Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Chengdu – New Century Global Center

    Chengdu – New Century Global Center

    When I was in Chengdu, back in 2014, I thought it would a good idea to get the Metro to go and see what was the largest building in the world in terms of floor space.

    This was my view when I got off the Metro, a building so big that it was almost impossible to photograph it in one go. I’ve never seen anything so substantial before, a crazy piece of commercialism.

    It’s a sprawling building, with 18 million square feet of floor space.

    chengdufromfront.jpg

    This is the mall’s official photo, they probably had to go back about half a mile to take this and get the whole building in.

    Some photos of the interior, which I remember wasn’t all finished when I went. It also wasn’t particularly busy and many shops weren’t let. There are two 1,000 room hotels at the shopping mall, as well as a water park, ice-skating rink and cinema. But, although it may have felt just a bit too big, it was nonetheless still quite marvellous to see the largest shopping mall in the world and I did enjoy my Subway experience here.

  • Chengdu – New Century Global Center (Subway)

    Chengdu – New Century Global Center (Subway)

    And going back to 2014 now. The New Century Global Center is one of the largest buildings in the world and I visited it around one year after it was constructed. More on this in another post….

    And this was the first time that I tried to order a Subway in China. I find the ordering process difficult enough in English if I’m being honest, but I bravely decided that I could get away with pointing. So, I go in and there was a friendly member of staff who spoke hardly any English, but she excitedly got on the phone to tell them about my arrival. A manager appeared from nowhere about thirty seconds later and she spoke nearly perfect English, she was thrilled as I was the first English speaking customer she’d served in months and she wanted to practice the language. At the time, and indeed probably now, Chengdu city centre doesn’t attract huge numbers of English visitors.

    I don’t go to Subway much, primarily as I’m moderately obsessed with Quiznos, although I don’t get to visit there very often. But, this was one of the better Subways that I’ve visited and the menu at the time was near identical to the US menu (unlike when I visited a Subway India, which is more of a different set-up) and the food tasted fine. I didn’t really take photos in the same way back then, although at least I have a picture of my American looking Sub, which is also in American looking branding of subway.com that I don’t think I thought about at the time. I say that it was the first time that I ordered a Subway in China, it was also the last, I never got round to going to another one after this.

  • Florence – Uffizi Gallery (Hercules Slaying the Centaur Nessus)

    Florence – Uffizi Gallery (Hercules Slaying the Centaur Nessus)

    I thought at first that this sculpture was Roman, but only the torso of the centaur (half man, half horse) remained and so the rest, including the head and legs of the centaur and the entirety of Hercules, was added in the sixteenth century. Well, other than the feet of Hercules, they’re mostly original Roman as well. It depicts Hercules slaying Nessus who had tried to kill Deianira, the wife of Hercules.

    The element that I liked most about this sculpture is that it has been on display in this corridor since 1595 and it’s near the main entrance to the upper floors of the gallery, which is where visitors start their tour. There must have been countless millions who have looked at this sculpture and there can’t be many artworks in the world that have had this uninterrupted period of being on public display.

    The sixteenth century additions to the sculpture were made by Giovanni Caccini, but over the last few years there has been a restoration of it and they’ve been able to see exactly where the joins in the sculpture have been made, the merging of the old and new. They also discovered that the stance of the centaur was changed slightly and that more work was done on the foot of Hercules than had previously been realised. The same recent re-examination of the sculpture also found that the original marble is from Asia, whereas Caccini used marble from Tuscany.

  • Florence – Uffizi Gallery (I Corridoi di Galleria)

    Florence – Uffizi Gallery (I Corridoi di Galleria)

    The corridors of the Uffizi are iconic and they form the base of the gallery’s large collections, with rooms leading off them. And what is interesting is that the word ‘gallery’ in the sense of displaying artworks or artefacts may derive from here, when the word originally meant an area at the side of a building.

    This is the view towards the Palazzo Vecchio from the crossing gallery, with the top floor windows on each side containing the corridors.

    The frescoes on the ceiling date to the late sixteenth century and the early seventeenth centuries. There would have been tapestries on the walls, but these have now been removed as the light was damaging them. As an introduction to the museum, these corridors are an exciting sight as they stretch off into the distance.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Nineteen

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Nineteen

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Bay Fever

    Defined by the dictionary as “a term of ridicule applied to convicts who sham illness, to avoid being sent to Botany Bay”. I’m impressed by just how many people the British Government shipped out to Australia for breaking various laws, it totalled 162,000 convicts between 1788 and 1868. I’m moderately surprised that being able to fake an illness was a reason to avoid transportation, as ships at this time were riven with people who had cholera and typhoid.

    Incidentally, the journey to Australia took four months and I can’t begin to imagine what a bloody hassle that must have been, sailing along with hundreds of seasick convicts who had cholera or typhoid. The rate of death on the transportation ships was usually relatively low, but in around 1800 the system changed to pay more to crews and masters who got convicts safely (well, alive) to Australia. Which means I imagine that they didn’t want ill convicts on board, and perhaps that’s why bay fever became a thing. Another nice phrase though.

  • Railways and the Coronavirus

    Railways and the Coronavirus

    12 passengers in four hours? Surely it must be worth just using buses for these routes now, that’s on average fewer than one person per train (plus the guard and the driver)….. But impressive that so many people aren’t travelling and are obeying instructions.

    https://twitter.com/BTPEAnglia/status/1246360968919162882

     

  • Bucharest – Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse

    Bucharest – Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse

    This shopping centre is perhaps the earliest surviving in Bucharest, constructed in 1891 and named after Xavier Villacrosse, a former city architect.

    There’s a grand entrance portal to the centre, which is in a fork shape as the owner of the central area, the Pesht Hotel, didn’t want to sell. That must have been slightly annoying for the developers at the time, but at least they got to build their street in some form.

    It’s a stunning interior, but it needs repair and I wasn’t really that excited by any of the premises inside. This was primarily due to most being closed when I visited in the afternoon, with some others having a rather seedy look, even if perhaps they weren’t.

    With some money and the introduction of a few innovative tenants, this could once again be quite a grand shopping street given its central location. During the communist period from 1950 until 1989, the centre was renamed Pasajul Bijuteria, or the jewellery street. Many of the shops along the street during this time were jewellers, although this has now changed to mostly being restaurants and bars.

    The main dome isn’t in too bad a condition and it ensures that the shopping is well lit and bright. There are offices above the retail units and for a while this was home to the first Stock Exchange in the country.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighteen

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighteen

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Bawdy Basket

    The dictionary defines this as “the twenty-third rank of canters, who carry pins, tape, ballads and obscene books to sell, but live mostly by stealing”. Canter seems to be a miscreant of various types, and the 23rd rank refers to a 1698 dictionary which tried to place the criminal fraternity in 27 different ranks, with the most important ranked highly.

    The original meaning of a bawdry basket was someone (nearly always female) who carried a basket of clothes and then stole more clothing that they found, claiming to anyone asking that it was their own. Over time, this got corrupted in criminal slang to meaning someone carrying a basket of stolen goods.

  • Bucharest – Church of St. Anthony

    Bucharest – Church of St. Anthony

    The Church of St. Anthony is the oldest standing church in its original form which is left in Bucharest, dating back to the 1550s and constructed on the site of a wooden church. It has though been through the wars a little (including literally when the Turks attacked) and with a restoration in 1847 following a major fire which damaged much of Bucharest’s central area.

    The building looks relatively modern, mainly due to some recent cleaning and there were also restorations in 1914 and between 1928 to 1935 which reverted the church back to something more like its original appearance.

    The church’s facade.

    A fine entrance portal which dates to 1715.

    The church was busy with worshippers, so it didn’t feel appropriate to walk around it and disturb other people. It was a grand interior though, but also homely and with a strong sense of community.

  • Isle of Skye – Fairy Pools

    Isle of Skye – Fairy Pools

    I posted earlier a few photos of the bravery of Scott and Liam in climbing up the various elements of the Fairy Pools, which was a sequence of waterfalls. The rest of us didn’t make that brave climb on rocks through the middle of the waterfalls in case we fell in, we just walked alongside. Richard and Andrew were hoping that Scott fell in, but I didn’t tell anyone that. I think it was Richard and Andrew hoping that, but perhaps it was me.

    Known locally as the Lòin nan Sìthichean, these waterfalls and caves are apparently popular with those who like wild swimming and diving, but I can imagine that the water isn’t exactly tropical in temperature even if it is in appearance. And so, lots more photos, including a photo of a couple having wedding photos. A lovely background, but a bit of a traipse in wedding finery to get to them.