MEscovery

Third time lucky. I wanted to try out this new place for a while but as it is not open on Mondays & Tuesdays I've been left standing looking through the window a few times - tiny Tim style. So when my friend and I wanted to walk somewhere for lunch this week, I knew where to go. Luckily, it did not disappoint. The place serves food as tasty as it is pretty and the decor is modern, quirky and has plenty of Instagram appeal. Ok, I am a teenager at heart. Nothing like a picture of a drink with flowers floating around in it. Or the toilet. Might need to explain that one. They have a wall for customers' messages - see the post-it wall. Guess which one is mine? They serve wood-fired pizzas, a concise list of generously-sized lunchtime dishes complemented by a few daily specials. The pizzas smell amazing and all the food is prepared at a customer-facing counter. The place has two seating areas; one at the front overlooking the wood-fired oven and one larger, art-covered room ...

It's grim here up North. When I told my parents almost 16 years ago I was moving to England and more specifically to the North East, they admit to imagining a rough, industrialised area of little beauty or charm. It didn't take more than one visit to change their mind. We are lucky to live along the beautiful North East coast of England. Although for around 360 days of the year we could use a few more degrees Celsius, it only takes a day like this when the sky is blue, the sun is out and the beaches are clear to make me feel like this is the place to be.  We headed to the King Edward's Bay in Cullercoats after school this week with the crucial supplies of Malteser ice creams - carefully selected by the children - to one of my favourite little beaches for a round of "let them run around and work off some energy so I can have a relaxing evening". As luck would have it, we had the whole beach to ourselves. A rare treat and probably explained by the fact ...