Istanbul last week, Liverpool this

No sooner had we arrived home from our cruise, than we were turning around and buzzing off again. My Hero actually managed to get to his choir rehearsal on Thursday evening, much to the surprise of one friend who said he thought we were still on holiday.

“When did you come back?” he asked.

“We left Athens at 2.30 this afternoon”

But this weekend was a long standing fixture in our diaries and we booked our cruise knowing it would be a quick turnaround. Every year (except the last one) we go up to Lytham St Annes to hear our friend Olga’s choral society’s concert. It often coincides with the Remembrance ceremony in Lytham as well, which I’ve blogged about on several occasions previously. So first thing Saturday morning, we were heading up the M6 keeping everything crossed that the traffic would be free flowing and we’d arrive on time to meet Linda for lunch too. Thankfully, all went according to plan.

The concert was super, the choir in fine voice in spite of such a long break (in common with all choirs, they’d gone a long period with no rehearsals at all) and experiencing a concert during these strange times was useful for me, because in a month or so, I’ll be looking after the front of house for the Stuart Singers concert here.

On Sunday, in a break with tradition, we went on a bit of an adventure to Liverpool. There was an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery our friends had noted and thought that we may enjoy. Instead of driving into the city, we drove to Ormskirk, from where we hopped on the Merseyrail service to Liverpool Central. First time on a train in ages!

First impressions were how incredibly busy it all was. We think of Sunday as a day at home, but clearly we’re in the minority here! The train was full, the city was packed and the shops were doing a grand trade. The Christmas Market was all set up but closed today, for the Remembrance Ceremony - judging from the mutters here and there, I fear most were unaware of that.

The Walker Art Gallery is one of the best in the country with a fine permanent collection and a rich programme of temporary exhibitions.

We had tickets for the Walter Sickert exhibition and our friends had booked a guide too, so the next hour or two were spent in the company of this rather dark artist.

I always enjoy looking at how the material is presented in an exhibition like this, and here, it was done imaginatively for the most part. In some of the rooms, there were videos showing, in another there was a soundtrack of an actor speaking from Othello. All of this would have been great had it not been for the fact that we were trying to hear our guide!

Most of all, I loved Walter Sickert’s drawings. The gallery has a collection of (I think) 300 or so of them, and these were exquisite, especially those he had put into mood boards. I could have spent a long time just looking closely at these - where they were shown as preparatory sketches alongside the final work they are even more interesting, and Sickert frequently created more than one version of the same painting too. I enjoy a glimpse into the thinking that goes into a finished work like this - all too often, we just look at the end result and think it came easily!

Late on Sunday afternoon, we joined the crowds in Liverpool city centre heading towards the station to make our weary way home. There was the most stunning sky above us with just a couple of twinkling aircraft passing overhead.

Stand anywhere in this city and it’s immediately obvious you’re in Liverpool. It’s like nowhere else.

I love it!