I used to hate the crowded city centres, especially at this time of year but now I have a much more Taoist, go-with-the-flow attitude and am happy to just observe and be amused by the craziness of the human race.
So I'm on my way to the Walker and staggering along Clarence St. in a zig-zag manner is one of the local winos (St Luke's seems to be a no-go area at last (except for Pat of course)). Every so often she stops and frantically waves her arms at a passing car and screams 'You're going the wrong way!!'. Hilarious but disturbing.

Art DIY at the Walker and Tea Factory

You can click on these images to see a larger version.
This huge sculpture of the leaping jaguar was only staying outside the Walker until 4pm today. Its a 45 foot version of the Jaguar Cars emblem and was made by workers at the Halewood factory using the steel panels normally used to make the cars. There are other large works inside the gallery made by various community and work groups including HM Prison Liverpool which will be on show until Jan 16th. Some are on show at the Tea Factory so I went across town to Wood St.

On the way I passed Father Christmas giving people a lift along Lime St. and the characters from Wizard of Oz larking about in Clayton Sq.

The rest of the Art DIY exhibition is at 82 Wood St. which is part of the Tea Factory building but not the bar - until recently it was the Biennial Centre. Amongst the works here are a cool Flash animation with music called 'Jungle Jive' by Oakfield Day Centre, 'The Gold Zone' by The Basement drop-in centre and the excellent 'Operation Clean Clothes' (pictured here) by Unilever workers which is a complete kitchen/laundry built out of soap packaging even including a microwave with a turkey in it!
Then I couldn't resist calling into FACT to check out their Festive Family Fun Day. Lots of small children were involved in some trading card game where you also had to find the Evil Elves' secret hideout where they cultivate the seeds of greed located round the FACT centre. I'm afraid it was all too complicated and scarey for me, I just had a coffee and a rest before the uphill walk home.