Birmingham, Revisited

I made my second trip to Birmingham yesterday, for exactly the same purposes as my first. The primary differences being that this time I was all by myself and there in the morning, instead of the afternoon. The train on the way there was absolutely packed, another standing room only situation. What I don't understand is why Virgin (who operates the trains on that line) insists on having 4 first class carriages and 5 standard class carriages, including one half taken up by the food stand. I couldn't imagine people having to stand in the first class carriages, where, by the way, the tables come pre-set with wine glasses. Don't ask me how practical that is on a train that tilts going around corners, but alas, such is the case.

My taxi driver en route to the meeting locale took a different route than all the others, which seemed silly as the cab far was nearly £4 cheaper this way, but it was especially monumental as along this route we passed a Costco. I practically did a little dance in my seat. Now I can't help but wonder how many of these little Costco jewels they have hidden in this country. For example, is there one near me. As it is, I am currently mentally debating whether or not it would be worthwhile to start going to the one in Birmingham. I also can't help but wonder how large their boxes of tea are...

After the meeting, I went back to the train station only to run into one of the Chinese girls from my course in Southampton, who was apparently about to head off somewhere by train. It's a very odd thing for me, given the number of people I know in this country, to randomly run into someone like that. Oh, and it was around this time that I unfortunately discovered that some where along the lines of the day I had lost my phone. So don't call me. Given the age of that phone and the fact that it seemed to be bordering on imminent breakage, this does not so much bother me, really it's just a nice excuse to get a new phone. I'm going to go back to Orange, my initial UK provider. I had switched to vodafone as they got service in the Southampton library while Orange didn't, but I don't go there anymore and you can get 2 for 1 movie tickets on Wednesdays, so it's just common sense!