Fairway Birdie by Rowland Emett

The teenage boy was shocked to find himself up, out, and on a train to Birmingham before 11am this morning, and has had one of his last unlimited gaming days interrupted with 'culture'. It's a hard life.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery's summer exhibition is Marvellous Machines by Rowland Emett. If you're familiar with the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (I know, showing my age now) he bought to life the inventions of Caractacus Potts. On display were The Clockwork Lullaby Machine, The Little Dragon Carpet Sweeper that kept sucking up the rug, and The Humbug Major which produced the 'Toot Sweets'.

This is the largest ever exhibition of his work, and also included some of his art work and sketches, which I didn't expect to see, but were some of my favourite pieces on display. My blip is The Fairway Birdie MkII, a self golfing, animated machine that appeared at the Open Golf Tournament in Troon, Scotland in 1983.