Back in the saddle!

Since the last time I blogged I have returned to work. I’m going in three days a week. I’d actually prefer to be in five days but feel I need to show some solidarity with my comrades who are still stuck working from home.

Working from home has taken its toll on my mental health. Working from home is a misnomer. It should be called working from house because it feels that your home is no longer a home. Work invades your privacy, lets people into your house you don’t want in there, restricts your freedom, makes you feel guilty for going to the toilet and missing a phone call. I hate wearing a headset and talking to a laptop screen. I hate trying to discern how people feel by the tone of their voice.

Sweet home Walney Island

Going back to the office has let me reconnect with colleagues who I now realise are actually friends rather than workmates. Being able to talk shit with people when you are making a coffee is a fantastic feeling. Bidding people good morning or good night is heartfelt. Work feels liberating rather than suffocating.

The return of Premier league football has been something of a damp squib. Empty grounds feel weird. I watch games with the fake crowd sounds to try and get some sense of normality. The scum claiming to be Premier league winners feels inappropriate in this time of dying. Ha, it feels good to live up to the Bitter Blue hashtag. Hopefully next season we will rise again. Try and watch Howard’s way. An excellent documentary about Howard Kendall’s first tenure as Everton manager and the glory years of the eighties. Scummers, I will never forgive you for Heysel. I wept watching the Hillsborough tragedy unfold and still do when remembering that dark day but the Italian families who lost loved ones at Heysel should not be forgotten.

Similarly, watching the England v West Indies cricket feels weird. In truth, it’s not much different from a dull Tuesday at a County championship game but in normal times, the grounds would be full and the sight and sound of joyous West Indies fans intermingling with their English counterparts would melt the coldest heart.

The point of this blog is the gradual re-opening of England and our gradual re-entry. We had a trip out to Bromborough on the Wirral in early June to pick up a new CD player (Marantz CD6006, excellent!). As we were only ten minutes away, we visited Cheshire Oaks outlet mall after picking up my new HiFi addition. About 75% of the shops were open but the place was eerily quiet. Parking was easy rather than the usual nightmare. All the shops were really well organised and it felt safe. On the way back to Walney we stopped off in Lancaster. It was supposed to be market day but it hadn’t re-opened. The town centre was like a scene from a Zombie apocalypse movie. I don’t want to dwell on it but it was depressing and even slightly scary. Since then we drove through a depressingly empty Bowness on a sunny day, visited Kendal where I found a great record shop I have never been to before and found a garden centre in Foxfield where we bought a fantastic Bay tree.

Last Sunday we took our first overnight road trip. Predictably the destination was Liverpool, my favourite place on God’s great earth. Caitlin and Callum came with us which was really good. After parking close to our hotel on Vernon street we walked into the city centre passing the statue of Eleanor Rigby which feels particularly poignant in these troubled times.

I had only one thing on my mind, a visit to Dig Vinyl upstairs in Resurrection on Bold Street. On arrival I was greeted by a sign that advised that the maximum number of people allowed in was four. I patiently waited outside until I could comply. I immersed myself in the sacred art of vinyl foraging. When I raised my head I found that there were at least ten people in there, most of whom were maskless Mensa dodgers! I pointed this out to the one cell module working there who said they had stopped anyone else coming in……………..Too late Bro!!!

It could only be my first post ‘Rona pub visit after that! Callum and I headed for The Richard John Blackler, the ‘Spoons by St Johns precinct as The Globe is still closed. My god did that first pint taste good!!!

Our friends Karyn and Graeme and their son Sam joined us in there and I enjoyed a great afternoon catching up after too long. The Wetherspoons app makes ordering drinks easy…………too easy maybe!!

After a power nap and a shower it was time to sample post- Covid Liverpool on a Sunday night. My favourite pub Ye Cracke is still closed as are Peter Kavanagh’s and the Fly in the Loaf. We started in the Vernon Arms on Dale street. A great pub even if it is a scummer haunt

We then Uber’d to Crazy Pedro’s in the Ropewalks area. A favourite of Caitlin and Callum, who rhapsodised to us about the Pizzas at the Manchester branch. We got a seat outdoors on the upstairs terrace which was great. The Pizzas were superb as were the cocktails. Despite being double the age of some punters and treble the age of others, I really enjoyed it and will return

We walked through the Ropewalks neighbourhood back towards Bold street and went for a pint in the Newington Temple. Although this pub is another scummer palace, I love the relaxed psychedelic vibe. The fact that they now sell real ale is a bonus.

After that Pat and I bowed to the inevitable and left the Ropewalks to the younger crowd. We returned to Dale street hoping to check out The Excelsior. Unfortunately it closed at 9.30 pm as had the nearby Crown and Mitre. ‘Rona wasn’t going to defeat us so thankfully the Rose and Crown on Cheapside was open. Our first time in this friendly local but hopefully not our last.

So, a night in Liverpool is definitely different. It still feels good and it definitely feels safe. We went on a Sunday which is always quieter than Friday and Saturday but the way pubs have organised there selves to fall in line with social distancing rules is reassuring.

On Monday morning we walked into town and had breakfast at the Welkin before heading to Everton 2, Liverpool 1 to stock up on face masks ready for new rules coming in to play from 24th July. On the way back to the hotel I stopped in at the bank. Who’d have thought that banks would welcome people wearing masks!!!

As I was writing this blog I learned of the passing of Peter Green. Peter was the founder of Fleetwood Mac. He was playing in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers but decided to quit and form his own band taking drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie with him. Peter Green was a fantastic guitarist. BB King said of Green  “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”

Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac in 1970. He was suffering from Schizophrenia possibly brought on by excessive consumption of LSD. Although he returned in the late 90’s with Peter Green’s Splinter group he never recaptured the highs of his time in Fleetwood Mac.

RIP Peter Green