Duke of Edinburgh's Award

Aged parent has announced her wish to travel to place of abode to supervise its complete Spring Clean in Winter before she takes up residence again after the F---d. I cannot take her on Friday. Don't worry dear I am going on the train. I am only 87. I do not go upstairs. I fall asleep in the car. My rail card will need renewing. It expired in 2001. I have not been on a train since 2001. I will manage . Dont worry dear. I can mind the gap. People are always so kind. I will get lots of help from the porters. The taxi will meet me so I dont have to go over the bridge. The driver will move the train for me so I can get on easily.
She went and they did.

Child is father of the man

The pantry in the Saltshouse Road house of my childhood was the place for Nigella type browsing amongst the shelves. I would take a spoon to Horlicks, Peanut butter and Ovaltine. I would take Twix bars out of the biscuit tin. Once I opened and ate a whole tin of Condensed milk. How would I get rid of the tin without Mother finding out. I know I will throw it behind the garage where the gap next to the wall is just wide enough for the evidence.
I have seen the jar of Peanut Butter in my cupboard, it is going down. It is not me, it is not spouse, it must be aged parent.

Look North

Sixteen years of Tyne Tees BBC TV have endeared us to the personalities we see and hear every day with the local news at 18:00. So when aged parent has a respite break from us with Cheshire Sibling, spouse and I take off for what is now known as a City Break, in Newcastle.

With a Metro Rover one day pass we go to Tynemouth Priory on a glorious day. The first delight is the wonderful Railway station, triumph ofVictorian day trippery. Abbey is closed so a walk to Cullercoates along the beach as recommended by elderly resident is rounded off with a great sandwich at the Queens Hotel, full of the retired of the 'Coast' eating tinned peas and carrots with chips and sloppy mince. Denture heaven.

When we access our hotel room in a dark lift with purple lighting we realise that for the view of the Millenium Bridge, The Baltic and the Sage, literally outside our windows it is worth every penny of the fortune we have to pay for the room , or suite, as it is euphemistically called because it has a sofa and a coffee table and a flat screen TV. I am entranced with the view, the changing colours of the lights on the bridge, the lights period. The Quiet.

So Carol Malia-thank you. We loved it all, the bus drivers, the Q1 and the Q2, the exhibitions, the Blaydon Races, the Get Carter car park, Jesmond Dene, Armstrong Park, Heaton Park, The Old Biscuit Factory, the ferry across from North Shields to South Shields, Fenwicks Sushi Bar, The Shout at the Sage, the glass pavement outside the Laing and the architecture of the University of Northumbria. Never have we had needed a break as much as this. The people of Newcastle were all so helpful and kind and so proud of their city. We feel as if we have been away for Two weeks, which of course we could have been with the price of a two night stay , breakfast extra, at our guinguette.