Well it's now 9am on my first full day in Scotland. The sun finally turned up at about 8am and it's going to get to a rather chilly 7 degrees Celsius, brrr. It was a lovely sunny afternoon when I arrived yesterday and apparently remain sunny through to tomorrow which is great news. Yesterday the UK government announced their austerity budget so people are feeling a bit nervous right now. I'm reminded of what SA and Victoria went through in the 1990s, thanks to the collapse of some other financial institutions.
As I look out this window, I'm thinking about the connection to harbours on this journey so far. Of course Woolloomooloo, where M&G NSW is located, is right on Sydney Harbour, and is where my grandfather first arrived in Australia on WWII British naval ship and now here I am in Edinburgh looking at the harbour that is the other end of that journey.
I was really struck by the bustle of Hong Kong harbour, barges filled with containers headed for ships, ferries, little service boats, huge cruise ships etc etc. While it is a very modern place with wall to wall skyscrapers, the hills still rise up behind all of this, reminding one that there is an ancient presence behind it all. Strangely I could still imagine the trading partners of the East India Company arriving in their sailing ships and the battles of the opium wars with the ships being blown up not far from the harbour.
I'm off to catch up with the staff of Museums Galleries Scotland for lunch
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