Barry and Sue do The Amazing thing!

After we had visited Alix, Ian and Ruth in Bristol we caught the train to Newcastle to visit Matt and Joanne.  Again the train journey went without a hitch although being a Friday it was busy.  Thankfully, Sue had reserved seats so we travelled in relative comfort.  (All train travel this week was with Crosscountry Trains whose service was reliable and comfortable.)  We arrived quite late in the evening so Matt collected us from the station in his new car and drove us to the Jurys Inn hotel on Gateshead Quayside, just down the road from the Sage.  At check-in there was a slight confusion over rooms which resulted in an upgrade to a Superior room with a river view.  Billy bargain! (We learned a new term 'huffy bed' during check-in.  The term means a single bed the 'huffy' bit referring to when a marital partner retires there rather than in the marital double.  That was the problem with the first room allocated to us - it had two 'huffy beds' and no double.  Even though we have been married for 38 years now we have no need of a 'huffy beds'!)  After a catch up chat with Matt over a drink in the hotel bar we retired to bed looking forward to an exciting weekend.

The hotel breakfast on Saturday morning was pretty good with plenty of choice.  Replete, having stocked up on breakfast calories, we made our way to the Amazing Radio studios for our first engagement of the weekend.  Matt co-hosts the Saturday Show on Amazing Radio between 0900 and 1200 every Saturday.  It is a live show broadcast over DAB and the Internet and comprises a mix of music linked by Colin and Matt's brand of comedy.  Well, we were appearing as VIP guests on the show and were both excited and a little nervous as Amazing is a national station.  In the end, the team (Colin, Matt and producer Mark) made us feel very welcome and at ease so the two hours where we took part passed very quickly.  Apart from revealing some embarrassing facts about Matt's childhood and talking a little bit about living on the boat, our main contribution was in providing answers to listeners' questions about parenting.  We all laughed a lot and there was some pleasing live feedback from listeners.  It was fascinating to see how a radio show works, is put together and then broadcast live.  After the show was over we enjoyed a tour of the station then, in the finest tradition of the media industry we retired to the Central pub for a lunchtime sherbet.  You can download and listen to the podcast of the show from here .

Producer Mark keeps the egos in order

The Saturday Show crew - Matt, Mark and Colin

All smiles after the show

For Saturday evening we were to meet Joanne's parents for the first time.  The plan was to all meet up at the Central before moving onto the restaurant.  Sue and I were first there and had just bought our drinks when another similar aged couple arrived looking a little lost like us.  Sue thought they might be Joanne's parents which proved to be the case when I asked them. So we broke the ice with Val and Tony while we waited for the 'kids' to show up.  Tony is the Head Teacher of a primary school and Val works in community centre management   To prove just how small a world we live in Val called her brother to ask where his boat is moored,  (We knew already that Joanne's uncle was a liveaboard with his partner),  to find he has a berth in the same marina as us!  Tapas was the food choice that evening and what a feast we enjoyed.  We ate at the el Torrero restaurant where the fab food just seemed to keep coming.  Tapas is an excellent social meal Eventually, having eaten our fill we moved on to the Bridge Hotel for nightcaps before we said our goodbyes after a really enjoyable evening.

After Sunday breakfast we met up with Matt & Joanne for a stroll through the park at Jesmond followed by lunch in town.  Back at Matt's flat we planned to have a catch up over a board game. But for us two oldies all the excitement and hectic activity of the past week caught up with us and we had to take our leave before we lost any capability of movement. Back at the hotel we crashed early into bed to sleep well before our journey home in the morning.  How wonderful it was to catch up with our fab kids and lovely granddaughter - we really look forward to seeing them again at Christmas.