Newcastle - hmmmmmmmm

So, first things first.  I took a very quick trip to London mid march, highlight of which was flying with a BA gold guy and getting lounge access at heathrow.  That's flying in style

The following week, it was back to London.  I love walking into the office now.  The tube I would normally take is shut, so I get to walk past Trafalgar Square in the morning, which just makes me smile.

 That evening, it was off for drinks with the team at the local and J came out too, which made it perfect!

The next morning, it was an early morning train with the guys from the team for Newcastle:

The best part of the trip was the football match Newcastle v Crystal Palace.  Not a great match up or game, but a lot to take in and enjoy!

Stadium was huge - seats 60,000 I would guess.  The away fans were the loudest - they were all secluded in a corner of the stadium but their songs were really loud.  No home fan songs, which was disappointing.  Newcastle won in stoppage time 1-0.  Stadium didn't get loud until the 94th minute!

Amazing seats.  For my first epl game, not a bad way to do it!

Crystal Palace and Newcastle players

Team warm ups

Newcastle corner kick

Stadium shot

So after the match, it was a quick hop through some bars and then cleaning up for dinner.  I wore heels for the second time in my life - glad I did, but still stuck out like sore thumb.  Newcastle is party city - whilst I've improved my party skills, I hope I never get that good.  Dinner was amazing though- pub from the 1200s that was an old monastery.  I felt like we were royalty sitting at these long tables with dim lights.  All that was missing was the jousting.  Jesters were definitely present and accounted for.

The other thing funny about picture above is Una, who is our team audit puppy.  To spice up busy season, the firm gave teams a puppy to take pictures of whilst working or having fun.  She is definitely been the world traveler!

The next morning, it was wandering through the markets along the river Tyne.  Beautiful city despite the craziness of the night life!  

Back again!

Wow - the last post was Salzburg.  Amazing how much has happened since then and how much I have to be thankful.

First a recap of the last few months and then back to the trips blog that everyone knows and loves.  I kid, I'm sure my mom is the only one who loves it.

So in September, the family found out my dad was quite ill with a very rare heart condition for which the prognosis was not good.  We kept it very hush hush until the day I flew back home for the surgery. Long story short, I stopped booking trips and only did them last minute if I thought it was ok and mostly to London.  So you still had some blog posts pre-Christmas, but they were all fairly short and easy to get back to Houston should I need to. 

I went home for Christmas, which was tough because there was still a lot of uncertainty.  I wasn't sure if I was going back, what the right thing to do was and most importantly, how I was going to emotionally deal with being an ocean away whilst we didn't know what was going to happen.  When we finally had some clarity, I headed back with a date on the calendar to come home in February for the surgery.  Honestly, busy season was a curse and a blessing this year.  On one hand, I was able to completely immerse myself in work and friends here.  There are several people I honestly couldn't live without....particularly as the days got closer and my mental capacity dropped, I've never felt more supported or cared for, both with emails from Houston friends and dinners with absolutely the best colleagues.  The curse was I missed 2 weeks of busy season and one does not recover from that.  I worked my tail off before and when I got back to get ahead and catch up.  

So I flew home on the last day of January.  I was off the clock for 2 full weeks and everyone in the NL and the UK made sure it stayed that way.  Everything went so well for my dad that ptl, he's home and recovering and can fully expect me to bug him about visiting sooner rather than later.  

I also got the chance to catch up with the my previous team in Houston, which was great (glad they were willing to come to rice village for my car-less self!)!  And I had quality time with S and T (sorry for falling asleep at 8!)

So....on to more travels and adventures!

So far this year, I've taken a work trip to London (nothing exciting), London and Newcastle (very exciting), and I'm writing this waiting on a plane back to amsterdam from Kuala Lumpur.  Not jinxing it by giving away the airline, but suffice it to say, it was once a very safe airline and now that is definitely in question.  Next post on Newcastle!