It was sunny and 54°F (12 °C) today. I walked down to Denny Way, to check on the construction across from the Denny Substation.
Monday/ here comes the Colosseum
Move over 2017’s LEGO Millennium Falcon (7,541 pieces) and LEGO Taj Mahal (5,923 pieces)!
The up-and-coming LEGO Colosseum (on sale this Friday) clocks in at a colossal 9,036 pieces, making it far-and-away the largest official Lego set ever.
And yes, it comes at a high price for that many bricks: US$ 550.
Am I tempted to go for it? Well, I would rather spend that kind of money to buy bricks like I did for my Doon Drive House creation.
Maybe I can design and build a LEGO Castle of Good Hope – the one in Cape Town, with its brick walls and five-pointed footprint. Now that would be a challenge.
Friday/ Berlin’s new airport
Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt airport (code: BER) is finally, at last, open for business. Its opening this Saturday is 9 years late. Numerous scandals had devoured huge sums of money and ruined many a reputation.
I am eager to go and check it out, and I will definitely put the airport BER on my list of destinations to fly into, once this pandemic has subsided.
Friday/ my vote is in
18 days until Nov 3.
I walked down to the ballot drop box on Broadway this afternoon to drop in my ballot.
Sunday/ South Lake Union construction
It’s been awhile since I went down to South Lake Union to check out the construction there, and off I went today.
Friday/ 19 years since 9.11
2,974 victims were confirmed to have died in the initial attacks. It has been reported that over 1,400 9/11 rescue workers who responded to the scene in the days and months after the attacks have since died. (Figures from Wikipedia).
Here is a list of dates and events that followed the 9/11 attacks ..
Year | Day | Milestone |
---|---|---|
2001 | Tue–Sept11 | The 9/11 attacks |
2001 | Sun–Oct07 | Taliban driven from power/ War in Afghanistan starts |
2003 | Thu–Mar20 | War in Iraq starts |
2006 | Thu–Apr27 | One World Tower construction starts |
2011 | Mon–May02 | Osama bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan |
2011 | Sun–Dec18 | War in Iraq ends |
2015 | Fri–May29 | One World Tower observation deck opens |
2020 | Sat–Feb29 | Conditional peace deal signed with Taliban in Doha, Qatar |
Sunday/ Lake Charles: a lot of damage
Hurricane Laura left a lot of damage behind in Lake Charles, La. There is still no water and no electricity, and it might take 6 weeks to restore both. Look at the hit that the Capital One Tower took. It opened in 1983, 22 floors, the tallest in the city.
Hurricane Rita damaged the building in 2005, and it went through years of renovations that was said to include ‘ballistic protection’ for the glass panels.
Well, it seems Hurricane Laura scoffed at that. One wonders what will be done now, to repair it. I question the wisdom of the architects, that had designed such a building for a hurricane-prone area, in the first place.
Tuesday/ a hospital in Art Deco
I made a quick stop at a clinic in Harborview Medical Center this morning. (All is well).
The hospital was founded in 1877 as King County Hospital, a six-bed welfare hospital in a two-story south Seattle building.
By 1906, it had moved into a new building in Georgetown, with room for 225 patients. Another move occurred in 1931, when the center wing of the present hospital on First Hill was completed, and the hospital’s name was changed to Harborview.
The 2005 ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy ‘Seattle Grace’ Hospital was based on Harborview Medical Center.
Sunday/ Denny Way construction
Here are pictures of the construction projects that line Denny Way just west of Interstate 5, that I had taken on Friday at dusk.
Presumably, work on these projects have started up again (while meeting the Covid-19 guidelines published by Washington State).
Tuesday/ the Doon Drive House, completed
Here’s the Doon Drive house, now replete with Chev truck by the front door, back yard, tennis court, swing set, swimming pool, trees and flower beds.
Did I go a little overboard? Well no – this is really not going overboard, given all the crazy things LEGO builders have come up with!
I will let it occupy my dining room table for a bit, and then decide what to do! Maybe I will put the bricks for just the house, in a shoebox, with pictures, so that it can be rebuilt again.
Tuesday/ Stockholm’s arty subway
Stockholm is near the top of my list, for when we can travel again.
I want to go to the ABBA museum, and I want to stop at each and every one of the subway stations that David Alrath had photographed for Wired magazine. I copied the captions for the photos from the Wired article, as well.
Saturday/ once upon a time on Doon Drive
Here’s a sneak peek at my current LEGO project.
I call it ‘The Doon Drive House’. It’s a replica of the house that I grew up in, in South Africa — in a town called Vereeniging, and on Doon Drive, of course.
I had photos of the outside of the house to help me with the dimensions. As for the inside: I still recall every nook and cranny, down to the furniture and appliances that were installed.
So it’s quite a trip down memory lane for me, with the little bricks from Denmark. I used to play with them in that very house, all of 6 years old.
Monday/ ‘No Bears Allowed’
Wednesday/ the Volunteer Park Water Tower
It was another beautiful day here in Seattle.
I wanted to get a clear view of Mt Rainier, and the observation deck of the Water Tower here in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill was a good place to go to get that. And hey, no entry fee: it’s free of charge.
Sunday/ Denny Way’s new apartment towers
I went down to check out the construction at 1120 Denny Way this afternoon – a complex with a large footprint, and two apartment towers.
At its completion it will be the biggest apartment building in the history of the city with 1,179 apartments.
Tuesday/ the Twin Towers in 1999
Here is a digital scan of the 35mm film negative, of a picture of the Twin Towers, that I had taken in 1999 from the Hudson River. I was on a Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan island.
Sunday/ more Convention Center space
Here’s a peek over the fence at the construction site for the Washington State Convention Center expansion, on the edge of Seattle downtown.
Saturday/ Perth Cultural Centre
Here are a few pictures from my walkabout in Perth’s Cultural Centre on Friday.
Sunday/ a twilight cruise
On Sunday, we went on a twilight cruise on the upper Swan River — just a slow round trip at 5 knots, on the wide swath of river by downtown Perth.
Here’s where we went, and a few of the sights along the way.
Monday/ the National Stadium and more
I went out to look at the new National Stadium today.
It has been shown to the media, and was officially opened on Sunday by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The general public still have to peek over the solid fencing around it to look at the outside shell of the stadium, though.