First Weekend in July

There were many notable things happening in England this past weekend. The largest being what you've all heard in the news about the terrorist activity in the center of London. Luckily, nothing came out of it and was caught before anything happened. It also was only two days after the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown started in office. So he's had his hands full. Also because the Glasgow airport incident was related. Airport security has been tightened and we're just glad not to be flying anywhere in the next week or so.

On more positive notes, two other events are worth mentioning. One is that on Sunday, the entire country of England went smoke-free in all indoor public and work places, which includes all pubs. It's pretty amazing being in Europe and not have to put up with so much smoke. And honestly, the English have been really accepting of the change. Some statistic I read/heard said that about 40% of English smokers want to quit. It might have been even higher than that. I remember only like 3-4 years ago visiting Oxford, there was a law to have a non-smoking section at restaurants and pubs. It consisted of one table in the back corner surrounded by smoking tables. So it was kind of a joke. Neat to see how quickly England has come around to offering healthy environments for their people and visitors.

The other is the Concert for Diana put on by Prince William and Prince Harry in London Sunday night. They wanted to celebrate her life with a memorial concert as she would have turned 46 this month and died 10 years ago. The princes had a pretty cool lineup of American and British artists including Princess Diana's favorite bands like Duran Duran, Rod Stewart and Elton John (who I was most excited to hear). The princes also invited current musicians like Joss Stone, Fergie, Kanye West, Nelly Furtado, and others. So it was a cool mix. I would have liked to go to the concert if I had realized earlier it was happening. The ticket prices I thought were reasonable and seats were left too. We listened to the concert on the radio (since we still don't have a TV) and enjoyed hearing the acts live. We missed Elton opening "Your Song" but heard his last three "Saturday Night's Alright (for Fighting)" , "Tiny Dancer" and actually I wasn't familiar with the last one. Speculation was that he'd sing "Candle in the Wind" again. He last sang that song live to an audience at Diana's funeral, and said he would never again perform it live. He didn't sing it at Sunday's concert, but still hard to know if he had planned too, as rumor is that he was cut short due to technical difficulties.