In May already

wow i have done a LOT recently and this has been idle as exams approach... i will fix this mes but just not right now.

A week of music

Well life has been busy. Last night i went to the Bellowhead concert- a very good gig- but more on that later.

Lets start the week off at the beginning; On saturday night I again had the Jazz cafe, with lots of dancing. Sunday morning i awoke at 6am to be in the city with a couple of other Henderson haller's for 9am to catch a bus out to Hadrian's wall. The bus to the city was late however and so it was 9.05 that we arrived at the city bus stop next to central station. Lucky one of my German friends managed to talk the bus driver in to waiting the 5 min and so we made it to the bus breathless and very awake for 9am on a Sunday morning.

The Bus took its windy and informative 90 min journy to along the route of Hadrian's wall between Newcastle and Carlise. We stopped at along the way at a national park and started to walk a peaky region of the wall. hills one side and a 100m drop the other- great defense. Thre views were brilliant, sometimes bleak but totally breathtaking. The one downside was the whipping wind and the lack of sun. We stopped for lunch over a loch and one of the party decided to see how far down it was- thus he thew a stone in to the loch, it took about 15 sec to hit the water, landing near a heron who was fishing.

7.5 miles later we returned to the Lodge for hot drinks, Uno and poetry (we were all tired but if you see my Facebook pics you will understand- there were stuffed toys of an owl and a pussycat)

We had a lazy 90 min bus ride to the city where most of us parted ways. I went with the henderson hall crew towards our bus stop though on the journey we passes a KFC and one of us suggested that he was hungry. Pretty soon we were devouring a family bucket full of the Colonel's finest. I then went to Mels birthday party; collapseing into bed at 1am after a long day.

I woke on monday at 6am (as i so most days) and went to my 9am politics simulation. After Uni i went to Mylenes for a great light French meal of cheese, salade and othere gastronomic delights and then off to swing dance. I again crashed to bed at 1am.

Tuesday night i has Tango practice followed by going to the side Cafe for a great folk session at 9pm. We accidently got thee at 8pm and so sat there drinking chocolate for an hour and then went up stairs. The Musicianship was so brilliant (check out the videos on facebook) i did not have the guts to play.

Wednesday was St Georges day and on this auspicious day I went to the Bellowhead concert. Wow what a gig. My feet are still sore. It Srated with about a hour wait (as the support Benji Kirkpatrick) did not go on stage until 8:30ish where he did a great set of his own songs and some covers. During the waits and before the show i chatted to people in around me. It turns out i was chatting to some people i had met on facebook via the Bellowhead fan group. The main act lasted about 2 and a half hours of constant music. They started with the"prickeleye bush" and from then on it was frantic. The band had balloons, party poppers and paper airplanes that they used (at the audience in great joculartiy) thoughtout the night. On great thing was when "flash company" was played about 20 people in the crowed started waving yellow hankies - what a great fan reaction. I was totatlly worn out from the gig and got home and to bed at 1am dancing all the way.

Thursday I went to the Musical Witches of Eastwick, great show but the leading mans voice was totally shot. Ah well still good.

Finally on Friday evening I went to this months Monseter Ceilidh- such a lot of fun :D an then i walked home so i got to bed at 2am. thus this morning i woke up at 11am. now on with an essay.

Another week

Well I'm at the end of another week. What have i done?
Well monday i went to the Gig for "We Are Scientists" which was great- though 3 hours of standing befor the gig did put a small dampner on it
On wed i had Tango and a meet up with the International students- which was fun.

I now only have about 3 weeks until exams; this is casuing some stree as i must get much more essaywork done than i have allocated time to do. It will get done but i need to start now.
Anyway next week i should be going to a session and to Bellowhead (woot)

Back to work... but first John Barrowman

Well today is the last day of the "holidays' before i get back to uniwork. So only 10000 words left to do and 2 exams of PAIN and SUFFERING.

On subjects that are not related to pain and suffering, last night i went to John Barrowman and tonight i'm going swing dancing. Barrowman was a fluke, I had talked to a friend Vikki about going but found out A) it was 28 pounds a ticket and B) it was sold out back in January. So i put it to the back of my mind. Then yesterday Vikki rang me and said there were two tickets that had been canceled and she had rights to them; did i want to come. It was a once in a life time (well nearly) chance so i lep on it like a starving chihuahua on to a pork chop. Screw the cost it was going to be a good night.
The rain poured down from the skies as we made our way to the acoustically and architecturally brilliant Sage concert building. we were seated on the Balcony side- about 10 meters from the stage (so close)- with a good view. Mr Barrowman was quite the professional with some great songs such as "any thing goes" and "thats life" very bar room style. He also did some tear jercking numbers and a greta cover of the Wicked song "when i meet the Wizard" as "when i meet the Doctor".

There was a fire alarm caused by a smoke machine halfway through the second half, Since we were in no danger they said stay in our seats and John took questions. it was great.

Anyway off to swing the night away.

hmm 100 days of 08

Hi,

just a quick up date, I sent a lot of postcards today. Today is the 100th day of '08 amazing eh? Today i saw 39 steps Hilarious and Great! Yesterday i went to Edinburgh; i will do a long post about that soo

Dublin for a laugh

Happy April fools day!

This promises to be an exciting day if yesterday was anything to go by. I awoke at 5 am needing to catch a plane to Dublin at 7:50. But I had forgotten to online check in (eg the computer labs were closed and the printers were all broken) so I was forced to get to the airport by 6:00am. I did this and reserved my seat. I comfortably sat in the lounge watching the sun rise over Newcastle reading the Guardian. When the rest of my party arrived. Now traveling in parties is good and bad. Good you don’t have to make every decision for your self- where we were staying and how long had been decided we just had to front up with the money. Bad= no one wanted to take charge. But more on that later.

After an insanely short crossing to Dublin from Newcastle we strode out into Dublin city at the respectable 9am, with some of us wanting breakfast and some of us wanting to sightsee.(see above for the problem) at 1 pm we had been fed and strolled around; sight seen and had thus formulated a small plan. We would go to the Jamieson’s Whisky factory and take part in their tour; while those who did not could go to the park- it was a great sunny day.

Jamison’s was a great joy and introduced the 40 people on the tour to the wonderful world of whisky

MORE

DINNER

After copious games of UNO we went out. I suggested a Bar that had been suggested by one of the other travelers supervisors as a bar for live music (with me so far). We headed for the bar and found it packed to the rafters with merry makers but no music. We went out side. I was the last to leave and on the way out saw a guitarist and others in a small corner chatting; we had caught them in a lul. The group resolved to go on to the next bar- I went back and joined in the session on my bones and spoons (well I had purloined them from the Hostels kitchen but they were mine for the night!) the session went until 12 and I found myself walking home to the hostel alone in Dublin on april fools day. Serves me right I was the first one home.

What happend the next day

Half way and all is well

Well it is now half way through my stay in this cold but beautiful country. At the moment I am in London after a great Easter break full of snow, cold and starwars. The latter of these was caused by the addition of my seven year old cousin Cameron who is totally starwars mad and thus when an older (and very nerdy) cousin shows up he utilized this event to its fullest extent. I was playing with him for most of the time up there in Berwick (Wooler), Though since it was also lambing season we went out for walks to look at the Views (I give this a capital as they are magic and deserve all the praise they can handle) and as it had lightly snowed (it was cold enough for it to settle) we made a snow man- yes he was only 10 inches tall but he was great!- with buttons from my coat and pound coins for eyes he was ‘special’.

On Monday I had the three hour train journey down to London. Being Easter Monday it was packed, with people stealing other peoples seats left right and center. I sat next to an interesting gentleman who was originally a farmer from Zimbabwe but for the last two years had lived in Devon working on a farm as he could not make a living in his own country. Since the Train had free Wifi I used the time well and looked up places to eat while in London, making a booking into St Johns – a really good English food restaurant. I departed from Kings Cross station – carefully making sure to take a picture of platform 9 and ¾ (yes they have made one). I arrived at the cheap hostel “ashlee house” and found my self pleasantly surprised- it was clean and cheap hurray! It is rare you find both together.

That night I went to the west end of London- Lester Square specifically. I had arrived an hour early to find my bearing and so I did what any self respecting traveler would do – I just walked around randomly and found my feet lead me to china town, there was the smells again but this one was a lot better than Newcastle’s attempt. This one felt used though- mainly by tourists, but still used and alive. It was thirty minuets later I walked out of China town and down a block of shops turned left and found my self staring at the Noel Coward Theater home to the Westend Production of Avenue Q. It was a great show...


But thats enough for now more later on London... tomorrow im off to Dublin with the International group.

Efforts in the past; mean pay offs now

I have just handed in a 2000 word essay which i pulled an all nighter for. I am not proud of the fact that i had to pull an all nighter, but i am proud of the essay. Yet that is not what i wish to talk about.

When i went to hand in the essay at the school of Geo. soc, and pol office (on the 5th floor of a sky scraper) i had forgotten that it was the due date for all dissertations as well- hence a line that meant it was 15 min before i saw the front of the line. I then realised that i did not have a cover sheet for my essssay (i had printed the Geo not politics cover sheet) . The man in fron of me had the same issue and the secretary told him to go to the politcs common room (located 5 min walk away in another building) to get one. I the approached and asked the same question.

Thankfully she handed one over to me. Why may you ask? well when i was enroleing i chatred with the secretarial staff for about 3 hours of the 6 hour ordeal and firstly knew their name by the end of it. but the next day i bought them a box of chocolate as way of saying thanks. This in turn has made my life a lot easier with them. Hence today has been a lot more stress free as a result. Hence; if you want to get ahead buy the secretaries chocolate. (The academics may think they have the power but we know different!)

Radio and accent

I have just been on Newcastle Student radio (http://nsr.unionsociety.co.uk/) with my swing dance teacher Lloyd. oh it was a barrel of fun.

now i have to learn to say this in a cockney accent without taking a breath-

"Cor blimey lummey lawks strike a light and no mistake do what John more thanmy job's worth knock it on the head up the old Kent Road, 'ow's ya father, down the apples and pears I don't squeal to no rossers you're'aving a laugh ai't ya? Where's me whelks you muppet!"

tara for now
~c

Economcs teachers and styles

I have 2 lecturers in Economics this semester at Newcastle Uni. Both of them are great and passionate teachers- though both have different styles.

For Risk Economics i have M.W. Jones-Lee. Who for me is really a stereotype of an old school lecturer,(in a very good way) he has great dignity about him (he wears a waistcoat) and really get discussions in class moving with stats ("how much would you be willing to be payed to increase your risk of death from 1 in 1000 to 1in 100?") And for him its the concepts that you need to get a hold of he dosn't rush and its great being in lectures where everybody want to know what is being taught.

While for Information economics i am taught by F. Kiraly, a Hungarian lecturer who really knows his stuff and expects you to as well (and by Gorge im trying!) His lecture style is very similar to Dr Barreto's and one of his favorite phrases for Pareto optimality is "what would Stalin do" which i originally found amusing but is now quite useful as a learning aid. He sometimes goes off topic in a major way such as talking about rammstein or insurance policy and lung cancer. but you have to be quick and follow where he's going as its always a busy lecture. I digress

i have no idea why i'm typing this but i'm trying really hard to lean this stuff this semester and for the most part i'm succeeding. i hope i do well.

Hadrians wall- the long and the short of it

On saturday last weekend i went with a group of International students to the nice little town of Corbridge; which is a fair walk to Hadrian's wall.
At 9:30 we boarded the bus and soon green hillsides were taking the place of the bleak industrial landscape of the north country. at 10 we got off the bus and realized that we did to have a very good map of the area so i headed to the nearest petrol station of a survey map; well worth the 1 pound fifty.

The weather was brilliant (about 15 with a strong breese) with blue skies and a rainbow guiding us to our first stop which was not the wall but in a westerly direction; a huge old roman villa ruins. When we got there however it cost 3 pound to get in and being the thrifty students that we are; we decided to continue. It was a good walk and by 12 we had reached the halfway point crossing some great country side and nearly walking into a bulls paddock (one of our party was wearing a bright red jacket so we could of had a decoy) and many other adventures. By 1pm we go to an abby and stopped for a picnic of bread, cheese, apples, raspberries and batturnburg cake (jasper fford readers take note) now from the abby we could etither do another 3 hours of walking on a nice hike back to Corbridge or try for a 5 hour hike to the wall and back. Now in answer to this conundrum the skies suddenly over cast, the wind picked up and it started to rain- just like traditional English weather. Hence we chose the shorter of the two and headed back over hills and thought a great little forest in which the path had turned to mud.

An amusing event on the walk back was with the rain pelting all around we were talking about life and some how we got on to the subject of tango. Saara(the aforementioned Finnish girl in the red jacket) and I both do this at the Newcastle Uni Tango society, and some how we were asked/ made to show ppl what we do. so out in the pouring rain and howling wind on a steep hillside we danced for about 20 seconds and then collapsed laughing. due to the nature of the situation.

We got to the Corbridge pub at 4ish and had hot bowls of soup and warmed up. I was lucky- my Dry-za-bone had kept my torso and upper body dry but my lower half was soaked thought- some of my traveling companions had just brought hoodies with them.

Anyway we got back to the city after a sleepy bus ride. I raced to Henderson Hall to eat dinner (Yorkshire puddings and gravy with banana custard for dessert) have a warm shower and change into a bit better clothing and went out to a swing dance night at the Jazz cafe. I was discussing what i had done that day with the swingers (don't ask) and Lloyd the head swing teacher replied "why did you go so far? you know that the street this cafe is on is built on Hadrian's walls ruins? Thats why it weaves thought this city."

So in the end i did reach the wall but not in the manner i expected. This city is big and old and i keep on discovering its secrets.



We

Swinging

Last weekend i performed at the International Grand Festival with the swing dance socioty, i had 3 weeks to get up to speed so i feel i did really well.

here is the video:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=528004110608&ref=share

C

First post,

I have been in Newcastle just over one month and so have finally gotten around to starting a travel blog, I have written a couple of rants and tirades over the last month so i will start posting them soon. Anyway for now i must sign off.
Adieu

C