Seems like years ago, people had to do things manually like washing clothes etc., yet always had time to visit each other, sometimes whole families. Nowadays we have all the labour saving devices imagible, yet no-one has time for anyone else anymore, people tend not to visit. Instead of looking out for neighbours, most of us don'y even know our neighbours. Weird or what? As kids we played out all the time, only going inside for a slice of jam and bread or dripping, climbing trees, playing football, no namby pamby getting wrapped in cotton wool. Get a good hiding off the old fella if anyone complained about you. Think I must be another owld duffer!!!
Might I recommend Tynemouth to Bowness-on-Solway, wonderful walk, one that takes you the full stretch of hadrians wall. The view in the middle is truly breathtaking. 94 miles I think it is.
Yup you aint alone, there is too much it will make your head explode if you try to watch it all! But even the news programs try to get higher viewing figures by showing more graphic events like its a competition. I feel so sorry for the families of the killed journalists but its a crazy terrorist war zone they are in trying to get the 'closest news possible'. I don't even understand modern wars now, the rules involved, what you can target, how you can intervene in some situation but not others. Syria felt like the world watching a cock fight....whats next sky bet taking odds on how many people die in one day?? Very cynical I know but most people I think are just switched off not because they don't care but because of distance, inability to influence and that their lives are a struggle enough without all of it.
You certainly can mate, any ideas are welcome. We just did a walk around the Cheviots and the panorama from the top was astounding, Lindisfarne, Durham & Scotland all in plain view. I wouldn't mind doing your walk the other way to arrive in time for a match, preferably the away derby!
I just drove basically that yesterday (with work) and it's truly beautiful. Drive basically the length of the wall and the views are amazing - far better than any motorway ****e. Can only imagine what the walk must be like - willg get the dogs out there soon... I love walking my dogs and there are some pretty walks around Durham/Chester-le-Street as well - not to the 94 mile Hadrians Wall like but still some very nice walks.
As it happens I did it the opposite way because I have family in Newcastle so wouldn't have to camp the last night and had a proper bed. Also the day you do Newcastle is all concrete, tarmac and paving which messes your feet up, not very practical for the first leg of a long walk, much better to do it last once you've conditioned your feet. You get the views into Scotland in the middle section as it runs along the highest point of harridans wall. You need a clear day of course. If you don't fancy camping you can plan it around bed and breakfasts, you don't have to carry as much weight that way too. Not sure how long it will take that way but the camping way took me 4 and a half days, could have done it quicker but you've got to work out your stops so some days you end up clocking a lot less mileage than other days. It's all in the planing. I went in the summer and the longest leg was about 27 miles which we only just managed in the daylight hours. The other thing about doing it the other way is you have to follow the book backwards which is novel. Lovely walk. Going to do it again.
This is one of the reasons I've had to stop watching, the news used to be taken along with my cornflakes but now it's SSN The news reporters are a bit of a mystery to me tbh, I don't believe they need to be so close to report what's happening. We all know what flak jackets, refugees & people on stretchers look like by now and every conflict looks the same. Do we really need yet another shot of Kate Adie crouching in a bombed out building to know there's a war on? I have slight doubts about their intentions tbh. It's a bit like the 'hero' British nurse in Sierra Leone 'treating' people dying from Ebola and, surprise surprise, contracts it himself. Being there to 'help' people who will almost certainly die may seem heroic, I think it's a waste of time. He had, however, been working with non-Ebola patients who were actually benefiting from his care. What happens to them if he was so vital to their care? It makes you wonder how much an impressive CV is actually worth risking your life for ..... or am I just being cynical?
It was amazing, I really regret taking so long to do it again. You can take dogs on the full walk you know. All the camp sites I stayed at allowed them.They'd ****ing love every second the dogs like. I like the regional circulars, they offer an ample work out without the camping. Used to do them with my mother but she's getting too old, she was my transport to these places so don't get on many these days. Being in Darlington I went to N.Yorks mostly, some the the estate walks through game woods is amazing, especially if you time it right and get the blue bells.
Likewise, I have concerns about the future for my 4 children, my eldest is 23 and the youngest 13, I have tried to bring them up open -minded, tolerant, to be fair and considerate- I ask that they keep aware and question everything that can and will ultimately affect them , especially not to take what any 'declarative sentence' a politician, teacher, corporate mouthpiece, medic etc as always speaking the truth and that 'propaganda' is often is delivered from the most unlikely of places at times with hidden agendas. We agreed to recently not to watch any TV, (or as little as possible) especially avoiding the 'News'- although it was suggested by myself as I hate the bloody thing, in my opinion it's intrusive and ultimately stops people ( especially families) from communicating and having there own opinion on 'what is actually happening on in this world, so we have found that it much nicer instead to go for a family walk along the coast or to read a book in peace. I also suggested to my children during the last few years that although the 'internet' can be a wonderful source of information but many on-line facts are not corroborative and to seek as many diverse and resourceful opinions as they can - Wikipedia is not always a fountain of knowledge.
Just read the original post and... Allendale Cottages, I spent a couple of summer 'holidays' there with my Gran and Grandad. I was about 7 at the time and was regularly sent by Gran to Medomsley to the Co-op with strict instructions not to forget her 'divi' slip. Just looked on Google maps, as I vividly remember the terraced cottages with coal houses a few metres away from the back doors, as far as I can see there is now nothing there except a strange looking, almost rectangular road in the middle of nowhere. I used to wander all over the area with my younger brother those summer days, even down to the Derwent, never a care or worry, as you said, a simple life, not many parents would let a 5 and 7 year old couple of kids wander like that now.
All of the above. 10 of us queueing up for a drink of water from an old tap on the wash-house wall. And the strange thing is, not a single one of us caught a plague.
This is a great thread. This is making me remember all the things I had forgot. Mum putting the washing through the ringer until Dad in shining armour bought her an automatic machine. Going to co-op for a bag of broken biscuits. Taking empty beer and lemonade bottles and to the offie (off licence) to get free crisps and pop. Ta for the walk information re Hadrians wall. I think we will give that a go. Mind you its a long way from Hull so I might drive the first 200 miles
Well well, you've hit a raw nerve there mate. When we drive up for the matches we often stop at the strange road next to the solitary building, the old mines ventilation shaft. The outline of the 'village' can still be seen but it was pulled down when they kicked us all out after the pits closed. The coal houses were actually the middens containing the only netties! Going across to them on a November night, through the knee high snow, was an experience kids today would get deep trauma over That walk to the Derwent was a paradise and we only left the village twice a year .... Durham Big Meeting and a week at Cullercoats.
I've cycled the coast to coast a few times, from both Whitehaven and Workington to Roker. There is also a northerly route coast to coast called the Rievers which skirts the Scottish borders which I might do next year.
I can relate to so much of what so many of you say about your childhood. Building bogies with the big wheels on the back & the little wheels on the front, thank **** for scrap prams. But stuff like climbing trees, picking & playing conkers. Going to an old caravan at Newbiggen that was lit by gaslight & you had to go to the shower block for a wash. If you needed a pee during the night, you'd piss in a bucket & slop out in the morning along with the detritus from the kitchen sink. It was all there was back in those days. Chalking wickets on the gable end of a terraced house & playing cricket with a tennis ball because we had **** all else. Playing football with jumpers for goalposts with an old leather, lace up ball. Blankets instead of quilts, coal fires, sash windows, mobile shops, b&w tv which had three channels. We had nowt but by God we were happy. Really enjoyed reading this thread.
Happy because we were content with what we had ...... these days people will never have enough and that is what destroys them.
Excellent thread, love all this me.. Bonfires on roker beach, collecting all the washed up aerosols, carefully placed into the bonny, and hey-ho, home made rockets. Roker park, used to have a huge rhubarb area, we'd spend hours in there, two team, hiding and ambushing each other, and wacking **** out of everyone with the rhubarb sticks, no personal injury claims were every made. Having a scrap, meant having a scrap, nee knives or **** all, just two kids going hell for leather, wind milling all over, and kicking cos you thought you were Bruce Lee.. Doing stunts on a bmx, **** me i've had some injuries attempting this, was always ****e at them..
