Four Days Up North (East)

NOTE: In my infinite wisdom I deleted my whole blog today without having it backed up anywhere. Such a ‘mare. So if this sounds a little half-arsed…it’s because it is.

4 day weeks followed by 4 day weekends is what it’s all about!

I must admit I spent most of the week waiting for the weekend to arrive so I could enjoy 4 days up in Durham with Mama Bren...which I’ll tell you more about shortly. Being hugely busy at work meant the week did indeed fly by but I’ve managed to squeeze a few other things in too.

The most exciting thing to happen last Monday was the successful delivery of my online food shop. It felt like another key milestone on the road to becoming a proper grown-up adult person and another step away from my student life. But on that note…

The light at the end of
the tunnel

After work on Tuesday I attended an open evening in central London to find out more about part-time postgraduate study. I must be fucking mental… It would be a massive commitment over a two year period but definitely doable and there were a few suitable courses that sound very interesting. I’ve got plenty of time to think about it anyway. The application process sounds a bit scary, an interview and a test…somewhat different to the process I was used to advising potential applicants about with Course Enquiries. And 20,000 words for the dissertation?!...Anyone who knew me during the 6 days I did my undergraduate dissertation in may understand why this might be a problem... I’m labelling the idea of PG study a firm, ‘definitely maybe’.

The cathedral and Wear

Wednesday was spent studying for the fast approaching APM IC exam and Technical Fridays are always lovely. Real Friday soon arrived and I got up super early and made my way to Kings Cross. Long haul train journeys for me are usually on a Friday evening heading for Manchester where cracking a beer open is basically a requirement when occupying a Coach E seat, or on a Sunday evening back to London where the inhabitants of Coach E are drunk/hungover/too rough to function. However, I felt it was probably inappropriate to hit the beers on the 8am train to Durham… even if I was on my holidays. Luckily, the train pulled into the station at 11am, shortly before the arrival of mum from Manchester. After turning the wrong way out the station and getting caught in a sudden downpour we sought refuge in the nearest pub where to both of our delights a white wine and a pint of lager came to the marvelous price of just £4.12.

Safe to say we stayed in there for a few!

 

We eventually made it to the hotel, dropped our stuff and headed out to see what Durham had to offer. I was surprised at how small the place was considering it’s a university city… Mum and I didn’t want to cram everything into one afternoon so instead of rushing straight off to the cathedral or castle we decided a pub crawl would better acquaint us with the locals. We visited some interested places including ‘Big Jug’ and ‘Fighting Cocks’ – Good banter straight away from the North East.

Great building, shame about the
exhibition.

Saturday we walked by the River Wear, visited thecathedral (no photos allowed) where the new bishop was being sworn in (or whatever the technical term is), saw the castle (from afar) and wandered around the archaeology museum. On Sunday we decided to ditch Durham for the dizzy heights of Newcastle! We jumped on the train and arrived in a windy but sunshiny Newcastle 10 minutes later. We took silly photos at The Angel of The North and walked by the River Tyne, over Millennium Bridge towards the Baltic Mill to see theTurner Prize exhibition… Now, I’m quite a fan of an art gallery or two but these Turner nominees are definitely taking the piss… I mean, one of them has just thrown powder paint, plastic bags and paper all over a room. AND THAT’S IT… Easiest £40K they ever earned. Not for me at all…

The Angel...and the statue.

Mum ain't the best
photographer

After the gallery we walked down the River Tyne and headed back over the Tyne Bridge towards the train station and arrived back in Durham just in time for the Christmas light switch on and a drink in the champagne bar! Monday saw me and mum part ways, until Friday at least when I’ll be making my way up to Westhoughton for a(nother) long weekend and some Sarah Millican related funnies.

Champagne!

All in all a fabulous weekend full of sunshine, pubs, giggles++, boxes of wine, almost-cathedrals, millions of steps (Durham is hilly ain't it?!), and the story about the 3D glasses (i'll save that one for another time...).

Until next time…

Bren x

PS, The most ridiculous thing I learnt this week?... An IT/IM acronym that is actually used:

RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.

NOT.EVEN.KIDDING………

PPS, *(minor) Celebrity Spot*…Paddy (off of Emmerdale) turned the Christmas lights on!

PPPS, More photos from the weekend: