On Friday afternoon I went down to Newcastle to see my brother - having scarpered out of the lab early due to a reaction going pfffft and dying on it's bum, I ended up arriving c.a. 6 o clock.

We wandered up to my brother's flat (peanut butter/jam sandwiches, new Alabama 3 album) and he presented me with my birthday presents nearly 2 weeks early.

Items: 1 (one) grey striped with blue beanie hat that (with my pale complexion) makes me look like an inverse Smurf.

1 "Lost Arrow" t-shirt. Mmmm Climber chic.

1 "Patagonia" t-shirt. In XL size. Possibly more suited for use as a teepee than apparel. We decide to take it back to the shop the next day (and I get an ACE grey t-shirt by Prana that will allow me to climb at least 35% more effectively by looking the part).

We leave the flat (it being to heavy to carry with us) and go to the opening of an art exhibition - all of the paintings (mostly collographs, I think) by one of Ally's friends. It is very nice and I say enthusiastic things about the paintings without sounding sycophantic, although it only takes me 5 minutes to look at all the exhibits. I discuss the clown archetypes of Harlequin and Brighella with the artist as she is infinitely more knowledgable on the subject of the Commedia Del'Arte than I.

We then have a few pints, and go to see "The Eye", which can be sufficiently summed up as "The Sixth Sense" with a blind chick. Except for the faceless Death Mimes, who we decide must have squeaky voices and talk in cartoon stock phrases ("Why Ay Outta!"). And the tableaux of families/schoolchildren in flames, just like in the computer game "Syndicate".

Videos, PS2...sleep.

Saturday morning saw us disappearing off to my brothers swanky gym (where they give you a towel - nice) and we do mad fitness stuff. The high point of the weekend comes as, standing in the changing room with my towel round my waist (Ally similarily attired), we hear a voice exclaim "Oh GOD!". Turning round, there's a woman standing in the doorway of the men's changing rooms, having taken the wrong turn, who has just realised that she could have slinked away unseen had she not just said that. Her face was a picture. Ally and I do a double-take, and we both strike stylised body-building poses AT THE SAME TIME before she flees in terror.

That's most of the anecdotal fun from the weekend, and this post is pretty long - I'd better sum up the rest...

Gym, Lunch at Pani's (the BEST Italian restaraunt in Newcastle - they don't have staff, they just have a large number of Italians who smoke, shout, sing, and sometimes serve the customers. They also do free Italian lessons.), climbing at the Eldon centre indoor wall, home-made curry (The Italian Job on DVD), Martial arts Demonstration evening (hilarious for all the wrong reasons), Guinness, A pub band called "Original Sin" whose leggy brunnette singer obviously has creative control over the choice of songs (Natalie Imbruglia, Alanis Morrisette, Republica, etc), dancing, "Taxi" on DVD, and more sleep.

Gah. I need a holiday to recover.

Bo"I won a pair of trousers in the raffle. No, really."urne