was slightly surprised to be urgently escorted into the conference session despite not having paid for it. It was only just the right side of 'dull and uninteresting', and I resolved to get out and go round the exhibition as soon as I could politely excuse myself. The exhibition turned out to be six people sat behind tables in a room dominated by tea and biscuits, and almost entirely uninteresting. I made my excuses and left. Actually, I didn't. I just left. This was, apparently 'The (their italics) event for IT professionals'. Harumph.

So what does one do when stranded in Birmingham for the best part of a day? Well, I went and bought a sandwich, trundled over to see 'the best bookshop in the midlands' -(heaven help the rest of the midlands), and parked alongside the runway at Coventry airport, watching small aircraft struggling with the weather, while I wrote a long overdue and much needed training programme. So a not entirely wasted day, thankfully.

And then I drove home through a magnificent hail-and-thunderstorm, listening to Verdi's Requiem; 'Dies Irae' seemed hugely appropriate as the road disappeared under water...

Oh, and The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is a weird place to hold a trade show.