Sunday night was Gosha's birthday, and all the Cobham crew got together to celebrate. We went for champagne (how classy) at El Torito, then we all took cabs over to a neighbouring city (where there are more exciting bars) and went to a bar-club to do some drinking and sme dancing. Unfortunately for me I was feeling a little sick, so I didn't party quite as hard as usual. Still good times though, especially at the end of the night when my friend Pierre was hammered and heckling the cab driver the whole way back to come buy soup for lunch the next day at the Plough. Good stuff.
And that's pretty much where the good times ended, because on Monday I was sick as a dog and couldn't get out of bed the whole day. I had Monday and Tuesday off and intended to go to Cambridge, but I was insanely ill on Monday. Tuesday I felt better, but not 100% still, so I lounged for the morning then in the afternoon went to the nearby city of Leatherhead. Leatherhead is a hilariously named beautiful little city with many cafes, parks, and more charity shops than I've seen in any other city so far. Definitely my kind of place! I went for a walk in a park, browsed through all the charity shops, and had my hair cut for the first time in about 6 months. That was something I really needed. Then at night I went to salsa night at El Torito and afterwards a few of my peeps came over to the Cedar House to party.
The rest of the week was business as usual, then this week I had Monday and Tuesday off again and I finally made good on my promise to visit Doreen in Newcastle. On Sunday night after work I took a train to London then an overnight bus to Newcastle. I arrived in Newcastle after 6am and by the time I got to Doreen's place I was knackered. Doreen offered me tea right away, bless her, and we chatted for an hour or so before she took off to a doctor's appointment and I went down for the count. I woke up in the afternoon after some lovely sleep (to make up for the not really sleep I had on the bus) and Doreen and I visited some more while I also looked up some Newcastle sights to see on her computer. Wanting to get some touristy business in while it was still daylight I quickly took off to the city centre and began my sojurn through Newcastle.
Newcastle, it turns out, is completely brimming with art, history, and culture. I started my tour at Gray´s monument on Gray Street (which makes me think of Gray Street by Dave Mathews Band), then walked over to the gorgeous 14th century St. Andrews Cathedral. Gray street in Newcastle is beautiful and lined with classic Victorian architecture. Apparently the city was quite the pet of Queen Vic, because it was hugely developed during her reign with her signature style, and there is a large statue of the old Dame in the town centre. After poking around the church I walked over to the castle from which Newcastle gets its name. Around 1008 or so, William the Conqueror's eldest son built himself a castle out of timber and dubbed it New Castle. After that castle died the grounds were used as a graveyard until the 1300s when a new New Castle (aka: the Castle Keep) was erected in stone. This is the building I walked around in. Since it was a Monday afternoon I had the place to myself and spent hours walking through the stone passageways and reading all the neat historical facts.
After the castle, I walked over to the old Medieval town wall. It used to encircle the ancient city, but now only a bit is left. The wall was right by China Town, so I took a stroll through there before heading to Blackfriars. Blackfriars used to be a very famous monastary of the Black Friars, who were so called for wearing black robes. The building is beautiful and well maintained with a park-like backyard that you can hang in. My last stop of the day was to the commercial downtown to get some essentials because I had accidentally left my bag containing my toiletries on the bus (whoops). After that I went back to Doreen's place and had Indian food with her and two of her friends or dinner. When Doreen's friends went home she and I hung out drinking vodka, listening to the Beatles, and catching up. I know Doreen through my Mom (they're friends of many years) and obviously anyone that is cool enough to be friends with my Mom is cool enough to be friends with me, so I had a great time hanging out with her.
Tuesday I slept in in anticipation (or rather dread) of taking another overnight bus that night. I hung out with Doreen a bit during the day, then headed back to the city centre for some mor sightseeing. I started out at "The Biscuit Factory" the UK's largest contemporary art space in what was once a biscuit factory. England is so cute! There was huge variety or art, all for sale and reasonably priced. One of those times I wish I was rich and had a slew of manservants to carry my purchases for me. Obviously I am poor so I bought nothing, but I had a great time looking around nonetheless (and nonethemore). Then I went to the Laird Art Gallery, which hosts a score of old and new paintings. The coolest thing I saw there was a wall-sized painting of a very realistic human heart with eyeballs painted on it. Delightfully haunting it was. I then walked through another section of the downtown area to the "Newcastle Art Gallery" which wasn't much to speak of, but they had a giant robot made of scrap-metal outside that rose up 2 stories high. Giant robots are always a good thing. At that point the museums were closed, so I went to China Town to eat a yummy dinner and do some writing in my journal. After that I had time to kill before my bus and the wind picked up like mad, so I went to a cheap Tuesday night movie at a local cinema and saw "confessions of a shopaholic" (you all knew that had to happen as I am obsessed with all that is Sophie Kinsella aka: Madeleine Wickham). My final hour in Newcastle was spent having a drink at a pub called "the Dog" near the bus station that played sports and punk music. Odd.
My bus was another over-night affair and the guy sitting behind me was "the Man of a Thousand Snores" each louder and weirder than the last and I did not sleep a fucking wink. I arrived in London at 7am tired and relatively pissed off. I took the train to Cobham, caught a one hour nap, then had to work a split shift. Awful, awful death. Then today was work again, and not much new there. I shall write more when something else interesting happens, but until then assume I am working many hours and counting the days until I go to Greece. Oh did I mention I'm going to Greece? I booked a flight for the 18th to Athens for my final European Hurrah.
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