How Life Is

Life is pretty grand really. Especially today, after a successful trip to Roslin to see the Chapel, some cheese and oatcakes and World Cup rugby on the TV. A quick re-cap of things we've done in the last few weeks...

We went to the Royal Botanic Gardens, about an hour away by foot via our favourite Water of Leith walk. Halfway there we reached the old mill area, a part of the valley where all the old mills used to be; there are still some wells and buildings left over from that time. Including the mineral spring (below) which isn't normally open but for some reason was the day we went past. Inside was a revelation; it had been designed to look like a Roman temple, all blue and gold tiles and an elaborate fountain for the healing waters. Just incredible. The old lady who invited us in told us the history of it and invited Toby to try pumping for some water. Luckily he failed, otherwise we might have had to drink it.

Then onto the gardens, where surprisingly there was a large section dedicated to plants of a particular region in China...

...and some really big leaves...

...and great views across Edinburgh.


The next weekend we went to the National Gallery which is actually several galleries connected by tunnels. We skipped the Warhol exhibition due to its cost and instead wandered around some of the most amazing rooms I've ever been in. It was like being in a rich person's mansion. No new-fangled marble floors, white walls and proper lighting in this gallery. The paintings were displayed one on top of each other in rooms that felt like ballrooms. It all felt very opulent and luxurious. They had an exhibition on of William Blake's work, which was a revelation for me as I thought he'd only ever written poems.

We had a visitor in the form of Toby's mate Chris, who we'd discovered had actually been in Edinburgh for the last 2 months, living and working at a hostel near the Castle. We used it as an excuse to visit our local pubs, and that was how we discovered that our local pubs shut at 12. Not the most successful excursion but it was nice to have a friendly face around for a few days. He's now moved up to the highlands to work some more, so we may visit him sometime.

We had some really delicious Chinese food at a restaurant I would never have considered, partly because it was so bright red and yellow and partly because its name is Chop Chop. However the food was incredibly good, with the house speciality being dumplings, and very reasonably priced. We shall return (and also take any lucky visitors who come this way).

We had a weekend spent at home because the weather wasn't very good and we'd just booked an expensive trip to Amsterdam and wanted to save our money.

We went to a World Cup match because the stadium is less than 5 minutes' walk from our house. We saw Scotland annihilate Romania; Toby predicted a 60-0 final score, but in the end it was 42-0. You had to feel sorry for Romania - first the war, then this. It was a very Scottish experience, what with all the men in kilts (standard clothing for sporting events) and the Proclaimers being played every time Scotland scored a try. (We are now watching New Zealand annihilate Scotland in a similar manner on TV; the cheapest tickets for this game were 38 pounds as opposed to 9 pounds for the Romanian game, which explains our choice. While walking up to the bus stop earlier today we passed a massive number of All Blacks fans, but I think we still might have struggled to choose which side to cheer for, had we gone to the game.)

Random shot of the stadium from Toby's phone. Note the teeny tiny screen and the almost invisible scores. Not a place for blind bats.

Yesterday myself and another girl from work bussed out to the Gyle Centre (which is a small shopping mall out in an industrial area near the airport) in order to do some surveys. We were to be paid 7 pounds an hour for 3.5 hours, and get 150 responses between us. I must say I would never have volunteered for this job if I'd known what it would involve, but by the time I found out what 'doing surveys' meant, it was really too late to back out. Yvonne stood in the annexe between the carpark and the entrance, and I stood outside Marks & Spencers catching people coming from the other direction. Within 15 minutes we'd been asked to leave by security, who very nicely told us that our agency hadn't received permission for us to be there. We rang the girl from work who'd arranged the whole thing, and she didn't answer her phone. While we waited for her to call us back we had a coffee and browsed through Boots. 45 minutes later, we still hadn't heard anything and decided to call it a day. It goes without saying that we were both pretty relieved and not at all upset that our 3.5 hours had been cut down to 15 minutes. I'd been home for a while when the girl from the agency finally rang me; I couldn't tell who she was angry at, but I figured we'd done what we could and none of it was our fault. I didn't ask if we would still get paid but I will certainly be putting up a fight for us tomorrow. Never mind. Yvonne was a pleasant, interesting person to spend some time with. She went to university in Paris, her mother lives in Spain and her boyfriend in Venice so she has that jet-setting lifestyle I imagine all British having.

Today we decided it was time for an excursion, so after a brief bus mishap due to the fact that I can't read, we got on a bus out to Roslin. It's only 6-7 miles from the Edinburgh city centre but it felt a million miles away by the time we got out there. The chapel is going through major conservation work so from the outside it looked a little disappointing. Inside was a whole other story; it was extraordinary. I have never seen anything like it. The stories and the history add so much interest to what would already be an incredible space. I was glad to see a complete lack of Da Vinci-related paraphernalia, which is fitting considering the chapel has a much richer history than just Tom Hanks and Dan Brown. For people (like my lovely oblivious parents) who have totally missed the whole Da Vinci Code thing, the Rosslyn Chapel appears right at the end of the book. It was built in the 1440s, desecrated during the Reformation in the 1500s and wasn't used again until the 1800s. They have now embarked on a massive conservation project which won't finish for another 5 years. What's so special about the Chapel, apart from its elaborate and gorgeous carvings and architecture combining so many styles, are the mysteries in it; like the carved cubes in the ceiling, each with a unique symbol no one can figure out. Or the fact that one of the windows has carvings of corn along the top - even though America wasn't officially discovered until 50 years after the carvings were done.

The disappointing exterior


One of the amazing windows...check out all the carvings, especially the flowers around the top.

The good thing about the scaffolding is that you can climb up and get a close look at the outside of the Chapel, just as amazing as the inside, and also check out the views across the valley. Very cool.

Inside the crypt, which was freezing and creepy, as you'd expect.

The Mason's pillar

The Apprentice's pillar. According to the story, the Mason finished his pillar and headed off overseas to get inspiration for his second pillar. While he was gone the Apprentice knocked this up and when the Mason got back he was so jealous with rage he murdered the Apprentice (and was hanged for it). They are both immortalised in carvings inside the Chapel.

View of Rosslyn Castle from the top of the Chapel. The Castle is just a ruin now, a few walls and bridges left. But enough of it to make you appreciate heights, and what building a fortress was all about.

The outside of the Chapel, built in the 1880s. Still with all the carvings and what-not.

Outside of weekends, I continue to work the 9-5.30 grind at my office job in the city and Toby continues to play with his trading, build up his warcraft character and is now looking at volunteering for the Scottish SPCA. My job is going ok; at least, it pays the bills and the people are pleasant enough. There are a few things that continue to surprise me, including that no one uses an electronic diary, at least 50% of British people don't know their own phone number, and I have been asked by at least 5 people which option 'normal' is under 'sexuality' on the Equal Opportunity form they fill in. The first time it happened I put it down to an oddity of that particular young man. The second time I forgave her because she had a Nigerian passport. But now that it's happened several more times, I'm not sure where it's coming from. Maybe they don't cover that in sex ed here. In any case, it's weird. Other things falling into that category which have us constantly asking what is up with this country include tuna, can openers and mail that gets delivered on Saturdays. This week marked our 2 month anniversary of leaving home so hopefully we will start getting the hang of things soon.