retiredmartin

Not literally fallen, though it was a bit blustery yesterday, and Matt was headed there last night so who knows ?

The wind isn’t the biggest concern to Manchester City fans visiting Liverpool, of course;

If Walton is really an Everton stronghold, then I can report that Toffees fans are rather more welcoming to visitors, a series of cars along Rice Lane notably slowing down and avoiding the big puddle near the footpath just past Joey’s.

From Rice Lane I started the last leg of #MerseyGBG22 (T-shirts £10, fancy dress optional) to the mysterious South Liverpool, home of The Beatles. Whoever they are.

It should have taken 34 minutes, but Mersey trains are no match for Manc trams and the line to the south only runs every 20 minutes. And they don’t have loos at the stations.

Luckily, there’s a park at St. Michaels with a nice park with bushes which in 1984 housed Michael Helseltine’s Garden Festival. About the only thing my Dad can name in Liverpool.

Oh, come on ! How am I supposed to get in there ?

St Michael’s is a smart Victorian suburb, home to micropubs, majestic churches and Macca.

No, I didn’t visit Paul’s childhood home, I needed to get out of town as soon as I had my tick.

At 14:58 there were lights on inside the Little Taproom @ Aigburth, but the “closed sign” taunted me.

The 2 minutes before a micro officially opens are the worst 2 minutes in a tickers’ life (unless they’re suffering Maltmeister’s puns).

At 15:00 the nice lady ushered me in (that clock is an hour wrong, commemorating the EXACT moment that Gerrard slipped over in 2014. Possibly).

I asked her to choose me a beer as I detest choices, and after the little “depends on what style you like” thing I ended up with a Wishbone.

“It tastes nutty” she said, forcing me subliminally to have the peanut butter filled pretzels in a yellow dish.

Well, it tasted of beer, and left good lacings, and I’d have stayed for another except that would have risked missing the fast train to Manchester.

And the slow train to Manchester goes through Rick Astley’s hometown, and we know what that means, don’t we ?