North-Easterly

Over the weekend, I went up to see friends in Middlesbrough, and had a really good time.

The drive up was a pig, with a normally-three-hour drive taking five due to ‘accidents’ (the only visible one of which involved a truck with a blown tyre, and police etc. closing off one lane of the dual-carriageway for no fucking good reason at all) but still, such is life. Thankfully I’d organised myself and left work early, so it still wasn’t antisocially late when I got up there.

Saturday involved doing some sociable stuff which was fun, and then seeing the Lumiere festival in Durham – which was excellent, if hugely busy. (More photos of Lumiere are available on this BBC piece). I’d never been to Durham before, and loved it – particularly the cathedral, which is amazing (even without the light artworks inside it, and projected on it) so it’s definitely one I’ll be returning to in time to come.  We walked for miles around Durham – including up to the cathedral twice, having discovered there was stuff inside that we weren’t aware of the first time round – but it was all totally worthwhile.

[I’m going to write more in a separate thing about Lumiere, hence less detail here]

Sunday was lazier, with a fantastic lunch at the Lion in Blakey, on the North Yorkshire moors. And then an evening drive home, which was the expected three hours, and all good.