It was slightly depressing to walk round the old Cain’s Brewery building and to see it stripped of almost every thing that might be required for the brewing of beer.

The odd sign was still pinned to the walls and the stonework still declared Higsons and The Brewery Tap was still open. They even had behind the bar some polished, unopened bottles of Cain’s Lager but they were not for sale and even if they were they were well past their use by date. It was nice to see them.

The last time I had been inside the large canning room it had been to walk out on to a deck overlooking the room so I could watch as thousands of cans of beer were sped along conveyor belts to be packed into the back of lorries. There were no cans left and the building had been taken over by art for the Liverpool Biennual.

Earlier we had spend an hour or so looking at more art in Toxteth. Here an old reservoir had been opened up and filled with green laser beams. Whilst the green beams were impressive it was perhaps more interesting to be inside the reservoir and able to look up at the curved edges of the Victorian brick ceiling and the black iron columns holding it all up.

It was the same in the Welsh Streets where a great block of grey stone had been placed halfway down one of the streets. It was strangely effective but not as interesting as the faded colours in the shuttered old houses and the poetry and song lyrics that had been pinned to their locked doors.

Saturday evening we had a BBQ and I cooked pork ribs. They were marinaded in a sauce of my own devising. This started by me putting a couple of chopped onions, same garlic and tomatoes through the food processor and then adding some flavourings to the sludge which basically meant  pouring in whatever I could find in the cupboard – this included some runny honey which had gone hard, a couple of different types of chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, soy sauce, lots of salt and pepper, some vinegar and another dash of ketchup for luck. There may have also been the dregs of a couple of bottles of BBQ sauce that had been lurking.

This gloop was mixed in with pork ribs. I poured some over some chicken wings as well as the vegetarian alternative. A couple of hours later when I came to light the BBQ there wasn’t as much charcoal as I had anticipated. This may have worked out for the best as there was just enough for me to be able to maintain a consistent low level heat sufficient to cook everything but not burn it.

We had the pork ribs with rice’n’beans and salad and good company.