A couple of stories from BBC News relating to the North East that I want to share with you, and I’m looking for audience participation here. I’m going to describe the details, provide a link to the relevant news story, and ask you, my loyal and humbly devoted readers, to decide whether, in your opinion, [...]

…as a favour, I said I’d mention that someone I know is offering guitar tuition in rock, blues, funk and, indeed, all that jazz. He’s called Jon Forster and if you’re in the North East and you’re after some guitar tuition, why not look him up? Obviously if you aren’t based in the North East, [...]

Sometimes there’s things about my local area and/or my local authority that I am a bit ashamed of. Sometimes there’s things about my local area and/or my local authority that I am proud of. Saltwell Park represents both of these, displaced somewhat in time. When I was studying for my GCSEs, I did a project [...]

Or, in reference to it’s previous name, the Hancock… I thought it was you… The Hancock Museum is near Haymarket Metro station in Newcastle. It’s been a Newcastle institution for years. I visited regularly as a child (mostly, I think, because every time I went, my parents would buy me a small plastic dinosaur to [...]

I subscribe to BBC Newcastle’s twitterstream — @bbcnewcastle — in order to be informed about news and events which are local to me and therefore have some interest or relevance. So when I came across this tweet: BBC Sport NUFC News Newcastle v Fulham: Team news ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match. http://tinyurl.com/qeqrsn @bbcnewcastle …I [...]

Well, what can I say? Over the course of the season, Tamworth proved they were the best team over the season, amassing 85 points, but the play-off places were tightly contested, with only four points separating the four play off places. Gateshead and Alfreton Town were the joint highest scorers in the division with 81 [...]

It was one of our “family outing thingummies”. There’s currently an event on in NewcastleGateshead (the gestalt entity formed from Newcastle and Gateshead councils to promote events across the two) called EAT! Newcastle Gateshead, which is not, as it may initially sound, a command to consume the region, but is instead a festival of food. [...]

I went for a meal at Jesmond Dene House last week with the GLW. It’s not the sort of place we would normally go to. To be honest, with having small children, the restaurants we are more likely to go to are the ones with plastic seats where you get asked “do you want fries [...]

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen something of a return to our ‘Summer Days Out’ plan where at least once every weekend we try to take a trip out somewhere with the kids, to see something a bit different (you know, other than “shops”) and generally have a nice family day out. Discovery Museum [...]

Having been watching Newcastle for something more than 20 years now, I have seen them get relegated before, notably in the first season I actually started going to see them. It’s therefore easier for me — albeit still not exactly pleasant — to watch the club slide inexorably towards relegation than it is for those [...]