Movember

It is quite amusing to see the pubs and bars full of blokes who look like porn stars with their best efforts at growing facial hair all in a good cause, falling short in some regards!! Good on them for trying though.

So whats been going on Up North this month?

First off was another visit to the Hill Dickinson stadium to watch england v Australia rugby league. I have not been to a league game since the London Bronco's used to play at Griffin Park. My then girlfriend of the time was a big Wigan fan so we went to see them rather than the Broncos. the Paul brothers, Jason Robinson, Shaun Edwards and others were in that great team.

The match at evertons new stadium just confirmed my view that its a dull form of entertainment where you watch the same game every week. England were well beaten,

The next day SWMBO and I went to see Dara O' Briain at the Liverpool Empire. He was very good value and I would well recommend seeing him if he comes your way. Next day saw me packed and off to Lisbon for a three day golf break with 'the teachers', a group of members from Wallasey and beyond. We stayed dry and I came second on the final day which got me some money from the winning pot.

We are in the lucky position of having a reduced price holiday in 2026 by virtue of Rory McIlroy winning the Masters and our travel agent running a competition based on him doing so. Happy days.

On my return I needed my eyes testing before enjoying the 25th anniversary beer festival at port Sunlight with some friends and fellow real ale buff's

As we ponder how and when to downsize, November allowed us to look at a couple of houses which could be possible targets for us. One we saw was a Bank reposession and would have been idea, but the people vacating the place has stripped it bare. No kitchen, no bathrooms, electric wiring all over the place and no doors on any rooms. All could be overcome, but the Bank wanted a 28 day exchange period and there was no way we could sell and fund the works in that time, so sadly it will have to pass.

Things wer ethen a bit sad for a day or two as we attneded the memorial for our good friend Ailsa who passed suddenly after suffering a stroke. There was a great turnout at twickenham RFC where her family and friends spoke well of here and gave her a really fittin sendoff. She was a great photopragher and many of the old pictures from rugby tours, dinners and other memorable events were there to browse through. She will be sorely missed.

The month then ended with a IBM lunch in Manchetser where I met up with some colleagues I had not seen for a while, and the on Saturday we had the St Andrews dinner, a red coat event at the golf club.

So, all in all a pretty busy month.  

Diesel fitter

Busy day today. Up with the larks to take my car to the garage for a safety upgrade and gear box oil change. Managed to convince them neither took very long so they had it done by 2pm. In the meantime I decided to spend the time in Liverpool rather than go home.

Then I had a thought......Everton's new football satdium was just down the road so I thought I would go and stare through the fencing and see it in all its glory. Its a mighty fine structure but not quite up to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium level. It is built in the old Liverpool dockland on the site of Bramley Moore dock,  and is bordered on one side by the Mersey on another by Nelson Dock and on the third side by the old dock wall.

This dock wall extends into Liverpool from Seaforth and it was here that my investigative journey started. I wondered how long it would take to walk to the nearest (but 1) Metro station, one I can reach without changing trains. 35 minutes was the answer. So it has some similarity to aforementioned Tottenham stadium.

Both are over 30 minutes away from a mass transit underground system and both have an unfit for purpose overground station much closer. In Evertons case it is Sandhills which is small old and decidedly unsafe for 60,000 fans every fortnight. Interstingly the nearest tube station to the new Brentford stadium, Gunnerbury, is closed on match days exactly for safety reasons. Why do authorities let these large stadia be built without the infrastructure to allow people to get home safely. Wembley is another example.

The area around the stadium is comprised of cleared land and dereliction with the exception of a gin distillery and Ten Streets Social, both of which should make a killing on match days.

So let me finish with a bit of culture. While walking the dock wall home, I passed several drinking fountains imbedded in the wall. These fountains were installed by a Liverpool philanthopist, Charles Pierre Melly, in response to the dockers need for fluids which were being met by a stroll across the road to the beer and spirit outlets which sprung up to meet the demand. Dockers were arriving back after their break drunk and dangerous so Melly felt something had to be done to address the problem. A very enlightened solution in 1854!!

So that was my day completed, although a bit frustrated that my car now says it needs an oil change in 1300 miles. Why could they not have done that at the same time? Hey ho, thats BMW where even the steering  wheel is extra!!