London: Surveying and skating in Jolly Old! Summer 2014: Day 42 6/22/14 (NO WORK, haircut, fixing my bike’s seat, going to Birmingham, skating till 1 AM, derping around in Birmingham)

Since we didn’t have any work on Friday, Shoop Emma and I went to Sin on Thursday night. It was SO EPIC. We raged for a good two hours and I managed to get drenched as per usual. They played In too Deep by Sum 41 and it was killer (no filter). One of the best times was when Shoop and I were raging on the mini stage they had and this couple that was making out tried to push him and I off the front of the stage, but I just hip checked them back into the masses. The next day (Friday) was a good day. It started off by going to town to get my haircut and to fix my bike seat. The haircut was at Emma’s hair stylist and it was a pretty quick endeavor. Her hairstylist was pretty nice and enjoyed hearing all of the colloquialisms I carry over from the states. I only paid £5 for the trim! After that I went to the bike shop and borrowed a wrench to tighten up the seat as it was wobbling before. After all of that I went back to the University and met Shoop. He and I walked into town to catch the train to Malvern, and we were walking up to the station as we saw a train roll into the station. We tried to buy tickets quickly to make it upstairs, but sadly we just missed the train. We then had to derp around for an hour before the next train. We bought some lunch and then after a good amount of chilling, the train finally showed up. It was about a 50 minute ride to Birmingham and I napped most of the way there. When we arrived we just walked around the city and saw some of the landmarks and fountains. We saw the art museum and one of the cathedrals in the center of town by the New Street station. After wandering around for a bit we finally saw this one building covered in rings. As we got closer and closer we realized that it was the Birmingham library. This building is nationally known to be one of the cooler places to visit, so Shoop and I had to go inside. We asked the information desk if they had any maps of the city (and they did not) so we just explored around the whole building. There are a total of around 9 floors that you can visit in the library. There are escalators or elevators to most of the floors. The coolest part is that there are blue LEDs lining the escalators which give them a spaceship feel. On the 7^th floor is the “secret garden” which is a terrace with plants and seating where you can see the whole city. After taking some photos and selfies there we moved up to another floor where there is another garden. We then grabbed a glass elevator to the 9^th floor with the Shakespeare room. This is a vintage Victorian style room with many bookcases and so many Shakespeare related items. We could also see out the 9^th floor with amazing views of the city. After the library Shoop and I walked down the canal to find the Tower Ballroom (where the roller skating event was being held). The canal was pretty cool as it wound slowly through the city and had a number of canal boats and restaurants lining the cobblestone pathways.

After walking almost 2 miles we arrived at the Tower, which is located right on the water (this mini lake in the area). The Tower is a nightclub and bar that does roller skating events every 1^st and 3^rd Friday of the month. On the 1^st and 3^rd Saturday nights the place becomes a nightclub. It seems to be in a good area. On the way back to town to find some food, Shoop and I had to help another guy push this old lady’s car onto the curb as her clutch had burned out (she was still there when I walked back several hours later for skating). We walked into town and found this pub which had Brazilian burgers and I had to order one of them. It only cost £8. After eating the burger (and the slab of chicken on top of it) and all the fries, I was still a bit hungry and I ordered a cookie pizza with brownies, vanilla ice cream, marshmallows, chocolate sauce and caramel sauce (£4.99). It was utterly delicious though and after having some of the nachos Shoop bought, I was thoroughly full. After the food I changed into my skate eat sleep shirt and then headed back to the Tower (as the session started at 8 PM). Shoop was originally going to come skating, but he decided that he wanted to go back to Worcester. I headed there alone carrying my plastic convenience store bag (containing my skates) and arrived a little after 8. I at first had to help load this motorcycle into the back of a van because it was getting van-ed home. It was this one black dude, two security guys and I who had to huff the bike into the back of the van. I entered the rink and had to sign a waiver that told me roller skating can be dangerous and that I can fall down. I then paid the £6 admission and went in. I decided to just pay the £2 to store my stuff in the coat room so I would at least have warm dry clothes for after the session. At first I was one of about 10 people in the place and started skating around on the floor. It was a rather small floor with carpeting going to all the wood and then a DJ stage intruding onto the floor on one side. The annoying part is that the floor was not rectangular, but rather rectangular with a bite taken out on one side by the stage. This made skating around quite a bit more difficult especially when there were tons of people skating. At first I was just throwing down stuff in the center of the floor and talking to the same dude that had helped load the bike into the van. After about an hour or so I saw more people had trickled in and there was this one group of skates that were wearing “Roller Revolution” shirts. Eventually I met most of them and they are a great group of dudes passionate about skating in the area. They are mainly from Birmingham, but they skate all around when possible. They were a friendly group to chat with and skate alongside of. In between epic times on the floor I had to go grab water at the bar located near the back of the club. This is the first roller rink I have been to where there is a bar. It was a cool building inside and had the atmosphere of a swanky posh night club. I drank so much water it was ridiculous. I kept hearing about this speed skate that was coming up, but I grabbed a Red Bull at one point around 12 PM or so. I then heard them announce the speed skate and had to chug my Red Bull. Overall the speed skate was some of the best minutes skating I have ever had. One guy took me out as he started skating onto the floor, but I didn’t really care. I could keep up with most of the people there, but I had to do a 8 wheel drift through about 80% of the turns as my wheels didn’t grip the floor. To make up speed I would go off the floor and sprint down the carpet to catch up to people. At about halfway through the speed skate one of the Roller Revolution guys and I went to the center of the floor and he threw down on inlines while I did jam skating. It was honestly like being a celebrity jam skater for about 3 minutes as the people would cheer when I did my tricks. IT WAS EPIC. After the speed skate the energy of the night slowed down and eventually it was 1 AM and the session ended. The music had been a bunch of R&B, but it was generally okay and most people there had been able to skate. I had some god conversations with various people around the rink. After the session I chilled and was the last skater out of the rink. They were pushing out the rental skate bins as I was leaving. One chick there asked me what I was doing and I told her I had to chill in Birmingham until 6:40 AM when my train left for Worcester. She kind of raised her eyebrows and sighed. After the rink I walked back to the main street with all of the clubs. Shoop and I had been there earlier and I had checked out the path to the rink and back. In town I walked around for a while and eventually went into a fast food store called Pitstop and chilled there for several hours until about 3 AM. They had a bathroom which is why I stopped. While there I ate an 8” pizza (chicken and sweetcorn) and a chicken thing wrap (Mediterranean sounding food in between chicken and wrap). The guy at the counter thought I looked “strange” after I had been there quite some time. I was wearing a black daddy-shirt with white stains (sweat) and I had been playing Sudoku on my phone for several hours. I had also been people watching a bit. I decided I wanted to leave at that point and wandered around the various food places and streets. A couple of drunk English guys thought I was delivering Chinese food with my disposable skating bag. After about 4 AM I was pretty cold even with 3 layers so I started walking back toward the library of Birmingham and toward my train. After walking a ways I ended up at a 24 Hr McDonald’s in one of the malls we had walked through. I sat in there and chatted to people on facebook until my phone died and I drank two teas while there (as McDonald’s sells tea here). I enjoyed the tea as it helped warm me up again. At around 5 AM I headed to the train station and after regretting spending and throwing away almost £70 I was in the station again and had to wait for the train at 6:40 AM. This was the longest period of the night and I played a ton of Sudoku on my phone. I later tried to find the cheapest tea in the station (£1.70) and then waited for my train. It finally arrived and I got on there and napped a bit until I woke up because the ticket lady opened the door and bumped my leg with it. After arriving in Worcester I stumbled back to the University after a full night of being awake and skating. No regrets though. Absolutely loved the skating part, not the chilling in Birmingham all night part.