A Tyne to love, and a Tyne to hate

The Great North Run

2009-10-04T06:08:00.000-07:00

The Great North Run is the world's biggest half marathon and runs from Newcastle to the coast. It took place a few weeks ago but I haven't been able to get the photos up until now. The weather was absolutely perfect and it turned out to be a great day. Congratulations to all of those who took part and raised money for charity!

At the beginning of the race the Red Arrows fly over the Tyne Bridge...

Even the Village People took part!

2009-05-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Today was another beautiful day in the neighbourhood. We got the bus out to Jesmond Dene again and enjoyed a few cokes in the sun. Practically every inch of grass was taken by the hundreds of sun bathers, but we managed to find a quiet corner near Armstrong Bridge. We also had to make the obligatory trip to Pets Corner to check out the adorable animals.

2009-05-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the Evolution Festival on the Quayside. Historically this has been a free festival but they've decided to charge for it this year. It is less than a tenner a day, so it is still quite affordable but I wasn't a huge fan of anyone performing so I'm not sure I would have paid for it. I volunteered for the festival though and was able to see a few acts while I wasn't working. I went and saw the Puppini sisters perform and was pleasantly surprised because I had never heard of them, but they were great pop-centric, big band sounding trio. I was quite impressed! The weather was gorgeous and I'm hoping that tomorrow brings more of the same!

2009-05-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today was the day of the university boat race between Newcastle University and Durham University. So after a quick trip to the cinema to see Star Trek (which was great by the way) we headed down to have a few pints at the Quayside and watch the races.

2009-05-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

Two posts today!

After walking home from lunch, I decided to have a poke around St. Mary's Church in Gateshead. It is directly outside our front window, but despite seeing it every day for the past 2.5 years, I've never had a look around it. I was lucky enough to show up while it was open, and no one else was around so a delightfully helpful and nice woman working at the church gave myself and two other women a tour around. The inside was gorgeous, despite having survived several fires, the Norman invasion and the civil war. I found the cemetary outside the church to be most interesting though. All of the gravestones were dated around 1700-1850, because city centre graveyards were banned during the 1800's due to cholera outbreaks (see, I told you she was helpful!).

This was the first time I've ever actually seen a tombstone with a skull & crossbones.

2009-05-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day to be a foodie in Newcastle. The Newcastle EAT festival has started and there are a number of cool events taking place throughout the city over the next few weeks. Today was the IncrEDIBLE Fest held on the Quayside in front of The Baltic. We got up bright and early to have a look around the markets, but the only thing we ended up buying was some pretty amazing looking organic lamb sausages.

There were a few intersting characters involved in the festival...

But our favourite part was the cooking demonstrations, of which we managed to catch the fish and venison shows.

All in all it was a good day. We tasted some risotto with one of the demonstrations and felt in the mood for an Italian and wondered up the Quayside to Oliviana's, a newish restaurant on the bottom of Dean Street. We were incredibly disappointed. The silverware was dirty, the risotto appeared to have been microwaved and my pizza tasted like the inside of a dirty, burnt oven. Defnitely not recommended!

2009-04-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

After being told by countless friends that I should get myself to Jesmond Dene, I finally went for the first time today. It is genuinely lovely. The weather was quite nice so the open areas were completely full of families enjoying the sunshine.

We went to Pets Corner and played with the farm animals which was loads of fun

We walked our way up through all of the dene and sat by the waterfall and old mill (though in typical fashion, the mill was graffitied).

Everything about it was beautiful and we will definitely be going back again when we get the weather for it.

2009-04-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

This is, technically, my local. When we first moved in to our flat, we were amazed by this unique old building with so much character. A peek through the windows revealed wallpaper that hadn't been updated since at least the 60's and we were ecstatic at the thought of sipping saturday afternoon pints here. Unfortunately, the pub is so rough we've never actually gone into it. We've seen men outside drinking at 8am, bloody fights, a man slapping a woman, wedding groups staying at the Hilton wandering in to what they see as little more than the nearest pub and then leaving in tears when shouting matches break out. It really is scary. My husband's friend is a proper geordie, full of Wae'eyes and what not. He got a cab to our flat once and told the driver to drop him off at The Central. The driver turned around and looked him in the eyes and said "You're not going inside are you? You can't man, they'll eat ye alive." And thats that. Pretty, but dangerous.

2009-04-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

After meeting a friend in town for coffee before her return to Bristol, I got the metro to Northumberland Street to do a little shopping. The weather was so fantastic though, that I decided to walk over to the Newcastle Civic Centre and take a few snaps.

Next to the civic centre is St. Thomas the Martyr's, or as I like to call it, the black church.

When I finally made it to Northumberland Street, I came across a very funky bass busker, who by the looks of it must have been a big Star Trek fan.

2009-04-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

We spent the afternoon in one of Newcastle's best pubs, The Forth. It is a great pub right near Central Station where all the hipsters and students hang out. Despite this pretention, it offers a relaxed atmosphere that is hard to come by in a city with such a party scene. They also do some pretty tasty grub.

The terrace was just redone last summer and is a great place to hang out on a summers day, or in this case, a cold, dull spring day because they have a great heater at the end.

The back wall of the terrace is a large, grey wall and next to it is a bench and a bucket of chalk. Anyone who wants to can write and draw on the wall. Being the hipster scene that it is, the wall is mostly full of people's twitter accounts but letting people graffitti in this form sure keeps the toilet stalls clean.

2009-04-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today was an incredibly foggy, cold day.

After work I had a quick walk around the central station area taking pictures, trying to adjust to my new camera.

I decided to explore The Black Gate, a part of the original 11th century castle. I heard some strange sounds coming from underneath the wooden bridge/pathway at the back of the gate house. When I looked down I saw why I hard such strange noises... Abandoned clothes. Classy Newcastle style.

2009-04-13T06:19:00.001-07:00

For the first post of my new blog, I suppose I should start with some kind of introduction. I envision this being my opportunity to share my experience of living in Newcastle - The good, the bad, and the Geordies. It won't be a 365 blog, because quite frankly I can't handle the guilt that comes along with missing a day, but I plan on updating it frequently.

Knowing today was my first blog day, I had hoped to start off with some beautiful shots of the Tyne. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to charge my camera batteries. But no matter! I have made do with shots from my mobile while taking a bike ride in the sunshine along the river.

The tide was out and the sun was high and it was an absolutely glorious day. I hope this is a glimpse of what is to come this summer.

Upriver on the Newcastle side...

Dunston Coal Staithes from the Gateshead side...

They were built in the 1890's to load coal on to ships. It is amazing to me that they are still around.