Dekha Ek Khwab

One of my all time favourite songs is this one from the Hindi movie Silsila – “Dekha Ek Khwab.” This could be because my dad had those old time gramophone record collection and one of the records had this song. Also one of our video cassette collections was the movie itself. So I have been hearing this song from quite a long time back.

Whenever I used to see Rekha walking through the carpet of flowers, a visual riot, I would always sigh dreamily from the sheer beauty of that scene, the quintessential Yash Raj movie scene that was.

Well Edinburgh is blooming similarly and the parks are being planted with lovely collections of tulips of various colours and other varieties of flowers. Whoever is in charge of this lovely exercise is also making sure that the flowers are colour coordinated as well.

During the weekend we went to a park in the neighbourhood and there we discovered not just blooming lush flowers but also well tended to shrubs, some even in the formation of ducks!! :)  

(check out the duck shaped shubs on the right side of the picture)

There were large trees in the middle and benches in abundance, any one could just walk in with their book and settle down for a peaceful read. Or as in the modern era, could walk in with their laptop and net away. :)

If any of our heroines had to do the Silsila scene today then I think Edinburgh would not fall shy in providing a location for the shoot. :)

On the funny side, I did enjoy the serenity and peace that the scene afforded when I went in for a leisurely walk. However, when today I in my ever lasting battle of bulge went to a similar scene at the Royal Botanical Garden, for my fast walking-cum-slow jogging exercise session, I was none the too impressed with it. :) I guess I was too busy cursing the whites for making gardens that are so damn big that after going around it once you can almost feel the blood rushing to your head.

Guess that just goes to show how fickle my mind is. :)

Savings don’t come easy

So we heard about this great place called CostCo which is an amazing store where you get stuff at cheap rates, infact so cheap that other retail stores buy from CostCo, stock up in their own stores and sell. So its like you are supposed to get at warehouse price and less. CostCo sells all your typical household stuff and food items, like your groceries, your rice, pulses, frozen meat or vegetables, chocolates, bathroom cleaners, bed sheets, clocks, clothes, suitcases, stamps, camera’s, vitamins, shaving accessories and creams, beauty creams and god knows what else.

This place is also situated outside city limits but then distance hath no challenge, so we trooped out to CostCo during the weekend to make our bucks stretch more than they usually would. How pleased we were to pick up Rice – 5kgs for 5 pounds, 3ltr oil, 5 kgs of Sugar and a few more such things. But hey one glitch, the place doesn’t give out shopping bags, so you need to bring it from home. Duh Huh!!! So what do we do with the stuff?!!! How do we take it home?

The good lord provides in mysterious ways I say!

Along with us was a new friend whom we had met only that day, he was Shaiwal’s friend’s friend and he wanted to tag along to CostCo since he was going to India next weekend and he wanted to get stuff for family back home. Well it so happened that the guy also needed a suitcase! Hehehe guess what got packed into his suitcase in the first instance.

 

Whoa!! What amazing savings, so we all went back home weary from the shopping strain mentally patting our shoulders for the savings made. Actually the boys were bone tired not from the shopping strain but actually having to carry all the stuff back home. I could almost hear their bones creak each time they moved.

The thing is we never learn to leave well enough alone, we always tend to dig more and that’s exactly what we did. So even though a few arms were bruised and no one was in any shape to move around, back at home we decided to check out HOW MUCH of a saving we actually did make. After all sleep would be so much sweeter. :) That was the thought, until we discovered that there wasn’t a price difference at all, the neighbourhood Tesco or Sainsbury were selling at pretty much the same prices, give or take 10 pence either ways.

Our mothers would have made us wash our mouths with Detol if they heard the abuses that followed hence. But hey, what to say, guess savings don’t come easy do they?

oh yeah one interesting thing about Costco, they try to lure customers to buy food stuff by handing out free samples like pastries, fish fry, chicken kebab, gummy bears, chickpea salads, etc...all in small quantities. However, if a person were to try one each of all the food samples being handed out, i assure you, you wouldnt need lunch or dinner that day.

Gerard Butler

I keep getting to watch English movies these days which has Gerard Butler, not very many mind you but enough for an impression to have formed.

First it was this movie called the Ugly Truth and it was hilarious and romantic, and the hero seemed very nice not just to look at but in emotions as well. However, I didn’t bother to get to know the name of the hero at the time. Then suddenly all the buses plying in Edinburgh were painted over on the sides with the latest movie to be released – “The Bounty Hunter.” Gerard Butler was in that movie as well and that’s when I got to know his name. Lovely movie by the way – the Bounty Hunter.

When we got the five pound video rental deal for five movies which you can keep for a week then one of the first movies we borrowed was P.S. I Love you. Awesome, touching movie which makes you feel the love between the lead pair one of whom was Gerard. Suddenly then, this guy seemed a bit familiar so I checked up on the movie “300”. Yep Gerard Butler strikes again.

Interesting! So I decided to do a bit of reading on the actor and I found out to my delight that he is Scottish. It’s not like he is Indian and all but now that I am in Scotland and I like these people around me, I find them far less cunning than the Brits, I feel an affinity towards anything Scottish. :)

The guy was born in Glasgow, lived a bit in Montreal, Canada before coming back to Scotland to live here. 40 years of age now and he is also the main lead of the movie Attila the Hun, has in the initial days done bit roles including a small one in a James Bond Movie – Tomorrow Never Dies.

Actually though, the guy started out learning for law, passed out of Glasgow University of Law and then even joined a Law firm there. However, he soon quit after being asked by his seniors for one good reason why they shouldn’t fire him in the first place. How clichéd!!! You fight for your passion then the rest falls in place, rest being money, fame and power!

An interesting Indian angle to this guy’s life, he was rumoured to have been seeing Priyanka Chopra, yep our very own Bollywood Diva. Seems they met at a Dubai Hotel Opening and then later were spotted at lunch together in Chicago. However, in all fairness, being in the industry that they are in, it could all be smoke WITHOUT any fire.

Anyways the guy is an amazing actor, if you would like to watch some time pass movies try PS I Love You, Ugly Truth and Bounty Hunter. All quite cute.

Mallu

Yesterday Shaiwal mentioned there was another Indian store in Edinburgh other than the two we already knew about. Since I needed a few pulses and masala’s I decided to set out to discover it. I should have realised when I saw the name that it would have something to do more with South India than North India. The name of the store is Janatha stores with an ‘H’. :)

Well it seemed quite near on Google maps so I dispensed with the bus and instead walked, boy my legs lay testament to that walk!!! I think I could have cut them off yesterday and the rest of my body would have been singing Hallelujah.

Once I reached I was a bit taken aback to see a few Kerala brands like Melam pickles, double horse iddiyapam mix, puttu mix and palappam mix….so on so forth. I was even more taken aback to see a sign written in Malayalam pointing to where the beef was!!! I was in familiar territory. :)

Turns out that the owner is from Trivandrum and has been running the shop for 4 and a half years now. I checked with him on the job scene and moaned about me not able to get even an interview going. Well, it was nice to meet a new person and talk a bit in Malayalam. :)

He showed two newspapers which were meant for the Indian community and which were free. I picked a copy each and was happy to read it all of yesterday night. It was a bit of old news but still it was Indian news. Had articles like Indian Student Visa Racket busted. Oh and my favourite article, a lady was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing her husband using an ancient Indian poisonous herb found in the foothills of Himalayas. The herb as per mythology is what caused Lord Shiva to have a blue neck!!! Whoaaaa heavy stuff!! :D

One of the newspapers “Kerala Link” is for the malayalee’s and it had a few articles written in Malayalam too, seems the newspaper has been in circulation for 15 years now! Cool eh?

Water of Leith

I have been hearing of the water of Leith for quite sometime now and it was always described as this walk that you had to do if you were in Edinburgh. It was supposed to be quite something. So when I had to go over to the NHS to get myself registered and I found that the water of Leith was close by from the NHS and the place I stay, I decided I needed to give it a try.

It turned out to be this walkway right beside a river and it didn’t look all that impressive on first glance. However, as I walked down the path, it suddenly felt as if I was in one of those Jane Austen novels and I almost reached out to straighten my bonnet. :)

The walkway is quite secluded; I did see, an old uncle bicycling, one jogging and one fishing. Although the walkway ran parallel to a busy street I could barely hear the traffic, it was as if the walkway was in a world of its own. This walkway is around 20 kms long and cuts across Edinburgh, its called the silver thread in a ribbon of green. How poetic! :) It’s called the water of Leith since the river runs right up to this place called Leith.

I just need to figure out now, how to rope in Shaiwal to walk if not the entire length then at least a good part of it. There is even supposed to be a water of Leith visitor centre in the middle which has an interactive exhibition on wildlife and the heritage of the river. It would be nice to see it, don’t you think?

By the way I did finish my registration with NHS- National Health Services. Everyone staying in UK is eligible for and mandatory needs to register with NHS and the nearest General Physician under it. You are entitled to free medical treatment under the NHS, however the catch is that the treatment is available only during weekdays from 8 am to 6 pm, so we need to fall ill during that time else call 999 and go in for emergency care!!! :)

We got our landline connected yesterday. It’s been a sore issue with us, since we put in our application last week of March and got the connection only now and it will take another 21 days to get our broadband connection for which we need the landline. I must admit though that the British Telecom Engineer who came to connect our landline impressed me. There was a slight disturbance in the tone, once he got the landline connected. Something which I didn’t notice on first hearing coz you are used to such cracks in voice. He spent almost 4 hours getting it corrected and was fully satisfied only after the tone was crystal clear. In between I felt a little sorry for him, so I mentioned to him that we were having the landline installed only for broadband so if the crackle didn’t hinder that then we had no issues as we weren’t planning on making any calls through the landline. He replied, “oh but I just can’t leave it like that, it’s not right!”

So now we have a landline installed and I thought this is cool, only to be informed that BT does not provide you with the telephone instrument and the earlier one which was lying in our house was not working properly. So I need to get a new phone. I was also given a lecture how faulty equipment if used could create trouble with the line and then having a BT engineer out to rectify that would cost me a bundle! Boy what a dipper!

Well am off now to the market, need to post a letter, go to the Norway embassy to enquire on Schengen visa formalities and do a spot of comparative shopping in a few Indian stores. I also need to renew my bus pass. Lots to do people, catch you tomorrow, have a great day. :)

Arthur's seat

Don’t get drenched in the rain, you’ll get ill…haven’t you heard that like umpteen number of times while growing up? And every time you did get drenched and you did fall ill your mum would invariably let you know how disappointed she was at you having neglected her pearls of wisdom! Just that when you are all grown up and you don’t fall ill nearly one third the times you used to when you were a child you tend to forget those pearls of wisdom. Well reality bit me yesterday when I fell ill after getting drenched in the rain. :( My mum is still as disappointed as she was then :( Sheesh! What’s with Mr. Rain and making you ill! Anyways back on my feet today.

This weekend we decided to explore the Arthur’s seat here in Edinburgh, it’s an inactive volcano, which at the top provides you with an amazing panoramic view of the city. A good bit of a trek for about 30 to 60 minutes depending on the track you take and the speed you maintain. The city authorities have tracks winding from both sides of the mountain while one is a bit steep the other is not so much so. We were a motley group of five who decided on the trek that day and each at varying speeds. :)

(Thats Shaiwal walking towards the mountain)

The beauty of the mountain is that it’s got lawns on all sides and reminds you of all those Madhuri Dixit songs where she glides across the greens with a dupatta flying behind and the water sprinklers on. You don’t get to reach to right up to the top, I presume it must be a whole there being a volcano and all, but you do go up to the second highest level and you feel like if you jump you can catch a bit of the clouds….almost. :)

Right at the top of Arthur’s seat when you look down at the Edinburgh city, you can see the Edinburgh castle prominently and all the city buildings clustered around. It sort of made me think if God were up there and looking down at us then perhaps he would get a similar view only in a much bigger scale. Perhaps he sits there and contemplates what next to do with each country and its people while looking upon it. :)

(Me at the top with the city view behind)

While walking at the base of the mountain, it actually feels like you are in the lap of mother earth donned in a lawn green sari and you feel content. You just feel so happy to be alive. I got everyone to run for the heck of it, the boys were a bit difficult to convince but then they got right into the mood of things. Soon the five of us were running against the wind and feeling glorious. As if we were back in our childhood with not a care in the world and the illusion was deliciously lovely to have while it lasted.

Anyways to give you a little bit of history on this mountain, it seems to have erupted last around 350 million years back, so I guess that means we are safe now. It’s also sometimes referred to as the Lion head as the set of mountains resemble a crouching lion. However, why its called the Arthur’s seat is still a mystery, some theories state this mountain as the scene for many a fight, some say the name could have been a corruption from the real Scottish name Ard-na-said meaning the height of arrows and still others trace back the name to a famous poem comparing a famous local warrior to King Arthur. Well whatever the theory the name has stuck. :)

[Source - http://www.wyrdology.com/edinburgh/tourism/arthurs-seat.html]

Skype Rocks

I know this is old news and that the internet made everyone in the world about as close distance-wise as your neighbour long back!! However, I still got the kick of my life when I first chatted with my parents and in laws on Skype. It’s amazing to be able to see them on the video chat and talk to them without worrying about my ISD bill. Feels as if they were right there in the room, I even managed to show them Shaiwal taking out the trash!! :)

The great part is I have both sides scrambling to learn how to hook up on the net and start Skype coz they think it’s pretty amazing that they can see us while talking. So while previously my mum couldn’t care less about the internet revolution now she wants to be part of it.

My brother poor guy about 4 yrs back persevered to teach her how to access at least the cookery sites, thinking it was a brilliant idea to get mum onto the net by luring her with her favourite past times but then TV was an easier alternate and a known devil so she happily stopped using the net as soon his back was turned.

My dad on the other hand couldn’t be smugger coz he was one of the first ones to ride the waves of the internet revolution. I still remember him getting my brother and me the commodore 64 when I hadn’t even reached high school and he asked us to learn programming. Ya right!!! Well after trying one or two programmes which got the screen to show “RUN” completely covering on the screen, we turned to the more interesting part – Games! Sadly though high school happened, friends came, gossip started and well so did a bit of studies…so the computer and the internet took a back seat for us for a little while. My dad on the other hand kept discovering it and so now he gets to show off to my mum and charge her for internet classes and usage :) Way to go dad!

Well checked up a bit on Skype and here is a little trivia on the company. It initially started out with the name Sky peer to peer which was later shortened to Skyper and finally to the well known Skype. In 2009 Q3 the Skype to Skype minutes recorded were 27.7 billions. Guess its definitely not ONLY me who thinks that Skype rocks. :)

Vishu Aashumsagal

This vishu reminds me of the many vishu’s I spent in my childhood away from the heart of things in Kerala and instead in the deserts of UAE. I guess when you are away from home and festivals come then we all try to recreate the festival and feel happy in our own ways. :)

I remember one particular onam in Dubai when I was in 4th Std, when my father’s friends, their wives and kids were all supposed to come over to our flat to celebrate. That time we were all very excited for one uncle had managed to arrange for banana leaves to make the lunch more authentic and banana leaves in those days in Dubai was totally unheard of. I remember everyone was in high spirits and it was like the achievement of the year. One more item to make it feel like home….how important it was and it still is. :)

Not that I would be doing amazingly grand things if I were to be at home during this festive time, its just the very state of being at home, among familiar smells, going to the temple and coming back, a little hustle there, a bit of a bustle here and of course the food. :D I guess festivals are meant to be with home and with family, anywhere else you feel incomplete and restless.

Well enough of depressing statements, yes I am not at home but I didn’t let vishu go by without a try, so Shaiwal and I managed to gather up whatever we could to make up an if not authentic Vishu Kanni then atleast a distant cousin to it.

[Aside- Vishu Kanni is the set of things we keep in front of god the day before and on the day of vishu it is the first thing you are supposed to see. It usually has all those items of prosperity which you would wish to have in your life the year ahead, including gold, money, vegetables, fruits, etc.]

I felt good to do it up. Only thing was that this is perhaps the first time I set my vishu kanni so I was excited to get up and see it in the morning. Normally at home my mother used to wake us up at 4 am to see the vishu kanni, bearing that in mind I decided to sleep off as soon as possible. Unfortunately I must have slept off at 12 and then through my sleep kept thinking that I need to wake up soon, which meant I was wide awake by 3:30 am! Poor Shaiwal didn’t know what hit him, after seeing the kanni myself, I woke him up, covered his eyes so that he would see the kanni first, sleep walked him towards it and ta - daaaa gave him his first Vishu Kanni!!!

We each gave each other vishu kayneetum(money) and then stumbled back to bed, after all it was a hideous hour. My excitement of the day refused to vanish so after 15 minutes of tossing and turning, I got back up and rang up my parents. They were surprised and I was happy to give them that surprise. My brother was shocked that I was awake. :)

Well calling up India took up only half hour and I was still wide awake, so I did what my mum used to do, got into the kitchen to start on my vishu sadya. I made sambhar, mooru kutaan, potato fry, carrot uperi, lemon rice and curd rice. My kitchen and home are all tidied up and so am I, my husband thinks my mental balance is questionable but I am feeling good because its Vishu. My new year has started and with it my hopes for a great year ahead.

Wish all of you who are reading this blog a great year ahead too. :)

Weekend

This weekend was dedicated to admission free sightseeing in view of the fact that we quite blew up our sightseeing budget during the Easter holidays. Consequently, we got to see four museums, the Scottish Parliament and the only Hindu temple in Edinburgh.

The museums were amazing; we saw the Money Museum, the Writers Museum, Museum of Childhood and the Edinburgh Museum. At the money museum we saw a million pounds for the first time in front of our eyes; unfortunately all the currency notes had already been cancelled and so were of no use to any robbers. The money museum is housed in the same building as the headquarters of the Bank of Scotland. It is awesome because it showcases the history of banking and insurance. There were letters on display which had been written in the year 1857 or earlier by bank officials to the government or a letter of condolence written by bank official on the demise of one of its clients. It was a thrill to see such a piece from the bygone days, made it easier to imagine the people then, their emotions and circumstances. The history of the bank of Scotland was also shown right up to the current date where it is now owned by Halifax. There were also interactive display items given, like if you crack the answers of the 3 questions then you would get to know the numbers of the bank safe lock placed there and then you can proceed to unlock that safe. There was also a printing machine to print out your insurance policy of the year 1824 which Shaiwal did and very proudly collected the policy too.

From there we went into the writers’ museum, which showcased the brilliant authors of Scotland including R L Stevenson who wrote Treasure Island. It was lovely to read about their lives, their quotes and passages from their books. Shaiwal got a little bored there but I thoroughly enjoyed myself in that one. The Museum of childhood displays all sorts of toys, from dolls, to rides, to toy cars, to toy trains and best of all to dollhouses. It definitely lives up to its name of being the noisiest museum in the world. Those dollhouses, with all that small furniture inside it was so cute, of course, the boys (Shaiwal’s friend joined us by then) enjoyed checking out the toy cars and trains more.

The Edinburgh Museum was the largest of the museums we saw, the money museum was one floor with 6 sections to view while the other two museums had been 5 floors each. The Edinburgh museum however was a palace, it didn’t look so from the outside but once you enter you realise how huge the place is. It has a lovely collection of silver and glassware. The museum of course has a detailed account of the history of Scotland, right from the early times of trade, its artwork, the lives of the people here, including its involvement in the woman suffrage moment. There was a painting of an Indian Sardar as well, which however was labelled as “”The Indian Sowar”, I am assuming that would have been a spelling mistake! :) Even though I spent a considerable amount of time there I feel I still haven’t seen it all, so I am definitely heading back there.

The Scottish parliament was a treat due to the fact that after 4 museums we thought we wouldn’t be able to make it in time to view the parliament, so it was more a case of walking till there to have a look from outside. Imagine our joy when we found that the parliament was indeed open for viewing and it would remain so for another 45 minutes. Well we wasted no time and entered; as soon as we did we arrived at the security check area exactly like the ones we go through in airports. Even though I put everything in my handbag and put it for screening including my belt, I still managed to set off the alarm as I walked through. My glass bangles set the alarms off! Anyways, after being physically screened as well, I was let off the hook and I entered the parliament. This is a very recent parliament as it was set up in 1999.

The parliament history is very minimal since its only 11 years old so instead in the beginning the displays revolve around the functioning of the parliament, the physical structure of parliament and the materials used. What I fell in awe with and I really cherished was being able to see the debating chamber. I have put in a photograph for everyone to see. I felt inspired just standing there in that place where government policy decisions were recommended, debated on and finally taken. You have to be there to feel it, I guess. It was really small but it still had its impact. On Tuesdays and Thursdays visitors can come and sit in on parliament while it is in session and that is one thing I would dearly like to do.

Well that was all about our sightseeing this weekend, we also did go to the Hindu Temple here, which is the only one here. It’s actually a church brought out by the Hindu Community and right now in its transformation phase. When we walked in the puja had finished and Prasad was being distributed. Prasad was chocolates and a few Indian sweets. The temple doesn’t have a pujari and opens only every fortnight the 2nd and 4th Sundays of a month. It does celebrate major festivals like Navrathri, Ramnavmi, Krishna Jayanthi and Ganesh Chathurti and all. Currently the temple committee members are in the process of collecting money to transform the church into a proper temple; right now it’s just a huge hall with lots of pictures of hindu gods. One of the methods of money collection is membership, you become a member to the hindu community and they send you emails on major functions and festivities that will take place. Individual memberships are annual and cost you five pounds. It wasn’t a big amount and it was for a good cause so we became members as well. I was however disappointed to see the temple, I expected more I guess. I hope with time it does become better.

Well that’s all from my side today, everyone have a great week ahead. :)

Friday Night

The weekend has started and Friday night as always is the night when you most likely stay out or stay awake the longest, which is exactly what we did too. We headed towards the Royal Mile and trekked from one end to the other with a friend in tow. Its always lovely to see the old buildings and the cobbled stones. Now that summer seems to be peeking in on us, there are flowers sprouting up on the hillside and it’s an awesome sight I must say; suddenly colour springing up in between vast expanses of lawns on the hills.

Quite a few people were pub hopping but by and large the people here seem to have a hang out where they park themselves at every weekend and they are well known there right from the regulars to the bartenders to the waiters. Women seemed to be tipsier than the men, especially girls of teenage age or slightly above. Groups of girls who were either drunk or acting to be so were out on the streets giggling, loud and not sure in their step, it seemed like they were having fun and actually I felt like smiling at them. I do wonder however, how these girls must be feeling today morning. :)

Speaking of drinking, a good friend had said that Taliskar was the best brand in single malt whiskey and it was simply amazing. So yesterday when we saw an alchohol shop (one among many), I checked out their window display and saw the brand there, it was 200 pounds for a bottle and there were lesser priced ones as well for the same brand. The distinction being that the 200 pound bottle was 30 years old and the rest were younger!!! Boy, what a lot of stuff! :)

At about 10 in the night when we had finished our loitering and our dinner, as we headed back home, we saw groups of two with one policeman and one policewoman, walking the streets to ensure that everything was as it should be. It felt good to be protected. I also realised that I had been seeing such police foot patrolling all through the evening at every street we had roamed. Well good work I guess!

Oh yeah, we saw the Scottish Parliament yesterday, I guess I was expecting an ancient stately looking building but instead It was a modern structure, a bit like the ones you would see in Malaysia. It was huge no doubt about that and it was a little weird to me, for in my minds eye I always expected the parliament to be something representative of the place and its history and the Scottish parliament didn’t give me that feel. One spectacular thing though, we were standing right in front of the Parliament and clicking snaps and there were no terrorist alarms going off. So much different than in India where we mostly see the Parliament either on TV or at 10 kms distance. This country has definitely been through lesser turmoil and violence than we have, touchwood, I wish we would come to this state too. Amen!

Camera Obscura

A bundle of laughs, this is by far the most entertaining place, we have been to. When I first read up on this place I just couldn’t make out head or tails of what it was supposed to be. I guess you need to experience this place to believe.

In the 1850’s or earlier, the scots were getting to be a bored lot, there wasn’t much to do, no television, nothing, so they decided to pass time by spying. Yes Spying. They built a five storey-ed building on top of the hill where the Edinburgh castle is and then quite simply with the use of a mirror the size of a shaving mirror, three lenses aptly placed and a wooden board painted white, they started spying on the people in the street below the hill and beyond. The lens captured the view below, reflected it off the mirror and onto the wooden board painted white, this board was kept in a dark room, the lens and the mirror on the roof above and a submarine like viewer used to capture the images and show it back on the board.

It’s quite ingenuous and such a simple mechanism at that. Over the years the lenses have been replaced with more powerful ones but essentially the structure has remained untouched.

After doing a spot of spying we went down to the other floors and went through exhibitions which were typical Sigmund Freud and Out of the box thinking stuff. A few exhibits reminded me of stuff that you would see at the carnival, like the one with me having a Fat Head or the one where it looks like I have a Siamese twin and of course the one where our skin is shown in red and the rest of us in green. :)

There were paintings which created illusions if you looked at them from a particular angle they would be one thing and then from another angle they would turn out to be something completely different. There was a particular board where you could and stand next to and the camera would click your shadow in place, the twist was that the shadow wouldn’t be how you were standing earlier and it would be stationary, it wouldn’t move however much you did after the picture was taken.

In detail if i were to described, of the four floors below the spy floor, there was on each floor the magic gallery, the light fantastic, the Edinburgh vision, Fun, games and stairway and lastly the history of the attractions. Magic gallery is where you can swap your noses or your ears with those of a friend, you get yourself xrayed and all that. The Light fantastic has a whole collection of holograms and some of them were very creepy too. The Edinburgh vision was undergoing changes so we missed that one. The fun, games section had some of the stuff which we used to get in forwards, like spotting secret images, looking at a picture for a minute and then end up seeing dots everywhere and all that. The history of attractions gives you a recount of how it used to be in the days of yore :)

Oh yeah and the postcards I picked from there were also the illusion variety for e.g. I picked one up where the picture on the postcard was one of a man walking into a building or out of a building depending on how you look at the picture.

All in all it was a cute place and a brain teaser place worth a laugh.

Edinburgh Zoo

It was a clear sunny morning when we set out for the zoo and I must say that perhaps that’s the reason we enjoyed it all the more. Imagine walking in the sun in an air-conditioned environment having on either side great expanses of green lawns, clumps of trees here and there and some well settled and well fed animals. We reached early to beat the rush and consequently had the place quite to ourselves for most of the time.

I must say that this place is exactly how Vandalur Zoo is in Chennai and I think our zoo has more variety in the range of animals kept there than here. Having said that let me also tell you, that it’s always a big kick to see leopards, lions and jaguars. One important thing I learnt is that there is no black panther as such it is just a common name used for Jaguars who are black. That’s like humans having a fair baby and a dark baby and well the jaguars do too so the dark one is often referred to as a black panther.

I felt amazingly good when I saw a board here in the zoo which mentioned different names of the lion and on it was the Hindi name, Gujarati name of lions and so on. Well the day is not far, my friend, when we have people of Indian origin ruling the different countries in the world.

The penguin enclosure was the best and I saw two varieties of penguins, one was the common one with black and white colouring and the other was the one with black, white and yellow colouring. There were an amazing number of penguins kept and when we reached it looked as if everyone had just finished their morning bath and was sunbathing!!

Quite a few of the animals refused to come out to say hi coz they were busy sleeping, 10 am seems to be too early in the morning for these guys. Especially the big cats, they were either sleeping and snoring away to glory or all grumpy as in just woke up mode. :)

The monkeys and the birds were all awake though and completely engaged in entertaining themselves. We saw an area where the monkeys were interviewed it sort of looked like the interrogation room of police headquarters in all those English movies. There are studies conducted here on the animals in the zoo however the zoo is quick to reassure us that these are just behavioural studies and no animal torture is done.

There was a type of monkey's called the squirrel monkey's which even full grown were about as big as a squirrel, looked quite cute i thought. :)

There was also a lot of boards and information given out on how some of the species were nearing extinction and they were protected species. The Zoo also conducted educational tours on how humans should help these animals overcome extinction. I cant imagine some of these beautiful ones being just a label or a drawing in science books, I hope we can keep them alive, it would be a shame otherwise.

I came across this sign while at the zoo. Quite spiritual and touching, if only we, as in the entire human race, would just heed to this message, perhaps the world might be a better place to live in, would it not?

The Edinburgh Castle and Dungeon

This is one of the first sights we went to see here at Edinburgh, it was an obvious choice because when you come to Edinburgh this is one of the first sights that you encounter and it sort of beckons at you. The city has a concept of the old town and the new town, am not sure if I have spoken of this earlier but if I have then please bear with me. There is this long street which is almost 2 Kms long and is sort of like the Mount Road in Chennai, although not as wide and neither as populated. This street is the shopping haven of Edinburgh and perhaps the busiest street here. On the backside of this street lies the New town and on the front side as you walk on the street you see across gardens, a small mountain on which the castle and similar old structures are. It’s like being in the cradle of modern times and looking into the past.

The Edinburgh Castle looks soulful and haunting from the street below, so obviously it was our first choice to see. Walking up the Princes Street to the castle is quite a steep climb and so you reach there huffing and puffing. The castle reminded me of the Golconda fort in Hyderabad and I felt after seeing the castle that we have forts that are far more secure than this castle.

One good thing we decided on was to take the audio tour; it has all the titbit gossips and detailed information that otherwise we wouldn’t have known. So as we walked through the castle there were numbers alongside the signboard hung and when we punched in those numbers into the audio tour handset the description of that particular section would start up.

I particularly liked the section of the war memorial; it was huge and dedicated to the honourable martyr’s of war. This section was built like a church in the sense that it had painted windows as well, on closer inspection, it showed that as soon as you entered, the painted windows in the beginning depict stories from the bible, starting from Adam and then the windows towards the end depict the destruction and futility of war. It was well thought of and most tastefully done. There were books there which were very old registers filled with the names of soldiers died in war, the year and the name of the war.

The section with the Queen’s crown was a disappointment; Queen Mary of the Scots was truly a poor cousin to Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Having seen the numerous crowns at Tower of London, each filled with thousands of diamonds, this single crown in the Edinburgh Castle failed to evoke any sense of wonder.

Well, the castle in all was lovely since it was a part of history and it was well put up for display, trying to weave a story of royalty, the prisoners in the dungeons below, the war heroes and of the country itself.

Dungeons reminds me, this place is filled with ghost stories and horror stories of how people were tortured and why. Things like an entire family hit by plague were locked inside a cave so that they wouldnt infect the others and left to die and when the daughter of that family who was not infected, protested, she was thrown into the cave as well!! There were all sorts of equipment to inflict pain, hooks to hang you alive by the base of your spine and then leave you blood dripping till death captures you. How a human can inflict another human so much pain and stand by unmoved is beyond me?

Well, just so that we werent to miss one of the most touted tourist attractions we went into the Edinburgh Dungeon next to waverly station and went through the frightening tour of the Dungeon. There were characters made of to look as those of the ancient days ranging from bloody thirsty judges to maniacal cannibals to assistant science researchers (researching on human body and its functions by bringing in live body and taking their parts out). It sent the chills through my spine and while i knew it was all make believe and that the Dungeon associates were professional enough to not touch any of the tourists, i just couldnt wait to get out of there.

It ends with a small ride too, the ones you see inside amusement parks where the ride goes all the way up and then drops in the blink of an eye!!! Well i skipped that one, coz after almost an hour of the petrifying tour, i must confess, i wasnt brave enough to do the ride. Photography wasnt allowed, but as soon as you enter while taking the tickets a picture is taken of you trying to chop off your partner's head and well i must say i was a bit taken back to see the look of pure glee on my face for that one!

Time Flies

Amazing weekend of four days off and happily loitering to our hearts content. Unfortunately all good things need to come to an end and so did this weekend as well.

During the weekend, we went to the hall and saw the latest movie Bounty Hunter which has Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, while the former is looking amazingly old the latter looks a lot like Mel Gibson! It was an entertaining movie, nothing more nothing less. It kind of reminded me of Mr and Mrs Smith of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It was a nice way to pass time.

Before entering the movie hall we had been to a mall, my first in Scotland. Curiously enough this place has loads of streets with shops on both sides but very few, if any at all, malls to speak of. We entered this one in search of a knapsack for Shaiwal, so when we stepped into a shop inside and found one of Puma at a bargain price we totally fell for it and picked it up. Once out of the shop Mr.Mathur literally strutted, there is something quite infinite about the pride and joy of a new buy, is there not? However, it was short lived :)

Having reached Nirvana himself, Shaiwal was keen for me to reach the same stage and so he insisted I buy a bag for myself too since I was badly handicapped without it whenever I was going out and well the handbag I had was more formal and dressy than daily use variety. With a half mind I entered another store thinking I wasn’t going to shop and then suddenly – Holy Hell……amazing collection of bags at the most cheapest rates I had yet to see. Knapsacks were available at half the price of the one we picked up, of course it wasn’t Puma, but then who cared!!! Well the world order of shoppers would have had me hung if I passed up on such a deal, so I picked up a nice side sling bag for my daily journeys :)

Shaiwal says I look like a bus conductor with it but then again sour grapes might have such statements to make, wouldn’t they ? :)

By the way, during my many online job searches out here I discovered the monsterjobs has a UK dedicated website, which didn’t have any of my details on it! I quickly rectified the situation and sent out applications for all Business Analyst jobs which I could get my hands on. You wont believe the speed at which rejection comes here, even though it was Easter and even though no one is supposed to be working during the weekend, I still got mails saying SORRY NOT SUITABLE. OUCH!!!!

Well success was never for the faint hearted so am going back to the job site again!

:) By the way, I keep trying to sell myself as a Lead Business Analyst and then suddenly Shaiwal breaks my bubble telling me that the Lead Business Analyst in his office here has 12 years of experience…….uh oh!!! :(

Last but not least, my husband showed me in photographic terms how much of a big mouth I am and that I keep talking till the person next to me sort of submits himself or herself to my speech torture. Highly Animated Speech Torture by Neeta Mohandas. Guess its worth a laugh so here it is …… :)

Dynamic Earth

We went to Our Dynamic Earth (ODE) here in Edinburgh. It’s a place that’s like our Birla Planetarium in India but more advanced in terms of its display, its interactive exhibits and its level of details. I had thought that this would be kind of boring since I wasn’t a science buff to begin with and to my embarrassment let me confess I thought evolution couldn’t be further detailed than what I already knew! :(

As I went in to ODE it truly felt like I was walking through different ages that our mother earth had been through only that while she took centuries to complete the journey I made it in less than two hours. :) The beginning of the display began with facts on population growth across the world, Volcano’s, earthquakes and other natural calamities which were astounding in not just its explanation of what it is but more of how these would continue to occur with greater frequency in coming times and why.

We first entered into an elevator that was termed as the time machine and while the operator introduced us to concept of us travelling through time to understand the formation of our earth, the sides of the elevator which were fitted with full size screens showed us the big bang. Our first stop was the ice age, how the Artic region formed, how each glacier is important and what happens when they melt. There was actual ice kept in the middle of the exhibit and it was formed in the shape of an ice berg.

Next stop was the volcanic region and the operator mentioned that volcanoes were both creators and destructors; it was sort of like listening to a mythology story. :) While we watched a volcanic eruption on the entire wall in front of us, the floor beneath us shook to emulate how it would be in real life. It was a lark for kids I am sure.

After that we went through Stone Age, where we saw the different dinosaur species, the sabre toothed tiger and of course the early man all done in bronze with detailed descriptions on how we evolved through that time. What was nice was that in between these exhibits there were interactive machines sort of like pin ball ones placed, which I guess were primarily meant for children, where the machine asked questions on how humans could help save the earth, or how water was formed or how forests need to be preserved? I, played them too. :)

We then moved on to the submarine where we were introduced to the sea, the species residing there, their life cycle, the amount of activity that happens near the water bed. There was even an exhibit with a Nike shoe, which told the story of how Nike had dumped a cargo of shoes in the middle of the sea and scientists decided to follow the shoes to see how far they would travel and to confirm the accuracy of their computer projections on sea speed. Turns out that the shoes travelled 2000 kms in a matter of a week or so. WHOAAAA

We then went into this space ship which took us through different biomes (weather conditions) across the globe, how the flora and fauna and the resident animal species had adapted and indeed formed in each biome. So we went right from North Pole to the South Pole, through the Antarctica to the Thar desert and saw polar bears to pine trees to camels to cactus’. It was amazing to sort of go back to our science classes. For e.g. our space ship captain explained how pine trees were cone in shape and grow in thick clusters to be able to survive the snow and when the snow melts its easier to drop off due to the shape.

The tropical forest followed then and that reminded me of home, coz all the species were ones we were familiar with, the smell was that of the soil when the first rain hits. Oh, that’s another thing, each exhibit had something that made it feel like it was closer to reality, either with smell or the temperature or like in the submarine area we walked through an inside of a submarine.

Our last stop and indeed I guess the best was the digital planetarium where we went through a 360 degree full dome film sort of like the one you do at Birla Planetarium. Here we were introduced to Who Astronomers are?, what do they do, why do we send satellites out, which are the famous and most lethal active satellites now, where are they launched from, the most powerful telescope in the world and so on. This film totally inspires you to become an astronaut and try to discover the secrets of the galaxy. It astounds you with facts like a satellite transmits terabytes of data on a single day!

It’s an amazing place I must say and truly one where Kids should be taken. For adults I think it sort of gives you a wake up call to say, there were many species that existed before you and then grew extinct Humans could be one of them if we aren’t too careful.

Mother Earth didn’t happen in one fine day we need to preserve it rather than destroy it.