Newcastle

Toon Town

Saturday 16th November – Thursday 21st November 2019

Having delayed my flights to stay in Maryland a little longer, my flight home was with two airlines I’d somehow never flown with, one I’d never heard of. The flight worth Spirit Airlines, a Tiger Airlines equivalent was fine, easy check in, window seat without having to fork out a small fortune and gorgeous views of clouds and a hell of an awesome view as we touched down in Florida.

Yes I know, you’re wandering why I’d go south from Baltimore only to fly north and East to London. All comes down to cashola, cheapest route! Anyhoo, the long haul leg with Norwegian was something of an experience. I didn’t fork out for an allocated seat so unfortunately got stuck middle row in between two rather large gentlemen who both claimed the arm rest before I could take a breathe, my bad. What I didn’t know was that for my 8 hour flight there would be no in flight meal, water came at a cost, as did a blanket and headphones for their entertainment system. I half expected them to charge for the air I was breathing. The service befitted the no frills. Needless to say I learnt my lesson, say NO to Norwegian… unless you’re broke but go prepared!!!

Enough whining, once in London with no sleep it was adrenaline that kept me going, into my storage locker to drop off my suitcase, exchange it for backpack only travel and get a very stinky me to Kings Cross to meet Kylie for lunch.

I wish I had a picture of Kylies beaming smile, something you really need in your life when you’re 30 hours with no sleep. Over a long lunch chatting away, the one glass of wine went to my head and before I knew it, I was running late for my train. And yes, I proved why it is called running late, well, cos you run… I did make it with seconds to spare, luckily Kylie checked the time otherwise I would have been sitting there blah blahing away and never have made it. Anyhoo, with a four hour train ride to Newcastle up my sleeve I tried to cross stitch… didn’t end well…

Arriving in the toon I was now well and truly sick as a dog, jet lagged AF, the poor Geordie who was on pick up duty got me to my hotel, I think. Must have cos I woke up there the next day, hello Newcastle!!

So for the next three days my Geordie friend who you’ve met before showed me the sights of the toon, had only really seen the pubs on my previous visits. I wish I could say I had some awesome stories and great info about Newcastle but being sick AF the entire time, I wrote nothing down and only have pictures to rely on, and there seems to be a day missing. Could it be that snap happy Holly was too sick to take a single photo for an entire 24 hours???

Anyhoo, what I do know is that there was definitively a visit to Laurel Park, the birthplace of the Laurel half of comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. I do remember the Geordie, being a wee bit older than me, explaining who the dude was… just needed my foggy memory regigging that’s all!!

Later that day as time stamps on my pictures tell me, we wandered along the river Tyne, way too many bridges for such a liddle town if you ask me. I thought the Geordie had planned the scenic route but just happened to be the way to the castle.

And no, it’s not a “New” castle as you’d expect from the name, a rather old castle in Newcastle, it wasn’t just all the Sudafed that confused me on that one! But I love me a castle, even if it wasn’t the one I meant I wanted to see when requesting my tour from the Geordie. Oops, still damn awesome castle, still not sure why it was me that ended up in the shackles…

Usually my favourite part of a castle is, well, the castle but this time the castle was outdone by the views from its roof out over the toon, ok, so maybe this place ain’t so liddle!!

So from the castle we made our way right into toon. Must have walked, no pics of how we got there. But we did find Christmas markets and a ski bar, an alpine village if you will. Pictures tell me it was pretty, and I do love a mulled wine so presume I liked that too. And there was a reason the Geordie wasn’t drinking but I really don’t recall.

We also ate dinner somewhere obvs but can’t for the life of me remember where or what. Let’s just get onto the next day which was part of the reason I made a visit to the toon, it was the Geordie’s birthday. He was 21 + 11 – 5 + 18 – 2 years old. Instead of getting schlacked on his birthday, the Geordie had actually planned something more spiritual. Funny how the Geordies don’t have another word for spiritual but a hundred and one for getting drunk… (all Geordie words that mean drunk). So the plan for the day was to head to Durham, a town an hourish away and see a lady who did, I want to say Kinetic, I keep calling it that, it’s not that, I’m on a plane and can’t google it, really really bugging me! Anyway, the lady did have a name, Shelley, the only way I remember is that I have her email address written in my phone. Oh yeah, before Durham, we had brekkie by the beach, by the castle I actually wanted to go to!! Must have been damn sick to not take photos of the beach and a castle!! As if I didn’t, maybe I deleted them accidentally?? Makes no sense. Back to Shelley and Durham. The town is a gorgeous little place, as evidence but this one crappy picture I took.

I’m convinced I deleted the pics, no matter how sick I am, I’d take photos. With the high Sudafed gives me, pretty sure I’d go nuts and take a million pictures of a single rock, but anyway. Durham was pretty, google it for pictures. We both met up with Shelley first for a general chat then I went for coffee while the Geordie had his Kinetic session… oh shit, just remembered the word, it’s reiki.. even laughing to myself, sounds nothing like kinetic!!! Massive anyhooooo, in my Sudafed stupor I did take a photo of my coffee. WTF?? Beautiful little town and I take a photo of the coffee?? Super annoyed with myself. I don’t have many pictures to add to this post so you’re gonna get a picture of my coffee. Costa coffee, great name, crappy taste, maybe I should do their marketing???

So my reiki session isn’t something I needed to write notes about. Even all drugged up on Sudafed I remember it like it was yesterday. I’ll try my best to explain but know it won’t do it justice! So you lay down on like a massage table, but clothes on and on your back. You’re covered with warm towels so you feel pretty damn cosy and calm, maybe I should sleep on a massage bed, I remember how comfortable I was. Shelley doesn’t say much, just some general calming words about relaxing and letting go. What I remember feeling was a surge of positivity, voices in my head (my own, I’m not crazy, much…), telling me that I got this, everything is going to be ok, I can be the best version of myself, it was time for a new start. It was the most positive my own voice has ever been, out loud and in my head. During this Shelley just had her hands cupping my head, they stayed there for a while then moved to rest firmly on my stomach. And that’s it. I know you’re probably like huh?? That’s it?? But if I could explain the energy going through me, well, I would. I tried but there aren’t words, or at least none that I can find. Off the table and sitting on the couch with Shelley, she explained what she felt in me. She felt an intense sadness. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Of course I sooked cos when someone points out something about you that you have to work hard every day to overcome, you feel like they see you. It’s not that I’m sad all the time or that sadness overrides happiness, I think anyone who has had someone they love intensely die, and in tragic circumstances, there’s a sadness that always sits inside you, alongside all the happiness and joy you feel the majority of the time. As I read somewhere, you don’t get over losing someone you love, you just learn to live with it. That was my sadness that Shelley felt. But the thing about reiki and Shelley is that it’s all about love and healing. I may not have written down my adventures in the toon but I did write down suggestions from Shelley on how I can work on healing. And yes, being a student of psychology and a recipient, this is the spiritual healing side of things. I do believe you need both, and funnily enough, or not, there are a lot of similarities in their suggestions on how to heal. Her suggestion was that I write a letter to younger Holly telling her what she needs to help her heal, and make a little shrine to myself, practice some self love. With reiki it’s all about love and I’m onboard with that!! But most importantly, I am to visualise my future and put it out there into the universe what I want it to be. There were some other things we discussed but kinda way personal so I’ll just leave it there and get onto the angel cards reading!! No idea what the hell they are about?? Not the same as tarot, tarot aren’t nice, these are a deck of cards with specific angels and meanings to help guide you. Mine looked like this:

I’m not embarrassed to say this was not my first time with angel cards. When Brett died I saw a medium, she knew things I can never explain, I believe in the after life, that there’s more. She also read my cards. The messages from my cards this time were about finding a way to love and forgive myself. Won’t go into it but this is my biggest challenge. And I need to heal as well as accept. Second biggest challenge. Lots more she said but a belief I know I need to work on is that that things don’t happen to me, they happen for me. That’ll take some time but I have hope I’ll get there!

So after our reading and wiping the mascara off my face, we bought some local charcoal cheese that came highly recommended from Shelley and headed back to the toon. With a pit stop at some store, a big one, we gathered our cheese board for dinner and dug in. And no, I didn’t get a picture of the charcoal cheese! But this did pop up in my Instagram feed, maybe the universe is trying to tell me something??

The next day was up early and off on a train to Gatwick, more specially to Peterborough then onto Gatwick. The morning wasn’t anything to write home about, just lots and lots of snot!!!!

January 20, 2020 0

Roots

Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd September 2019

Despite my smell the Geordie gave me a warm welcome in Newcastle, I mean the toon. Forgot they speak a different language and damn it, left my Geordie dictionary in oz.

If the Geordie was expecting a fun night out with Matilda he was a bit disappointed! I was rooted so room service and the first five minutes of the movie Dark Phoenix and I was out like a light.

Lucky for me, my Geordie friend, who has been mentioned before under many names, Pattie, Nora and possibly his real name David, is a good bloke and organized a weekend showing me my roots around England. The first stop was Askrigg where my Dad’s mum, otherwise known as Grandma, had family originate. The family also happened to be none other than those of the Terry’s Chocolates fame. Knew I had chocolate in my blood, explains a lot. I was kinda glad when the GPS of Nora’s Vauxhall, a kick arse car I’d never heard of, thought Vauxhall was just a tube station, anyway, GPS took us the scenic route into Askrigg, tiny tiny roads and gorgeous little villages. Nice for me who got to ooo and ahh at the pretty scenery, not so much for the Geordie who had to drive in a road big enough for one car, just, no idea what people do when someone comes the other way?? Driving into Askrigg poor Pattie had to deal with my millions of photos a minute habit but managed to navigate us to the town centre where I could jump out and explore. Such a weird feeling being somewhere you know your distant relatives walked the streets, drank at the pub, lived their lives. Really does make me want to go back and trace my grandma’s family history, ancestry.com here I come! After a pit stop at the pub of course…

BITC (hehe, that’s almost naughty but sure you have it figured out Mum), and we headed to Scarborough, a seaside town in Yorkshire where my Mum’s mum, the other grandma, went to boarding school. The English countryside really is gorgeous, different to Scotland but pretty rather than rough and rugged, and felt different listening to a soundtrack of Elvis and AC/DC rather than my hip hop and Aussie indie rock. Not complaining, love them too! The Geordie’s playlist of movie theme songs made me realize my head really was full, things were just popping out, like names of songs I knew but just didn’t know anymore. So is this what old age feels like???

Anyways, driving into Scarborough Nora had to put up with my ooos and aaahs again, especially when we rocked up at the hotel, a stunning old building right on the beach. Davie did good.

While the inside was something of a rabbits warren, I would have been jealous had we been staying anywhere else. It just so happpened that we’d made it to Scarborough in time for the Geordie to watch the soccer, sorry I mean football (I really mean soccer!), his Newcastle boys were playing a team that was gonna whip their arses apparently. Leaving the Geordie at the local I headed right for the beach, oh how I’d missed the ocean. Corfu felt like months ago!!

Scarborough was so not what I expected! Yes the beach I knew was there, but the Ferris wheel and cliffs and esplanade with casinos I had no idea. Very cool surprise!

What wasn’t a surprise was returning to the Geordie at the pub to find a goalless game… I get how skilled the dudes are that play but no score in 90 minutes?!? I need more action in my sport. A few beers in and the Geordie was ready for karaoke. For the record, I will never ever be ready for karaoke. For a dude with a thick accent I can hardly understand, he does a bloody good Elvis! Some McDonalds later and we called it a night, there may have been quite a few gins and beers between the Maccas and night but anyway…

Up and at it on Sunday, I don’t know if I was more excited about the bacon at the buffet breakfast or seeing more of Scarborough. Can we just say equally excited??? BITC and hooning around Scarborough we found the convent my grandma went to school at, THE most beautiful church and cemetery on cliffs overlooking the ocean and a fort. Winning!!!

On our trek back to the toon, we stopped off at the other beachside vacation town of Whitby, conveniently minutes before England and Tonga kicked off at the Rugby World Cup! No complaining from me, getting chauffeured around England to all the places my family are from, dude can stop for as many games as he wants! But once again, did leave Nora at the pub while I explored the gorgeous Whitby. What a picturesque town, a seaside village with ruins of a castle on the hill (no time to trek to) but did make it to the lighthouses for gorgeous views over the cliffs, ocean and back into then the town. Surely this is more interesting and beautiful than rugby reet?? I mean there’s even a replica of the Endeavour, how does anything compete with that???

At least this time when I found the Geordie it was good news, the English were winning, which given that that it was now my other homeland, I was kinda happy about too. I think I’m finally getting the gist of rugby, and might actually know the difference between league and union, union is the one with the scrums right?? If I’m not going to have AFL on the regular for the next year, I reckon rugby is gonna be my game. Exciting, tough dudes and there’s no way they can go a whole game without scoring points! Ok, I’m on the rugby band wagon, but now the question is, who do I support in the World Cup?? Australia, England or Scotland? I think I’ll keep that answer to myself as it may get me into trouble!

BITC and feck, my train leaves in 2 hours and we’re 1 hour and 45 minutes away from Newcastle. Nora didn’t seem all that bothered, gave me some reassuring words in Geordie that I couldn’t even repeat if I tried… well actually, I did try a lot that weekend to speak Geordie but like all my accents, just kept coming out Jamaican! On the leg back to Newcastle, or maybe it was before, at some stage there was the discussion that I’d keep thinking about for days, and change my answer multiple times. So if you could go to the concert of three bands or singers no longer together or alive, who would they be?? It’s harder than you think!! After lots of back and forth, Nora and I both agreed that Queen and Elvis were on the list, his third was Sinatra and mine was The Beatles. Bloody hard cos that means other epic bands and singers like David Bowie, Jeff Buckley, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse don’t make the list. And since we were on the topic, next question was what three people that have passed would you love to have dinner with? Not necessarily all at the same time… I think the question may have changed part way through cos the Geordie picked Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and the Dalai Lama, who obvs is still with us – my picks were Princess Diana, Mary Queen of Scots and Hitler. I know the last choice is controversial but as a psychology student, meeting someone like him that did so many horrid things, a conversation about values and morals would be out of this world, how he’d justify the atrocities he committed would be an interesting conversation. As would the conversation with all our other choices of course. In hindsight the dead people conversation may have just been a tactic to distract me from how close we were cutting it with time, it worked. At the station it was a quick good bye to the Geordie and I literally had 8 minutes to get into the station, find my platform and get onto the train. I made it in 5…. how I have no idea, a cross between running and shimmying through the crowd with a backpack, handbag and bag of other crap, mostly gin. Back in London, it did kinda feel like coming home. Mind you as someone that doesn’t technically live anywhere, wherever the roof is over my head is my home. But it’d only be home for one night, I’d booked a sneaky trip to Pisa and Florence the next day…

October 11, 2019 0

The Hangover

Didn’t wake up with a random baby and face tattoo but the details of the previous night were rather sketchy… explains yesterday’s rather short blog post.

Nothing like burgers and cheesy fries to cure a hangover. And copious amount of Pepsi. And Pringles. And Toblerone. No wonder my pants are splitting.

Quick tour of the Newcastle beaches before farewelling Pattie and back on the train to London ready for the 5am wake up call…

Cheers Newcastle, we’re paggered from neets on the toon but aye, ye was propa bonny and us lass’s had a belta time. Did I get it right Pattie??

Sunday 30th December 2018.

December 30, 2018 0

Noocasle

Not an overly eventful day, spot of shopping in the city, picked up the most beautiful pair of shoes I’ve ever seen in my life – forgetting that £79 isn’t actually a bargain.

But just driving and walking around Newcastle, there are old churches, spectacular architecture and of course, a damn Castle in the city center so of course every moment is amazing. I love cities in Europe, so much history and beauty on every corner.

So thank goodness for the ease of the day, the night was the complete opposite. Geordie wedding party, just asking for a gincident. Headed out to Sunderland and caught up with Patties mates for the wedding party of Louise and Elliot. Felt a little awkward before rocking up, not having actually met the couple but needn’t have – amazing couple and awesome group of people. Dancing, drinking, eating, drinking and walking/crawling through the hotel door at 6 something am…

Saturday 29th December 2018.

December 30, 2018 0

#castlechallenge

Bacon buttys are heaven. Bread. Yum. Egg. Yum. Cheese. Yum. BBQ sauce. Yum. Bacon. Yummers. Recovery food of champions, or the severely hungover.

After Star Wars and bacon, there were castles. What started as popping by Alnwick Castle turned into the castle challenge – how many castles can we visit in one day??

The answer is 6, not including the halloumi castle…

First stop, Alnwick Castle, just don’t be an Aussie and pronounce the l ie the w or you’ll get a swift hiding from the Geordie locals. Being the place where Harry learnt to fly, had to wear my overpriced Gryffindor jumper, also because it was cold AF.

Second stop, Chillingham Castle where the sunshine turned it on, apparently I bought the weather with me… always thought I was more of a storm…

Then onto my equal favourite, Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island. It was like stepping into a movie about King Arthur or the crusades. The road over can only be used when the tide goes out, and damn be sure not to be driving back across when the tide comes in… didn’t get right up to the castle but the priory ruins and cemetery were stunning, so much history, could feel the lost souls.

Next was Bamburgh Castle, looked like the Red Keep from Game of Thrones and of course getting all excited again about seeing Jon Snow for reals…

Haloumi Castle was by far my favourite. The deep fried roast chicken not so much…

Warkworth Castle was a quick pit stop, then onto Tynemouth Priory and Castle. Really was all castled our but in awe of being able to leg it around in a few hours and see so many. Can’t think of another place in the world where that’s possible, lucky poms.

The nights plans to head out on the toon in the Georgie Shore quickly turned into a snooze fest, quite literally. Ten minutes into a movie on the couch and Kyles and I were catching zzzz’s.

Friday 28th December 2018.

December 30, 2018 0

Lush aye?

A jet lagged Holly and hungover Kylie catching a 9am train to Newcastle, what could go wrong?

How about splitting the seam of my pants along the butt while in the middle of King’s Cross Station, standing for the 3 hour train ride or realising you’re going to end up on a fetish YouTube channel when the sign on the mirror in the train toilet says “go on, give us a smile”… and I didn’t even find platform nine and three quarters…

Wasn’t all bad, coffee and truffle eggs in a cup saved the day and my sanity.

Good things come from the Aussie Newcastle, like my favourite band, so pretty high expectations and looking back the day after, it didn’t disappoint.

Having being renamed Sheila and Matilda by our man Pattie, it was my chrissie present of Roger’s Profanisaurus that set the scene for the night to come.

Two Aussie lass’s out drinking with the lads of Newcastle. The before shot…

Quickly realised gin wasn’t the reason I couldn’t understand the lads, they have a Geordie language of their own and it’s the most entertaining damn thing I’ve ever heard, and not understood…

Aye pet, that’s bollocks, gan to toon ta get mortal… cue staring blankly…

Needless to say the pub crawl through Tynemouth was epic with little photo evidence so well and truly, what happens in Tynemouth, stays in Tynemouth… especially since asking one of the lads to take a picture of you and your bestie ends up with a camera roll of this….