Double delight

Aug 5 2008 by Mr Brocklebank, Liverpool Daily Post

WHILE used to repeat fixtures in the sports world, they tend to happen less in the world of local politics.

That is, unless you are Liverpool Lord Mayor, Cllr Steve Rotheram. So imagine the surprise of the good folk who run Harold House Community Centre, when the first citizen in his limo pulled up outside exactly one month to the minute after his previous visit. Was it so good that he had to go there twice? No. The appointment had been entered in his Town Hall diary twice – but on consecutive months.

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MUCH hot air has been expressed over the revamp to the frontage of Liverpool Lime Street, with the demolition of the street level shop- row to make way for a "gateway" worthy of this great city. But what of that ghastly carbuncle Concourse House, the derelict office block perching on the site’s corner? Should it not come down, too? However, if so, Mr Brocklebank fears it would fully reveal the even more ghastly three towers of the Grand Central Unite student flats in all their breeze- block glory.

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WHERE do all the lost umbrellas go to? A reader contacted Mr Brocklebank to tell him that he left a "state-of-the-art" collapsible umbrella, given to him by none other than his Auntie Betty, at Rice Lane Station. Against all his natural instincts, he called Merseyrail lost property office and spoke to Julie, who duly contacted Rice Lane. She was told that the station manager’s wife had handed in the very item to the ticket office. So when all hopes – and umbrellas – appear lost, let us trust there will be a Julie to help.

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DIVA Watch: Staff at the crucially trendy Malmaison Hotel, in Liverpool, were deeply disappointed by the behaviour of chanteuse Diana Ross during a recent stay while in town to perform at the Summer Pops in the Echo Arena. Apparently, Ms Ross was polite to all staff, made no outrageous demands, and left her suite nice and tidy. "She didn’t behave like a real diva at all," moaned a disgruntled source.

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AN INVITATION from the Earl of Derby to a dynamic duo from this venerable organ to meet him at home in Knowsley resulted in them seated in his study while his lordship (having seen them arrive) searched for these "intruders" in his garden. Surely a textbook example of the Liverpudlian ability to enter premises undetected? To make amends, award-winning photographer Colin Lane fixed his lordship’s temperamental new flashgun. "Without getting technical, there was an uncontrollable flashgun output due to a TTL differential," Colin was at pains to explain. Got that?