Is there a better place in England than Liverpool? Are there any better people? Before I retired I was implementing new systems across the country and it always good to be in the Liverpool area. Training sessions were always better when scousers were involved, that’s if you could ever shut them up.


Liverpool reflects quality in the likes of John Lennon, The Beatles, the whole Mersey Beat thing. Football of course is important to the Liverpool people, as Bill Shankly once said

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Unfortunately for Liverpool they are also the home of Ken Dodd, Atomic Kitten and Brookside but you can’t have it all.


When in the area I usually stayed at a hotel up on the M57, excellent rooms all suites, best quality shampoos and soaps and even cafetierre coffee: Nice haul to take home at the week end. But that’s not the point.
They have a residents lounge with a very large TV ideal for watching football - I've fallen asleep in front of that many times and been woken up by the night porter suggesting I go to bed, but that’s not the point either.


The Big TV

One night I arrive and the TV is missing, gone for repair they tell me. The next week I’m back and the TV is still missing and the full story comes out. Two guys arrived in a white van and say they have come to repair the TV, they have a look at it and tell Reception that they will have to take it back to the shop which they do. The next morning they come back to collect the remote control which they forgot the day before. That’s the last anyone saw of the TV. There was nothing wrong with it and no one had asked for it to be repaired.
Now that’s quality


The Golf Clubs

I’m at another hotel in Whiston and leave my car in the car park during the day , when I come back at tea time I open my boot and my golf clubs have gone. I am parked next to a CCTV camera so into the hotel, look at the tapes and sure enough up drives a car, parks next to me and the driver gets out. As he walks past my front passenger side door he does something and walks to the boot, opens it and takes the clubs. The whole process took 12 seconds and the only damage to the car was the locks needed changing.
Now that’s quality.


I was a bit disappointed that he considered my trainers not worth stealing, obviously Matalan doesn’t have a high enough resale value in Liverpool.


Interestingly I of course reported it to the police who said they would come and finger print the car as “We have a 98% record”. I said I was impressed that they managed to catch so many crooks. Wrong assumption what he meant was that they have a 98% record of finger printing cars, no chance of catching anyone but they will have the fingerprints on record. What’s that about?


The Overnight Bag

Chris, a colleague parked outside the post office, went up the steps to get some leaflets and looked behind him to see a car pull up alongside, the passenger opens his boot and takes his overnight bag, gives him a wave, shouts “Thanks” and drives off. No damage to the car. Now that’s quality. Gaz had his car keys stolen from the desk in a depot manager’s office. The two lads doing the stealing had to come into the car park, into the building, into the office and take the keys off the desk, all with CCTV cameras about. Whist Gaz was getting his spare keys from his hotel they helped themselves to his portable CD player but no damage to the car. They even left his keys for him.
Now that’s quality.



So that’s Liverpool, but only my view, I don’t believe all Liverpool people are like that. But then again……!