Thanks to Virgin cancelling all its trains to Manchester and Liverpool on Saturday, I got to see a lot more of England than I intended this week.

In addition to my planned visits to the three L's (Lincoln, London and Liverpool), I also got to see vast amounts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Merseyside etc; spend a chilly hour watching trains go by in Sheffield (where I'd actually never been before) and travel past Stockport, Manchester, Warrington and Widnes on the last leg of the journey. Phew.

My last proper tour of Merseyside was when I interviewed Dr John Marks, also nicknamed Dr Drugs and Mr Heroin by international media as he was in charge of two clinics, Widnes and Warrington, adhering to the old British orthodoxy of prescribing heroin to addicts, must have been 1996 or so, but I saw a slightly different side of the region then than the view I got from the train window yesterday, so perhaps it was about time I got to see the region in a more traditional way.

Anyway, lots of travel and work in England this week, just landed in the land of the Midnight Sun now. Will be back with more media stuff in the morning...

(picture from Muswell Hill)