Vote day for the UK remaining or leaving Europe gave me chance to go home. As it was a sunny day I got a few photographs of from Falkirk's Trinity Church - Faw Kirk. The church stands on the historic site of Faw Kirk and was probably the first Christian structure in Falkirk. It is believed that Faw Kirk gave rise to the town's name, Falkirk. The church is also the burial ground and resting place of William Wallace’s finest knight, Sir John de Graham, whose body is said to have been carried from the battlefield and laid to rest in the kirkyard by William Wallace himself.
Sunday saunter
One of the many good things about moving back to Scotland for a year is the time I am getting to spend with my father. Most weeks he takes it upon himself to bring me through my mail from home, drink coffee and buy me dinner (as I am a poor student).
Now that summer is here the city if getting busier with tourists and the Princes street gardens are more attractive for walking through. Some say that you can pass the whole world walking through these gardens at the height of summer. I am not so sure about that, but there were certainly a lot of nationalities there today.
I have added a couple of the shots I took from today below and one of the castle above, click to enlarge.
Aunt Lizzie's House
St John's Church
Saturday Morning Walk
Taking a little time going through the meadows on Saturday morning. Mostly taking time as Starbucks didn't open till 8am... It reminded me of the film ,The Last Samurai, with the character Katsumoto remarking:
“A perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one and it would not be a wasted life”
Perhaps not perfect, but certainly making the walk through The Meadows more pleasant.
End of classes and return to The Hague
End of Classes
I have spent most of time since last week reflecting on the fact that all the assessed parts of my classes have now finished. Just in time for summer! Just a 15,000 word dissertation assessing the potential for glacial lake outburst floods in eastern Tibet to write, before the start of August.
It was interesting presenting some early work on this project at the postgraduate conference, and in some ways justifying why I was looking into this. Someone told me that they were impressed as I was researching a topic that could directly influence people from the dangers of a geohazard and that they had chosen their topic because it was on offer and sounded cool. It amused me as most things related to glaciers 'seems cool' to me.
Truth be told, it is the environments that glaciers occur in that interest me, the mountains, the cold air, the silence, the photographs that can be taken and the total peace of mind that can be attained.
I have made no secret of the fact that I was disappointed with the grade that I was given for the presentation, I believe the marking system to be flawed and the markers staying anonymous stops discussion being possible. Fundamentally anti-science in an academic setting. Reading the handbook on the appeal process, I read between the lines, was basically don't waste your or our time. Of course, the mark for this doesn't matter as much as the feedback that I received from some of the audience members that contributed some excellent sources of new material and resources. I have found that issues that disappoint me are usually not worth worrying about and the people involved, less so.
The Hague
After a 'tour de force' of The Hague municipal government offices (due to an incorrectly addressed tax bill) I have finally sought refuge in theCentraal Station Starbucks for some much needed news updates and coffee intake. Having lunch with a friend earlier this week I commented that the bureaucracy of The Netherlands wasn't that bad once you had registered and were living here. The irony that my 'de-registering' from living in The Netherlands was processed incorrectly and had caused my municipal tax fee to be auto-sent was not lost on me as I traveled from one end of The Hague to another seeking resolution to this 'error'.
I have also found that the most amount of fun you can have is digging through mail that is still being sent your old address. It doesn't matter how thorough you are at informing banks, people, shops and any other promotional lists you will still have a ton of mail after a few months. Soooooooo much fun to be had. Sweating through the 'belastingdienst letters' (tax authority) and cursing over the missed deals from 'de Bijenkorf' (think John Lewis or Sears depending on your western culture). There was also a card that came out of the blue tugging at my past. It made me pause and think.
No daises were hurt in the making of this jacket.
Getting a few days away from Edinburgh and traveling back to The Hague has also given me some time to reflect on the last few months of work. It's amazing how some distance can give a little perspective on life events and shows exactly how much some issues are worth in the grand scheme of life. That's not to say that we should stop caring, or standing up for, what is important to ourselves.
Visiting The Hague has been interesting, much of it is how I remember, with some inconsistencies, such a shops being different, the train station renovation being finished (after ten years) and most of the people I knew (know) still being around. There are missing pieces of my life here, experiences that have adjusted my opinion, fun times that will never be recreated and people that have moved on.
It's warmer than Scotland. The people are more relaxed. Their fashion sense ranges from stylish to irreverent and at times it makes me smile, for instance the photograph above. My photography has been limited due to time constraints, and to be fair I think that I shot almost everything in The Hague during 2013. I took a couple, click to enlarge below :-)
Quintessential Netherlands. Den Haag.
Het Plein. Den Haag.
Pi Day
I usually remember Pi Day but it escaped my notice until I was walking home after practical class today! My second to last assessment was handed in this morning and my last assessment was handed out this afternoon, for further spatial analysis. It looks interesting, cluster analysis.
It was a cold clear day in Edinburgh which made for a great magic hour at dusk. I also deviated from my usual way home and snapped a shot which I added to the Edinburgh gallery. I actually shot a lot on the way home but this was the only one I was happy with. It reminded me to try and walk places in a different way everyday so that there is a chance to see new locations and original ways to compose photographs.
This photograph was taken at the back of the Edinburgh University College of Art. I like the scene with the corroding sign on the wall and the back of the castle in the background.
It seems that the academic year is passing very fast with my last class being next Monday afternoon. After that I will be working full time on my dissertation which currently has the title "Identifying the potential for Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in north-western Nepal". It's a pity there isn't any fieldwork allowed... Perhaps I'll go after the course finished.