A Weekend in Birmingham – Rocky Horror, Pride, Vegan Food and More…
Gift- we received free Press entry to Pride and complimentary food at Birmingham Stable, Handmade Burger Co, we paid for everything else.
Hey guys! I’m so excited to share this post with you all, because (as you may have seen on my social) I’ve just had an amazing weekend in Birmingham with Zoey! We went to Rocky Horror, Pride, ate loads of scrummy vegan food as well as lots of other things. Read on to find out what we got up to!
A Weekend in Birmingham – Rocky Horror, Pride, Vegan Food and More…
I love going away with Zoey; it gives us vital time together, which is especially important during the early days of her transition. We haven’t been away together as Zoey and Kelly before, so I was super excited to have that one on one time, a time to chat and reflect about our future and our journey together.
We started out early from Cardiff, catching the 8.15am Megabus which dropped us in Brum at around 1.45pm. The journey flew and it was rather a nice experience, with the driver making us chuckle and referring to us as ‘girls’, something that makes my heart sing whenever I’m with Zoey!
We arrived in Birmingham on Friday afternoon and our first stop was the hotel where they kindly let us check-in early. We always stay at the Premier Inn on Waterloo Street because it’s really central, and it means we can nip about around the city really easily. It cost us £120 for two nights, and this was booked last year, so I think it would be much more expensive if it was last minute. This didn’t include breakfast, but we didn’t want to commit to too many timings over the weekend, so it suited us to go out and find something elsewhere. The staff were amazing, and they were so kind to us, helping us with everything we needed over the weekend.
After we’d dropped off our luggage it was time to check out the biggest Primark in the world! I was way too excited about this, thinking it would be amazing and totally out of this world. Well, we were both pretty disappointed. I still remember hanging out in the old shopping centre it is now home to, the Pavillions, where HMV was the go to shop and there were these really cool (for the 90’s!) glass lifts. Now it’s a huge Primark, with large walkways and a Disney area…
But, it all felt a little flat. The Disney area was pretty small, the Disney cafe smelt of cheese and children, and the cafe, well that’s another story. Want to hear it? Okay then. We passed the cafe and looked at their concept of personalised doughnuts, Zoey was a bit ahead of me when I clocked the staff behind the counter pointing and chatting. I’m a pretty good lipreader and I have pretty good hearing, so it wasn’t hard to hear their ignorant and insensitive discussion… The words, ‘Is that a man?’ one said with a smile, his colleague smiling back and having a good old look. I caught their eye and they clamped their mouths shut, but their smiles remained. I locked eyes with them and felt my blood boil inside my veins. It was Pride weekend and Primark had a lovely Pride display in store, yet their staff members felt it was okay to mock and blatantly discuss a customer who is standing right in front of them…
I took a deep breath and walked away, shaking my head. I don’t think Zoey saw this, and if she did, she didn’t say (like so many other times). Instead of purchasing a doughnut from the judgemental staff, we headed down and purchased some Pride bits and bobs! (Note to add: Primark are currently looking into this situation).
After this we headed to Forever 21, New Look and The Entertainer. Forever 21 had an amazing collection of earrings on display, and I bought quite a few pairs! We managed to pick up some little gifts for the kids from The Entertainer, and some jeans for Zoey from New Look. We also managed to catch the Bull in all his pride!
Soon it was time to hit Stable, a gorgeous pizza, pie and cider restaurant close to The Mailbox. The food and staff here were incredible, and we could have happily stayed there all night! Check out our Birmingham Stable review (coming soon) for a more detailed description of our visit! Once we’d finished, it was time to go back to the hotel to get Rocky ready! I had major stressed over my eyebrows, but Zoey spurred me on and I think they came out alright in the end haha! Brummie Gal in Cardiff bought us the tickets, she’s such a gem, because we’re super Rocky Horror obsessed, so we couldn’t wait to go. We left our hotel room and had a quick stroll through the streets (bit daunting in pjs and stockings!) and headed to the Alexandra Theatre.
We love visiting Brum, and Rocky is just an amazing experience, but this time it didn’t have the same vibe. So, all the people in the audience were pretty great, but the show itself wasn’t as vibrant as usual. I’ll admit, we are MASSIVE David Badella fans, so we did miss him. When Duncan James came on the stage, I was absolutely gutted to see facial hair. WHAT NOW?! Frankie does not have facial hair. EVER. And if you know how much I love beards, you’ll know I must really mean it if I say that! I could see all the hairs poking through the make-up and it just didn’t feel right. He had an amazing voice though, but physically he was pretty huge and muscular, not in the slight bit feminine.
The saving grace of the show came in the form of Brad and Columbia. Brad was amazing, with powerful vocals and just an all-round warm and fuzzy performance; we loved him! AS for Columbia, well she kinda stole the show! She was outstanding, with a cute, energetic and fresh performance – we couldn’t get enough of her!
Unfortunately, the show seemed to feel rushed. From start to finish it felt like they couldn’t wait for it be over, and the rushing of the ‘antici… pation’ moment added to my disappointment of the show. I ADORE this show, it’s my favourite, but this one was flat, rushed and a bit half-hearted. Columbia was a breath of fresh air throughout, and Brad helped her hold the show together for Zoey and I.
After the show we headed to my Dad’s old haunting ground, The Vic, a pub right next door to the Alex, where we met a friendly couple and had a chat over several glasses of red. The Vic a fab little pub, with the chance to meet/see the cast some nights (I’ve seen Russ Abbot and had a photo taken with an amazing Rocky (about 14 years ago haha!). It’s well worth popping in for a pint for sure!
We headed back to the hotel and had some chips and passed out til morning.
On Saturday we watched the Pride march and then headed to Cosy Club where I purchased my first vegan fry-up! It was about £8 and it was great, it came with two falafels, a potato fritter, peppers and spinach, beans (not enough of these!), grilled tomatoes, grilled mushrooms and toast. We also ordered a side of crumpets with vegan marmite butter and this was DELICIOUS! Although we like quite crunchy crumpets, but you know, you can’t win them all! Brunch cost us £25 ish and included 2 fry-ups, 1 shandy, 1 lager, 1 coke and a two crumpets to share.
After this, we caught up with the Pride event on Hurst Street and surrounding areas. I was feeling quite anxious at this point (Cardiff is so sweet and little compared to Brum) so we took it easy at Pride and wandered around for a bit to check out all the wonderful sights and sounds. It was super busy, with lots of music on offer, as well as lots of bars dotted around for people to get merry! We loved the diversity of the whole event, but I think my anxiety went a bit haywire when I saw an officer with a HUGE gun at one point. I know they’re totally there to keep us safe, it just made me jump a little as I turned the corner and saw him! There was a lot of stuff to get involved in, from having your face glittered up to watching one of the many acts perform.
It was great to see my favourite bar, Missing, celebrating along with everyone and it brought back all my younger year memories! I mostly loved the fact that we were within such a diverse group of people, and that these people would have Zoey’s back. That’s a fantastic feeling, and one I wish we could always have.
Soon it was time to go to Handmade Burger Company in Brindley Place, and on our way we spotted the Floosie and the Knife Angel…
Handmade Burger Co sits right on the canal and it’s perfect for a nice, quiet dinner stop. We had a burger each, fries and a pint. Oh, and lots of water! The staff were super friendly and the food was lovely, I adored their chunky chips!
We had a lovely chat with them about Pride, before popping to my fave pub ever, The Flapper. This pub is tucked away and it’s just ace and full of so many wonderful memories. I had to go as it’s threatened with closure, so it was lovely to say hi (and possibly bye) to her…
At this point we were absolutely shattered and my anxiety was pretty high, so we decided to call it a day and head home back to the hotel to get a good night’s rest before our trip home. On Sunday morning we grabbed some brekkie, hopped on the coach and headed home. We had a bit of drama with a breakdown 15 minutes away from home, but managed to get home safely in the end! Then it was back to reality, and in a way, I’m glad, because I’m knackered haha!
Anyway, we had a fab time in Brum. There are a few places I’m sad we didn’t hit, such as the Electric Cinema or more shopping, haha!
I hope you enjoyed this post, if you’d like to get a glimpse of our weekend then check out our vlog:
Massive thanks to Birmingham Stable, Pride and Handmade Burger Co for inviting us along to try out their wonderful food and events. Huge thanks to Nanny Kim for getting the tickets for Rocky and thanks to Premier Inn for being so darn nice. Big love and hugs to Zoey for spending the weekend with me, it was a joy!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading all about our trip to Birmingham. Please let me know if you went to any of these events or have tried out any of the food I’ve mentioned in the comments below…
