Princes Street

23-25 Sep 2003:
It was my 3rd visit to Edinburgh. My spouse was there for work and as usual I tagged along. He took a flight while I went by train - a 6 to 7 hours journey (one way) from Newbury.

Day 1:
I reached there in the evening of 23 Sep and met up with him. We stayed in a hotel near the Haymarket train station (I can't remember which hotel it was).

Haymarket Train Station. Look deserted? That's because I waited until everyone left before taking a photo. Since all the photos were taken by me and without a tripod, I have no photo of myself for this trip.

I saw this when I stepped out of the train station. The structure with a clock is a war memorial for former players of Heart of Midlothian F.C. who died in World Wars I and II.


Day 2:
After he left for work, I took a train from the Haymarket station to Stirling (that's for another post) and came back in the evening. The time shown in the photo below: 11.12am (when I board the train to Stirling).

When I came back in the evening, my spouse was still at work so I took a leisure stroll all the way to see the floral clock in West Princes Street Gardens. The yellow line in the map below is the route I took. Yellow circle - Edinburgh castle, blue circle - The Royal Scots Greys monument, green circle - floral clock.

I walked along Princes Street, main shopping street in Edinburgh New Town and passed by a flower stall and numerous high street shops but I did not buy anything, just window shopping only.

Then I reached the West Princes Street Gardens and noticed a squirrel running about.

Photo of Edinburgh Castle  (yellow circle on map) as seen from the West Princes Street Gardens.

The Royal Scots Greys monument  (blue circle on map) shows a soldier from the Royal Scots Greys Regiment.

Finally I reached the floral clock (green circle on map) and I waited for the cuckoo (bird) to tell me the time. The time then was 4.10pm and the bird appears every 15 minutes.

Now you see it! The cuckoo appeared from its "nest".

Now you don't. No cuckoo.

West Princes Street Gardens. Then I walked all the way back to the hotel and joined my spouse for dinner.

Day 3:
I left for the train station immediately after breakfast while he checked out from the hotel and went to work before taking a flight back to London. I like walking along Princes Street and I hope to visit Edinburgh again one day.

Knowing

You say, "People who are doing what they want to do, are happy."

By and by, someone comes along and says, "I am doing what I want to do but I am not happy."

We say, "Then you are not doing what you really want to do. Go do other things. When you feel happy, see what you are doing. For that is the thing you want to do."

Daphnis who?

One morning, my spouse asked me to go out to our garden to look at a moth. I have not seen such a big moth before so I took a photograph of it. It landed on our car and did not fly away when I approached it. 

When I was young, I was told that when moths fly near humans, it means that the spirit of a loved one is visiting them. While I don't really believe it, I feel nice whenever I see a moth because I can choose to believe that it is someone closed to me who is visiting me from somewhere out there.

I googled for the name of this moth and came up with two results - Daphnis hypothous or Daphnis nerii (Oleander Sphinx Moth or Oleander Hawk-Moth), both species are from the Sphingidae family. I can't tell the difference between the two types of moth, except for their colour. So based on the colour alone, I believe this moth is Daphnis hypothous.

Later, when we drove the car to run some errands, the moth was still sticking to the car. We just let it be and when we arrived at our destination, it was no longer there. I hope it flew away to a new home but I wish to see it again because it looks so special.

Happy sunshine

I prefer natural light to switching on the lights during daytime so there are a few skylights in my house. Apart from saving electricity, one fun thing about this is, I get different sunlight patterns on my walls and ceilings throughout the year. Here's one of them:

The pattern usually lasts for at most 1 hour before it changes position as the earth rotates on its own tilted axis (I was about to write as the sun rises from the east in the morning and sets in the west but as we are all taught, the position of the sun is fixed, it is the earth that is moving so I corrected myself).

Sometimes when life gets to me, I'll just sit back and observe the sunshine on my wall and I'll be happy again.

First walk

When I was in Hong Kong, I like the convenience of using the Central–Mid-levels escalators and the Central Elevated Walkway to walk from one place to another and wish that such a facility exists back home. So I was very happy when I read that a covered air-conditioned walkway was launched early this year, connecting the Pavilion shopping mall located at the Bukit Bintang road to the KL Convention Centre which is in turn linked to the KLCC shopping mall via an underground walkway.

Last week, I had the opportunity to see for myself what this walkway is like. It took me about 8 mins to walk the whole stretch of 562 meters from Pavilion to KLCC. Unlike Hong Kong, there was no travelators (moving walkway), only escalators for the exits and entrances so after all the window shopping in KLCC, walking back was a bit tiring.

All in all, it was a pleasant walk with security guards along the way to help out with people who are lost and also to make sure that no one is up to any mischief. Below are some photos I took along the walkway.

The green line in the map below is the route of this KLCC - Bukit Bintang Walkway.

The floor plan of Level 3 of the Pavilion shopping mall showing the location of the entrance to the walkway (green box).

Floor plan taken from the website of the Pavilion shopping mall

Entrance to the walkway after exiting the Pavilion shopping mall

Close up photo of the sign above

Escalators - exit to Raja Chulan road

Close-up photo of the sign above

Branch off left to exit to Wisma Cosway and Raja Chulan monorail station

The covered walkway is not connected to the Raja Chulan monorail station. One would have to exit the walkway and stroll under the hot sun to reach that station.

Just keep on walking

Finally reach KLCC

Looking back, up the escalators

Correct?

After 1 week of staring at the jigsaw puzzle, I think this may be the answer. All Mickey's friends are playing a musical instrument except for Donald Duck. He is blowing air through a straw into a glass of liquid he is holding in his hands/wings and I can just slightly see the bubbles coming out from the glass. So do you think this is the mistake?

What mistake?

Jennifer's post entitled "I love jigsaw puzzles" jogged my memory that I have a similar jigsaw puzzle (undone) lying somewhere in the house. After searching for a while, I finally found the puzzle that I bought 3 years ago. Without further ado, I started putting the pieces together.

As with the usual practice, I put together the border first. To make it a bit more difficult, I only looked at the picture on the cover of the box once and then proceed to put the pieces together without referring to the picture again.

When I reached this stage, it was getting harder and harder to find the right piece as each small piece contains a variety of colours so without referring to the complete picture, it was difficult to know which piece goes where but yet I persisted to do it without referring to the picture again.

Finally I did it! The key to putting the puzzle together without referring to the picture again is to group the pieces that have roughly the same colours together and then assemble the pieces by their groups.

Maybe I should complete a black and white jigsaw puzzle this way which should be very difficult. Or maybe I should ask my spouse to get me a jigsaw puzzle and let me try putting it together without me knowing what  picture is at all. The latter should be more difficult. But more fun!

For this puzzle, I am supposed to find the mistake but after scrutinising it for hours, I still couldn't figure out what the mistake is. What mistake?!