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Blue from West Oz - On Liberty in the US and England

Part 16  of Paul "Blue" Hartridge's travels throughout the US, and now England, visiting friends and family.

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England Leg 3 - Liverpool and Preston, England - 4/28/2004

Blue: Just been up to Preston where I was born and left as a 10 yr old. My old street chum met me at the train station... only 20 minutes late was our train. He took me to the city centre, back to the street where the two of us lived, met an old neighbour who remembered me and my Mum from 31 years ago, went to the church where my Mum's ashes are scattered. Also we went to 'my' old primary school, turns out we both went to the same school but neither of us can recall the other being there, just from being friends in the same street.

Then later on that night had dinner with his daughter, his sister and parents...a lovely night out with nice people from my past life.

Then on the next day, Paul took me to Liverpool to see The Beatles museum and the Cavern where they used to play. Funny thing was Paul had to ring a mate in CHINA!! to ask him where the Cavern was in Liverpool, amazing.

It was real nice to see Paul and his family after a 21 yr break, real nice. It felt strange being back there, so many good memories and a few sad ones too, but that's the way life goes sometimes and my life in Australia has been great Later that day I jumped on the train back down to Brighton, hopefully it isn't another 21 years before I go back to Preston!

It's raining now here in Brighton. :-(

  
Blue in Dart Street - Preston, Lancashire, England and outside the house he lived in for approximately 6 years. The Garden of Rememberance Paul's Mum, Pamela, is.

  
Blue's street chum Paul, his Daughter Toni, Mum Margaret, sister Dianne and Dad Trevor at The Beatles museum, set up of the Cavern John and Blue at the Cavern.

  
Blue at the Cavern Enterance and inside the "new" Cavern.  Paul's car.

 

England Leg 4 - Back to Brighton - 5/1/2004

G'day Don, Saturday the 1st of May

Lorraine, Rita and I went for a walk around Brighton. Ended up having lunch on the beach front and then an ice cream. Here you can see what the Poms call a 'Beach'....full of rocks... but I must admit at some stage I did see a grain of sand - very sad indeed! lol That night we all went out to the Greyhound track and indulged in a few bets, I spent about #20 to win #10, but Glenn, Lorraines oldest son, won over #70...all in all a nice night out.

 
Ice cream on the... ahhh.... beach!

Sunday the 2nd of May

Rita, Lorraine, Steve and I went out to Arundel Castle....owned by the Duke of Norfolk for God knows how many centuries...maybe I should have paid more attention to the information posted here and there?!! One amazing thing was that after travelling around the USA for 9 weeks and not seeing an American Bald Eagle, I had to find one in England!

The day out to the Castle was great, good to see a real castle once again after all these years. I bought my son Daniel a small statue of a Knight and for my daughter Pamela, some earings...they were advertised as #13 and when the lady picked them up, said to me, " oh, they are really priced #29, do you want me to check"? silly woman, what did she expect? " No, #13 will do thanks very much" was my reply...and that's what I paid.

   
Blue at Arundel Castle

That night, after indulging in some English history, I was subjected to more English biased quiz questions, this time I took some reinforcements in the name of Rita, Lorraine and Steve...'they' let me down and we came last, again. he he...I did get a special mention for being the only person to answer the following question..." where would you find the beer, San Miguel"?......the answer of course, is....The Phillipines. Having got at least ONE question correct, I was happy to retire and let the uni students believe they are smart! *_*

  
Blue at Arundel Castle and "the quiz."

Cheers mate. Blue *_* 

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