retiredmartin

July 2025. Newcastle upon Tyne.

17:38 train from Darlo

18:1015 arrive in Newcastle (late)

Dash to Metro at Monument tram towards Heaton delayed

18:30 catch tram to Boldon

Dash to cricket club, drink pint, dash back

19:25 tram back to Monument

19:50 tram to Chillingham Road

……

21:15 train back to Darlo

Yes, a mad dash. Should have caught a later train, too late now.

So my last Tyne & Wear tick, in hipster Heaton, home to my niece. Actually, not that hipster. More Cambridge Mill Road or Sheffield Abbeydale or that student strip in Hull than Bedminster or Berlin.

I might have missed the best bits, I certainly missed that House craft bar all the tickets rave about,

but Elder is a competent neighbourhood bar to finish a county with,

all pleasant staff and local pales (Full Circle NBSS 3+),

and wine drinkers staring out onto Chillingham Road.

But, as you’ll guess, I never really felt comfortable, despite a decent soundtrack stretching to “Ai No Corrida“,

and I can’t considered using the 6 minutes slack built into schedule to revisit the venerable Chillingham.

But it was pleasingly packed, sadly with folk who had done a degree in indecision, so all I managed was a trip to the Gents.

Is that art?