The Finer Things in Life.

Two nights ago with a glass of fine champagne in my hand, I watched the sun set from the balcony of the penthouse suite in the Rotunda.

With a view across the city which was completely unhampered by the waist-high glass safety-barrier, I watched the sky turn crimson in the distance, before finally slipping beyond the edge of the world and I was reminded of a paragraph in one my Owners books:

    "The horizon had been full of promise. Now the pink sky which hovered overhead reminded her of nothing more than a sky which harboured malevolent intent.
    Under that watchful blood sky, she made her way back to her group of fellow conspirators."

Luckily there was no malevolent intent in the real situation, in fact nothing could have been further from the truth.

But as gorgeous as the interior of the apartment was, with floor to ceiling windows in every room affording that unbroken view, it was Birmingham itself which captivated me, drawing me out onto the balcony and holding me there as witness to its strange beauty.

When I had arrived it had been light and people scurried across the ground below like ants, some hurrying, some mooching along with unknown agendas - all of them criss-crossing each other's paths in a constant stream. Steel and glass buildings reflected the sunlight and there was a sense that Birmingham, once old and tired, had found a fresh lease of life in its new, modern, structures. And yet in the distance there was a lush greenness of leafy suburbs, a thing I hadn't anticipated at all, such was the wide-ranging view available.

Once the sun went down everything changed and the city came to life in a new and even more exciting fashion, neon lights flickering and dancing across the horizon. And still I stood outside, entranced and mesmerised in a way I hadn't expected to be.

So if you do decide to follow my footsteps to stand on the balcony, champagne in your hand, take a moment to look down...one of those scurrying little ants might just be me!