That's right, I'm in Liverpool! But of course that was easy to figure out from the title right? Allow me to expound...
Trypanosomes are parasites, and quite pretty ones too. Well they're pretty under the microscope, but not so pretty if you have them swimming through your bloodstream or working their way into your CNS, where they can really wreck havoc. They are, of course, the little buggers that cause African Sleeping Sickness, and they relate to Liverpool because it's here, at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine that I glimpsed them under a microscope. I'm here for the Tropical Nursing course which has been three weeks of non-stop information on every little critter that can take up unwelcome residence in the human body; plus sessions on everything from mental health in the developing world to humanitarian responses in crisis. Needless to say it has been fascinating, inspiring and incredibly tiring.
As the course ended on Friday, and I have no burning desire to rush to London to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (rock on Liz!) I have spent the weekend enjoying the intermittent English sunshine and all that Liverpool has to offer. Friday saw the Olympic torch come through town - I watched it go by on my way to the pub (how perfectly British), then pub by pub a group of school mates and I eventually made our way to the infamous Cavern Club - the not-so-original site of the Beatles 292 performances!
The following wealth of Beatles history and trivia has been gathered tirelessly from the signage around town (and a bit from Wikipedia).
The Cavern Club, on equally famous Mathew Street, first opened as a jazz club. When Lennon's first band, The Quarry Men Skiffle Group played in 1957 they were, I've heard, told to "cut out the rock" by the club's owner. Needless to say he later retracted that statement as The Cavern Club became ground zero for Beatlemania.
Now the club is obviously a mecca for Beatles fans the world over, not to mention fans of The Who and Queen and various other groups that have graced its stage throughout the years. The club obliges these seekers of rock history by having live bands every night playing old school rock so the girls can dance the night away just like in the swinging 60's - which we obviously did! My ears were ringing for two days after that night!
Other famous Beatles sights abound throughout Liverpool waiting to take the dedicated fan on a Magical Mystery Tour all their own (or courtesy of the multitude of tour buses or Fab Four Taxis). I chose the bipedal route and found myself walking 20 kilometres in search of history....
That's right it's Strawberry Field! The area was owned by the Salvation Army (possibly still is, I don't know) and was a field John used to play in. The gates here today are replicas of the original. You can order your own replicas by calling the number off a sign just behind the gates - kind of kills the magic if you ask me. Also the intense graffiti and frequent tour buses stopping is a bit of a buzz kill.
Next stop - St. Peter's Church where John and Paul first met! Not very photo worthy as it is just your everyday church. But in the graveyard beside it... the grave of the Rigby family including Mrs. Eleanor Rigby. Paul says if he took the name from there it was a subconscious act (he thought he was combining the names of a girlfriend and some store in Liverpool). Still, it is pretty cool.
And of course, what Magical Mystery Tour would be complete without a stop at Penny Lane... where the barber's selling photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know! Tony Slavin's barber shop is there, although I think Tony is long since gone. And the shelter in the middle of the round-about was turned into a cafe in the 80's, subsequently abandoned, and currently sits in a state of disrepair. But still, it's magical!
Penny Lane is actually named after James Penny who was an 18th century slave-ship owner in Liverpool. Recently a city councillor proposed changing all the street names associated with the slave trade (there area apparently quite a few in Liverpool as this was a large shipping port during the period of triangular trade) however for obvious reasons, Penny Lane has been spared.
Okay, enough Beatles trivia and on to a much more pressing topic - the mystery of the Lambanana. They are everywhere in Liverpool.... large sculptures painted on the street like the cows found in Calgary. Of course cows and Calgary makes sense (sort of), but the connection between Liverpool, lambs and bananas seemed, to me, strained at best. Plus what is a Lambanana anyway?
This is a Lambanana - pretty straightforward. It is half lamb, half banana and obviously all Liverpool! The story is, Liverpool was looking for something to put it on the map (you know, other than those four guys who sang some stuff), something emblematic of the city that really captured it's history. So they held a contest and this was the winning design; it represents Liverpool's long standing shipping history (without all that shady slave trading business). For years Liverpool's chief export was, you guessed it, lambs! And their chief import was... bananas! Lambanana, brilliant!
From reading all of this, one might conclude that I have learned more about The Beatles and Northern England shipping history than about tropical diseases and global health. Nothing could be farther from the truth, it's just that me getting on a soapbox to talk about schistosomiasis or maternal health doesn't make for very interesting reading (and the pictures aren't very exciting either). But if you think you have a Guinea worm, or you're not too sure about the ins and outs of that pesky Yellow Fever vaccine, I am still your go-to girl.
Tomorrow I'm Heathrow-bound, on my way to Canada for the first time in 15 months! I couldn't be more excited! Look out Tim Horton's!
Trypanosomes are parasites, and quite pretty ones too. Well they're pretty under the microscope, but not so pretty if you have them swimming through your bloodstream or working their way into your CNS, where they can really wreck havoc. They are, of course, the little buggers that cause African Sleeping Sickness, and they relate to Liverpool because it's here, at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine that I glimpsed them under a microscope. I'm here for the Tropical Nursing course which has been three weeks of non-stop information on every little critter that can take up unwelcome residence in the human body; plus sessions on everything from mental health in the developing world to humanitarian responses in crisis. Needless to say it has been fascinating, inspiring and incredibly tiring.
As the course ended on Friday, and I have no burning desire to rush to London to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (rock on Liz!) I have spent the weekend enjoying the intermittent English sunshine and all that Liverpool has to offer. Friday saw the Olympic torch come through town - I watched it go by on my way to the pub (how perfectly British), then pub by pub a group of school mates and I eventually made our way to the infamous Cavern Club - the not-so-original site of the Beatles 292 performances!
The Cavern Club, on equally famous Mathew Street, first opened as a jazz club. When Lennon's first band, The Quarry Men Skiffle Group played in 1957 they were, I've heard, told to "cut out the rock" by the club's owner. Needless to say he later retracted that statement as The Cavern Club became ground zero for Beatlemania.
Now the club is obviously a mecca for Beatles fans the world over, not to mention fans of The Who and Queen and various other groups that have graced its stage throughout the years. The club obliges these seekers of rock history by having live bands every night playing old school rock so the girls can dance the night away just like in the swinging 60's - which we obviously did! My ears were ringing for two days after that night!
Other famous Beatles sights abound throughout Liverpool waiting to take the dedicated fan on a Magical Mystery Tour all their own (or courtesy of the multitude of tour buses or Fab Four Taxis). I chose the bipedal route and found myself walking 20 kilometres in search of history....
Next stop - St. Peter's Church where John and Paul first met! Not very photo worthy as it is just your everyday church. But in the graveyard beside it... the grave of the Rigby family including Mrs. Eleanor Rigby. Paul says if he took the name from there it was a subconscious act (he thought he was combining the names of a girlfriend and some store in Liverpool). Still, it is pretty cool.
And of course, what Magical Mystery Tour would be complete without a stop at Penny Lane... where the barber's selling photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know! Tony Slavin's barber shop is there, although I think Tony is long since gone. And the shelter in the middle of the round-about was turned into a cafe in the 80's, subsequently abandoned, and currently sits in a state of disrepair. But still, it's magical!
Penny Lane is actually named after James Penny who was an 18th century slave-ship owner in Liverpool. Recently a city councillor proposed changing all the street names associated with the slave trade (there area apparently quite a few in Liverpool as this was a large shipping port during the period of triangular trade) however for obvious reasons, Penny Lane has been spared.
Okay, enough Beatles trivia and on to a much more pressing topic - the mystery of the Lambanana. They are everywhere in Liverpool.... large sculptures painted on the street like the cows found in Calgary. Of course cows and Calgary makes sense (sort of), but the connection between Liverpool, lambs and bananas seemed, to me, strained at best. Plus what is a Lambanana anyway?
From reading all of this, one might conclude that I have learned more about The Beatles and Northern England shipping history than about tropical diseases and global health. Nothing could be farther from the truth, it's just that me getting on a soapbox to talk about schistosomiasis or maternal health doesn't make for very interesting reading (and the pictures aren't very exciting either). But if you think you have a Guinea worm, or you're not too sure about the ins and outs of that pesky Yellow Fever vaccine, I am still your go-to girl.
Tomorrow I'm Heathrow-bound, on my way to Canada for the first time in 15 months! I couldn't be more excited! Look out Tim Horton's!
