We celebrate the hard work of NHS workers every Thursday evening at 8pm. Our road takes to the street to clap, ring bells, clang saucepan lids, play the drums and one neighbour even takes her cello outside to join in with a little music. It’s great to see that level of commitment to make our thanks felt and it’s great to get some social contact, even at a distance, with the neighbours. There’s another visible thank you quite close to home too, as a local sculptor has made an NHS angel sculpture and installed it in a park that faces onto a main route into Birmingham city centre. The sculpture of a winged medical worker has been unveiled in tribute to the NHS and social care ‘angels’ on the the coronavirus frontline.
Not all of us have the skills, expertise, materials or work space required to create an art work on this scale to thank key workers to their commitment, but it’s possible to create some wonderful things on a more modest scale. I’ve seen many great examples around our neighbourhood, mostly featuring rainbows and there have been some very creative ideas: rainbows created from wool, fabric, paints, crayons, mosaics and more. In fact, it’s become a key part of our daily exercise to spot the rainbows as we walk along.
Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash
If you want to create something to celebrate key workers or those in the NHS, you can find lots of help and resources online. A great place to start is to look for svg files on the internet. There are loads of designs to choose from and they are available at quite a low cost, so you can get quality artwork without breaking the bank. You can pick out hand lettered words or drawn images and create something unique and individual. There’s so much to choose from and the results can be very high quality.
Another great way to create a bespoke artwork is to create a collage using a selection of photos or images. One way to do it would be take photographs of people’s window displayed rainbow artwork as you do your daily exercise. Then when you get home you could collate it into a collection of images to sum up how your neighbourhood feels about the NHS. This could then be transformed into a physical artwork, maybe a canvas print for instance, which would make a lovely gift. Or you could submit the electronic image to a local community website or Facebook page so that it could be shared widely.
Maybe you’d like to create something a bit more tactile or large scale? Yarn bombing may be just the thing if you can knit or crochet. In East Kilbride a young crafter has been showing her appreciation by crochet-bombing Hairmyres Hospital with rainbows. It’s something that’s fairly easy to do (you can use up odds and ends of yarn) and you can put a smile on people’s faces as they pass by. plus you are letting the NHS staff know they are appreciated.
For lunch we decided to visit Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse Bar and Grill which is situated in the Cube, an eye-catching building accessed from the canal near the Mailbox complex. The restaurant is on the top floor so views over the city are breathtaking too and as Birmingham is a very green city it’s sometimes difficult to believe that you are looking out over the second biggest city in the country. We could see planes coming into land at the airport in the distance and it’s fun to pick out the various landmarks of the city while you eat.
Flight Club has a great layout and decor. There are elements of the fairground including a carousel horse, but it’s also modern and up to date as they use the latest technology to make the games work. It has everything you’d expect from a city centre bar: stunning cocktails, delicious food (I recommend the pizza), even a DJ and dance floor.
The concept behind the bar is called ‘Social Darts’. Social Darts is played in an area called an ‘oche’ (rhymes with hockey). You get your own dedicated space with throw lines, darts, a seating area, table for drinks and somewhere to put your stuff (coats and bags). It is a bit like going bowling as you have your own space and the technology keeps score for you and tells you whose turn is next. When you get there you each take your picture (or you can opt for an emoji instead – I did this the second time around as I didn’t like having the picture taken from below) and then you add your name. Each oche can hold up to 12 players and costs around £30 for the hour which isn’t per person, it’s per playing area which makes it a good price really. There are also off peak deals if you are playing in the daytime.
