What didn't we do??

Hank survived his first week of work. He sits about two desks away from me, and surprisingly his messy desk hasn't quite reached its way to me yet. *duck*

We had quite the busy weekend - the weather was forecast to be nice on Saturday but rainy on Sunday, however it ended up only raining Sunday morning, so we really had two lovely days of wandering around. Saturday we went to Greenwich, toured the observatory, and oogled at all of the lovely clocks. The highlight was really taking the boat back from Greenwich pier to Westminster, though.

Since the boat let us off right at Big Ben & parliament, we wandered some more and took a bunch of photos - TBP (To Be Posted). We noticed a fairly substantial queue (note the nice Britishizing of the vocabulary...) and saw signs that summer tours of parliament were being given. We were able to catch one of the last tours of the afternoon, and I have to say it was absolutely stunning. The House of Lords side is decorated using the ultimate Victorian interior design adage - if you can overdo it, do it! There was gold gilt on anything that would stand still long enough to take it. The House of Commons was bombed during WWII, and although they didn't say what it looked like before that, the current design is much more subdued yet still elegant. (There's nothing like plain oak paneling to make the lower house know its place, I say!) It was also a good introduction into the differences between parliamentary and Congressional processes. And yes, there was a gift shop with two types of whisky: House of Lords (single malt) and House of Commons (blended) - natch!

And no, Molly, we did NOT buy the parliament shot glasses.

Also, apparently the cats are doing quite well, for those of you who've asked.