Christmas roundup

A few more pictures to get back up to date with the Christmas break back in the UK.

I mentioned in a post a week or so back that I'd been with a friend to the South Bank to see a couple of exhibitions. The usual skateboarders and bikers were falling off their respective pieces of equipment in the concrete playground by the side of the river. There was however one guy who seemed to be consistently not falling over and he gave me a chance to try some shots in the shade at high speed. With a bit of playing around I got this image:

The next day, the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace drew a huge crowd, and I'm still unsure if I missed seeing the Queen by a matter of minutes. Anyway, in one of the doorways of the palace I spotted this royal pair who were clearly interested in taking my photo:

For New Year's Eve I was back in London and we headed for the London Eye to get prime viewing position for the fireworks. Waterloo was mayhem and there were apparently 700,000 people out on the streets for the event. The fireworks were spectacular and the slight drizzle didn't put a damper on the atmosphere:


Next week I head to Madrid for a couple of days before going on to the winter string school in CERN which I'm thoroughly looking forward to. I hope to report on some physics from the school - there will be a working group on AdS/CFT with flavour.