#brownhills

Verve Poetry Open Door (Open mic, 3rd Tuesday of every month)

Crafty Ladies (Brownhills Community Centre), Mondays 1-3 pm

Zumba Gold (Collingwood Community Centre Aldridge), Mondays 10-11am, 11:30am-12:30pm, Wednesday 11:30am-12:30pm, Thursdays 7pm-8pm (3.50 per class)

Salsa (Collingwood Centre Great Barr), Tuesdays 7pm (1 pound for the first class then 10 pound for 2)

Birmingham Writers Group (Shakti Women in Avebury House, 55 Newhall Street B3 3RB), first Wednesday of every month 6-8pm

Improv Box of Frogs Comedy Jam (1000 Trades Birmingham), Last Wednesday of every month 7:15-9:30pm

Speak Your Mind Writers Group + optional open mic afterwards (Britten Street Redditch B97 6HD), first Wednesday of every month 5:30 - 6:30pm

Bollywood &Bhangra Fusion Dance (Sovereign Studios, Sovereign Studios Western House, Western Rd, Hockley, Birmingham B18 7QD, UK) – Tuesdays 7-8pm and 8-9pm

Bollywood Dancing at Aaja Nachle, George Salter Academy, West Brom. Tuesdays 7-8pm (choreo for showcase, buy monthly subscription in advance) + Fridays 7-8pm (casual, different song every week)

Arts and Craft at Aaina Hub Walsall, Wednesday 10-12

Press Books & Coffee: cosy club - for writing, reading or crafting together, £5 (check pressbooksandcoffee Instagram). They also do various writing workshops, book clubs etc

Live music with "the hottest young bands from the region" at Newhampton (Wolverhampton) Arts Centre, 2nd Friday every month 7:30pm, £5 in advance or £6 at the door

Eventbrite offers various Sip&Paint experiences, check regularly for different paintings

Silent book club Events: fiction book club, first Wednesday every month, Waterstones Birmingham café upstairs, 6pm /// poetry mornings (workshop + book club), second Sunday every month, 10am

Groups that offer events (Instagram): girls.get.social, pressandbookscoffee, lonelygirlsclub, spaceforgirls, silentbookclub, girlsonthego

Nightlife:

O'Neills Broad Street: live music Fri+Sat 8-10pm

Regular Day time discos at Snobs & Popworld https://www.popworldparty.co.uk/birmingham/28-06-2025/popworld-birmingham-bopit-disko-broadst

Bongo Bingo: getting pissed up / entertainment + bingo

Rosies sat2days 8pm-4am all drinks £2

Daytime discos: Reflex, Popworld, Snobs. 3-9pm on Saturdays

Yearly

London book fair (March)

Wolverhampton Litfest (Januar)

Bi Pride (September)

EveryBody festival? (Thisiseverybody.co.uk), Nudefest, NKD Festival with British Naturism?

Book shops

- Waterstones

- Voce books

- Foyles inside the Station (to relax in the sensory corner)

- The heath book shop

- My book basket

- Court 15 book shop

- Brownhills Test Library (often has second-hand bestsellers and children's books for 10-50p)

Restaurants

- Faro Lounge (Lichfield)

- The Light cinema+food+bar (Walsall)

- Wine and dine All you can eat buffet (Walsall)

- Nandos (Walsall)

- Creams Desserts (Walsall)

- Brewers Fayre (Walsall)

- Subway (Brownhills)

- Costcutter Go Local Extra on Ogley Road (Samosas for £1!)

Kitty Cafè @ Bullring

Baked in Brick Digbeth (proper chips with smokey paprika, crispy like in Germany, and nice mocha w oat milk)

Drinks

- Smithy's Froge (Brownhills - cocktails are nice, food is mid)

- Sunflower (Birmingham)

- Bar10 (Walsall)

- Waterfront (Walsall)

- Spoons Avion (Aldridge)

Vibes

- Birmingham library (secret garden / terrace)

- The MacLean Way (Brownhills)

Hollybush Garden Centre

Art

- Walsall Gallery (free!)

Events

- Box of frogs improv (Birmingham)

- Birmingham Writers Group

- Sol Café (queer space, clothes swaps, open mics + writing workshops)

- Girls on the go/Wholesome Girl Project/The Girls Club (Instagram)

Help

- Brownhills Community Centre

- Mobile Hub Chatty Bus

#365daysofbiking Bridge to my heart:

Saturday 22nd January 2022 - The endless rain and murk seems to be coming to a bit of a break - and a cessation in this grim period is not a moment too soon, I can tell you.

Out for an evening spin on a clear but cold Saturday - maybe picking up a takeaway on my return depending on how busy they were - I decided to have a punt at photographing the Anchor Bridge from the canalside adjacent to the pub that gave it it’s name. This is a familiar muse to long-term readers, but it makes for a lovely, colourful night photo and really illustrates Pickle’s fascination with bending the dark.

I’ve always loved how this bridge looks so bucolic yet is actually on the very frontier between urban sprawl and rolling countryside. On the far side of the canal, flats and houses all the way through Catshill and Ogley Hay. Behind me to my left, the undulating fields and hills of Home Farm, Sandhills. Ahead, under that bridge, the houses on Lindon Road at the foot of Shire Oak, and Chandlers Keep, the site of a former foundry.

And at the still point, me in silence, listening to the noise of traffic, the wind, the odd instance of wildlife and drinkers filling the space between them with laughter and music. 

This spot, this bridge at night are in my heart and soul. It is very Brownhills, and a part of my psyche. Bizarre, but true.

The curry was most excellent.

#365daysofbiking On the skyline:

Thursday 13th January 2022 - Crossing Chasewater on an errand I’d deliberately held back until sunset, my studied tardiness was rewarded handsomely. 

Chasewater is the best place locally to catch a sunset, and the gull roost was massive with thousands of birds too, so the spectacle was twofold. The deer were out on the North Heath and obliged beautifully.

I’ve said this many times and I’ll continue to do so: This place is beautiful. But you have to want to see it, and actively go look. Had I not had one eye to the skies I’d never have seen this.

There’s nowhere I’d rather have been than here, this night.

#365daysofbiking Filling the space between then and now:

Saturday 8th January 2022 - Surviving winter is not trivial. If you’re a lover of summer, light and green, the lightless, lifeless season can be grim - especially when wet. The day had been awful. We’d been engaged in keeping-busy activities: Pickle had been drawing for some project and I’d been fiddling with some electronics.

Late afternoon, as dusk fell, the rain abated and we decided to take a run out on the bikes to the retail park at Cannock to get some shopping in. The night was murky but the riding surprisingly fast and enjoyable.

We returned to Brownhills in the early evening, down a deserted Black Path. Pickle stopped to take a picture, and once more, bend the dark.

This mundane, little considered edgeland was precious in that instant, and she preserved it for posterity with the camera.

Winter, and bad weather is about filling space between the better times, and keeping a watchful eye for the small, beautiful consolations.

UK: तेज रफ्तार BMW Car ने फुटपाथ पर मासूम को कुचला, मां-बाप के सामने ही दर्दनाक मौत

UK Road Accident: UK के ब्राउन हिल्स (Brownhills) में एक तेज रफ्तार BMW कार ने दो सप्ताह के मासूम बच्चे को कुचल दिया. मासूम की मौके पर ही मौत हो गई.  Source link