London, UK

This week, I'm still in the UK.  I started the week in Manchester and now I'm making my way south to London.

Before I left Manchester, I took a short break from the conference to run an errand for my oldest son.  You see, he's a huge fan of the UK-based soccer team Manchester City.  I have no idea why a guy from Texas is a big fan of a lesser-known soccer team in the middle of the UK, but it's amazing how much he likes the team.  It's a complete coincidence that I was about 20 minutes outside of the city, so he begged me to shop for some souvenirs. The team just won the the league championship a few days ago.

The store was located in the heart of Manchester, along Market Street.  I really like the downtown area, because it's blocked off for pedestrians.  There was a light-rail system and even a giant ferris wheel along the main shopping area:

So I combined a taxi, train ride and short walk - and located the store.  My son's head would have exploded, as there were two floors of merchandise!

It was quite an adventure - and the store clerk loved the story about my son.  I'm just glad, as a father, to be able to make my son so happy ; )

After the conclusion of some morning meetings, I jumped on a train for the 3 hour ride back to London.  I loved walking around the city...it's a really great place to visit.  I wouldn't even mind moving here, if I could figure out how to get my company to do that ; )

Theater is really big here in London.  It's a great place to see a ton of Broadway-quality shows.  Many times, shows will start here, before heading to New York.  I snapped this picture of the theater that is currently hosting The Commitments - a musical based on the film:

In my never-ending quest to find unusually-flavored potato chips around the world, I picked up these at a local market:

They were actually pretty good...nice and tangy...

At about 6pm, most people were leaving work.  Here in the UK, a normal part of social life includes a trip to the pub on your way home.  Every block, you can find a pub with a ton of people squeezed inside and out:

I passed by one of the big tourist areas in London - Leicester Square.  This is where they premiere most of the movies in the UK.  It was crawling with pedestrians:

That evening, I went to dinner with three of my former employees...and we had a blast catching up.  One had converted to Islam and we had a neat conversation, comparing the various aspects of our faiths - and how much we actually have in common between Muslims and Mormons.

That wraps up the day - lots of phone calls and e-mails...but those don't make very good pictures ; )  I'm excited to fly home tomorrow and get to hang out with my kids and wife!!!

Thanks for reading...