IT'S REALLY HIM!!

While in sec sch, I had this teacher Mr Mackintosh, or Mr Mack as we called him, who was really charming and fun. He was our English teacher in Sec1 and Eng&Form teacher in Sec1&2. Mr John Lachlan Mackintosh, if I remember correctly. Quite a bit of nonsense, zany too. He enjoyed showing off his interesting socks, one time there was this pair of musical socks which he turned up his pant leg to demonstrate. And they were indeed musical socks.

One fine day he brings along his kilt, sporran and tam, plus clan crest to show us. He put the kilt on and tried unsuccessfully to roll up his pant legs beneath to give a more realistic picture. I think the whole class was just laughing like mad already. We were really sad that he had to leave after that yr. It was something to do with having to go back to handle clan matters in Scotland. Turns out he became laird after his father passed away in '95. Now he's the 31st chief of Clann An Toisich. Supporting info here and here. How many Scots heads of clans could've been teaching in Singapore? It must be him! Icy!

K this post is super off tangent, but Scotland is such a fascinating land. Ireland too. Anyhows, it's been interesting revisiting the past prompted by present travels. Wonder if learning Gaelic is viable. Listening to the ppl speak in Edinburgh, I almost forget that I do in fact speak English.

Edinburgh III

Scottish Poetry Library
On the dirt path up from the carpark at Queen's Road, near Dynamic Earth. Took abt 20mins to get up there. Huff, puff, huff, puff. This is almost at the apex of the path, which doesn't seem to lead anywhere but down the other side, along the face of Arthur's Seat which can be seen frm the Palace.
Salisbury Crags from the ridge of Arthur's Seat.
Windward side of Arthur's Seat, that forms a saddle with the Crags and channels wind. SUPER COLD AND WINDY UP THERE. WARNING: DON'T GO TOO NEAR THE EDGE.
Off the dirt path, searching for a way to get up the ridge w/o gg all the way down, around and up again. Found an crack in the rock face via which I could climb up. Easy peasy, not very high.
Same place, with a view of the path in bkgrd
Arthur's Seat from 2/3rds the way up the first Crag
Same from the top of the Crag
One of the 3 lochs in Holyrood Park. There's another on the opposite side nearer where I started, swans gather there.
HA! Found a place relatively out of the wind, but sunny and comfortable, in which to settle down with lunch and a book. Tried to set the camera to auto take a picture of me sittin in that alcove, but the prickly gorse bushes in abundance prevented a speedy getback to where my bag's sitting. Lunch was £2.99 frm Gregg's, a sandwich place. This meal consisted of a roast beef Oval Bite (like a hamburger, just not so unhealthy), a small bag of crisps (chips to the rest of the world) and a drink. Not bad for what I'm getting. Of course, DON'T CONVERT!!
A guy and his dog went down past me and didn't reappear so I guessed there was an alternate way down. Went along a rather prickly small path, which gradually disappeared, but ended at a rather abrupt drop. I think that way was a viable route down, but really steep, cldnt see for the convexity, in the end was chicken and made for the way I came up from. See where the brown path from the bottom of the picture is cut across by yellow/brown/green in the middle of the picture? The yellow is the slope of the next hill. That's the drop. Eh. Scary lei.
The Crag from the road winding around the base of Holyrood Park.
Had dinner at Greyfriars Bobby's Bar before heading over to catch the bus back to London. Monday night, folk music from 9pm onwards. Steak pie! Yummy yummy. Comparable to Doctor's, according Xiaoyan.
And here we are after a large dinner, gg into food coma..

Edinburgh II

Fudge!! Yummy fudge!! I bought a bar of coffee and one of whisky. Cost £2.20 per 100g, each bar was abt 50-70g. OUCH. But tasted good.. Mmm.. There was another shop further up Royal Mile on the other side of the street, each fudge slice (good and thick like a slab of crystal-embedded stone) 150g, £2.50/100g. Too bad cldn't afford that. The Maple Walnut, the Rum&Raisin and the Bailey's looked good!


"But Edinburgh is a mad god's dream/fitful and dark/Unseizable in Leith/And wildered by the Forth/But irresistibly at last/Cleaving to sombre heights/Of passionate imagining/Till stonily/From soaring battlements/Earth eyes Eternity." - excerpt from Edinburgh, Hugh MacDiarmid, 1921


Dynamic Earth Center, which is an interactive exhibit of the geological history of the region. Would've been fun to see.
Scottish Parliament from the visitor's centre at Holyrood Park
Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official Scottish residence of the royal family. Can't imagine them coming here except in summer, and then imagine having the whole of Holyrood Park to wander, climbing the Crags, Arthur's Seat, hiking around the park. Shioks.
Arthur's Seat on a not very clear day. The name doesn't derive from Arthur of legend, but apparently is a distortion of the Gaelic name for volcano (tt's what it is btw, extinct) - Ard-Na-Said, meaning "Height of Arrows", so the name is more likely to mean "Archer's Seat". More on this later.
View of Waverly station, Old Town from Calton Hill
Arthur's Seat frm Calton Hill
Nelson's Monument on Calton Hill
Queen Mary's Bath House. I was told that here was where ppl were hauled to get a good scrubbing before entering the Palace. The explanatory plaque though says that the function of the structure is unclear and it does not seem that there ever was a bath in it. It also says that this was prob a summer pavillon. Your take?
David Hume's tomb. Philosopher extraordinaire who believed that all human knowledge comes to us through our senses (brilliant idea, that), one of the pioneers of the Scottish Enlightenment, living in the early 18thC. His ideas, and that of Immanuel Kant (transcendental idealism) went on to become fertile seeding grd for the devpt of Continental philosophy in the 19thC. See Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre(less connected) for more.
Greyfriars Bobby, the dog who faithfully guarded his master's grave until he too succumbed to old age. The grave is to the left of Greyfriars Bobby's Bar along Candlemakers' Row.

Edinburgh I

First view of Edinburgh, at 6am on the bus in. The overnight bus wasn't too bad, cos there weren't that many ppl. Almost everybody managed to get 2 seats for themselves and stretch out. It was a double-decker, which meant more capacity. Which is not what Glen and Alf got. Tsk tsk.
A monument that looks strangely like the one in a sunny square in Prague. One of the first major historical structures to be seen exiting St Andrew's bus station from the St Andrew's Sq exit, turning left and walking down the street. Thanks to Glen for the precise instructions. You left out those for Tempting Tatties!
The small park below the monument where I took brekkie. In the cold. Brr. Coming from warm London (yes, actually it was more of hot), Edinburgh was cold.
An e.g. of a close, which is an alleyway linking streets on different levels of a hill. The most famous one is Mary's King Close, where guided tours were provided in the undergrd cellars and dungeons, with tales of ghosts and wraiths and vengeful spirits.
St. Giles Cathedral
High Street, or Royal Mile, with Edinburgh Castle at the high end, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags at the other. It's the main street 'downtown', and Cockburn St, one of the many which links to it, is shoppingland~ There's a youth hostel located there too, didn't look half bad. Royal Mile is now a long long row of souvenir shops, cafes and other eating places. A LOT of eating places.


A slightly koyak picture of the side of the Museum of Scotland, which is connected to the Royal Museum right next door by a children's interactive atrium. You'll recognize it when you see it. The 2 bldgs share a cloakroom in the Royal Museum, which is very handy if you've a lot of stuff to lug ard and can't check in yet. I was told this by a nice old curator when he saw me wandering around one of the exhibit rooms after chucking my pack on the bench.
An ancient lyre. There are symbols carved/burned into the wood, pretty amazing stuff.
The Bute mazer, made soon after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where Robert the Bruce led the Scots to victory against the English. It uses heraldry, which was easily understood at the time, to demonstrate Bruce's authority as king. 'Mazing mazer it is man..
And here we have the 15ft (4.5m) pike that was the weapon denoted by a 1668 commission establishing a militia in Scotland. As if anyone cld walk properly with that, much less brandish it! See even a 7fter wld be less than half it's size.
Sporran, belt and cloak/tartan brooch exhibit. The detail on the brooches there were intricate for the technology they had then.
Loom that made weaving tartans much easier, though still labourious.
Sedan chair used by doctors to appear respectable. The theory behind this is that doctors schooled in 'modern medecine' were perceived as quacks and these sedan chairs apparently helped to boost the respectability and image, and therefore credibility, of such doctors.
Guillotine, named "The Maiden", coming in at 3m tall, a 34kg weighing block (for a cleaner slice) and comes complete with foldaway function - just remove the stock at base, push in the leg and voila, easily stored! Store in convenient place (oh, like in the closet, use as table, whatever goes) until next usage.
Kiddie discovery atrium. Cool. Demonstrates how air jets can reduce friction, how quick your reflexes are by whacking whichever button lights up first, and also a 'make-your-own-robot' corner, among other things.
Aforementioned Edinburgh Castle, which I didn't go into. I should've just paid the fee and gone in. Check out somemore Crown Jewels to add to the list already seen (French and English). Maybe the Scots' are bigger? More shiny?
View from the side wall leading up to the castle. Sunny warm day. A rarity in Edinburgh.

London I

IMAX theatre at Waterloo, iconic London bus at left.

Along Thames Path, frm Waterloo toward City Hall.


Millenium Bridge. Ugly thing. It doesn't resemble other suspension bridges because they didn't want to block the view of St Paul's Cathedral from the Thames, but it had to be high enough to allow ship passage below.


Re-creation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, or Rose Theatre. Didn't want to pay the entrance fee for the exhibits. If it hadn't been the £ I'd've considered going in.
"Come hither, come hither, come hither"
The model of Globe Theater. Pretty cool. Close friends of the actors - male actors - could even sit on the edge of the stage during the performance. Watch Shakespeare in Love for an idea.

Chimney of Tate Modern along the Thames. There's a riverboat service to and from Britain Tate.
This is how classic!! In the land of Queen's English no less! Don't see the door jumping anywhere tho.
Clink Prison, the surrounding area is dank and dreary. It was a prison since 13thC.
Ruins of Winchester Palace, further up from Clink Prison.
Southwark [Southark] Cathedral, linked w many prolific ppl such as Chaucer. Don't ask me who else. Hiakz.
The baptismal font you see right when you enter the Cathedral from the Borough market side.

These few pics are for XY.. muahahaha



Some educational thing, the curator goes thru the history, talks about Henry VIII's wives. And also why boys inherit the throne and girls can't. Because they learn skills like hunting, and military arts so are better at fighting while girls learn sewing. Poohpooh and all that.
Tower of London. More on that later.
HMS Belfast, a leftover from WWII, now a maritime museum anchored near City Hall, on the Thames.
Hay's Galleria, used to be shopping haven, now home to cafes, souvenir stands and some other shops.
London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down~~



This sorta summer job wld be quite fun too, for maybe 2 weeks. After, the menial labour just tires.
Yeoman warder! They have to have at least 22 yrs in military service before they are eligible, and must be on the best conduct frm the start, earning commendations, badges for gd conduct and svc..





The Monument, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, in memory of those who died in the Great Fire
St Paul's Cathedral
And the iconic red telephone booth
St Paul's Cross in the courtyard
Westminster Abbey - shall return to it
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
BA London Eye - my mum said I shld've gone up since it's an "I've been there" kinda thing, but didn't see the point of taking a Ferris wheel even if I cld see 40km in any direction frm the top.

Trafalgar Square, not as grand as I'd remembered it to be, bounded by National Museum on one side
Statue of Eros, or Cupid, at Piccadilly Circus

Prague II

Please note the location of the museum, at lower right.



Dali exhibition, the lithographs of Dante's Inferno



The guys' room in Hostel Stradhov, ours is the same.