HELLO!

I have not been around for a few days. I apologise for that. I wish I could explain the reasons, but having to relive any second of the last two weeks or so would mean that I would have to inject my sensitive brain with memories, which to be honest, are better forgetting. You may notice that I do NOT discuss my proper personal life in here. This trend will continue, yet I can’t help feeling utterly depressed over the past fortnights’ antics.

Moving on swiftly, I shall begin to explain the good things which have happened.

Firstly, I’ve not been able to sleep. This means that, on the 18th, a cold and frosty Monday Morning, I decided to watch the sun come up. I left the house at 6:30, and began to walk towards the headland. For those of you who don’t know Hartlepool, part of it is on a penninsular, which means there is a lot of water surrounding it. This also means that no matter what time of year it is, you get some awesome sunrises. Unfortunately, I’d never, ever witnessed, or photographed a sunrise. Not without houses getting in the way.

Due to the fact my mind was working a mile-a-minute (due to the things that had happened a few days before), I was awake at 5AM. I adorned appropriate clothing, and awaited for an appropriate time to leave, and photograph the scenery.

I didn’t intend for this to be another one of those “Oh, bollocks, Jamie’s needlessly took his camera out of the house”, but seeing as I’ve started this section, I might as well finish.

Er, anyway. I left the house, and walked towards the Headland. Needless to say, I took my camera. After all, that’s my catchphrase, and if I didn’t say it, it would make this part of the blog redundant. Anyway, it was still dark by the time I approached the Warren Road junction…

As can be seen by the colour of the cloud, there was a bit of fog in the area. I hoped this wouldn’t destroy my photo chances. What was clear, however, that it was very cold, and that I was entirely on my own. I took the rather daring route of “Old Cemetary Road” . This is the road that leads up to Steetley, and is almost entirely deserted, except for abandoned buildings and a handful of council houses, one of which Wayne lived in, who you may remember I mentioned a few times, but I no longer have any contact with.

Anyway, this road also leads, via footpaths to Marine Drive, which is the seafront. Next stop from here is Norway, unless you stick to the roads, in that case, your next step is the Headland…

I finally managed to see the sun come up, for the first time in my entire life.

What you can’t see in the photo, however, is me, almost in tears.

I think it hit home. The shitness of 2008 so far, the fact I had nobody to turn to, the fact that I was listening to Nik Kershaw on my MP3 player (!)… it all added up.

I ended up taking this…

Best viewed large, click the image, leave this rambling blog if you must.

After that, nothing happened for the next few days. I ended up at work, which is as bad as it normally was. I ended up having to look forward to something. And I did, for you see, the new Sainsbury’s opened on Friday 22nd February!

SO, as their catchphrase suggests, I “treid something new today”, but getting there was an absolute nightmare. Now, I decided to go there for its grand opening at 9AM, but before that, I required money. You may remember that the new store is on the far corner of a new estate, at the top of a hill. The cash point is at the exact opposite corner of the estate, at the bottom of the hill. Now the shortest distance between two points, as I’m sure you are aware, is a straight line, so surely, cutting through this new estate would be the easiest thing to do… I was wrong.

I didn’t realise, this estate is a complete maze of small cul-de-sacs and faceless houses, each of them like the next, And, considering this was the first time I’d been on this estate, I ended up wandering around aimlessly, and I ended up pretty much back where I started, at the bottom of the hill. Bugger.

Eventually, I got there, 20 minutes after it opened. They were still serving celebratory glasses of orange juice. There were photographers there, and lots of men in suits laughing between themselves, and patting themselves on the back.

I bought a tenners’ worth of stuff, It was actually very expensive.

The following day saw a trip to Newcastle. There was no apparent reason for it. I just rang up Chris, who was also off at the same time as me (a rare occurence these days… sigh), so we went to Newcastle for the day.

The first stop (after getting some refreshments) was a record shop. No, not any normal record shop, but one of those “good” ones, filled with vinyl from celing to floor, with lots of strange crates lying about, filled with singles, and at very reasonable prices too… £1 each or 12 for £5. Now, I’ve always preferred the humble 7″ single to the 12″ LP, so it goes without saying that I ended up purchasing 12 of them. I’m sure most of you know my musical tastes, so I’ll quickly gloss over which ones I’d bought. However, I will mention that I finally got a copy of the original version of Star Trekkin’.

With my vinyl addiction satisfied, we continued to walk about the place for a bit. Obviously, one of the reasons we went on this journey was so I could get some photos.

And, there are plenty of things to photgraph in Newcastle. This one is my particular favourite…

Not because of its subject matter, but because what it is. It’s one of the pubs which features in the 1986 series of Auf Weidersehen Pet, in particular the episode “Marjorie Doesn’t Live Here Any More”. In fact, looking at that episode again is quite eye opening. You can see quite clearly the amount of regeneration that’s taken place in the 22 years since that episode was recorded.

Anyway, this was also my first opportunity to see some of the new landmarks up close, namely the Millenium bridge, and The Sage…

I think it’s quite clear where it gets the name “Shiny Condom” from. We actually took a walk up to The Sage, to have a look round, only to find that on that particular day the bloody thing was closed to the public. Bollocks

This is part 1. Part 2 is coming shortly.

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