Northumbria Day One

THE venue for the congress is the four-star Marriott on the outskirts of Gateshead.

The hotel's official name, Newcastle Gateshead Marriott Hotel MetroCentre, is the type of cumbersome mouthful that usually hints at a not-so-splendid isolation.

This is indeed the case - the hotel is a long walk from Gateshead town centre and even further from Newcastle.

But it is on the doorstep of the amazing MetroCentre shopping mall, which included Europe's largest indoor theme park until the park closed 13 years ago.

The mall is really five connected malls, called Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Platinum.

It has the largest Boots and the largest Costa I have ever seen, and this morning I counted at least two other Costas, maybe three - it is hard to be sure.

There is also a Wetherspoon and a Marks & Spencer - I came across the latter yesterday afternoon but struggled to find it again this morning.

The centre is a tourist attraction in its own right, which is presumably why it has its own train and bus stations.

The Village, Gateshead MetroCentre

It even has its own JobCentre Plus and police station, albeit the latter is called a Northumbria Police Neighbourhood Office.

Back at the Marriott, the congress starts this evening at 6.30.

Entries (and withdrawals) appear to be still coming in, eg the Challengers, which I am playing in, went down from 59 entries to 58 yesterday, but is now showing 60.

The playing area is still being set up, but looks excellent.