Life in Edinburgh

Bad weather day!! Its been raining continuously from yesterday evening, at first it was just a slow drizzle but then during the night it picked up and its accompanied by howling winds now. When I used to read this term “howling winds”, initially in Enid Blyton novels, I always used to wonder about it. Now I don’t!!! No wonder this place has ghost tours, it feels so eerie, to have winds sounding like ghosts and trees scraping at your windows. You can easily allow imagination to take over and reduce you to a scared quivering mass. :(

Me having dreams is a rare phenomenon, I generally sleep the sleep of the dead and it’s quite impossible to wake me up during that time. These days though, I get dreams everyday and strangely enough I can remember them during the day. I also wake up every hour and check the time!!! It’s not like I have some place to go to!!!

Anyways, I went through a lesson on hygiene during the past few days. My mother is a maniac when it comes to cleanliness and my brother seems to have inherited it, I take after my father’s side though. :) So when I got a new quilt and even though I knew I hadn’t washed it yet, in the interest of warming my frozen blood I decided to overlook that fact and used it at night. In the morning I woke up with allergy boils all over my arms!! Yuck!!! So yesterday was my absolute hygiene day where I ran 3 loads of washing and scrapped every speck of dust from my home. Its taking time but the boils are slowly disappearing, thank heavens.

I went to a recruitment agency yesterday to hand in my resume, only to be returned at the door, coz they don’t let you in without an appointment. They did give me an email ID to send in my resume to. Hmmm….still got loads to learn about the job market here.

One thing impressive that happened was I was clearing out my post box for this apartment and I found a mail from Scottish Power the electricity company, addressed to “The occupier”. Since they knew that tenants were changing and each tenant can choose electricity provider as per their wish, they had already started wooing us into choosing them. Not bad at all!! Now I just need to figure out stuff like, what plan, what rates and is it Scottish power I want to choose or not?

To top it off i got a call from Scottish Power yday to further persuade me to choose them. How did they get my number? Well i had logged onto one of these sites where they do comparison of electricity providers and tell you which one works out cheapest for you. You need to provide your postcode, whether its a one bedroom or so apartment and your contact number. Not bad at all from a marketing perspective, eh?

IKEA vs Tesco

Over the weekend we went to IKEA to pick up some home stuff like boxes to store spices for the kitchen, blankets, bed sheets and all that. Ikea stores are generally put on the highway or outskirts of the city to accommodate its retail - warehouse model and so our trip felt like a picnic outing than a shopping one. I must confess though that the Ikea here was a little disappointing, it wasn’t as huge and didn’t have much of the stuff that I wanted for reasonable rates. For e.g. the duvet covers I saw at Sainsbury and the ones at IKEA were at par so didn’t make much to hike from all that distance when I could get it in my neighbourhood itself. I did get a mega deal on the boxes for spices and felt happy about that.

During my MBA days we had a case study on IKEA an then later on during my onsite trip I had visited IKEA and felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of operations. That was the first time I had seen people liking something on display, checking the item code and then just before check out picking up the item from the warehouse section!!! It was a mind boggling sight for me. :)

I read up on IKEA a bit on the net and found out that IKEA stands for the initials of the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home parish (Agunnaryd, in Småland, South Sweden). That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? This company is the world’s largest furniture retailer with its strongest hold in Germany (44 stores).

Well enough of the IKEA Lesson. After coming back from it I was feeling like someone who had had only half his/her lunch even though they were really hungry….not fully satisfied. So the next day we went to the Tesco Extra nearby and that was like hitting gold. Not only did they have all the stuff I wanted but at wonderfully cheap rates and more importantly they had a section in vegetables and in general foods dedicated for us Indians……:) The vegetables were labeled as Mooli, Dhudhi, Okra Indian and there was atta, rice, ghee, all masalas and what not…….whoppeeeee!!! So much to Shaiwal’s dismay and to my wholehearted pleasure….i SHOPPED!!! :)

What I really liked about this store was that there was a wide variety yes but more than that in any category, Tesco stored premium, mid-market and low price range named as Finest, Tesco and Value. Awesome! One store for all segments.

Since I can’t help myself, an interesting info on Tesco, it’s got 6 store formats, the Tesco Extra which are hypermarkets, the Tesco superstores that’s large standard supermarkets, Tesco Metro that’s an ordinary sized supermarket, Tesco Express are the neighborhood convenience store meaning our Kirana store types and One stop stores which doesn’t bear the Tesco name on it and are the smallest stores. :)

By the way daylight savings have started so we are now only 4 and a half hour behind India, Shaiwal feels his sleeping time has reduced by one hour so he is kind of moping around!!! :(

Finally a home!

We finally shifted into a rented apartment and it’s awesome. For the past 3 weeks on an average we had been viewing at least 2 flats daily and something just wasn’t right. Either the place was dingy or the area not safe or the rent too high. Let me tell you that most apartments here are built in the studio apartment model, where the kitchen is a tiny part of your sitting room and your bathroom is a just big enough for you to stand. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t seen Shaiwal’s colleague’s flat which was in a new construction and was quite roomy. The problem was she was staying with a roommate and was paying double the rent so a better place, while we were looking for something as nice at half the rent. Well fate turned a kind eye on us and we found our place, the minute we saw it we fell in love and then immediately we gave an advance to hold the place.

However, even after paying the advance it took 8 days to finally process our tenancy application. Meanwhile, we continued our search on the offhand that we didn’t get the place. Slowly the memory of the apartment slipped from our minds, cant blame us coz we did after all see it only for 10 mins before deciding and we were going on viewing other apartments, so it kind of got all jumbled in our heads. As our application got approved and the day to move in approached a slight anxiety cropped up, was the apartment as good as we thought or did we just build up? Our home is good, in fact it’s better than good. Touchwood!

We have loads of storage space, lighting and amazing furniture. It’s completely furnished right to the cutlery and stuff. The letting agency took us through our tenancy agreement, which took half an hour, and then provided us with an inventory of the stuff and a pack of 100 photos. Photos you may ask, well those were of the flat taken in different angles to prove how it was while it was handed over to us and that was how it was expected to be given back. Quite professional I must say.

 

We moved in on Friday and it took me the better half of the day to actually set our stuff into it and clean everything. Didn’t realise that I was working in the cold till it was kind of late! What happened was that, when I entered the apartment, it felt warm coz outside it was so damn cold. In reality the apartment was cold as well coz the heating had been off for a long while now as it was empty. I was too busy doing my stuff to actually notice and then mid way my teeth started chattering. So then I got on to the business of finding my heating, the agency guys told me it would take 2 days to actually warm up the house and then I could set the heating on a timer basis to save up on my utility charges. That’s all and well AFTER 2 days, what about till then?

I put on 4 layers of warm clothes, took a warm shawl and snuggled on the sofa which I pulled up to the heater. I had closed all the doors coz I wanted at least that one room to be heated up. An hour or so later Shaiwal called up to check up on me and I was right about dozing off then, I knew the phone was ringing but I just wasn’t able to move myself quickly enough to get the phone. Shaiwal called again and by then I got to the phone but I wasn’t able to talk properly, I was gasping for air, my heartbeat was at scheumaker pace and I was shivering. I was suffocating and I couldn’t believe it!!! Where I was happily dozing off a lil while earlier a very minor activity had propelled me into a state of breathlessness! Well I am glad Shaiwal called me when he did, coz he made me walk out of the room and fresh air bought me back to normal. I opened the doors and finally found the right heating switches among the main switches. By evening the house was nice and toasty! :)

Saturday, I found where the council library is and well what do you know, its about 1 km from my home and being a member and borrowing books is absolutely free. Actually there are two libraries near my home; one is 1Km away and the other 2 kms away. The facilities here are amazing; the library has books even in Urdu, Hindi, Farsi, Bengali and Punjabi! You can search books online, reserve and mark your collection centre as any library in the city and the books shall reach there free of cost in a day’s time. There are books, audio cd’s, vcd’s and dvd’s available there, including language learning cd’s. Shaiwal and I went there with our tenancy agreement coz you need to give a proof of address, got our library cards done and I picked up a few books too. You can pick up 12 books at a time and keep them for 3 weeks. Made my day!!! :)

At the library we saw language courses being offered so I was wondering about joining for it, I would have liked that. Until I came home and after some research on Shaiwal’s part, we found out that there are 4 levels to language learning courses and at each level multiple sublevels and the charge you a bomb for each sublevel!! Almost 70,000 rupees to learn to say hi, hello, good morning in Spanish or German or Japanese or whichever language you choose!!! What a bummer?!

Friends came over for lunch and I managed to put out a spread of aloo palak, mixed vegetable dry dish and sambhar in a short time. Our friends are right now either staying on their own or in the hotel and so everyone was appreciative coz to get homemade Indian HOT food is a boon in this place. :) Was in the same spot for the last 3 weeks. My good deed for the day was done.

Today, we are going to Tesco to stock up for the week ahead. There is snow forecasted from Tuesday onwards and I for one don’t plan on going out anywhere. It’s so cold these days, yesterday we saw three different weather in a span of 8 hours. Scotland is supposedly famous for such weather changes. At first it was nice and sunny, suddenly it turned gloomy and raining and then evening it was freezing winds!!.

 

Guess, its been a few days since I updated my blog so I seem to have just gone on and on and on, haven’t I? Well, hope you liked the glimpse into my life. :)

Wildlife Photography

Yesterday went to this park at St. Andrews Square and there in advertisement for the upcoming science festival, there were life size wild life photo’s put up for display. Under each photograph a description of the animal and its habits were given.

Really awesome pics and I spent almost an hour and a half just looking at them to my heart’s content. The photographer’s name is Steve Bloom and his website is stevebloom.com and its free registration to browse through and take his pictures. Its totally amazing, there is this one shot with the monkey coming out of the water and shaking water off his head, you can almost feel those droplets falling on you. Some of the shots I thought must have been oil paints, it cant possibly look so good in photographs could it?!!

Anyways I clicked some of the shots on my mobile and I thought I would it share it here. I know i normally drone on and on and on but this is one time where i shall follow the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words.

St Giles Cathedral

This weekend we had gone to two places for sightseeing, one was the Edinburgh castle and the St.Giles Cathedral.

I’ll start with the St.Giles Cathedral coz it touched me a lot. Before I begin though, let me confess here that while we were there, Shaiwal had asked me what is the difference between a Cathedral, a church and a chapel? Being an MBA I refused to not raise to the challenge so i answered with logic and I did manage to quench his curiosity too but then I came back and did a google search just to be sure, turned out I wasn’t so off the mark that I thought I may be, here goes -

A chapel is the smallest unit, the church its superset and the cathedral the super-est set (if such a word exists) :)

A church can be of any Christian religion, whether it be non-denomiational, Protosant, Catholic, etc.  

A cathedral, on the other hand is the (usually) the biggest church in the diocese and which contains the seat of the bishop.

A chapel is a place of worship that has its own altar and may or may not be part of a larger institution like a church, a college, hospital, etc.

Anyways we, a group of four, Shaiwal, his friend and wife and I, went up to what is known as the royal mile. It starts from the Edinburgh castle and it ends at the holyrood palace and contrary to what the name indicates it is more than a mile long by 107 yards. What is so special or royal about this mile is that this was set up as the high street by King David I somewhere in 1124 or after. It used to be the market place then and today it continues to be a marketplace for tourists. The place is quite quaint with cobbled stones and buildings of architecture of the old days. The place is also dotted with roadside café’s and pubs, so you find loads of people just sitting out with their glass of whisky or beer mug or coffee cup as takes their whim.

Walking through the royal mile actually sort of transports you to another era. We saw the St Giles Cathedral on our right and we entered it. The first thing that strikes you is the high ceilings and then the painted windows. The windows depict multiple stories and are so distinct and vibrant. Just when I was getting all dewy eyed and sighing and all that, I saw this huge thing that I just couldn’t make out what it was. It was all steel and good wood but then looked kinda new and it was almost as tall as the church which is some 22 -25 ft or more!!! Well I sort of nodded at it and walked past it without a clue as to what it was. Luckily I went into the cathedral shop to get some postcards and there on one of the postcards was a picture of this “Thing” and its description given behind.

It was a musical organ, gifted to the cathedral in 1992 and I decided then and there that I am going back there during a mass time to hear this one being played…..!!!! It seriously looked like some heavy duty artillery but then that didn’t make sense coz it was inside a cathedral, after reading about it when I went back to look at it, it kinda looked like long steel whistles hung upside down. :)

To tell you the truth I could have spent a few hours there easily, just looking at the different wood work and paintings. As it is I think I would have taken in only a part of the cathedral but the group was getting restless and I decided that I would go back again.

So we stepped out onto the royal mile and decided on lunch, first we saw this place called the World's End and we were wondering why the name when we stumbled on the reason. There on the corner of the building it was inscribed as to why the place was called World's End. Quickly clicked a snap of that but we decided to move on since the place stunk of fish inside and it was very dungy. The next place we went to had awesome food and a whole array of alchoholic drinks. It suddenly struck me that Scotland was the land of Scotch whiskey and a well earned name that is. There was an entire wall of alchohol bottles top to bottom and not once repeating. Not that i am a master of alchohol but never in my life had i seen such a wide ranging collection and this in an ordinary roadside restaurant. What would it be like in one of those places boasting alchohol as its super speciality?

Oh and another thing, here in the restaurants, the waitress or waiter, initially come for the drinks order and if you say nothing they give you a look over that says "Weirdo" and then to top it off if you request for a glass of water then its the "Beyond redemption" look. Beer i am told here is milder than water and everyone drinks, i guess the weather is such that drinking is essential. Well, all in all a nice day spent wandering around in history and good weather and religion. :)

Mad Dash Day

Ever get the feeling that what you are searching for is just there right in front of your eyes!! Well it’s not a philosophical question, that’s actually what happened to me this weekend. Supposed to meet Shaiwal’s friend – Kunal and wife at the airport, we decided to grab a bite at McD’s before heading out. So there we were, Shaiwal, his colleague and I, all good friends, having a nice time, chatting easily and this, was moments before the mad dash day starts.

First we end up not getting any bus to the airport so we hail a taxi and rush to the airport to find out that emigration was surprisingly efficient and for the first time in the history of baggage terminals all of Kunal’s 6 baggage pieces arrive together and in 5 minutes after disembarking. Which means that he was well on his way to his hotel by the time we arrive at the airport running even before we get out of the taxi, so we head back from airport to the city and ask for directions to the hotel, instead. Well we have a street name and a hotel name and some landmarks too, should be easy enough to find where the hotel is right? WRONG, especially if you are only 2 weeks old in the city, so we end up taking various buses, walking down totally unconnected streets, walking back all the way and then doing the round twice, asking directions right from the bus drivers to the layman on the streets. After what seemed to be an eternity but in reality was 2 hours of a lot of research and activity we finally nail down the street, whoppeeee!!!

Old friends meet, the rest of us get introduced, life is sunny again. Only that the new entrants are hungry so could we please get something to eat. Sure, whatever you say, there seems to be something up ahead, lets just walk down and check it out. What do you know? It’s the same McD where we were not 2 hours back!!! Gosh why did we even try?!!!  :(

Since the day was a lil trying we decided that everyone should head to the beach, nothing soothes you better than nature and that too in an area filled with land and mountains, the water does wonders. So we headed to this place called Seton Sands (Pronounced as Satan Sands). Jannat truly!

With shining waters till the horizon, a whole horde of seagulls dotting the entire sea line very prettily. If ever you want to meet your own soul this is definitely one spot where you could. The banks were lovely green lawns, with a walker’s tarred path streaking through the lawn and beyond that the ocean lying serene with no waves just patience and perseverance in ever drop of water there was.

I tried to capture all that beauty in my camera and I failed miserably, there is no painter as good as god and there is no canvas as vast and beautiful as this world. I did wish I had one of those multi zoom lens high tech camera’s and the ability to use them to their best. :)

There was this house right on the opposite side with full length windows and white curtains. A lovely comfy three seater sofa and a nice telescope all propped up and set ready. It just looked so lovely, I kept imagining if the owners stayed there or did they drive down for weekends? Did the owners have guests for dinner and have star gazing sessions out there? But most of all I wondered how it would be on a star lit night to have a cup of hot chocolate in hand and gaze out through that telescope………I wish I knew. :)

Had a lovely time coming back too, coz although the place was lovely it lacked human inhabitation considerably, so when our bus driver cheerfully informed us that the bus went only half way back, we all had a moment there. However, the driver turned out to be our good samaritarian and did a bus chase including a close overtake and then halting another bus which would go all the way back and so we managed our trip back to civilization.

Interesting day, i must admit. :)

Miserable start

Yesterday it was so windy that during the day I feared to venture out. I could hear the gushing wind and see the eerie way it seemed to make the trees orbit. Today I convinced myself that I had just chickened out due to laziness and that what could a lil wind do to anybody? Boy-o-boy what a mistaken thought that was.

Let me introduce you to "Gale" am sure the dictionary says that its a burst of wind but in reality its that powerful force that makes you go back two steps for every one step you take forward. There were times when I thought my hair was going to be separated from my scalp.

Actually when I started out on my walk it was sunny and decent and there I was minding my own business doing the rounds of the post office and walking down the street when out of nowhere it starts raining. RAIN?!!! Where did that come from?! I ran to the nearest Sommerfield store for cover by which time I am mildly drenched and I loiter around trying to soak up the store heater. After sometime I venture out by when Mr Rain has disappeared and Mr Gale makes his entry!! Dude how can such a nice day go downhill so fast?

Anyways back in my hotel room hugging a hot water bag and took a crocin too. Wondering how I can get my ears to thaw out!!! Darn, what a cold miserable start to a day.

By the way, as I mentioned in my previous blog, am reading about Abdul Karim and Queen Victoria. While the author presents in a very positive manner how the Queen’s Indian subjects pledged their alliance and loyalty to the crown during the Queen’s jubilee celebration time, it sort of had me feel disgusted how our Kings used to lay their swords at the Queen’s feet and kiss her feet. It also gave me a sense of awe towards Queen Victoria, especially when I found out that hers was the longest reign by a female monarch in history, it went over a period of almost 64 years!!!!

She started wearing only black till her death (82 years of age), following the demise of her husband when she was only in her 40’s, that’s almost half her life in mourning. Yet she was linked with her manservant John Brown and even rumoured to have had a secret marriage with him. In fact after her death, she was laid to rest at her request with her husband’s dressing gown in one hand and a lock of hair of John Brown in the other. In 2008, it was also found that the ring she wore while she was laid to rest was in fact John Brown’s mother’s wedding ring.

Actually there is a movie Mrs. Brown that is supposed to be based on this relationship. So my next interest in to watch that movie. History is interesting when it actually makes the people life like than just names to quote and years to remember, is it not?