GO AHEAD DRIVING AIM FOR THE KIDS AND GO BLIND

An early start this morning and late back for dinner, one of Mandy's curries from the freezer, it was mainly dry and sunny in the North East as expected although there was a bitter cold wind bringing the temperature down to near zero and my hands were frozen but it seems crazy having to dress for mid winter in May, mind you it snowed on Deansgate, Manchester at the start of June 1976 and then we had a heat wave summer. The highlight of the day or low light if you prefer was all down to Go Ahead drivers in Sunderland. One with something to hide had his board up against his face with a bus load of passengers but this was trumped by the driver who saw a family with pram, kids and adults struggling to get them across the road and when the lights went green he made an attack on them with his vehicle, screaming kids etc, it was one of the worst things I've seen for ages, should be done for dangerous driving or attempted manslaughter crazy sod, isn't Go Ahead going downhill these days at one time it was winning all sorts of awards now it slums it in the leagues where the cowboys live! Talking of the wild west isn't Sunderland  a awful place, sinister aura of threatening, drunkenness, wasting away, addiction just the sort of a place for a jolly night out in fact.

Newcastle was sunny and friendly drivers , Stagecoach at South Shields came out topp on the friendly stakes though, the sun shone there and it was almost not freezing cold for a whole, it's always sunny when I go there. Mandy hadn't been to the North East for a few years. We had breakfast at the M&S branch in Newcastle when we arrived, no Bakewell tart though so had crumbly carrot cake instead. In South Shields we had lunch cuppa and cake at Debenhams which is a bit like a poor mans John Lewis's with cakes to match but clean toilets. The old market area in South Shields where the trolleys went seems to have been pulled down, most of the river end of town looked as if it were being redeveloped yet again.

Gateshead doesn't change much, the variety of liveries seems endless, Stagecoach seem to resist the N East obsession with route branding and it's vehicles seem to be well turned out and very clean. Anyway we got home mid evening and I've run off the film ready to get the first of three volumes done in the morning before we go off to the golden wedding anniversary which isn't far away, intending to have a bit of a lay in through!