The past 12 months have been variously interesting, challenging, frustrating and wonderful for us, all at different times and levels of intensity and only the good bits have been reflected in these blog pages, which is only right for a blog page. We are keenly feeling the change in the world, so it is with real meaning that we wish the next 12 months will provide all of us with more solutions than obstacles, more fun than trial, more reward than penalty and that the fiscal correction is swift and a balanced recovery can soon be charted.
We will continue the monthly blog updates through 2009, partly to ensure Gail and I remember everything we have been doing, partly for your enjoyment, but mainly to tempt you to consider visiting Yorkshire and to help us explore this part of the world. To that end I have decided to make all photos we take from now on available on http://www.flickr.com/photos/wetherbyadventures/ as well as selecting some for these pages. The shot above is of us in a little pub near the middle of Hadrians Wall.
That sort of brings me to the monthly update I guess..... Well, December has been cold, damp, grey and best spent indoors. Gail has also been doing lots of extra work days because of the holiday season and due to lots of bugs circulating the ranks of her colleagues. Thankfully we have remained untouched by disease, I think it is because we are immune after years of exposure to the more virulent tropical viruses, these tender europeans are all a bit soft... Let's hope this is the case and we remain free of germ infestation.
We did get out to dinners and some gatherings and towards the end of the month we had the usual xmas focus. Our neighbours David and Carolyn had us and our other neighbours round for a fish pie dinner and apple flan dessert. the night was fuelled by far too much red wine, fantastic company and good cheer and set the two of us up perfectly for a nice xmas day in front of the fire with a big roast meal and pudding.
Boxing Day took us up north
to look at Vindolanda 
( http://www.vindolanda.com/ ) near Hadrian's Wall. 
This is an active archaeological site in the summer months where Englands oldest record of writing is slowly being recovered on wooden tablets some 2000 years old, preserved in the anaerobic sub soils. We got interested in the site on our last trip north 
and the visit to the museum and walking site was really rewarding as well as educational, if a bit chilly. We stayed overnight at a nearby B&B http://www.saughyrigg.co.uk/index.html where we enjoyed a beautiful trout meal (the owner's sister farms the trout and is one of Rick Stein's food heroes.... a cultural plus apparently) Food was grand, four poster canopy bed a treat and the surrounding scenery a great experience. We dawdled along the road to Newcastle stopping off 
to see the views from the top of Hadrians wall. We arrived in Newcastle the same day and had a quick stroll along quayside and over the Tyne into Gateshead where we visited the Sage http://www.thesagegateshead.org/ building (performance venue ) and the old flour mills http://www.balticmill.com/ where Yoko Ono was having one of her conceptual art exhibitions over three floors. The old mill also allowed space for an extensive collection and display of international works from the fluxus artists movement on the lower floors..... I will say that, after studying all the works on display, the restored Baltic flour mill is a wonderful display space for high quality modern art. Shame there was none there. Call me biased but the MCA, Sydney Art Gallery and Biennale are world-leading art venues.
The river Tyne is crossed by some 13 bridges, tunnels and viaducts between Newcastle and Gateshead but the two just outside our hotel were of real interest. The Tyne bridge is sort of a mini Sydney Harbour Bridge and was built around the same time. 
The SHB's span, temperature extremes and the fact it used siliconised steel to cope with the loads made it the technological masterpiece of its time. The myth endures that that the Tyne Bridge was the model for the Sydney Harbour Bridge... it is a myth. Tyne Bridge was completed and in use by 1928 and the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, but design and engineering was all done and work had started for the SHB by1923, the first Tyne sod wasn't turned until 1925. Most likely the Hell Gate Bridge in New York , completed in 1916, was the design inspiration for the SHB.
The millennium bridge is interesting because it tilts up so the wire stays become horizontal to let ships through but regrettably there was no call for it to do that during our stay.
We did walk over it though and all the bridges, the Sage building, old shipping buildings carved from stone and the Norman period churches make this part of Newcastle very appealing. The night was spent with some of Gail's workmates in the Centurion Bar at Central station, a fantastic space of edwardian grandeur having cavernous rooms with glazed tiles and wonderful skydomes. Great company and conversation, not all work related.
We returned home via Durham, a cathedral city which we have decided to return to and investigate in detail as it is a very nice old town with great little cobbled side lanes full of interest.
January is forecast to be cold and chill again so we will have to see what adventure we can eek out of it but rest assured we will have some photos to post and a few words.
Keep well!
