St George's Hall

This magnificent building is smack outside the Radisson Red, so it was the first thing we saw when we emerged, this morning.

Despite spending three years in Liverpool when I was at university, I never really explored the city. I was thinking about this, yesterday afternoon, when we went down into the 'financial district' to sort the Minx's passport. Nearly forty years later, I regret and am also a little bemused by the fact that I never got to know the place beyond the immediate confines of my student life.

I didn't ever take a ferry across the Mersey, spend time in Sefton Park, go down to the docks, or visit the many museums and galleries, including St George's Hall. It was almost as though I went through my days wearing blinkers.

But I'm not knocking the younger me: I had my new friends to enjoy, and I loved the record shops - Probe and Backtracks - and the bootleg tape stall in the student union, the pubs and daft little clubs, the liberation of being away from home. I didn't feel any need to go looking for anything else.