Well, it's been a very long time since I've had a full post. I guess it's actually been almost a month! I've posted a few pictures to the blog from a trip to Holy Island and a trip to London, but never really wrote about everything that went on in between.
So... let's see... my last post had me returning from Colorado to the land of roundabouts and drunks singing in the street. I've managed to master the art of negotiating a round about without getting killed. I don't think I've had any near misses recently! The week I returned was when I first got the car (March 10). That following weekend (March 12) Sara, Gina, and I drove to Holy Island. The island is only accessible at low tide since the road is under water during high tide. We left Newcastle at around 8:30a and arrived at the island just about 10:00. We walked in the incredibly strong winds to the castle and took a tour. Afterwards, we walked out to the North Sea and took some pictures. Sara and Gina were nearly blown away by the wind and just about froze to death. We had lunch at the local pub around noon and then headed back towards Alnwick (pronounced Onic). There is a castle there but it was closed... the royals were living there for the winter so there weren't any tours and you really couldn't get close to the place. We spent some time at the bookstore in town and then drove out to the east to see if there was anything of much interest. It turned out that there was a nice little church and another castle to see. We started back towards Newcastle around 3:30. Gina and Sara were snoozing by the time we reached the highway. I told them they wouldn't last 1 day with Athena on vacation... "It's only 4:00?!?! We still have 8 hours left in the day!!" :) You can see a picture of the Priory at Holy Island in a previous post.
On the 13th, Sara and I drove down into Gateshead and took some pictures of the Angel of the North. It's a large "sculpture" that can be seen from the highway. It's wing span is the same as a Boeing 767.
Angel of the North
The week of the 14th was rather uneventful. I spent the following weekend in Newcastle. The week of the 21st was filled with back-to-back-to-back meetings. On Thursday, I flew back to DC for a surprise visit. Laurie picked me up at the airport. I arrived back at my parents at about 8:00p. I knocked on the door and heard my dad mumble something about who was at the door. The look on his face when he opened the door was worth the trip! Then to surprise my mom in the kitchen made it doubly worth while. The weekend was very busy, but definitely worth every minute spent on the plane back and forth. I managed to see a number of relatives (Grandma, Kara, Wes), have some really good meals, and get a small amount of actual work done. All-in-all, it was a great trip.
I returned from DC on the 28th (which is a holiday in the UK). Also, the 27th was the start of daylight savings time here in the UK. That threw a few people off for a few days since the UK was now 9 hours ahead of the west coast. Anyway, the week of the 28th was pretty short since a lot of people were on vacation and we had an all-hands meeting in London on Friday, April 1. Gina, Kate, Sara, and I flew down to London Friday morning and went directly to the office. We worked for a few hours and then attended the meeting and social hour afterwards. We all checked into the hotel and then went our separate ways. Kate went to have dinner with a friend while Sara met up with her friend from Germany. Gina and I ended up walking around London for about 5 1/2 hours. We probably walked over 5 miles!! and in uncomfortable shoes no less!! Below is a picture of Piccadilly circus. It was very crowded and noisy. During the day, there is a lot going on with performers and people milling around.
Picadilly Circus
The next day Gina, Kate and I set off to walk some more. We walked down to the London Eye (which is where the Big Ben pictures are from). Below is a picture (it's roughly 400 feet tall). It was $25 to take a ride on the eye so we all decided to go. It took about 25-30 minutes to get through the line, then the ride itself was about 35 minutes. I had talked to Athena's brother (Pete) at about noon and said that we'd meet at Big Ben around 1:00p. We were done at the Eye by 12:30 so we walked up to Big Ben and then up parliament st. We met up with Pete and his friend Brian around 1:00p and had lunch at a little pub nearby. The food was bad, the service was worse, and the prices were high. Other than that, the place was fine. After our "meal", we walked up to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures. We'd wanted to go to Westminster Abby, but it closed at 1:45p that day... we got there at 1:50p. After the Palace, we walked through Green Park and then up to some of the shops. Pete and Brian left to do other things at this point. Kate, Gina and I walked around to some shops... Kate then decided to try on every outfit at the Gap. Gina and I retreated next door to have a beverage and relax our feet... by this point she and I had probably walked 10 miles or more in 2 days.... and in uncomfortable shoes!! Gina and I flew back to Newcastle Saturday evening.
London Eye
On Sunday, April 3rd, I invited Gina, Kate, Sara, and Sandeep (another US Booz Allen employee that I just found out was here), over for dinner. We started the meal with cheese and crackers and then had a luxurious dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Afterwards, we watched Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill. It was a fun evening of dairy products and British humor!
Last week was a slower week than normal... We had a going away party for one of the London based staff on Tuesday. He's been working on this project for over a year and is leaving the company to go work for another consulting firm. He's been very helpful since I've been here and we'll definitely miss him.
On Wednesday I had to go to a meeting in Lytham... it was a 3 hour drive from Newcastle. We met at 6:30a to drive down... yuck!! It was made even more difficult by the fact that I had been at the going away party until after 11:00p the night before!! We got to Lytham around 10:00a. Art and I then had to kill three hours until our meeting at 1:00p. We went down early because we rode with two other people that were going to a different meeting at the same location. Originally our meetings were supposed to be at the same time, but one of them got moved at the last minute. So, after a 3 hr drive, and 3 hrs of waiting, we attended a 3 hour meeting. It was not the most productive meeting I've ever been to... it was very difficult to maintain interest and pretend to be awake! We finished the meeting and then got back in the car for the 3 hour drive back.
The weather forecast for this weekend was for snow and cold, so everyone decided to just hang out in Newcastle. I ended up going shopping at Costco (yes, they have them here in the UK!) I was then invited to join the "girls night out". Gina, Kate, and Sara were planning to get together for drinks. The drink of the evening for them was the Cosmopolitan. I drank about 12 glasses of water. By 1:00a Sara and Kate had finished 5 cosmos. Sara was unable to form complete sentences... Kate seemed as if she were ready to have 5 more. Gina called it quits after 2 1/2 cosmos and was just hanging out surveying the room and bothering strange men. Today we were all supposed to get together for an early dinner at Gina's at 2:30p. Sara and I had planned to get together in the morning for some tea and possibly go to the gym. At about 11:00 she called and said that she didn't think she could even get out of bed. Every time she stood up she felt horrible. By 2:00p, she was still miserable and decided that she would accept the title of "The Queen of Bad Ideas." She decided that 5 cosmos was probably too many. Somehow she pulled herself together and we made it down to Gina's at about 2:45. Kate, on the other hand, had gotten up at a reasonable time, gone to mass, and then gone to the gym. She was feeling just fine. We've decided it's because Sara is an amateur and Kate is a professional. :-)
Anyway, it's been a nice day here in Newcastle for a change. It's actually been reasonable sunny and warm. We'll see if this lasts more than 1 day though.
Athena now has her tickets booked to come out!! She'll be arriving here on April 21. We'll go to Edinburgh on the 23rd for a couple of days, then come back to Newcastle for a few days. We'll be in London for a long weekend before she heads back to the desert on May 2nd.
Hope all is well in your parts of the world!!
Steve
