Monday already? Boooo. I did have a great weekend tho, but I am sooo sleepy today.
This weekend was the first of the run-up-to-Christmas markets with the Cluny market in Newcastle. We’ve been 3 times before, so we knew we were in for a fun weekend. Jo and I set off in the honorary craftmobile at ohmygod o’clock on Saturday morning, so we could get lots of sightseeing/shopping in. We were at Hadrian’s wall for 9am! We’ve always said that we’d go to the wall on the way, as there are approximately 9 billion brown signs for it on the road to the Cluny, so we turned off at a random sign and ended up at Walltown.
To say it was a bit rubbish is I think a fair surmisation of the situation. There was barely any bits of wall to speak of, and in face the signposts even owned up to the fact that there is not much of it left. In a place called WALL TOWN that is a pretty rubbish admission to be making. The most amusing point of the pit stop was the sign above which promised not only drinks, snacks and gifts but also basic first aid. Perhaps it was the early start, but we were laughing like loons at this. We drove off without paying the parking charge in protest at it being rubbish.
We trundled on to the toon and made our way to Tynemouth which was looking quite glorious in the sunshine. There were loads of people surfing and there was a bit of a seaside festive feel in the air, but we had shopping to do! So we checked in and then made our way to our favourite Tynemouth haunts, namely:
Roy’s bakery for the best and cheapest cakes around (Cherry/almond slice for Jo, Viennese whirl for me – we had to go twice as our first purchases got too squished to eat).
Gaf, a great little shop on Front Street that sells all manner of cards, gifts, clothes and stuff. Got a few crimble presents there.
Tynemouth flea market, which is held every Saturday at the Metro station. It’s a real treasure trove and we got some AMAZING things there, not least 8 mint condition Babycham glasses at a bargain price, a vintage suitcase and lots of other things. I would go there EVERY Saturday if I lived in the area!
Then we hopped into town on the metro and had a wander round the shops, including the hideously over-priced Skirt boutique on High Bridge. The things in the shop are lovely but the girl in there eyeballed us like we were shoplifters so we left without making any purchases and found Attica just round the corner which really is vintage heaven if you are into that sort of thing. There was the most amazing table and chairs for about a kajillion pounds, and some things we have sold before on our site at much higher prices than we sold them for! Maybe we should revise that …
After a very disappointing round of shops, in which we bought the sum total of nada, we headed back to the b&b to rest our weary dogs, which were barking like there was a full moon after so much trotting around. We then decided it was wise to abandon our city centre dining plans and check out the local Chinese place, which turned out to be a great decision as the food was good and there was a LOT of it, so much that we couldn’t finish even half of it. It also turned out that the chef had trained at the Dick Fat Institute which caused me to laugh so hard I almost choked. I think the waiting staff must have gotten it out of their systems already.
Sunday morning we were up early, down for breakfast which was very nice, despite it taking 3 light years to arrive. So we were running slightly late on arrival at the Cluny, but we got set up and laid out all our new vintage things (including the magical Babycham glasses) and chatted to customers and sold things and generally had a nice time. I did some minor Crimble shopping (Catherine, you are going to LOVE the present I got, mwuahaha!) and then we had lunch which was the most amazing roast lamb and gravy ciabatta and then we bought handbags from the lovely woman next to us. She was a most fascinating person and the bags are simply out of this world. The bag I liked best was the one Karina (the bag lady) was using as a handbag herself – I mentioned how much i loved it and she offered it to me for 25 bucks – considering they retail for up to £220 in the shops, I snapped her hand off for it! It is literally the bag of my dreams, so I consider it a real bargain! I will post a photo of it at some point, altho it won’t capture the fantastic smell of the leather.
So, post-Cluny there was a partay, but we couldn’t stay for it as sadly we have Proper Jobs to come home to, booo. We made it up the road in very good time and I had enough hours left to have a nice bath and get to bed where I couldn’t sleep for thinking about my lovely new baaaag!
This week I am supposed to be interviewing for a new job but it turns out that the travelling is going to be too much, so I think I will have to not go for it, which is unfortunate as I am feeling desperately in need of a change now. Back to the grindstone, bah.
Anti Bullshit League 
thats really cool i like that
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