Sittin’ in a sleazy snack bar sucking, sickly sausage rolls…

…slippin’ down slowly, slippin’ down sideways, think I’ll sign off the dole.

You can probably guess from the lyrics that we’re off to Newcastle tomorrow — for a long planned, long needed break — after more than a few months (years, millennia, eons) simply existing, under the ‘Rona restrictions and constraints. Funny though. We’ve also done more planning and second-guessing packing for this short internal visit than we ever did when we upped and moved house — and work — to Spain and then did the whole thing again and shipped out to the USA. And then returned, 10 years later back to the UK. With approx. 10 cardboard boxes, one for each year (?), of “all our worldly goods”…

Anyway, assuming we’ve planned well, there will be food. Such good food. Unlike the Lindisfarne rolls. And also hopefully without trying to see the plates through a fog…

This is one of the reservations, for Träkol, with what look to be stunning views from the quayside over the Tyne, right underneath the bridge at the very same location as the old album cover used.

The menu…

Here’s the ½ a pig’s head on show which looks do-able just by me, no?

Of course, we’d be certifiably insane to miss out on Riley’s Fish Shack on the coast at Tynemouth; last time we were in this lovely city, there was a quayside pop-up by their team inc. Shaun Hurrell on the coals, in the sun and we ate a metric fuck-ton of their stunningly good fish dishes. Little parcels of marine loveliness, cooked over fire. The memory is strong…

Shaun’s now got his own Mexican place, Barrio Comida, in nearby Durham. We couldn’t make the timings work to get a booking there on this trip, so next time man, next time. I promise. It’s been too long.

and the last formal booking is for Anna Hedworth and her team at Cook House. The original container shed in the Ouseburn location where we ate…

…now much bigger, solid, brick built — further down and the other side of the river — that used to house a coffee roasting operation that we dropped in on.

but still with her lovely, lovely cooking.

And that’s it for the booked stuff. There’s lots more free-form eating planned; cycling all over the city and out to the East. And whilst there just aren’t enough hours in the day for all the excellence that Newcastle brings, my thanks to the very lovely Twitter Tykes who gave me so many great pointers. So, more news from Thursday onwards; just mute #NewcastleReturn2022 if you get bored…

And here’s the original song. Strange days man, strange days…