The View

[Edit: Changed shot for a slightly wider one now I'm at home]

This is a view of Calton Hill in Edinburgh (an iconic Edinburgh view) from a third floor flat on Ferry Road ... after I'd just taken my lunch hour to help a friend humph several large brown cardboard boxes from the blueandyellowSwedishshop containing what I can only assume were lead tablets up his several flights of stairs!

The view was almost reward enough. Topped off by a Greggs on the way back to the office.

Today it was a close run thing between this shot and the bike tracks in the snow that I captured in the bright morning light just before I didn't get on the train because it was three carriages short ... but I'm not going to rant about that today.

BTW - thanks for the kind comments and ratings for yesterday's late posted Three Legged Walk (<- if you've not seen it).

<religious musings>

Despite being entirely non-religious, Mrs 42 and I have been watching a really interesting series on Channel 4 called "Christianity: A History" in which several well known figures have written and presented their own episode.

For example, Michael Portilo's episode commented on investigated the legacy of the Roman Emperor Constantine and his conclusion is that once enthroned in a position of power, the church never looked back - and this has been a disaster for Christianity because 'power is for politicians and not for churchmen'.

However, if I could recommend one episode that everyone should watch it is the episode on Crusades by Rageh Omaar. Basically he explains the powerful symbolism behind the idea of the Crusades in the Middle East and the widespread belief amongst Muslims (stirred up by extremists) that the West is still crusading - a view not helped by George Bush actually used the word 'Crusade' when he first talked about the 'war on terror'.

Whatever you believe, I think Omaar is spot on when he says that in the West we need to be very conscious of the effect this sort of rhetoric has on the divide between Christianity and Islam and the East needs to acknowledge that today's problems are in today's world and are not rooted in history from 900 years ago.

Top intellectual stuff

</religious musings>

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LOTD: Bri's "Where's Wally" blip is a brilliantly simple composition and great in B&W. Funny too!