The Newcastle

We rode the Megabus to Newcastle. What’s so mega about a Megabus? Not much, perhaps the length of the journey, or the mega-deal of the unmegacious prices. We left at four, after Chris finished his shift, (and after we loaded up on the café's goodies). The bus lumbered through the dusk, past the suburbs of London, into night, and we swayed to a wheezing halt in downtown Newcastle at eleven pm. There we had a fabulous visit with the fabulous Gerry and Adele. On Saturday we clambered aboard the train to Durham (a ten-minute journey) and enthusiastically showed Chris our old streets, shops and homes and investigated the new development (restaurants and bars) down by the river. The day was beautiful and mild; we admired the architecture, the cathedral, the castle, the bridges and the cobbled streets. We glared and scoffed at the unfortunate university buildings that came into the world in the sixties, a decade of concrete, clunky shapes and no respect for natural light. Gerry and I argued is the Union building the most hideous, or the library? I guess the library at least has beautiful books inside; you should never judge a book by its library!

Chris had to head home to London the next day to be back in time for work, but I got to stay a little longer—it was my “reading week” and I had no classes. After hanging out in downtown Newcastle, Adele and I flung ourselves about the room as we perfected every Wii challenge. The Wii is the first video game thing since Tetris to claim my attention for more than fourteen seconds. The next day we wandered along the coast, to the end of a nearly endless pier, through the mud to a Collingwood monument, and had a perfect cup of tea before going to the cinema.

If you haven't seen "True Grit" you should, unless you don't like movies. In that case, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do for you. Then watch it again, because it is beautiful and extremely re-watchable. On Wednesdays Chris and I can go to the cinema--that's what we call it here in Engerland--for half price (a mobile phone deal), and a couple of weeks ago we saw "Black Swan". The music swirled around my head for the next ninety-nine hours. I'd like to thank my brother for shattering my be-a-ballerina dreams, and my parents for never signing me up for ballet lessons.