Aah, Spring! Slowly, but surely, the world comes back to life. Buds on the trees, bulbs beginning to flower, the Erdington Fountain a sparkling spring – well, not really.
Winter has come and gone but the Fountain is still frozen in time, just as it was back in November. However, in the world of the Fountain things do move, but at a glacial pace.
As I wrote in a previous blog (A Shocking Exposé), the basic problem was that the fountain leaked. As we all know, water and electricity, like me and tele-sales people, do not mix.
The leak has now been fixed. The pump motors re-wound. The system has been cleaned out. It’s already for lift-off a la Space Shuttle. But wait – a mishap.
This being 21st-century Britain someone has pinched the diffuser. This is the metal object on top of the fountain that gives an umbrella effect rather than a Space Shuttle effect at blast-off..
Quite who would want such a thing is hard to know. The obvious candidate would be someone from the Four Oaks estate down to their last million. But now it’s down to Museums, who apparently commissioned the work, to look for the receipt. If such a thing can’t be got off the shelf in B&Q it may well have to be specially made.
Was this a one-off by the same people who supplied Saddam Hussein’s palaces with gold taps? Are their order books full with requests from Posh and Becks in L.A.? For I’m sure this fountain has to be a very special one. Fountains have been known to have water, even to have electric pumps. But Erdington has a special one – it leaks. With parts so rare that even Jeremy Clarkson might begin to think highly of Brummies. OK, that’s an exaggeration. Everyone knows Clarkson only thinks highly of himself.
So, it is with breath not held that we await the passing of the seasons. Summer be a-coming in.
Eddie Reader