No Respect For The Dead.

Yesterday, myself and some friends went to Birmingham, for her birthday meal. She is a big fan of Ozzy Osborne.

So, we decided to kill two birds with one stone.

We went on the train. The train there was packed, way too full with lots of kids as it is the school holidays. There were also lots of prams, we didn’t book seats so we all had to stand, I didn’t mind. There was a man in an electric wheelchair, as the train pulled up, ready waiting was the rail Staff with the fold in half metal ramp. The man went up into the train with ease. I was impressed.

When we arrived in Birmingham, the escalator was out of order, so we all had to use the little lift. It only takes 12 adults, we all piled in, and while I was in there, I said, “Years ago, I would not have done this, gone into a packed lift, or a lift at all, for I had a fear of them.”

We saw the HUGE metal bull inside the station, called Ozzy. I was very impressed with the station. Lots of places to eat and lots of places to sit down and eat your own food, and rest, or get ready to either catch your train back or before you hit the city!

It was a lovely day yesterday, we walked through the city, it has beautiful, has smart looking buildings, lots to see, I took lots of photos even before we went to the meal. I was SO impressed!

We went to the meal, I had never heard of the restaurant before, Shona chose it.

In a short time, we were at the restaurant. It was SO lovely, I went to the loo first, to wash my hands, the loo was lovely too. Lovely pictures in there and in the restaurant. I took pictures in there and in the main room.

We looked at the menu and chose our meals, a cake was brought with us, so that the staff could bring it in at the end with the sparkling candle.

Two in our group had cocktails. When all the drinks arrived, we were shocked at the, the price of the two different prices of them. Each of us paid for our own meals. The one cocktail cost a stagging £15.50! The other cost £12.50, you can tell we don’t get out very often! They told us, “Other places cocktails cost more than that.”

The meals all arrived together, they looked wonderful! I took a photo of mine, and one of the cocktail drinks. I asked for, “Tomato ketchup,” Others asked for, “Mayo and BBQ,” sauces. We all tucked in and did small talk. It was a wonderful atmosphere. While we ate, others came in, and not only was the presentation for our meals lovely, so were theirs.

After we had all finished, we heard on the Tannoy, “Happy Birthday,” In a different style genre, that I hadn,t heard before, in line with the restaurant. Shona loved the firework looking candle, as we all sang, “Happy Birthday,” As we videoed it on our mobiles. The lovely Staff asked, “Would you like to eat it now?” Shona said, “Would it be possible for you to cut it up for us all and wrap them in a napkin each?” The staff said, “No problem.” I decided I would have mine with custard later.

I took a few more pictures of the pictures from the restaurant walls, before we left.

The weather was beautiful, we walked slowly enjoying the amazing city, the different buildings fascinated me, and I had to take more and more pictures. We saw many mini bulls, all different with bright colours, I had to take pictures of them too, they were called, “Bulls in the City.” There was also a plaque that explained it was a trail that could be joined and hunted, for the others. I saw many different ones as we walked around the city, it was exciting. Live large posters showed the English flag with the words, “Queens of Europe.” We passed, a large circle called, “The Hall of Memory,” And below when we looked down, we saw in the distance, children playing table tennis, safely and there too we saw many other coloured mini bulls. The library building was fantastic. There is a stunning statue of three men in brilliant gold! I did wonder if they were covered in real gold, surely not! They were Matthew Boulton, James Watt, and William Murdoch! They were called, “The Golden Boys,” With a plaque next to the statues and pictures of them, dates, and information about them. It was nice to see them, nor anything in the city not covered in graffiti. There was no litter. I noticed the bins, for I remembered years ago with bombs, I had heard that they had stopped bins there. These trendy metal bins looked the part, as they were in the city now with the top of each bin, also thick metal, but fixed with a five-inch gap, for any rubbish, to I assumed that limited what could be placed in the bins. I felt safe there, I felt like a tourist, as I took my many pictures, so were others too. The people who live there, must just take it all for granted. There were even stars on the paths, I took a picture of the Royal Ballet Birmingham, most of them I didn’t know. There was even a statute of Queen Victoria. There was a huge statue sitting back with legs crossed, with a bird on its head. I wasn’t sure, if the bird was part of the statue or not, as I had to keep up with the others, I didn’t want to get lost! There was a smallish building, that seemed to have statues with a water theme. There was a poster of Jon Jones, and information about him and, Peaky Blinders gang, next to them, were large beautiful black and white posters of faces, by artists. Lots of things around the city, were to support the Children’s hospital in Birmingham and the Birmingham hospice.

We then came to the second main reason why we travelled to Birmingham. To see the floral tributes to Ozzy Osborne.

We first went to Black Sabbath Bridge. It was a solemn, respectful place. There were many floral tributes, messages cards, candles, there were many hearts shaped helium ballons, even black ballons with the word Ozzy on in white words. There were pictures in frames, and hand drawn pictures of Ozzy and football shirts.  

The tributes were all behind a square shaped, bright yellow barriers, so that the public couldn’t walk up to all of them. There was a security guard there, and for those who had items to be placed there, they would give it to him, and he asked them, “Where would you like it?” The person with the gift, would point to a section and he would go behind the low barrier and put it where they had said, by saying, “Here?” They would say, “Yes.” There were all different people there, paying their respects to Ozzy, all ages, and nationalities. Young children were there too with their parents. I am not a fan, I could not tell you one song that he sang, nor Black Sabbath, but a man had died, and like everyone I too paid my respects.

Shona had brought her small bouquet of black roses; she went up to the security guard and gave them to him. He said to her, “Where would you like me to put them?” She pointed to the front of the tributes, he went behind the barrier, and said, “Would you like them here?” She said, “Yes.” He was doing a great job, he too was respectful, and as soon as he placed her roses, he came back out, so people could carry on taking their photos and videos of the shrine.

We stayed there about ten to fifteen minutes, then we moved on to the next tribute to Ozzy.

It was a free hand mural, sprayed of Ozzy and the band on a long wall. On either side, was a plaque with a signature of Ozzy on the wall. It was on this plaque on either side; two different fans had placed a silver cross on. There were floral tributes here too, but it was the two beautiful crosses that caught my attention, I thought, fancy leaving that there, and I also thought were there more than two crosses? I thought, would someone, in the night come and steal them? Someone who has no respect for the dead? I would like to think, no some people might have no morals, but with all the cameras in the city, they would be foolish to try. It was a beautiful tribute.

We then walked to The Crown pub, that was an awesome place, it was a large pub, and had large panels all around it, in each panel was a large photo of who I assumed were members of Black Sabbath, when they were young in the band. On the large photo of a very good-looking man, underneath were floral tributes, and a picture of Ozzy. That was how I guessed it was him, and when I looked, I could see it was him. Shona said, “They played there with other bands, who also became famous later.” I took a picture of the young Ozzy, and thought of his grieving wife. We stayed there about ten minutes, and talked in low voices. Shona then wanted another drink.        

Then after we left there, and we went to a very large pub near the train station, it was that close to the station, that it had huge train times of all the trains around the room, so we would not miss our train. We had a final drink before we caught the train, Siobhan, showed us all the video of the artist painting the mural on the wall.                                                                   

On the train back, a different person was waiting to catch the train, she was in her electric wheelchair, and once again, the staff was fantastic with their strong fold in half metal ramp. We all let her get on first, then we went on. We all got seats, but many others had to stand. It was good to sit down, Cera, said, “We have walked five miles today,” I could well believe it! we chatted and yawned on the way home. I was looking forward to my birthday cake with custard and then some well earned kip on the sofa.

When we arrived back home at the station, we hugged and went our separate ways.

Back home, I enjoyed my large slice of birthday cake with lovely hot custard, I ate it slowly. I had decided, that with all the calories I had consumed that day, I would not eat anything else until the next day, not even a banana.

I then reflected on the long day that we had all had, it was a bitter sweet day with celebrating Shona’s birthday meal and looking at all the Ozzy Osbornes tributes. I had learnt a lot about him, that I didn’t know, and was in awe of the beautiful city of Birmingham.

I had the telly on, and started to write about it, and a film that I had never seen came on the telly, ‘Funny Girl,’ it was a film I had always wanted to watch, staring Barbra Streisand, I thought, will I be able to stay awake and watch it to the end? Heck no! I saw the start and woke up about thirty minutes from the end. There were two fab songs the first one I saw that I knew was “Don’t Rain On My Parade” WOW, how fab is that song. And a fab song I had not heard before, called “My Man.” I then read up on Fanny Brice.

Before I went up to bed, I thought of Ozzy’s wife and children.

Rest in Peace Ozzy.