Nice surprise!

I went down on the train to Newcastle and got on the bus to Gateshead from the station. As it pulled up outside the Baltic I noticed a young man walking along the pavement beside the bus and thought "He looks just like Mike." Then I realised - it was Mike, last seen winning the beauty products on the tombola in Rosyth! I leapt out of the bus and said hello, which startled the poor lad immensely. He and his pal Chris were on their way home from their holiday in Barcelona and had a few hours to spare for viewing Tyneside. I was late for a meeting so couldn't chat and left them to their stroll across the blinking bridge. I did take a quick snap, though, otherwise his uncle D might have found it hard to believe that we'd met!

On the train back I was half listening to a conversation between two guys in the seats behind mine, thinking that one of them must be German because he had an accent exactly like that Henning Wehn comedian bloke who I hear sometimes on the radio. Later in the journey his companion addressed him as Henning, so I guess it was him. I heard him complaining about having once visited Shetland and how he'd sworn never to return; when asked why he said that there were no trees. And it was far too windy to cycle. Just imagine that!