What I did on my Holidays: Newcastle.

This is the last one honest! After 4 packed days in Edinburgh we jumped on the train to Newcastle to catch up with Himself's best friend Paul and some of his other old school friends. The weather was decidedly cooler but thankfully only one rain shower during our visit. The hotel was fantastic, we had our own little kitchen no less! If you ever go to Newcastle stay at the Staybridge Suites, I can't recommend them enough.

Thursday was our first full day so we mooched around the town centre, visiting Himself's old stomping grounds, the shops and The Laing Art Gallery for a bit of culture. It was pretty small but had some great local paintings as well as an exhibition of John Martin's paintings. Not really my cup of tea and made all the more surreal by a hysterical screaming baby downstairs which when combined with the weird echoing accoustics of the building made you feel like you were in some mad horror film!
We decided to head back into town, and whilst Himself visited Forbidden Planet. I did a quick trawl of the charity shops, conveniently all on the same street! I came out happy with a dress and a lovely vintage woven straw bag, he came out happy with a new Star Wars figure.Result. 
That night we met up with 5 friends and went to Trillians. When we arrived a man fell up the step going in and broke his arm!?! No kidding, it was horrific and that kind of set the tone for the evening, not the greatest of nights, bad music, obnoxious drunks and strange persistant Irish women. We were all glad to leave!

Friday I compromised with Himself that we would watch the Royal Wedding up to the vows and then go out. We decided to visit the Baltic Gallery in Gateshead which would also mean crossing the Tyne via the milllenium bridge.
Now as a rule I give modern art galleries a wide berth. People seem to think because I went to art college I must love modern art....er no I don't actually.  oooh a pile of dirty tissues stapled to a wall to represent man's desperate struggle against the world, isn't it just amazing? No actually it's complete pretentious bollocks.I don't dismiss or dislike all modern art just the ridiculous stuff!
Anyway I wasn't that bothered about going, but it was my part of the compromise and to serve me right they had on an exhibition which completely blew me away! By the artist George Shaw who I had never heard of before now. He paints using those little tins of humbrol enamel which kind of boggles the mind when you see the sizes of the canvases, and all the work is from around the small area of Coventry he grew up in. It is kind of bleak, but it's his detail of things, like brickwork and especially water, that are just jawdroppingly incredible.
So the gallery got a big thumbs up, even more so because Himself spotted this necklace in the shop and insisted on buying it for me when I went off into squeals of delight over it.

 My favourite food *happy sigh*

We decided to try Gateshead for lunch, we walked into town, took one look around and decided perhaps not! We walked briskly back over the Tyne via the famous Tyne Bridge this time (yes that's me striding purposefully towards lunch!)

Fittingly we tucked into a huge portion of chips on the Quayside from the place with the big shark outside!

My cheesy chips were nuclear hot and I burnt my mouth but they were sheer heaven, I'm smiling at the memory of them as I type.That night we went to friends Kev and Nicky for a barbeque, it was freezing cold but we all gamely sat outside shivering until the food was cooked, so very British! It was a great night with great company and what better way to end a holiday.
And so to my shopping purchases.

 Charity shop dress £2

 and bag £3.50

Sale jumper from H&M (needs ironing!)

and star of the holiday, to die for vintage circle skirt, fully lined with petticoat. It's too big for me but I had to have it!