Painting The Town Red

Priorities

Those of you who know me know that I am a fairly relaxed bloke, but that there are some things that I take quite seriously. These include the efficient solution of partial differential equations, cooking good curry and football.

I allow myself to get over-excited by football, and in particular, the exploits of the one-and-only Liverpool Football Club. So, when The Reds got to the final of the Champions League last week I decided that it was time to leave my nest in Godalming, and head north to Liverpool to enjoy the game with some of the best football fans in the world. This presented no problems with my employer, as I had made it clear when I started working there that they could work me on any day at any hour they wanted - except for days when Liverpool were playing in Europe. One has to prioritise.

To The North

I bought a train ticket a week before the match, but was unable to get any accomodation - all the hotels had been booked out a month in advance for this night-of-nights. No bother, I didn't plan to get much sleep in, and I figured that half of Liverpool had similar designs.

Four hours after leaving Godalming I had travelled the length of England to the old port city. Four hours of the green English countryside in the sun. Crickey, it takes me the same amount of time to get from Brisbane to Ballandean, and the distance between those two is a speck on the map of Australia.

Liverudlians and their city cop a lot of slack from the rest of England, especially from Southerners and Mancs. But all of that carry-on about tracksuits, trainers and a lack of culture was quickley dispelled within minutes of leaving the train station (though I did clock one girl in a rather fetching velour number). But more importantly, Liverpudlians have an over-abundance of friendliness and approachability - something that their southern compatriots lack. If only I could understand what they hell they are saying. I had a talk with one guy in the bus stop that left me very confused, clearly I have a lot to learn about the English language.

Killing Time

I got into town around 11 in the morning, and had plenty of time to kill before the 8 o'clock kick-off. I walked around the Albert Docks, then got a bus out to Anfield, Liverpool's famous stadium. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but I was still able to see the famous Shankly Gates (which have the words "You'll Never Walk Alone" across the top, in reference to the Jerry and The Pacemakers song that is the club's anthem) and the Hillsborough Memorial.

What struck me the most was how the stadium blended into the surrounding suburb. This was no purpose-built public entertainment venue with well organised public transport links, facilities and amenities. It is a stadium that looks as if it was dropped into the surrounding rows of terrace houses in a completely arbitrary manner. The houses on two sides back right up to the stadum, and the roads that run along the other two sides could hardly be described as main roads. It is just there, part of the furniture in this very poor suburb (many houses were boarded up).

But what this football team means to the city cannot be understated. Every second person was dressed in red, and everywhere people were singing You'll Never Walk Alone, and Johny Cash's Burning Ring Of Fire. Impromptu games of football were breaking out on the street, and every person dressed in red was trading smiles with every other person dressed in red. It was damn exciting. The football team is part of the fabric of the city, and the type of devotion it receives from the locals is quite humbling to this long-distance fan.

Game On

An hour before the game I made my way towards the pubs - only to find that they were all full of singing fans. Every single pub in Liverpool was full-up, with queues around the corner full of fans anxious to get inside. Shit! I tagged along with three likely characters who said they knew a spot, and sure enough they found a little pub that wasn't quite full to bursting.... yet.

Inside the pub it was easy to see why I made the trip. Everybody was on their feet and singing. Not just lip synching, but really singing and chanting at the top of their voices. Even when the team went behind in the game, everybody just sung louder. And, after a game that Liverpool was desperately unlucky to lose, the fans kept singing. It was unthinkable to pack up and go home quietly. Instead the streets were full of people singing about the club

We Love you Liverpool we do.

We Love you Liverpool we do.

We Love you Liverpool we do.

Oh Liverpool we love you!

about the players

Steve Gerrard Gerrard

He'll pass the ball 40 yards

He's big and He's fucking hard

Steve Gerrard Gerrard

(sung to the tune of Que sera sera)

He's big

He's red

His feet stick out the bed

Peter Crouch

Peter Crouch!

and You'll Never Walk Alone, of course.

I can only imagine what the party would have been like if we had won.

New Friends

I found myself with a cup of beer, sitting in a square in the middle of Liverpool's nightclub district, surrounded by the subdued party after the loss. I was wondering what to do - being in a foreign city with a daypack and nowhere to sleep the night. Just then a girl wandered up and asked "you're Australian, aren't you?"
"Yeah, how the hell didya figure that one out?" (she had an Australian accent so I put it on)
"you look Australian"
"you reckon?"...

Her name was Shannon, and she introduced me to her boyfrind and other assorted friends, all of them locals. Nice one, they had been out watching the game and were heading off to find somewhere for some drinks and revelry. First Shannon took us to the top of the building she used to live in to show us the night view over the city, and then we went to some place-or-other that served beer.

I had a great time, making friends with plenty of locals. Shannon, a very gregarious character, made it her mission to introduce me to some locals, for which I am very thankfull. Everybody was heading back to Shannon's boyfriend's house, and I was offered a couch to sleep on. Perfect. I never had it so easy meeting people in any other city!

A Gentle Reminder

But on the way home I was reminded that England does have a harder edge than a country boy like myself is accustomed to. I was waiting outside an off-license for some of my new-found friends to buy some beer for when we got home, when somebody started pulling hard on my dreadlocks. I turned around and informed the middle-aged guy that was pulling my hair that it was real hair and it hurt when it got pulled - just like real hair. He then said "come on, give us one of you locks". I turned him down, and watched him go into the offie.

I have noticed some guys who come in to drink at the bar, and on the street, who you want to "keep an eye on". This character was one of them, people who have a potential for violence. Not young punks, or skinheads, but "geezers", older guys who wear slick clothes and drive nice cars. I watched him leave the offie and get into his car. I was drunk and got distracted by someone or something, and the next thing I knew I felt him pulling on my dreads again. I instictively put my hand up to stop him, and the next thing I saw was a knife and him snarling "give me one of your fucking dreads". He was trying to cut one of my dreads off. Then he saw the cut he had put in my hand, and the group of my new-found friends squaring up and thankfully made for his car.

The cut wasn't big, but it bled like crazy. I was partly shocked, and annoyed at myself for not keeping my eye on a character that had triggered my suspicions - being able to pick a dangerous person is useless if you don't act on it. My friends were shocked, and embaressed, that this had happened, and everybody in and around the offie was trying very hard to make sure I didn't get the wrong impression of the locals - they are very proud of their friendliness and openness in those parts.

Nae Bother Pal

My shock passed quickly and I enjoyed the rest of my evening, and an impromptue bandage of toilet paper and sticky tape that Shannon knocked up had my thumb sorted. I got a good (well, as good as could be expected) night's sleep on the couch.

The next morning I rose, along with the rest of the town, with a hangover and thoughts of what could/should have been. Though we didn't win, I had a wonderful time, and was impressed by the friendliness and fun of the people of Liverpool.

YNWA

When you walk through a storm
hold your head up high,
and don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm
is a golden sky
and the sweet, silver song of the lark.

Walk on through the wind,
walk on through the rain,
though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
and you'll never walk alone.
You'll never walk alone.

Going Going... Staying

Close Call

This morning I wrote up my two week notice that I intended to move on from my current employer. I had had enough of Alex, and it was apparent that nobody was in a rush to move either Alex or Jamie and myself - despite our frequent requests. It had been made clear that I was going to hand in my notice... and just as I was about to do so I was informed that Alex was going to be moved today and we were going to get a new room mate.

Bloody hell, it is a pity that I had to hold a gun to their head (they are desperately shorstaffed and they can't really afford to lose any full time staff) to get myself some tolerable living conditions. It is all good though, I can now look forward to some good sleep.

Photos!

More importantly.... photos! Yep, I have got a bunch of film back from the lab, and have posted a few shots. The scanning of the film is only OK, and I haven't got access to photoshop to polish the images... but you get the idea. Only a couple of shots right now, but I will endevour to add more when I can.

Working Man

The Service Industry

Right now I am tired. Dog tired. I am an early to bed, early to rise kind of boy, which makes me incompatable with the "hospitality" lifestyle that I am currently leading. There is a big shortage of full-time bar staff at The Inn, which means that I am doing 60-70 hours a week. We usually finish close down of the bar at around midnight, then all the staff sit around the bar and have a chat and unwind after the days work... so I get to bed around 1 every morning. The sun is up and the birds are singing by the time I open my eyes and remove my earplugs in the morning.

That combined with having to share a room with Alex has lead to my rather sleepy state right now. He is simply impossible for any reasonable person to live with. Jamie and I put our foot down last week and demanded that Alex be moved from our room, and despite being promised that he would be gone within a week, he is still there. We do get some small, petty comfort from the fact that Alex seems to enjoy living with us as much as we enjoy his company.

"you know the film Aliens? Those two are like that, they keep the room so cold, it is killing me."
That might have something to do with the fuse that we removed from the heater so that he couldn't close the windows, turn the heater onto max and turn the room into a smouldering dutch oven by smoking half a pack of cigarettes.
"Hey Alex, you were complaining about the cold, so I showed you how to turn the heater on, but if you really must smoke in the room, you have to keep the windows open."

English Countryside

The weather has been absolutely fantastic ever since I got to Godalming. Every day the sun is shining, and the air has crisp freshness about it that reminds me of spring days in Stanthorpe. In the last couple of weeks I have watched the woods go from dormant brown and grey to all shades of green as the trees come out of their winter hibernation.

The English countryside is completely different to what I am used to in Australia. Here it feels "lived in". The rivers have been dug out, had their banks straigteened and their levels controlled by lochs. There is always the touch of human hand present in the landscape, and people talk about "untouched forest" with reverence. Back home one quickly finds themselves battling with the bush, insects and heat the moment they leave the beaten path... if there was a beaten path in the first place. Here the countryside feels like and extention of the living room. While I miss the wildness and isolation of the Australian bush, I am enjoying the comfort of the English equivilent.

The country is criss-crossed with public footpaths that lead through private properties and along waterways. I can happily get myself lost for hours on end meandering along randomly chosen paths. I was lent a book, 50 walks in Surrey, by a girl at work. Jamie and I picked one walk, from Guildford to Godalming for one of our days off. It was around 8 kilometers long, and followed the side of a "river" that runs between the two towns. We stopped along the way to sit on top of an old pillbox from the second world war.... and at a couple of the numerous pubs that littered the side of the path. Yesterday I went for a picnic with Tina, a German bartender from work, and we had cheese and bread with a bottle of Australian chardonnay on top of the same pillbox.

Athens Ahoy

I have been enjoying being able to watch my football games at reasonable hours of the day. It still feels odd going to the pub at three in the afternoon to catch a live game. And the pubs are full of other fans who are well into their game. I was watching Chelsea-Liverpool the other day when the room with all of the Liverpool fans spontaniously burst into song. Great.

Jamie and I got the night off for the second leg of the Champions Leage semi-final between Liverpool and Chelsea on Tuesday. The game was played at Anfield, and the sound coming from the crowd was amazing, even though we were just getting the TV version. Liverpool went on to win a very tense and exciting game on penalties. I went on to get spectacularly drunk. I had just been commenting on the fact that I have not been really drunk for a couple of years. The next morning I realised that not getting that drunk is a very good idea.

Happy Snaps

I had a chat with the propieter of the local Happy Snaps photolab, and got a good bulk deal on development of my holiday photos. They have been dropped off this morning, and I will have them tomorrow. Tina has photoshop on her laptop, so we should start to see some holiday photos within the next couple of weeks.