It started with Roland and I taking a spontaneous trip into town to take a look at some of this year's Liverpool Biennial exhibits at FACT.
I've been in and out of Liverpool on a few occasions over the last week or so.
It started with Roland and I taking a spontaneous trip into town to take a look at some of this year's Liverpool Biennial exhibits at FACT.
I can't say that we were wowed by the installations we saw but we did require a sustaining coffee plus almond and chocolate roulade at the Italian Club immediately afterwards.
Having made a great success of our tenure as a European Capital of Culture in 2008, it is not surprising that Liverpool continues to present itself as major player when it comes to staging major events. Hence, Liverpool is planning a bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games. The city's mayor, Joe Anderson, has said that the city council would launch a feasibility study before submitting a bid. He also commented that hosting the event "would reflect the city's growing confidence and expertise in organising large events".
I love my home city. If you keep your eyes and ears open, each day can be full of laughter. In this vein, I have just spotted this opportune piece of advertising outside the Bumper club on Leece Street.
They always have something funny on the sign there. Someone working there has a very sharp sense of humour.
Another recent favourite of mine was...
Say no to pre-shredded cheese - make Britain grate again.
Elsewhere, the High Court has told the NHS in England that it can fund and provide the pre-exposure prophylaxis (Prep) which is capable of preventing HIV infection. This came after NHS England had previously argued it was not their responsibility as local councils were in charge of preventative health.
This stance has now been successfully challenged by the National Aids Trust (NAT). In his ruling, Mr Justice Green said NHS England had "erred" in arguing it was not their responsibility. However, the High Court ruling does not make the funding of Prep automatic and the NHS is set to appeal. So, we shall have to wait and see.
I've just discovered the TV programme Mr Robot through our cable service.
I'm absolutely hooked.
Rami Malek, Christian Slater and Martin Wallström are all fabulous.
It's quite, quite brilliant.
I went back for another look at the Francis Bacon exhibition at Tate Liverpool and I still think that it is the best thing that they have shown since their Magritte show a few years back.
And my last trip into town was to see the Glyndebourne Festival's production of Béatrice et Bénédict in a recorded cinecast at FACT.
I had not previously attended a performance of Berlioz's take on Much Ado About Nothing before and I was intrigued to see how it would go.
In the event, I was somewhat bemused by Laurent Pelly's production which seemed to have had an attack of over-cleverness which just got in the way of what felt like quite a charming but nevertheless slight work.
As a consequence, I don't really feel as though I can comment on Antonello Manacorda's handling of the score or Stephanie d'Oustrac and Paul Appleby's performances as Béatrice and Bénédict themselves.
