southport and scotties

today is the uefa final game. scottland rangers vs. st. petersburg [russia] held at manchester city stadium. this brought 150k blue t-shirt wearing, horn tooting drunkies to city center. they were accommodated by relaxed public intox laws and tankers full of carlsberg beer. i spent the day listening to a roaring crowd in piccadelli repeatedly singing along to simply the best. why scottish football fans know all the lyrics to a tina turner song i have no idea. but i heard it a good 7 or 8 times today so i know the lyrics now too. here is the view from my office, overlooking piccadilly gardens during lunch time.


after work we walked around town to observe what the football fans were up to. their activities included eating takeaways, asking for directions to the stadium, singing unrecognizable songs in sloppy scottish accents and public urination. there were lots of empty booze bottles, horse poo from the coppers and shirtless, sunburnt passed out men and women. it was reminiscent of an msu tailgate + a music festival, but with moms and dads. that is why the uk is so great.. older people understand the enjoyment of getting "pissed," anytime. during the day and/or outside is especially fun. eating greasy food afterwards is also excellent.

last saturday we took the train to southport. it is a beach resort-ish type town. we ate very delicious fish and chips on the "boardwalk" overlooking the "beach." we never actually saw the irish sea, but we did see lots and lots of sand. you could tell the waterline had made it a "beach" at one point, but we were there at extremely low tide and missed it completely. most of the attractions were still in use but old and in need of some tlc, graffiti removal and a coat of paint. it was dilapidated, but in a really good, beautiful way. we walked through town and ate candy floss/cotton candy. then we walked to the botanical gardens. it was a long walk. i had been wearing new flats all week because all of my old shoes decided to fall apart at the same time. it had been so long since i'de worn new shoes that i forgot how painful they are. they are real painful. my feet were wrecked and i decided to wear new sandals which was the last straw. it took like what seemed like forever to find the park, but we were distracted by adorable houses and thatched roofs so i survived. when we got to the gardens we found caged birds and rabbits, a happy funtime kids train and lots of kids in strollers. i tried to convince peter we should get a stroller so i could take a load off and save my feets. we didn't see many botanicals, but it was pretty. then we walked slowly back to town, ate ice cream and headed home. we had pasta with lots of garlic, capers, white wine, spinach and squid for diner. we also had that for dinner sunday and monday as it is the yummiest.

there are photos but it took too long to write this and now i'm pooped.

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hot, gray, overcast southport-ness

this morning on the way to work it looked almost like there was an explosion.. a beer can, vomit and burger king explosion. the whole of market street was paved with garbage and broken glass and the smell of hot beer and wee was in the air. there was apparently a riot after the scotties lost. a police officer lost some teeth, a police dog was injured and a russian was stabbed, but no tear gas or mace to speak of. they could learn something from the msu riot squad.. it's hard to stab someone when you're involuntarily vomiting or clawing your eyes out.