Is It Legal To Take Inflated Balloons On A London Bus?
I took this picture today by London Bridge.
Balloons On a London Bus
It clearly shows that some of the passengers have inflated balloons.
Is this legal?
I ask the question, as when C and I were students at Liverpool University in the 1960s, the buses there displayed a notice that clearly stated that the carrying of inflated balloons was not allowed.
Liverpool Takes on Its Biggest Challenge
The reports today about Liverpool University’s leadership of a large trial of a pancreatic cancer vaccine is very much to be welcomed.
If there was a motto that sums up the city, it is “Think Big”. Just think.
- Architecturally, it is the Second City of the UK.
- St. George’s Hall is one of the most magnificent neo-classical buildings anywhere.
- Liverpool City Centre is a World Heritage Site.
- It has two cathedrals, one of which is one of the largest in the world in many ways.
- The Beatles transformed the world of music more than anybody else.
So you can never say the city is full of shrinking violets.
So when Liverpool established itself as a world-class cancer centre, it didn’t take on the easiest of targets. It concentrated on one of the biggest and morst deadly;pancreatic cancer, which has one of the lowest survival rates.
Now are we starting to see a small step on the road to a successful fight against this awful disease, which killed my son at the early age of just 37?
You will see a link to their research on this blog. Click it and donate!
World Heritage Sites
Listening to the warm-up to the Grand National today on Radio 5 this morning, it struck me that none of the UK’s historic racecourses are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Liverpool city centre is but surely one of Aintree, Ascot, Epsom and Newmarket should be listed.
After all Newmarket and the Heath have been associated with horses since the time of Boudicca. Newmarket is actually a corruption of New Horse Market. And every thoroughbred horse can trace its ancestry back to the small town in West Suffolk.
And when it comes to other places that should be listed, the Forth Bridge is rightly on the provisional list, but Joseph Balzalgette‘s historic London sewers are not!
Hope Street
When I was in Liverpool in the sixties, there was much more religious tension than there is today.
Part of the reason, was the leadership of the two great churchmen; David Sheppard and Derek Worlock. They are commemorated in this joint statue in Hope Street.
The Sheppard-Worlock Statue
Note how you can see the Anglian Cathedral in the picture. From behind, you can see the Roman Catholic one at other end of Hope Street.
The Sheppard-Worlock Statue from Behind
Incidentally, Derek Worlock was a coeliac. I have a feeling that rulings by the current Pope would mean that he couldn’t be ordained as a Catholic priest today. Religion should be about inclusion and tolerance and not the reverse.
A Very Emotional Day
Looking back on Thursday, I can now see how it was a very emotional day for me. But not in a dark and unhappy way, but more in a celebration of the happy times I have had in the past, and what despite the loss of my wife, C, and our third son, and the stroke, I can do in the future. Was I loosing the unhappy shackles of the past?
I think that truth be told, I was very worried about the lecture. But I was given a warm welcome and I have been told it went well. It is not for me to say, but I hope that I’ll do some similar things in the future.
The walk around Liverpool in the sun, brought back many happy memories of the first few years of my life with C.
If there was a blot on my day, it was that I behaved in a rather silly and almost rude way with the celebrity. I apologise to them unreservedly. I’ve also paid a self-imposed fine to Comic Relief.
So would C be proud of what I accomplished on Thursday?
She told me to be strong and carry on many times, as she lay in bed dying.
So at least I have done that!
The Bombed-Out Church
Liverpudlians always know St. Luke‘s as the bombed-out church.
Urban Strawberry Lunch now use the church as an event space, with music, films and other events.
When I go to Liverpool, I always walk up past St. Luke’s and pay my respects to all those who died in the Second World War.
I know C felt this was one of her favourite places and although I didn’t shed a tear this time, I did think of her when I passed. It may not be as well known as Coventry, but to me this church is an important memorial to those who died.
Coffee in Bold Street, Liverpool
I had a coffee in Starbucks in Bold Street as I walked around the city.
Starbucks in Bold Street, Liverpool
I have a feeling,that this building was a coffee shop in the 1960s, called something like La Bussola. There is nothing to indicate this and the helpful staff didn’t know anything.
However there is a plaque from a Merseyside Heritage Society saying that it was a very good restoration of the building.
Dedicated To All the Lonely People
Eleanor Rigby is one of the Beatle’s most famous songs and one of the few songs, with its own sculpture.
Eleanor Rigby, Stanley Street, Liverpool
The sculpture was created by Tommy Steele, who is better known as a rock-and-roll singer and musical performer. He gave the sculpture to the City of Liverpool in honour of the Beatles.
I sat for a few moments with Eleanor and thought of C, who never saw the modern Liverpool.
Around St. George’s Hall and Lime Street
After the lecture and a very good lunch, I walked back down the hill to the station, where I dumped my bag in the Left Luggage and then took these pictures of the area.
Archeecturally as in many other things, Liverpool is the second city in the UK and these pictures tell just a part of why.
The Anonymous Widower 