A former student (and now friend) of mine is spending a semester in the UK as part of his PhD studies in Australia.

We met in Birmingham and wandered around a little to see the sights while talking about teaching and research.

The cities in the English Midlands are useful places to visit for those if us who are students of business — they are home, of course, to the first industrial revolution. No thinking about national, social, organisational or technological change can be complete without some attention to what happened in these cities.

Some of the former riches and grandure is clearly visible (as of course is the new wealth, though I haven’t shown that).

One of the highlights was the interior of the Old Joint Stock pub where we had a tasty upmarket pub lunch (not photograhed because every one was eating).

Alas, with the UK’s creaky regional rail system, it takes a bit longer to get there than it should.

Now, back to work for me.