Friday 28th February 2014
The last two days of my life have been rather manic. And that’s putting it mildly. After staying up super last on Thursday night driving around in a vain attempt to see the Northern Lights (they were supposed to be visible as far south as Wales, but it’s so hard to find anywhere in the UK that isn’t affected by light pollution), my girlfriend Casey and I had be up at the crack of dawn to move out of our flat in Manchester.
In just a few weeks, we’d be moving to our new home: Jinja Island, Panama!
We packed up our things and drove to Liverpool, stopping along the way to purchase a DJI Phantom 2 drone, which I’M SURE WILL COME IN USEFUL AT SOME POINT.
We dropped our kit off at my parents’ gaff (it’s handy when all your worldly goods fit into a backpack) before racing to Liverpool city centre for this years’ Global Scouse Day.
Global Scouse Day is an annual celebration of the city of Liverpool which is held every year on the 28th of February. It is primarily based around scouse, the meat stew synonymous with the city. It sees bars, cafes and restaurants in Liverpool and around the world put scouse on the menu for the day. Scouse is also served in Liverpool schools, hospitals, and on Virgin trains nationwide. In recent years Global Scouse Day has grown to encompass Liverpool’s music, art and cinema.
Since I’m widely regarded as the founder of Global Scouse Day, it usually falls to me to help get things organised. Although, to be honest I couldn’t get anything done without the contribution of Laura and Dave…
Dave Critchley is one of Liverpool’s top chefs, and is the man in charge of the kitchen at Liverpool’s incredible Alma de Cuba bar and restaurant.
Laura of Laura’s Little Bakery fame is my boss mate from back in the day. While I was faffing around visiting every country in the world, she continued our annual tradition of eating scouse on my birthday in my absence. Incredibly, she managed to get half of Liverpool on board with the idea. And so here we are!
If you’re interested in cooking up a batch of scouse yourself, Dave and I made this video in Laura’s kitchen to show you how:
While Laura and Dave traipsed around the city looking to drop in on the 100+ venues that are serving scouse today (good luck guys!), I was representin’ at Maggie Mays’ for Liverpool’s first Scouse Off competition!
I was one of the heat judges, so I had to sample 12 bowls of scouse in order to whittle it down to our favourite three for the lord mayor to decide on the best. Those eagle-eyed amongst you might recognise my mum as one as the contenders. Yeah, she didn’t win, I’m not a Tory MP, Jeez! But we did get my new Guinness World Record framed ready for tomorrow… don’t worry, it’s coming….
After scousing it up for the afternoon, Casey and I shot over to the aforementioned Alma de Cuba for some din-dins. Dave gave us 50% off. Did I mention it was my birthday?
Afterwards, we blagged a cut-price hotel room at the Hard Day’s Night Hotel. We had the Yellow Submarine room. It was insanely cool. I know you’re going to think I’m a mad bastard, but I stayed up most of the night printing out mini wee flags for tomorrow’s big event. It will involve people, a drone and a very special certificate I was awarded earlier this month.
