"Ferry 'Cross the Mersey"

Liverpool
Day ?

Part One:

"We don't care what your name is boy,

We'll never turn you away."

We listened to the calling of Gerry & the Pacemakers and took the Ferry. It is not like all those people who did it day after day to go to work and back or whatever, they have actually made it real nice. They give you a running commentary and take you past the sites. We'll worth it. This is where my new Facebook picture of me under the Red Ensign (flown on British Merchant ships, natch. The White Ensign is flown over Royal Navy vessels and buildings.) We also got a good seat 'cos a old man was telling tales to his grandson as we cruised around.

Picture 1.(Top) The Three Graces as seen from the River Mersey. From left to right: The Royal Liver (Li-ver, not liv-er {not the organ})Building, the Cunard Building, & the Port of Liverpool Building.

Picture 2. (Bottom) Me and the Missus on the ferry, yeah it was a little cool out there on the water (oh yeah, cool I remember that... sounds like a good time for an Interlude.)

End Part One

* * * * *

Interlude: Iraq

So the other night when I went out for my "final pee" of the night (sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't, but I always tell myself that I really shouldn't get up and go pee after 0100) it was still like 80 or so degrees. Makes you just want to scoop up some vacation property here doesn't it? I know that I am thinking about it. Could be the new hot spot (argh, horrible again.)
I've been really horrible about calling people this time around (actually I was pretty horrible last time too) and I want to apologize to everyone that I should call. If it helps at all I think about it everyday (actually depending on how you take that it could seem worse.) There are actually alot of things that I think about everyday... I think about never coming back here again, I think about my dad and how different (and the same) things probably were in Korea, I think about why I don't write more, why I don't know more chords, if I am doing right by my troops, about if I want to work in a bar for awhile before opening one, about moving to Liverpool, about friends and family, about Isaac, about Raven (my daughter) and loads of other things. These are not excuses, excuses are worthless. These are just facts.
Is that melancholy enough?
So it's hot.



End Interlude

* * * * *

Part Two:

Birkenhead Revisited

(A Little Better, Yeah?)

Last time we were in The Promised Land, we took the tunnel under the Mersey (I can see why no one has written a song about that, just doesn't roll of the tongue) and we really didn't see much of the other side. This time was much better we got off at one Terminal and got back on at another. So we were able to walk through, see some of the docklands and the like. It also gave us a chance to see Birkenhead Park.

Great place really. I guess the guy who designed Central Park in New York, got most of his ideas from there. He was also involved in The World's Fair in Chicago in the late 1800s. Side note to those of you who know about the fact that the missus is a little obsessed with The Titanic, on board The Titanic when it sunk was a man who worked with the Central Park guy on the Chicago World's Fair. Another World's Fair guy was also on the Olympic (one of Titanic's sister ships) that very night. Jennifer didn't know all this though so I got to be the guy who trumped some of her Titanic knowledge (or course without the Internet at my fingers it was all much more muddled {seriously I have 10 tabs open right now so I could get the story straight}) I read it all in "The Devil in the White City" a book by Erik Larson (not the Savage Dragon comic book artist/writer.) Good book its about all kinds of stuff, the Fair, serial killers, bricklayers, architects, and park designers to name just a few.

Wow, that was a long way to go to try and make some point about the more trivial aspects of my brain. You know I don't know what day it is unless I think about it, but I (more or less) remember all that kind of stuff.

So the park is really nice, you can see some of the Central Park stuff. You can see people just sitting and fishing too. Don't know that they ever catch anything (hopefully not) or what they do with 'em (hopefully the fish just sit beneath the water and have a laugh at them) but there they sit. All kinds a ducks and geese and things. And a rockery which is what it is called when they lump all kind of rocks together and make hill-like things or whatever. Learned something, there... just thought that was a whatever... rockery sounds like a place where rocks are born or something (that'd be a rookery.) Anyway it was a nice way to spend the day checking out the Roman boat house and the Swiss bridge and all that. Woulda been a nice place to sit and have a beer, next time we'll have to take a few cans and a few sarnie/sammies (sandwiches, yeah) and relax. Next time, yeah.

Picture 3. (Top) Birkenhead Park, just thought it kinda looked cool in Black & White.

Picture 4. (Bottom) Me and the Missus atop the rockery (Note: She wants to build one of her own now. Remember what I said about being like a madwoman?)

So we've been up we've been down. We've walked down the lanes of the park and down Memory Lane. We've gone on a boat and to a pub (I didn't mention it but there is always a pub.) We've learned about rockeries and even talked a little bit about the heat (there will be heat from now on, so expect to keep hearing about that too.)

A good outing then, yeah? So in the immortal words of Gerry & the Pacemakers...

"So ferry 'cross the Mersey

'cos this land's the place I love

and here I'll stay."

Cheers,
g