Liverpool Football Club

Patrick Travel, UK Life

Everyone who visits Liverpool needs to make a trip to the Liverpool Football Club. As those fans might say, there are only two good football teams, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves (I never got that joke until I found out that Everton was just a stone’s throw from the Liverpool stadium). Strangely I ended up with an Everton supporting cabbie who took me out of the city to where the football stadium was.

The tour lasts about an hour and departs every fifteen minutes. I didn’t think that there would have been so much demand for the tour, yet given the size of the group I went with (about 25) and the fact plenty more people queued to order tickets for the next tour, I shouldn’t have been surprised as much.

The tour takes you around the historical Liverpool stadium starting where the press room is with cardboard cut outs of Gerrard and Torres. As pointed out by the tour guide, the press room is surprisingly plain – in fact the entire place is surprisingly plain and that’s because they like to keep everything traditional.

They took us to the changing rooms (just as plain and traditional as everything else) although they pointed out that the shower rooms were locked because too many fans wanted to spent time in it (how weird!). We got to amble around the other rooms for a while including a number of other press rooms and the visiting team’s changing room apparently bigger because they need to bring many of their own staff.

We also got pointed to the famous, “This is Anfield” sign hanging on the walkway that apparently is really lucky if you touch it. I’m surprised more people didn’t give it a go like I did. Apparently the reminder does plenty to shake a visiting team off their game.

Our next stop was the stadium itself, and whilst it’s not the biggest stadium, apparently it’s popular enough that there is a 20, 000 person waiting list to get tickets. As a result, we were told a new stadium (just down the road) is being built and that a shopping centre would be built on the grounds – except for the pitch were many a fan asked their cremated ashes to be scattered. This will eventually be turned into a garden path leading to the new stadium.

The Kop is well known in this club and despite a terrible history where 96 fans lost their lives in a landslide crush, is still a popular seating area today. Even with the tiny little chairs, I was honestly shocked to hear they used to fit four times as many people into such the tiny little area. Today, the row of seats is apparently the longest, unrestricted view of the football stadium.

Next time I visit Liverpool, I’ll do the decent thing and try the Everton tour (if they have one) but I definitely enjoyed the passion that all of the Liverpool guides brought as well as the lively set of fans.

Weekend in Liverpool

Patrick Travel, UK Life

Touted as the European Capital of Culture just under two years ago, Liverpool has a reputation to uphold. Home to The Beatles and a once, famous shipping port of England, there is plenty of interesting historical buildings and things to see and do in this city. On the flip side, you have its infamous reputation as a rough part of the country and its chav-friendliness for hordes of hen and stag weekends. Seeing that almost every chain bar seems to exist in the city centre seems to be proof enough. It might even be the first city to support, three, separate Revolution chain bars all within walking distance of each other.

Fortunately Liverpool’s gastronomic experiences seem to be promising as long as you step away from the chain restaurants and various pubs littered around the city. A combination of several blogs, websites and Harden’s guide helped me enjoy most meals with great food and reasonable value. I’ll promise to post reviews of the places on my other blog when I get around to it.

There’s even one great boutique coffee store serving a mean flat white called Bold Street Coffee. I wanted to enjoy the coffee at Rococo as well but despite its great takeaway value (£1), seemed to lack that important pre-requisite – well made coffee (sorry!).

There are plenty of things to do as a visitor with much of the tourist action centred around the docks. Not only do large cruise liners dock in, but the famous Mersey Ferries that carry people to the other side conduct regular tours travelling up and down the Mersey accompanied by a voice recorded tourguide. Down at the Albert Docks you’ll find the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the International Slavery Museum, both with very good installations at the moment.

You’ll also find the Tate Liverpool currently exhibiting a really well made, and free, sculpture exhibition as well as a two floor, paid for, Picasso exhibit. There’s some great videos of some residents critiquing the art and discussing amongst themselves whether or not they think they are good pieces of art. It’s hilarious. There’s also a really interesting interactive exhibit where you put headphones on, entering a floor where disco lights flood and you’re encouraged to dance to form part of the artwork. Pretty decent soundtrack as well.

At the other end of the docks, you’ll find one of the two locations of The Beatles Story detailing all you ever wanted to know about the original boy band (and more!) in an audio tour guided museum. Be warned that you will need to queue and, once inside, will generally be pretty packed with visitors. I think it’s still worth the money with some really great recreations, memorabilia and things that make you feel like you’re a part of it.

As I mentioned earlier, Liverpool is dotted with plenty of historical buildings and one piece of mesmerising public art is the building just outside of Moorefields train station. Richard Wilson, the artist behind this work, “Turning the Place Over” creates a strange sensation as you watch the egg shaped disc rotate around to expose raw building work only to seal up moments later.

More than that, Liverpool has some really friendly people although the Scouser accent really takes some getting used to (and I thought I’m generally pretty alright with accents).

The Complete History of Food

Patrick Entertainment, Food, Theatre, UK Life

Bompas and Parr are famous for putting on some spectacular events involving food and a number of other senses. It makes you think how great their own parties must be.

They’re latest venture titled, “The Complete History of Food” transformed the former Royal Agricultural Society building into a journey taking you back to medieval times stepping through a multi-course and multi-sensory trip. Entrance was timed, giving everyone a fairly intimate experience moving from floor to floor, room to room and enjoying the fun atmosphere. Below is the map decorated on the wall, describing the floor and the rooms contents.

At only ￡25 a ticket (subsidised mind you by a well known Cognac maker) I think it was pretty great value given plenty of spirit to walk out tipsy, some great food and an entertaining experience. We stepped inside a dark room, manned by a young gentlemen determined to diagnose our mood and there to prescribe something that fell within four different categories (a different sticker later denoting a different cocktail and finger food starter).

After a quick lighting of the various people in the room (including the very jovial picture of Bompas and Parr below), we moved to the next room (ladies taking off heels) only to find ourselves carefully balancing so not to fall into the man made moat contained in one the rooms. Stepping from plank to plank, we find ourselves transported to the interior of a ship hull moored in a pool of water (mind the eels apparently) where we are given a supplement to ease our moods – I was a phlegmatic last week thus needing a Choleric solution to help balance me out, thus starting with Cabbage, white wine, caper artichoke paired with a Courvoisier Exclusif Rose Water drink courtesy of Saf.

Next up, we ascended in an elevator that fit no more than four people, we emerge on the rooftop terrace to enjoy a deconstructed champagne, bubbles and fizz enjoyed separately courtesy of Lounge Bohemia.

We drank this accompanied by a wicked savoury foie gras equivalent of a ferrero rocher made by Alexis Gauthier of Michelin starred Gauthier Soho. What a wise move to get people to descend through the house as they pick up more food, and a lighter head.

Next up was the scratch and sniff meal, complete with a fully functioning seventies TV set whose glow radiated out towards the sofas. We inhaled aromas of minty peas, golden potatoes, pumpkin and roasted chicken as our fingernails did their magic. A strange, yet very appropriate activity.

This brought us to the bouncy castle, made up as the interior of someone’s stomach before walking through the corridor of
mushrooms (I assure you, of which, we had not ingested any of the hallucinogenic kind) before joining some other people in the middle of an iguanodon to enjoy one of the best confit duck dishes I’ve had for some time. I’m definitely going to have to check the makers of this, Bistrotheque.

Puy lentils, beetroot and a black champagne sauce combined with a really strong alcoholic punch, I was glad for this heavier dish to help combat some of the alcohol. Below is a picture of the really strong punch.

The great thing about this part is that we didn’t seem rushed to eat our meal, so we sat their conversing with a nice New Zealand couple who’d come along for the evening as well.

Golden arrows directed us towards the dessert room where a Gingerbread version of London’s very own gherkin greeted us as did a spinning monument of jelly.

The jelly served aboard an impressive spinning tower of what looked like sugar art, but ended up as decorated porcelain. Still impressive looking.

Though the jelly was a predictable and welcome finishing touch, it still did plenty to put a close to the evening. The spinning beauties being served included iris jelly, candied orange some berries and very tasty whale vomit (Ambergris Posset). A surprise feast for everyone.

Tickets for their events are limited and done so for good reason with every experience and taste to be savoured, unlikely to be reproduced. I appreciated and really enjoyed the experience walking through the Complete History of Food.

Horror in the West End

Patrick Entertainment, Theatre, UK Life

A couple of weeks ago, I went out with Kath and her sister to see the West End play, the Woman in Black. I love thriller and horror movies and to be able to experience something like this live was definitely something special. This play, celebrating its 21st year running in the West End has brought chills and thrills to over 7 million people. Three more were spooked that evening as well.

The story is effectively the retelling of a ghost story that involves two main actors, one of them trying to tell their story and experience of the Woman in Black. As I write this, my skin gets goosebumps thinking about some of the situations you, as an audience member, finds yourself. Fortunately I won’t give too much away to the story line other than you want to brace yourself for some of the eerie moments, particularly when all the women in the audience start screaming their heads off.

In other interesting, related news, I read that Daniel Radcliffe will star in the movie make of this movie. I hope it’s as good as the stage play. On top of that, it looks like the writer of Kick-Ass, Jane Goldman is penned to script the movie. This will be good.

Ice Cream Science @ The Dana Centre

Patrick Entertainment, Food, UK Life

A couple of weeks back, I went to my first Dana Centre event titled, “Ice Cream Science”. This place has been on my list of things to do for a while, since they usually hold at least one evening per month an “Adults Late” – no, nothing like that – rather, just the ability for adults to enjoy the science museum late after work on evening without the hassle of lots of kids running around. I immediately signed up for this evening session when I saw it was going to be on one of my favourite foods, ice cream!

On the evening, they had food scientist, Chris Clarke, author of The Science of Ice Cream talk about what makes ice cream so popular as well as the way it’s changed over the years. He gave a very scientific analysis, with some great visualisations around what makes ice cream, well, ice cream and how to go about making it (it’s not just the ingredients but it’s the process that matters).

To contrast the scientific approach, the Dana Centre also invited Christian Oddono of Oddono’s who, being Italian, took the more artisanal approach to describing his passion for Italian ice creams, gelati. It was great to have the differences compared and really liked Oddono’s tagline for, “Life is too short to eat bad ice cream.” Oh so true.

Even with a fairly average meal (pizza slice & salad), an enjoyable part of the evening was the interactive, tasting part, where they brought six different flavoured ice creams to try. Oh so wise for them to put the more experimental flavours up front. This one, pictured below, for instance was a salmon-flavoured ice cream. Despite the strange, savoury flavour, this was definitely the least offensive of the savoury flavoured ice creams, and if you imagine something like a salmon mousse, just slightly more solid and chilled, this as pretty much that. Definitely a good introduction to what could be (not really what should be) done with ice cream flavours.

The next venture took us to a mustard seed ice cream. This reminds me of some wasabi flavoured ice cream I’ve had before, although much more subtle in flavour but more noticeable in texture with the mustard seeds peppered throughout. This one seemed to attract quite a number of fans in the audience.

The worst of the bunch, was the next, very, very experimental flavoured ice cream – banana, garlic and parmesan. Of the six, this is the only one that I had to put down and not finish, even being the very small serve. I think the combination, without the ice cream, is strange enough. I’ve had banana and cheese, and garlic and cheese, but not quite all three at the same time. As an ice cream, it was made even more weird because none of the flavours seemed to dominate but not really taste well as a trio either.

The next, one of my favourites of the evening was the chilli and chocolate ice cream. Chilli and chocolate are well known partners, and as an ice cream, made even more interesting. The first lick brings the rich chocolate flavours, combined with a refreshing cold sensation, only to be quickly followed by the warm, tickling chilli sensation. Something I’ll definitely try one day.

The next one, honey and lavender was definitely a rich and fragrant ice cream although the honey was almost sickly overwhelming. I still really enjoyed this once, for the flowery flavours and the sweetness easily tolerable in its mini-cone flavour.

The final ice cream of the evening was a green tea ice cream dotted with chocolate pieces. Unlike many of the green tea ice creams I’ve had in the past, this one didn’t seem to be as gritty as many of the ones I’ve had previously. The flavour is definitely not as strong as many of the previous ice creams of the evening but you could taste, and see the richness of the green tea leaves.

I look forward to a few more evenings at the Dana Centre. I certainly had a lot of fun and ideas for ice cream. My next inspiration will be to try some sort of Pimms flavoured ice cream before the summer is out.

Paris in July

Patrick Travel

After getting home from the Jack Johnson concert, I ended up with about four hours sleep before having to get up early to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Unfortunately for me, I ended up getting the earliest train I could of the day so I could turn up to a conference I had been invited to present at and I knew that my speaking slot was sometime in the afternoon. As dead-tired as I was given the minimal sleep, I ended up learning my essential French phrase for the day, “un café s’il vous plaît” (or one coffee please).

The temperatures in Paris were scorching, reaching something like thirty three degrees during the day. Figuring I should attempt to blend in with the European attitude towards fashion, the practicality of long-sleeved business attire with slacks didn’t seem particularly practical. However, given the number of people still opting to wear suits, I definitely wasn’t under or overdressed for the occasion. The conference was wonderfully organised and despite many of the sessions spoken in French, I talked with quite a number of interesting geeks who attended.

I spent the rest of the weekend walking around Paris and enjoying the laid back, cafe atmosphere. The heat and humidity built up over the Thursday and Friday, resulting in the heaviest down pour I’ve experienced for sometime. It was almost quite tropical. I can only thank the weatherman for their forecast and my decision to bring my heavy-duty umbrella. Even with this, I thought it’d be best to stick to some museums so I went to their Pompidou Centre that effectively holds their modern art collection.

The building is massive with plenty of floors and plenty of art work. If you were really that into all the art, you could easily have spent all day there. They did have some interesting exhibits and I’m glad that some kinetic art had a whole, interesting section of their own.

Sunday turned out to be a much better day, where I spent most of the time simply walking around enjoying the atmosphere. I attempted some of the different things I missed out on last time, such as going into the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, but the lines seemed every longer than when I went here a few years ago. Despite the nice weather to queue, I still wasn’t in that much of a mood so I move on.

One thing noticeably different in summer were the huge tour groups descending – many of them American school kids that you can hear from miles away. I guess it’s not really different from the large groups currently parading (and blocking pathways) around London. A wonderful weekend and thumbs up to the Eurostar for being a nice way to travel.

Jack Johnson at the O2

Patrick Entertainment, Music, UK Life

Yes, the picture below is supposed to be Jack Johnson and his band. I tried taking my new lens to get a really good view of the stage but apparently the lens was too big and I wasn’t allowed to bring it inside. Sarah and I had a laugh at trying to take pictures right at the other side of the stadium, with this big blur the end result.

Jack Johnson hasn’t toured for a while, and that was quite evident with the number of false starts and laid back laughs interrupting, his otherwise really fun set. Of course, this laid back attitude is what you’d expect from someone who puts out tunes best suited for lazy afternoons and the sun setting by the beach. I was thinking how cool it would have been if the O2 could actually open their roof up. Given that the weather has been wonderful, this would have been almost the perfect way you could enjoy some of Jack’s riffs.

I guess the main reason he’s touring is to promote his new album, To The Sea, though playing a mix of lots of his old stuff as well. A great way to spend a Wednesday evening in London.

Life in the UK

Patrick UK Life

I’m going to be applying for a different visa to stay in the UK since my five year visa is coming to an end. As part of the new visa, I’ve had to take the Life in the UK exam that meant acquiring a copy of the book and then reserving an examination.

Finding an examination centre is easy on their website, and although I found one nearby that did Saturday exams, the next available one was during a Monday morning period. Despite what you hear about the exam, the revised second edition seemed to be really pragmatic, and many tips that really would have been useful for anyone when they first arrive in the UK. They do a really decent job summarising the long history behind the UK and despite needing to sometimes memorise some strange percentages and facts, most of it makes a lot of sense.

When some people arrive in a new country, it is really safe for them to simply stay around the people and the culture that they’re aware of. Depending on how open that community is to other things, simple everyday tasks might seem strange. The book covers many practical aspects to living in the UK, such as how the government works around (and the devolved governments in Wales and Scotland), essentials that are easy to take for granted such as how rental agreements and the process for buying houses works all the way to the school system, work system and what things are covered by the NHS.

Sitting an exam was really interesting as well, since I hadn’t studied for one since leaving University. You end up with forty-five minutes on a multiple choice computer exam to answer twenty-four questions. I finished my exam in five minutes, after which I was allowed to see the steward to get my pass/fail result and although that seems quick, at least five people finished ahead of me, with one person finished in what seemed like two minutes. I made sure I even double checked them.

They don’t really tell you if you get stuff wrong, which would have been nice, but I’m glad I passed.