Saturday, July 12, 2008

Souvenirs - Burlington, Ontario, Canada


I was browsing through the dollar store when I came across this little bit of Canadiana. For those tourists who want to take home a token to toss in their junk drawer, here's quite a collection: socks, hacky sacks, key chains, pens, flags. My personal favourite is that tamborine-like thing with the feathers and the picture of a first-nations man (I think that's the politically correct term, though this thing is hardly PC anyway). If there's something that does a worse job of representing the culture I grew up in, I challenge anyone to find it. You're it, Carol!

Statue- Burlington, Ontario, Canada


This sailor is close to the waterfront, and is part of a World War II Navy Memorial. It has flags and wreaths and a list of names on it and everything. Elsewhere, we have another statue of a soldier which also has a list of names (but I don't have a pic of that one). The names are all of dead people, which is kind of sad, but at least this guy has a nice view.

Statue - Glasgow, Scotland

In front of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall stands this statue of Donald Dewar, the first First Minister of Scotland. After the creation of the Scottish Parliment in 1999, he was the first person to hold the post. This statue, located at the top of Buchanan Street, was unveiled in May 2002 by then Prime Minister Tony Blair. You probably can't make it out from the photo, but in keeping with his famous unkempt appearance, it shows Dewar wearing a slightly crushed jacket.
A little piece of trivia: the statue was later taken down and re-erected on a 6 foot high plinth to protect it - not from malicious vandalism but a Glaswegian cultural trend of putting orange traffic cones on the statues head! Ironically this is considered a gesture of respect by many in the city as most of the cities statues have found themselves wearing the familiar orange cones!

Construction - Glasgow, Scotland

Ok ok ok ok ok... apologies for the delay. :'(
I'm back! We don't have a construction saying here, but there is a noticeable increase in the amount of construction taking place in March every year. Why, I hear you ask? Well, it's the end of the financial year and there is a sudden need to spend any unspent budget. *lol* It's true!
The colour of choice here is usually red, white and blue. The first sign of construction (or road works as we call it here) is the red triangle with the man digging (or as my Mum always says - putting up his umbrella!)