Magical Mystery Tour Part 2 : Passport To Liverpool! by Mr Alfred N.Muggins

     Alfred found himself getting quite excited at the prospect of going to Liverpool properly at last! It wasn’t really a Mystery, or Magical Trip. They knew where they were going - to the Liverpool Passport Office – for Mrs Muggins! Luckily the lost Marriage Certificate had been replaced by the one sent from the Council registry Office – just in time with one day to go before the appointment for a Passport at the Liverpool Office, so they would be able to go on their postponed and rescheduled holiday to Turkey, which was coming up fast, and as usual there would not be time if they didn’t get off their backsides and do something about it urgently.

     There was still much doubt about whether these second rescheduled holiday dates (the third actually booked, as the pandemic had caused the earlier bookings the previous year to be cancelled!) Indeed it was not at all certain that their currently booked holiday would actually take place, but they had to be ready with all their passports up to date in case it did actually (by some incredible stroke of luck?) actually take place.

    So they were all ready for the Big Day Trip, as the whole world, and certainly the UK, had been in virtual Covid Lockdown again since the beginning of November 2020 and even before. Of course the first Lockdown in early 2020 had been a very complete and extreme Lockdown as parts of the population had experienced the often deadly ravages of the new virus. It therefore again felt like a great relief to go on a Day Trip (Beatles songs such as ‘Day Tripper’, and even ‘Drive My Car’, sprang easily to his mind!) It just so happened that the trip coincided with Mrs Muggins’ Birthday (another famous song by The Beatles!).

    Alfred had very perceptively booked a couple of days off work for such a potential possibility. So here they were going to Liverpool in Mrs Muggins’ big car (known as the Tank). He just hoped he would be able to park it safely in the often too crowded parking spots of the city, particularly if it turned out to be a multistorey car park where parking spots were notoriously tight. His own smaller car would have been a lot easier to park, but a family trip required a grander kind of car! (It was well known that car parks in general were some of the easiest places to have little bumps or accidents of that sort.)

    Alfred began to romantically wind himself up as if he was actually going to meet his four heroes, The Beatles, or some of the unofficial and almost made it (or should have been?) Beatles as well, such as George Martin, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best (or even Brian Epstein? And in this age of sex equality, perhaps their wives as well!)