Last Wednesday, it was time for another trip up north. For the first time, though, I wouldn’t be staying at Lesley and John’s. The flat is ready and Kieran moved in a few weeks ago, so it was time for me to experience it myself. Unlike most of my trips to Newcastle, this time I was going by train with Josh, just like we had last September. On Wednesday morning, after i double checked I had everything, I headed for the bus stop, slightly later than planned. Although the majority of my belongings had been transported by van up to the flat at the end of January, I still had some essentials and extra clothes at home so thought I might as well take another bag’s worth up with me; one less thing to take in the car when I move properly this coming Saturday. Annoyingly, as well as me being a bit later than I should have, the bus seemed to be on a go slow too. I’d missed the one I was meant to catch by meter seconds so had to wait for the next one, which took 19 minutes. Then, for some reason it sat at West Quay for ages before finally trundling on round to the station. Thankfully, my Victor Reader Trek’s GPS was working fine and the talking stop announcements were on so I had no problem getting off at the right stop. Josh was waiting and we went straight into the station, where we were told to wait in the waiting room. A member of staff came to assist us onto the platform so we could catch the 11:30 train to Waterloo. We arrived in London no problem and were assisted to the underground Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus where we changed to the Victoria line for King’s Cross. Originally, I thought I might pop by the Platform 9:3/4 again to get another photo with the trolley and the sign and maybe go into the shop for another browse of all the merchandise. Luckily for my bank balance, we decided to go straight for food. We went into Leon again, having really enjoyed it last time, and Josh bought us lunch as payment for me giving him a rucksack of mine I no longer needed that had barely been used as his was old and worn out. It seemed to be serving him well on its first long distance journey. I decided to be a bit of a pig with lunch, as I usually am when I’m out, not that Josh seemed to mind, and chose mac ‘N’ cheese bites, a halloumi wrap and waffle fries — that were supposed to be spiral fries but were just as nice. Josh was laughing me when I ordered because I asked the member of staff to take some stuff out of the wrap — I’m fussy ok! — and the guy literally said “hang on, I’ll just write it down”. Josh opted for loaded fries, which he’d enjoyed a lot last time, and said they were just as good. Sadly, the guy’s pen and paper recording skills for my request couldn’t have been that accurate as the wrap still contained lettuce. Yes, Josh, I know I shouldn’t be so fussy. Yes, Lesley, I did eat some of it! Afterwards, we headed back to the special assistance desk and a member of staff helped us to our train, the 14:36 to Morpeth. Josh informed me that these particular trains were brand new, having only been in service since October last year, I think he said. They were definitely very nice, super smooth and very comfy. Josh was admiring the window blinds and reading light. We said the design was a lot like a plane cabin and strangely, so were the announcements. When we arrived in Morpeth at 6:03, Lesley was there to meet us. She took us straight round to the flat, where Kieran was waiting for us. It was very strange to be in the flat with furniture in and so clearly lived in at first. The only times I’d seen it before were years ago when I’d gone with Lesley and Kieran to visit his lovely great-grandma before she’d died and then the couple of times ive visited while it’d been being renovated. Somehow, I’d altered it a bit in my mind and made it smaller so I was amazed how much room there actually was, despite my boxes “shite” taking up a lot of the storage space and Kieran having set up a lot of his stuff. Even the office, with Kieran’s desk and a temporary bed moved in for Josh, was huge. Wandering around for a bit gave me a nice chance to memorise the layout and get a bit more familiar with the place. Although beforehand I thought it might be a bit strange to stay there for a weekend and then go home before fully moving in, I now realise it was a great chance to get used to it before I move permanently. Now I don’t have the scary bit of getting used to a new home from scratch on top of all the changes that are coming, one of the biggest being that I’ll soon be employed! It came as a complete shock to me when, at the end of January, I received a phone call from a company where I’d applied for a role back in December, offering me an interview that Thursday, two days later. Obviously, although a little surprised, I said yes straight away. The lady from recruitment who’d called me was lovely, not even flinching when I shamefully told her that I couldn’t even remember the role I’d applied for let alone the details about it. She quickly sent me the job description and person specification, telling me not to hesitate to email her if I had any questions before the interview. On Thursday, I was my usual nervous self beforehand. It helped that I went out for my weekly My Guide walk with the lovely Jenny so could burn off some of the nervous energy I had. When I got back, I went and chatted to Mum, who’d just come out of hospital after her big operation and who is still doing amazingly well in her recovery, before getting some smart clothes on ready for the scheduled MS Teams group interview call at 1pm. Afterwards, I was really surprised to feel that the interview had actually gone really well. It was a group interview, which I think I’ve only done once before, and the other two candidates seemed nice. One of the tasks was to think of a law you’d put in place if you became prime minister and have a little debate about it with the other candidates and interviewer putting questions to you. I said I’d make it law that bins weren’t left out on pavements as they’re a hazard for disabled people. Honestly, it was all I could think of. But it seemed to go down quite well. As the interview wrapped up, the lady interviewing said we should expect either an email or a phone call the following day to let us know the outcome: an email if we weren’t successful and a call if we were. I told myself not to get my hopes up, that this would be like all the other interviews I’d had before. But I had such a buzz from feeling like I’d done well that I couldn’t stop the fizzing hope I felt. The following day, I went to the theatre with Josh and T to see The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime and before the show we sat in the Slug & Lettuce for a meal. I hadn’t received anything from the company all day and was starting to disappointingly accept I wasn’t going to. Then, my phone rang. But no, it was just the nice removal van man phoning to say my stuff had been safely delivered to the flat. I didn’t hear anything that day and told everyone I assumed I hadn’t been lucky given there had been nothing. Then, the following Wednesday as I sat at Nan and Grandad’s before our usual weekly dinner with them, my phone rang. It was the lady who’d done the interviews. I’d done really well. They’d love to offer me the role of customer service adviser. What did I think? Honestly, I was in shock. I actually said, “really?!” I was so surprised. But yes, really. There wasn’t any catch. There wasn’t any concern over accessibility. They’d dealt with Access To Work before and were happy to work with me to find a way that the job would be fully accessible to me. I was over the moon. The fizzy nervous feeling had fully exploded into full on fireworkd. Since the day I was offered the job, I’ve spoken to a few different people from the company to start arranging me starting work. Naturally, the first thing to sort out was all the assistive tech I’ll need to do the job, like Jaws screenreader and a Braille display. This is done through a service called Access To Work, who assess your needs due to your disability and then recommend adaptations that will mean you can fully access your role. To begin with, I thought this was going to take quite a long time. When I phoned to put in an application, they told me I should expect a 13-15 week wait just to be assessed. After that, the assessor writes a report with the recommendations of what you’ll need, which then has to be approved before being sent to the employer so they can put everything in place for you. However, as I sit here typing this now, everything is done where Access To Work are concerned. It’s just up to my employer to order the equipment now. As long as the equipment doesn’t take too long to arrive, I should be starting work very soon. It’s all very exciting, but terrifying at the same time. Luckily, I seem to have found a company who really want to help me do well in my role, which doesn’t seem to happen often.
That evening, Kieran cooked us burgers on the George foreman with waffles. It was all very nice. Afterwards, I listened to Liverpool vs Leeds on BBC radio 5live while Sky Sports news was on the TV. Liverpool won 6-0. We watched Family Guy, during which Josh was quizzing Kieran on football stadium names to see how many he knew. This was where the first potential blog title came from. If Kieran didn’t immediately know the ground name, Josh would think up a clue to what it was. His clue for the Norwich stadium, Carrow Road, was “cars parked in a row”. It had us in stitches for ages and was by far the funniest clue he came up with, although there were many other good ones.
On Thursday morning, Kieran and I took advantage of having nothing planned that morning and had a lie in. Josh was his usual optimistic early bird self and was awake long before us. I spent quite a while unpacking some of my clothes while the guys listened to music. Then, Kieran booked us a taxi and we went to Sambuca’s to try out their lunchtime special where you get a starter, main course and either coffee or ice cream. I decided to have the potato skins, Josh had the same and Kieran had the soup. For our mains, I had my usual lovely tuna garlic pizza, Josh had a pepperoni pizza and Kieran had carbonara. We all went for ice cream to finish. As always, it was absolutely delicious. Every time I go I think I should try something new but I just can’t resist having the tuna garlic pizza. That evening, we watched arsenal vs Wolves (2-1) followed by Russel Howard’s Netflix special Lubricant. Here, there were many potential blog titles: “my fanny hammer’s gone rogue”, “show me your tits I’m a dolphin”, “several men were dildoed to death, their final words were yeah, oh yeah”. Kieran was very keen for me to use the dolphin option.
The next morning, a Sky engineer was due to arrive between 8 and 1 to install our Sky Q so we had to get up early in case we were their first stop. I spent the morning doing more unpacking while Kieran sorted things with the engineer. Later, Lesley picked us up and took us to Cramlington station where we caught the 16:03 train to Newcastle. Josh was very happy because he was able to tick off 2 more train stations that he’s stopped at. Once out of the station, we wandered around for a while trying to find Wetherspoons. Unfortunately, the first try took us into the wrong one. However, it didn’t take Josh long to locate the right one. To be fair, it took a lot longer for us to actually find a free table because the pub was absolutely full, even though it has 3 floors. Once sat down, we used table service via the app to order our food: simple chicken tikka which came with chips for me; bbq burger with chips and onion rings for Kieran; cheese and bacon burger with chips for Josh. I don’t go to Wetherspoons often and hardly ever eat something like curry when I’m out but I’m so glad I tried it. It was lovely. Once we’d finished eating, we ordered more drinks and I had a pudding, the cookie dough sandwich. When the waiter brought over the drinks, he asked Kieran if he had ID. Kieran didn’t. He said although he knew I was drinking coke we’d have to leave before 7. Then, he said the line I just had to use as the title of this post: “I know you’re not 12, mate, but the young lady here…”. We laughed about it for the rest of our stay and I think I’ll take it as a compliment…
We left before my curfew of 7, anyway, and headed for the Tyne Theatre for our live show. Long before I’d known, Kieran and Josh had arranged to come and see Al Murray’s Victory Gig and Kieran had surprised me with it as a present at Christmas. We had an excellent night. There were points where Kieran was crying with laughter and Josh and I definitely didn’t stop laughing the whole way through. There were several blog title opportunities throughout the show but the only one I can remember is “couple of pints at lunchtime”. Once the show was finished, we went into a bar to wait for John to pick us up. Josh had just come back to the table with their drinks, after waiting ages to be served, when John called to say he was outside. Josh was quite amazed at how fast Kieran was able to finish his whole pint. Back at the flat, we watched Lee Evans Monsters and South Park before heading to bed.
As soon as Kieran and I were up on Saturday, having taken advantage of the lie in opportunity, Josh headed out to Tesco to grab some snacks and drinks for the journey home the following day. Once he was back, Kieran made us all crispy bacon sandwiches, which were great. I spent some of the afternoon doing more unpacking. Kieran listened to the Brentford vs Newcastle match, which Newcastle won 2-0. Josh and Kieran watched the Vertem Elder handicap chase horse race. Later, we had the England vs Wales rugby match on, which England won 23-19. We ordered a takeaway for dinner that night, putting in our order just before closing time. Kieran and Josh chose chicken tikka and donner meat wraps with chips and I had a small Hawaiian pizza, a pineapple ring and cheesy chips. The food was excellent and I felt stuffed. We watched Would I Lie To You, Gogglebox and the Taylor vs Catterall boxing match, which apparently ended quite controversially with Taylor winning on split decision. I know nothing about boxing but it sounds good. While the telly was on, Josh was playing pool on his i’pad and was getting quite angry with his opponents. The last potential blog title came then, when Josh said quite fiercely “I’m gonna beat you, biatch!”. However, both boys considered this too weak compared to the other options.
Sunday meant our return trip home had come. We got up at 8, Kieran made cups of tea and I ate my leftover pizza for breakfast. After he’d showered, Kieran made sausage sandwiches for himself and Josh. We watched Match Of The Day, a tiny bit of Sponge Bob and Sunday Kitchen. Then, around 10:40, Lesley arrived and drove us to Cramlington station, where Josh and I caught the 11:33 train from Morpeth to Newcastle. At Newcastle, special assistance didn’t arrive to help us onto our next train. Luckily, Josh found another member of staff who helped us on board the 11”58 to King’s Cross. Unfortunately, although the special assistance staff were there at all of the stations in London, none of them were particularly good at getting us where we needed to be at the time we needed to be there. We only just made our train from Waterloo to Southampton. Then, when we were almost home, we got delayed by over half an hour at Eastleigh due to crew problems. Josh is going to claim our money back because of the delay. Throughout the second half of the journey home, I’d been listening to the Chelsea vs Liverpool league cup final, although I missed bits when the signal cut out. It should have finished long before we reached Southampton Central but due to our train delay and the match going to extra time then penalties, the game only just finished during my bus ride home, 11-10 on penalties to Liverpool. I think the bus driver was probably a bit surprised when one of his passengers suddenly cheered rather loudly. But I didn’t care.
This time, saying goodbye to Kieran at the station was a slightly surreal feeling because, in two days from now, I’ll probably be in the flat with him right now again, after the long drive from Southampton to Blyth with Dad and T, Mum and S following. This time, when they all head for home on monday, I’ll be staying behind. It seems so strange that moving permanently has come round so fast. In some ways, it seems ages since Kieran and I discussed me moving up there. But in others, it feels like the actual date to move has come as quick as I can blink. Tomorrow, I’m going to Cosmo Southampton for a meal with T, Mum, Dad, Auntie Clare, Uncle Dave, Nan, Grandad and S. then, early Saturday morning we’ll pile my last few things into the cars and head north. Next time I write, it won’t be sat at my desk in my bedroom. It’ll probably be on the sofa or table in the living room of the flat. I’m looking forward to the new start ahead and at the same time terrified of leaving. Saying goodbye to everyone is going to be the worst. But knowing that I’ll be visiting at the end of May for my birthday and before the Ed Sheeran concert is reassuring. So, lots of changes ahead. I’m looking forward to what they all bring. I’m excited about finally starting paid work. I’m looking forward to becoming more better at independent living. I was quite good at it at college so I’m hoping it’ll all come back to me. And, hopefully in a few weeks time, Guide Dogs Newcastle team are going to be in touch with me to start the process of getting me active on the waiting list for a dog again. It seems my life is like that old saying right now, it’s like waiting for a bus, I’ve been waiting for one thing to happen and now they’re all happening at once. At least, waiting for a bus in Southampton, anyway. I’ve definitely been spoilt with the frequency of busses down here. I’ll have to learn to be much more patient with journey planning up there. It’ll all come in time, I hope but for now, I’m going to enjoy my last 2 days living down south. We had a great few days last week and I’m looking forward to many more.
A5Ramblings 