Livin' it up in Liverpool

I should start by apologising for the awful title of this entry. There are numerous better Liverpool related things I could have gone for but I can't think of them right now.

A second apology for how long it's been since my last entry. Since that entry, I've been to a few places in the UK as well as the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, I forgot to write something at the time and am not convinced I'll write a good entry several months later. The most recent trip I made was at the beginning of this month so I'm hoping the memories are still fresh enough to get something vaguely interesting for the blog.

I went to Liverpool with my family as it was my Mum's birthday. Since Liverpool was the Capital of Culture a few years ago, she's always wanted to go and see the city so it seemed like a good destination for a short weekend trip.

On our first day in the city, we found a free walking tour to join. It was free in the sense that you didn't have to pay but you were expected to put in a donation at the end depending on your level of enjoyment. We had a three hour walk around the key sights of the city centre along with some interesting stories. Obviously The Beatles formed a big part of the stories but there was also a lot of interesting history stories about Liverpool's role as a key port during the British Empire.

Statue of Prince Albert and a slightly scared looking horse

Eleanor Rigby statue

short John Lennon statue outside the Cavern Club

On our second day in the city, we covered a few of the museums and the dock area. For me, the most interesting museum was the Maritime Museum which incorporated the Museum of Slavery. It was laid out really well and was really good for a history geek like me. We also visited one of the art galleries and went back to some of the sights we'd covered briefly on the walking tour.

The ferry across the Mersey was the main activity on our final day. Unfortunately, I get sea sick far too easily and the Mersey was very choppy that day. An hour on a choppy river in the cold and rain is not my idea of fun but I guess it's one of the essential things to do if you are in Liverpool.

In May this year, I have another trip to Japan planned. After my last trip (featured in earlier blog entries) I felt there was more to see so persuaded a friend to join me for a return trip. Assuming I don't forget again, I'll try and write a blog entry for that trip. Hopefully, it will be a bit more exciting than this one!

"It's about time you wrote another blog entry"

Bowing to "popular" demand, it's probably time for another entry. A few things have happened since I got back from Malaysia so I'll try and make it interesting.

The big thing is that I've now moved out of the flat I was sharing with a friend and back in with my parents. Although my flatmate found another job, it didn't pay enough for her to afford to stay and I couldn't afford to stay on my own. After ten odd years of flat/house shares, I wasn't sure I could handle any more randoms with questionable living habits. At my age (late 20s), it's a bit of a change to make. Hopefully, it won't be too long term and it means I can save up with a view to making an escape to a place of my own.

Don't worry, I have also done some (less far flung) travel to balance out my failure to be an adult.

Croydon 
Actually Selsdon - a suburb of Croydon but nobody has heard of there so Croydon will do. I went there for the periodic work annual conference. Two days of talks, awkward videos and group discussions about improving strategies and developing new ideas to become a better company. To make up for this, there was a dinner on the first evening featuring a large amount of wine and a cheesy disco.

Dorchester
Another work trip including a very long train journey. On the way there, someone started a fight on the train causing the journey to take three hours, I was incredibly bored by the time I actually reached Dorchester. I also found myself there on one of the first hot days of the year but unable to enjoy it fully. I did get time to have a wander around the town and establish that nowadays there is a little bit more to do in an evening - even a cinema.

Bognor Regis
A couple of road trips down to West Sussex's best kept secret - an amazing crazy golf course. I even managed my record lowest score of 44 and rang the bell for a free game next time I'm there. The main purpose of the visits was actually to visit my Gran and on both occasions, there was nice, sunny weather so we could take her out for a walk along the promenade.

Central London
To celebrate reaching my late twenties, I had a day off for my birthday. My policy is that I should do my best to never work on my actual birthday and so far, I have successfully stuck to this policy. This year, I went up to central London with my Mum to have a touristy day on the river boat tour. Not the crazy hardcore party antics most people my age get up to but it turned out to be pretty good.

We caught the boat from Westminster Pier and joined a trip to Greenwich. On the way we had one of the crew provide a "quirky" commentary about the various sights of London. For example, "did you know that Big Ben was named after the Clerk of Works in charge of building the Houses of Parliament? His name was Ben and he was 5ft tall. He was also 5ft wide so many people thought he looked like a bell. As a token of appreciation, they named the bell after him". Who knows whether that is true...  We had a spot of lunch by the Cutty Sark in Greenwich before joining another boat for the journey back to Westminster with more or less the same "quirky" commentary in reverse. 

Tower Bridge

The Cutty Sark

Celebratory sparkling wine

I have also relaunched my fatty to fitty campaign. Over the last couple of years, I let my fitness slide a little bit so I decided to use moving in with my parents as a motivation to change that. I started by cycling to and from work every day, regardless of weather. A minimum of 2 miles each way but I've tried to go longer routes on the way home or cycle up some more hills to improve my slightly poor lung capacity. In a week's time, I'm taking part in a ride into and around Central London (part of the Prudential Free Cycle event) which will put all this to the test. Perhaps I will write an update after that to let you know how I got on.