Day Off Work

It's half term, so I took a day off work today.

Spent the morning with the kids in UnderWaterStreet.

Then we went for a walk around town to view an oversized Spider, "Turning the Place Over" and SuperLambBanana.

Giant Christmas Greetings

I've just received an E-Christmas card from La Princess. Nice to see that she's not forgotten us (probably because I bought the T-shirt and poster from Artichoke).

Giant Spider Sighted in Liverpool 3

We all went out again to see the spider leave Liverpool.
Here's the last still pics that I took. Had to switch to the video camera, as the snap camera is useless outside after dark.

We knew that had returned to it's nest on the Concourse tower, and would probably move as dusk approached. We got there at 18:30 and stood on a traffic island between St John's shopping centre car park and St George's hall and waited.

Spotted a couple of friends who live on the Wirral waiting nearby, so we shouted them over and had a chat. The Penny Farthing pub was blasting out music. Every now and again the DJ played the spiderman theme from the 60's cartoon.

Around 19:30 the French chaps in the fancy fencing jackets - I've since learned that they are called "Les Manipulateurs" - abseiled down from the top of the building, and strapped themselves onto La Princesse, as the spider is known.

The monster then slowly descended, as musicians mounted on cherry-pickers arrived and played. Gradually the creature was lowered to the ground, then it slowly turned and began to move along William-Brown street.

We watched it go, with the musicians leading the way, at which point darkness had fallen, so I switched to my video camera. We decided to dodge around the back of St George's Hall and meet up with the creature on the other side. We lost our friends, but I think that they opted to follow the spider in the other direction, as they hadn't seen it yet.

We stood at the back of a line of people and watched the musicians go past, then saw the spider coming. This time a number of "Les Manipulateurs" were leaping onto it's legs and allowing themselves to be carried up into the air, and back down again.

The spider became interested in the people sitting on the walls of the hall for a bit, then came right past us.
There was enough of a gap at the back of the crowd to walk along, so we found ourselves once again walking with the spider. I walked along with a small boy on my shoulders and holding up the video camera, whilst keeping pace with the arachnid, which was putting on a spectacle as it hissed and sprayed the crowd.

Down towards the Queensway tunnel the crowd got a lot thicker. We managed to squeeze our way into a spot beside the roundabout where the final action took place. We had to alternately pick up Frodo and Samwise for short periods, to make sure that they got a view of the action.

We really felt the heat of the flames that frightened the creature into leaving, and were doused by the water cannons. There was a fusillade of fireworks, and then it began to snow. The spider squatted down, curled up and began to disappear into the tunnel.

Frodo and Samwise were waving goodbye frantically. Samwise was sobbing, and tears were rolling down down his cheeks because he "didn't want the spider to go". He kept on waving and crying as I held him up, right to the end - people were nudging each other around us and going "aahhh!" when they saw him.

Finally around 22:00 it was all over, the spider's snow was still falling, and the music still playing as we headed back to the bus station. Feeling a little guilty for letting the boys stay up so late, but really glad that we'd managed to go out as a family four times to see this marvellous creation, since it's unlikely to come here again.

I'll have to get the video off-tape and post some here sometime.
There's loads of good pictures on the La Machine website. I'm off to buy the poster and the T-shirt.

Giant Spider Sighted in Liverpool 2

I was on the early shift this morning. The spider had moved in the night and had settled down to "sleep" on the concourse outside the Echo Arena.
Got there at about 07:15 and took a few photos. There was just myself and a camera crew there. As I was leaving a man turned up dragging along a small boy wearing a coat over his pyjamas.






Took the boys back later at 18:00. We waited for about an hour in the pouring rain. Then some musicians appeared, pushing through the crowd and climbing into elevated platforms. They tuned up for a bit, then their platforms rose higher and they struck up a rhythmic tune.

Three scientists/operators/riders clad in what looked like white fencing jackets climbed into seats on top of the spider and the machine-beast began to wake...

Numerous eyes lit up. The legs opened and rose with a hiss to reveal a ring of scientists/operators/riders riding underneath the spider. The mandibles opened and steam/foam sprayed out. Jets of liquid squirted out of the abdomen.

One small girl freaked and ran off shrieking - her mother ran to catch her and calm her down.

The creature/mechanoid rose, turned and began to stride away.



We found ourselves following the spider, walking alongside the spider, climbing up steps to get level with it, going down another set of steps and ended up in front of it as it approached.

Everyone was grinning, laughing, staring and running along with delight. The musicians cacaphonic medley continued whilst the beasts limbs waved close above people's heads, bumped lamposts, stepped on walls and brushed the tops of trees.

We legged along just in front of the spider, pausing now and again to take many photos.







We realised that the rain had stopped when the spider began to move. It came back every now and again, but wasn't as bad as earlier. We watched the monster do a circuit of Salthouse Dock, walking out along The Strand, and then back in through the main gates that lead to the Albert Dock.
It's legs hovered just above the heads of the crowd. People were reaching out and touching the base of the feet.




Finally the spider was hoisted into the air and swung out over the waters of the dock. It dipped it's toes into the water and then was showered by a number of water cannons. It disappeared in a mist of spray for a short while, then, after returning the water cannon salute with a burst of spray from it's abdomen it swung back onto the land, and headed off for the Cunard Building.



By this time it was 21:00, so we called it a day and carried 2 tired, wet, happy boys onto a bus home. I think that we were really lucky to be in the right spot at the right time when it woke up for it's first major outing.

It's off for a walk around the city tomorrow. We're going to miss this, but hoping to see some more on Sunday, when the spider leaves the city.

Giant Spider Sighted in Liverpool

We've been looking forward to this one for a while. Picked Frodo from his first day back at school, then collected Samwise and Novelist Supermum and told the boys that we were going into town. Parked up and I asked them if they thought that we would see any giant spiders.

They just thought that Daddy was fibbing again. Then they saw this...



It's all part of the latest, and probably one of the best, Capital of Culture Events.
It's being staged by La Machine and Artichoke, who put on The Sultan's Elephant in London a couple of years ago.

There's more on BBC News - but their photos aren't as good as ours :P

The plot over the next few days is that scientists will experiment on the creature, which will then wake up and move around the city. It will then finish in a spectacular finale on Sunday night. Looks to us like the creature is going to exit via the old Mersey Tunnel.

Unfortunately we're commited to a family event on Saturday, so we'll miss what's going on that day, but we're hoping to see as much as we can with 2 excitable, and possibly very tired boys on Friday and Sunday.