Three Giant Steps

This weekend, Liverpool had a visit from three giants for the special Sea Odyssey event.

It is inspired by a story of a little girl who sent a letter to her father,  a crew member on the Titanic, telling him how much she loved and missed him. Tragically, the letter never reached him on time, and he died in the sinking of the ship.

The story of the giants is different. Here, the little girl's father was a stowaway on Titanic and died with her letter in his hand. It is said that the uncle dived down to the bottom of the ocean to the Titanic and retrieved it. He then commenced to search the world for the little girl.

By chance, they both ended up in Liverpool at the same time. The girl brought her giant dog, Xolo, and the uncle brought his diving suit. 

More than half a million people crowded the streets to watch the Giant Uncle, Little Girl or dog walk past on their mission.

The Giant Uncle stopped for a drink and the dog stopped for a wee. The uncle was seen in places like the Albert Dock, the Strand, Stanley Park, St George's Hall, St Luke's bombed out church, Lime Street and King's Dock. He even leapt over the Chinese Arch.

Meanwhile, the Giant Little Girl and the giant dog went to venues such as Stanley Park, Anfield Road, Everton Brow, Lime Street, Liverpool ONE, Queens Wharf, Mann Island and King's Dock. 

Finally, on Saturday evening, they met. The long seach was over.

The uncle, even though he was made of wood, looked astonished, his eyes wide and his mouth open  He turned his head and their gaze locked across the docks.  Slowly, she walked towards him and they held each other.  It was very emotional. 

With the little girl on the uncle's knee, their eyes began to close and soon they had both fallen into a deep, peaceful sleep.

Wakey, wakey! On Sunday, sadly, it was time for the pair to say goodbye to the city and their 600,000 new friends and the giants sailed down the River Mersey to another dock to be packed up for their voyage back to France.

The home of the Giant Uncle, Little Girl and dog is the artistic French city of Nantes.

La Princesse, the giant spider, which visited Liverpool in Capital of Culture 2008, was also made there along with the Giant Elephant which you can ride on, along with a fantastic Jules Verne carousel.

How do I know? I went on both last summer!

Arthur Christmas (U)

It is now December. The shops are packed. Time to get into the Christmas feeling. Which is why I went to see the new Arthur Christmas at the cinema. It stars James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie and Bill Nighy.

This film isn't like the Polar Express or Elf. It modernises Christmas.

Santa delivers the presents in a spaceship and the traditional sleigh is kept in a shed described as an "old relic".

When Santa returns in the small hours of Christmas Day, after his big journey giving gifts, an elf discovers a present that has been missed, left at the North Pole. It is up to Arthur, Santa's youngest son, to deliver this present in the old sleigh before the child wakes up.

I have to say, it was better than I thought it would be. It had some funny scenes but also was very adventure-filled. The funniest character was Grandpa Santa who was mad because of his old age. In fact, the whole film was full of mad ideas. Good but mad.

Rating: U
Score: ★★★★


On Wednesday, seats are £2.60 at the Plaza Cinema, Crosby, Liverpool. For more information go to: http://plazacinema.org.uk/

The Collingwood (CLOSED)

Yesterday I went to Aiden Byrne's, The Collingwood on the Wirral. It is a lovely little pub with a big field in the back garden.

Atmosphere
This is a very posh place, I couldn't tell whether it was a pub or a restaurant. This place is lovely and has a great atmosphere.


Code
The rules in this place are very strict:
-No sportswear
-No workwear
-No swearing
-No nudity

Starter
For my starter I had beautiful garlic bread. It was by far the best quality garlic bread I've had in my life! There was a perfect amount of butter on the bread.

Main Course
For my main course I had bangers and mash with gravy. The sausage was just right with a lovely texture to it. The gravy was gorgeous with a really smooth feeling to it. The mash had no bits in it. It's the best mash that I've ever had!

Dessert
My dessert was chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and popcorn. The brownie was amazing. I had to eat my dessert very slowly, it was that good. There was nothing that great about the ice cream. The ice cream tasted just like what you'd expect from the shops. The popcorn actually worked with the ice cream and chocolate brownie. I didn't expect the popcorn to go that well with the rest of the dessert.

Service
The service was good. The waiter kept asking me if I wanted another drink. The food came quicker than you'd expect.

Score
Service: 3/5
Atmosphere:4/5
Food: 8/10
Overall: 15/20

Contact info

Opening Times

• Open daily 11.00am until late

Address

Black Horse Hill, West Kirby, Wirral, CH48 6DS
0151 625 4525

Directions

Blackhorse Hill, West Kirby, just near the Mercedes garage.

 





 

100th Anniversary of the Royal Liver Building

This week marked the 100th anniversary of the Royal Liver Building. It has been one of Liverpool's most 'sound' weeks of the century!

First, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra played on a huge stage at the Pier Head. It was one of the best concerts that I've been to by the Philharmonic Orchestra.

Looking up at the tower while listening to the music makes you feel like you're in a world of magic.

Finally the light display came. It showed the history of  Liverpool in an animated video on the Liver Building. I think it was more exciting than when La Machine came to Liverpool for Capital of Culture in 2008.

Museum of Liverpool

After this, there was a light display on the new Museum of Liverpool to celebrate its birth.

Next weekend, Liverpool's Wired Aerial Theatre will be performing at the Anglican Cathedral. Don't miss it.

1. Portsmouth, UK
2. Venice, Italy
3. Liverpool, UK
4. Blackpool, UK
5. Paris, France
6. Bilbao, Spain
7. Calella, Spain
8. Girona, Spain

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The final Harry Potter film is full of action and now in 3D in cinemas. The second part of the worldwide phenomenon is the best of the lot. Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint,Ralph Fiennes and Maggie Smith.


Harry Potter has become a huge part of my childhood and I am happy, and a little emotional, about it being the last one. I got to the cinema as soon as I could. It was funny, exciting and action-packed. It is by far the best film that I've seen in the whole of my life. Even better than Toy Story 3!


Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) sets off with his two best friends, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) to find Lord Voldermort's (Ralph Fiennes) Horcruxes. If they don't destroy all of the Horcruxes, Voldermort cannot die. 


Hogwarts has been taken over by Death Eaters who make the students torture first-year pupils with the Cruciatus Curse. Harry returns to Hogwarts and meets his friends there. Together they try all they can to protect the castle, and Harry and Voldermort have their final battle.


A lot of characters die in this film and there are quite a few scary scenes. This is the goriest of the Harry Potter series. I recommend that only mature eight year-olds and over watch this.


Rating: 12A
Score: ★★★★★

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