A Few Days In Birkenhead

Wednesday

Today, Judi left St Andrews for a few weeks. Before returning to Australia, she will spend a few days with her Uncle Jack in Birkenhead, and then some days with Joy and Roger in Chelmsford.

The train to Edinburgh from Leuchars came in on time at 10.45 am, and arrived on time in Edinburgh Waverley. The journey went right along the edge of the sea for quite a distance. It was very pretty with the sea to the left and snow-capped hills on the right. It crossed the Firth of Forth on the rail bridge that we had seen when we went over the Forth Road Bridge on our way to Edinburgh the previous week. In fact, there was a very good view of the road bridge across the Firth of Forth.

On arrival at Edinburgh Waverley,the man who was checking tickets helpfully said ‘You will need Platform 14’. Essentially, it was only about 10 feet from where the Leuchars train had come in, so there was no problem finding the next train at all.

The Manchester Airport train was incredibly packed with people, and it was pretty squashy. There are no longer buffet cars on the train, but a lady came down the aisle to take snack and drink orders. It would have been useful to know what was on the menu; however, a coffee and some shortbread fingers was available. It was surprisingly pleasant coffee, and with the biscuits only cost £2.90, which was not too bad at all.

Once at Manchester Airport, Judi made her way to the Car Rentals, which had been moved from the terminal building to the 14th floor of the carpark. After several attempts to find a desk, it seemed that the carpark was definitely the place to go. There they all were in a cabin on the roof. Very weird!  Anyway, they had the booking. The girl asked if Judi was able to drive an automatic as they had a brand new Kia Ceed that had just arrived, but was automatic. She was naturally fine with it. It is diesel, which is great, and seems like a very nice car to drive.

After a very pleasant meal at the Carnarvon Castle pub, an early night at the per-booked Premier Inn was a necessity after all the travelling of the day.

Thursday

Chester Gate

On Thursday morning, Judi drove to Chester and took the Park-and-Ride into the city centre. This was considerably more successful than the Edinburgh experience (although the Edinburgh council did respond to our email complaining about what had happened when Lloyd and Judi had attempted to take the Park-and Ride there).

Chester is very beautiful with city walls that you can walk around. After getting off the bus, to enter the city centre itself, you go through the Chester Gate. There is also a Cathedral, that Judi visited. The Maundy Thursday service was in session, and it was fascinating to see so many clergy all the same place.

Chester Cathedral

The trip to Chester was mainly a brief shopping and sightseeing trip, but it became rather extended when Judi found some rather nice ear-rings. The process of buying them took rather longer than anticipated, as the ear-rings consisted of glass beads mounted on a figure of eight setting. However, the two beads were rather too different (they are all individually hand made), and so phone calls were made to other stores in the chain to see if any had a better matching bead. The store in Liverpool claimed to have several, and from our description, it looked as though one might be exactly right. Uncle Jack and Judi were going to Liverpool the following day, so one was put aside to be picked up after the Good Friday service at the Cathedral. What is particularly interesting about this is that the shops in England were open on Good Friday!

The remainder of the afternoon was spend back at Uncle Jack's house with Judi returning his laptop back to how it had been set up 2 years ago. Uncle Jack had been advised (by an Apple computer user) that he didn't need to renew his Norton's Internet and Anti-Virus software that Judi initially installed. Naturally, he got a disastrous attack on his system and the computer had been completely reformatted the previous week. There were not any really important files lost, but the programs needed to be returned to familiar settings and desktop icons for Uncle Jack.

In the evening, Uncle Jack took Judi out to a lovely restaurant called The Manor (at Greasby) where they had been on several occasions before. The food is always exceptionally good, and tonight was no exception.

Liverrpool Cathedral

Friday

Uncle Jack and Judi decided to attend the Good Friday service at Liverpool Cathedral this morning. There were no problems finding the cathedral (which is vast and up a hill), or a disabled parking space. Before the service the choir were practising, which provided a lovely backdrop while waiting for the service to start. What we had not accounted for was that the service was 'Stations of the Cross' with different sections of the service taking place in different areas of the church.

High Altar

We started in the main chancel (facing the High Altar), and then, during the first hymn, we all got up and followed the procession of the clergy and choir, into the first of two smaller chapels. At each stop, there was something sung by the choir, a reading and a prayer, before we moved on.


Inside Liverpool Cathedral

Judi's greatest concern about this was that Uncle Jack finds walking quite difficult, and certainly doesn't like to stand for long. There was no need for concern though, as the servers from the Cathedral came up to him every time we were due to move, and directed him to a chair at the new stopping point. 

West Window

The final two stops though were in open areas. Uncle Jack leant against a pillar at the first, and was able to prop himself on the hand rail of some steps at the final stop. It was all extremely moving and the music was exquisite. At the end, the great West Door was opened, and all the congregation left in silence with the clergy and choir lining the entrance. Had we known what was going to happen during the service, we would have been rather hesitant about attending, but, in the event, we were both completely delighted that we had gone. 

We went to John Lewis for coffee after the service, and after the matching bead for the ear-rings had been successfully picked up, went to their restaurant for lunch.

The remainder of the afternoon involved completing the computer set-up for Uncle Jack and the creation of an Excel spreadsheet for Judi's cousin David to maintain his business accounts. Today was the start of the new tax year in the UK.

Saturday

Hoylake Promenade

Today Judi and Uncle Jack decided to go out for a brief car trip. Judi wanted to see the completed renovations to the Kings Gap hotel, where her father had lived the final three years of his life.The hotel has been taken over by the Holiday Inn organisation and is mostly unrecognisable. However, the original building with the entrance we used to use have been retained (although not being used as an entrance any more). Uncle Jack estimated that the windows to Judi's father rooms seem to still be intact, but who knows what is behind the windows now. The remainder is a very new building looking like many motel chains.

Sea View from Hoylake

After looking at the hotel, a visit to the Hoylake promenade was a must. The sun was breaking through and the tide looked high. However, in fact there were another three hours to high tide. At the moment, Hoylake is having the highest spring tides on record, and the promenade would certainly have had the sea completely covering it later that morning.

Rising Sun, Tarporley

Judi and Uncle Jack then drove to a small village called Tarporley for lunch at a lovely pub called The Rising Sun. Tarporley itself is very pretty and the lunch was absolutely superb - seafood pancakes completely packed with scallops, prawns and a white fish. Judi also indulged in a raspberry meringue roulade afterwards, which was equally delicious. To see a bit more of the countryside, a different route was taken back to Birkenhead, past a number of little castles. It is a very pretty part of the country.

Easter Sunday
Judi drove down to Essex today to stay with friends before returning to Australia at the weekend. Unfortunately is pouring with rain, and it seems that rain is forecast now for the remaining days. Lloyd is doing well in St Andrews. He has taken a number of local walks, visited a Farmer's Market and is getting down to some serious academic work.

Weather Breaks into Snow

Monday
Today got off to a rather disconcerting start. When Judi got up at 6.00am, it was still dark and she turned on the kitchen lights to put on the kettle. One of the downlight globes blew immediately which in turn blew a fuse plunging the whole house into darkness. A slight sense of panic ensued, before Judi started to ascertain what was and was not working. It seemed that power points were unaffected, so all of the occasional lights worked. Luckily, the kettle also worked. There then followed an extensive search of the house to try to locate the fuse board. It was nowhere to be found, so a call the the landlord was necessary as soon as it was a reasonable time for phone calls. No wonder the fuse board was hard to find - it was behind a sliding door at the back of one of the wardrobes. However, once located, it was just a matter of putting the trip switch up and all the main lights came on (except for the one where the globe had gone of course).

Lloyd gave his second seminar at 11.00am while Judi got on with correcting the page proofs from the book chapter that was recently accepted. The proofs are due back to the publisher on Wednesday which is the day Judi is travelling down to Birkenhead.

After the class we went to a local pub for lunch. On several occasions we had noticed a special offer on 'Bangers and Mash' at this pub from Mondays to Fridays. The weather was ideal for the meal as the warm sunshine had been replaced by cloud and a rather cold wind. The 'Bangers and Mash' fully lived up to expectations and was served with a rich gravy and pickle - delicious! After a brief time at the house, Lloyd went off for the afternoon 4.30pm seminar and Judi returned to the page proofs.

Tuesday

Snow on Patio

At about 5.00am we were both woken up by a strange noise, which we determined was a howling gale blowing around the house. All the time since we had arrived, the forecast for Tuesday had been bad with the possibility of snow. We had tended to take it all with a grain of salt until we got up later to see snow definitely falling in the garden.

Snowing at Cobwebs

Judi in Snow

This afternoon we went to the 'local' Sainsburys' to stock groceries up for Lloyd up before Judi leaves in the morning tomorrow, and the drive involves slightly higher ground. We were astonished to see fairly thick snow beside the road and over the countryside, so we could not resist photographing each other in it as a contrast to the photos taken only a few days ago in bright warm sunshine.

Lloyd in Snow

Snow Covered Countryside

Sadly, Judi will be packing tonight and leaving St Andrews tomorrow. However, luckily we have organised for her to return at the end of May.

Palm Sunday & East Neuk Tour of Fishing Villages

Today is Palm Sunday, and since we are living almost next door to an Episcopalian Church (i.e. a Church of England church in Scotland), Judi decided to attend the morning Sung Eucharist at 10.00am.

On arrival, she was presented with a Palm Cross, as had happened last year at Joy's church; but there the similarity between the two occasions ended. This local church conducted the most 'high church' service Judi had ever attended. The clergy blessed the palm crosses at the start with incense, and than the whole congregation processed behind the clergy and choir on a complete circuit of the church while singing the first hymn. The entire service was sung (including all the responses from the congregation); however, the choir was excellent. They sang an anthem, the Agnus Dei and a motet during the service absolutely beautifully. During the preparation for communion, there was a considerable amount of incense released from the swinging censor, the sounding of a bell and the church bell several times. These practices Judi had always thought were confined to the Roman Catholic church, but it did illustrate how close the high church of England is to the Roman Catholic church in terms of practices.

There was no sermon, but the service did not conclude until 11.45am. It was nevertheless an interesting and spiritual experience.

Lloyd at Pittenweem Harbour

After lunch we decided to go along the coast to see some very picturesque fishing villages. This whole area of Fife is known as East Neuk. The first village was called Pittenweem, which had a delightful active fishing harbour (pictured).

Pittenweem Harbour

Judi at Pittenweem Harbour

Beach at Anstruther

We then travelled further along the coast to Anstruther, where we walked along the side of a beach to look back up to the town, before heading back to St Andrews via Crail. We were by now a little too weary to walk down to Crail harbour - perhaps another day, when I return to St Andrews in May.



Anstruther from Coastal Walk

Saturday Staying Local

Today was the first of the projected cooler days, so we allocated it to household activities like running the washing, visiting the supermarket and a trip into Lloyd's office to see if the network connection was now working so that he can print some documents for Monday afternoon's seminar.

The washing and supermarket trip were successful, although the washing machine and dryer both take much longer to complete a cycle than the ones at Dai Court. Nevertheless, all washing and ironing are now complete in readiness for Judi's departure to Birkenhead on Wednesday.

The trip to the office was not quite as successful. The cable connection still did not work, but we were able to get Lloyd's laptop onto the University of St Andrews secure network. We think that Judi may not have provided the correct Mac address, sowe emailed an alternative in the hope that it can be set up before Judi leaves. Unfortunately, printing over the network depends on being connected on a cable, so Lloyd had to put a USB key into the computer attached to the printer in order to print the documents.


North Point Café

The remainder of the day we spent just wandering around St Andrews and visiting the local shops - of which there are plenty. Very near the house is North Point Café
which has an interesting sign in the window which reads:, 'Where Kate met Wills (for coffee)'.

Pipers Welcoming Guests

One very attractive aspect of Scottish Towns and cities (including St Andrews) is the prevalence of bagpipers. They are not performing as such, but being used to welcome people into hotels and buildings, or in the case of a wedding at the University Chapel yesterday, heralding the arrival of the bride. While we were having afternoon tea yesterday, the pipers in the photo started up across the street to mark the start of some function in the building. It is a strikingly appropriate sound for these contexts.