MMP Goes To Anfield

Dear Lincoln, Lilliana, Leni, Juliana, Evyn, Jack, Faye, Chloe, Emerson, Lake, Rita, Ella, Violet, and Poppy,

Happy new year! 2013 should be a lucky year for everyone and I’m happy it’s arrived. I hope you are all doing good. Sorry it’s been so long since I wrote, I've been incredibly busy doing lots of jobs, but it was great to see some of you in Paris recently. 

I saw Violet and Poppy when they visited in December, and in August I saw Lincoln, and his dad took us to a soccer game in Paris! 

I also spoke to Jack on the phone last week and when he told me he’s 7 now, I couldn't believe it. He was only 5 when I left. I've really been away too long. I will definitely be back in LA to see you all this year for sure.

I want to tell you about a very, very exciting trip I took a few weeks ago. 

You all know that I am a huge soccer fan (although, remember, because I’m British I call it “football”), and that my favorite football team is Liverpool. It has been my dream for years and years (longer than any of you have been alive) to go and watch them play at their home ground, Anfield, which is in Liverpool, in the north of England. In fact, I was very jealous of Josh – my fellow big Liverpool fan who I stayed with in January 2011 – because in the summer he flew all the way from New Zealand with his football team, to play some games in England, and he got to visit Anfield. 

Well... in November, my friend, Rory, invited me to go to a game at Anfield! I was so excited I could hardly sleep the week before!

Luckily, there was a flight directly from Paris to Liverpool, so it was really easy to get there.

The first thing I saw when I got to the airport was this big yellow thing. This was the first of many funny yellow things I saw in Liverpool. I’ll explain what this is about later on! 

I was so excited when we got to the Anfield stadium, especially to see the very famous sign for The Kop, which is the end of the stadium where the most loyal fans sit. 

Everywhere I looked there were people selling Liverpool Football Club things. Pictures, scarves, T-shirts... anything you could imagine with the LFC logo on it!

I thought I was back in Josh’s bedroom at one point! 

We went through a special entrance because we were going to an executive box. I could hardly believe I was there. I thought it was a big dream. But when I saw this sign saying, “This is Anfield” I knew my dream had come true.

There were lots of TV screens everywhere showing the game that was about to be played. The one we were going to see was against Wigan.

Even though I knew we should be good enough to beat Wigan, I was a bit worried because Liverpool hadn’t been playing too well in the months before. But then I remembered that whenever I watched games and really, really focused hard on them, I could usually bring my favorite team a little extra luck. I thought maybe with me actually being there, I could bring them even more luck! 

Then, finally, we got to the executive box and I walked outside and saw the whole stadium.

 I have to confess, I shed a little tear of happiness! 

Everything in the box was amazing. We had special programs, and a list showing us who was playing. 

Inside the box is a long table where we were served the most delicious three-course lunch. The chef even made special food for me because of the things I don’t eat.

Outside the box are the seats facing the football pitch. 

It was very cold but a beautiful sunny day. In England in November, it’s more likely to be cloudy and rainy, so my luck was already showing up!

After we’d eaten lunch, the players came out onto the pitch to warm up. 

I had a great view of The Kop, where the fans have these huge flags they like to display. I was also really excited to sing the Liverpool song, You’ll Never Walk Alone. It was a very special moment to be part of that.

And then... it was kick-off!

Liverpool was playing great. There wasn’t much for Reina (the goalkeeper) to do because the ball was mostly down the other end! 

Of course I was most excited to see my favorite player, Steven Gerrard. I took loads of photos of him. See if you can spot him in the following photos (remember he wears the shirt with number 8 on it):   

But this is my favorite picture of him. It makes me laugh because my grandma used to stand with her hands on her hips like that!

There was no score in the first half and I was a bit disappointed, but as the second half got under way, I figured out why. It was because they were saving all the action for when they were shooting down at our end. All the goals happened right under where we were sitting. I couldn’t have wished for a more perfect game!

Just after the second half started, Luis Suárez (our amazing top goal scorer) scored his first goal.   

He’s the one wearing number 7 on his shirt.

  

Only ten minutes later he scored a second goal. And less than ten minutes after that, Enrique got a THIRD goal for Liverpool, making the score 3-0 to Liverpool. My lucky thoughts were working!

By the end of the game, the sun had gone down and we were watching the game by floodlights.

After the game, I took some photos in the corridor outside the box. Like this one from 30 years ago! 

Outside, I wanted to visit the Hillsborough memorial area. 

This place commemorates a very sad occasion when lots of Liverpool fans died because the police and officials let too many fans into a stadium called Hillsborough in Sheffield where Liverpool had gone to play in an FA Cup semi-final. It was a long time ago (over 20 years) and after this terrible tragedy, lots of rules changed in England to make sure that fans were safer. Nothing like it has ever happened since in England. 

Liverpool is famous for many things. For example, it is the home of one of the most famous bands in the world... The Beatles. After the game, Rory showed me the house where Brian Epstein lived, which has been turned into a bar. He’s the man who really discovered The Beatles. Sometimes people call him “The Fifth Beatle”.

There are other bars in Liverpool dedicated to The Beatles...

...including one named after my favorite Beatle, John Lennon.

I really enjoyed exploring Liverpool. It’s a beautiful city, with so many things in it you would not see anywhere else in the world!

For example, I kept noticing these big yellow dogs everywhere. Officially they are called Superlambananas because it is a cross between a lamb and a banana. That makes me laugh every time I think about it. It is really one of the funniest things I think I’ve ever heard. Who thought up a cross between a lamb and a banana? And why?! 

They sell mini ones in all the gift shops, too!

I got lucky with the weather again. It was a super sunny day when I was sightseeing and I got great pictures of some of Liverpool’s beautiful buildings.

I loved the entranceway to Liverpool’s Chinatown.

This building’s not so beautiful, but it’s a bar owned by Jamie Carragher, my second favorite Liverpool player, so I had to take a picture!

  

Some of the buildings are so unusual. Like this cathedral...

...which has the most amazing stained-glass structures outside.

I noticed that yellow is a big theme in Liverpool. It’s not just the superlambananas, there are yellow bus stops...

 ...and yellow taxi-boats, called yellow duckmarines that drive like cars on the land and then turn into boats on the river!

Another very special symbol of Liverpool is the Liver bird (you say it to rhyme with “eye” or “like” or “five” instead of rhyming with “quick”... which is how you say the word when you mean the organ inside your body that cleans your blood!). You will recognize it as it’s the symbol of Liverpool Football Club, but it’s all over the city in many different forms.

 One of my favorites was this stone carving by the door of the Cathedral.

But the most beautiful Liver birds are the ones that sit on top of the Liver Building.

 

You can see them from all over the city.

There is an old story that the Liver birds watch over Liverpool keeping the people of the city safe. The history of the Liver bird symbol goes back almost 700 years and there are many legends associated with it. 

The birds on top of the Liver building have been there for over 100 years. People believed that one of them looked out to sea watching over sailors in order to bring them safely back to shore, while the other looked over the people in the city, the families of the sailors, making sure they were safe while the sailors were at sea. I absolutely love this story. 

There’s lots of fascinating and unusual history in Liverpool. It’s been preserved very well. Rory showed me this beautiful old pub called the Philharmonic.

 

I loved the names of the rooms, “Brahms and Liszt” (when you’re all older I’ll tell you what that means in Cockney-rhyming slang).

 

But the Philharmonic is most famous for its toilets! The men’s toilets are so old and so beautiful that they are “Grade 1 listed,” which means no one can ever knock them down or change them in any way.

 

They are the only ones in England listed as such, and there is a sign warning men that sometimes women go in there to take a look!

Although these were not the most unusual toilets I saw in Liverpool. I’ve never seen anything like this before...

Double toilets in the girls’ bathrooms are available in one bar in Liverpool, so girls can go to the toilet without having to stop chatting. Scouse girls apparently never stop talking! (Scouse is what you call people from Liverpool.) 

I also loved this building. It’s a pub called Shenanigans, which is one of my favorite words. It means a kind of “kid chaos” when no one is listening and everyone’s shouting over the top of everyone else and nothing is getting done. It happened a lot in my family when I was a kid growing up!  

My favorite area in Liverpool is down by the docks because I love being beside water. 

They used to build ships here, but now it’s all been renovated and there are museums and shops and cafés, and old boats on display.

 

Down by the docks I saw another strange-looking yellow thing. This is the original “Yellow Submarine” which is the subject of a famous Beatles song. 

So now I understood what that thing outside the airport was; it was a yellow submarine!

The faces of the four Beatles are painted on the side of it. 

They were often called "The Fab 4"

The biggest shipbuilding company in Liverpool was called the White Star Line...

...people used to sail from England to the United States and Canada from Liverpool. 

The company's most famous, but fated, ship was the Titanic, which sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912, just over 100 years ago, when it was on its first ever journey to New York.  

There is a fantastic exhibition all about the Titanic at the Maritime Museum.

I met these schoolgirls dressing up in the costumes that people wore on the Titanic.

You can see what tickets for the Titanic looked like...

...and see a map of its journey...

...and read about how it hit an iceberg...

 

..and see a list of passengers, including the names of the people who died when the Titanic sank.

There are lots of other things to see at the Maritime Museum, including huge models of old ships... 

...and this original ship’s bell! 

Of course I couldn’t leave Liverpool without a visit to the Club Store to buy some clothes.

As it was Christmas, there was a big Christmas tree covered with Liverpool Football Club ornaments!

Another English Christmas tradition was being advertised outside the Club Shop... a pantomime, which is a play for kids, usually based on an old fairytale, with lots of songs and jokes. 

I really loved my time in Liverpool the people are so friendly and there is a great atmosphere all the time; it all helped me make up my mind to move back to the UK from Paris, something I'd been thinking about for a while. 

I’ve had a great time living in Paris for a year and a half. I’ve had so many adventures, met some wonderful people, enjoyed all the visitors I’ve had, and managed to run my first marathon here, but it’s time to go back to England now so I can see more of my family and friends there (and maybe go to more Liverpool games!)

I’m a little scared because it’s always a bit scary when you make a big move, but I’ll make sure I remember the words of the Liverpool song (and you remember them, too):

When you walk through a storm

Hold your head up high

And don't be afraid of the dark

At the end of the storm

Is a golden sky

And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on through the wind

Walk on through the rain

Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart

And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone.

I’ll see you soon, my friends... really soon, I hope.

Lots of love,

Susie xxxx