New Brighton

I’d like to thank you all so much for all your good wishes for my 70th birthday. And the favourites too. I’ll hope to get around to thanking all of you who gave a favourite in due course. As you might expect, there has been little time to visit your journals this week.

Yesterday was simply the best from first thing in the morning to the excellent celebratory meal at the end of the day.

Today was so different and equally as good. Our first visit was to The Beatles Experience at the Albert Dock. Unfortunately, we were caught up with a large party of people from a cruise ship which made the experience rather daunting. It was interesting, not something I’d want to rush back to seeing.

From there, fortified by a coffee we took the Merseyrail train to New Brighton for a trip down memory lane for Susan. She lived there for 18 months from 1964 while her dad was based at the Liver Buildings while working for the Ministry of Defence. We’ve now visited all the places where Susan’s parents lived; Portobello, Edinburgh, Malta, New Brighton and Bearsden in Glasgow before ending up in Bearsted in 1977.

We found the house in Albion Street, much more modern than I expected but just as Susan remembered it. And the church of St James next door where she went to Sunday school.

At Perch Fort on the seafront we struck up a lovely conversation with two elderly sisters who asked if they could sit in the adjacent seats. We had a rare old conversation over cups of tea.

The weather turned rather threatening as we walked along the “wonderful but dull” Marine Parade and back ending up at Prezzo’s for a simpler bite to eat than last night.

Walking along the seafront gave good views of the container port on the north side of the Mersey. We watched that cruise ship depart after seagulling Liverpool and saw this Stenna Line ferry arrive from Dublin under quite dramatic skies.

A nightcap at the hotel bar rounded off a very pleasant day indeed