Newcastle

February 2011

Newcastle, first port of call: Wetherspoons.
A couple who were served before me cannot be happy. They ordered food and drinks and each item came with a list of instructions on how it should be prepared 'orange juice - no ice, no bits, burger - no tomato and could someone come and wipe our table properly. I felt stressed just listening to them order. All the talking was done by the grey sour faced wife, the man's sole involvement was to walk back to where they were sat to get the table number. She was a complainer and I don't like complaining.

I only ask for two things from a hostel, warm bed and warm shower. My room in Newcastle was cold and the showers colder but when asked on check out if I had enjoyed my stay all I said was 'yes, it was great thanks'. Like I say, I don't like complaining, some people have said to me that things won't improve if you don't complain but if I had been serving the sour faced complainer from wetherspoons I would deliberately have made her food badly to wind her up.

Newcastle is a good size and it has a lot more architectural beauty than I had expected. The nightlife is good too and even though trebles are the drink offer of choice in most bars I saw no trouble other than getting a few evils from a guy who liked Clare.

Clare was a girl I got chatting to, she is a youth worker and excellent company. After a few minutes of talking with her I noticed she had a walking stick, this is because Clare has cerebral palsey. Being slightly tipsy I asked the questions a child might ask without tact - 'Does it hurt?', 'Were you born with it?' and the worst of all what was I thinking asking it question of the day 'Does it affect your brain?'. Thankfully Clare has met plenty of morons like me before and spoke about her disability with confidence although she did admit it made her very self conscious and we had a great evening drinking and laughing. We arranged to meet the next day for coffee but Clare was called in to work (I suspect a solid excuse to avoid any more ignorant questions) and so we thanked each other for a fun night. Clare signing off by saying thanks for not making me feel disabled. Well you might not be able to walk very well but what does that matter when you're such a top lass.

My day was spent getting lost. Good art gallery then followed a sign to Byker expecting to see a Byker Grove themed tourist attraction. There wasn't one, they're missing a trick there.

Early to bed ready for the onward journey to Scotland.