Sage and Shipley

Vivien and I had another good day out last month.  We visited The Sage, a music venue on the Newcastle Gateshead riverside.  It's a peculiar silver patchwork caterpillar-looking building that I've long been curious about.  Bill and I have been to a few concerts in Newcastle and Edinburgh (the Stones and Nickelback, to name a couple), but never to The Sage.  It seems to mainly have classical and folk music performers.  We're not in the habit of looking at what's on and so by the time we spot an act we'd love to see, it's usually sold out.  That's an example of how to save money through procrastination (though it's probably really through disinterest).  One of the best things about The Sage I thought, on this visit anyhow, was the view out the window (exactly what I said about the Baltic!) 

In the corner of the arch of the Tyne Bridge, you can just see the brown and black crenellated top of the 'New Castle' (built in 1080, by Robert Curthose, son of William the Conquerer) for which the city is named.

I also snapped the Baltic, as I've talked about that before when we visited it.  

I've often thought that the Newcastle quayside is absolutely stunning.

Anyhow, we had a wander around the building, poking our noses into where ever caught our fancy, then had a very reasonably priced lunch.  

Then we got back into my car and had a very interesting drive to the Shipley Art Gallery, just under 1 mile away.  I kept making wrong turns and we had to stop to study a map to figure out how to get where we wanted to be.  It was hilarious.  We could have  walked, but it's not a great area, I didn't trust the weather and I think the walk would have been equally as interesting given the major thoroughfares there.  I've often complained that the roads in this part of the world resemble a ball of snakes and I was pleased to hear that I'm not the only one who is occasionally challenged by this.  We had a lot of laughs in that journey. 

The Shipley's exhibits (free admission) were reasonably interesting 

and we drifted through them one after another. 

I saw a chiffon necklace in the shop that was tempting, but decided to try to make it instead.  I save myself from a lot of purchases with this idea.  If I ever actually manage it, I'll be sure to show you.  I nipped to the loo before we left, 

and funny if we didn't both think it was an amazing place. 

Old, but very interesting, all that wood.  Of course we laughed at ourselves there, too.  

It's always a good day out, in my book, when you get to laugh a lot.