England

This entry is simply to round things off and tie up a few loose ends. Today we left our accommodation and drove to Manchester Airport where we dropped off the car and caught the plane to London. From there we caught the plane to Singapore, then another to Melbourne, and finally one to Adelaide. So it was a long and tiring trip back, but it was good to be back, with a heightened appreciation for our more relaxed pace of life, and free parking!
I am still putting up photos and it will probably be ages before I finish; in the meantime I have also put up quite a few on my Facebook site.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40831&id=1313376474&l=6bc53ac734

This morning I had a quiet morning catching up with things on the 'net while David and Margaret continued to explore some of the places they remembered from the time they lived here. In the afternoon, we went around to Margaret's cousin's place (Susan) and met Graham her husband and Amy and Bethany, their two very friendly and very talkative daughters. Most girls of that age are shy with adult strangers but not these two. They chatted as if they had known me for ages, and later showed me some magic tricks which they had learnt from their uncle. A little later we went all drove around to see Susan's mum and dad, Maureen and Bill, as well as a few other relatives. Bill was a real laugh and it was easy to see what he was like in his younger days; it seems his sense of humour hasn't changed.
Our final meal in England, fittingly, was fish and chips from the local shop. And very nice they were too; as a member of the over 50's club I reluctantly try to restrict my intake of such delicacies so I was very pleased to have an excuse to tuck into them again.
I will add here that today, as on other days when I visited David and Margaret's friends and relatives, who until recently were strangers to me, I was made to feel more than welcome, and always made to feel part of the family. I go away with many happy memories of this final part of our long trip, which in some ways rival our earlier experiences. So here I am on November 19th with Christmas just around the corner, making the final entries to my blog. My simple advice to anyone contemplating such a trip is...if you are in a position to do it, then go. The opportunity may not always be there.

Today we were the guests of Graham and Susan, and we spent the day around Liverpool and district. Again we could see the advantage of having locals as tour guides, as they knew exactly where the most interesting sights were, and we didn't have the hassle of working out the local transport system. We explored the Albert Docks, and visited a fascinating museum which featured the maritime history of Liverpool, and the role that black slavery played in the development of Liverpool as a city. We went on a tour of the waterways and city streets on an amphibious vehicle, then walked to Mathew Street and saw the famous Cavern Nightclub where the Beatles used to play. We took the famous "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey" of "Gerry and the Pacemakers" fame, and finished off a very full and enjoyable day with tea at a local pub.

This morning while the Unsworths explored some of their old haunts, I stayed in the motel and caught up on a small backlog of online business. I had taken out a rather expensive 5-day internet deal for the time we were in the motel, and I wanted to get my money's worth without eating into my holiday time.
That afternoon, we headed back to Joan and Keith's place where Joan made us tea, and then we all went around to Joan's sister Christine, and her husband Terry's place where we socialised until late.
It may have been on this drive home, that a blind trust in the GPS took us "the long way home" as it sought to take us home via the motorway, even though it took us several kilometres out of our way.

We left Stirling today and travelled southwest through torrential rain, apparently the tail end of a cyclone somewhere. It was heavy rain, and it kept up all day. We did a detour via the Lake District and stopped off for lunch at a pub at Troutbeck Bridge, opposit Lake Windermere and just before the town of Windermere. Eventually we arrived at a place called St Helens, somewhere in between Manchester and Liverpool, where we were to stay for the next five days. David and Margaret both originally came from the area; David from Widnes and Margaret from Salford, closer to Manchester. As they still had relatives in the area, their idea was to visit them over the next five days, as well as visiting some of their old haunts. We stayed in a Travelodge Motel, just off the motorway, and a few miles out of St Helens.
That evening after tea, we visited David's cousin Joan and her husband Keith, a few miles south of our motel. It was a surprise visit, and Joan duly abused us with a wicked smile on her face, then they both made us feel most welcome. During the course of the evening, I was surprised to learn that David was quite a lad in his day, as I carefully perused the many photo albums that were offered to me.