Magical Mystery Tour Part 5 : Mission Accomplished (Into the Liverpool Docklands!) by Alfred N.Muggins Section 3

24/8/22

    There was a wonderful plateau of outside cafes and restaurants at the top of some very futuristic steps, after which they descended to a grand courtyard next to the law courts and a statue of (now was it her again? - Yes I think it was!) No one less than Queen Victoria herself, who despite not being an autocrat like Stalin, and being far more constitutional and well behaved, did manage to get an awful lot of statues of herself raised around the Kingdom! This one was under a kind of dome with attendant smaller statues around it. It was certainly a beautiful monument. Liverpool did indeed have many very grand buildings which greatly impressed Alfred.

    It was at this point that Mrs Muggins surprised them by ringing Alfred’s mobile phone. She was ready! Her passport visit had been a great success. She had found the correct entrance and building. It had not taken very long, and she had even been seen a bit earlier than her appointment! Her documents had all been in order and she was free to join them. The main worry now was whether they would be able to locate each other? At least her mobile was charged up on this occasion. It only remained to see whether Mrs Muggins would be able to describe her current whereabouts sufficiently well for Alfred to be able to find her. Her sense of directions and her ability to describe where she was were not always of the greatest order. She had already left the passport building apparently and started wandering in the city, but Alfred deduced they couldn’t be too far from each other!

    He needn’t have worried. The clues soon came in. She said she could see the docks area and was on the road where the traffic jam had been, on the docks side of the road. Alfred led her son and their little dog down a road in the direction of the docks and they could see his wife clearly on the other side of the main road as soon as they got to that road. They crossed and they all waved at each other. The whole trip was now going exceedingly well, due to all this unexpected timeliness! All memories of the traffic jam and their desperation that they might miss the appointment were wiped from their minds. Here they were in Liverpool, and the city was their oyster! What could possibly go wrong now. They had made it, and they could relax and see something of the great city.

    They plunged expectantly into the docklands, celebrating with a flurry of photographs on their mobile phones of the magnificent panorama of old and new buildings around them. Across the dock were some very space station or alien spaceship-like buildings of very unusual shape and design, thought Alfred. They were very modern!

     At this point they all realised they were hungry, and time had been passing, so they decided to order meals from the first pub/ restaurant they found on the docklands, with the great views all around. It was still the coronavirus lockdown period, as I said earlier, so they could only sit outside to order and eat, and they could only go into the pub, with masks on, to toilet or to pay. They ordered, failing to use some kind of complex app to register, which Alfred, and even the usually much more savvy Mrs Muggins, couldn’t quite get their heads around, but it didn’t matter, the waitress was happy to assist, and they ordered the meals of their choice, which came to them soon enough. Sadly, so did the rain!

     The weather which had been bright and seemed perfect for their visit, was turning unfortunately, in accordance with the weather forecasts apparently, to Rain, (which on the positive side was another Beatles song!). They were under a big table umbrella, but some drizzle could blow a little and slightly affect their coats in places, but they would remain dry enough! They did enjoy their lovely meals, but the rain was becoming more, rather than less set in, so the feeling of fortune favouring them was now in full reverse. Mrs Muggins was feeling cold, and it seemed they would have to cut short their exploration of the Docklands. They didn’t even get to see the famous statues of the Beatles, which Alfred was later told they should have seen, or walk around the rest of the docks. Oh well! You Can’t Always Get What You Want! (not a Beatles song by the way. It doesn’t even come from Liverpool!)