Liverpool: Odd Shots

So to finish my strand on my trip to Liverpool I've left my 3 daftest shots. This one perhaps the weirdest. It's supposed to be advertising "Pink" nightclub which on the window invites you to "come in and have a sherry". Anyway I think most people thought I was mad that I wanted a photo of a bright pink furry car but hey, I thought it was funny and stuff everyone else (putting it nicely!)

Ahem, I thought this was the most ridiculous name for a takeaway. Is it just me or does "Hot 'n' Tender" sound a bit, er, wrong when put in the context of food? Besides, it conjures up images of undercooked chicken - considering it's meant to be fried chicken, this isn't a good image to have. "Eat In Style" the sign says. Walk right past, I say.

Heh, now if there really was a fly in the loaf you'd complain but this makes for gold dust when you're going around pointlessly snapping pub signs. Actually, it didn't look too bad in there! They sell a beer from the Isle of Man (Babooshka? Any comment?) and have chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The red sign above this one says "Bakers to the Queen". Flies must give bread a nice taste, then.

Liverpool: Philharmonic Toilets - You'll Need Them

Ah, the Philharmonic toilets - the men's toilets. Yes, that's right, the men's. Women can go in by asking a male member of staff to check to see if there's anyone in there and they can be escorted in if no-one is, ahem, using the facilities. Very pretty toilets though, considering the women's are nothing to write home about.

Even more of the men's toilets, this time it's the urinals. They're made out of such pretty red marble that you can't help being a bit weird and taking a snap.

The room at the end of the corridor is the Grande Lounge, which is definitely the fanciest of the rooms on offer here. The "Brahms" and "Liszt", I was nicely informed, are different forms of being drunk. You're going to need those pretty little toilets after all... There's a massive selection of beers on offer - and I mean beers not just those rubbishy lagers you can get everywhere. A house ale is put up often, and I think the one when I visited was some sort of honey drink. Anyway if anyone wants to visit it's down the road from the cathedral (shown in the previous post). I was so tired after climbing the hill that I collapsed after this.

Liverpool: Architecture

This is officially the ugliest building in Liverpool - sitting right on the front of the Albert Dock, overlooking the Mersey and obscuring the view of the Liver Building. It's a monstrosity - another one is being built to the right of this photo. Whoever thought of putting this here must be a bit dense in the head. Why would anyone want to tamper with the historic quay. In contrast...

This just has to be one of the prettiest buildings in Liverpool! I love the colours and the piping. Although it's bright it's not really that intrusive or garish and I would be happy to call this piece of modern architecture my own work. You would never believe that this is actually a Costa Coffee Shop - at first I thought it was some sort of art gallery but no! Aww, I love this building.

Obviously one of the most famous sites in Liverpool is that of the Liver Birds - there's two, one male and one female. The female does all the work by watching and making sure that the boats go out safely while the male looks into the city to see what time the pub opens! Legend has it that if the Liver Birds were to ever fly away then the city would fall to ruin - that would explain why they're firmly tethered down then!

This is the Radio City Tower where Merseyside's local radio station broadcasts from. It used to be a revolving restaurant, designed in an attempt to make the city more cosmopolitan but it fell out of favour and is now used as the broadcasting tower. It has to be one of the most recognisable sights - there's not many places around the city where it can't be seen.

There's two cathedrals in Liverpool - this is one of them. The other is a bit gothic and creepy but this one is colourfully referred to as the "Witches' Hat". I didn't go in so I couldn't really comment on what it was like inside. Just like Radio City though, this can also be seen from many points in the city. Most of my hotel rooms have had a direct view to the Witches' Hat but not this time.

Finally, this is an area I like to think of as the most cultural. It's probably because there's about a thousand museums, libraries and theatres around here. This time I only went into one. I went to see the "Beat Goes On" exhibition that documented a full history of music in Merseyside, which was very interesting. I would've gone to see the Egyptian exhibition as well but you had to go through the Bug House to get to it and despite my continuing fascination with Ancient Egypt, I wasn't going to put myself through the torture of creepy-crawlies just to get there! The souvenir from this year was a sarcophagus with a little mummy resting inside of it which I found pretty cool. He sits on the side of my bed now - awwww....

Liverpool: Foodie 2

Another food experience, this time on the second night of my stay - this was at the PanAmerican Bar and Grill at the Albert Dock where I stayed. The dish in question is South-East Asian Chicken with soy noodles and stir-fried veg. It was tasty enough. I was a bit skeptical about the noodles at first because in all honesty I've never had soy sauce before but it was actually lovely! I think sometimes you've got to take the plunge - I wouldn't eat anything incredibly readical but changing a little bit of your food here and there is okay if you're trying stuff out. Then when people ask you if you've even eaten something and you say it's horrible you can actually say you've eaten it! I suppose it gets on people's nerves when you say you don't like something but have never tried it before.

Anyway, getting back to the food, it was pleasant enough. It made a bit of a change since I ate pasta on all the other nights! I think the place needs a bit of TLC though - the furniture was ageing a bit since they haven't changed it in all the years I've been going.

Liverpool: Superlambananas

This is one of the famed "Superlambananas" that have been popping up all over Liverpool this year. Each of the mini-versions represent something about Liverpool, and this one honours the fire service. You can see the little firemen on its legs. This one is even wearing a helmet (headgear is not essential for one of these Superlambananas)

This pinky Superlambanana is meant to represent the use of WiFi in the city. At first I didn't get it but then I looked closer and thought about all the little hands reaching together and the wires being thrown away and thought it made more sense. However, I think they could have made this one clearer. If I hadn't told you this was for WiFi, would you actually say that this represents it? Thought not.

Well this one probably doesn't need much explanation but her it is anywhere: It's a mix of Sgt. Pepper's and the Yellow Submarine - John and George are in the little portholes and Ringo is the Superlambanana (at least I think - it's the big nose). Thing is, I couldn't find Paul anywhere so really it wasn't fully representational of the Beatles... This was outside the Beatles Story, which is like a museum that gives you a tape and headphones for an audio tour as you move through the exhibition. The hotel I usually stay at is right opposite here and the first time I went to Liverpool the music from the Beatles Story was playing so loudly that you could hear it from the room when the windows were shut. This time they'd turned the music down considerably. It was still audible but just not as bad.

Liverpool: Foodie 1

So on the last night of my stay in Liverpool we went to eat at the Sports Bar. It's run by Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher and is commonly known as "Carra's Bar". It markets itself as a family restaurant with a healthy twist and the only deep-fried food on the menu was the fries, which were still made out of the healthiest potatoes and cooked in the healthiest oils (which I believe is Sunseed, but I could be wrong).

The first pic is of my meal, the penne primavera. So it was basically penne pasta in a tomato sauce with chicken, tomatoes and courgettes. I was surprised to find how spicy it actually was! I thought it might have been a safe option to test the water but instead it turns out that they must have added more than a fair share of chillies or spices - not that this was a bad thing, it was a very enjoyable dish and I ate it all, despite eating three large slices of garlic pizza bread beforehand.

The second pic is of my friend's meal, the spinach and ricotta ravioli. I know she really likes spinach and ricotta anyway so I had a funny feeling she was going to pick that. Anyway, despite not looking like too much on the plate it was apparently filling and had a nice kick with the added black pepper. I think it was enjoyed, even though she eats like a bird.

To drink I had two smoothies, one a Jamaican 8 (so that just had loads of tropical fruit in it like pineapples and mangoes with fat-free frozen yogurt) and the other was a berry-flavoured smoothie that I can't rightly remember the name of. Anyway, this one had loads of berries in it (duh) so it was more like the type that I drink whenever I go to the juice bar in town.

We got kicked out a bit earlier than we might have liked because another group had booked the table for about 8-ish. But it didn't really matter, it was likely to fill up because of the match that was on anyway (the whole place had massive TV screens everywhere, some showing SkySports News and others showing DVDs of sports - our table was showing a DVD that was a combination of when motorbiking goes bad and when skiing and snowboarding goes bad. Good, cringey action.).

I'd go there again, maybe try a pizza and sacrifice the garlic pizza bread - there's a huge selection and everyone will probably find something they like.

P.S. I am sorry about the bunched up writing on some of my posts recently - I've complained to blogger but they haven't done anything about it. I'm afraid you'll just have to cope for now! Sorry -- Scarlet x

Liverpool: Capital of Construction Workers

Now as you've probably noticed I've been away. On holiday. To Liverpool. Some of us can't afford a foreign holiday, and I had my very occasional foreign excursion last year to Paris which was lurvely until I went down with something terrible (and I'll not go any further than that, I don't know how many of you are eating). But I went to Liverpool last year as well, and I've been going for a good few years now.

This year though Liverpool is European Capital of Culture so I had to go: a.) early and b.) with an open mind that I wouldn't be one of only a couple of tourists wandering around snapping everything. The camera was at the ready this year too and the image above is meant to represent the only thing that I regret not being able to snap: construction workers!

Right now construction is under way of Liverpool One, a big complex that includes a Hilton Hotel, 5 acres of parkland and a multitude of shops. But every time I passed through it to have breakfast or to return to my hotel (it's easier than climbing up and down the hills like I used to: flat is best) the workers were all sitting down on their coffee break (or tea break really).

Mostly they eyed up the women, and gathered around the Greggs bakers that was down one of the little passages there. Like pigeons! I expected them to flap their arms and coo before pecking their sausage rolls and pasties - not one had a supposedly "healthy" roll. Not that Greggs has ever served anything healthy.

It's no wonder that they haven't finished everything they were supposed to if they've been given such long and liberal breaks. The cree, by which I mean the construction site, was normally empty or filled with sad looking worker-pigeons desperate for their next sit down on the stairs. Poor things. I bet they haven't had a tea for 20 minutes...