Archive for the 'Scratchpad' Category

Almost a month. This is probably the longest period I’ve kept away from my blog. There really is no excuse for the hiatus — especially considering that MacBeth has entered my life.

For those not already threatening to fling themselves out of the nearest window at any further explanation for the rationale behind “MacBeth”, it is the name of my new MacBook. As to why I call it (her) MacBeth… ask anyone falling out of a window!

Anyhow, this is the new range of MacBooks, with a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel processor, 2 GB DDR3 RAM, 160 GB hard disk, and integrated 256 MB NVidia GeForce 9400M graphics. Unfortunately, sooner or later I will have to install Windows on it alongside Mac OS due to work constraints and also because most of my games are Windows ones (yes, I want to play Sims!).

I also got a 2000-buck gift voucher with the machine, so MacBeth has a nice little zip case. The machine gives me good battery back-up, which is great for this power-starved city.

~PD

Apologies for the delayed update — moving and settling in seemed to take priority over the past weeks. But there are still a few albums to put up, so without any further ado, let’s jump into Rebus’s Edinburgh…

A personal Rebus tour

It is quite impossible for any reader of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus books to remain untouched by the Scottish capital. Which was the sole reason it had always been on my list of places to visit in Britain. And while I’d always imagined myself to be a mountain and wilderness type of person, hating crowds and concrete jungles (despite having lived in a variety of them for over three decades), yet Edinburgh, with its thronging Festival season tourists, it’s crowded streets and it’s traffic snarls, was one urban jungle I did fall in love with.

Rebus came alive the moment I stepped on to the platform of Waverley Station. Within minutes I was on Princes Street, looking up at the dizzying Scott Monument, past the National Gallery of Scotland and into Princes Street Gardens. As I walked up the Mound and into the Old Town, the streets become cobbled. It transported you into a different time, and if it weren’t for the traffic it would be hard to imagine this wasn’t a dream, and without the Lothian and Borders Police van, I’d have forgotten why I was really here!

However, a few minutes in the heart of Edinburgh made me — if not forget — disregard the Rebus connection altogether. For the truth of the matter is, you do not need an excuse to visit this beautiful city.

From the Mound, up the steep Castlehill brings you to the foot of the Edinburgh Castle and the start of the Royal Mile (from the Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse). And it puts you in close quarters with a number of other Rebus landmarks: Lawnmarket, Grassmarket, High Street, Canongate, St. Giles Cathedral, the Radisson, the City Chambers, High Street…

Traipsing along the Royal Mile during the Edinburgh Festival was an adventure in itself. Having always avoided crowds like the plague, I was fascinated to find how “into” it all I was. The street performers were amusing, fascinating and hair-raising in turn, but the spectators were fantastic. Parts of the Royal Mile were blocked off to traffic and these were generally so crowded with people that you could only go in the direction the crowd took you.

The end of the Royal Mile brings you to the Queen’s official residence in Scotland, the Palace of of Holyroodhouse, and the eyesore that is the Scottish Parliament. Hailed as a modern architectural masterpiece, this latter building is open to tourists. But more fascinating than the inside is the outside, and the beautiful landscaping and the view around it. Standing with the Parliament building behind you, you have vast green lawns for people to walk or sit on, and to your right is the majestic Salisbury Crags looking down at it all. Imposing though it is, it makes for a gentle walk up, and affords a fantastic view. Someday I hope to make that climb.

A mystery

According to Doctor Who, a spatio-temporal rift exists in Cardiff, but the only one I experienced in Britain was in Edinburgh! For there can be no other explanation of Princes Street. The Gardens cannot possibly be in the same dimension as the rest of the street… I mean, how else can a few metres’ walk take you away from a crowded, noisy street and transport you instantly into a calm, peaceful, verdant retreat? Interestingly, the railways run through the gardens, but I never realized it till I spotted it from atop the Scott Monument!

With the Edinburgh Castle perched on Castle Rock maintaining its unceasing vigil on the heart of the city, the skyline of the Scottish capital remains impaled in one’s mind once seen. Even getting completely lost in search of my B&B along the interminable (and completely illogical) Queensferry Road, alone and desperate in a big city on the other side of the world, pales in comparison to the memory of that unforgettable view.

Click on the collage to go to the album, as usual.

~PD

[A note: I know everyone wants personal photos, but because I fancy myself a photographer I kinda like to take the photos; not have them taken with me in them! Also, I hate photos of myself; in fact, I prefer photos without people. There's nothing more annoying than a beautiful view spoilt by a face in the foreground! That said, I do get the point of holiday photographs, though my motive in photographing Scotland was NOT to get holiday snaps. Yes, I'm talking too much... *shuts up*]

Scotland was mind-numbingly beautiful, and I couldn’t believe it when I found myself in the unofficial capital of the Scottish Highlands — Inverness. Recently accorded the status of a city, it is also the fastest-growing one in Western Europe, a tag that appears to fill local residents with pride, but I could only feel a sadness that any more “development” would ruin it all.

That said, we mustn’t evaluate development on the terms that it seems to proceed here. Nowhere in Great Britain did I see any sign of the rampant commercialisation that we in India have fallen prey to. Protecting their heritage is something that they truly take pride in; unlike us — we make a song and dance about it, but actually care little.

Yes, sorry… where were we? Scotland. Right. It is obvious how much pride the Scots take in their, well, Scottishness. And it’s amazing how, in that tiny wet little island, a few hours journey north from England seems to bring you into a different world. It’s not just the kilts and the haunting music — there is something else that is hard to pin down. When the English were universally labelled as “bland”, no doubt they were being measured up against the Scots! (And now I have to make sure no Englishman/woman I know ever reads my blog…)

I spent two days in Inverness, and one of those was taken up by a cruise up the Caledonian Canal to the Loch Ness. Bundled up in as many layers as I owned (thermal tee, woollen polo-neck, fleece jacket, waterproof jacket), I still froze my butt off. It rained more or less incessently as well — all the locals I met apologised profusely for the weather, like it was their fault — but I hadn’t come all the way across the world to sit in the cabin of the Queen Elizabeth and stare out of the window with a drink in my hands.

Indescribably beautiful though the Loch Ness was — and no, I didn’t see Nessie (I’m so sick of being asked!) — the Caledonian Canal was fascinating too. Hailed as a magnificient feat of engineering, it was built in the early 19th century, and connects the east and west coasts of Scotland. There is a series of locks (over two dozen of them) to account for the difference in the water levels. We navigated through one of them, the Dochgarroch Lock. Our boat was locked in the chamber as the lock master opened sluice gates under water to equalize the water level inside the lock and in the direction we were headed. The water level went up by 2.5 feet, level with the Loch Ness, before we could sail on. (There is a series of locks known as the Neptune Staircase, which raises the water level by 60 feet over 500 yards!)

Okay, shutting up once again. Click on the collage as usual for the photo album.

~PD