![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
It has been a swelteringly hot weekend, with the sun shining for all three days of the Bank Holiday period. It was frustrating therefore that I had to work on Monday, with the deadline of a new project due. I had hoped I would be able to finish early and enjoy the goregous weather, but alas I ended up working until 10pm, much to my irritation. I did manage to get out and go for a walk in the countryside around my home, with Pudsey Beck and the woods beyond particularly pretty in the sunshine but aside from this and having a BBQ with Wolfie, I didn't get as much opportunity to take advantage of the weather as I would have liked.
This wasn't the case on Saturday and Sunday however, as we had a number of things planned over these two days. We had booked to see Simon Evans's new show Genius at the City Varieties on Saturday night, but this gave us most of the day free so we decided to head to Liverpool and enjoy a few hours by the Mersey. The purpose of the trip was partly to get the Brewdog stamps in both Liverpool and Manchester, but we thought we would combine it with a day out as Wolfie had never seen the main sights of the city. We called into Brewdog first, getting the stamp and a couple of beers while Wolfie charged his phone up. We then headed down to the waterfront, exploring Albert Dock and the Liver Building, which is one of my favourite pieces of architecture in the UK. It's incredibly striking, with the liver birds on its turrets, symbolising a time when this city was far wealthier than it is today. It is of course quite an iconic building too and the juxtaposition of a navy warship on the river outside it merely highlighted this grandeur for some reason. The statue dedicated to the engineers of the Titanic and Lusitania who lost their lives in the disaster - the White Star Line were based in Liverpool and many of the ships' staff came from here - was again another example of how important the city once was.
There were quite a few people down here but it wasn't excessively busy, meaning we had an enjoyable stroll by the water's edge and through Albert Dock, which is quite a unique structure and oozes with history. Now a place of tourist shops and restaurants, I remember the days when This Morning was filmed here, and when I visited as a child, as my aunt and uncle don't live too far from here. The offical Twitter account of Albert Dock liked my photographs, which was nice, and it was great seeing all of the repurposed warehouses. This is very much the entertainment area of the city, with the Echo Arena now down here too, and it was certainly a great place for a stroll.
Our next step was the north of the city as we wanted to see the Cavern Club en route to The Dead Crafty Beer Company on Dale Street, a place that was repeatedly recommended to us through Google. I had never been to this part of the city before and it made me quite reminiscent about Glasgow, assumedly it was built around the same time for largely the same person. There were many grand civic buildings down here and it was near the gay quarter too, another part of the city I had yet to visit. The area around the Cavern Club though - Mathew Street in particular - was tourist hell, full of loud music, chintz and drunk people singing. We saw the famous venue but didn't dare go inside, instead preferring to go to the relative quiet of TDCBC. Situated near a flyover, this turned out to be quite the find, with the lady serving incredibly friendly. They had a range of local beers from the Top Rope Brewery, where one of the bar staff is the head brewer, and they were good if a little too fizzy. They didn't serve food in the bar unfortunately, but the ambience was incredibly friendly and we would have stayed there all day if we could. But alas we had the gig to go and with Stray asking for a range of ulcer-related antiseptics, we also had to stop off at a Boots too, which we did at Lime Street Station. We did promise to be back though, what with the train journey from Leeds now being a mere one hour 25 minutes, which is far quicker than I remember it being.
On the way back to the station, we walked around the park outside Lime Street near where some of the grander Victorian monuments were situated. As we walked around the city earlier, we noticed that like Leeds, it's a place that gives up its architectural wonder if you look up and I did find myself falling in love with the place. This wasn't the case with Manchester though, which was claustrophobic, teeming and unbearable in the searing afternoon heat. I did put on Twitter that we would be calling in at the Brewdog but no-one showed up and with my sister in York for the day, our stay in the North's premier city was limited to just over an hour. Still, we got our stamp and were back on the train pretty swiftly, getting into Leeds with about an hour to spare ahead of the gig (it would have been more but we were stuck behind a stopping service as we crossed over the Pennines).
Stray was waiting for us at the train station in his flowery shirt and after giving me a headset for my guitaring and me giving him his medicaments, we headed to the City Varieties via Bar Burrito for some food. I had a small chorizo burrito, with the regular ones from there often leaving me feeling bloated, and it was a very nice addition to the menu. The chorizo in particular imparted a certain tanginess that really cut through the burrito's other ingredients. We then headed up to the theatre, arriving with plenty of time. Following Evans's performance on Question Time the week before last, I was a little worried about seeing him, but in the end Brexit wasn't really covered and he did introduce a few interesting concepts and ideas that I hadn't heard before. Wolfie found himself disagreeing with a lot of what Evans said, and indeed I disagreed with some, but the perspective was challenging and this was a good thing overall. He did get the publication date of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species wrong (he said 1861, I was convinced it was 1859) but the point still remains, and the comparing of the Guinness Book of Records from 1974 and 2017 was a very worthy point about how standards are slipping and how intelligence is not particularly valued these days. I also did have a few bones of contention concerning his stuff on age, but again it was an enlightening point of view if nothing else.
After the gig, we decided to head to Shuffledog for a few drinks before catching the last bus back. Stray had bought us drinks during the show, which always makes me nervous, but alas I didn't need to go to the toilet during the show (which was just as well as we were third row from the front in a show that was hardly a sell out). The trip to Shuffledog was as good as ever and Stray joined us back at ours for a few drinks and a long chat about politics and the like, before getting a taxi back to his place at around 2am, as he needed to be up in the morning to help his sisters set up their music performance at a local bar. We, meanwhile, just headed to bed after a long but ultimately rewarding day.
This wasn't the case on Saturday and Sunday however, as we had a number of things planned over these two days. We had booked to see Simon Evans's new show Genius at the City Varieties on Saturday night, but this gave us most of the day free so we decided to head to Liverpool and enjoy a few hours by the Mersey. The purpose of the trip was partly to get the Brewdog stamps in both Liverpool and Manchester, but we thought we would combine it with a day out as Wolfie had never seen the main sights of the city. We called into Brewdog first, getting the stamp and a couple of beers while Wolfie charged his phone up. We then headed down to the waterfront, exploring Albert Dock and the Liver Building, which is one of my favourite pieces of architecture in the UK. It's incredibly striking, with the liver birds on its turrets, symbolising a time when this city was far wealthier than it is today. It is of course quite an iconic building too and the juxtaposition of a navy warship on the river outside it merely highlighted this grandeur for some reason. The statue dedicated to the engineers of the Titanic and Lusitania who lost their lives in the disaster - the White Star Line were based in Liverpool and many of the ships' staff came from here - was again another example of how important the city once was.
There were quite a few people down here but it wasn't excessively busy, meaning we had an enjoyable stroll by the water's edge and through Albert Dock, which is quite a unique structure and oozes with history. Now a place of tourist shops and restaurants, I remember the days when This Morning was filmed here, and when I visited as a child, as my aunt and uncle don't live too far from here. The offical Twitter account of Albert Dock liked my photographs, which was nice, and it was great seeing all of the repurposed warehouses. This is very much the entertainment area of the city, with the Echo Arena now down here too, and it was certainly a great place for a stroll.
Our next step was the north of the city as we wanted to see the Cavern Club en route to The Dead Crafty Beer Company on Dale Street, a place that was repeatedly recommended to us through Google. I had never been to this part of the city before and it made me quite reminiscent about Glasgow, assumedly it was built around the same time for largely the same person. There were many grand civic buildings down here and it was near the gay quarter too, another part of the city I had yet to visit. The area around the Cavern Club though - Mathew Street in particular - was tourist hell, full of loud music, chintz and drunk people singing. We saw the famous venue but didn't dare go inside, instead preferring to go to the relative quiet of TDCBC. Situated near a flyover, this turned out to be quite the find, with the lady serving incredibly friendly. They had a range of local beers from the Top Rope Brewery, where one of the bar staff is the head brewer, and they were good if a little too fizzy. They didn't serve food in the bar unfortunately, but the ambience was incredibly friendly and we would have stayed there all day if we could. But alas we had the gig to go and with Stray asking for a range of ulcer-related antiseptics, we also had to stop off at a Boots too, which we did at Lime Street Station. We did promise to be back though, what with the train journey from Leeds now being a mere one hour 25 minutes, which is far quicker than I remember it being.
On the way back to the station, we walked around the park outside Lime Street near where some of the grander Victorian monuments were situated. As we walked around the city earlier, we noticed that like Leeds, it's a place that gives up its architectural wonder if you look up and I did find myself falling in love with the place. This wasn't the case with Manchester though, which was claustrophobic, teeming and unbearable in the searing afternoon heat. I did put on Twitter that we would be calling in at the Brewdog but no-one showed up and with my sister in York for the day, our stay in the North's premier city was limited to just over an hour. Still, we got our stamp and were back on the train pretty swiftly, getting into Leeds with about an hour to spare ahead of the gig (it would have been more but we were stuck behind a stopping service as we crossed over the Pennines).
Stray was waiting for us at the train station in his flowery shirt and after giving me a headset for my guitaring and me giving him his medicaments, we headed to the City Varieties via Bar Burrito for some food. I had a small chorizo burrito, with the regular ones from there often leaving me feeling bloated, and it was a very nice addition to the menu. The chorizo in particular imparted a certain tanginess that really cut through the burrito's other ingredients. We then headed up to the theatre, arriving with plenty of time. Following Evans's performance on Question Time the week before last, I was a little worried about seeing him, but in the end Brexit wasn't really covered and he did introduce a few interesting concepts and ideas that I hadn't heard before. Wolfie found himself disagreeing with a lot of what Evans said, and indeed I disagreed with some, but the perspective was challenging and this was a good thing overall. He did get the publication date of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species wrong (he said 1861, I was convinced it was 1859) but the point still remains, and the comparing of the Guinness Book of Records from 1974 and 2017 was a very worthy point about how standards are slipping and how intelligence is not particularly valued these days. I also did have a few bones of contention concerning his stuff on age, but again it was an enlightening point of view if nothing else.
After the gig, we decided to head to Shuffledog for a few drinks before catching the last bus back. Stray had bought us drinks during the show, which always makes me nervous, but alas I didn't need to go to the toilet during the show (which was just as well as we were third row from the front in a show that was hardly a sell out). The trip to Shuffledog was as good as ever and Stray joined us back at ours for a few drinks and a long chat about politics and the like, before getting a taxi back to his place at around 2am, as he needed to be up in the morning to help his sisters set up their music performance at a local bar. We, meanwhile, just headed to bed after a long but ultimately rewarding day.
