A little something for the weekend....

It's been a long time since I have had to pay for my car to be serviced, and it was not the shock I was expecting it to be, that is, until they inspected the tyres. One off-side tyre  had a bulging inner wall and the other had a split which showed the steel wiring. At £200 each, that did blow the service budget a bit. I am sure rubbers were cheaper than that the last time I brought some.

Oh well, it had to be done, you can't mess with 'elf and safety or the possibility of 6 points on yer license.

While the car was in the garage, I took the opportunity to go and explore the new Liverpool central library which has recently undergone an expansion and face-lift. I have to say the place is fabulous.

The old parts of the library incorporating the Picton reading room, the Hornby library and the Oak room have been fully restored, and a whole new section has been built to house local history reference, a kid's discovery area and a gaming pod all within the infrastructure of the traditional lending library concept.

The is a café, at least 50 public internet stations and a roof top viewing gallery and terrace. It really is a magnificent building.

The older rooms referred to above house displays and exhibits from the Liverpool archives, which change every few months. The current displays include the original Henry II seal of office, the oldest surviving Liverpool city seal, letters from Charles Dickens and a photographic history of the Adelphi hotel.

Many old manuscripts and illustrated volumes were also exhibited so anyone wandering around could view them.

It's definitely worth another visit, and next time I will be investigating the archives in more detail to see if I can find more information about the early occupants of Hill House. 

Storming round

Yesterday was a very wild Saturday up here in Scouserland, although it did not stop me playing golf. We got 14 holes in before the skies darkened and we headed back to the 19th hole for an all day breakfast and coffee. They were two  wise decisions. Firstly, some moments after adjourning to the bar, the heavens opened and shortly afterwards a procession of drowned rat golfers came scurrying in, all looking enviously at our scoff.

Having that was the second wise decision, as later in the afternoon SWMBO and I were attending a wedding in St Georges Hall. It was a 4;30pm start so solids would not be available much before 7pm.

The wedding was a civil ceremony held in the small concert room. The room is a small amphitheatre which holds about 500 people and was restored to its former glory between 2000 and 20007, its centrepiece is a crystal  chandelier which is made up of over 2,800 pieces .It was in this venue that Charles Dickens held many of his readings.

St Georges Hall is a magnificent building, and one of the finest neo-Grecian buildings in the World. It holds a Civil Court and a Crown Court although neither are used in anger now, but they do feature regularly in TV and cinema drama. The cells in the basement are also maintained for the same purpose.

Its most impressive feature though is the grand hall. The hall boasts the third largest organ in the country after the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall. Its floor is constructed of Minton tiles and is protected by special flooring  for all but two weeks a year when it is exposed and put on view for the public.

We went into the wrong end of the Hall when we arrived so we were lucky enough to be walked along the gallery of the grand hall, and saw that it was laid out for a 500 people Burns night dinner that evening.

We were all taxi'd to the reception in another elegant building in  Water Street, and bailed out in the early hours.  Luckily the storm had passed by the time we left, but the joy of weddings is that there always seems to be one brewing the next morning, only time will tell.