Adventures in Birmingham - December 18th 2010

Although there is still a week left, this week, everyone has truly got into the Christmas Spirit.WednesdayUrban Christmas partyThe Urban Coffee Co Christmas Party was a fabulous evening with a great band. It was surprising to see so many faces from around town. Actually, not that surprising as I’d pretty much invited everyone I met but it’s lovely to see everyone let their hair down in any case. Oh, that was just me letting my hair down? Well in my mind if you can’t add a bit of sparkle to your tree at Christmas when can you?!It was unfortunate that the band finished before 9pm as a lot of people went then, as had the look-too-good-to-eat mini KissMe Cupcakes  But somehow a few us managed to sink a few more beers listening to our Christmas favourites as ‘spun’ by the very accommodating DJ who stayed till the end.FridayUrban JQ It took me all week to make my virgin voyage to new Urban and now I have fallen in love with it all over again. (See My Perfect Coffee Shop would be...) Brum Notes / Speech Fewapy Christmas Party at The Victoria A fantastic idea to have four (great, as it turns out) bands at what’s now become one of my favourite places in the city.We meet at Cafe Blend around the corner mainly so I can get my first fix of eggnog of the season, which will probably turn out to be my only fix as no-one else appears to offer it.I’m glad we got into the Vic soon after 8 as your favourite and mine, Tom Peel was already on and delivered his usual entertaining set; half tunes/half anecdotes and joshing the audience. I can’t wait to see him again.Next up is Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame who is electro and swaying synths. I hear electro is making (another) comeback. Not sure if that’s just the Pet Shop Boys saying it or if its because of the re-emergence of OMD, Heaven 17 and The Human League. And then we had two bands Cajole Cajole and The Traps,  the headliners being especially polished. All are worth seeing again so I will follow @BrumNotes with interest to see where they may pop up again.SaturdayThe week was meant end triumphantly with a load of us going to the Christmas Farmers Market, 24 Carrots at JQT. And then the snow happened, un-forecast may I add.I’ve been so looking forward to this as after our look round the regular stalls, for the first time we will have a coffee shop to go into rather than stand around and chat in the cold.It didn’t stop me hiking up whilst snow is literally coming at me to at least buy some Christmas Kiss Me cupcakes I wanted for my best friend.Thank heavens Urban did open in time so the stall holders had hot drinks and I had somewhere to dive for cover.Bless the organisers for putting it together and for three stalls for braving inches of snow to set up. I was gutted not to have my now traditional hot chocolate but we’ll be back in the new year to patronage you all! Merry Christmas everyone!See you in 2011 for more Adventures in Birmingham.