Tuesday, November 08, 2005

The Rain of Queen Elizabeth II

It is a right royal dark dull dreary drizzly day here in Liverpool - on the western coast of the Irish Sea whence the wind is blowing in grey pendulous clouds containing vast amounts of the Atlantic and dumping it on Wales and the North-West.
I will be sampling a bit of British bureaucracy soon. I have to get the local train into the centre of Liverpool and go to the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts and find the Probate Office. There I have to prove that I am my mother's son and that I can administer her will. Yoohoo.
The probate people have actually been extremely helpful so far arranging the appointment to coincide with my trip and so on...but you can never be sure with the "Civil" Service. Maybe I am paranoid after years of having to deal with the civil service gold medalists in Germany. Afterwards I have promised myself a visit either to the Grapes in Matthew Street (home of The Cavern - before it was demolished and subsequently somewhat red-facedly rebuilt) or the Philharmonic up near the Philharmonic Hall (the pub - if you know your Liverpool - with the famous men's toilets). These establishments both have hotspots where I will be able to get some kind of speed on my connection - at the moment I am on a slow-motion snail's pace of 46.666 bps) and download a few things while enjoying a pint of whatever brilliant bitter they have on offer. That should deaden any pain caused by my encounter with the bureaucrats.

I am also expecting at some point today my blog's 3000th visitor...it might be YOU!!! If so, welcome.

UPDATE: 14.42
After 4 pubs and at least 4 pints I have finally found out how to use a hotspot!! So this is live from the Grapes in Matthew Street!! Picture may follow if I can hold the camera straight!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never mind, Phil, how about an uplifting and refreshing Motorhead gig with a veritable sea of beer? You have Big L's number.

Doris said...

Pah! Those so-called hotspots.... I hope they are a lot better these days.

Good luck with proving your identity.... shed a bit of blood? Comparing photos of you and your mum? Say a few of her favourite jokes? Whip out one of your books? (Apologies if I appear dispresprectful - I don't mean to!)

Neutron said...

BigL, sorry couldn't have faced Motorhead...had a head of my own that was motoring!

Hi Doris.
The hotspot was fine...it was me not realising -until pint number...let's say 5 - that I had to disarm the encoding thingy on my wifi connection. Then it was fine!