Newcastle and The Late Shows

As some of you already know I went up to Newcastle this weekend to visit my super dooper friend Ellie ...

Because we are obviously both extremely intelligent and cultured individuals...

Note the size of Ellie's straw compared to mine hah!

We decided to go to an event called "The Late Shows" Which is basically where all the main museums put on really cool late night events to draw people in. I'm going to be honest the first part of the night was fueled by the wine we had drunk over dinner. Which probably explains the in depth conversion we had about a few paintings in the library... 

"This one is so sad, the space here is just very lonely and desolate" 

Ellie:"I like this one of the elephant"

Me: "I don't like how its tail is all straight"

Ellie: "That's why I like it, and it looks like its leg is broken"

source: urlesque.com

Anyway, we started off in a place called the 'Laing Art Gallery' which was basically all kinds of awesome. There was a huge makeshift tree and when you went in you cut out a leaf on two pieces of paper folded them and stuck the two pieces together along the fold, thus making a 3D leaf, which you then decorated with a uv pen. Oh we all know I took a photo so here it is! 

Tree from above. 

You then put a hole in it and hung it on the ribbons that were hanging down like so...

Ellie hanging her leaf on the tree 

Then if you like decorating things you can draw things on your hand... I saw one guy with glasses drawn on his face. Not sure what to say about that one. 

all kinds of awesome.

From there we made our way to the Newcastle City Library for a tour of contemporary dance. Which we both thought sounded amazing! Then three girls started walking down a huge staircase with books balanced on their heads and proceeded to fling each other around the room for about ten minutes. 

source:valeriemondesir.com

Alright it wasn't quite that bad, but I really didn't get it! So from there we hopped on a bus (if you had a glowstick the bus was free) and made our way over to the Toffee Factory which was less like this... 

Source: flavorwire.com

And more like this...

Source: novakcollective.com

We did know what it was going to be before we got there, but you just can't help hoping for a little miracle haha! The main room had Lady Koo and the Kooky Kitchen singing songs in the style of the 20s/ 30s while there was free tea and cakes being distributed. Which almost made up for the lack of chocolate river. It also provided much entertainment in the form of making up new words to her songs. 

Tea?

The highlight of the evening was walking along the river to get to the Sage, the views were pretty awesome and when we arrived we realised we were just in time for the Ukulele workshop! Oh yes we did, sadly no pictures to prove my attendance, we learned how to play Three Little Birds by Bob Marley which led to thirty people with zero experience were playing along and singing the chorus "Every little thing, gonna be alright". 

After that we had to sprint to get the last bus back into town, we decided to go wild and sit on the top deck and it was open top! Woo! 

source:  guidepostringway.northumberland.sch.uk
Yeaaah

It was a bit cold considering it was midnight. 

Source: screened.com

It was awesome though, the views crossing the Tyne were immense! So all in all it was a really fun trip, I'm pretty exhausted now though, i'm guessing it's all the culture. 

The Toon

The other main highlight being Ellie staging a reconstruction of her spectacular fall in the Metro station which actually happened during rush hour on her way home one day. 

So. Cool.

Hope you have all had a really good weekend! 

Enjoy your Sunday evening. 

Love you!

Love, me

@NatalieFurlong