Sunday, December 21, 2008

rosslyn chapel

Holidays are officially here!! and it started with a shopping trip to livingston on Saturday!!

and on Rosslyn Chapel on Sun (familiar? check out Dan Brown's da vinci code). It was a beautiful warm (10 degrees) sunday morning, but the wind was crazeeee... i could almost feel my feet lift off the ground...weee


Cant see much from the outside because of the metal thingy's that are protecting the chapel as an effort of maintaining the chapel.

too bad no pics allowed inside the chapel. The most beautiful thing about the chapel, is the carvings all over, on the pillar and walls that are absolutely intricate and detailed. There were stories and meaning behind every carving. Here's one for u :)

There is one
stunning piece of carving known as the 'Apprentice Pillar". Legend has it that. the Master Mason having received from the Founder a model of a pillar of exquisite workmanship and design, hesitated to carry it out until he had gone to Rome or some other foreign part to see the original. He went abroad and and in his absence an apprentice, having dreamt that he had finished the pillar, at once set to work and carried out the design as it now stands, a perfect marvel of workmanship.

The Master Mason on his return, seeing the pillar completed, instead of being delighted at the success of his pupil, was so stung with envy that he asked who dared to do it in his absence. On being told that it was his apprentice, he was so inflamed with rage and passion that he struck him with a mallet, killed him onthe spot and paid the penalty for his rash and cruel act.


This is the apprentice.. If u look closely, you can see a lil scar on his forehead (where the mallet struck him)


Below is the master mason, who sits opposite the apprentice head, his eyes open, eternally staring at the direction of the apprentice pillar.









Such a humour, these carvers have, dont they? :)

-_-"

-_-''
No idea who he is...

I ter-left my camera in the common room few days ago.. only realised this sesat fella in my camera today.. -_- sweat, indeed...

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Edinburgh Castle

Every year.. on st andrew's day.. entrance fee into the castle is... FREEE... obviously.. we waited til that day ;)






































Chee Mei's bday







Mussels and Steak....

Thats where we ate.. and no surprise.... lots of mussels :D


After that, we went for ice cream in Vittoria!!


Chee Mei's present! sooo adorable!

Durham Durham

Over the weekend, Crystal and I had represented Edin Uni in a female BUCS (dunno wat it stands for) table tennis tournament.
Durham is a quaint, beautiful little town... with a river running through it..shops are smaller, streets are narrower :)
Ice coated the grounds, setting a trap for careless victims (not me! muahaha.. but nearly slipped countless times). looks pretty... but it wont feel pretty when u slide and fall :P

Even the tennis court was coated with ice!

The pic below shows part of Durham Uni campus where we played...


At night we walked to the city for dinner.. christmas deco there is not bad! had a delicious meal in the pub 'Market Tavern'The best thing about Durham is it houses the Cathedral which was filmed in Harry Potter.. thats right.. Its very own HOGWARTS!!! It was AMAZING inside! too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures.. it was absolutely beautiful :') and best of all... FREEEEEE





Looks familiar doesn't it? like one of the corridors filmed in HP


After, we went to the christmas market just outside the cathedral.. soo many things are being sold there.. sorta like a 'pasar malam' :P


My pork pie!

It was really worth the trip, and we didnt do too bad in the tourney as well.. we managed to qualify as the top 2 teams! weeee....