Breakfast of YMCA was a traditional British food. Baked beans, fried eggs, hashed potato, toast, flakes and a cup of tea with milk. There were some people eating already. Though this is a Young Man's house, almost of theirs were elder.
After a breakfast, I had a booking for a stadium tour of Anfield by phone. I wore reds kit today and went to Anfield by bus. Taking a bus in foreign country was a little bit adventure for me. I didn't know which bus would go to the place, how to pay and how to drop off etc. I asked a driver to let me know if the bus went to Anfield. But it was obvious I didn't need to ask. The bus went just in front of the stadium. The tour would start noon and it's ten past eleven. So I went to museum before the tour. I'd ever seen an imitation Kop stand at the Museum of Liverpool Life before and I could seen it here again. I wonder LFC was the first club in England to wear the sponsor's name on its shirt and this first sponsor was the company I am employed, Hitachi. At noon, the stadium tour took me and other tourists a changing room at first. There're players' shirts on the wall. Some were short sleeve and some were long. Next, we're going to the pitch. We could hear a voice of supporter from a speaker on a wall, it made us like a player. So we passed a tunnel under the "This is Anfield" sign. The pitch was great. A distance between pitch and stand was very closer than Japanese football stadium. There were no player or other supporter in the stadium without us so I imagined how wonderful if the stand was full and Michael Owen got a goal! I felt lonely yesterday but now I never walk alone.
Let's go to the pich with me. [Anfield 1] [Anfield 2] [Anfield 3] [Anfield 4] [Anfield 5] [Anfield 6]
After tour was a little bit bitter. When I went to the stadium shop, it was already closed today. I missed to get reds scarf.
Going back to City Centre, saw Super Lamb Banana again in daytime, I had a fish and chips. This was another British food I hoped to taste. Then I back to YMCA and phoned to Evelyn Roberts in Hunts Cross, an old friend of Melbourne Scouser Pam's mom. I tried to explain I am Japanese and a friend of Pam who said to me to say hello to her when I would visit Liverpool but she seemed hard to understand why I rung her. Cos me and Pam made a friendship but never met each other! This made her confused. I'm sorry Evelyn! I hoped to visit her but she said she couldn't invite me. I knew I'm a surprise guest and it's New Years day tomorrow. See ya someday. And thanks Pam for introducing her to me.
It's still mid afternoon. I went out again to riverside through city centre's shopping area. The Liver Building and the Liverbird was awful beautiful. I walked along the river Mersey from the Titanic plaque to Maritime museum. In Maritime museum, I saw the Titanic room and a life jacket which was donated by another Scouser mail friend Tom Miller's relative.
[Town hall and Liver Building 1] [Town hall and Liver Building 2] [Town hall] [Liver Building 1] [Liver Building 2] [Me and Liver Building] [Dreaming night on Liver Building]
After a short time rest in YMCA, I was waiting for Lynn to come. Meeting time was 8 pm but she didn't come soon. I had a phone from her to delay and was said it'd be 9 pm.
What a surprise, a person who picked me up was not only Lynn but Mike. I was happy I could meet Mike again. Then we went to Birkenhead cross under the river Mersey. At a pub somewhere in Birkenhead, there were Peter, a friend of Lynn and Mike. We had a chat with beer at the pub and waited for New Year to come. Peter told me a story about Paul McCartney. He was a classical piano player and learned from a teacher in Birkenhead who taught a piano to Linda McCartney. There was an another student of the teacher and a student was a great Beatles fan like me. One day, Paul came to pick Linda up and knock on her door. But the door he knocked was not the Linda's but a Beatles fan's. A student jumped and hugged to this surprise guest for a long time. What a funny story and hope this luck would come to me! When the New Year had been coming, we all in the pub went outside and celebrated each other. It was a great pleasure for me to spend this time in Merseyside.
[New Year's Card from me, Lynn and Mike]
We heard the closing bell rung, so we moved to Peter's house and drunk another glass of wine. After that, I got too much drunken to go back to YMCA. Me, Lynn and Mike went to their Birkenhead house to got a bed.
