Old friends, and their kids arrived as expected on Saturday, so after a bite to eat we all set off via bus and ferry the Dr Who Up Close Exhibition at the Spaceport.
Glad we didn't go when the Dr Who exhibition wasn't on as although the Spaceport was OK I think it was trying to educate, rather than to entertain, so on the whole I found it a little dull. Having said that, the planetarium show was good - they went through the planets and Frodo was transfixed by this - especially the asteroid belt (he loves asteroids). Samwise was tired by this point, so got a bit tearful half way through, but luckily calmed down quickly, so I got to see all of the show.
There's also a simulator which lets you experience the thrills of a simulated pod race (similar to Star Wars Episode I). Frodo really enjoyed this one and is still talking about "riding in the spaceship that crashed into the water".
The Dr Who bit wasn't disappointing. They had an Auton, an Ood, a Slitheen, a Clockwork Robot, and of course a Dalek and a Cyberman, plus a few others. You had to go right up to the Dalek and press a large black button to activate it. Samwise didn't mind at all, but Frodo was much more wary of being ExTeRmInAtEd!
We missed the ferry back by 5 minutes, and had to wait an hour for the next one. To justify the charge the ferry cruises up the river to Woodside and Rockferry before turning round and heading back down to the Pier Head. Still it was a good evening for a night-time ferry trip, with fireworks going off on both sides of the river.
Walked past the Liver Buildings and across town back to the bus stop, carrying exhausted kids on our shoulders.
Back home for a cup of tea, and waved our pals goodbye, with a promise to visit them at their place in the New Year.
Tonight's the night that the British public show their disdain for terrorists i.e. we hang, draw and quarter them and 400 years later we're still burning their effigy.
Samwise is a little too young for fireworks, so as he was being put to bed tonight, I sneaked out with Frodo and took a taxi to the display at Sefton park. We took Frodo to a children's display when he was still in a pushchair, and he bawled all the way through it. This time he was really excited about going to see them.
The music accompanying the display started out with "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet, which I thought worked rather well. A full half hour of spectacular pyrotechnics. Frodo was absolutely gobsmacked. He was a little tearful at the end, but only because it had finished - he said he wants to go again next year.
The only thing that spoilt things a little was the number of idiots setting off fireworks amongst the departing crowd after the event. I'm sure that there's a correlation between the number of idiots and the location of this years event, which had moved across the park from last year.
The traffic was solid leaving the park, so it wasn't worth getting a taxi back. We walked back to the main road, but as the buses were all full I carried on all the way home with Frodo on my shoulders (had some practice at this the day before).
I bought Frodo a battery operated, fibre optic novelty toy to wave about in the dark. I also remembered to buy one for Samwise too. We had fun waving them at people sitting down in the restaurants and wine bars that we passed on the way back.
We scored at least 6 returned waves, including two double wave bonuses from the barman in Crichton's, and a waitress in the Eastern Diner.
1 comment:
Yes, that's the one. She's understandably a little bitter and twisted about what's going on with her health, but she seems to be just taking one day at a time, and getting on with things.
As I said, we managed to have a great day out together, and swapped a lot of gossip in the process.
The hobbits seemed to get on well with her tribe, which was also nice.
Post a Comment