Leaving Liverpool - Miles to go before I sheep

The tale of a dragon leaving a city she loved....

Sometimes a doodle just pops into my mind after hearing/reading a conversation or thinking about a certain thing for a while, plus lots of coffee (LOTS).  The above doodle is an example of just that, I was thinking about a tweet chum of mine leaving Liverpool and her twitter avatar happens to be a dragon. Alison Gow is her name and editing is her is game,she is off back to her country of birth, which is Wales. I have been tweet chums with her for ages now. I think she was Grand Poo bah of Liverpool in the tweet stats and that is why I originally began to follow her (no idea really). She is fountain of social media knowledge, with a journalistic twist, as seen in her blog Headline and Deadlines. Alison is also a super nice person and said many a nice thing about the mumborg, which I wont ever forget. I was so pleased to get the chance to meet Alison and hand over the doodle in person. Hopefully she will back soon, then I can doodle a 'Return to Liverpool' piece, with a happy dragon.

The 'Leaving Liverpool' doodle also introduces a new character.......... Baa Wid

Baa Wid was conjured up by the mumborg, after she rather quickly and callously cast aside my original idea of 'Widdy the Wool'. In hindsight 'Widdy' leads to Anne Widdecombe on google, so sod that for a monkey's badger, 'Baa Wid' it is. Why a sheep in the first place? It is an homage of sorts, to my heritage,but it mainly pokes fun at the nickname people from round these parts are given. That being said, I could have easily drawn a three headed swamp donkey mutant, if I followed that thinking.. /raises eyebrow at certain people.

Who knows where Baa Wid will go next? Who else will crop up? Baa Lee, Ma Baa Wid, Da Baa Wid, GranBaa Wid and GranBaaBaa Wid, are all possibilities.. Yes I am quite mad, ewe can believe that.

Help Me:
I would like/love some suggestions, especially from my Liverpoolish chums, about what buildings/places/landmarks, you think are doodle worthy in Liverpool? Where do you think Baa Wid would like to visit? I would, in fact, love input from anyone that has visited Liverpool or wanted to visit.  Imagine, if you will, an illustrated guide to Liverpool, from an out of town sheep's perspective ( In the style of above Liverpool waterfrontish dragon doodle). Much obliged for your input as always (preemptive thanks, as I *know* you leave some great suggestions).

Coming soon: What do you get if you cross a unicorn/troll/dragon/castle/boat/moon/naked/clothes doodle?

Also check out my wiffling on Twitter, Naked Ladies on Self Exam Doodles with DOODLE GIVE-AWAYS on it's FB PAGE and favourite musical listening on Other Bits and Pieces.

Act your age, not your shoe size.

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.

In a effort to post a least once a week, this weeks instalment falls upon my birthday, yay for me or something. Like many women my age, I am 28 years old, no really, that is how old I am now. Some advice I received, once long ago, is running round my head at the moment, it is rather deep so take a moment whilst you read it:

"Act your age, not your shoe size"

Shockingly profound isn't it? But as I have rather large feet*, I think acting in relation to ones shoe size, wouldn't actually be that bad, in fact I positively recommend it.

*Not freakishly large feet by the way, don't haunt me with clown music (you know who you are).

As my birthday fell upon a Monday this year (worse day ever!), I decided to go out over the weekend to celebrate instead. What to do now that I am past the drink so much, puke, drink some more stage of my life? Go to my first ever proper gig of course! In the last few years I have developed a new love for music, gone are the complacent days of just flipping on Radio 1 (popular station in UK land). For those that write reviews on music and gig, may I give you three mugs of Kudos? Because holy shit is it hard to write about music! I have tried unsuccessfully to describe how much I like or dislike certain music, trying to put some passion into it, but failing miserably. So I have come up with a really technical scale of musical wonderment chart, which I will probably never use again...

The Claire Scale of Musical Wonderment
1. Hallowed three thumbs up of awesomeness (Similar to wet my pants awesomeness)
2. Ohhhhh awesomeness
3. Pretty awesome
4. Hmmm (The hmmm of pondering)
5. Meh
6. Holy shit! How fucking awful (similar to 'My ears, my ears, arghhhhhhhhh')

Even though I am British, I still love the word awesome, there are other words that may be more eargasmic, but  I am sticking with awesome. Just thought I would mention that, after having a discussion about the word awesome with someone else and not really relevant to this, but hey this is my stream of nonsense after all.

So whom did I see? 
I saw Bat for Lashes and Yeasayer at the Liverpool O2 academy, which is a smallish venue. Yeasayer where the supporting act, but in my opinion they got the 'Hallowed three thumbs up of awesomeness' and should have played for much longer! Hardly anyone was watching them either, which was shocking, as they were such a treat. Bat for Lashes were only slightly below them with a 'ohhhhh awesomeness' rating, not sure what it was, but they didn't connect with me as much as Yeasayer. It could be because some absolute morons decided to edge they way through the crowd and stand right in front of me, forcing me to tap them on the shoulder and utter moooooooove in a some what snarl. I know its a gig and standing room only, but if you are keen, then get there bloody earlier and position yourself in a cool spot, no need to act like a tool. Anyhoo it took a while for me to avert my laser eye beam stare from the back of their heads and back onto Bat for Lashes, after some musical meditation all was well once more. I loved the small venue feel to the place, as it definitely added a more intimate vibe, both bands are well versed in playing at festivals, so you know they can perform on a larger scale too. It wasn't hard to imagine being a sunny field dancing bare foot whilst listening to their tunes. So now I am hooked even more on those two bands and now live gigs! Slap me with a wet haddock for leaving it so long to go to a gig! I know this gig review has blown you away...... (come back).

Bat for Lashes - Daniel

Yeasayer - Tightrope

If you are musically inclined and on Last.fm, then check out of my profile.

Now for the rest of my birthday I will be doing...... Not much

Update: Mucho thanks for birthday wishes

Look what TJ doodled for me:

I hate the gal for being so talented, but was touched that she took time out to doodle this for me.

Out in the pool

Another lonely soul at sea

A while back I posted a photograph depicting a lonely figure in the sea, which you can see by clicking here.It is in fact a one of many statues, forming the instillation called 'Another Place' by Antony Gormley. You can read more about it here and here. They are awesome sight to behold, so if you ever happen to be near Liverpool, then its well worth the trip to see them.

Olga and The Beatles

After the trauma that Olga suffered I figured she needed and deserved a wonderful treat, but what? After interviewing her, I found out that she loves The Beatles and guess who lives right near Liverpool..... Me!
I must confess to not actually being much of a Beatles fan, so this whirlwind photographic adventure was a education for me too.
The areas that we took photographs were Strawberry Field, Penny Lane and Mathew Street.
The majority of photographs where taken in and around Mathew street, which is a veritable treasure trove of all things 'Beatles'.
If you want to see the photographs individually Click here: Olga does Liverpool.

Farewell post for Olga tomorrow!
She is finally leaving me.
(Hooray)