Scott Bowler

Illustrious Oranges

The great thing about living near the docks in Liverpool is that there’s always something interesting floating outside your window. Two weeks ago the QE2 edged its way down the Mersey and was sent off with a huge fireworks display. This weekend the HMS Illustrious came into port and after a bit of Googling I discovered that it was open to the public for a browse.

Unfortunately, I missed the boat (apparantly puns are the lowest form of humour, I disagree!) and only went to see it at 3pm on a drizzly Saturday afternoon, by which time the queue was about a mile long and I discovered that there was no way I was going to get on board - lesson learnt.. It was still interesting to see a “working” aircraft carrier, complete with planes and guns.

For those of you not in the know, the “HMS Illustrious (R06) is an Invincible-class light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, affectionately known as ‘Lusty’ to her crew” (thanks Wikipedia).

Today I decided to get in a bit of culture and walked across to the Walker Art Gallery and on the way bumped into the Orange Instituion Parade (well, it was more of a waddle than a parade judging by the waist lines of most of the people taking part!) Video below for posterity:

I think I’m going to start carrying my camera around with me wherever I go, as there’s always something happening in Liverpool! I’m not sure what I’ll go have a look at next weekend - It’d be interesting to go find some old bomb shelters from WWII - time to do some digging around to see if there are any still open to the public.

Update: The tour of the “Western Approaches” looks like the nearest I’m going to get, although it looks very, very boring!

Tags: bomb shelters, docks, hms, hms illustrious, liverpool, mersey, orange institute, qe2, walker art gallery