Newcastle - It Be Full of Geordie Types Like

I know I know, random photo.  kate's fridge makes its own ice, and it can't be stopped, so this is where it goes to die.  Also loved the wooden bench top.  What am I turning into??

The most amazing building.  Like a caterpillar's cocoon.  In actuality, live music venue for Newcastle, complete with helipad for performers of Jay-Z calibre.

This be like many of the streets in Newcastle's north western suburbs, a touch depressing.

Little girl doing handstands wasn't shy at all, kept wanting me to take photos of her mid-handstand.  I thought it wise not to take pictures of a little stranger with her undies on display.  Women are no longer spared accusations of dodginess as I understand it. 

Stu had a prior engagement to go and spend the weekend doing things with radios (some army thing, I tune out mostly), so I decided to put myself on a bus and go down to Newcastle for the night to see Katy.  One fairly hairy 3 hour bus ride later (complete with vomit-stained child in the seat opposite me.  I don't blame her, the roads were so windy I felt a bit ill myself - I hesitate to think how Pipi would've handled it), I arrived in temporarily sunny Newcastle.

Katy met me and we headed back to her charming student palace, pieces of almost-art lying in the corridor, the resident cat (safely returned after being stolen by a dodgy neighbour and then recovered by the local contingent of community service officers some weeks later) and 3 lovely housemates.  Stock and trade student living - I really miss it sometimes!

Kate and I went for a bit of a tour of her hood and the surrounds - photos below.  We then picked up some supplies and headed to her local park where the Green Festival was in full swing.  School kids banging steel drums, hippies selling garment remnants and smelling salts (I'm not being disparaging, I genuinely love this kind of scene), the various Geordie families of both upper and lower socio economic status lazing on picnic rugs.  We ate, we drank vodka and lemon cordial from flasks, we watched kids doing hand stands and adults sleeping in the sun.

Then it was back to Katy's for a bit of a nanna nap before we headed out to a great little co-op venue The Star and Shadow to see her flatmate's friends' band.  Great place - you can negotiate entry price (we bargained down from £5 each to £5 for the two of us).  The beers were £2 a bottle.  Needless to say we had a few. We then headed back to Katy's hood to a fun little basement pub where we danced amongst the stilettoed youths (side note:  Newcastle is the THE place for hens and bucks nights - it can get a little dirty and debaucherous on a Saturday night.  I will never get used to how obnoxious British people can be when they've had a few too many.  I'm not being anti-British, but I seriously have never met another nation of people who honestly feel it's their right and their obligation to make complete arses of themselves while out on the piss, not to mention making life unpleasant for all those foolish enough to get in their way).  Anway, unfortunately the night was cut slightly short by a woman who managed to jump on Katy's food with her stiletto (not to mention the fact that it was well past the witching hour by then, and Katy and I are grandmas in the making).