Run MDC

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You know the nightclub is going to be a corker when the lady taking the money at the door is about 90 years old.

I've been in the UK for a week's lightning stopover, visiting my wonderful and completely bonkers family members. After leaving Beijing, I had a marathon 24-hour, plan-bus-plane-bus combo to get me here to deepest, darkest Birmingham, where I was born those 28 years ago. I stayed for a few days with my Nanny Griffith, who is the most energetic and friendly grandma a lad could hope to have, and then a cople of days with my other Nan, who is equally at home drinking beers with the youngsters or knitting by the firesde. Wonderful the pair of them.

Saturday night happened to be my cousin's Birmingham stag night (he'd already done a 'stag weekend' with 22 mates in Poland), and so a large night out was planned in Birmingham's Moseley area, apparently where my Mum and Dad used to cause trouble back in the 1970s. Fifteen of us donned green overalls, decked out in USAF badges and patches, and decided on 'Top Gun' style call names. Looking like a team of crack US figher pilots - or, more realisitically, a sad bunch of local plumbers - we trooped into the local pub, where our arrival was met by confused stares, and statements such as, 'Look what the spaceship dragged in.' We then advanced on a Moseley Irish pub for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations, before setting our sights on the main target of the night: the Moseley Dance Centre, or MDC.

When I mentioned this place to my Nan, she laughed and said that she used to go and dance there back in the 1940s. So I think it could be officially the oldest nightclub I've ever been to. The venue is actually an old church hall, with the dusty floors and plastic chairs arranged along the sides to match. As I mentioned, an old dear takes your admission fee, and then gives you a sherbert-filled lolly as an entrance gift. There is no dress code, and the bouncers take a low-key approach. Thus, when my drunken cousin stripped out of his boiler-suit and proceeded to dance in the middle of the dancefloor in his socks and boxers, no action was deemed necessary. The little old tearoom has been converted into a bar that sells an array of cans and tap beers, and the toilets have been kept as they were - that is, for kids. Remember those tiny urinals at primary school, boys? That's what you get at the MDC.

The music was pure retro, lots of 'Come On Eileen' and 'Tainted Love'. We had a dance-off, which my Guinness-fuelled Uncle Alan won hands down, and bopped away to the hits of the 1980s. Eventually we began to lose some of the green overalls crew to natural attrition, fuel-loss, and enemy kills, and the remaining 7 of us moved to a nearby fast-food curry house for lashings of chiken tikka, chips, naan and coke. As we munched on our late-night drinking snacks, we held our mission debriefing. We had locked on to our target and engaged the enemy. The MDC mission had been a resounding success. As my cousin put it: every night out from now on will have to live in the shadow cast by the Moseley Dance Centre. Carl is already planning his next descent on the venue - I suggest he hold his upcoming nuptials there...

Anyway, that was the exciting event from my week in the UK - apart from seeing all the fam, of course. Next stop is a week in Germany to catch up with some old mates, and then: into Africa!

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Photos

Me and me cuz
Two stunning young gentlemen: me and my about-to-be-married cousin Carl

Brown Wings
The Maverick to my Goose: my mate Rich, whose Top Gun call name was Brown Wings

Posing at the Balti
Me and Hel posing for a snap at a Birmingham institution: a Balti house, an Indian restaurant serving unique Midlands cuisine

Comments

[Bernie]

Wot no Birmingham FC?
Hi Tom, no time for a Birmingham game in all this cultural reconnection, and you a lad from Westfields Sports High!! Thought you'd be sending the school snaps of St Andrews and Villa Park. Looking forward to the globalisation kid meets darkest Africa (and the holidays!) Cheers mate, Bernie

[Kev the Rev]

Aston Villa FC not our tribe
Tom For Bernie's benefit, Villa Park is the enemy territory as far as both your ancestries are concerned. We are true Blues (Birmingham City FC) supporters even if they are completely crap. Blood is thicker than water.

[Brett]

Bee Gees groover at the MDC?
Hey Tom I thought your moves fvrom our Bee Gees number might have come in handy on the dance floor at the MDC but alas you were obviously beaten by a better man on the night! He must have been some dancer. Are you sure they did not use your iPod for the tracks they played on the night???

[Ouaga]

Stayin' Alive
Brett, you know that i don't have anything as cool as those songs on my iPod. That's why I'm loving Prague so much: during lunch, they played phil Collins AND Europe on the stereo. Now that's music!

[Chani]

Curry and chips - i love this country!
i swear i get distracted for ten minutes, next thing you've travelled across 2 continents and trying to get Germans to laugh at your nazi jokes. Might be too soon (although there is a southpark episode at a fancydress party in hell, steve irwin is there with a stingray barb in his chest). Sounds like you stumbled onto a good thing in Prague, can you tell me where you stayed? Am heading that way in easter. And sounds like you had a ball in Birmingham... is that same cousin Carl who came to Darwin? love that pubs are so lax here (every man and his dog has new meaning up here, can you imagine if Darwin pubs let people bring in their dogs?) and you can get chips with every meal. Sorry, read your blogs in reverse!