It’s my first public health on call tonight: nervously waiting for the phone to ring! It’s about 20 months since I did my last hospital on call, so I’m no longer used to being at the mercy of the phone, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it fairly quickly!

Wendy, her mum, and I lunched in Olive and Bean today. Their paninis are delicious, and the service is always great too. If ever you’re looking for somewhere a bit different for a coffee or a sandwich in Newcastle, Olive and Bean comes highly recommended!

This is my lovely birthday caked, baked by Asda with additional icing by Wendy! Yum!

This advert was in the window of WHSmith in the Metrocentre today. I was amazed that anyone could be promoting software to “protect” an e-reader (protect from what?!), but also amazed to see that Peter Norton no longer features on the boxes of Norton products.

Wikipedia says the latter has been the case since 2001, which surprises me. I wonder, given that Mr Norton is 69 this year, whether it’s a case of marketing ageism? I suspect probably not, I guess pictures of software engineers on products are just not fashionable any more. That said, the fictional Mavis Beacon still beams on the packaging of that software.

I forgot to upload this yesterday – oops!

So yesterday’s photo-a-day is my Swimathon certificate. If you still haven’t sponsored me, please do! Marie Curie Cancer Care and I would be grateful for any donation, no matter how small. You can give at http://sjh.im/SimonSwim until 29th April 2012.

Thanks for your support!

Weetslade Country Park is a landscaped former colliery site just minutes from my front door, yet today was the first time I’ve visited. It boats about 20 hectares of land, including a hill with an artistic sculpture; a reedbed; woodland areas; and a newborn highland cow, called “wee” Slade (see what they did there?)

Unfortunately, I saw little more than the bottom of the hill today, as the heavens opened ten minutes or so after I arrived. I was soaked to the skin, despite my trusty Ikea umbrella!

It looks like it would be lovely to visit when the sun’s out, so I’m sure I’ll be back soon!

This is part of the pretty Royal Quays Marina at North Shields. It’s built around the Victorian Albert Edward Dock, which was opened by Albert Edward himself, in 1884.

This is MS Princess Seaways, one of the big DFDS cruiseferries that runs from North Shields, here in Newcastle, to IJmuiden, in the Netherlands.

It’s probably a ship with deep psychological issues: it was “born” in Germany in 1986 and was christened MS Peter Pan. It underwent a definitive sex change in 2006, when it became Princess of Norway, having used three other fairly gender neutral names in the interim, but has remained a princess of one sort or another ever since.

I always thought it was unlucky to rename a ship, but perhaps I’m wrong…!

This is just a few of the postcards I’ve received in the few weeks I’ve been Postcrossing. You can see them all on my “Postcard Wall”.

Postcrossing is slightly geeky but oddly fun as an occasional diversion – why not give it a try?

I’ve spied the new BHS on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street this afternoon. It’s in the building vacated by Next after they shuffled off into Eldon Square, and is a few doors up from its previous home, which has been subsumed into the expanding Primark.

Graham Soult has some great before-and-after comparison shots to see the impressive scale of the building’s transformation.

On my visit, my eye was drawn to the cafe on the second floor with floor-to-ceiling windows, which strikes me as a little vertiginous. I’m also not entirely keen on having two BHS signs above one another – I understand the logic (the higher one isn’t terribly visible from the doorway), but couldn’t they just have put a logo on the doors? There were six big visible logos on the frontage on my visit (four on posters), and it really cheapens the brand.

Anyway, I’m being picky. It’s a nice looking shop from the outside – certainly moreso than the old, unloved Next – and it’s a relief to get rid of some of Northumberland Street’s scaffolding!