Liverpool - Old Places; Old Faces

A very relaxing morning in Liverpool. I was woken up by hearing Malcolm's son Sam come into the flat. He was playing football this morning and Malcolm took him to his match somewhere close by. After breakfast of coffee, fruit and toast I wrote up yesterday's blog and then went for a walk around the Dingle taking my camera with me. I walked along Aigburth Road to the Dingle and to the site of the old Overhead Railway Station which is now a grass site adjacent to some modern houses on Park Road. The old Toxteth Chapel is still there opposite and I so took a couple of photos of that. When one looks at the photos you could be convinced that the chapel is isolated in the countryside not on the corner of one of the busiest junctions in the city of Liverpool. I walked down to the old (and now derelict) site of the Merseyside Garden Festival and along the promenade road back to St. Michael's Hamlet, stopping at the Merseyrail station and the old church - unique for the extensive use of cast iron in its construction. Back at Malcolm's we went out quickly to Allerton Road to get some pasties and cakes for lunch and then I drove through the centre of Liverpool and the Birkenhead Tunnel to Prenton Park, home of Tranmere Rovers Football Club for their game against the Saints. There was a good crowd up from Southampton - nearly half the total number of supporters - and we had a great view behind the goal. Rovers scored very quickly from a dodgy free kick decision and Saints equalised about six minutes later. The game, as I have often seen with Tranmere, was not pretty football and although Saints were by far the better footballing side, Tranmere simply didn't allow them to play it - their philosophy was clearly hoof it and run. Saints came out a better disciplined side in the second half but another dodgy decision by the referee resulted in a penalty being awarded to Tranmere which they easily converted. The final result - Tranmere 2, Southampton 1 or was it The Referee 2, Saints 1. Having crossed over to the Wirral, we went for a drive around Birkenhead and Wallasey looking at some of my old haunts (and me taking more photos) before returning to Liverpool via the Wallasey Tunnel. This evening we met up with our good friends Geoff and Alma at the Gulshan Indian Restaurant on Aigburth Road. We had an absolutely lovely evening - good good and company. Alma was looking really great. She has successfully lost quite a bit of weight which she is proud of after being diagnosed with diabetes. Geoff has been unwell with pneumonia but is well on the mends and looking forward to a holiday in Cobh, Ireland. They are also awaiting the birth of another granddaughter in a couple of weeks. We took them home driving through parts of Childwall I didn't know. Despite the Saints' defeat it has been a lovely day.