#Brum

This month Capsule celebrate 10 years of bringing the most awe inspiring, ear drum pounding and heart string plucking music to Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 34% [?]

Nobody wants to have a long-term illness. Unfortunately, many of us will experience chronic illness during our lives. For example, I have already had a long-term illness for seven years. When the weather is changed, I feel pain from my back to my legs. If I can take medication, I will try them. In fact, I ate lots of medication, but my pain is becoming more severe than before .I couldn’t find any miracles or cures from my GP and medication so that I lost my bearings and fell in my emotional distress often.

One day, Amy, my friend who is working in Chinese community centre- Birmingham. Told me that she had been developing a set of courses to help Chinese with long term illness.  There are, hundreds of tips and ideas to help and make life easier and improve the quality, which have been gathered from doctors, health professionals, and more importantly, people who have learned to positively manage their illness in 6 weeks’ courses. Perhaps this sounds great, I decided to try.

When I got into the courses, I didn’t know that they would help me to cope with the chronic illness to live the healthier life and change my life style. I just thought that they were good and might   give me a new hope.

I bare the hope and finished the courses. These courses let me understand my disease. This means more than learning about what causes the disease and what  can be done for it. It also means observing how the disease and its treatment affect me. This is my story. And you? How can you have a long-term illness and live a healthy life at the same time?

Popularity: 26% [?]

More than 150 people have joined a Facebook group to express their disgust at the organisation of Birmingham’s Christmas lights party. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 52% [?]

I know Friday 13th isn’t usually associated with good luck but today was a big win for Juliet Spare. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 41% [?]

One of Hashbrum’s stated aims is to try to fill some of the gaps in conventional news coverage in Birmingham. That could be quite a wide remit, or quite a narrow one. It all really depends how good you think local news is in the city. I’m currently trying to find people who are interested in local news and ask them what they think it is missing. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 38% [?]

Art of latte
Today we were lucky enough to meet Youri Vlaq of Absolute Coffee. It’s Youri’s job to teach the baristas at Urban Coffee Company how to pour the perfect latte – and, importantly, the skills of ‘latte art’. We managed to get him to show us how it’s done… by creating a teddy bear in a coffee cup!

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 59% [?]

On November 11th every year, a group of people meet, and ride on the number 11 bus in Birmingham. It’s the circular route, and the man behind the project, Jon Bounds, claims its a great introduction to the “real city”.

Hashbrum reporter Caroline Beavon caught up with Jon at the start of today’s journey:

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 46% [?]

For this second part of my journey through the wonders of Birmingham’s football clubs, I have decided to ditch most of the text and concentrate on colour. This is what has come out of it, I hope you enjoy it.

Villa Park beckons. To understand what Aston Villa is really about, I thought a looking out on Villa Park’s hallowed turf would be a good starting point. On Friday morning I joined the Stadium Tour after paying the moderate amount of ten pounds. As I was waiting in the player’s lounge I was fortunate enough to make some acquaintances among my fellow tour-mates. Now, take a look by yourselves at “the famous ground that boasts traditional heritage with state-of-the-art facilities”. Well, at least that’s what the advert on the website says.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 44% [?]

Since summer I’ve cycled as often as I can around Birmingham. I genuinely love it, but a few close scrapes have led me to looking into how safe Birmingham is for bicyclists.

I recently requested statistics for fatal road accidents involving bikes over the last three years in the West Midlands. I need you to find any newspapers online or access any record statistics you can find that match up with those listed below.

When you find a matching collision, can you either post the link in the comments box below, or pinpoint the crash on the Birmingham Cyclist Map.

Add pinpoints or view Birmingham Cyclist Map in a larger map

Serious Road Collisions
1. Oct 2006 310 Cyclist entering Road from Pavement age 32
2. Nov 2006 310 Cyclist entering Road from Pavement age 71
3. Mar 2007 405 Driver/Rider failed to look properly age 59
4. Apr 2007 302 Driver/Rider disobeyed give way or stop sign age 14
5. Feb 2009 602 Driver/Rider careless or in a hurry age 81
6. Apr 2009 309 Driver rider travelling along pavement age 42
7. June 2009 310 Cyclist entering road from pavement age 13 (Found)
8. Sept 2009 310 Cyclist entering road from pavement age 15 (Found)
9. 11 Dec 2009 Driver/Ride failed to look properly? age 63 (Found)
10. 31 Dec 2009 Cyclist 79. Collision with Silver Rover car 10am. (Found) (’serious condition’)

If you have more crashes or danger spots to add please put them on the map or put a link in the comment section below. If you want to report a collision you’ve been involved with, want to report it and get legal advice click on the SMIDSY (Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You) logo.

Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this feature so far check out the progress report here.

Popularity: 51% [?]

The Event is a contemporary arts event happening in Digbeth in Birmingham 5th-8th November.

We caught up with Director of one of the venues involved, Eastside Projects, Gavin Wade

Popularity: 33% [?]