I had no idea what time Danny and Nick returned home, and they couldn't tell us either. But that was the least of my worries. When I woke up I discovered that George (the cat) hadn't been well in the night and had left us a messy present on our duvet. Our one and only duvet, the one we sleep under every night in the van. When Danny finally opened his eyes, I told him the news. His response, in a moaning tone, was: “Oh. I can't take my shoes off”. He had gone to bed fully clothed, shoes and all. Even though he was surrounded by cat diarrhoea, Danny just rolled over, fell back to sleep and didn’t rise until midday. When he was finally alert enough to have a conversation, we both couldn't stop laughing about how funny the situation was. Thankfully Nick put the duvet cover into the washing machine for us, saving us from having to hose it down in the street. The entire day was a write-off for both of the boys.

After having a real shower in a real house, Danny nursed his hangover in our bed inside the van (safe from ill cats) while I explored the city. I spent most of the day on the river, walking up and down either side and crossing several of the seven bridges. The view consisted of a mix of new and old architecture, but overall it appeared to be one of the more modern cities we had visited. I found the Castle (that gave rise to the name 'Newcastle'), however there was clearly nothing new about it. It's small size and uninviting façade resulted in me walking on by without entering.

I made it back to the van at sunset to find Danny just getting out of bed, although still feeling worse for wear. We headed back up to Nick's apartment where we watched TV (real TV!) and ordered Indian food for dinner. The meal was excellent, mostly because it was the spiciest food I’ve eaten all year. As we didn't want to risk a repeat of last night’s drama, we chose to sleep in our van tonight.