The Pearson Project - Project Reports

Project Report Part 4

Venue: North East Beach Tour
Date: 28/8/2003
Team Members Present: Pearson, Gilly, Tooma, Wally + Richie

Written by Chris Gill

The team decided that an early start would be best for Part 4 of the project, but no-one imagined the time Tooma had in mind. Most of the team were out of bed by 6am, and met on the X36 Service bus at 7:16. This bus took us into Newcastle City Centre where we proceeded into the Central Train Station to purchase refreshments and reading material for our forthcoming trip. However we weren't travelling by train, we turned back around and boarded the 527 Service bus to South Shields. The journey took 68 minutes and during the journey we decided to read our newspaper, in particular The Sun, and on Page 3 next to a very nice image we read a story about Jack and Vera Duckworth from Coronation Street getting stoned after eating space cake, the episode in question will be aired on ITV 1 on September 8th. We also passed the docks where we will be leaving from to go to Amsterdam on November 22nd!

We arrived at South Shields around 9am, and headed straight for the sea. After a 10 minute walk we arrived by the beach to find that unsurprisingly we had the whole stretch of sand and water to ourselves. ( Click for photo. )We swam around in the freezing cold water until we got bored and then went on a search for sea creatures along the beach.
It didn't take long before Richie found 2 jellyfish which Wally and Tooma proceeded to poke and prod and then burst with a big rock. Gilly also found a dead crab which didn't provide as much entertainment as the jellyfish but made us want to find more. We failed to find any more creatures but we did find a pair of Calvin Klein Boxer Shorts wrapped around a large rock and a pair of socks close by.
We dried off and attempted to change back into dry clothes ( Photo 1 , Photo 2 ) We then left the beach and headed back towards the town centre. We found a local Macdonalds and bought more food to fulfill our appetites gained after our swim. After our meal, we had a quick look around the town centre, quickly realised that there was nothing there and jumped back on a 527 bus. We were planning to go to the Metro Centre to pay for Amsterdam, but Gilly and Wally had other ideas. We didn't see the point in going that early for that little amount of fun, so we thought it would be more constructive to visit yet another beach.

Reminiscing over Part 1 we had the idea of re-visiting Whitley Bay Beach. After departing the 527 bus back at Newcastle, we ran across the town and boarded the infamous 301 bus heading to Whitley Bay. As this was our 4th visit we knew what places we had to look out for, and we managed to capture a photo of 'The Pineapple' Pub ( Click for photo. )

We arrived at Whitley Bay Town Centre around 2pm and as we departed we had a look at The Fire Station ( Click for photo. ) , and then to the left we noticed another bar called 'The Bedroom' ( Click for photo. ) This amused us again.
We then headed down a residential street and out onto the seafront, down the steps, found a suitable place to lay our belongings and jumped in the water once again. ( Click for photo. ) Wally also noticed that we had the beach to ourselves once again, apart from the lifeguards who ruined our photo ( Click for photo. ) The water was absoloutely freezing and as Richie had a white shirt on Tooma noticed that his nipple was showing through his shirt ( Click for photo. ) We then messed around on the beach for a while ( Click for photo. ) and finally went for MORE food (The swimming worked up a big appetite OK!). On Part 1 of the project we found a quality chippy just up the road so we chose to visit there again, and sit in the exact same seats as last time ( Click for photo. ) We finished our meal and then headed next door to the arcade(apart from Tooma who ordered ANOTHER tray of sausage and chips!). In the arcade Gilly wasted around Ł2, Richie wasted 20p, while Wally won Ł5. After that, we spotted an ice cream parlour - and you guessed it - we bought more. Ice Creams all round. We soon realised that we had ran out of things to do and proceeded towards the bus stop. While waiting at the bus stop Tooma noticed a great Advertising Board ( Click for photo. ) The 301 bus then started it's journey back to Newcastle.

Another hours journey was filled with excitement simply because we had a camera. We passed Percy Main ( Click for photo. ) , 'The Quadrant' ( Click for photo. ) and Tom Swan's ( Click for photo. ) Who knows why they amuse us!

We arrived back in Newcastle for around 5:30pm and boarded the X36 bus, but we weren't ready to go home just yet. The team jumped off the bus at the Metro Centre, and headed for Boots to visit guest member Duck at work. He was very busy and for some reason didn't seem too happy to see us standing in his till queue. After leaving Boots we headed for Going Places and paid the remaining Ł248.80 for our trip to Amsterdam in November.

The team then decided that we were all very tired and wanted to go to bed, so we boarded the 706 bus at 7:18pm. The team wouldn't see each other again until that Sunday where they competed for the 13th week of the pub quiz.
*UPDATE*: We ended up winning that quiz, check out the info by clicking here.