22nd, 23rd & 24th June

22nd June

Completed morning program. Amolikaa gave a dance performance along with her school students in a local fair. Venita attended it along with Pilku and Ruchi. Left Southfields underground station to  Euston and  thereafter  Euston by Virgin train for Birmingham New Street at 6.03 pm. Arrived Birmingham New Street station at 19.27 pm. The railway stations are  well kept and organised. There is no difficulty in finding your way through them. As we did not get hotel accommodation  due to heavy rush for Champions Trophy next day, we stayed comfortably with Saurabh,  Ruchi's first cousin. He is expecting his wife to join on 14th July. They got married recently. Retired to sleep at 11 pm.

23rd June

As we could check-in at 5 pm only at Novotel hotel at Birmingham due to unprepared rooms in the morning, left our luggage with the hotel and went to  Edgbaston stadium for ICC Champions Trophy final Cricket match,2013, between England and India. Pilku took a package hotel and ticket deal for us. At Edgbaston stadium, it continued to rain intermittently from about 9.30 am to 6.40 pm. It was windy and as chilly as we have it in India in  Jan.  Match could start then and ended at about 8.15 pm. About an hour's game had taken place earlier. Stadium was full. 2/3rd of them were Indians. The crowd cheered and booed, but it was not rowdy. The entire stadium stood when the national anthems of the two countries were sung/played. I saw quite a good number of British Indians singing both the anthems. I liked it because it is what it should be. Every pore of our  body was elated and full of pride to the singing of 'Jan man'. The crowd had joined. The match had a thrilling end. Until the last ball was played, it was not clear as to which team would win. Though England lost, but they played better.

After the dinner we retired to sleep at 11 pm.

24th June
After breakfast left for London at 11.30 am. Arrived home at about 2 pm. Abishree is out of London on a school trip and will come back after a week.

Retired to sleep at 11 pm.