A London-based Irish author has made a return visit to his “mistress” - with his wife!
Paul Breen hit the headlines when he wrote a passionate blog about his visit to Middlesbrough cheering on Charlton Athletic at the Riverside Stadium.
The 42-year-old said his only previous impressions of Teesside were from stereotypes of the area and had grim expectations of Middlesbrough but was pleasantly surprised.
So enraptured was Paul with the town that he said: “The best compliment I can pay the town is that if Middlesbrough were a woman my wife would have been awfully jealous when I got back to London because I never stopped talking about her the whole of Sunday!”.
Paul brought his wife Sarah, originally from Kent, to Teesside for the weekend so she could “meet his mistress”.
Middlesbrough Council’s lovemiddlesbrough team - with Virgin Trains East Coast assisting with travel - invited the couple to take in more of the sights the area has to offer.
“Sarah liked the area too,” he said. “Her grandfather used to come up to Redcar for the horse-racing so she wanted to see the area.
They went to Pacitto’s although “it was too cold for an ice cream”, had a look around the shops and ventured into the amusement arcades before heading to Saltburn beach.
He also visited the Transporter Bridge, Tees Barrage, Baker Street, Brasserie Hudson Quay and Mackenzie Thorpe’s Railway Posters exhibition at Thirteen in Middlehaven.
He took a tour of the Ayresome Park site with lovemiddlesbrough ambassador and Fly Me To The Moon fanzine editor Robert Nichols and watched the England v Germany U21 game at the Riverside Stadium last night.
“I thought the exhibition was really good,” said Paul, a university lecturer.
“There were a lot of pictures which were really interesting and he is a very good artist. I also saw a couple of them at the railway station - 11 posters by Mackenzie Thorpe have been erected in Middlesbrough Railway Station - where they’re much bigger.”
On his previous visit he enjoyed Albert Park, Dorman Museum, mima, Temenos and the Riverside Stadium but said he felt a sadness that there was “still so much left to see”.
Paul held a book signing at Sherlock’s and The Twisted Lip micro pubs on Baker Street on Sunday night of his novel, The Charlton Men.
He said he had received a “huge amount of contact from people on Twitter” following the publication of his feature about Middlesbrough.
“They were very happy about the report, I got a fairly positive response,” said Paul, who had visited Newcastle and Durham before the Charlton v Middlesbrough game but had not been to Teesside.
He added that Middlesbrough and its industrial background reminded him of Belfast.
“Belfast is going through a lot of regeneration as well,” said Paul, who said he was told at the weekend about Middlesbrough’s previous bid for city status.
“I can’t see why Middlesbrough could not be a city.”
Paul said he was planning a return visit to take in Whitby and Hartlepool too.
Middlesbrough Council chief executive Mike Robinson said: “Anyone who lives or spends any time in our town will have noticed the Middlesbrough is Changing campaign we launched to celebrate the £500m of investment currently being seen.
“Paul’s blog struck a chord with me because his view of Middlesbrough in a day chimes with a lot of what we in the town enjoy every day.”
He added he was “delighted” that Paul and Sarah accepted the council’s invitation to return to Teesside.
No comments:
Post a Comment