I walked to the university today. This is no small walk, and with brief stops at two shopping centers (Waratah and Jesmond) it took me about 3.5 hours.
As you can see the weather was beautiful. But it was also very windy: I even got a wind alert on my phone! This hardly bothered me as I swaggered along in my shorts and t-shirt.
At Jesmond post office I was amused to hear some women talking about how cold it was outside. Australians have a very different impression of ‘cold’ than what I’ve become used to, and it seems for some these are the days to stay indoors!
Newcastle uni – my old stomping ground for 3.5 years between ’90 and ’93 – hadn’t changed that much. The buildings I used to take classes in were all there, and the vibe of the place wasn’t far removed from three decades ago. It’s still a very green campus, if an ugly one.
The little shop I used to buy my sausage rolls in is now a Subway. The old video arcade in the student union is now an admin office. The big restaurant that sold fried rice and egg rolls has become a large empty room and overall everything seemed a little more sterile and dour than I recall. I also saw very few students, which surprised me since classes are still in progress. Maybe they’re too cold?
That’s the engineering building where we moved to play our MUDs when maths got antsy, and a bit further along I walked past the ‘bar on the hill’ where I almost got crushed at a Tex Perkins concert. The buildings seemed closer together than I had remembered. Maybe I’ve just gotten bigger?
I caught the train back to Hamilton, a four minute trip from the uni station that never existed back in my day. It was easy and convenient, and won’t be the last train I catch this trip.
At Beaumont street I found the above chalk scrawlings. Call me a skeptic but these – which stretched nearly the full length of this popular shopping street – seemed to be accompanied by bill poster adverts for ‘alien’ t-shirts. Was this just a local designers viral marketing scheme?
The winds had picked up and it was time to get back to mums. By the time I arrived I was a bit exhausted – I’d been walking about 5 hours – but today was worth it for the nostalgia alone 🙂
Gods, I loved that library (second photo for the non-Novocastrians). Learnt more there than I did in any lecture, tute or lab. Remember you used to be able to submit book-purchase requests via the computer system, stating reasons, and get a serious reply? In fact, I recall an ongoing dialogue between library staff and users on multiple topics. I’m sure they used to print it out and pin it to a physical noticeboard. Can picture myself standing reading it 🙂