Taking coals to Newcastle...

On Friday I took off for a weekend getaway to visit friends in Newcastle...

...where we wandered around the city centre (and down by the quayside where, yes, I did see the Millennium Bridge but wasn't quick enough of the draw to take a picture) and several lovely monuments: one of Saint George,

and one, I know at least a few of you will appreciate immensely:

Yes, this is in honour of THE Earl Grey (his name was Charles).

My friends also introduced me to the most wonderful milkshake bar in the world (I kid you not; they had every flavor possible, compliments of blending in any form of candy, cookie or whatnot, from shortbread to all Cadbury flavors - including creme egg- any candy bar you can think of, Nutella, peanut butter and chocolate, apple pie, lemon curd...I had a raspberry jam milkshake with white chocolate shavings).

We then wandered around the mall, where I found this and became wildly excited because of a related conversation those of us at the Houston Space Center had:

For those of you who weren't there, we were wondering why the Omega watch company doesn't capitalize on the fact theirs is the only watch to have ever gone to the moon. Apparently, they do, just not in the States (since, I have seen this same window display in Edinburgh).

And, because classes start tomorrow and the number of photos will probably drop off drastically, I'll save the rest of the weekend for the next few days!