A walk down the memory lane

Today, I landed on Spring road in Ipswich, UK, and walked up and down the street until I reached the front of the house we stayed in 2006-07.

Hey, no! I am not on a tour of England. I am sitting at my house in Seattle! I am just looking at Google maps. Google maps is getting better every day.

Sitting at home, I could virtually walk on a road in UK. I could zoom in on the house, and see the the "For Sale" board in front of the house. Frasers Estate Agents Ltd, Queen Street, Ipswich, have put it up from sale. It seems they took it over from Paul West, the estate agent who dealt with the property when we were there. One fine guy he was - Paul West, unlike most of the real estate agents we met during our stay in Ipswich.

The house might have already been sold off, because what we see on Google maps is not a real-time image. We don't know when the photo was taken. Only thing we can tell is that the photo was taken on a Wednesday - it is evident from the the black garbage bin brought out from the backyard to the front of the house.

I wished I could walk up to the house and knock on the door, or take a peek inside! :-)

About Scotland and a bit of its history

Haven't you wondered on seeing Scotland's football team playing in world cup why do we have Scotland's football team in the world cup? After all we don't have Maharashtra cricket team in cricket world cup, we have Indian cricket team. So why do we have Scotland (and England and Wales) team(s) and not a British football team? After all England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland are four "states" that make up UK. I am sure you would have wondered. I too could not understand this until I came to UK and visited Scotland.

The reason is that Scotland is not a "state" of UK in a way Maharashtra is a state of India. In fact England, Scotland, and Wales are never refered to as "states" of UK. Even in UK, England, Scotland, and Wales are refered to as countries that make up UK. Well, if England, Scotland, and Wales are countries, then what is UK? UK as the name suggests is a Kingdom. And England, Scotland, and Wales are component countries that (along with N. Ireland) make the United Kingdom. It takes some time to understand this and being here in UK helps.

When I was in Scotland for a few days in November, I spotted a very widespread and conspicuous contempt among the Sctoish people for England and Englishmen. A little knowledge of history of Scotland helped me understand why it was so. All through the Medieval period England and Scotland fought each other, with England often having an upper hand. The way we feel about Shivaji and Rana Pratap, the Scots talk about William Wallace, who fought fought for Scotland's freedom from English occupaction. (He was captured by the English in 1305, beheaded after brutal torture, and his limbs thrown in four corners of Britain. He was 35 years of age then).

(hope to continue later)

Weather not so nice anymore

Carrying on from where I left last time - We have moved to a rented house and it's quite pleasant at home. However the weather is no longer so pleasant. It's getting cold and it has been raining since yesterday, and we haven't seen the sun.