James' Blog

Next up was a night in central Middlesbrough so somthing a little different to my usual all runnin’/jumpin’ + climbin’ activities.  I was heading for the “Big Mouth” comedy club @ the town hall (if ever a night was named with me in mind!)  First off though was dinner @ “Joe Riggatoni’s”.  I’ve been a frequent visiter to “Joe’s” over the years so it was nice to be greated by Paulo the owner as I waited at the bar for my guests.  I had invited me bestest’ Robin Bell an’ his partner Kelly, two great friends I’d met at “Psyche” when I returned to Middlesbrough from Manchester 7 yrs ago.  Rob an’ Kel have the sweetest little girl Ava who on my last visit had me actin’ out the entire cast of “The Wizard of Oz” exept for Dorothy which she played perfectly an’ the Wicked Wich (dad Rob was given that part!)  They’ve just added to the gang with little Scarlet who looks like following in her big sisters footprints of bein’ a daddy’s girl. 

Anyway the guys turned up without a date for me which I had left in Kel’s hands an’ despite her havin’ hundreds of girly mates in Rob’s words she “struggled a bit” to get anyone at short notice ha ha  More proof that I need a P.A to sort my life out!!!

Dinner at Joe’s was awsome as usual.  I wont bore y’ with the details but Kel’ an’ I were amazed at the size of Rob’s prawns an’ my Salmon was cooked to perfection.

Off we went to the town hall but as we arrived disaster struck as’ Kel’s mum called worried about the baby.  The hilarity had to wait a little as we rushed to the car an’ set off back to Yarm.  Turns out babies get a little tetchy when they’re hungry but Kelly stayed behind to make sure all was ok (a mums perogative) an’ Robin an’ I set off back to Middlesbrough.  We had only missed 5 mins by the time we arrived but were too late to get a seat (a warning to get in early) so we hung out at the bar at the back of the room.  This took nothing away from the night as we were listening more than watching an’ although mostly unrepeatable here the acts were spot on the money and the clubs MC easily gave as good as he got to the crowd who were all up for bit of “friendly banter”.  As I suspect you know if y’ve been to see a comedian live it’s almost impossible to remember anything that’s been said on stage so you’ll have to get along an’ see for yourselves what a geat evening the “Big Mouth” is.

xJ

Hello again, seems like a long time since I was ’round ‘ere.  And despite the fact that since me last blog I’ve been given a points system for “Face of TeesValley” that makes the scorin’  for Eurovision seem pretty simple I’ve taken a couple of weeks to sit down an’ get this all wrote right up!!  Ha ha.

My latest outing was to the lovely village of Kirkleatham near Redcar to visit the Kirkleatham Museum and Kirkleatham Owl Centre.  I set off once again with my “young ‘un” Lauren Rose an’ a couple of her mates, Sophie an’ Caitlin.  We arrived at the museum mid mornin’ an’ had a wander round the grounds (great place for “last touch” lol).  There’s plenty of grass an’ a playground wich entertained us for a while before we even got to the musem.

On entering the building we were met by Alison Kirkbride who showed us round the exibits an’ was so nice to the kids I left her to it an’ followed on listenin’ to the tour.  We learnt all about the building’s history an’ loved the toy cases.  The girls had a quiz to do lookin’ for  different objects in the exibits an’ got loads of help from Alison.  We spent a long time lookin’ at an exibition by local artist Tom French who’s paintings really engaged the girls.  We were pleasantly suprised when Tom came into the room as he was showin’ some visitors his work.  He stopped an’ told us about some of the paintings history.   They really are  worth a look an you may be lucky enough to meet Mr French too !

On the way out Alison showed us the new Backpacks the museum have.  They have all sorts of things to do around the buildin’ an’ we’re lookin’ forward to goin’ back an’ having a go.

After the musem we head off to the Owl Centre an’ were shown round by Craig.  There was a lot of work goin’ on gearin’ up for the summer but there was still loads of things to see.  The girls shot off an left me to have a wander round.   Amongst the birds on show were “Saphire” the great grey owl and poor old “Cruella” the Abysinian ground Hornbill whos partner had upped an’ left her for another “bird” in London as the sparks just wern’t flyin’!!  We also saw a “Balinese starling” a beatiful little thing who wouldn’t let us get a picture.  They are on the severe danger of extinction list an it really makes y’ think how many of these precious creatures would be gone already if it weren’t for places like this?  A great visit an’ we can’t wait to go back in the summer.

We set off for Saltburn in the taxi an’ the driver (lovely lady) hadn’t heard of “Lemons”.  She did suggest a few places but nowhere really seemed like a winner.  When we finally arrived in Saltburn we asked a couple of what looked like old locals about “Lemons” an’ yet again drew blank looks.  We ran down the bank towards the beach an’ I did notice a new restaurant on the front an decided I’d investigate further after the beach.  We all ran around on the beach writin’ in the sand an’ throwin’ rocks into the sea.  I was gettin’ a bit hungry by this point so after the girls scalped me of a fortune in the arcades on the pier (Lauren said it was worth it as she got 98% on the “Guitar Hero” an’ was second on the leader board).  Off we trotted to the new restaurant an’ lo an’ behold there was a huge bowl of lemons on the counter.  We settled in to a seat with a great sea view an’ finally ordered our fish an’ chips.  I ordered a cappucino an’ was pretty much bullied into a coffee the name of wich escapes me but the waitress was sure I’d love it (only kiddin’ she was lovely).  I had to ask if this was the “Lemons” we had spent the day lookin’ for but yet again were dissapointed as this was the “Seaview” restaurant only opened 2 weeks an’ packed to the hilt.  No wonder it was packed the food was awsome an’ the staff were cool.  Glenn the owner came over an’ talked to me too about his plans to open the roof terrace an the rooms above the restaurant which I would have a look at next time I was there on a photoshoot with Joanna.  One of the best bits was the ease with wich I could offload the kids back to the beach an’ watch them through the window ha ha. 

 Really have to say a big thanks from all of us to all the people who made this another great day out in the Tees Valley x x James