Darby Street and Charlestown

We set off on Friday morning to see Jordan in Goldberg's along Darby Street in Newcastle. I liked the street a lot. Lots of little boutiques, restaurants and cafe's. Goldberg's itself was excellent. We were a little early so Holly and I ordered a coffee while we waited, people watching. It was familiar and yet very different. The fashions were notably different to London summer fashion (mainly thanks to the large number of vest tops aka wife beaters). It was a lot more 90s than back home. The men were more scruffy than I was familiar with, many with unkempt hair and beards (sooo fit in here!). It all seemed a lot more relaxed, chilled and friendly than is often the case back home.

When Jordan arrived it was great to see him. Although we only had an hour and a half it was great to catch up in an entirely different setting to our previous meeting in London. We even managed to get a conversation about cricket in there somewhere. In doing so we discovered that Jordan was going to be at the SCG test match on the same day as us, so we agreed to meet up there as well. After eating a delicious brunch together we headed off and myself and Holly were picked up by Jill.

We headed off to Charlestown Square, via a first glimpse of Newcastle foreshore. Charlestown was really familiar. It was just like being in an English shopping centre during the summer months. Some of the department stores were practically identical, complete with terrible christmas music! (there was me thinking i'd got away from it!!) I found some swimming trunks pretty quickly and after a while of searching Holly decided to go with the swimming costume she'd tried on in the second shop she had looked in on the previous day. In between shops we sat and had a drink in a coffee shop, overlooking the giant christmas tree standing outside the main shopping centre (bathed in sunlight of course).

In the evening I chilled out, watching a lot of the England vs India cricket test and making the most of the TV access before Joss's arrival.

At around 8:30 we were greeted by 3 Tawny Frogmouths...two adults teaching their baby to hunt. Another great experience. Joss arrived at 9:00 too tired for any introductions. We all went to bed early, just after the end of the days play in the cricket.