New House Day 8: Old house

9 hours into packing for the Monday move Jackie’s mobile music collection prophetically start playing “Tequila.”  She poked her head out to the conservatory where I was finishing taping the last of the garden boxes and pantomimed a person taking a shot….

I cut the only lime in the house and poured the first of a few shots of agave.  Sublime.  Speaking of Sublime, Santeria was the next song up.

We spent the day packing.  A nice break from the construction work at the new digs (and scheduled as such and on time and under budget, so far) we still feel weirdly like none of it is real.  Very odd for people who have moved house together (forget our transient lives before hooking up…TOGETHER!) 20 previous times including (with one or more cats) 3 transatlantic shifts and one from Athens Georgia to Tucson Arizona (nearly as far and involving a van towing our car and all our shit).

We’re pros.  But, this is still new territory.  Final pre-move efforts on the West Brom end, tomorrow.

Lapal Canal and California

On frequent runs past these large concrete abutments I’ve never given them a second thought.  On Sunday, a kid was using the one on the left like a sofa whilst snacking and watching traffic.  On my way back from the Asda nearby, I spotted the remains of the marble marker placed by the  Lapal Canal Trust.

Our area was once known as California for reasons that know one who claims to know seems to have strong evidence to back up.  It was definitely named for a pub but the pub’s name’s origin is in question.

The path of the canal, long since filled in, runs out to Selly Oak Park and is quite pleasant if you don’t mind the litter and the dodgy characters you encounter (so, there’s another reason this could be called California).