Stez

After several abortive attempts between corporate-wage-slave and myself to arrange a Do in Newcastle/Northumberland this year, we have finally agreed to having a Do in December.

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Who Can Come:

Anyone! Noobs are especially welcome. And lurkers. And regulars. And plus-Ones. It's a public place, we don't own the pub, so come along!

Venue:

The venue is within crawling distance of NCL airport, around two-thirds of a mile:

The Badger. [Map]

Built in the 1700s. They do accept Amex and serve pub grub, roaring fire and an outdoor area for those who need to blow a fag. Ample parking spaces. It is wheelchair accessible in the main part around the bar, although there are steps elsewhere.

Do to the large numbers of people attending, we have booked a room at the pub. It is called the Garden Room, and is located to the opposite end of the front entrance. Ask the bar staff for the way to the room for the FlyerTalk Do.



There will be a cheeky quiz at 7:30pm-ish, related to British Airways. People will be split into teams, allocated randomly. Teams will be Blue, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Ambassadors reserve the right to mix up teams further and their decision/rulings is final.

There will be a BA-related trophy prize for the winning team, this is to be allocated to a team member nominated by that team.

Style:

Overall, the Do is informal and casual - simply be yourself - whatever you feels most comfortable in, within reason! After all, it is a pub, not a Michelin restaurant. Smart casual is ok - wearing boiler suits with motor oil stains is not going to win you friends with the pub staff!

There will be no set meals, although the pub serve food for those feeling peckish. We are suggesting a time of 6pm ish to order a meal if you prefer to eat with others. Again, we stress we are not ordering or paying meals centrally, it is up to you to order your own meals at your own convenience.

There are two sets of menus available, so even the most fussiest eater should find something that can go past their lips. Besides the normal menu which you can find on the The Badger's website link, there is a festive, hearty style, not quite the full blown Christmas dinner, and you can have three courses (£17.95) or just one course:





How to get there:

Stating the obvious, multiple BA flights a day from LHR to NCL on the A320 or occasionally the A321, 1 hour.

Or take a train to NCL on the East Coast main line from London Kings Cross (3-3.5hrs trip), or CrossCountry from other bits of the country. Book months in advance for dirt cheap tickets even in First Class.

At the airport.....

For those going to the hotel by car - I would check with hotel first due to parking spaces. Go towards the drop off car park, you get quite close to some of the car park barriers before you turn right into the hotel - it is signposted at this late point. See map.

To get to the hotel from the airport, just turn LEFT when exiting the terminal - you will see the hotel. Also see map.

There is an opportunity to be taken to The Badger pub for free from the airport/hotel - if you are interested, please PM Stez for details. . Likewise, there will be the same service at the end of the night from the pub to the hotel/airport. The weather forecast is: windy, windy, windy and some rain, so you may want to take advantage of the transport!

Alternatively - there is a taxi driver (and two of his friends) who has an airport licence are happy to do the short runs between the two places. For the taxi, call Doug's number at 077 888 343 16

I've been advised that the other airport taxi drivers may get a little bit grumpy about doing short runs to the pub as they are used to higher fares, so this is a little advance warning.

To get to the Badger from the airport or Doubletree: Walk out out the terminal building, bear left towards the Doubletree, walk to the end of the hotel, over the main entrance road, along the footpath by the side of the big Shell service station. Keep walking on this footpath, then you get to a roundabout. Go straight ahead (road signs say Ponteland) and you'll end up along side the Dobbies Garden Centre. The last building in the garden centre is The Badger. More than 5 minutes walk, but under 10 minutes. See map.

Accommodation:

There is the nearby Hilton Doubletree at NCL itself. Apparently it is £̶4̶8̶ £80 at the moment.

Around the block, is Premier Inn which is slightly further away from the pub.

Alternative places can be found on TripAdvisor, though some are quite a bit more than crawling distances.

Other things to do: Not Do related

Those who might be tempted to make longer trip, there is a whole host of things to do besides the great city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its famed nightlife such as visiting Durham and its magnificent cathedral. Further north, one of my favourite castles, Bamburgh Castle (open weekends in Dec) with nearby Holy Island of Lindisfarne, a tidal island with significant religious history.

For those who simply like open spaces, rugged moorlands, Northumberland has no shortage of them, being the least sparsely populated county in England and has Europe's largest man-made lake at Kielder Water.

Shopping is quite good in Newcastle city centre, and the gigantic shopping centre at Gateshead (Europe's largest shopping centre apparently).

Or maybe you need an excuse to do a domestic TP run?

Date:

Friday 14th December - from 5pm, although Stez might be in earlier.


Attendees: 29

AHGOLF97
airprox
angeloedades -- on the 16:10 flight to NCL
corporate-wage-slave
Dan Dare
fdm1000
Flyersj18
Fruitcake +1 -- on the 16:10 flight to NCL
Ikaz
LadyLuck
LostEthics -- on the 12:40 flight to NCL
LondonAndy -- on the 12:40 flight to NCL - can guest to Flounge
nedved20
olybeast +1 -- on the 10:05 flight to NCL (would like to be guested into lounge)
PETER01 +1
RedVee
Sixth Freedom
skye1
stanleycamel
Stez
thomastuyaerts
thundercat
Up In The Air
visualAd +1 -- on the 12:40 flight to NCL
Yahillwe -- on the 12:40 flight to NCL

Not sure/maybe/thinking of excuses: 4

Hedwig
JMurray
layz
voracious violinist

Got worse things to do:

alimeypeach
angatol
Athlete95
boadh398
BotB
Camflyer
dera
Hans Mensing
johnny5a
Mario
MediaMan
Moriarty
PanGalactic
pianomit
RedSailor (Thurs only)
stimpy

As I am only a human without a PA, please PM me if I have you listed erroneously or I forgot to add you!

BotB

Great idea Stez (and corporate-wage-slave) ^

Please put me down as a maybe (slanting towards yes)

Either dates suits me as I will try to organise a visit to a local supplier and see if I can get him to come along (so +1 please)

Thanks for organising this...trust there will be lots of Chocolate?

LadyLuck

ooo I'm a noob but local, am I allowed to play?

corporate-wage-slave

Noobs are especially welcome. And lurkers. And regulars. Not sure who is not welcome really (and please, let no one try to answer that).

And yes I imagine that there may be the oldd bit of chocolate going, of the appropriate brand. Given what happened at the post Cranebrook pub event, I am not sure latecomers will find much evidence of that though.

LondonAndy

I assume that you are going to get The Badger renamed as The Embassy for the night

MrsLA is in Scotland with the kids at the minute, but I'll see what I can do to attend if it is on Friday - I need a few extra TPs and the Doubletree is only £48 in the sale at the moment!

If it is on Thursday then I've got to go to our work Christmas Party....

PETER01

Count me in as a definite guys!! ^

Sixth Freedom

I will be there on either day and for any activities around and abouts in the days afterwards!

Here is the haddock & chips served in The Badger as seen in this TR:

layz

Put me down as a maybe for Friday - it's a busy time at work so Thursday is a definite no, but if I can finish early on Friday I might be able to make it

Stez

I hope you do come LadyLuck! Please let us know if you do, and what dates.


I have updated the attendees list. PETER01, I am going to assume you're available for both dates.

johnny5a

Tentative both days please

Madge Ishen

Would love to meet up but we're flying out on the 13th. If it was the 12th ... @:-)

alimeypeach

Put me down as a maybe. I'm hoping to spend most of the winter across the pond and it would be a great excuse to visit the northern counties.

Swiss Tony

I always think it's admirable when people organise things like this. I am sure all the attendees appreciate the effort it invariably takes (despite seeming like a walk in the park 5 months out). ^

A couple of musings from me....

1) December in Northumberland - people seem to forget just how far North this place is. It gets dark early, so if you're wanting to see the beautiful countryside or coastline, make sure you're all done by 4pm.

2) I'm delighted to see not only a great part of the world being showcased like this, but also that the venue is suitably 'accessible', given the vaguely elitist versions we've seen on occasion in the past. Again, ^

I hope everyone has a cracking time.

BOH

Talking about December already

The weather will be really cold and overcast by then with lots of rain

thomastuyaerts

Count me in as,

1) I am a complete geek

2) It is my birthday then so I decide the agenda (my other half hate everything to do with flying).......PAYBACK time for all she did wrong over the past year

3) I would love to hear how the whole upgrade, redemption, avios etc works!

thanks for making this happen

Thomas

btw, did I mention I live 5 minutes away from the vennue?