We headed back towards Newcastle and stopped at the cemetery in the West Road where R's brother, who suicided in 1986, is buried. R's parents who both died in the 1990s also had their ashes scattered on a lawn nearby within the cemetery. You want to know why R's bros suicided? I usually want the juicy bits. While he was happily married?, he also very occasionally had sex with men, including being seduced by R's ex when they visited the UK in the mid 1970s. 1986 was perhaps the height of AIDS hysteria and because he was not on the scene at all, his knowledge of HIV was very limited. He thought that because he had had sex with men, he automatically had AIDS. While R was never his father's golden haired boy, this brother was. We think the pressure of both just got too much for him.
Well, that was all very jolly.
We visted J's sister who was at work in a post office and then a mate of J's who was at his home. This bloke was married but is now single. His house is so stunningly decorated and immaculately clean, I can out guess that his wife found out about his sexuality and bolted. He had a great raised gold fish pond in his back yard too. We were hungry and eyeing the larger of the gold fish.
God, we are surrounded by pooftahs.
Back to K and J's flat to pack as we were sailing at 6pm. We headed off in the car about 4pm for a 6pm sailing from North Shields. Finding the car park was hard. Boarding was reasonable straight forward and I will write about the ferry trip separately.
Pub garden at Newburn.



We started the day with a visit to
Love the pub garden, tis very civilised!
ReplyDeleteThat's sad about R's brother :(
The 80's were full of ignorance and wild media BS.
yes, what Jayne said, ditto.
ReplyDeleteI shook hands with a gay man once. Do I now have AIDS?
ReplyDeleteAccording to my grandfather, yes.
This is probably in extremely bad taste under the circumstances, but seeing that 'No Entry' sign at the crematorium reminded me about a similar sign at Fleetwood Cemetery that reads 'No Exit'.
ReplyDeleteI have just cuaght up on all of your adventures..WOW Andrew, you guys sure did cover alot of ground. I love the images..and I especially loved the lighthouse. Something I want to do one day is to visit each one here in Australia and have a look inside.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bad time Jayne and Bwca.
ReplyDeleteAh, the wisdom of elders Andy.
Thought needs to go into placement of such signs Brian.
That would be a nice thing to do Cazzie. Not so many left now.
Well...Chips are what British people live off.
ReplyDelete