Having ended school on Friday 21st July, CBC and I decided to head straight up to Northumberland for reasons which will be explained. As is our usual habit, we were super reluctant to pack on Saturday the 22nd. I was slightly better than CBC, having chucked items I knew I'd need at a suitcase on the Friday night. Eventually, we set off at the shameful time of around 4.15pm. The car was rammed full of suitcases, CBC's bike, games, musical instruments etc and then there was the added complication that we needed to fit in my Brompton as I had booked it in for a Service that day but we had to get it to a place around 25minutes drive away. The only way she would fit into the car was on MY lap in the front of the car. So there I was with a Brompton bike wedged on my lap, having to be held strictly in position without a) getting my clothes oily or dirty (she is filthy....oops) and b) not touching the gear sticks. We got her to the shop without incident (but a lot of grumbling) and then drove onto Northumberland without stopping. We arrived at J's house (CBC's mum) around 10.30pm...arriving to darkness!!! She was supposed to have C's friend and family round to dinner. But where were they? Eventually, after about 20 minutes, she turned up. It turned out there had been a localised powercut in J's estate 3/4 of the way through the dinner and so they had decamped to the friend's house to finish the dinner! The power was back on. She had brought back Spaghetti bolognaise and Salmon pasta for us so that was a welcome late night dinner. We went to bed around midnight.
The next morning, we woke up to find there had been another power cut! So breakfast was cereal an juice with no tea. We headed down to Hexham to go and get some tea/coffee at the Abbey refectory. I opted for a bacon roll also and the others joined in with that. It was largely rainy and grim so it was quite nice to be cosy inside (and not in a cold house!). The temperature is distinctly lower up north. After this, we headed back the house, having popped into Milletts for a Jetboil so we could boil some water back home. The powergrid care team were in the road when we got back. Still no power and not looking like it was due to come back on till at least 7pm. We were given a couple of power packs and were invited to come and get hot water from the van if needed. Apparently, the power cut was due to the intense amount of rain and some connection had come loose but they weren't sure where.
Luckily, we had some other plans and CBC and I headed into Hexham to the Beaumont to meet his friend Matt and wife and daughter who serendipitously were over from China for a holiday and had come to Hexham for a few days. This was the reason we had headed up so soon as this would be our only opportunity to see them. We last saw them 5 years ago after we went camping together in Derbyshire. They are SUCH lovely people and we got on so well, it was like 5 years hadn't gone. We had tea (and they had scones.... I'm not so much a fun so I opted for crisps!) and then headed to the park to let their cute toddler play on the swings. She is a real sweetie. We then headed to the Heart of Northumberland pub for a roast. I had the pork. All the acompaniments of the meal were amazing and bountiful. The meat was actually my least favourite part! Eventually, K needed to go to bed so after a walk in the Sele park, we headed to the Beaumont to meet Joan who had come down for dinner since the power was STILL not back at 8.45pm at night! We both had dessert!!!
The next morning, we headed into Hexham to purchase a couple of things, and sadly, to go and visit the new Lidl - love a Lidl bakery. C's OTHER best childhood friend was ALSO in Hexham (from Manchester!)- what are the odds of both being there the same weekend!? They were walking down at Tyne Green so we wandered there to see if we could see them but sadly, they were not there but I enjoyed the wander. We went back to town to the Beaumont (for the 3rd time in 2 days!) to meet J and Chris' sister's inlaws who were ALSO in Hexham on their way on holiday! We had a drink with them and then S, CBC's childhood friend called to invite us over to the house.
It was great to see them and meet S's two boys who I've never met before- the older is 7 and the younger is 3. They were totally loud and hyper which is not my ideal situation BUT, after about 5 minutes of bewilderment, I realised how LOVELY intelligent and kind they are despite being really loud and hyper! The older is SUCH a sweet boy, totally eccentric and I got on really well with him by having some eccentric banter!
We ended up playing a brilliant board game with them called 'Connect' which was created in 1969 by Ken Garland is basically a game where you have to connect tiles. I really enjoyed it (and have been stalking the second hand websites for it to find one! It was then updated into a game called Rivers, Roads and Rails and thankfully Vinted came up trumps for me on this version). The family had to get back to Manchester so we bade them goodbye and went back to J's house to make veggie pasta using the veggies we had brought with us from Essex.
The next day after 2 days of remaining in Hexham, due to rain, we decided we wanted to head on a day trip out...despite the likelihood of rain.
Our first location was Tynemouth which is probably the nearest beach/seaside town to Hexham. It is a lovely place with some great independent shops, a great view down to the beach and a vast sandy beach.
It was, however, starting to rain as we arrived and since it was lunchtime, we headed into a cafe called Dil and the Bear which was a GREAT choice as the food menu was super interesting, not your average cafe and the decor was a beautiful Moroccan style.
I had Vietnamese beef rice noodle salad which was a delicious choice as it was so fresh and full of delicious veg. CBC and his Mum also chose delicious and original choices which I would have gladly eaten.
Once we had finished, we headed off for a quick look at the nearby shops. The best was Raspberry Bazaar which is full of Indian blockprints, fairtrade and hippie brands like Gringo and Run and Fly clothing. I was restrained and only bought a red and white fairtrade,blockprint, cotton headband.
After this, we jumped back in the car and headed to Whitley Bay. Having read about this place in a couple of children's books, I was excited to finally see it. In the 1960's, this was the seaside resort to visit.
We headed to St Mary's lighthouse first. This is exciting because there is a causeway that connects it to the mainland and so you can only go there at certain times which adds an element of danger and surprise!! It had started raining when we got into the car at Tynemouth and very kindly, it stopped the moment we got out the car at the lighthouse car park!
It was an impressive view!
You can climb to the top of the lighthouse but we decided not to this day.
There were some rockpool exploring sessions going on and some interesting lifeforms had been found from the excited squeals we could hear!
Most excitingly, we saw quite a few seals basking on the rocks and swimming on the sea and several Cormorants looking brooding on the rocks.
