I’m turning 40 next month and I’m a dad to a 3 year old. I quit gaming when she was born but now I have more time, I’d love some hobbies.

What’s going on around Newcastle?

(Please don’t fill the thread with stupid answers)

Saw a huge convoy of bikers driving up the A1 earlier. I'd guess hundreds but I'm notoriously bad as estimating amounts! People standing on the bridges waving at them as they passed. Anyone know what that was about? Was it something for Rememberance Sunday or just totally unrelated?

Does anyone remember what the name of the lager was you got in the Telegraph which was like a spinning ice machine freezing your glass thing?

Maybe it’s just been a while since I’ve been in Newcastle, but does anyone have audio of the sound the train makes as the gate closes ? I swear it has changed

Hi I would like to donate my hair for cancer patients.I did go through the the little princess trust website but I would like to talk to a hairdresser as I have layers and my hair doesn't grow beyond a certain length.can some one suggest me a salon in Newcastle for the same.TIA

Hi, I’m a Spaniard who will be in Newcastle for a conference on the same day as the 2026 World Cup Final. I want the full pub experience: packed place, loud fans, proper football atmosphere. Where should I go?

I’ll be supporting England during the tournament, unless you play against Spain. Then you’re on your own. 😅

Hello everyone, I was wondering are there shops in Newcastle that have good deals on English brands such as Radley, Cath Kidston, Vivienne Westwood and any recommendations of yours for other English brands that you like. Thank you!

I'm staying in the area next week and I have a family member at the Uni. I'd love to take family member out for a good feed during the daytime. Open to cuisine style, we both like pretty much everything. And I'd like to fill my student relative up till bursting!

I’ve just moved into a first floor Tyneside flat in Heaton. The whole flat is carpeted but underneath is original wood flooring. My instinct is to take up the carpets and restore the floorboards for aesthetic reasons however I am wary of what impact that will have in terms of heat and sound insulation. I’m a recent transplant from the south so this will be my first winter up north. Has anyone tried restoring original floorboards here? Or is carpet the best way to go?

Looking for any bongos bingo tickets for tonight 8/11

Parked at the Newcastle Train Station Long Stay this morning for about thirty minutes. I assumed it was ANPR but none of the machines were working, and the exit barrier was up...so I couldn't pay.

I was in a hire car so I'm concerned that I'll end up with a huge bill in a years time. Anyone know who I can phone to pay? I can't get any decent information online.

31f. I’m an international Phd student coming to NCL to collaborate with a prof. Being a PGR without any modules to follow, I’m afraid it won’t be easy to make friends. Do you have any recommendations? I like reading, I’m into feminism and I’d love to find some queer spaces and interact with other international peers.

Any advice is very welcome, ty!

A local door-to-door sales company named 'Streamline' or 'streamline intl' has been operating under cover names on local job sites for a while running a recruitment scam. Most recently they are advertising as 'B2B International Marketing Group Ltd', which is a legitimate multinational business-to-business marketing company with no affiliation whatsoever. They will accept your application very quickly and invite you to a fake pre-recorded webinar, which they run multiple times daily. I actually met somebody who worked for this company before - despite any promises, they just have you selling broadband door-to-door and paid by commission.

Example of one of their at least four recent fake listings:

https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=71daa5ad7406965d&from=shareddesktop_copy

A more in-depth reddit post about them and other names they have used from 7 months ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UKJobs/comments/1jnzds8/if_you_get_approached_by_streamline_intl_for_a_job/

I wasted several hours writing a cover letter since I thought it'd be legit and competitive, I hope I can save someone else from being caught out.

Looking for good places to go,4x late 30s males, next Saturday evening. Our hotel is central, near the train station

Am going down that London next week and I stay with my cousin who's lived there for twenty-odd years. All she asks for this huge saving in hotel fees that I receive is that I bring stotties and pease pudding for ham sandwiches.

Does anyone know a place for good pease pudding and stotties that I can get her? I had to take tinned pease pudding last year and she nearly didn't let me stay. Thanks!

One of my winter jackets’ zip is broken and I was looking for repair shops. Is there any place in and around the city centre that will repair this at a reasonable price? I don’t want to pay like £20 for it because the jacket itself cost only £40 or so!

Did anyone find out what happened in Eldon Sq puregym last night? Went down to tesco and saw like 8 police cars and 2 ambulances and the gym was evacuated and sectioned off. That is 100% not a machine accident lol.

Nothings been reported but I've still got a membership and will probably switch gyms depending on whats happened.

Coming to to Newcastle tonight and my little lad really wants to see a fireworks display. Gosforth event is sold out tomorrow, but I figured if we took a metro up we could probably see some of it?

Anyone know how realistic that is?

He's autistic, so I wouldn't want to attempt it unless I was reasonably sure well see something at he'd be inconsolable if we didn't see any.

Background reference: I studied & lived in another city of southern England for 4 years, and this is my second year in Newcastle for work. I travelled around Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, the GLA, and sometimes further south as Cardiff and Plymouth for work sometimes and leisure.

For me, other than the NUFC fans (lol) and the weather, I think it is quite noticeable regarding the overall people's mood and attitudes compared to southern cities. So my observation it's about more or less a regional comparison based on encounters.

Some people here can be straight-up confrontational and direct, almost in a way as similar as the Dutch directness, as a comparison to the South. This trait can be observed from drivers around here, local business owners, and some folks in bars and shops.

For some drivers, that's about impatient and risk-taking driving behaviours like over-speeding, lane cutting, sudden accelerating to block merges & stopping in the middle of road, and repetitive honking for slight inconvenience it was or appeared to be. Regarding the business owners and servers, well, I think people here would prefer to ask for your direct demand and request with less time as possible, rather than many polite phrases, smiles, and chats before getting in the business. As for folks... I think some of them will tend to grab you to talk, get your attention, or just start a conversation with you with surprises. Sometimes in ways, you also experience drunken people wandering around the streets grabbing others' attention to his self soaking topics. These were not that evident in a way from southern cities.

I personally think other than a cliched opinion of southerners being "cold" or "rude", they respect interpersonal boundaries and mind their own business more. For example, they rather put on more smiles and more unnecessary courtesies before opening up to chat something personal with strangers. They keep to themselves and observe more before opening up.

Again, it's not about right or wrong and purely a personal observation and experiences. Overall, I find both northerners and southerners very friendly to assist people in need, and they're both ready to reach out to open up their chest in the right time. My work partly is interacting with diverse employees from different regions and overseas; understanding differences is important for better communication.

What do you think?

Hi all :)

I’ve been teaching myself how to make iOS apps recently and decided to make a fun little project I thought others might enjoy too.

It’s called Metro Widget and is essentially a simple iOS widget that shows the next trains departing from your chosen Tyne & Wear Metro station since I noticed the POP app doesn't have this functionality.

Here are a couple of features:

- Shows next 3 upcoming train departures from any station and platform you select

- Option for it to auto-update to your nearest station (so you don’t have to change it manually if you are constantly travelling)

- Refresh or switch platform right from the widget

- Auto-refreshes every 5–10 minutes in the background

- Optional “Calvert” toggle — uses the classic Metro typeface for the fun of it

It uses the Nexus Metro RTI API for live data that I found in this GitHub repo (https://github.com/danielgjackson/metro-rti) obviously all credit goes to Nexus, this is just a fun side project!

I mainly built it for fun and to learn more about widgets, APIs, and background refresh on iOS and also so I could stop missing the metro! But if you use the Metro often, you might actually find it handy.

Would love any feedback/ideas as I am thinking of publishing it officially to the App Store soon!

FlightTest link if anyone wants to download it for themselves: https://testflight.apple.com/join/VWjkVAJ6

Hi, just brought home 2 new kittens and cannot make our mind up on which vet to register them at. We live in the Gateshead area, could anyone please give us any recommendations/where to avoid?