To quote Lindisfarne, 'I'm Coming Home Newcastle.'
Yes, I am back in the land of the greats, home of Lord Collingwood, Cheryl Cole, Ant & Dec, Jimmy Nail, Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne, Alan Shearer, Greggs, Dire Straits, Lighthouse Family, Brian Johnson, That bloke who won X-Factor, Jonathan Edwards (his son played for my team for a while), Chris Ryan, Rob Bell, Butch Cassidy (his mum's a Geordie) and, erm, Sting.
Yes, you just know Newcastle is so much better than London. Whats that you say? You don't believe me? Well, I'm disapointed in you. Here is why up here is so much better than down there:
- Better Bridges. We have seven lined up in a row. Ours turn, flip on its side, and generally have a beautiful view from them, especially the Millenium Bridge (a better one than London's). All London can do is have their's split in half.
- Better Shopping. The largets Shopping Center in Europe. Enough said there I do think.
- Better Buildings. Baltic is an old flour mill, Sage Gateshead looking like a caterpillar and one of the biggest TESCO's in the UK.
- Better Accents. Yee knaa it is reet like.
- Better Transport. Metro is always less crowded than the Underground, the buses are sensible and there is always a parking space.
- Better Culture. Has London ever been robbed from winning European Capital of Culture?
- Less People. Easier for everyone involved really, much more easier to go from A to B.
I shall stop there since I think that is enough to make me right and you probably want a proper daily right about now too, so, here are those bulletpoints:
- It is the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, as summer is officially over for Formula 1. And of course, Sidepodcast will be invading Spa too, with the comments their in spirit as well. Lou has been getting her banners done and Lukeh has wrote up his to-do list. And of course there is still the meetup tomorrow night if you can make it to... London.
- Sauber have finally added to their massive catalouge of merchandise with a special 40th anniversary t-shirt, one of the few things I may be asking for if Tuesday goes well. And Sauber have also decided to link up with Subaru and release 25 special edition WRX STi cars. Pretty gorgeous stuff there.
- In WRC news, Kimi Raikkonen has won his first ever stage during the German rally and went on to finish 7th overall. Super 'Oggi' Ogier was in third.
- I know you've missed this, yes, two whole weeks of speedway to catch up on and there was the Scandanavian Grand Prix last weekend, won by Norwegian-turned-Pole Rune Holta. Chris 'Bomber' Harris reached the semi finals and as usual, Tai Woffinden got nowhere. The next race is in Croatia, who, I didn't realise actually cared about the sport. In the GP Challenge, a series which determines three spaces of the 15 riders in 2011, it was won by unknown Russian Artem Laguta who finished ahead of Brazilian-turned-Swede Antonio Lindback and current SGP rider Freddie Lindgren.
So yes, I am back in the greatest city in the world. I shall warn you and say I'll be quite nervous today and tomorrow morning since its GCSE results day on Tuesday morning and if I may involve myself in some shameless plugging, I've talked about why I am backing the England 2018 World Cup bid and why you should as well (if your English). And of course you can listen to Mr Giggles W Show which is a cracking 3 hours of listening for you.
Have one of these nice Mondays.