Tag Archives: Newcastle

Hot Pants and Big Hair

It was such a retro look that my head fairly well snapped when I saw it on ample display in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the north of England. Really ‘Big Hair’ on women of all ages. I don’t think I’ve seen such a generous use of the teasing comb and cans of hairspray to create that sort of back-combed volume since the 1960s.

What was even funnier was that we were in a vintage bookstore at one point during our four weeks up there and there was a book on sale that was a ‘Look Back to 1960s Newcastle’ — and all of the women in that book would have been the mothers or grandmothers of the people we were seeing on the streets. Some of the folks in the North of England seem to have gotten stuck in a time warp!

Regional trends included the messy buns — the sort of teased up and pinned up look that Brigitte Bardot used to do so well — or tight buns — teased up and smoothed into not-a-hair-out-of-place firmness with gel or hairspray. And we saw this look on women from teenagers to senior citizens. We were checking out at the grocery store one afternoon and it was everything I could do to not snap a quick pic with my iPhone of the middle-aged check-out clerk who had a bright red beehive hairdo that was towering above her small face!

Then there was the range of hot pants on display (on some icy days in February?) — thankfully on the really young girls and not on the middle-aged gals who shared their love of Big Hair with a large percentage of the Newcastle demographic. Interesting too that once we returned to London and Norfolk from our month up north, we never saw a beehive, teased bun, or hotpants look down there!

Apologies for the graininess of some of these. I did snap a few of them on my phone!

Teased up back-combed hair on young girls in a Newcastle mall going from the most bouffant on the left to the least voluminous on the right. This was taken on an icy cold day at the end of February.

Interesting fashion and hair at the hardware superstore.

Two young girls with teased chunks of hair sitting on the floor in a shopping mall.

Two young girls with teased chunks of hair sitting on the tile floor in a shopping mall.

Hotpants (even on the coldest winter day!) and big teased up hair are very popular amongst the teenagers of Newcastle in the UK.

Hotpants (even on the coldest winter day!) and big teased up hair are very popular amongst many of the teenagers of Newcastle in the UK.

Ice Cream in Winter — By The Sea?

When Mark and I met in London at the beginning of 1994, I commented one afternoon on an activity that the Brits engaged in — quite regularly — that I considered to be quite odd behaviour given the weather.

That activity? Eating ice cream — LOTS of it — usually in cone form — in the dead of winter. No matter how icy the temperatures were, we saw people in every city we visited perched on a ledge eating an ice cream cone or sitting on a bench at the seaside doing the same thing. There might be ice on the roads, occasionally even a smattering of snow, but there they sat, bundled up to the eyeballs and eating an ice cream.

What I found even odder, and sweetly funny, were the people who would drive to the seaside to purchase their ice cream from a mobile van or a beachside hut and then sit in their car with the heater running as they gobbled it down whilst watching the icy waves crashing upon the seashore.

Even on the coldest winter day, British people seem to love to go to the seaside to sit in their heated cars, staring at the crashing waves in freezing temperatures, and eat an ice cream cone.

The lighthouse at Whitley Bay, a seaside town near Newcastle UK, on a stormy winter day.

So here we were on a wintery day two years ago in the north of England, at Whitley Bay on the seacoast just outside of Newcastle. The wind was so high that afternoon that it knocked me sideways when I got out of our own vehicle! The second picture that is just of the seaside and the lighthouse is a more accurate idea of how bleak it was that day. Absolutely no one was game to sit on those seaside benches to watch the waves on that particular afternoon. Brrr!!!

But back in the parking lot — yes — the Mr. Whippy van was doing a good business. The lot near the lighthouse was full of people happy to sit with their engines running and the heater on as they ate their ice cream and watched the crashing surf beyond. Crazy, eh? Or just sweetly eccentric perhaps.

Photo Essay: Newcastle Upon Tyne On A Sunny Saturday

I have to laugh about the timing of this photo essay since I took these pictures 21 days ago and it was the last time we saw any blue sky at all! It’s been unrelentingly grim weather-wise here in Newcastle Upon Tyne and the locals we have talked to all say the same thing. They have never experienced a winter that has lasted so long and been so cold.

Since the high is 2 degrees today and the skies are dark with yet more snow in the forecast for this evening (groan!), let’s move the Rickety Time Machine backward by 21 days and enjoy the sunny views, eh?

41 m (135 ft) high column & monument to prominent politician, social reformer, & Prime Minister Charles Earl Grey erected in 1838 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

Busy shoppers and pedestrians on a sunny Saturday in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Entry to the historic Central Arcade in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Interior of the historic Central Arcade in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Quayside & Baltic Mill Contemporary Art Centre in Newcastle Upon Tyne UK

The temperatures are still distinctly wintery and the air was full of rain and delicate snow flurries on Sunday. But one of the places on our things-to-do list for Newcastle was a visit to the Baltic Mill Contemporary Art Centre. We also wanted a chance to see the architecture of the buildings and bridges along the Quayside since we had heard so many positive things about that area.

We drove to the closest Park-and-Ride area for the Metro and just sat and watched the stations go by as we travelled from one part of Newcastle into the heart of the city.

On board the Metro in Newcastle Upon Tyne UK

Gateshead Station for the Metro in Newcastle Upon Tyne

Emerging at the Gateshead Station, we took the escalators up the surface and braved a very cold and blustery walk past the lovely Tyne Bridge which looks like a miniature of the Sydney Harbour Bridge because it was built by English firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd, of Middlesbrough, the same contractors who built the many-times-larger bridge in Australia.

Tyne Bridge in Newcastle Upon Tyne UK

15 minutes of walking-against-the-wind later, we arrived at the The Sage Gateshead, a spectacularly funky and shiny and contemporary building that houses everything from concert halls to music studios to cafes and gift shops and more. The place was buzzing with activity on that cold winter day as people mixed and mingled, ate and drank, relaxed in the warmth. Just take a look at all of the upcoming events by clicking on the link above.

The Sage Gateshead centre for the arts and music on the Quayside in Newcastle Upon Tyne UK

Walking through the building to the east facade entry, we saw the re-purposed historical building that houses the Baltic Mill Contemporary Art Centre. in the near distance and traversed the levels of stairs down toward the waterfront setting.

Baltic Mill Contemporary Art Centre in Newcastle Upon Tyne UK

We had such high hopes — truly — but our favourite parts of this museum ended up being the cafe and the gift shop — and that’s a sad statement. We knew full well that this was a small museum and could not be compared to the many major urban museums we have seen all over Europe for the last 2-1/2 years. But we certainly had expected more and both left feeling quite disappointed by the visit. The exhibits currently on offer were simply bland and odd and, in several cases, quite dated — not in a good way. I wasn’t allowed to take any photos inside so I can’t let you judge for yourselves. For us, it was all too-little and too-uncritically-examined and we both had a sense of been-there-seen-that a long time ago. Ah well — at least the admission was free!

The best thing about the Baltic Mill for us was the viewing platform on the 5th level which has simply splendid look-outs over the Quayside area and the juxtaposition of old bridge, new bridge, old buildings, new buildings and all tied up with the pretty ribbon of the Tyne snaking its watery way through the middle.

View of Quayside in Newcastle Upon Tyne from viewing platform at Baltic Mill Contemporary Art Centre with Sage Gatehead, Tyne Bridge, and Millennium Bridge.

Come back soon for more photos and articles about Newcastle including one on the small but elegant Laing Art Gallery.

A Tiny and Pretty Dusting of Snow

There you go — I have changed the Weather Widget! Now you can see what the conditions are as we travel around the UK.

In contrast to the bucket loads of snow that has been dumped on the USA and parts of the UK, we had a charming bit of snowy dusting yesterday morning — not a lot, as you can see, but just enough to sparkle, look pretty, and NOT make the roads treacherous. And we had errands to run in the afternoon, so it was good not to fret about road conditions or whether icy streets have been visited by the grit truck.

A small & soft snowfall across the deck toward the garage & garden.

View out the side window toward ever-so-slightly snowy Norfolk fields.

We’ve locked in the first of our travel dates and we’re leaving Norfolk around the 20th-22nd of February. First stop — Newcastle. It’s a place that’s been of interest to us for awhile — ever since reading several articles about how Newcastle had changed its industrial image and had become a vibrant place with a strong cultural scene including museums, film festivals, and art galleries. We are quite looking forward to this!

Back to work. I’m trying to sort out my huge photo backlog!

More soon…

A Wanderful Life

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