Dawn

Dawn

Friday, April 03, 2009

A conversation at the counter of the coffee shop in Debenham’s in Liverpool today . . .
Hello. How are you today?
Fine. Two regular black coffees, please.
No problem.
That’s a relief.
OK, that’ll be 4 pounds please.
No problem.
Here you go. Enjoy your coffees.
Thanks. We will. But it's a good job neither of us had any problems.

Cue rather nonplussed server and severely embarrassed sister. Need I say that the big smiles and the specious bonhomie came with very slow service?

It’s a joy travelling on the Merseyside underground this week of the year. For the wildly popular Grand National Steeplechase takes place on Saturday and there are races at the Aintree course every day this week. So, you can see sartorially-enhanced young men and women catching the train to Aintree from every stop along the route, the former in ill-fitting suits and the latter in dresses just right for Benidorm in August but which invite hypothermia in temperatures of 7 degrees in windy Liverpool at the end of March. And then there are the ridiculous ‘hats’. But they’re a happy crowd and they made me smile. Plus the weather warmed up during the day. So few of them will have had to be put down.

Finally . . . Hoylake - like much of the Wirral peninsula - is resplendent with buildings of red sandstone or red brick. Like this one opposite my mother's flat. It's got a bar on the ground floor now but I imagine it used to be the County Hall. And I suppose the lettering has been left as it is to remind us that politicians speak little but cant. Probably.



Women who are sufficiently amused and incentivised by this frivolous post should send invitations - and relevant details - to colindavies@terra.es

If I get none, I will be topping myself some time tomorrow evening. A solution which invariably appeals to me towards the end of my visits here.

Meanwhile, here are 13 fotos of the the dresses at Ladies Day at Aintree today. I see Coleen had her work cut out.

God, I hope none of these write . . .

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