Sunday Recap: September 13

Since last Sunday my week has been alright. On Monday I did not feel very well so I called in sick to work. This put me in a bad position where I can't do any overtime for a while. My week worsened on Wednesday night when my Macbook Pro decided it would forget where its hard drive was. It froze on me so I restarted it, when it started back up all I had in front of me was a folder with a blinking question mark in the middle.

I called Apple and talked to a very lovely guy in Lisbon. He told me to pop into the Apple store in Liverpool tomorrow and book and appointment. He mentioned not bringing my laptop as I might not get an appointment, so following his words I did not bring my laptop in when I headed into town. I went to the Apple store and was informed there was an appointment that very afternoon but since I did not have my laptop I would not be able to go home and back in time to make the appointment.

Sad times, I headed home and made an appointment after 5 pm when all the appointments for the next day come available.  The next day I brought in my laptop and they managed to fix it that night. I met up with Jamie in town and had a good wander, discussing our plans for Paris. I'm quite excited.

My laptop was available to pick up on Friday night but I stayed home and went into town to pick it up on Saturday. I went to the library first and printed off my Groupon for two tickets for £10 from Odeon. I had planned to get some books out on Paris but I skipped out on that to go pick up my laptop. After making sure it was in working order, I took it with me to watch Legend using one of my Groupon tickets. I very much enjoyed the movie. It was very good.

Now my computer is functioning amazingly well and I should have brought it in sooner when I noticed the quality of performance lagging. Next time I will not hesitate.

Sunday Recap: September 6

Well I am sad that it is Sunday, I can't say I had a stressful week at work as I only did two days of work. I'm getting over my jetlag with lots of tea and naps. I'm not sure if it is actually helping but I'm giving it my best shot and hoping that I will be back to 100% soon.

I only worked Thursday and Friday this week. On Thursday after work I joined Jamie and Kevin for a spot of shopping and some delicious Nandos.

After work on Friday, I came home and made a big batch of soup which is slowly being eaten for lunches and dinners.

I've stayed in most of the weekend except on Saturday where I popped down to listen to the music being played at the bandstand in Sefton Park.

In the photo above playing in the bandstand is my housemate Alex Gavaghan. He even did a shout out to me which made me really pleased. I've never had a shout out before from such a stage so that was very cool. You can listen to him here.

After he finished up, I stayed to listen to the last band of the day before heading back to the house to have a relaxing evening.

Now it's Sunday evening. I made a piri piri chicken for lunch and ate that while watching the latest episode of the Amazing Race Canada. I've started playing this Sim City game on my phone and have become quite obsessed. Other than that I've been reading The Martian by Andy Weir which is a very good book and I look forward to watching the movie adaptation.

Back in Liverpool

I'm back in Liverpool after an amazing month away. I was able to visit my father in Calgary for a few days before flying to Vancouver and attending the wedding of one of my best friends. Two weeks later I was again on a plane heading for my home town of Powell River. I spent a week there, visiting family and camping. 

I am going to try and make some posts about my travels to Canada and try and catch up on some other travel posts I have in progress. My laptop had been behaving badly but right now it seems to be alright so I hope that it continues to be alright.

I did not make any posts on my blog while I was gone as I was just so busy with friends and adventures. I'm not sure very many people read my blog but I would like to give posts for you all to read whenever you tune into it. 

A quick stop in Northern Ireland

After our adventures climbing all over the rocks at Giant's Causeway, we headed East in hopes of getting to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge before it closed. Unfortunately we were a bit late on it so we missed going across the rope bridge. Despite this now putting us half an hour out of the way, we stopped and enjoyed the view as the sun started to set.

We all found the coast so beautiful and it was a dream just to be there taking it in. We talked to one of the caretakers of the area about the local birds and wildlife.

Before long it was time to jump back into our ride for our holiday which was a Mercedes B180. A lovely little automatic that had a lot of power and had the amazing feature that told me if I was getting too close to either side of the vehicle. I used this feature a lot later on in our trip as we ventured off roading and up crazy passes.

We still had a lot of road to cover to get ourselves to Sligo County where we had rented an Air BNB for the night. It's about a three hour drive from where we were stopped here to get to Grange where the Air BNB was located. As it was about five pm when we were stopped, we arrived in the dark to our stop for the night after stopping in a small village to enjoy some curry for dinner. Taking the time to stop as we thought if we pushed it all the way to Grange we might get there and there would not be anything open for dinner.  I admit we should have given ourselves more time to get there or stayed somewhere closer to Giant's Causeway but I think the driving would have been better if we had not been delayed at the airport. This was the only real slip up on the journey as it all went smooth as soon as we got to Sligo.

Off to Dublin!

I'm off today to Dublin. I am spending the night in Ireland's capital city before heading across the Atlantic to Canada. It's been 500 days since I've been home. Feels crazy but I am super excited to be making the journey home for the summer. I have managed to get the entire month off of work. It is unpaid so I have to keep an eye on the budgeting side of things but with a pay cheque due in August, I think I will make it through without breaking the bank.

I spend the night in Dublin arriving in the afternoon so hopefully can get some sights in before having a pint of Guinness and dinner. I'll be staying in a hostel near the castle for the night before heading to the airport for my flight to Canada. Flying Air Canada to Toronto then off to Calgary to stay with my dad.

I'm with him for a few days then off again to Vancouver for my friend's wedding and the rest of the month with family and friends.

Up on High at the Liverpool Cathedral

On the day I ended up going up Liverpool Cathedral, I was on my way to Liverpool One on the bus when I looked at the Cathedral out the bus window and remembered that it was on my list of things to get done in Liverpool. Looking at the sky I saw that it was sunny with a bit of fluffy clouds  so I decided to jump off the bus at the next stop and head over to the Cathedral. I made a small loop past the Chinese Arch before getting to the Cathedral. Stepping inside, I headed to the gift shop to purchase my ticket to the top.  Paying the £5.50, I took my ticket across the church, looking up and admiring the beautiful Cathedral which is the fifth largest in the world. 

I ended up joining in with a family of three to get in the lift that would take us up high into the tower. Exiting the first lift, we went up a small walkway and waited for the second lift. Exiting that lift, we got to view the bells and the thing I found funny about them is that one is named Chad.

Climbing some stairs, they weren't so bad. I think the stairs at my work are the worst stairs. This was a breeze and soon I came up to this door. Go into the light!

Leaving the stairs and door behind, I was surrounded by the city I have called home for over a year. It was a beautiful site. I wish I had binoculars but I enjoyed it so much. The wind was not so bad and you could see quite a far distance.

Down Hope Street you can see Liverpool's other Cathedral, the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. I am lucky to live in a city that has a spare Cathedral.

In the above photo I was able to locate where I live visually but its a bit hard to describe. A bit to the right of those four sky scrappers in the middle of the image.

Heading back down the stairs, I ended back with the family I had gone up with. Deciding to only go down one floor to the Embroidery Gallery, we took in all the amazing embroidery that was on display. Mostly religious robes and patterns with a special meaning to the cathedral.

From the Embroidery gallery I was able to look down at the inside of the Cathedral. I felt very high up seeing the little people walking about so far below. Heading down in the lift, I left the Cathedral feeling very pleased with the experience.