Well, as mentioned everywhere in the entire world, Music Zone is in administration. I was in Newcastle with Chris on Thursday, and I noticed they were closing down in Eldon Square. I’m not sure yet if they’re closing the Hartlepool branch, as I’ve not been in the town for a good few weeks.

Now that I’ve mentioned it, Thursday was a good day over all to be honest. Chris and I had made plans on Tuesday to go somewhere. We were both off work, and stuck for something interesting to do. The original plan was to go to York, but this fell through. This was a blessing in disguise, as thanks to the worst storms hitting the UK for 17 years, we’d have had problems getting there and back.

Chris came over at 1PM, and we decided to go to Newcastle.

The train was due to arrive at just after 2PM, and amazingly, for the first time ever, we made it to there on exactly the right time. Not too late. It was nice to see that there has been no improvements to the Hartlepool train station since the last time I was there years ago. It still looks like a dump.

It’s always had a smell of something indescribable. It’s like rotting leather.

Since the last time I was actually in the station, they’ve opened a newsagents. I fancied some crisps, so I went in and had a look. Amusingly, the only crisps they stocked were Spece Raiders. I hadn’t had them since I was about 6, and I’d forgotten how much I loved the beefy ones. So, I bought 3 bags for 30p, and they got eaten within seconds. They’ve definitely got smaller from what I remember. The bags, that is, not the crisps themselves. What happened to the different shaped Space Raiders, anyway? I’m damn sure they used to have different types, such as triangles, instead of the alien heads they have these days.

The train arrived on-time. Luckily, the bad weather which was threatening during the day never really appeared up here, so the train wasn’t delayed.

So, onto Newcastle. One thing I did was take my camera, naturally, so I took photos of the journey.

Woo! The Brus Shops! Ahem.

Anyway, we arrived in Newcastle. Whilst heading out of the Central Station, I almost walked someone who I worked with - namely Karen. But that was clearly very unlikely, seeing as I was in Newcastle, and presumably. It really looked like her. I thought it couldn’t have been her. I saw her Saturday morning, and asked if she was in Newcastle on Thursday. Amusingly, it was indeed her. She even confirmed the fact that Look North were filming a news report at the entrance of the station because of the train delays. How very odd.

Chris had two objectives for the day out. Firstly, to price up a new telly, Secondly, to buy some little “miniatures” (mini bottles of alcohol) from Fenwicks. I don’t quite understand why.

While in Fenwicks, I continued to take silly pictures.

I find it odd, that even though it’s a terribly random picture, taken while in a lift, badly, with my cameraphone, it’s also at the same time not too bad. For a start, you can’t see how grey I’m going in it.

Aftr that, we continued to walk through Eldon Square for an hour or so. It was then I discovered that Music Zone was closing. I’m actually pretty upset at that. It’s one of the few stores I actually went in. It’s the the last major record store in the town, so if they’re deciding to close the Hartlepool branch too, I’ll be *really* devastated. It’s the only place I’ve ever actually really bought CDs and DVDs from in the past few years, minus online stores (including ebay) and the now defunct Play Media.

I walked into Music Zone, and set off the shoplifter detector. The security guard stood next to the entrance greeted me with a “meh”, as if to accept the fact that the sodding thing was fucked.

I bought some CDs and also a couple of DVDs. I noticed they were selling a few CDs off for 97p. Yes, that’s right, 97 shiny pence. That’s 9.7 bags of the afore mentioned Space Raiders. 97 penny chews! A £1 mix-up if the shopkeeper can’t count!

I bought three CDs at the 97p price tag, “Schizophrenic” by JC Chasez, “Do It For Love” by Hall + Oates, and a third one I can’t actually locate on my bombsite of a desk right at this moment. I’ve not listened to either of them yet to be honest, as for that price, I can’t expect them to be up to much, but you never know. I’ve bought stuff in the past, not expecting them to be up to musch, and me loving them.

Oh, and seeing as I can’t be bothered to edit the last paragraph, I’ve just located the third CD. I’d not even bothered taking it out of the bag, that shows you just how much I’m expecting to like it. It’s the 2005 self titled album by Lee Ryan.

I’ve just put it on, seeing as I had it to hand. It’s on random track selection, aaaaaaaaand, the first track it’s playing is actually really quite good, entitled “Wish The Whole World Knew”.

I’ve just googled him, and after discovering he was out of the band Blue, I’ve just ejected the CD, never to play it again. *shudder*. Ugh. Blue. Ewwwww. I feel dirty. That’s 97p I’ll not see again. I wish I hadn’t found it now. I’ll play Hall And Oates. At least They’re at least slightly acceptable. In a cheesy 80’s way.

Anyway, enough of my musical catastrophes, back to Thursday. After I’d finished purchasing embarrasing CDs, it was time to head off to the train station. On the way back, I passed a *proper* record store. You know the type. 2nd hand vinyl everywhere, ZZ Top playing from an actual record, complete with crackles between tracks. Crates stacked full of vinyl underneath the displays. I couldn’t resist a quick look in. It even smelled like a proper record store. It was lucky for Chris that I didn’t find this place on the way to Eldon Square. I’d have been there all day. It’s a shame I only had about 10 minutes to spare. I’m planning a trip back, possibly on my own, just to visit that store.

So, we got to the station, The train chaos had intensified with the evening rush hour approaching. Underneath the LED destination boards were hundreds of people, on their mobiles, seething at the “Delayed” and “Cancelled”. The train back home was already in when we got there, this completing a perfect days’ travel, with only a small wait for the train there. Unfortunately, the trip back was marred by the fact that the carriage we’d picked STUNK. It was a hard smell to describe. It was either sick or stale milk.

The train pulled off before we had the chance to move seats. thankfully, it was only a few minutes until the next station. OK, it’s not particularly dangerous to get up and walk around on a train, compared to something like a bus or a taxi, but we decided to stay put. Maybe the smell would go away… it didn’t.

We moved seats, and thankfully, the smell didn’t follow us. Within the blink of a very lazy eye, we were back in Hartlepool.

I’d only had a pastie to eat all day, so I was famished. However, we’d already planned to go and get something to eat at the Mandarin Palace on Church Street. It’s literally inches from the train station, and it’s a lovely chinese restaurant. I think it’s called something different now… China Delight, or something? Either way, I left Chris to pay for the food.

Oh, OK, I didn’t really. It just gave me another chance to post another flickr picture which was otherwise useless.

We ended up, as usual, in the club, playing snooker, albeit badly. The cue Chris was using didn’t even have a tip on the end.

The lodge concluded the night. Chris raffled off some of the miniatures he’d bought earlier in the day, which seemed a bit of a waste, considering he’d went there especially for them. I won this one….

Amade, apparently. According to the label, it’s chocolate orange. I can quite honestly day, if I was on WWTBAM, and my £500 question was what it was supposed to taste like, I’m afraid I’d have to take the money. It certainly didn’t taste of chocolate orange. It reminded me a little of burning wood and bovril.

Clearly, I’m not a connysewer of all things alcoholic, but I can’t be far off!

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