Saturday, August 29, 2015

the road to newcastle and back

hello there

not really all that much of excitement here, look you see, unless you are particularly excited about the idea of random images (in Commodore 64 mode, obs) taken whilst taking a drive to the lost city of Newcastle and back. should you be particularly, or even mildly, interested in this, well then nice one.

there isn't a great deal of expansion i can add to that as a means of introduction, so here we go with the first image taken on the road. well, in the car that was on the road.




it's interesting, is it not, what the magic of the Commodore 64 mode lens does to the skyline as one heads away from a recognized decent, proper and respectable area of England and towards Newcastle. the sky, for the record, didn't really look like it does above, it was mostly blue.

another image, closer to Newcastle? sure.



i would like to point out at this stage that i did warn you that there would be little or nothing of particular interest to the more casual reader here.

why were we on our way to Newcastle? they, with they being the medical authorities of the land, had in their infinite wisdom decided to establish a dental hospital in the city. it's not for me to question why they would do this, and let us be honest, the medical authorities of this country have an absolutely sterling record of success and efficiency and all around brilliance.
 
a particular highlight of the dental hospital, leaving their complex and misleading elevator controls aside, was the sensational, higher than standard pricing for colder than standard tea, coffee and hot chocolate. indeed, this image is of young William showcasing the latter.

the strategy in place at the dental hospital seems to be one of allowing the people who attend it to get an experience of what goes on in that section of airports which is after passport control and before you get on the plane. that no man's land of an area is characterised and well known for being a bastion of overpriced, less than satisfactory foods and drinks stuffs.

not since i was in Heathrow last, which is some 12 or 13 years ago now, have i experienced such a poor, pathetic cup of coffee. there was a scant, limited suggestion of flavour to it, and the merest inkling of a hint to allow one to think that yes, at some point, the water used to make it with was indeed at the correct temperature to do so, but not any more. water from the hot tap would have been warmer than the water which was alleged to have been heated to make this coffee with.

the most troubling element of this was, as we left, we found ourselves being compelled to make an agreement to return to the dental hospital, and quite soon too. i may well consider investing in some sort of flask before then, so that i may not been required to bankrupt myself on lesser coffee when we get there.

and then, after all of that, we drove back.



our drive back allowed us to experience and get an enhanced understanding of why so many trucks, lorries, HGV things and so forth are "innocently" involved in so many accidents. although i have no doubt that there are several expert drivers in England at the moment, it has become clear to us that there are some bad ones too.

like, for instance, the driver of a truck - i am not sure but i am almost certain his name as a$shole - who, in bumper to bumper traffic flashed at us in front of him to get out of the way. when we failed to oblige with this, what with driving on hedges being generally frowned upon even in Newcastle, he attempted to overtake us and witnessed that which he could see from behind us, which is a lack of ability of anyone to go anywhere.



what's one of the best parts of going to and from Newcastle? that one is able to drive through, and thus technically visit, Sunderland twice. i do appreciate that people from my part of the world, by birth, are supposed to hold Sunderland in as much disdain and contempt as we are Newcastle, but not so for me. i once saw a Tom Cruise film at a cinema they have there, and i know several people from this city. enough, for me at least, to say that Sunderland is more than OK in my books, and good luck to them. one can only hope that they are as kind in their thoughts of us too.

an image of me in the car with my (considerably) better half, to go along with the one of her driving above? certainly, this can be done for you with ease.



if i were charged or otherwise commissioned to build a dental hospital, i suppose i would have indeed built it in Sunderland rather than Newcastle. nothing has ever really screamed "dental hospital" in anything that Newcastle has done, whereas Sunderland has in the past shown, when called on, an eager sense of happy to oblige when the world has turned to them. i mean, yeah, ok, Newcastle gave Peter Beardsley to the world, but i would like to think there's more to the world than that.

another look at the sign for the City of Sunderland? sure why not.



sorry that i have none of the signs for Hartlepool. my (considerably) better half has, look you see, a rather odd and possibly unhealthy obsession with Hartlepool, and i found myself having to stop her from driving in the direction of the place rather than being able to concentrate on taking an image of the signs indicating where it is.

anyway, i have some other forms of writing to do. there are more images - video too, oddly - of our travels, so i will do another update soon. hopefully one which proves to be more interesting and worthwhile, at the least. thanks for going ahead with reading all of this, anyway.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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