The excitement levels were high - after all this time in England I was finally making the trip up North to visit my favourite English person. No sadly not Prince William (to whom I’m still not speaking to after news of the engagement) but the lovely Miss Ria Farncombe.
Oddly enough, with Pete being in England as well, we had our own little Australian reunion, albeit minus the sunny weather and replaced by the very chilly and rainy Newcastle….
Pete and I arrived on a train from Leeds on Friday to meet Ria who had skipped class early because she was so excited ‘that my Australian friends are coming!!!!’ (direct quote there). Headed back to Ria’s place and met all of her lovely housemates. We didn’t really have much time to see Newcastle that day, because as soon as we arrived we were whisked off the Durham to see Paul’s art exhibition.
Even in the dark Durham was so cute, with its famous Durham castle all lit up. Made our way through the fully cobbled streets of the shopping area (quaint in theory, not so great practically) and stopped for dinner at some Italian place with spaghetti in the title… despite not being able to remember, surely the fact that it had spaghetti in the title has to give it some kind of Italian credibility. We all shared the most enormous antipasto plate I’ve ever seen, which in turn was served by the sleaziest waiters I have ever seen. Shared two bottles of wine and ate in communal Italian food happiness (poetic pause here for the ecstasy of Italian food happiness).
Arrived at the art exhibition and spent the next few hours trying to convince myself and the other people there that I actually knew anything about art. Epic fail there but a lot of it was good – occasionally odd, but good. A shout out has to go to the person who’s piece was a big, black leather chair facing backwards and placed in a corner under an ominous red light.
My bets on the ‘mystery’ occupant of the chair were on Voldemort or Mr Burns….
Had a couple of drinks and a bit of a dance at a Durham club and then made the last bus home to Newcastle to collapse into bed.
Ria’s plans for day two were to head to the ‘beach’ (keeping in mind the English definition of the beach). However, she must have done something wrong in another life or Mother Nature didn’t get the memo because the weather was not exactly of ‘beach’ quality. We were determined to go though, and armed with all of our wet weather gear headed to the coast. To boost our spirits a little there was a cute little weekend market on with heaps of stalls selling a wide range of things. Unfortunately one of these many items of bric-a-brac was books, which are one of my few not so secret vices (the others being old school Britney Spears and Kit Kats of course). I did buy one book (oh come on it was 2 pounds!), but made sure I stayed away from the temptation of all those colourful covers for the rest of the day. For lunch we were expecting a lot. Ria had talked up the fish and chips from this place to no end, and she had a lot to deliver! Apart from the fact the food was really good; I just loved the whole English feel of it! You know it’s a true Northern fish and chip shop when they ask you if you want curry sauce with your chips (soooooo strange) and you can’t understand half of what they say because of their accent! After eating we thought we should at least see the ocean which is what we came here for in the first place. So with umbrella’s at the ready we dashed to the beach, looked and ran straight back again.
I mean we all know what water looks like right?
Saturday night Ria had planned to take us out on the Newcastle town. However, before anyone can do ANYTHING on a Saturday night in England they must all partake in the one weekly television event, rivalled only by the news and football… the almighty X FACTOR. I cannot describe how obsessed the English are with this show, I mean I know we have it in Australia but I really did think my Mum was the only one who really watched it (sorry mum!). So whilst we were all getting dolled up, lots of pairs of English eyes in that flat were glued to the X FACTOR action. Go figure.
Started off at Lynches the cocktail bar, with a huge list of options (not that I stole a menu or anything…..) and then finished off at O2 Academy. Ria and I finished the night off with sharing a pizza and getting into a warm bed!
Ria had told Pete and I that she had something planned for Sunday that we could only do on that day…My response?
‘oh god it’s not church is it?….’
But she laughed and assured me it would be much more to my liking. This then leads me to explain the one tradition that the English have which my stomach is particularly fond of. Sunday Roasts. Of course lots of countries have a Sunday Roast but even in Australia you don’t necessarily have it on a Sunday and on the weekend the family are often out doing different things so can never be home together to eat. So Sunday afternoon saw Pete, Ria, Anna and I in a proper little English pub having my first proper English Sunday Roast. And man was it totally worth all the hype! I think we all could have quite happily died then and been happy that we had lived a fulfilled life. Sunday night we took a trip to the shop on the corner for munchies for a night of relaxing. Alicia had the amazing idea to watch Moulin Rogue, even though Pete had no idea what was happening in the movie…. And asks how we do?
Because we CAN CAN CAN of course (even I’m proud of that pun Moulin Rouge fans!)
Monday was to be my last day in Newcastle and we spent the morning looking around the University and the City. Discovered the Newcastle Christmas Market, which is so much better than the Leeds one, and bought yet more fudge. I’m going to look like fudge soon… Had lunch at a little American style diner and then Pete and Ria escorted me to the train station to head back to Leeds.
Was it so good to see my bestest English buddy again?
DEFINITELY
Have I become a Yorkshire pudding convert?
MAYBE
Will I miss the sleazy Italian waiters drooling over the girls at our table? (I bet their names weren’t even Mario…)
PROBABLY NOT!
X
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