Newcastle's deputy lord mayor is halfway through a part-time master's degree in sustainable urban development at the University of Oxford.

The course involves eight intensive teaching weeks during two years of study.

"The teaching weeks are pretty gruelling: 9am to 5pm classes, plus scheduled events most evenings," Declan said.

The course is taught in Oxford and London.

"The class is very international - with only a handful of the 14 students coming from the UK. The remainder come from Canada, the US, Colombia and Israel, plus myself and one other student travelling from Australia.

"It's a pretty amazing experience. I've been very lucky that the timetable fits around my council and work commitments."

The course covers subjects like urbanism, climate change, transport, place-making, finance and urban economics.

"I'm exceptionally lucky to have had the opportunity to study at Oxford - it's currently ranked the world's number one university.

"I'm very interested in sustainable urban development from an academic and practical perspective, as many challenges facing cities are universal. Almost all are currently relevant to the development of Newy."

In addition to the teaching weeks, the course requires the completion of a research dissertation [a thesis].

"I intend to focus my studies on the economic transition underway in our region," he said.

Asked how he was funding the course, he said: "Self funded - good to clarify, no contribution from council!"

Declan has become mates with Ed Steane, the other student travelling from Australia for the Oxford master's degree.

"I first met Ed in Oxford at the Turf Tavern - where Bob Hawke got his world record for skulling a yard glass," Declan said.

"Ed and I have become close friends, despite having quite different political backgrounds. During the Turnbull government, Ed was chief of staff to the federal minister for cities."

Ed is a Kiwi who's been trying to become an Aussie.

"For as long as I've known him, Ed has been going through the process of becoming an Australian citizen.

"Earlier in the year, he received a letter from the minister advising that his application for citizenship was successful and that he was eligible to receive his citizenship at a formal ceremony."

On Wednesday, Ed was among a group of people to receive Australian citizenship at an official ceremony in Newcastle.

In his role as deputy mayor [and friend], Declan had the honour of presenting Ed with his prized citizenship.

Want a memento from the fire at The Edwards in Newcastle West?

The venue's shop - which reopened a fortnight ago - has some boxes of vinyl records that survived the blaze in June last year.

Punters can buy one of the records for a gold coin donation. Some of them are barely damaged. Others bare the scars of fire.

They all come with the sticker, "I survived The Edwards fire".

People who pop in and buy a record [a fire-damaged memento or otherwise] would be contributing something to "help us get back on our feet," a shop spokesman said, in an Instagram post.

The shop is described as a "celebration of all things cool and cultural".

"It's the jubilation of digging through records to find a sparkling jewel. It's the way your blood gets warmer when the beat kicks in. It's the way you love music with all your heart, but mostly the way it loves you back."

Former Silverchair bassist Chris Joannou announced in July that The Edwards restaurant and bar had reopened.

A Topics spy was recently doing a bit of light reading on a Newcastle council document about Fort Wallace at Stockton.

Our spy came across the term "Fonzie flat", which was described as a "self-contained flat above a garage".

"It immediately clicked. The Fonz lived in a flat over someone's garage in Happy Days," our spy said.

"It seemed like a strange term to use in 2019 and in Australia, especially since Happy Days hasn't had any recent revival or remake that I can think of to make it more relevant to younger audiences."