Joys of Birmingham

Had an interesting day out with Lu in the town centre today - we went out shopping, I don't think Bath holds much appeal for a young girl in those terms, lovely and quaint though its shops are.

Pretty much immediately upon arriving in town we got asked to participate in some market research for Philadelphia, which was pretty fun. After allowing them to tick what they wanted for a bunch of leading questions (way to screw up a carefully devised survey girls), I got to stare at lots of pictures of nice looking snacks, and give opinions on my perceptions of them.

The perception part of the survey was actually quite fun - it was based on a model Harvard came up with a few years back (or at least, seemed to be, from what I could see of the scripts they were running on their very unsecured server). A set of four choices (from a stock of 12-15) were presented, with the user being asked to choose their favourite and least favourite. Then, another set of four were presented, and this went on to deduce what features the user kept picking out, and even why - very nice.

Next up we got to sample all the different types of cream cheese and breads, which made for an interesting free lunch, and led me to the discovery that I do actually like cream cheese, so there's one benefit for them already. Got paid £10 for the pleasure too, which wasn't bad for a half hour's work.

Other entertainment included a lovely scene in Greggs, with a guy throwing things about because the elderly female assistant had sworn at him for something he'd said/done to some girls earlier. Personally I'd have sacked her on the spot and had him arrested, but nothing so exciting came about. Next up was a large black lady, wearing platforms, a short skirt and a tight top - all of which was fluorescent yellow - preaching about our Lord Jeebus. I'm guessing she was a hooker by day, and evangelist by night, and just didn't have time to change today.

Oh, and I bought some awesome new tops, and replaced my entire collection (if that's the word) of underwear and socks - thanks Primark.