Meenzer

I think Newcastle's level of official engagement with the twin town relationship varies depending on who's in power on the city council and how much funding is available for that kind of thing (which isn't much nowadays, since there are more pressing priorities locally). For example, a delegation from Gelsenkirchen council came to Newcastle for the Bobby Robson Trophy match in 2009 and there were football-related meetings between local officials as part of the same visit, e.g. so that Gelsenkirchen could advise on what it learned in 2006 that would be useful to Newcastle as a potential host city for the 2018 World Cup. Anecdotally, I get the feeling that the intensity of such twin town relationships tends to rise and fall with the personal interests and contacts of the people in charge at the respective city councils at any given time - which is why they fluctuate over time, and one reason why there probably isn't as much focus on the twin town relationship with Gelsenkirchen right now. But I'm writing this from London so obviously there might be things happening that I'm not aware of. I've never been to Gelsenkirchen myself, but a few years ago I had a nice chat about our cities' shared industrial heritage with an old boy from Gelsenkirchen at the top of the Tetraeder in Bottrop (this is not a euphemism). I'm not sure that counts as the partnership being especially anchored in anyone's minds, but it's a story, anyway.

Except for The Fish, who says 'Mater'

Is it daft to be worried about being near the coast too, if we're talking climate change? Obviously it's going to take quite a while yet before sea levels themselves are an issue, but I'm thinking susceptibility to flooding and other things caused by freak weather events. Probably overthinking it mind.

If it's good enough for FC Vaduz, it's good enough for me.

At least it's not just us they're always wrong about

Commentator dropping an overexcited "he could win it for Everton!" for a shot in the 83rd minute. Don't be daft man.

Apparently my squad of Z players didn't include two-goal Luis Díaz. Great.

Now try that at the Eagle in Newcastle.

GOD BLESS AR DI XX

Also:

You love to see it

Definitely on the list for next time.

Not sure I quite managed this (two rainy days out of three didn't help 😬) but we definitely ate well. Dabbawal hit the spot as usual, as did Little Lobo in Sandyford (the baby brother of Lobo Rojo in North Shields) and Cubanos in the Grainger Market. Family took us for Sunday lunch at St Mary's Inn out past Stannington, too. The beef was good but something sharper than a butter knife would have been handy for consuming it.

Canny. Thanks gang, some high-protein food for thought there

Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog

I've got some extra lockdown kilos that running/hiking alone isn't proving sufficient to shift any more (curse you, 40something metabolism ) so I know that I should probably be doing some weights to help things along, but I can't be fucked with another gym membership that I'll end up CTing and getting next to no use out of due to my own lack of willpower. Is there realistically a decent set of love handle-busting workouts you can do at home with absolutely minimal equipment - I'm talking ideally some dumbbells/weights and a mat and not a great deal more - or is that just unrealistic and I need to bite the bullet?

"Even a stopped tramp" and all that

Delightful

Complicated language, Swedish.

That's quite a range.

More of this kind of thing please. Continuously, every time the bastards show their face in public.