Christmas lights walk

Well what a lot of weather we're having!  Wouldn't venture onto Hadrian's Wall without a paddle these days.  But as I drove home in the gloom, an illuminated sign near Whitemare Pool informed me that the Christmas lights have been switched on over South Tyneside.  I decided a walk was in order to see how the ones in South Shields looked.

Fortunately, darkness sets in early now, so I could leave the house before 5pm and be home by 6pm.  In view of the weather just lately I was clad in waterproofs, thermal hat and gloves and walking boots and thick socks.  I did feel a tad overdressed walking past Chichester metro towards Laygate.  The trees at Chi have been wrapped in blue lights again and look fab.  By the time I got to the bottom of Crossgate it was chucking it down and the waterproofs seemed entirely sensible.  The floral ship on the roundabout now boasts twinkling sails and a carpet of twinkling blue lights form a sea on the grass around it.

On into the market square where the trees also sport blue lights.  The effect of them round the edge of the market is lovely, and looking down King Street I could see white lights festooned all the way.  It lent a festive air to King Street, and looking up at the lights above was like being under a starry sky.  At the junction with Ocean Road stood a huge Christmas tree with a canopy of lights around it topped by a star.

On down Ocean Road where illuminated trees and fanciful swirling decorations on the lamp posts make for a wonderful display.  I turned back up the hill and back along Beach Road to the Town Hall where the Queen Empress presides over twinkling snowflakes, trees and curtains of light down the side of the building.

And so back home, still unconvinced that Christmas is quite so close, but enlivened by the walk and the spectacle.

The ship at Crossgate roundabout

Shields Marketplace

Store walk

Christmas is coming!  We have to deal with Advent first (and I have plans for that) but The Holidays have to be prepared for.  So today saw me spending yet another soggy Tuesday wandering up and down Northumberland Street and round and round the Grainger market in search of present ideas.  I largely succeeded I am happy to report.  The pig's head on one of the butcher's stalls made a slightly disturbing spectacle but that is because I am a townie and far removed from the realities of food production.

And so to my walk, today it was the length and breadth of John Lewis.  I add a link to the store floor plan so you can follow my progress.
http://d3aensyvlglrq6.cloudfront.net/jl_assets/pdf/newcastle_sg_16_05_12.pdf

I started in the basement, accessed from the Haymarket bus station.  Here are all manner of homeware gadgets and white goods, plus Christmassy bits.  I gave it all a cursory glance, planning to go to the top floor and work my way back down.   I waited by the lifts long enough to get impatient and then tried to find the stairs.  Easier said than done!  If you glance at today's CCTV footage I am the suspicious-looking one peeping hopelessly at doors marked 'associates only'.  Eventually I did find them, concealed as a fire exit and not signposted in any other way.  They were clean and functionally decorated, a spot of graffiti or two but otherwise safe enough and under-used.  I didn't see anyone else using them as I climbed to the second floor.  It was all downhill from here (but in a good way).

Second floor:  I emerged into the digital department.  I think everyone in Newcastle must be getting a gadget for Christmas.  It was buzzing, laptops, cameras, plasma TVs, other bits I didn't know I needed or wanted.   I strolled round to the comparative calm of the furniture department and began to daydream of a flat furnished from the goods.  On into carpets, rugs and fabrics.  Still quieter but such lovely stuff.  Are they looking for staff?  If you can't afford it, you might as well flog it to those who can.  I paused at the cafe but decided against.  It looked very swish but a bit dark (getting grumpy in my old age).

First Floor:  I took the escalator down.  The stairs appear on the floor plan, maybe I should have taken that with me.  But here - ah fashions!  I do love a good browse and there was plenty to see.  Charity prices they were not but everything looked lovely.  I could sell this stuff.  I did a quick visual check of the sales assistants and it seems as if they do let old people loose on the fashion floor.  Maybe my time will come.  And then I was at haberdashery, buying the bits I'd wanted to get but never got round to.  It's all here, along with fabrics.  Maybe I could belatedly follow my mother's footsteps into the haberdashery department. 
In the interests of completeness, I went through the childrens department, deciding that the Gruffalo ceramics by Dartington were wonderful, there was a knitting dolly (House of Marbles, another Devon product), and the cuddly Elmer (£8.95) is mine if Santa is reading this!  I paused at the expresso bar, a definite possibility, and gazed at the brasserie, out of my league.

Ground floor:  And so to the ground level, well Eldon Square level.  I browsed the handbags and the shoes, found the perfect slippers for our festive circle dancing (red velvet with a bow and a fleecy lining) but couldn't justify the £20 price tag.  Meanwhile in the perfume department a mirror smashed, it can only be good luck if it happens at work, surely?  I tried a little squirt of Kenzo Madly  and looked for the stairs or escalator to take me back to the basement.  Couldn't spot 'em.  And so, unwilling to cut a dodgy figure on the CCTV yet again, I exited into Eldon Square.

Shoulda had the map!

The Town Moor

I've been on the Moor for the Hoppings but would you believe that I've never actually walked across it?  Well, a woman's got to do etc etc, and today was the appointed day.  It was very mild and blustery as I headed up Claremont Road, crossed the bridge over the central motorway and onto the Moor!

I was accompanied by assorted joggers, dog walkers and students going home after lectures and, of course, the roar of traffic.  The main path is tarmac'd so I was able to walk briskly my thoughts running wild as usual and snippets of random songs flitting in and out of my head.  If I can find a clip of a group of people singing, yes singing the Highway Code, I will share it.  I bet my brother still has the vinyl.
http://youtu.be/Qngi_jSaXlI Hope this is it!  If not, it's the weather forecast - just as good!

The Moor is a little treasure in the town.  The Freemen can graze cattle there but the cows seem to have been taken in for the winter as none were in evidence.  Though I did notice hoof prints and trampled ground around every public bench.  Surely the cows don't come round begging for your sandwiches?  Blimey!  The path carried straight on past some man-made-looking hillocks and on towards Grandstand Road.  I paused a couple of times to pick out landmarks (Civic Centre, flats in Spital Tongues, Motor Museum,  Great North Road).

At Grandstand Road, I followed the path along the roadside to Blue House roundabout and then down the Great North Road towards the city centre, turning back into the Moor at a gate about halfway along.  The main path would have taken me back to my original path, so I chose to walk alongside the hedge, eventually coming out into the Exhibition Park.  I have vivid memories of doing this bit at night during a powercut on one of my first forays into Newcastle.  I got hopelessly lost.  And would you believe it, the same thing nearly happened again today in broad daylight!  I found myself looking along an avenue of trees towards the Motor Museum - should I cut left back onto the Moor?  This place did look kind of familiar - ah yes!  the mela! - stalls, fashions, foods, rides, music!  And how did I arrive here then? Ah yes!  Back the way I'd come.  So I retraced my steps and ended up back at Claremont Road and the short walk back to Northumberland Street and the homely delights of Fenwicks Christmas window.

Mission Walking

I know that Tuesday is going to be taken up with housework, so Sunday's walk will have to do for this week!

There were firework displays planned for Sunday evening in South Shields, and I guessed that the Ocean Road/Lawe Top area would be busy so I decided to walk to the People's Mission for evening service rather than take the car.  All that was left to wonder was how cold it would be, and how long the walk would take.

 Eventually I allowed myself 50 minutes and left the house wrapped up like an Eskimo.  although the day had been cold the evening wasn't too bad and the walking was excellent - just what I needed.  I made my way down Chichester Road and then up Hyde Road and along the side of Westoe cemetery to the footpath on Erskine Road then along the top of the South Marine Park, along Lawe Road and then Fort Street.  It only took 40 minutes so I had to do a turn round the block before going into church.

The walk was just right for me.  It was good to go up streets that I really haven't seen at ground level for a while.  The physical exercise was soothing (I had felt a bit out of sorts during the day and suspected that it might be anxiety-related).  And it gave me time to prepare for the service.

The service, as always, was uplifting, and it was good to talk to friends afterwards.  Then it was off to the Lawe Top to enjoy the firework display.  It was only as I walked home that I realised how much good my year of walking has done me.  For one thing, this was a walk actually planned into a daily routine, for another thing I was walking after dark and I didn't feel afraid.  I feel that I'm back to walking in the way that I used to.  A cousin reminisced to me recently how she was walked to the end of the pier and back after morning service.  I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon, but I will be celebrating the joy of walking.

The walk of shame

It's been another week with nothing really planned walkwise.  So, Sunday's little foray into South Shields will have to do!  It was grey and drizzly as I remember.  I set off to walk to the town centre via West Way.  There were about three police cars at Laygate blocking the square, so I didn't hang about.   I walked briskly on to the (relatively) new pet store for a quick look around - nothing I needed.  Didn't even buy a tombola ticket for the German Shepherd rescue.  I was walking for air and exercise and browsing, not to buy.

I walked past the entrance to the Tedco industrial estate and St Hildas colliery (remains of) to Asda where I checked my bank balance.  Oh dear.  Well, the end of the month was in sight.  I looked at the clothes department rather disconsolately.

 What next?  Straight back home?  As I was out I decided to continue to look at the shops on Waterloo Street.  I browsed Next, and River Island and Debenhams and BHS, all were quiet.  I guess then, I was not the only one riding out the financial tides until next pay day.  I remember when browsing was aspirational - one day I will be able to buy something like this.  Not any more.  I still love to look at the materials and styles available in clothing stores but buying is firmly put to one side for the time being.

Perhaps I walked home a little more slowly.  Perhaps I felt more subdued.  But I know I still have options and that's more than a lot of people have.  And I can still appreciate the walking and the locations and the trees and...and...life is good.