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Published: October 15th 2006
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Hey Everyone
Lovely to get your comments.
Sorry we haven't written for a while...too busy!
These last few days we have been to Liverpool, The Lake District, Manchester, Burnley, Blackburn Villa Park and extensive trips into the coutryside.
Next week we plan to go to North Wales, taking in Mount Snowden and Harlech Castle.
While we were in Liverpool there was a chap protesting about father's rights and he was nicely ensconced atop a huge column. He must have been freezing up there as there was a very stiff and cold wind coming off the Irish Sea. He was there all day and the only interest he attracted was from us tourists and the police. Must be a regular occurence for locals. Boy am I glad we took coats with us .....sitting on top of an open top tourist bus was a bit parky!(local vernacular for...absolutely freezing)
In Liverpool we saw the Cavern Club which is not the original Beatles starting place but in the same street, the Catholic Catherdral, which is one of the ugliest buildings I have ever seen.. known locally as Paddy's Wigwam, you can see why from the photo; the docks area which is now a shopping
centre and the Liver building which is the famous building with 2 Liver birds on the top. Still not sure what a Liver bird is though! There was a shop in Liverpool that had a closing down everything must go sale, nothing over £5...it was a leather shop...and Tim didn't want to go in and look! Back at the station there was a police blockade which had attracted a fair crowd but no-one could tell us what was going on. We saw Everton's ground as well...right in the missdle of some very run-down houses and shops.
In Manchester we went to the Trafford Centre which is a massive shopping centre, the biggest by far that we have ever seen. There were literally thousands of shops and a few dozen of them were shoe shops so I had a really good drool. Around every corner the was a different theme such as New Orleans, Spanish style, chinatown, a central part that is build like a ship complete with lifeboats and a swimming pool. Tim would like to go back there again before we leave.
The chain stores here such as Marks & Spencer and New Look could teach Aussie shops a
Liverpool
Protesting Dad thing or two. The have the same styles of clothes to fit from size 6 up to 26 so you don't have to look like a dag even if you are a bit hefty. The shoes also come in wide fittings and this is the first time I have not had to squeeze my ugly feet into a fashionable shoe. I bought some ankle boots (naughty naughty but I couldn't resist). Tim has been an absolute star about going into thousands of girly shops, never complaining once. After about 6 hours we hadn't even covered a 6th of the shops which shows how massive it is.
The Lake district was of course beautiful and Tim loved the scenery. It was very nice but I would rather look at old buildings for their beauty. Of course it rained.
Sorry to say that Blackburn is an absolute hole so the least said about it the better, however Burnley is a nice clean town and we enjoyed the markets there.
Yesterday we went to see Villa play Spurs and yes we were in the director's box which was amazing. We got to be in the directors lounge from 1-45pm so got to mix
Liverpool
Tim and John Lennon with old players from both Villa and Spurs and some officials from the FA, the new owner of Villa - Randy Lerner and of course Doug Ellis the life President of Villa. Peter McPartland was there (he scored 2 goals when Villa won the FA cup in 1957) and Charlie Aitken came to our table (he was captain of Villa in the early 70's) Everyone was very nice to us and it was a great thrill.
The result could have been better but who cares? A capacity crowd helped with the atmosphere and it was this that I wanted Tim to experience. Plus Birmingham City lost which drew the biggest cheer of the day. Tim of course had to buy a shirt. I had already bought a scarf in Italy.
Today we went to a car boot sale which apparently is a popular weekend excusion. No unexpected treasure trove unfortunately, but I went armed with my list of silver hallmarks so I was prepared.
That's all for now folks, more in a few days hopefully- if you are not too bored.
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Ann Walkley
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Wish i was there
Hi Wendy and Tim We are all missing you, nothing has changed at the big brown building...Steve gives me updates on the animals all doing ok.Girls send there love and can't wait for your return for lunchtime gossip... Talk to soon Ann