Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Monday, February 04, 2008

Going Down to Liverpool / Hey Jude…

This last weekend just gone Stu and I went to Liverpool for Jude’s Hen Party. It was a weekend of fun and frolics on Merseyside. We had a couple of parties for Jude (dressing her up, embarrassing photos to pin up, and equally embarrassing anecdotes to relate), went out for meals and did the Beatles Magical Mystery Bus Tour (which was high on Beatles ex-homes but low on actual mystery). It was a good warm-up for Jude and Gavin wedding in Belfast in six weeks time. I had never been to Liverpool before and not sure I’ll be rushing back. We didn’t have a particularly welcoming experience en route (drunk aggressive git on the train) and the city itself seemed really run down – which is not a first impression helped much by the freezing cold weather, the biting wind, the driving rain and the occasional snow flurry. Maybe the place will look a bit smarter once all the construction work is finished too. It’s pretty much a building site. We saw large sections of the city that were boarded up and had demolition pending orders on them. I guess like any city it no doubt has its share of problems but we felt quite uneasy in the streets near where we were staying. There were seemingly endless rows of lap dancing clubs, strip joints and rowdy pubs. On the plus side the city does have a lot to offer though by way of tourist attractions; the Albert Dock, the Tate Liverpool, the cathedrals and of course the Beatles. Mind you, the Beatles do get milked in Liverpool quite a lot… what with the Cavern, the Beatles Story Experience, the Beatles tours and the new Beatles Hotel. Still, I suppose it is something Liverpool can be justly proud of. We had fun chatting to the guy who lives in Paul McCartney’s old house. He looks a bit like Macca actually and was really pissed. Ha ha. It’ll be interesting to see how the tag of European City of Culture affects the place in 2008.

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