Magical Mystery Tour Part 5 : Mission Accomplished (Into the Liverpool Docklands!) by Alfred N.Muggins Section 2

6/7/22

     Eagerly Alfred and Mrs Muggins’ son, and their little dog ventured out of the multistorey car park into the sacred city, to be met by some exciting highly architectural steps, which led up to a manmade plateau, inhabited by outdoor and indoor restaurants. Although the sun was shining and everything looked fresh and fantastic, it wasn’t particularly warm for sitting out. Both of them got quickly to the work of all modern tourists, immediately taking out their mobile phones to snap pictures of this modern city. Even the entrance of the car park was photographed.

     There was no doubt Liverpool centre had had a lot of money spent upon it in recent times, no doubt putting their own sadly empty in places northern city to shame. Mind you this was still a time of relative covid lockdown, as restaurants and cafés could only serve meals outside still, and people had to be masked if they ventured inside to use the lavatories, or pay their bills. Social Distancing was still the guiding philosophy of human interaction in these cautious and preventative times, despite most people and particularly the older ones having been double vaccinated by now (including Alfred, his wife and her son!).

     However there were palpable signs of opening up, of gradual returning towards normal, as shops were open, inviting the masked and socially distanced to come in and shop. The Delta virus had spread massively during the winter but figures of cases were reducing down all the time at the moment as mass vaccination and social distancing rules dealt effectively with the runaway virus. Plenty of people were out and about, as economics and leisure activity fired up once again!

    It was because they had hopes that their Turkey holiday, booked now for June 2021, might just possibly be allowed to go ahead, that the urgency to update Mrs Muggins’ passport had become so urgent, although Alfred and his wife had grave doubts that it would actually be allowed. At the moment they were technically unsure. The newspapers and news programmes remained optimistic that holidays abroad would very soon be opened up and allowed, albeit with lots of (expensive?) covid testing. Alfred, being a natural born pessimist, expected it would most likely be cancelled for them, but they had to get the passports ready just in case it went ahead. His had already recently been renewed, but Mrs Muggins’ needed updating with additional alterations, thus the urgent trip to the Liverpool Passport Office! He wasn’t complaining. It was the perfect excuse for a pilgrimage to the sacred city where The Beatles were born and raised, and developed their music, and the other Merseybeat artists too!