Many years ago, we attended a “Dawn Flight” experience at the WWT reserve at Martin Mere to experience the spectacle of the wintering flock of Pink Footed Geese leaving their roosting grounds for the day. It was a frosty foggy January morning and freezing cold – sadly that is about as much as I personally remember about it – dark, cold, very noisy and did I say cold – it was really, really cold!  As time passes memories fade, so last year I decided we would have another go but missed the dates completely. Fast forward to October 2017, and (as I had been much better organised this year and bought the tickets early!) off we set at 6am to try the whole experience again. My first surprise of the day was just how dark it was at 6am and how long it stayed dark. Second surprise was the weather – mid October and at 6am it was already a balmy 18 degrees and not raining! Walking through the grounds of Martin Mere to the Ron Barker Hide was almost like being in the Blair Witch project – very dark, rustling noises in the trees and the occasional sound of gunshot in the distance – unnerving to say the least!
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Thanks to our very knowledgeable warden, we discovered there were approximately 15,000 pink footed geese currently sat on the mere outside the hide. There were also considerable amounts of newly arrived Whooper Swans.  These swans were so new to the mere that the wardens had not yet determined whether they had just finished their migration from Iceland or whether they were local feeders who had re-established themselves. Could we tell whether they were lethargic? The difference would become apparent if they did not take off and chose to stay on the mere to rest from their migratory flight

Despite one of us being of a strong ‘scouse’ descent and having spent a vast majority of her younger days in Liverpool visiting family, shopping etc it is somewhere we rarely visit now. Chris’ job is in city centre Manchester and our son now lives there, so when we reach the East Lancs Road we almost always turn left. Taking part in the Poppy Walk during June 17, made us realise just how much of Liverpool we hadn’t seen for many years and in Chris' case not at all. It was time to remedy that.

Using trusty Secret Escapes, we had booked into the Richmond Hotel (free bottle of Prosecco!) for the night, and after taking the 40 minute train to Lime Street and checking in we spent two days wandering around the streets and buildings of Liverpool. Despite the weather forecast promising torrential rain (again) we were blessed with sunshine and almost warmth. We paid a visit to both of the Cathedrals – buildings we have travelled past many a time but never ventured into. Both stunning architectural creations and very different. The Catholic Cathedral known locally as ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’ was bathed in red and blue lighting effects inside – modern and breathtaking and all natural , created by the sunshine coming through the fantastic stained glass. It was hard to take a bad photo inside – every step presented another photo opportunity – it was also a really good test of my very early development with ISO and shutter settings (not all successful!). In complete contrast the Anglican Cathedral is a towering traditional Cathedral reminiscent of Harry Potter films. Unusually there were no chairs in the main building which made the sheer size of it seem even more impressive.  Not unexpectedly this took us almost all day and probably two full memory cards of photographs.

We dined at Albert Dock in Revolución de Cuba which came highly recommended by our daughter Lucy. Salsa band (occasional dodgy cover – Ed Sheeran?!?) exciting tapas style food which was delicious, great service and the only complaint was the sun was in our eyes! We watched the sunset over the River Mersey and again took photo after photo of sunsets, ferries, the Pier Head fairground and even Billy Fury (occasionally mistaken for Elvis by some people who had no glasses on) – it was a truly memorable day.

We finished off the second day with a 10k walk down the Mersey through the cruise terminal and beyond before heading home with our trusty Two Together railcard. It was such a wonderful weekend we will definitely be going back.

Viv

Photography is a love we have both shared for many years to differing degrees. Chris has always been a methodical user of cameras spending hours researching techniques and tools to help him produce quality images. He knows his camera inside out – ISO’s, apertures….. on the other hand I have always followed the look through the lens, press and hope for the best technique! This is reflected in our work as Chris is able to capture images worthy of hanging on your wall and I do a great selfie! I love photographing people and buildings and generally worn out, untidy urban things whilst Chris loves landscapes and sunsets and anything that flys! We are a perfect team as often I see the shot and Chris takes the perfect capture of it and he is always there to help me when my camera doesn’t do exactly what I want it too!

We are not professional photographers – we don’t seek to sell our pictures and neither do we enter competitions with them. It’s a shared hobby which takes us out at the weekends away from the stresses and pressures of work. Fresh air, time together and lovely memories captured (plus google photos in meltdown and a need for a new external hard drive!)

On one of our ‘photoshoots’ earlier in the year we visited, for the first time (which is appalling considering the amount of time we spend in Manchester!) Manchester Cathedral and noticed they had a photography competition running ‘Capture the Cathedral’.
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For the first time Chris decided to have a go with some of the photos he had taken that day. He couldn’t have been more excited and I couldn’t have been prouder when two of his images were shortlisted for the award.

It almost feels like we have had a personal connection to the development and continued transformation of the Bat Out of Hell Musical. Having our own theatre insider, we have been very privileged to share in the early days of a brand new musical from first rehearsals to world premiere. It has been a fascinating journey culminating in us taking a trip down to London in the summer to watch the London performance in its last week. Via our mole, who was one of the first people to see the Manchester performance whilst it was still in rehearsals, we have shared the journey of the show and been fascinated to discover what it takes to put on such a large scale production.

We first saw the show at the Opera House in Manchester during March 2017. Neither of us were over familiar with the music of Jim Steinman and Meatloaf, but by the time we left the auditorium we were both hooked.  We have sat in the audience of many a musical production and enjoyed the performance, but never have we attended a theatrical show where the minute we left we couldn’t wait to see it again.

We now have all of the music (sadly it’s on 2 CD’s in show order - thanks Adam!) They have accompanied us on many a long journey during summer 2017 and we are now one of those annoying families who could probably loudly sing a long to the whole show!

The decision to attend the show in London was made for two reasons – one as it was in a much bigger venue and we were curious to see how this would impact the performance and secondly as we had heard that there had been some considerable changes.

We are very lucky to live within a 10 minute drive of the West Coast mainline so London is just a 2 hour, usually uneventful, train ride. Combined with the exceptionally good value tickets via our Two Together railcard it makes for a relatively cheap day out. We arrived late morning, took a leisurely lunch at our favourite American BBQ restaurant Bodeans, where we grabbed the last table (must remember next time to book!) and then attended the afternoon matinee.
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The show did not disappoint, the sun shone, our food was delicious and it was good to spend time with our city living son.  London in a day can be tiring but there’s always time for a train nap on the way home!

​Viv