ASHINGTON
Ashington, a town near Newcastle. It's got a history of mining, quite visible by the sporadic appearances of colliery wheels dotted around the town.
It's been on my list for a few years to visit, due to relatives from my in-laws side. My wife speaks about them regularly. But for one reason or another, I couldn't go.
Until an opportunity, rather a chance came up on the 18th May weekend. It would have been nicer to go at a more happier time, but our relative had been suffering from cancer for over a year now. May Allah grant him shifa, Aameen.
We went to King's Cross Station. Our train was scheduled for 20:27pm. I had finished work at 5pm and rushed home to finish off last minute packing. We were to spend 2 nights at Ashington.
There was the usual queue of people waiting to take pictures of the Platform 9 3/4 wall. I was hoping to be on platform 9, but we our train was on platform 2.
PRAYER TIME
The train was a new one we used. The Lumo (sounds like a Harry Potter spell!). We boarded the train and found our seats. I like front facing seats, but we didn't get one this time round.
Maghrib time approached. Due to lack of space, we had to pray on our seats.
As I started praying, I could hear passengers saying "oh that's nice" and one of them said "they're sitting and praying" in a positive way.
Nice to have a positive experience.
A man on the seat adjacent was marking chemistry papers! He must have been a teacher. I had an English teacher sat next to me, so it was a rather educational train ride!
After 3 hours, with one stop at Newcastle, we reached Morpeth station.
It was dark. I half expected Hagrid to greet us with his big lamp! (Sorry no more Harry Potter references!) There were only 2 or 3 other people who got off the train. As we headed out, we saw two figures standing on the opposite platform. They stood, silently. As we walked on, they approached us. And started to grab our bags. With a smile so bright, and the light of the lamps revealing their faces, we were greeted with a warm "Assalamualaykum." It was our relatives! (Sorry gotta be a bit dramatic innit!)
FAMILY
They had waited for us to take us to their house. It was 12am now. But hospitality has no time limits. We were greeted by other members of the family, we settled down. My wife went to see her cousin sister. I sat in the living room, marvelling at the size and ornaments.
I met some of the family members for the first time. But it seemed like they knew me for a long time indeed.
Despite late at night, they provided us with welcome drinks, a delicious meal and a scrumptious homemade brownie!
We then went to our accommodation for the duration of our trip. It was quite late and slowly I dosed off.
RAILTRACKS
We woke up early in the morning. After a quick breakfast, we decided to go for a walk and explore the area.
We had heard about the Queen Elizabeth II Park. As we walked along the road, we had a lot of looks. Visibly Muslim, we expected this from an area where there is hardly any at all.
We found an entrance and walked along a small road. Suddenly something caught my eyes. Railtracks. I'm quite fascinated by railtracks, especially ones you can walk on, safely.
We saw an opening through the trees and surprisingly came alongside the tracks. It's not very safe to be around railtracks. But nevertheless, I enjoyed the short time.
We came across the Woodhorn Colliery Museum. Ashington, as I mentioned, is known for it's mining history. They would mine coal and worked in really tough conditions.
THE LAKE
Our relative came and picked us up to go to the adjacent Queen Elizabeth II Park. QEII for short.
It's a massive park with a lake, where anglers were fishing. There's a hotel and restaurant that overlooks the lake. We went for a walk around the lake. People walk their dogs here, so I had to doge a few!
Once again it was nice to come across friendly people.
The lake hosts ducks and swans. Two ducks stood protecting their ducklings as we approached to take a closer look, the father (I assumed) hissed at us!
Whilst walking in the park, we came across a train track, hidden within the overgrown grass. I assumed it was for wagons to transfer coal to different parts of the colliery. Until recently there used to be an engine taking visitors around, but that's now closed.
It was a nice walk, refreshing. Much needed. After our walk, we went back to the house, as the family had laid out refreshments for us.
The beach isn't too far. We wanted to check it out. The weather wasn't the best, nor was it the worse.
TWO BEACHES
We drove down to Blythe Beach. Surprisingly there was a curtain if fog, blocking off much of the view. It was a busy area, with lots of people. There was a fair of some sort happening nearby, with old army vehicles on show.
Being visiblily dressed Muslim, we had the odd looks. A kid walked by and said, "Allah Akbar," much to my amusement.
I walked up to the sea. The fog was pretty strong. After a quick look around, we headed back to the car.
We then visited another beach, the Crrsswell Beach. There were less people here, the weather was better despite being a 10-15 minute drive. This beach had dunes, and white sand.
Back to the house again, to a delicious mouth-watering traditional Bangaldeshi lunch. Alhamdulillah.
NEWCASTLE
We went to Newcastle to visit another relative. On the way, I was really tired and dosed off a few times, much to my wife's amusement!
We stopped over at a Masjid to pray. Surprisingly, the Masjid had a women's space, a gym and other facilities.
The visit to relatives in Newcastle was good. More hospitality. They gave us egg noodles and homemade pizza slices, along with a lovely cup of tea.
It was time for Maghrib and I was pushed to lead the Salah. Oh was I nervous! After Salah we left Newcastle.
We went back to Ashington and was welcomed by a spread of Indian food from the takeaway our relatives own. It was really delicious. If you're ever in Ashington, try out Taj Tandoori and Balti Takeaway.
After a long and lovely day, it was time to turn in for the night. Our accommodation is an Air BnB, which is run by our relative.
LAST DAY
We wanted to utilise our last few hours, so went for a walk, at a random direction. Once again, we came across nice people.
We walked down some residential areas. There was an old care home that we came across. It was no longer in use. With smashed windows, overgrown grass; it looked like a perfect horror movie scene!
There was a park that caught our interest. The Hirst Park. It had a lovely bricked wall and gated entrance to it. The park was peaceful. There were people walking their dogs. I was told that Ashington had more dogs than humans! How lovely (sarcasm!)
SIR BOBBY CHARLTON
We came across a memorial, to the great footballers Bobby and Jack Charlton. They both won the Footbsll World Cup in 1966 for England.
Interestingly, they grew up in the area and played football in the very park we stood in.
There was also a memorial commemorating the Ashington Woodhorn Colliery mining explosion, where 13 men got killed. Their named are etched on the floor and the history of miners in Ashington is written on an information board nearby.
After refreshing, we decided to go back to the relatives house.
Once again hospitality knows no bounds here.
LUNCH AND GOODBYES
We had our lunch. Rice and curries. A beautiful spread once again. I really like how people come up with different dishes. Boiled eggs with Chana Daal was one of them.
It was now time to leave. After our farewells, we jumped in the car and headed for Morpeth Station. I hope to see them at our house soon inshaAllah and return the favours they had showered upon us.
HOME AT LAST
The station is quite small, with a few people waiting for the trains. Ours was at 15:06. The train approached the station and we got on. A couple occupied our seats, they said they had missed their one and jumped on this train. Quite annoying. Nevertheless, wife found another set of seats quite quickly.
It was day time, so I looked out the window and marvelled at the many sceneries that flew by, praising Allah at such magnificent sight of His creations.
Alhamdulillah we reached home.
What a beautiful journey it was. I really enjoyed it, though I was nervous at first. Amazing how you meet different people, see different things and just enjoy yourself. Alhamdulillah for the opportunities in life. The town of Ashington has a very small population of Muslims, but growing. I hear there is plans to establish the first Masjid as a lot of refugees and overseas students are coming in and need a space to worship Almighty Allah. I pray this happens soon.
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