Bonny lasses assemble for the North East support thread 2!

[PennyDreadfuI]

Shiny new thread for all your north east needs.

Hello 👋

Right below that about travel is this, about meeting people outdoors. What @BexR said is correct - you can meet in groups of up to six and not break any laws, it's just advised not to. I didn't know that, but you can hardly blame me (or anyone) for being confused!

Well Durham City Centre was remarkably quiet, this morning. I made the most of it and browsed the charity shops.

Ah Cleveland Police - I have no words for them! Smallest police force in the country, forever resisting calls for them to merge with Durham or N Yorks. And a hotbed of corruption!

Love a charity marathon in Durham @PickAChew. Any good finds?

@BexR

Love a charity marathon in Durham *@PickAChew*. Any good finds?

I wanted a trinket pot for all my hair grips and elastics but didn't find anything. Didn't leave entirely empty handed, though.

Drive to Arnison centre the other night, that road is now a nightmare, my eyes hurt. Was very quiet. So will be avoiding that way in. Now two weeks since saw parents, I’m not happy.

@pickachew Yum! Love a bit of Nigel Slater!

As part of our Saturdays out on the bus, DS1 went through a phase of obsessively buying cds. We might have visited about 80% of the charity shops in the northeast, over a 6 month period. Ours are up there with the best though not a patch on Gosforth's or Morpeth's. Wallsend's are also pretty amazing. Sunderland's are a mixed bag but we rarely just walked past the big Shelter one opposite markses.

We have a couple near where I live. One is fabulous but the other feels like the village shop at Royston Vaysey. No guessing which one is always busy.

@MissEWeatherwax

Drive to Arnison centre the other night, that road is now a nightmare, my eyes hurt. Was very quiet. So will be avoiding that way in. Now two weeks since saw parents, I’m not happy.

Much less painful the Pit Lane way, past Bell's. Or just use the A167, depending which way you're coming in.

Ooh love the charity shops in Morpeth PickaChew. OMG! Royston Vasey, I had one like that when I lived in Heaton. Run by a gaggle of extremely elderly ladies. Every time I went in I imagined them screeching "Did anyone DIE in it??"

Its closed down now. Can't possibly have been profitable in any way.

Morpeth, Gosforth and Hexham are great for charity shopping. South Shields isnt bad. Whitley Bay. Durham too of course.

Haha it's my specialist subject. I cant believe the price of new clothes since I've started charity shopping.

Not done Wallsend will add it to my list

I will be coming via Bell’s, via the A167. Shame the council didn’t spend some money putting paths in. If they want us the walk, I need a path, I’m not jumping onto grass verge every time a car passes.

I may try to fashion a suitable badge to advertise my secret identity...

@TheSilveryPussycat

I may try to fashion a suitable badge to advertise my secret identity...

Tread carefully looking for ideas 🤣

I've been charity shopping in gosforth since my uni days. Still have coveted designer stuff found in oxfam over 20 years ago!

770 positive students at northumbria University!

Wow

There was a joint statement from Newcastle Uni and Northumbria Uni so I thought that total was between them.

Either way, still bloody shocking. And totally predictable.

770 is pretty scary!!

@MissEWeatherwax isn't it awful on the eyes while driving (the bollards) - I noticed last night there were an awful lot with black marks all over them suggesting a number of collisions!

770 at Northumbria, only about 10% symptomatic, plus another 94 at Newcastle. Blimey.

770 is crazy isnt it. I feel sorry for the 10% feeling ill away from their families :-(

I once got a genuine Mulberry bag from a charity shop in Morpeth for a fiver! I love a good chazza. Gosforth is the richest hunting ground in the NE in my vast experience. Although I did buy a bag in one in Hexham once which I never used, so years later put it on eBay when I was having a clear out. It sold for £120! Apparently it was a niche designer brand I'd never heard of. I paid 99p for it so I was well happy (and shocked!).

Crazy numbers at the universities and clearly what's driving the spike here. And they've only been back for about two weeks so it's going to get worse before it gets better isn't it.

Bit more hardcore than Manchester students!

I wonder why the students with no symptoms were tested?