Well, this is awkward...

I've only been to Newcastle a couple of times before: once to see Nick Cave playing at the Sage and once to meet up with a couple ex-colleagues. I didn't see much of the city on either occasion, although admittedly there was the walk from a riverside pub to a curry house on the second visit.

Today, I saw a little more of the place after a very rainy but pleasantly relaxed journey up from York. We took our bags up to the hotel room and then went down to a nearby bar to meet up with our Twitter friend, Pommieknight. It's the first time either of us have met him in person - or IRL, as the young Internet people say - and it was really enjoyable. He's a funny, interesting and sensitive guy.

After that we were joined by David, with whom we met up recently in Edinburgh, and a chap called Tom, who is the son of one of my best friends and also one of my daughter Hannah's closest friends. I doubt Tom was even a year old when I first met him! Still, he has grown up into a very fine young man and despite initial protestations that he'd only join us for a beer or two as he had work to do, I was delighted when he settled in for the evening.

The reason were were in Newcastle was to see one of our favourite bands, Balthazar, whom we last saw at Glastonbury. Big on the continent, the band are happy enough to come and play small venues over here and they get better ever time we see them. Tonight they were playing the Think Tank?, and after grabbing a bite to eat - if two enormous plates of barbecued meat can count as a 'a bite' - we went along to the venue.

The band were every bit as good as we'd hoped* (and assured Tom and David that they would be). Afterwards, the Minx and I went back to the hotel. Last time we saw them in Manchester, at the Deaf Institute, we'd bumped into them back at hotel. AND THE SAME THING HAPPENED TONIGHT.

It is rather odd to find oneself in a situation that makes one looks quite categorically like a stalker but the two band members seemed happy to accept this unlikely coincidence at face value and chatted to us for a good ten minutes or so. Even so, next time we see them, I'm going to race back to our room while the band are still packing their gear!

*Our Gigtails review is here