First and foremost, I just need to mention how utterly proud I am of my best friend Jade Scott for entering the Great North Run for the very first time this year. You little babe! Here’s me the fitness freak but terrified of running more than a mile and my not-so-massively-into-exercise buddy bites the bullet and goes for the biggest and most loved 13 and a half miler in the world (or so us Geordies like to think!). Proud, inspired and jealous because this year is pretty special when it comes to the Great North Run. Because this year we have reached the ONE MILLIONTH runner. That’s more than four times the population of the whole city, so you can imagine we’ve had a lot of visitors.
Last night the celebrations began and everyone around descended onto Newcastle Quayside for an evening to remember. Me, the Ma & Pa and some close friends started oot in new bar/restaurant The Hop & Cleaver right between the Tyne and Swing bridges. I banged on about it’s sister bar Red House in this little post.
Mamma bear and I arrived early after work so we treated ourselves to some vino and cocktails, the latter of which I managed all on my own – thank god for 2 for 1! And for top notch barman banter.
The rest of our party arrived, we took our seats, studied the menu intently for a considerable amount of time, sent the waitress away twice, ordered more drinky-poos and then finally when everyone else had picked and ordered…. I got the waitress to decide for me. Too many good choices man. Pulled pork, brisket, hot dog, salad, smothered wings… WHAT’S A GIRL TO DO?!?! Get it done for you. Hot dog, sorted.
And boy was it good. 500 degree smoked sausage, molten cheese, crispy onion, tangy mustard and a good soft, doughy bun. Hall-to-the-elujah. Shame about the fries – there were about 5 in total. The preceding potatoe skins with blue cheese were nice, but only if you like blue cheese, otherwise don’t don’t even think about it coz they is strong!
The prices are ok, not cheap but still not extortionate and the service is very good. Top quality barman banter and a Keano Reaves lookalike! As exciting and distracting as that was, we did have a very large party to go to. Not that we had actually bought tickets…
Heres the annoying thing for people that did:
Yeah, that sort of view, with the comfort of a bar behind us (i.e. warmth and clean toilets) and free seats. Boom.
So, everyone knows – well, Geordies do anyway – that the Sage is a beautiful building, the Millennium Eye is an amazing bridge and the Tyne is a symbolic river, but who bloody knew they could be transformed into such a fantasy.
From 8 tip late we were entertained and enthralled by Geordie legends, class music (Chase & Status only went and rocked up didn’t they!), beautiful stories and wicked projections on the side of the sage, all supported by the hundreds of volunteer performers who were seriously pushed to their limits. Like hanging from a crane in mid air as a human chain-link scary thing.
Oh and did I mention the flaming boats? And no, I am not substituting the word ‘flaming’ for another descriptive f word, I literally mean on fire.
Did I also mention the other ‘flaming’ good surprise? There was this running, fiery woman scared the shit out of me. One minute I’m oo-ing and ah-ing at the pretty fireworks and fancy projections, next this big-ass flame engulfed iron woman is running along the river. Even Jesus didn’t do it in that much style. And she was that quick my camera couldn’t even keep up with her! After being scared shitless by fire lady we were treated to lots of fireworks, winking – that’s what the Millennium eye is famous for, non-Geordies – and smokey shenanigans along the water.
Chase and Status waved away the night, somewhat anticlimactically like. Yeah they’re a real good band but you DO NOT finish a celebration of the MILLIONTH runner at the GNR with “Thank you & Goodnight” from Chase & Status. Where’s the Geordie Pride? Or the big finale? We all had to ask if it was over.
Glazing over the lack of an exploding end to the evening, it was an incredible night and as proud as I already am, I was so humbled and adoring of our little city for putting on a cracker of a show and nurturing the GNR into what it is and what it stands for today.
Good luck Jadey, we’re all very, very proud of ya girl.
P.s. I’ve just had the best two weeks of my life and I’m going to splurge all about it in another post very soon! Plus catch up on blathering about my backpacking adventure from JUNE… Looks like someone is a bit behind!
Tagged: celebration, chase and status, event, family, fireworks, food, free, friends, GNR, great north run, hop and cleaver, hot dog, lights, millionth runner, music, north east, party, quayside, street party
