Durham was lovely. No, that should read Durham is lovely, but our visit to the city yesterday was. Make any sense? Thought not.

Durham’s this perfect little city - big enough to be interesting and sell nice coffee, small enough to be able to walk through. And gorgeous. Lots of hills and cobbles - reminded me a lot of Prague, in a weird way. I want to move there - though I’m sure that
a) my employers aren’t going to be persuaded to open a branch office there any time in the near future and
b) it’s probably a completely different experience when infested with rah-rah sloaney students in term time. Only kidding about the sloanes. Sort of.

Anyway. Durham lovely. Daffs in bloom everywhere, and a beautiful crisp spring day. Mmmm.

Today we’re off into Newcastle to check out some bridges and a carpet as well as admiring the ongoing regeneration of the city’s beautiful architecture. Reminds me of Glasgow in a lot of ways - though I’m not sure which city would feel more insulted by that comparison. Neither should, really - it’s a compliment.

That reminds me of a story my mum once told me about a conversation she and my dad had at a dinner party once. They were chatting to this bloke over dessert, and the North East cropped up in conversation for some reason. He said “Ah yes, Newcastle, the Liverpool of the North…” thus cleverly - though unwittingly - managing to insult both cities simultaneously because
a) Liverpudlians think they are in the North and
b) No-one wants to be compared to Liverpool, least of all Geordies.

See, my mum’s family is from the North West originally, and my dad’s side of the family are from the North East, so I have a sort of semi alliegance to both, though roots in none - beyond going to university in Liverpool and now living with P (a Geordie) (P-Geordie sounds like a great North East spoof of P-Diddy, by the way). It’s difficult to claim a favourite of the two, because each is clearly better than the other. No?

It’s so complicated. Let’s all love Birmingham instead.

On further reflection, let’s not. How do we feel about Sheffield? Mansfield? Lym?