A Day Out

Here's what transpired since I last blogged -

As the night wore on yesterday, I started having doubts about meeting up with the Singaporeans. Not entirely sure why, but it's just the gut feeling. Wanted to just back out of the whole thing.

Spent the rest of the night eating yet another banana that I found in my coat pocket, and watching Will and Grace! It was the final 2 episodes of season 7, and alas - what cruel mockery. I had the final episode on my laptop, which has now died on me. CPR has failed entirely, and no amount of IV adrenalin could kick-start this ischaemic machine.

Woke at 6 as usual today, and bought my bus ticket at the station before moving on to this area called George Square, where the Glagow City Council is. It's really a very nice place, set in an entirely-Victorian area - here's a link to view a live webcam of George Square. George Square was flanked with the City Chambers, various statues, the tourist information board and the Museum of Modern Art. Met up with the girls there, and .. alas. As expected, I didn't even know these people existed in my year! The tourist information board was a lovely place, I picked up tonnes of brochures there which will make for an excellent read. Excellent venue to buy maps too. Before I go on to bitch about people, here's what we visited today:

City Sightseeing tour
For £6 (Student discount + discount voucher), I have 2 days' worth of free trips on the sight-seeing bus, free to hop on and off as I wish, and there's an excellent tour guide on board too. The tour consisted of 2 sections - the Old Town and New Town of Glasgow. So we went past things like the Central Station with glass ceilings, the Lighthouse, Science Centre, Convention Centre, Kelvingrove Park, Huntarian Museum, University of Glasgow, Provand's Lordship, St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Art, Royal Infirmary (the hospital which B. is at) and the People's Palace & Winter Gardens. Quite a nice ride, but it was SO COLD. We were sitting on the upper deck which is open-air, and ARGHHHHHH IT WAS SO COLD. My face froze, my hands froze, my feet froze and I was huddled in a heap despite wearing jeans, shirt and windbreaker. Would have been fine for normal walking, but no when you're just sitting down with the wind blowing at your face.

Stopped to visit H's room (to use her toilet actually, while the girls frantically donned more layers of clothes), took the city tour bus back to the University, then walked up Byres Road and stopped at a 2nd hand bookstore to look at medical books, then up Queen Margaret Road, then Maryhill Road (the other end from my Hall) and to visit B.'s room. B. didn't join us earlier on because he went to pick up his girlfriend from the airport, who's here to visit him too. After that we walked back down to the Hunterian Museum at the University, stopping at a supermarket to pick up some lunch.

Hunterian Museum
Chris and Fiona told me that there's a medical history exhibit at the Hunterian Museum, so we all proceeded there. It was nice! You know the guy Lister, of Listerine fame? Well, there's a bottle of his urine on display. He tried to prove that air contained stuff that contaminated surgical wounds, so he urinated into a flask, pumped out the air, and sealed it. The display card proudly said that "After all these years, the urine is still clear!" What nonsense. I'd like to see the bacterium/fungus that survives without glucose. Chances are, it probably did get contaminated at some point, the food source got used up and whatever micro-organism in there died. Still, it was a good exhibit. Saw the most hideous surgical tables made of wood, and early ophthalmoscopes.

There also was some kind of physics exhibit there, I visited it just to play with the stuff. Kind of cool! There was this radio (ok technically it can't be called a radio, it doesn't use radio waves) that works on signals transmitted by light waves. So I block the light and the sound goes off. And I finally understood all the yammering by yx about sopranos breaking glasses due to (insert "blah blah blah blah" - it didn't quite register) natural frequency. There was this wine glass in front of a huge speaker that emitted a really nasty squeaky sound, and the wine glass started warping!! Eeeks.

Last of all, the best part of the museum - the dinosaur exhibit. Saw the famous "Lucy" (some mummified early human), a silly normal-looking rock that's supposed to be a 40 billion-year-old thing that fell from the sky, another silly normal-looking rock that's supposed to be the first meteorite that fell in Glasgow (what nonsense. Plenty fell before, it's just that you idiots weren't looking or weren't even born yet) and a lot a lot a lot of choice fossils that I'd have loved to add to my tiny collection. I'm not even sure if the "fossils" I have are real. Huge crinoid stars!! And absolutely apalling 1 metre-long millipedes.

Hopped back onto the city tour bus

Museum of Transport
I have no idea why the girls suggested going there in the first place. Utterly boring. Just loads of cars, bicycles, trains, buses etc. A very British national past-time, I gather - I seem to recall numerous Enid Blyton stories about little boys taking photos of locomotives to compile albums.

Hopped back onto the city tour bus, then took a walk along Sauchiehall Street into Bucchanan Street and reached The Willow Tearoom. OK, the bitching starts.

Now, out of all 5 people I was with today, I only knew B. At the end of the day, however, I know who I'm definitely comfortable with; this girl S. She's really the most sensible of the lot, and B. was too busy taking care of his gf. (More stories here, but they are not suitable for blogs in case my very poorly-disguised codes are broken by unintended audience - knowledge only for the priviledged couple of people who have given me calls so far, upon request. =) Hahahaha .. you know who you are.)

The gist is, we never went into the Willow Tearooms. The others (except S) were grousing about how they ain't going to part with £4 for a sandwich (my eyebrows went up).

It's not the sandwiches, my dears. It's the architectural masterpiece by Charles Mackintosh we're here to look at.
S later told me in an undertone that she'll only be able to tour properly when her sis joins her in Glasgow at the end of the posting.

There's a difference between being sensible about your money, and being miserly. £2 to eat sitting on a pavement bench vs. £4 to eat in a warm, historical teahouse.

Another very embarrassing example. H went to the delicatessen at the supermarket while I was trying to choose which grilled chicken/pie I wanted. She asked for a fried chicken breast and a pie. After the woman packed it up for her, something I really really really really really really never never never never never expected from any (non-PRC) person came from H:

"Is that the largest piece? Can I have the largest piece?"

OK. Pray tell, how much larger can one fried chicken breast be from another? As far as I could tell, the difference was in millimetres.

I have never been so exasperated before. I've really had quite enough. Anyway, one of the girls asked me twice (or maybe 2 of them asked me once each) whether I'd like to stay for dinner. I turned it down, of course. First, it's been awkward enough. I have no intention AT ALL in letting these people know I can cook. Secondly, H's place is in an extremely dodgy part of town. Saturday night + dodgy areas + possible late dinners = no way.

I ended up going with B + his gf to Tesco to buy stuff, and I picked up a foot-long Subway for dinner. Tesco's actually midway between B's room and mine, so it's an ideal location. Never knew we were quite close to each other's places.

Talking about rooms, apparently everyone else thought I'm having the best deal. Here's the breakdown:

B's room
The good:
Good location, near the University
Internet in room (DAMN!!!!!!!)
The bad:
Tiny room. I really mean tiny. Half the space was taken by the bed already.
Shared toilet too.

H's room
The good:
Smack in the centre of town
Internet in room (but she had to pay a monthly fee for it. STILL. I'd pawn my undies to get internet access in the room.)
The bad:
Tiny room, once again.
Even tinier toilet. Just think Airplane Toilets.
Dodgy neighbourhood. The kind that you can get raped right at your doorstep.

The other 2 girls' room (didn't visit, just what they told me)
The good:
It's free
It's hospital accommodation. i.e. negligeable distance to hospital.
The bad:
No net in room, and even worse - no computer cluster. And hospital computer rooms close at 11pm. So no midnight blogging eh?
MILES away from town. Really MILES. 20 or 30 minutes' ride by train. Oh dear!

Now, I may bitch about people, but I don't hate them for what they are. In truth, the other girls have really been quite alright today, and I appreciated the dinner invitation. Turns out I was wrong about the group dynamics, Mr. Ye. They *are* a group in the first place, just at different hospitals. So (B+gf), (3 girls) and - oops, out pops ME! Same arrangement for dinner, so most probably that's why the 3 girls asked me over.

Anyway about Tesco. It's kinda cheap, the stuff, but STILL. B was going on and on about how large it is. You need to go to Morrisons.

Today's expenditure was modest. £20 on phone top-up, £8 on bus ticket - essentials. £6 on city tour bus ticket - tourist stuff. £0.51 on a keepsake penny (yx, they have these penny machines here too!) £5 on a very nice glass bottle of wild honey mixed with Tobermory single malt whisky (the scots! OMG. Everything has whisky in it.) and Edradour whisky fudges. £8 at Telco for a box of baby potatoes (going to microwave them!), 10 slices of cheese singles, loaf of multigrain bread (been getting loose stools), box of sliced turkey ham, carton of orange juice, and 3 boxes of various confectionaries. Wanted to buy cherries but the silly Tesco didn't have them. I love Morrisons all of a sudden.

Was back in room watching the telly, and felt sudden, very strong urge to go pubbing. But pubbing alone is really out of the question. First, I'll feel stupid. Second, the Red Fish Pub incident (see Chicago blog) may happen again. I'm scared, haha.