Important Lessons

Well, I've just about recovered from our trip to Newcastle, which turned out to be a rather tiring and stressful weekend, although not without its enjoyable moments. After a horrendous journey in the wind and rain, we got to our hotel and met up with Amy before heading out for dinner - we found a nice Italian restaurant (Il Camino) just up the road where we were made very welcome and had a really good meal. Magnus was a big hit with other diners and hotel staff alike.

Saturday got off to a bad start when we got to our car and realised we had a flat tyre. No bother, I thought, just get the spare out of the boot and change it in a jiffy. Umm, where's the spare? There is no spare? Just a compressor and a bottle of goo? What am I supposed to do with that? It turns out that the goo can be used to seal most punctures enough to get you going so we poured it in, pumped up the tyre and set off to see Tom, Catriona, and Kayden in Whitley Bay, only about an hour later than planned. We had been planning to visit the city centre afterwards but by the time we got back to the hotel with a new tyre from Kwik-Fit there was just time for Vikki to feed Magnus and get all dolled up for her night out. And off she went, leaving me and Magnus to a nice quiet night in front of the telly....

Except, of course, Magnus had other ideas and spent about the next two hours bawling his head off. Typically, he decided to settle down just before Vikki called to see how we were doing so she thinks I was having an easy time of it. And the next couple of hours were peaceful enough - I watched some crap TV and Magnus had a sleep before waking up for a bit of a feed.

And then Vikki called again - she and another girl had decided to leave early but the taxi rank was huge and could I pop into town and give them a lift back. No problem - jump in the car, drive down, pick them up, back to the hotel. Should take about 30 minutes. About an hour later, I finally found them (where they said they were, I should add) after driving round and round, completely lost, almost running over all sorts of drunken idiots and getting a couple of offers from blokes looking to use me as a taxi service (at least I think that's what they were suggesting). Thankfully, the journey back to the hotel was uneventful and we all got a decent amount of sleep.

Sunday was a bit of a slow starter - I had a lovely big cooked breakfast. Vikki didn't. And then we packed the car before going for a wee walk around Newcastle (which starts to make sense when you're walking and it's daylight) before setting off home - a much more pleasant journey than in the other direction.

Anyway, hope I didn't bore you with all that. Just want to add some things I learned:

• if you pour goo into your tyre, they can't fix it and you'll definitely have to get a new tyre


• driving into a city centre you don't know at night is not a good idea


• the Tyne Bridge at night look lovely - unless you're crossing it when you really don't want to


• people in Newcastle really don't feel the cold


• Earl Grey was a British PM from Newcastle who initiated parliamentary reform and drank lots of tea

Some pictures, including one of Earl Grey atop his monument....

2008-03-03 Newcastle