Di's Lighthouse

Here are some pictures from the party last weekend hosted by Diane (along with some other folks from my tennis group). Diane lives north of Newcastle on the coast in a small town called Blyth. There's a lighthouse in her backyard that was built in the 1700's, and was only taken out of service a few years ago. We played croquet, mini-golf, Jinga, and "Snakes and Ladders" (similar to Chutes and Ladders, methinks). The last game was a "spit the dummy" contest... which fortunately fell after a couple of glasses of wine. Good times!

The London Eye

As opposed to the London Aye, which is a popular form of acknowledgement here.
It's the biggest ferris wheel I've ever seen, and provided us with a spectacular night view of London and the Thames on our first evening there. We also had to "mind the gap" quite a bit (that's the step from the train to the platform, in case you were wondering) and try all of the London Ales (not to be confused with the Ayes, again... which ironically becomes more of a staple in pub conversations as more ales are consumed).

GSTQ!

That's a lot like TGIF in the US, but means God Save the Queen in England. The President of Ghana is inside the bulletproof carriage with the Queen.

London Town

Aditya, Daxa and I went looking for werewolves in London (but fortunately didn't find any...). We did see the Queen, though, who was hosting the President of Ghana on the day of our visit. Security was tight, but there was no shortage of pomp and circumstance. It was fantastic!

Back in business

well, almost... Been busy entertaining friends from Atlanta, going to London and Edinburgh, and stopping at most of the pubs in between.
Also had to write a 10-page paper for class, which took my attention away from traveling and soccer and tennis for a week or so... but now i have one more class before my five week spring break starts up. I'm particularly looking forward to that since it includes a trip home to visit my family and friends, see Grandma on her 100th birthday, and then Mom and Dad follow me back to the UK for 10 days.
Judging by the amount of walking that Aditya and Daxa and I did over the last week, I think they're in for a little more than culture shock. We collected a couple of gigabytes worth of pictures, so we'll have fun looking at those when I get home.
Hope everyone had a great St Patty's Day! We were in Scotland on Friday, came home on Sat, and by the time I made it to the local pub they had run out of Guinness.
See y'all soon!
Scot
ps. The Millenium Bridge is a walking bridge over the Tyne River. When boats need to pass underneath, it tilts up to form a big wicket over the river. Reminds me of the StL Arch a little... (photos courtesy of Aditya, also pictured above)