Corinne CrawfordI visited the Liverpool Cathedral and for a church that is more than 100 years old, it was quite progressive in its offerings. Inside the church, in addition to the traditional stained glass, memorial stones and alter, there was a café and art installations and interactive nooks and crannies. You could tell they were trying to create a very personal and inclusive atmosphere and I thought it was commendable. In one area, they had an interactive installation that was like a riverbed on the floor made of post it notes. The “river” flowed from infancy to the departed and the instructions were to write a person’s name on a post it and put it in the “flow of life” where that person or you are or when they had the most effect on your life. My dad has been on my mind a lot and so without hesitation, I wrote “Edward H. Crawford, Dad, 1945-2023 and laid it in the departed section of the “river”.
The cemetery adjacent to the church must have been there before the cathedral was built or at least the current cathedral because the headstones went back to the mid 1800’s. if there were earlier ones, I did not notice them. It was extensive and I think actually was called a public park with paths and benches meandering through the graveyard.
I attempted to go out to see live music again, although this time I researched more mellow spots and went out early as I wanted to call it a night relatively early as well. I found a small cocktail lounge that had an acoustic guitar and singer and it was just my speed. I enjoyed an overpriced cocktail, but I scored because they initially made the wrong drink. Still an old fashioned but not the flavored old fashioned that I had ordered. So they gave me both for the price of one. At 2 for 1, it was a decent priced cocktail.
Because I totally flaked on my journal during the last trip, some of you may not know that I was in Morocco with my bestie, Jodi, in the spring. I bring this up because it relates to an interesting coincidence I am about to tell. First, Morocco- Jodi and I were staying in a private riad/home in the coastal town of Essaouira. The house did not have a decent coffee maker so each morning, Jodi and I would go down to the square a few blocks away and grab a coffee at an outside table facing the small square at one of the cafes lining the street. As we were getting dressed to leave the house that morning, I got a Miley Cyrus song stuck in my head, “Flowers”, and started singing it. Jodi could hear me from her room and I apologized saying I don’t really listen to much Miley Cyrus but that song was stuck in my head. One of us mentioned that she does a good rendition of her godmother’s (Dolly Parton) song, Joelene. And then we both agreed that, of course, Dolly’s version was supreme. Then we walked the few blocks to the café and took our seats and ordered a coffee. The city did not get going until 9am. That is when the cafés opened and when people were just starting to get going, including the vendors that set up their wares on blankets or small tables along the other side of the square. We watched as a few were organizing their items and then, seemingly out of nowhere, I hear…. You guessed it- Joelene by Dolly Parton. I looked over at Jodi to make sure I was not hearing things and her face mirrored my own look of astonishment. It was not emanating from the café and we were not even quite sure where it was coming from. There was no song that played before it and no song that played after it. And we actually did not hear much American music while we were in Morocco. Moroccan music is quite good and played almost everywhere. How can it be that within 30 minutes of us mentioning the wonderful but not quite currently mainstream song of Joelene by Dolly Parton, we hear the song in a coastal town of Morocco. I would have been sufficiently surprised if that same occurrence happened in the US or if we even heard the song in Morocco days after we talked about it, but within 30 minutes? Seemed an almost impossible coincidence. Well, bringing it back to my current travels her in the UK, as I was walking around in the early evening on Saturday before going to the lounge, a busker was setting up near some benches along a main thoroughfare. I had some time to kill so I sat on a bench and within minutes he started playing his first song…. Joelene.
