Earlier every year
Yesterday was 21 June—and I regret to report that I saw the first of 2024’s Christmas selection boxes on display in my local convenience store.
Or so I thought. Searching online reveals that this was Nomo’s 2023 selection box design, so perhaps this is a brand new display featuring six-month-old stock that the shop needs to clear.
Not everything is as it first appears.
Football free zone
Normally, during rush hour, this four-lane section of Newcastle’s Great North Road would be chockablock. As I walked home yesterday evening, it was eerily quiet. The England-Denmark Euro 2024 men’s football match clearly caused a major deviation from people’s usual travel habits—something I wouldn’t have predicted. I know consciously that football is extremely popular, but my own lack of interest blinkers me from casually anticipating these kinds of effects.
This post was filed under: Photos, Football, Newcastle upon Tyne.
It’s windy in Newcastle
When you think of medical schools in Newcastle, this one might not be the first that springs to mind. Since 2007, it has been possible to study in Newcastle for a chunk of the five-year medical degree award by St George’s University in Grenada. These days, one can study as much as four years of a five-year medical programme with St George’s University in Newcastle.
This post was filed under: Photos, Grenada, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Home and dry
I passed these friendly folk on my way home from work. Most people in the UK think that cows lie down when it’s about to rain, but I’m pleased to report that beautiful sunshine saw me home.
One of the problems with posts like this, which repeat stories that are simply untrue, is that the lie can stick longer in the mind than the truth. One suspects that some politicians may be choosing to exploit that fact at the moment.
The 2019 General Election result showed that being sacked for lying twice was no barrier to gaining the public’s trust—but one wonders whether that trick can be pulled repeatedly.
This post was filed under: Photos, Newcastle upon Tyne.
‘Racing Ahead’
When I lived in Stockton, this life-sized sculpture by Irene Brown stood outside M&S. The sculpture was removed in 2013, when the High Street was being spruced up. M&S closed in 2018.
The sculpture isn’t really my sort of thing, but it is enormously popular with Stocktonites. There was great fanfare when the refurbished sculpture was repositioned outside the library in 2016, and where I took this photo yesterday.
This post was filed under: Art, Photos, Irene Brown, Stockton-on-Tees.