Sunderland is in the metropolitan area of Tyne and Wear and is bisected by the River Wear, once a hive of industry - shipbuilding, coal mining, pottery and glass making. Proud of its heritage, Sunderland has started building a National Glass Centre to carry this aspect of our culture through to the twenty-first century.

On the non-cultural side, there are some great clubs and pubs here - it's a real party city where the locals and the "stew-dents" mix freely. Libertys is a cool pub with decent music and on a Thursday night it is not too busy. The best bit are the £2 trebles which are brilliant for getting you juiced up just before Annabel's.

Annabel's is excellent, there's often a queue, but well it's worth the wait, and anyway you can chat women up while you wait. McCanns and the Palace are well worth a look as well, but they're often full of Britney-a-likes dancing and squealing to ABBA - actually, there's nothing wrong with that.

There is also the world's greatest football team in Sunderland, and with Magic Kev Phillips, we have the European Golden Boot and the most exciting striker in England, and there's lots of other stuff too.