Felled by a tram?

If you've read my last post way back in January you might think I've been run over by a tram - and they have now been spotted testing in daylight, although I've yet to see one.  Nothing as newsworthy, I'm afraid, just flattened by work, and by January and then February.  

Once the reclining Lanterns of Terracotta Warriors were upright, they put on quite a show.  Originally created for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the Warriors were set up in the quad of the University of Edinburgh's Old College to mark the Chinese New Year.

The quad is normally a restrained sort of place - not much graced by sunlight for most of the year, and not the sort of place that members of the public venture into.  But the Warriors attracted people in their droves every evening.

Photographers were out in force, of course, with phalanxes of tripods and serious cameras.  What surprised me was the number of children.  You can see buggies in the shot below, but every evening the quad was enlivened by children darting about or just standing mesmerised by the glowing figures.

I am increasingly fascinated by the use of public space in cities, by how people make space their own and change the feel of a space in ways that were never intended when they were built.  If I could go back and choose, and IF I had the slightest mathematical capability, I would be tempted to be an architect.  But since neither of those is the case, I'll just continue to marvel.