Hiya

A little English greeting for you all!  In case you haven't seen the pictures that Jess put together of her trip, here is the link https://picasaweb.google.com/113518507283786281962.  London was really fun yesterday, even better because the weather turned out great, after a forecast of heavy storms that I had seen earlier in the week.  I took advantage of it to walk up the Monument, 311 stairs, and enjoy the view.

 So the weather doesn't look so great from that picture, but it was! I then decided to walk over to Borough Market and wound up eating lunch there too, as it would just be a shame to pass up all of the great food you can get there.  I decided on a Catalan Stew, which was a nice spicy sausage stew served over mashed potatoes.

There were a number of Tube delays and services that were not running, which made getting to my next stop for the Brodies Beer fest a little tougher.  I did finally get there though, and enjoyed the walking too.  I was in Leyton, which was really residential, and a very ethnic area too.  It reminded me a little bit of parts of DC actually.  The pub was doing a hog roast - not quite a pig picking, but as close as can be expected!

I did get a small tour of their brewery, which is located next door to the pub.  A very small operation, kind of amazing that they can keep the pub stocked from the size of their facility!

I ended the night back by Tower Bridge for a free tasting of some beers at the Draft House, and then went to Dean Swift for some dinner - which was a tasty herb crusted salmon.

A very good day, even after missing my stop on the train home and then having to get a taxi home because there were no more buses.

This morning I've been working on our report still and debating whether I want to take the bus to do a little shopping at Sainsburys this afternoon.  Although it is 60 and sunny, so maybe I'll ride my bike over there.  That kind of depends on how much I need to buy though, as it's too long of a bike ride if I'm carrying more than one bag I think.

My laptop screen has died again too, but at least it's working with my monitor.  Hopefully I can get it serviced when I come home on May 24th.  It's funny that I'm coming home right in between Dad and Jane visiting and then Jeremy coming over for Le Mans, but I'm really looking forward to it.  Just a little over 3 weeks away!