Jul 28 - August 6

Not much to report here, just somethings I have been noticing and seeing. To save some money, Jessie and I are laying low and just trying to do some cheap things around Liverpool. We had a big splurge of 8 GBP each for a Cain's Brewery Tour which was pretty good; the building was quite old and interesting to look at and learn about.

I discovered a great collection of books at the Liverpool Central Library. This country is more enthused about motorsports I am interested in (Think Formula One, Rallying and NOT Nascar). There are about 3 months worth of solid reading there for me but I am sure I won't get to everything,

I stumbled across a Chess Tournament at St. George's the other day...that has never happened to me before but I went in and enjoyed it for about 8 minutes. It would have been much more interesting if the players had 30 second time limits.

Sometimes I watch the city's major roundabout from a park on a hill. I wish we had more of them in North America; they are quite efficient (and I think fun to drive briskly through). The intersections are always ultilized when there is someone wanting to use it and they result in much safer collision angles if the worst should happen. I heard Obama talking about ways to save gas with hybrids and plug-in cars. If we could eliminate the 20% or more of unnecessary signal interesections from streets back home I think we would save significant amounts of fuel (and injuries).

I am missing my car (my 4 runner when we go to the countryside, my old BMW when I read about car racing or watch videos).

Yesterday after getting groceries I went for a long walk around Liverpool. I visited a motorsports shop and talked with the owner for a while about his tarmac rally-prepared Vauxhall Corsa. He did an excellent job with the interior and his hand-made carbon fibre body panels. I coudl tell the car had only been driven 3 times since it still looked professional, clean and without a scratch on it.

Next I walked up the hill to the Williamson Tunnels. Very short story: the eccentric owner had labourers build them bascially as a make-work project before they became useless cess-pooled sewage and garbage dumps. After a quick stop to what would be a UK Lowe's competitor (Hardman's DIY and Garden Centre) I heard a loud dirtbike roaring around the streets nearby. 10 minutes later I see the bike parked next to a black Ford Focus wagon and circled by several guys in black clothes....the unmarked city police. I guess they nicked the guy for no registration, loud exhast and or reckess riding.

BBC has some great programs: Top Gear (of course), the Dragon's Den and The Long Way Around. The last show is Ewan McGregar and his buddy riding their BMW motorcycles from London to New York via Asia. Great show, I can't wait to see more next week.

Our next trip will be to Dublin, Belfast and the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man has been a goal visit of mine for a while due to its extensive motorsports history, features in Top Gear and its rural, unrestricted roads. Renting and driving a car there should be fun!

Thats all for now. Later.